Another dear friend of mine had a Birthday.  I made her a lap quilt with Kaffe Fasset fabric.  I hope she liked it…

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I have been a member of our local Quilt Guild, The Citrus Belt Quilters for the last two years.  One of the things they do during their monthly meetings is Show And Share.  It’s always fun and amazing to see all the wonderful and creative Quilts everyone makes.  Thus far, I have sat on the sidelines as an onlooker.  But, I decided that it was high time I finally contributed.  This is really big for me since I have an aversion for getting in front of an audience and talking.  And our Guild attendance well exceeds 100! It took me back to my elementary school days when we had Show and Tell sessions.  I was a bit nervous at first, but it turned out just fine.  Somewhere along these many years, I seem to have lost my discomfort in speaking before an audience.  I think it’s age 🙂

The first quilt is based on a block called Quarter-Cut Daisy by Laura West Kong in the book Modern Blocks.  Laura is also a member of our local Quilt Guild. I made a quilt like this for my exchange group, and I liked it so much, I made one for myself.  I added a border on mine.  The second one is  from an old Jo-Ann’s Block of the month kit, Welcome To My Garden, that I picked up at our Guild shop.  Since I am one of the organizers of the shop now, I thought it would be nice to make something from my purchase and encourage others to shop at our store.  I didn’t have the setting kit, so I improvised and put it together my way.  It was the first time I scalloped the edges.  I like how it turned out.

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My sisters love my quilts, but maybe three Birthdays in a row is a bit much… I had some really cute vintage quilt tops, so I made them up into Birthday gifts for my sisters, again :).  I will have to think of something else for next year.

I just got back from a fun Quilt Retreat at Vina De Lestonnac.  Round the clock sewing and chatting.  Best part of all, all meals prepared and served – no cleaning up! And, I still marvel at how much a bunch of women can talk all day, and into the wee hours of the night 🙂

Some eye candy from the 2016 Hemet Quilt Show hosted by the Valley Quilter’s Guild:

As much as I admire art quilts, I have a preference for utilitarian quilts.  Quilts that can be lovingly used, scrunched up, and washed over and over again.  We hosted our daughters Collegiate Cycling team this weekend, and our quilts were put to good use.  The guys and bikes slept in my Studio surrounded by quilts! I threw in a photo of dear daughter, courtesy of Cycling Illustrated.

Baby quilts are fun to make.  Small, cute, and fast to complete. Kind of an instant gratification quilt.  My friend Muriel has a new grandson, and when I came across this French bunnies fabric, I could not resist 🙂

My very first modern quilt.  Dear Hubby hung curtain rods in my studio – perfect for displaying my latest creation.  And my sweet quilting buddy, Hiro 🙂

Wow, what a great start to a new year! A coupe of months ago, I entered a drawing for a really neat quilt top, Scamp.  Linda Miller has a website, Quilts And Quilt Tops, where she posts all the wonderful tops that she creates.  Linda is not only a very productive and talented quilter, she is also very generous.  When I entered the drawing, I selected “Scamp” as my choice, and as luck would have it, I won! And here is Scamp, a very scrappy hexie quilt top – love it!

You can visit Linda’s Site, admire all her beautiful quilt tops (they are available for purchase), and enter the next drawing.  Thank you Linda!

I’ve mentioned before that a group of us friends are meeting once a week for painting lessons with a very talented artist friend, Muriel Dolemieux.  I just love her work! it is so colorful and happy!  So, combining my current obsession of quilting, and painting, I thought it would be fun to make Muriel a quilt with her artwork.  It also gave me a chance to try out Spoonflower.  I think it came out beautifully:

And here are some current projects on my table: