UFO Camp - 2013 - Laughlin, NV

This past weekend was some kinda fun!!!  Kim Pebley from Havasu Quilts along with Jeanette Kennedy from Sew What  put on a UFO Camp this past weekend at the River Palms Resort in Laughlin, NV.  Let me just say it was TOO MUCH FUN.

There were 70+ women with sewing machines, projects, and snacks a-plenty all spread out over 4 joined meeting rooms.  The BEST quilting camp I've been to yet.

Cleverly, Kim organized a "room hop" with 6 different individuals and their select quilting groups.  On Friday night, we were given the room numbers and our designated arrival times for each room.  There was 50s Sock Hop, the Hospice Hotties of Havasu, Quilting Queens Timex 6 (or Q2X6), Stop by for a Shot (ahhh, yeah - Jell-o Shooters, baby!), UFOs and Happy Easter.  These girls cleverly decorated their rooms by theme, provided each of us a sheet for the mystery quilt project along with tasty snacks, wonderful gifts and great hospitality.  On Sunday Kim provided the final piece we needed for our mystery quilt instructions....Kudos to all the girls for the time and effort they integrated into their Room Hop rooms!!

Just to show you how clever these girls were, here are a couple of snaps of Q2X6 room with the cutest wall hangings strewn throughout the room:

Unfortunately, I didn't get out my smart phone to take snaps in the other rooms.  Obviously I'm not as smart as my phone....but, of course, now all the innocent and guilty are protected!!

Here is a view on Friday night from our 21st floor room at the River Palms Resort on the Colorado river:

Here are the projects I completed at Camp:

Quilt as You Go style tote bag for my laptop

Small sampling of my 96 one-block-wonder blocks (thank you Jo W.)

And finally, just before dawn on Sunday morning a snap taken from our room.  Most of us stayed until 2PM and continued sewing on our various projects:

 

 Suffice it to say, we all had a wonderful time AND completed some UFO projects.  And a big thank you and Happy Birthday to my roomie, Margie!  And of course, all my Stitchin' Sistas - Jo, Linda, Helene, Kornelia, Pandi, Jackie, Connie K., Sharon T., Sharon H., Vicki, Barb, Sharon F., Bonnie and Judy - all from Kingman Quilters Guild!!

Stitch on, Sistas -till next camp!!!

I {heart} Spring!!

We just went through a cold snap here in northern Arizona that just about froze me out!  The low here was 11 degrees (Fahrenheit, yes I said Fahrenheit) with a feels like temp of 0 (zero) degrees!!!  Hello!!! What's that all about??  That said, I needed a huge blog change....something springy!!  Makes me feel better.

Anyway, we're back in the cool, calm 40-50 degree weather during the day, but I'm just aching for Spring!  I have been working on a number of projects.  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I wanted to create some sweet little Dumplings and put a few Lindt Truffles inside each one for my  family and friends. 

Dumplings

Now, how cute are those?  I've put my cool little Fort Worth Fabric Studio ruler (thank you Jodie!!) next to the smallest Dumpling, which measures just under 4 inches!!  Please note the FMQ on the little bitty Dumpling!  Only 20 more to go!

I'm thinkin that'll be good for all the girls who are dieting still....they'll only get 3-4 truffles.....and the bigger ones I think will hold 5-6 truffles.

Still have to figure out a miniature shaving kit bag for the boys.  My friend, Laura, gave me a pair of jeans to work with.  Of course, those won't be full size because it's going to hold Valentine's truffles!!  OK, so it's a miniature shaving bag....

Hannah's Tote

I've also been busy making a very cool birthday gift for Hannah Banana, my granddaughter who just turned 6 years old.  Hannah emulates her older sister, Nadia, so I thought what better than a customized bag to carry her "girly" stuff in (her Nook, her coloring book and crayons, etc.)

I made this quilted bag and used a photograph of Hannah that was taken just a couple of weeks ago when I visited Chandler, AZ.  We all went to dinner at YC's Mongolian Grill  in Tempe (which is a great place to eat if you get a chance to visit the Phoenix area).  They have a cutout right at the front door and this is Hannah with her little face through the cutout.  Her dad took the picture, so I transferred it to fabric and quilted it right into the bag.

Valentine's Tote

  

Hannah's bag and one I recently finished for myself were both taken from Elizabeth Hartman's Oh Fransson!  free pattern.

 

I just really was in the mood for something Valentine-ish and bright red and pink.  I think I hit the mark.....

One thing I love about this tote is not only is it really easy to make, but it's easily customize-able.  On the next one I'm making (in blues and greens for spring) I've already inserted a customized sized pocket for my Smart Phone.....it's handy to find when it starts ringing and should have been shut off.....I don't have to dig through my bag.....

"Bella"

I've also recently finished my first purse from Chris W Designs.  This design is called "Bella" and it's got pockets, lined zippered pouches inside with a couple of elasticized pockets on the ends on the outside.  Grommets, snap hooks, magnetic snaps and snap fasteners.....it's a purse hardware lover's dream.  I'll definitely be trying this one again....but I love purple.  And I think it's a winner.

So that's it for now, in Kingman, AZ.  Just keeping warm and looking forward to Spring!!!

The Coolest Little Tool I've Ever Made....

I was surfing around the 'net yesterday and I checked out Elizabeth Hartman's Oh, Fransson! site, which is one of my regular stops.  I found this Weighted Pincushion Organizer that Elizabeth shared out at "Sew, Mama, Sew" website.  Now I've been quilting just over a year, but have many a year general sewing experience behind me.  When I used to sew clothes, I always used a wrist pincushion, but since I've transitioned to quilting, I've purchased a couple of pincushions from some AZ quilt shows.  But I have to say, this is, by far, the coolest little tool I've made next to my three-scissor case from Angie Padilla.  (I purchased an annual membership to Angie's site and it's well worth every penny I paid!  I've gotten so many patterns from her site, I couldn't begin to show you all of them!)  Anyway, back to the weighted pincushion organizer.  It took about 1.5 hours total from start to finish and already I love, love, love this tool:

Here's the Weighted Pincushion Organizer with the scrap bag attached.

You can see I've already been using the little scrap bag.  I've relocated all my pins from my tiny pincushion that I constantly knocked off the side of my machine table into the rice-filled pin cushion.

The Organizer with the scrap back taken off - look how brilliantly my seam ripper, tweezers, thread snips and bodkin fit!!  This thing is de bom!!

So I made myself this little gift, but I also finally finished my little gifts for my favorite girls that I work with at church and from the Tea Board:

I made the Tipsy Snowman little wall hangers for Ginny, Rita, Sally and Sandra:

Cute, Cute Cute!!

And a cowboy style tea-towel for Candy (this will fit her decor phenomenally):

Adapted from Jill Finley's "Home Sweet Quilt" "Cherry Lemonade" pattern

A tall & skinny Christmas Tree for Misty:

She's only getting 1 of these.....

And lastly, a beautiful tea towel for Robin - I think this will go nicely in her kitchen!!  I've decided on the one with the cherries....

Cherry Lemonade pattern from Jill Finley

and check out the detail on those cherries:

A little piecing, a little embroidery and some machine applique - a complete gift!!

So, now all that's left is the wrapping and tagging.  Then it's off tomorrow night for a little Christmas Eve service at church and some gift giving......my favorite part!!

Merry Christmas!! (And most importantly, Happy Birthday, Jesus!)

FMQ Holiday Pillow Design

I finished another pillow using Jill Finley's free pillow design that I found on her blog.  I was able to use "Starry Mess"on the night sky in this pillow.  It's a little difficult to see, but adds a starry subtlety to the night sky.  It's done in a blue metallic thread and while I thought breakage would be a huge issue, it was not!!!  An early Christmas gift.

 I also used some free motion quilting design on each of the little houses on the pillow......


Here's a swirly design......

And "Sticks" which has turned out to be one of my favorite designs for any project....

and "Circuit Board" which is also another of my favorites.





So here's the completed project:

 

Which sits nicely on the back of my couch.  It's a large pillow - 15" x 34" finished.  It was fun and something I'd definitely do again......next year.

Where Have I Been?

It's been about 4 months since I posted to my blog; since then I've worked on someone else's business blogsite, website, pinterest, facebook, etc. in an effort to help launch her business.  Whew!  I'm back now though....I have a few recent articles to display.  , I found this free pillow pattern on Jill Findley's blogsite:

 

And I so loved this pillow, I bought her book, Home Sweet Quilt.  and i subsequently made these pillows.  These gave me a great opportunity to work on "standardizing" my free motion quilting (it/s the same design on both pillows).

