California poppy's and dead coyote's

The California poppy's are blooming all over the valley right now. This house is located on a road I take to drive into Modesto and I wanted to take a picture of this beautiful sight. So on Saturday I took this picture.Here is a close up of a mound of beautiful poppy's.
Here are the dead coyote's....this is a strange story. A couple of miles away from where I live in the country this strange sight has surprised local farmers. First it was one coyote shot and stuck on this fence......then two....now there are five dead coyote's on every other fence post on this country road. So of course I had to go and take a picture. The county animal control has been called and notified. We don't know who is doing this or why.

Living in the country I've seen lots of coyote's run across country roads and of course we hear them howling at night, they also yep and howl. A different kind of night sound then you city livers hear....but its one I like. There is a small sheep herd not too far away and maybe he's the one doing this dirty deed.
I did get my candy is dandy quilt all sewn together this weekend. YEA!! Now I need to buy some fabric for the backing and I think I'll machine quilt it myself.....with my walking foot...in straight lines. It should be easy to do that way on my home machine.

Instalintion Dinner

It's that time of year.....time to install new officers at Manteca Quilters. We all enjoyed a really good dinner and then installed the new officers. President Lynn has agreed to be our president for another year. Jan and Sandy are the VP's, Helen is the secretary and Linda the treasurer. See the picture below....sorry my little camera doesn't do well in a dark room when taking the picture from far away.
Here's Lynn talking to the members.
We did get to enjoy show and tell and Sandy finished her quilt from the last workshop. I still haven't worked on mine....too many classes and projects to finish and not enough time.
Cool red, white and blue quilt....and ready for the 4th of July.
From the book.....Just Can't Cut It, what a simple quilt to make.
This looks like large maple leaves.....very different the way its done.
Another quilt done from Carolee's class last month.......very scrappy look. I really have to get busy and work on my quilt from this class. Of course I'm making mine bigger so it will take longer.
Peggy is the Queen of felt and showed off several projects....she's getting into needle felting.
Here is President Lynn with her Presidents blocks. Each year we make blocks for a quilt for our out going President. Lynn received these beautiful blocks......can't wait to see the finished quilt.
The weekend is here and I plan of finishing my Candy is Dandy quilt......just 6 rows to sew together.....and its all done and will be ready to be quilted. It's going to be a busy weekend. Birthday party tomorrow and the weather is heating up....could be over 80 tomorrow.

I should get some weeding done outside....why do weeds grow faster then any other plant? Have a good weekend.

Heart of the San Joaquin Valley

This fabric is only available from Cloth and Quilt in Turlock. The fabric was designed and printed by the staff at Cloth and Quilt. This fabric was designed with just a small sampling of the things that make this a great place to live. It is available in two different color ways. Fabric was printed by Hoffman Fabrics and includes the following valley landmarks: Cloth and Quilts, Hilmar Cheese, Medic Alert, Hershey, McHenry Museum, Modesto Arch, Stanislaus County Fair, Almond Orchard, Apricots, Wine and Cheese, chicken, turkey, produce, farm house, red barn, Mitchell Community Church and COWS.

I picked up two yards when I was in the shop Monday night.The shop is running a challenge. Using the Heart of the San Joaquin Valley fabric, create a project . The have five categories to choose from....wall-hanging, throw or larger, original pattern, clothing/wearable. Winners in each category will be decided by the votes of customers. All entries must be turned in by August 25, 2007. I'm thinking about what I want to do.....I love to design a challenge!

Blocks all done for Candy is Dandy

I can't believe I finished all the blocks for Candy is Dandy class I took just last Saturday. I have set a new record for finishing a quilt.....its not sewn together but the blocks are done! Last night at the Tuesday night sewers group I laid it out on the floor and then stacked the rows together. Now I can sew it all together. I added a row of the dark fabric blocks on each side to make it wider. Those are Bob's feet you see in the top of the picture. We had a large group at our Tuesday night group. Sue and Peg came and Sue announced that she's not moving back east but staying put in California......I'm so happy to hear Sue's news.

Caribbean Courtyard is quilted!! I cut the binding last night and will also attach a hanging sleeve so it can be hung at the Oakdale quilt show in June. Debi quilted it for me and she completed it so fast. I gave it to her on Saturday....she quilted it on Sunday and gave it back to me on Monday night.

