Thursday, May 31, 2007

Crosses Along the Highway

As I drove to work on Tuesday morning…just before I took my off ramp in Turlock…this is the scene that caught my eye. A field on the right hand side of the freeway…..American flag in the center….the flag was surrounded by white crosses. I figured it had something to do with Memorial Day and how many solders have been killed in this latest war. So yesterday I took the frontage road to where the field with the crosses stands and took these pictures. If you want to see them for yourself the field is located before the Taylor Road exit on highway 99 in Turlock….if you are going south it’s on the right hand side. You can take the Taylor Road exit and travel north on the frontage road…..the field isn’t far.


It was hard to get the whole field in one picture because I was too close as I was parked in front of the field next to the road. I wonder how long this will be up and if they will add crosses as we seem to loose more solders every day.
I support the troops.....I have relatives in the service. We need to bring the troops home......we are in the middle of a civil war and I see no end..... no victory in sight. May the solders represented by these crosses rest in peace......and may their family's and friends find comfort in their grief.

Update - Found this in the Modesto Bee....Joe Fernandez, owner of the Turlock Poker Room, set up the visual reminder for Memorial day on land he leased for four months. Tuesday morning, he added 10 crosses with little American flags attached to the top in memory of the solders lost on Monday. All told 3,450 crosses have been planted in four acres with, sadly, room for 300 additions over the next few months.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Marcia Stein Workshop Last Saturday


On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend I attended a workshop with Marcia Stein as the instructor. The name of the workshop was Picture This. We needed to bring a picture we took....a copy of that picture in 8 by 10 size and fabric to bring that picture to life. What a fun class....I learned so much and now I am able to bring a picture to life in fabric. The picture above is of a blue Chev truck that Marcia made in fabric. This quilt is quite large.

Below I took a picture of the detail on the back of the truck.....it was so nice to get to see this quilt close up.
Look at the detail in the stitching she used.
Here is a example of how to achieve a quilt from a picture. How to make the pattern pieces.
Members attending the workshop showed each other their pictures that they hoped to turn into small quilts.
Here is Maryann using a light box to trace her picture onto a plastic sheet and then to freezer paper.

Here Marcia is showing us how to stitch down the fabric on our pictures.....

Here is my sewing machine and I am sewing on my barn.
This is how much I got done at the workshop.....at the end we pined up our little quilts...with the photo on the left and our picture on the right. My barn is looking good.
Sharon my table mate used this picture of a church in New Mexico.....cool.
Here are some colorful mailboxes....you don't have to make your quilt the same color at the picture.
Look at this cool yellow flower......
Here is a cupcake.....almost makes you hungry.

Friday, May 25, 2007

A Long Weekend Ahead....

The membership meeting was last night for Manteca Quilters, the program speaker was Marcia Stein her web site is here.

I will have pictures from Marcia's program and pictures from her workshop on Saturday next week. Today I have pictures from last night's show and tell.
Lots of beautiful quilts were shown by members who have been very busy. I want to thank Teresa for taking these pictures.....I was waiting in line to show off my finished quilt. See below.
And here it is Caribbean Courtyard.....you all must be tired of seeing this quilt.
More wonderful quilts.....
The quilt above is of penguins......very cool.
Another beautiful quilt. More next week. Have a good Memorial holiday weekend....I'm taking a workshop with Marcia Stein on Saturday called Picture This......and will be trying to get as much sewing done as I can over the long weekend. I have Candy is Dandy to machine quilt.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

I Made Another Bowl !

Remember this fabric? Well on Monday night I turned the blue fabric into a coiled bowl. It only took about 2 hours to get it done.

Below is the finished bowl.....this time I made a oval bowl and the sides are smaller then on my other bowl.
I love the colors in this bowl.....it really is fun to do. This bowl would be good for bread...or fruit. Lots of uses for this bowl. I will be making more bowls.....

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Girls.....

Meet "the girls".....two heifers who live in front of my house. I water them everyday and give them a flake of hay if they come up to me and moo looking hungry. What's a heifer you ask? It is a young cow that has not had a calf and is not milking. I don't know how old these two are but we've became friends. I took this picture after giving them some hay and that's why the red one has green all over her nose.

Monday, May 21, 2007

It was a Good Weekend !

