March Show and Tell

Every Manteca membership meeting has show and tell at the end ....its the last thing we do before we all go home. The March meeting 's show and tell was full of different quilts with lots of ideas for making your own quilt. Get those creative juices going.....the quilt below is made of flannel...what a warm quilt this will be.A quilt made using that new X block ruler......love the colors. This is going to be a baby quilt.
Some lucky little girl is going to look beautiful in this dress at Easter.
A quilt made in an American Indian design.
30's fabric made into butterfly's.....the quilt is seen up side down.

Red work embroidery.....what a cool quilt.
Batik fabric made with the circle in square templates. Who doesn't love batik and what a beautiful way to show it off.
Monsters.....for a little boy. This quilt was made from a pattern in Keepsake Quilting. What a lucky little boy!
Another X block quilt.....looks like snakes....crawling across the background. I really want to make a quilt like this using my X block ruler.
Flip Flops.....a very colorful quilt....love the flip flop fabric in the boarder.
We are such a talented bunch of quilters. You never know what your fellow quilters will be showing at show and tell.

Christine Barnes part 2

More wonderful quilts from Christine Barnes. She really likes stripes....here she used them around every other square then in the other squares uses stripes in the center of the square.

The light and dark in this quilt really makes the colors pop.
This quilt is her latest creation and very different for all her other quilts. Raw edge applique and lots of thread in this quilt.
More squares and strip fabric in this quilt.

March Program with Christine Barnes

The March Program at last Thursdays membership meeting was given by Christine Barnes from Grass Valley. She gave a lecture on the use of color, based on her week-long workshop at Asilomar this year. First we got to watch a slide show with examples on what color can do in a quilt. I really would like to take a workshop with Christine, I know I would learn more about using color. She talked about the color wheel and how to use it in considering color for your quilt.
We got to see lots of wonderful quilts. She also likes to use stripe fabric in her quilts. The is a beautiful quilt.
Another beautiful quilt.....love these colors.
More square in a square blocks to make a wonderful quilt.
Look at the way the pink fabric stripes go one way in each row.....very different.
More pictures will be posted....that's all for now.

Fun Laying Out a Quilt

Had fun last night at my Tuesday night sewing group. Dot showed us her paper pieced star wall hanging. Isn't it cool....love the fabric and colors she used.Joan spread out her blocks for 2008 Manteca Quilters Opportunity quilt. The library has a huge empty floor....perfect for laying out a quilt. She has all the blocks done and wanted to spread them out so we could advise her on the layout. This is the beginning of the block layout. This will be a King sized quilt.
It's progressing......lots of work....don't want two of the same colors side by side.....lots of people were at the library last night to give opinions as.....which blocks need to change places and there is too much of the orange here or there.
The final out come......there will be black between each block and applique between the rows. More pictures when Joan brings it back for more opinions.


I didn't get hardly any sewing done on my x blocks this last weekend as the weather was way too nice to set in the house and sew. So last night I cut out more blocks and will sew them together soon. Tonight I have to sew on my block of the month as Thursday night is our membership meeting for Manteca Quilters and why sew the block early when I can be sewing it the night before.

It's Friday and over 80 degrees

happy friday.......today here in california we are expected to break weather records again and the weather man said that we will be over 80 degrees. Its been way to hot too early.....I hope the weather gets back to normal soon. It's been so hot and dry that the canals are being filled with water so the farmers can irrigate their crops.

i plan on sewing this weekend, have a couple of small quilts to bind and want to sew on my x block quilt. the quilt below was in our show and made by my friend Joan.....she bought the quilt kit at a garage sale.....its from the 50's and the top was marked for the applique and the quilting was marked with tiny dots. she hand quilted it this winter after doing the applique. you really have to see it close up to see all the wonderful hand quilting . have a good weekend and i hope your weather is as great as we are having here in california.

X Block Fun

I used my new X block ruler for the first time this weekend and made the following blocks. These blocks were made with one strip of 3 1/4 cut of each fabric....I then sewed the strips together with the fish in the middle and then used the X block ruler to cut the 5 blocks you see below. I plan on working on this project this weekend.....more to follow. At my Tuesday night sewing group Dianah also experimented with her X block ruler and made the following small quilt. This was made using 1/3 of a yard of fabric.
Yesterday Teresa sent me the picture below that she made with the ruler. She made 9 patch blocks and then re cut them using the X block ruler and made this small quilt. Teresa bought the smaller 3 inch ruler. She sewed buttons on her quilt.....looks cool.

