Bella Bella Saturday Workshop part 1

Saturdays workshop with Norah McMeeking was a wonderful workshop. What a good teacher....we all learned a lot about paper piecing.

She gave clear instructions and worked with each quilter in the workshop if we had questions.
First we had to cut out all of our wedges that were printed on our pattern and then get ready to cut out all the pieces that we would be using in our quilt,
Here is my fabric with the pattern pieces ironed on so I could cut them out with a scissor.
Here are more workshop members cutting out their fabric.
Jan A. cutting her fabric.
Jan T started her quilt at home on a day off and had some wedges finished.
This is all of her cut out pieces lined up on a cookie sheet.
Inspiration hung on the library walls........we could all easily see the different ways to make the same pattern and how different they turn out.
Each quilt is different and special in its own way.
More pictures tomorrow....

Show and Tell from Thursday Night

I took a few pictures of show and tell last Thursday night.....and some of them are not very clear. The quilt below was make by Ginny my fellow VP and its a wedding present. Beautiful quilt......my kind of quilt made with batiks.

President Janet made this small wall hanging..........very nice.

Snow showed us this beautifull quilt she made after the Rectangle Pizzazz class with Judy Sisneros....a really beautiful version of the quilt.
Snow also made this wall hanging......look at all that quilting.....Snow has a quilting machine and she's very good with it.
This is a row by row quilt......very different and beautiful.
I still need to down load the pictures from yesterday's class........I took lots of pictures......it was a real good class....as usual I learned a lot about Norah's method for paper piecing. I can't wait to get this quilt done!!

Bella Bella Workshop

Tomorrow Manteca Quilters June workshop will be given by Norah McMeeting and we will be making a quilt out of her popular book.....Bella Bella quilts. Norah gave a program at the June membership meeting with beautiful slides and then we got to see many of her quilts in the flesh.

The quilt below is a version of the quilt we will be sewing tomorrow..........I can't wait!!!

Here is the version we will be sewing.......look at all those colors and how she put them all together. Beautiful......the quilts in this book are based on Italian floors made of tiles. Norah showed us slides of the floor's that she used for inspiration. We will not be cutting out each piece and then sewing them all together.......no we will be using paper piecing or foundation piecing. I have done lots of paper piecing and do enjoy the process. I look forward to learning some new way to paper piece from Norah.



Here is a close up of a corner of the quilt.

Here is the fabric that I plan on using tomorrow for my quilt. Its kind of hard to see the colors in this picture. Black background, red and bronze fairy frost,
My quilt will use only three colors and here is a better picture of the fairy frost.......I have five yards of this fabric and I don't know if I can cut into it.......too beautiful.
Love this color of red......it's a beautiful batik.
I did not take a picture of the black because its just plain black. I will take pictures tomorrow and share them with all of my readers.

Tuesday Night Sewing

Quite a group came together on Tuesday night with the bad smoky air and all. The picture below is of most of the group at the other end of the table....solving all the worlds problems.

Sue was there after a long absence......and we were happy to see her back on Tuesday night sew. See the project she's working on.......a lighthouse make of felt but she sewing it onto cotton fabric....and it works!!!
Here I am still sewing on the May part of my mystery quilt. I just have to sew a few more pieces and then I need to press all these pieces and then I can begin on June's instructions.....I hope to start the June step before June is over with......so I have till Tuesday!!!

Lunch at Hopeton's Festas

Today we .....my office mates and I traveled to Hopeton. Hopeton is located south of Turlock .......way out in the country. Today, June 24th is the feast day of St. John the Baptist and the day the Hopeton Festas is held. The church is small and build long ago..,...they have tables set up under huge trees and that is where you get to eat. The picture below is of some of the people setting at my table.Sopas is served at the festas and it was good today......because I have not eaten sopas in a long time it tasted even better then I remembered. For those of you who don't know about Portuguese Festas sopas is made from the meat from a cow.....boiled with spices and cabbage and mint. You then pour the meat, juice and cabbage over a piece of french bread. Below is a picture of my plate of sopas before I ate it all up.....and had seconds.
If you ever get a chance to go to a Portuguese Festas go and eat some wonderful soapas.

Scrambled Eggs.......Sunday's Class With Debi

I had a real good time at Debi's Scrambled Eggs quilt class on Saturday. It was hot outside but cool inside the class room and all the ladies that were there were ready to sew. The picture below is of the food (brunch) table.....lots of good food there.

I took my favorite sewing machine.....my 301a and because I had to leave early to go to the Love, Janis show I tried to get lots of sewing done. I choose blue scraps or FQ's as my colors and then yellow as the light or background fabric. I love blue and yellow quilts.
This is Debi's finished sample for the class.....she used Asin fabric. It really comes out nice.
Here is a close up of the quilt. You make 4 different 6 inch blocks and then sew them together to make a 12 inch block.
Of course Debi changed the quilt for the way it was in the book. Because she had lots of 2 inch squares left over she make star blocks for the border......in the corner she used the light fabric and the rest of the border is scrappy stars.
So I have another unfinished quilt project!!!!! But I know Debi will be on me to finish it. I just have to catch up with my mystery quilt.....I will be sewing on it tonight at the Tuesday night sew. Too much sewing to be done and no time!!