Wow....did this weekend fly by fast. Saturday was spent at Teresa's helping with her garage sale....sold lots of her stuff then I went around to other garage sales and bought lots of stuff for Scott's classroom....he's always looking for books for his kids. I also bought some kitchen stuff for miss Natalie. After the garage sales I ventured over to R Lily Stem quilt store and dropped some money there and then to JoAnn's to spend my 40% off coupon.

The picture below is of the Oakdale Quilters Guild booth at the Chocolate Festival.....I worked the 2 to 5 shift and helped pack everything up. We sold lots of tickets.....had to do some yelling to get people into the booth.....WIN THIS QUILT FOR $1.00........help our non profit....and so on. The quilt is really beautiful and if people like purple, they buy tickets.

Thank God the wind was blowing....because the wind kept it from getting too hot. Didn't get any chocolate to taste....too many people and the lines were too long. Now I'm looking forward to next weekend and three days off.....more time to sew!

Friday, May 18, 2007

This and That

What a busy week its been......I've been working on the Manteca Quilters web site....why? Because I volunteered to create one for the guild. I'm using a free web site hosting site and its really been easy to set one up. If you want to check it out its here.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about it......now I'm still working on it...but I think I've made a good start.

Last Tuesday night sewing group was small but we all had a good time. Bob got his quilt back from being machine quilted by Herd of Turtles. I think that's a cool name for a machine quilting business. The picture below shows the quilting done in orange and in square lines.....I think it looks really good.

This second picture is from farther away. Now all Bob needs to do is bind this quilt and its done. Good job Bob!
I used part of the time Tuesday night to layer Candy is Dandy so now its ready for me to machine quilt it using my walking foot and my home sewing machine.....I hope it turns out OK. Have a good weekend.....I'm going to be helping Teresa with a garage sale on Saturday and then on Sunday I will be working the Oakdale Quilting Guild booth at the chocolate festival. Come by and see me if you plan on going. I hope I'll have time to sew another fabric bowl this weekend as the one I made last week was fun and I'm itching to make another.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Coiled Fabric Bowls

In the March/April issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting I read an article about making coiled fabric bowls. I love to make quilts but I also love to make different items using fabric......so this article was right up my alley. I bought some fabric.....batik....cotton clothesline and began sewing on my bowl on Friday night. It only took a couple of hours to complete.

It really wasn't hard to do......you have to wrap 1 inch wide strips of fabric around the cotton clothesline.......here is a picture of me just beginning to tilt the bottom of the bowl and sew on the sides. You use a zigzag stitch and use a color of thread to go with the fabric.
Here is a picture of my completed bowl.....looks cool doesn't it.....I'm very happy with the way it turned out.
Here is the view looking down into the bowl.
Here is my finished bowl from the side. You can create handles...which I decided to do...you can make a round bowl or a oval shaped bowl.
I've already purchased more cotton clothesline to make another bowl.....I'm hooked....it was so much fun and the bowl will have lots of uses.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Another Happy Friday

Well it's another happy friday.......last night I attended the membership meeting for my Oakdale quilt group. We are busy getting ready for our quilt show in June.....June 16 and 17 are the dates to mark on your calendar. I hope everyone who reads this blog and lives in the area will plan on attending. I heard the list of vendors for the show and the shopping will be fun.

Here are some pictures of the show and tell from last night. I really like the quilt below.....who doesn't like purple and gold. A beautiful quilt.

The quilt was made from the pattern take five.....you take five fabrics, five hours and you have a quilt. Made for a granddaughter....very bright....I love it.
Another purple quilt....very simple pattern.
I want to wish every mother who reads this blog a Happy Mothers Day. I will be with my family on Mothers Day and we will have lunch over my mom's. I'm going to help Rena paint her bedroom and hallway on Saturday.......I'll be getting lots of paint on me. I hope to get some sewing done...maybe tonight. Oh.....Happy Birthday Scott.....my son in law to be has a birthday on Mothers Day.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

New Project

I have a new project that I need to start......my Oakdale guild is having a presidents challenge. The challenge is due at the June meeting and will be in our quilt show June 16 and 17. In the picture below the flower fabric is the challenge fabric. I do have an idea of what I'd like to do. I've been drawing....not that I'm good at it and have come up with a design. Now to take the time and start this new project.

I picked up the blue fabric yesterday at the quilt store and really like the way they look together. I will take pictures of my progress and let you see what I'm doing.