I recreated the design in all 4 quadrants on both pillows:

 And then I did feather design around the outer border on the pillow.

And I've finished up a few wall hangings of this "Tipsy Snowman".  These are for my friends....











And lastly I am working on a "tumbling block" quilt that I took a class from Gail Shaw at our local quilt guild.  I think I'll use a coordinating fabric from the collection for the borders and binding on this quilt.  It's the first time I've made these star points and they actually came out!!!

So now I'm really looking forward to finishing this quilt

What's New??

That Leah Day!  She's always got something very cool up her sleeve.  Painting on a quilt!  I wish I had that kind of hutzpah!  And congratulations on being published out on Craftsy - that's one of my very favorite sites.  I've actually signed up for a class painting a calla lilly on fabric, but haven't actually done the project.....the best part, I'll always have access to the online tutorial after I registered/paid for the class.  Congrats, Leah - 

I've had my nose buried recently in the latest issue of Quilting Arts mag checking out some of the techniques used on some of the art quilts inside the publication.

I did come up for air long enough to start some FMQ on my 4th of July Table Runner that hasn't quite made it to the "completed" side of the closet.

Overall FMQ designs

"Branches" in verigated thread

"Flourishes" (my own unique design)

Here are a couple of pics of Branches and a pattern I'd like to call "Flourishes".  I couldn't find anything exactly like it in Leah's "365 FMQ Guide", but this was my result after watching "Cucumber Vines", then moving to the sewing room to give it a try.  I did, however, pick up on the "Woven Lines" pattern from Day 252 in Leah's book.  About another 4-5 hours to finish this "Woven Lines" on the perimeter of the Table Runner.

I'm also in the midst of working on my "Challenge" quilt from the Kingman Quilter's Guild - for a cost of $2 we received almost a fat quarter of a blue batik.  Other than the fabric having to be present and identifiable in the quilt and overall size 20" per side or less,  there are no other limitations on techniques, etc. that can be used. 

The right side is not yet complete and the frog's missing 2 back feet, but let me share this new technique I was so focused on in the Quilting Arts mag - the large VOTE button on the bottom left was printed on fabric run through my printer, then color set.  So I cut it out, and filled it kind of trapunto style and appliqued it to my quilt!

I have another work in progress using the same photo on fabric technique.  The following picture is printed on 8.5 x 11 EQ photo fabric - it's a picture of hands, folded and waiting patiently.  These are the hands of Dr. Peter Magnus, a friend of mine who passed away in March of this year.  This photo was taken by his son only hours before he passed away.  I will be appliqueing this in the center of a whole cloth, then thread painting detail like fingernails, knuckles, wrinkles, etc. to give it depth and dimension.  Peter was an Oregon Ducks fan, so I'll be using OD Fan fabric to back the quilt.  I hope to have a lot more progress on this at next week's post.  It's a gift for his wife of 37 years, Anne Marie.

Lastly, I've been working on handwork in the afternoons as the monsoons roll through.  These are 8x8 squares of background fabric and each houses one of twelve hand appliqued "Asian Teapots" from Angie Padilla's online website.  I hope to have this completed by next post as well.

Quite a labor of love, these little tea pots, with all their detail and funny shaped handles and teacups!

I've been shown a couple of other methods of applique (like needle turn and some wet the toothpick and roll around the edge) but I still find Jennifer Bosworth's method of starch, iron and glue works best for me.

Of course, I'll give the other techniques a try again, but for now, it's all about my pressing board, bowl of starch, craft iron and stiletto tools.

I like the results.

Quilt on, Sistas -

Kingman Quilter

Wonky, Baby

I found this quilt on on Faith from Chicago's site, Fresh Lemons Quilts in spring and I just couldn't resist.  While I didn't have a pattern, I did use the links Faith provided on her site.

I also went a little nutty on the FMQ - I zippled the sashing areas and loopy-ed the white areas on the 12" blocks. 

Wonky block!

Wonky block with loopy filler design in the center

Liberated Churn Dash with loopy filler design

Wonky block in a block with loopy filler design

Wonky, Baby!

Wonky was a bit more challenging than I had originally anticipated, but I love the outcome.  It's bright, and will surely get the baby's attention.