September Garden 2014 & Norwegian Trolls

What has Norwegian Trolls got to do with my garden you ask? Nothing really, but there doesn’t seem to be much happening in the garden, so I thought I’d share.  Here are some photos of the blooms hanging on in my front garden – so pretty:

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Dear Hubby came home from a business trip to Norway, and brought home these two guys.  I really like dolls, but I’m on the fence about these two.  I suppose they have a certain charm :). I still have the troll dolls that were popular from when I was a child – somewhere in a box in the garage…

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Quilts For Project Linus And The Master Chorale

I was asked to make a quilt for Project Linus.  A novelty fabric was supplied.  I chose to use my scraps to make a scrappy baby quilt – I really like scrappy quilts.  Most of the novelty fabric went on the back of the quilt.  I even used the different stitches on my machine (finally!) to quilt it all together.  You can see the different stitches on the photo – less than stellar, but stitched with the best intentions:

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And a friend of mine belongs to our local Master Chorale.  They are doing some fundraising, so I made a Christmas quilt for their raffle.  I followed a tutorial by Missouri Star Company, and made it like this quilt I saw in blogland.  There are only nine blocks, but they are huge, so the quilt ended up being pretty big. I rented a longarm and quilted Christmas trees & stars all over ( some designs are very forgiving, like this one). And I appliqued a folk art angel on the back – so cute!

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Sew Sisters Exchange Quilt Reveal!

This is the first year I participated in the Sew Sisters Quilt exchange, and it did not disappoint.  We gathered at a wonderful Spanish Cafe for a brunch followed by the exchange.  Lots of photos to share, so here I go:

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If Donna’s quilt for Lynn looks familiar, it’s because I made one similar to it:

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Here is my last focus fabric, “Vivienne” by Alexander Henry.  Can you see it in the beautiful quilt Dorre made for me? – Love my new quilt!

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And Dani loved the quilt I made her too.  She has it hanging in her living room now 🙂

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And here we all are, Sew Sisters, new members, and guests! We brought our focus fabric in envelopes and selected randomly for our next exchange – so much fun!

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Sew Sisters Exchange Quilt

Last year when I started quilting, I was fortunate enough to be invited to join a quilt group, the Sew Sisters.  We meet regularly, and we also have an annual quilt exchange.  Each person picks a focal fabric, and someone else creates a quilt based on that fabric for them (this is all in secret).  I drew Dani, and these are the fabrics she had chosen, and I worked with:

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Dani’s fabrics were beautiful, but posed a bit of a challenge for me as I tend toward brighter, pinky colors.  I chose to go the modern route, and this is the quilt I created for Dani.  The big “reveal” is today, I hope she likes her quilt…

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My friend Ellie thought it needed a pop of color, so she generously gifted me the coral colored fabric. And thanks again to dear younger son for holding up the quilt – I knew these kids would come in handy one day :).

 

Oh, and I had enough fabric left, so I made Dani a matching giant pin cushion:

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A Custom Order!

I keep my Etsy shop open for various reasons… Justify my need to buy pretty glass, feeling legitimate in my lampwork pursuits,  and just plain fun having a little cyber shop.  Anyway, I actually got a request for some custom beads! So, off to my garage studio I went, dusted off my equipment, ran over to Lowes for a new propane tank, checked everything for safety, fired up my torch, and voila!

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And as long as I opened up my studio, I made more beads:

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I will eventually add them to my shop 🙂

Quilts for Moi!

Finally, I have made quilts for myself! They still need binding, but I decided to enlist the help of dear hubby and younger son (before he takes off) to hold up the quilts.  The first one is a 30’s style, and the second one is a Kaffe Fasset.  They are both queen size, and therefore held sideways:

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August Garden 2014 & Soy Amado

I have been neglecting my blog lately.  It has been sooo hot around here, all I want to do is lay flat on the cool floor and do nothing… but I have been keeping busy.  Starting off with my garden; venturing out into the unbearable heat, I am rewarded with a bumper crop of American concord grapes – so yummy!

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On the quilting front, I stumbled onto a very nice quilt blog Little Island Quilting, where there is a wonderful project going on –  Soy Amado.  I am participating, and here are some of the blocks I made:

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Now, I just need to package them and put them in the mail.

July Garden 2014 & Row By Row

This month, I am featuring my vegetable garden.  For the amount of care I give, I am always pleasantly surprised with the results:

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And for Vickie, I did two rows; the second and fourth from the top – both are paper pieced.  Here are the links to the two rows:  Flying Geese and Tippecanoe.

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Photomask Freebie #22

I needed a break from sewing/quilting, so I got on Photoshop and made this photomask to share – Enjoy!

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Commencement

I started this blog four years ago, when dear younger son went off to college and I was sad.  This weekend, he graduated from University.  Dear older son drove out from Arizona for the event.  So, it was a wonderful weekend – we were once again all together!  And finally, the Kings won, and younger son shaved off his playoff beard, but older son said he hadn’t had time to shave:

Quilty Friends Are The Best!

I have told myself no more buying fabric…

Well, leave it to my Quilty friends to surprise me with fabric! After we’ve been quilting together for a while, we know exactly what the others like.  And here are the cute, colorful vintage fabrics they got me.  Thanks Ellie & Donna – so sweet!

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And here we are at a Galaxy game:

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My Little Projects

I have actually  managed to finish a few little projects.  Dear hubby got a new tablet for his birthday from the kids.  He remembered the cover I made for dear daughter, and asked me to make one for him.  I had a block left from the quilt I made for my mom, and used it:

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I finally made myself a pin cushion.  I used an extra block from the quilt I made for my mother-in-law.  It measures nearly 10″ in diameter!

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I made my boys car steering wheel covers.  It gets very hot inside the car here in Southern California as well as in Arizona.  I found this wonderful fabric of Our Lady of Guadalupe by Alexander Henry.  It was the perfect design!  I appliqued and stippled:

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And finally, this has been a long time in the making.  A blog friend gifted me with vintage fabric that she had held onto for 30 years! I wanted to make her something, and I finally did.  Quilted pot holders:

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Whew! I am feeling very productive! 🙂