Oakdale Show and Tell April

Where has the month gone ......seem like yesterday it was the first of April and now the month is almost over. I never posted these pictures from the April 12th membership meeting from the Oakdale Quilt Guild. As we are a small guild we all set around a table for meetings and it makes taking pictures a little difficult. I think the picture of the quilt below is a very different setting for a quilt....don't know what it is called but I do like it.The quilt is pieced and appliqued. Very nice and beautiful.
This wall hanging is a original design and I don't know if you can see it but the bird has a three dimensional bug in its beak.

Now I love the bright colors in this quilt.....I believe its a Freddy Moran design.
I attended the Meet The Teachers Night at Cloth and Quilt last night and signed up for two classes. On June 30th I am taking a Reversible Quilts - Two at a time class and then on July 21 I am taking a Saturday Night Special (mystery) class from Debi. Starts at 4:00 pm and ends at 10:00 pm....we have to bring munchies because she's not stopping for dinner...should be fun.

Saturday's Class "Candy Is Dandy"

I had a good time at class on Saturday at Cloth and Quilt. It was a cloudy day and so a perfect day to set and sew. Here is a picture of my strips that I had cut before class. My fabric was from all kinds of prints.....I made a true scrappy quilt. Here I am all set up and ready to sew.
I had the center section all sewn by noon....and had the med fabric section done by the time I left class. It's very bright......you almost need sunglasses to look at it.

I was the only person in class who did a "real" scrappy quilt......the rest of the class did a controlled scrappy. Diane who sat across from me did her quilt in greens, gold and brown.....beautiful.
Another member of the class used teal, blue and browns.....this will be a quilt for a man......another beautiful example of this quilt.
I spent yesterday (Sunday) working on the dark blocks for my quilt and have most of it done. I will take the blocks to my Tuesday night sewing group and will lay it out on the library floor. More pictures to follow.

Thread Painting second class

Wednesday night was the second of my Thread Painting class. All the students spent the entire class sewing and thread painting their flowers. Below is a close up of teacher Sandra's class sample. You can see the beads she used on the flowers....we have to attach boarders first and then machine quilt our quilt before we can put the beads and embellishments of the yarn and thick thread on. Here is my flowers after I had machine appliqued all the flowers down. I used a close zig zag to sew the edges down.
Here is a picture of Pat's flowers (she the one who talked me into taking the class). Pat did the poppy flower pattern. She did a beautiful job with her fabric choices....wish I'd taken a picture after she did some thread painting because its really looking good.
This picture was taken after I had finished thread painting my flowers.
I have to try and get a better close up of my flowers.....I think the flash bounced off of my fabric and caused the background to look brighter then it should be. But you can see the thread painting better in this picture. Now to get my boarders on and quilting done so I can finish.
My Candy is Dandy class is tomorrow at Cloth and Quilt.....I have all my strip cut and I am ready to spend Saturday sewing up a storm. I of course will take pictures. Have a good weekend.

Last Tuesday's Sewing Group

Here's a picture of last Tuesday's Sewing group down at the library. The picture below only show a few of the quilter's there that ngiht. I 'm not seen in the picture and Judy is way over on the other side and Dianah's off to the left against the wall sewing. The latest picture of the opportunity quilt 2008 all pieced together.....Joan is going to add 5 inch boarders on each side....its one big quilt!!
Here is a close up of the quilt.....Joan's going to buy the backing early next week and then it's off to Pegi to be quilted.
Thread painting class last night was so much fun.....thanks to Sandra the teacher. I need to take another picture of my project after I was done.....was too tired last night.....and then I'll post about the class. I think its about done and now I need to decide about how to finish it off with boarders and make it a bit bigger. I really love taking classes and workshops.....I learn so much and improve as a quilter.

This is cool.....

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Catching Up

How was your weekend.....I managed to get some sewing done. The weather was rainy on Saturday....rained all day and was a perfect day for sewing. Worked on my homework from the thread painting class last week and I am ready for class this week. I sewed a back together on my courtyard quilt so I can take it to Debi to be machine quilted on Saturday when I will be at the Turlock quilt store taking the candy is dandy class. I even worked on my X block quilt ....it is coming along and I will try to take a picture of it tomorrow night at the library.

Speaking of the Tuesday night group that meets at the Manteca library....Joan had the opportunity quilt for 2008 and was laying it out so she could put the sashing in it. Below is a picture of the flowers and leaves that will be between the blocks. Of course we all had to give her our opinion on which colored flower looked best next to a different colored block. What fun.This will be a large quilt.....as you can see from the next picture where we are standing around and giving advise on color placement.
Dianah showed us her flower lap quilt. This is a kit you can buy at the Stockton quilt store and when Debbie was at the guild giving us a program there was a drawing and I won a kit to make this quilt......don't ask if its done because it's still in the sewing progress....but at least I have started on it.
Bob has finished sewing together his BQ quilt. I really like the way it turned out....very modern looking.