Tonight is the May membership meeting for my Oakdale guild. Should be fun.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

What's Up With The Weather?

How hot was it yesterday? Way too hot!! At least 95 degrees. It was not weather to think about sleeping with a quilt on that's for sure. All the fans in my hours are on....I hope it will be cooler today.

The picture below is of the stitch to win for our next quilt show in 2008. I don't know how many quilt show's do the stitch to win....but you do some hand quilting on this quilt and receive a ticket to win it. Joan who made the opportunity quilt used her leftover fabric for this quilt. We all love using the library floor for laying out quilts and getting opinions from fellow quilters.
Liz's quilt is below.....she been working hard on her one eyed four patch....I really like the way its turning out. Liz just needs to sew a couple of more blocks and then figure out how to lay it out and she's be almost done.
Here is a picture of Carol's quilt for her mom for mother's day. A beautiful flower fabric with a white background....the perfect summer lap quilt.
The last picture is of my car. On Gerrie's blog Crazy For Fiber she posted that she had sent away for these bumper stickers and would send each person who wanted one a sticker. All I had to do was take a picture of the bumper sticker in a public place and send it back to her. So that's why I took this picture and lots of people will be seeing this sticker every day on the back of my car as I drive to and from work. The bumper sticker speaks for itself.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Engagement

Well it finally happened my daughter Natalie received an engagement ring from her boyfriend Scott. After 2 1/2 years of going together they are planning on getting married. YEA! As a mother with a camera that I love to take pictures with here is a picture of her hand and the beautiful ring.Now I'll have to make a wedding quilt......a big wedding quilt as my son-in-law to be is 6 feet 5 inches tall and sleeps on a California King bed. Last night I finished sewing on the binding on my courtyard quilt and its only a little bigger then a full sized quilt and it was not fun sewing on the binding as it seemed I'd never get to the end of the long sides. The wedding quilt will have to be a simple pattern...maybe a square in a square and large blocks....I'm thinking. A date has not been set but I'm sure it will be a small wedding as they don't want a big wedding.

The city wide garage sales in Ripon were fun but not as good as the sales in Escalon. But we had a good time.....I went with Scott and his mom and dad. Scott is a school teacher and was looking for books for his in class room library....he found over 30 and we even found 12 VCR tapes of animals from Time Life that will be good to show in his class. He also bought two dressers as he has none since he moved out. I didn't find that much to buy....a large tote bag for a project, some old linens ( I collect them) and two pillows for Scott's couch. Natalie doesn't like garage sales so she had her hair done and we all met up later and enjoyed Mexican food for lunch.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Need to Buy The Backing

Here is Candy is Dandy.....finished! It only took one week......the class was held on April 21 and I finished the top on April 28. A new record for me.....I know its a small quilt....but its done. Now I need to buy fabric for the backing and then layer it and machine quilt it on my home machine. I am so proud of myself! Now to get busy sewing on other UFO's that need to be finished.Last night some of our Tuesday night quilters were working on the applique from the workshop that was held on April 28. It was a class that was taught by Sandra M the same teacher that I took the thread painting class from. The purpose of this class was to learn to use ribbon to make flowers and make a pillow top. Below is Carol's work.
The picture below shows Dotti's work....she's busy sewing down the ribbon flower.
The last picture is of Liz W blocks from the class she took at Cloth and Quilt on Sunday April 29. She took a class from my friend Debi called One Eyed Four Patch. Love the colors that she is using. The library floor gets used every week to preview the layout of blocks for quilts. Love these colors....the fabric at the top will be used in the boarders.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

No Pictures Today

I'm almost finished with my courtyard quilt. I sewed the sleeve on and then last night I sewed all the binding on the back. Now I have to change sewing machines and sew the binding down on the front of my quilt. I will use a zig zag stitch to sew it down so that's why I need to change because my 301a does not sew a zig zag stitch.

This is the biggest quilt I have ever made.....it a little bigger than a full sized quilt. What fun I had last night wrestling the quilt around so I could sew the binding on. I don't know if I ever want to make a bigger quilt then this one.....but I'll have to when Natalie and Scott get married.

Can't wait for this week to be over with as Saturday is city wide garage sales in Ripon. What fun that will be......to find treasures that other people don't want. The week can't go by fast enough.

Happy May Day....whatever that means.......