How Smart Are You When It Comes To American History?

An interesting on line test of your knowledge of American "patriotic" history. It's only 4 pages long, so you can do it in about a minute. 20 of the 30 questions are actual questions on the US citizenship test. You need around a 24 out of 30 to pass. I got a 26. Take the test here.

Love, Janis

What a good show Rena and I attended at 2:00 pm........Love, Janis. The show used letters that Janis wrote home and interviews that she gave to the press to explain what was going on in her life. There was a live band on stage and an actor....singer who sang as Janis. She died in 1970 at the age of 27. The picture below is of the stage before the show began.......we were up high and had a wonderful view.This is the view I had as I sat in my seat........this is looking right. Most of the people attending the show we older and were young when Janis was young.....but there were a few younger people enjoying the show.
You could not.......it was against the law to take a picture with a flash.......so I took this picture with out a flash. It's of the singer playing Janis singing with the band during the last part of the show. Every time she sang the beautiful colors from the 60's were behind the band.
After the show, Rena and I drove down the street to The Harvest Moon restaurant and enjoyed an early dinner......was so good.

The day started out with my class at Cloth and Quilt with Debi. Pictures tomorrow........

First Day of Summer

It is the first day of summer and wow was it HOT today..........104 here in Escalon!!!! I was just outside moving sprinklers .......watering the lawn so it won't die. I am obsessed about taking pictures of sunsets.......but they are never as beautiful in pictures as standing on the lawn and watching in person.

The clouds tonight made this sunset special. It looked like it was glowing red. I hope tomorrow is going to be cooler but the weather people are saying it will be just as hot.

It's A Scrambled Eggs Weekend

Its Friday and I am looking forward to a busy weekend. On Saturday I have a birthday party to go to. We going to have a brunch and it will be fun to see family again. On Suday I have a class at Cloth and Quilt with Debi.......the quilt is called Scrambled Eggs.....the class starts at 10 and goes till 4 and we are going to do a brunch pot luck. The pattern is in this book.I don't know if I have a strip addiction but I do have a fabric addiction. For this quilt I'm going to do a controlled scrappy quilt. I'm going out of my comfort zone and using blue scraps (FQ) and for the background I'm using yellow. I love blue and yellow together. Below you can see a picture of what the quilt looks like....of course Debi changed it and the border is scraps with star blocks in the center.
But I can't stay till the end of the class because Rena and I are going to Gallo Center to see the Love, Janis show and it begins at 2:00 pm. It is about the life and music of rock-n-roll icon Janis Joplin. Love, Janice goes behind the music and offers a glimpse at the soul of a legend both through the letters she wrote home and the songs she made famous. It is inspired by the best-selling book by Laura Joplin.

I can't wait.....I have not been to the new Gallo Center For The Arts and am looking forward to seeing this new addition to Modesto. We plan on going out to dinner afterward. So a very busy weekend ahead. I may have to come back to work on Monday just to rest.

I'll be taking lots of pictures of my class with Debi and the Gallo Center. You all have a good weekend.

Sunflowers For Friday

Look what just started growing next to my lawn. I have a bird feeder up in the walnut tree with black sunflower seeds in it and I guess some got blown down to the ground and started growing. Now I have a couple of sunflowers blooming. I wanted to get a picture before the flower died.


Such a beautiful flow....bright yellow and look at the center.....the detail really shows up. My camera really takes good pictures and I'm learning to use Adobe Photoshop Elements......it really does some cool stuff.
You never know where you will find beauty or inspiration. I feel a yellow, green and brown quilt.....just asking to be made.

Busy Tuesday Night

We were very busy on Tuesday night. Dotti and Sandy were busy basting a quilt that Dotti want to machine quilt on her home machine with a walking foot. They got it all basted.Betsy had picked up a couple of quilts that Annie at Freedom Fabric quilted for her......look at this beautiful quilt.
A close up of the quilting on this quilt..........nice.
This is another quilt that Betsy had quilted.......its a large wall hanging and she will be hanging it above her bed.
I worked on my mystery quilt and got quite a lot done.......I am trying to get May's instruction done before the month of June is gone and I'm another month behind.

Saturday's Class

On Saturday I taught 3 members of my Oakdale guild how to make a Convergence Quilt. It was Shirley's second class and she finished her quilt. I used Christmas fabric that I'd bought long ago to make a Christmas wall hanging.Here's Cora's fabric....love the blue and green.
Betty is using red, white and blue fabric to make her quilt.
This is my fabric.....all laid out so I won't mess it up when I sew it together.
Here is my center all sewn together and me trying to decide on borders.
Shirley finished her Convergence.......she's going to use it for a table topper.
Inez stopped by to show us her latest finished project......2 1/2 inch strips....the green background makes pinwheels. We want her to teach it to the guild next month. She's trying to use up her Christmas prints.
That's gold fairy dust fabric for the stopper.......Inez sz she loves using it in small amounts. Inez quilted this quilt.
It was a fun day of sewing on Saturday and fun teaching a new quilt to my friends.