Thread Painting Class

Last night was so much fun and the class time just flew by. Before we knew it ...class was up and time to go home. This is the class sample made from the poppies pattern. Don't you think it looks cool. Here is a close up of the poppies....you can really see the thread painting in this picture.
Here is my project so far. Flowers and leaves fused on.....I used the misty fuse...love it...it doesn't have a heavy fused feel at all. Now I have home work to get done before the next class on Wednesday night next week. I have to machine applique down all my leaves and flowers. All seems to be going well. I'll take more pictures after I've finished the machine applique.

Thread Painting & Machine Applique Class Tonight

Tonight is my first class for thread painting and machine applique.....Yea! This is going to be so much fun. Here is the class description.....during this class we will start with a beautiful batik background and applique by machine flowers from the pattern. Then embellish your applique with an assortment of threads using free motion stiching to enhance the flowers and leaves. The pattern I am using is below.Here is my fabric....the blue batik is the background. The purple mottled on the right is going to be the fabric for the pansies. I also included thread from my stash.....such beautiful colors.
I'll take pictures tonight so you can see what we are doing during class and the fabric other class members are using. The day can't go by fast enough!!!

On The Library Floor

These pictures are from last week Tuesday night sewing group that meets at the library. The room we use is quilt large and perfect for laying out quilts. Besty's quilt is below...she had just picked it up from getting it machine quilted. Its a beautiful blue quilt.
Dianah's quilt below is a beautiful quilt made from the pattern turning 20 ?? Maybe that's the pattern if I'm remembering the right pattern. She's been busy getting the boarders on it and worked on it last night.

The Eggs Were All Found

This is what Andrew's basket looked like after collecting most of the eggs. Kyle found about 5 eggs and sat down and began opening them up......Kyle is 2 1/2 and Andrew is 5. Had a good time Easter morning at Andria's....eat a wonderful brunch and watched Andrew and Kyle look for eggs. This is the egg Andrew couldn't find but I moved it here and then he found it. Scott hid the egg too well on leaves the same color as the orange egg and even I had a hard time finding it.
I just love my digital camera.....these are wonderful pictures. After finding the eggs the boys sat outside and played with the new play dough they received in the large eggs. They just love playing with play dough. Oh....they ate some candy too....mostly M & M's.

Happy Easter

Today is Good Friday....so that means that Easter will be on Sunday. The weather here has been very warm....even for California in April. Was over 80 yesterday and going to just as hot today. I'm planing on getting some sewing done tonight on my X block quilt. The beautiful quilt below is Candy is Dandy...a class I'm taking on the 21 at the Turlock quilt shop. I really need to start going through my FQ's because I need to cut lots and lots of light and med fabric into strips for class. Plus I want to make the quilt larger then it is so I'll need even more strips. A good way to get rid of FQ's that are just sitting in my stash.

Everyone have a wonderful Easter. I'm going to my niece Andria's house for brunch.... get to see her two little rug rats hunt for Easter eggs...should be fun.

Teresa's Purple Quilt

Good buddy Teresa e-mail me a picture of her completed quilt from last months workshop. She's done with her quilt! How can that be.....I haven't even worked on mine since the workshop. I really like how her quilt turned out....love the purple and the way she used the half square triangle's in the outer boarder. I wish my quilt was this far along.....I guess I'd better get working on it.

This and That

I'm way behind on posting pictures from my Tuesday night sewing group......this is the April block of the month and it's done......I almost NEVER get the block of the month done early and am busy sewing the night before our membership meeting. The light 's not too good in this picture...just a circle appliqued over a half square triangle block. Looks good...maybe I'll win and have another quilt to make....that's all I need another UFO.This is the quilt Bob is making.....from the BQ pattern. He used different orange fabric for each block and used the library floor to check his lay out. Of course all the quilters there that night gave him lots of advise on how to lay it out.
I need to get ready for a class I'm taking this next week (April 11 and 18) a week night class in Stockton at the Quilters Quarters quilt shop. Its called Thread Painting & Machine Applique and is taught by a member from the Manteca Guild.....Sandra Mollon. We are using Debra Thompson pattern's....I'm going to make the Springtime Pansies. Should be fun as 3 friends from Manteca are taking the class with me. I need to check out the fabric in my stash and see if I need to go shopping for more fabric......without even looking I know I'll need something new.