Show and Tell

At last weeks Oakdale quilt guild meeting I took pictures of the show and tell at the end of the meeting. The quilt below is a I Spy made using the magic cornors method. It really looks easy and what a great gift for a special little person.I took this close up of the I Spy quilt to show you the detail.

Love this string quilt.....a great way to use up your scraps and strips.
Spring is here and its time to make a table runner to go with the season.
A Christmas table topper is finished in time for next Christmas. It feels so good to get those UFO done and begin new projects.

80 Degrees.....Yesterday

The temperature reached 80 degrees here in the valley yesterday. We broke records for this date....I just read the paper and at noon it was 78 then 80 for the rest of the afternoon and by 6:00 pm the temperature fell to 78 again. The night was warm and I was throwing off quilts from my bed....tonight I'll have to open the window wider. I have a feeling that we will be in for a long hot summer this year. Oh well......I'll take hot weather over cold any day.
This tulip quilt was in our show and I took a picture because I'm sure the pattern is from the 9-patch pizzazz book by Judy Sisneros. The way the tulip fabric was used in this quilt is quite beautiful. I have the book and really need to make a quilt from it.

X Block ruler

The hit of the quilt show was a new ruler that was demoed during the show. It is called the X Block ruler and comes in several sizes. The ruler was designed by Patricia Pepe and she has a web site here.

To quote her web site....With the X-Blocks ™ rotary cutting tool, you can create dozens of spectacular designs that look complex but are incredibly quick & easy! They can be created from strips or easy-to-piece blocks and the fabulous borders are created as you make your X-Blocks ™ so there is virtually no waste!

Of course....what quilter doesn't want a cool new tool.....I bought the 6 1/2 in ruler and will be trying it out this weekend. I took a couple of pictures of some quilts that were made using the ruler. I love the bright one below......looks hard...but its not....its made by sewing a nine patch block and then using the ruler re-cutting the block and sewing the blocks together.
This example is of the same pattern above but made with scraps.......I can't wait to sew and make blocks this weekend.

More quilts from the Show

Here are more pictures from the quilt show. The first is my quilt as it hung in the show. The light in the hall where we have the show is not the best in the world. So some of these pictures are on the dark side.
I love folk art quilts and this one is a beauty.
One of our members uses paint on her fabric. The quilt below has hand painted centers of animals.
Look at this cool Halloween quilt made by Maryann. The morning sun was shining and part of the picture is in the shadows.
Here is a close up of the machine quilting on Maryann's quilt.....notice the spiders. Now I hate real spiders but this one looks cool and is not too scary.

Featured Artist Melinda Bula

The Featured Artist at our quilt show this year was Melinda Bula. Last year she gave a program at one of our meetings and then gave us a workshop on her wonderful Fabulous Fusible Flower. It was a fun workshop, I'm still working on my flower. I really must get it done. Melinda has a web site and if you want to see more it is located here.

I really like the piece below created by Melinda. From a distance it looks like a painting. Here is a close up of one of her flowers. Lots of thread work. I hope you can see the detail on the picture below.
Not only does Melinda make quilts but she does clothing also. The coat below is one of her many garments. Grapes and vines, making there way all over the coat.....it is a work of art.
Here is a close up of the leaves and grapes.
Below is a large star quilt that Melinda made. It is embellished with crystals. It's hard to see in this picture but it sparkles in the light.
You can see the crystals on this close up of Melinda's quilt.

Doll Show

The official name of our quilt show is The Manteca Quilt and Cloth Doll Show. Doll makers can enter their doll is our quilt show. We display them on a stage where they look wonderful and people can get up close and see them. The dolls below were made by Peggi S. of our guild. The cat and pumpkin doll are made out of felt. Peggi sews them by hand and designs them as she sews. I think they are so cool. The picture below is of a lion doll. He has a needle sculpted face and hand painted eyes.
Here is a old man doll.....love his large nose.
This doll has green hair and a beautiful green out fit.
Here is a group of dolls made by the Flying Phoebe doll club from the bay area. They also had a booth in the show and sold all kinds cool stuff. The Flying Phoebe's have a web site here.
I hope you enjoyed seeing pictures of the dolls in our show. A least once a year we have a doll workshop and I really enjoy making dolls. Its so different then making a quilt.