More Scraps and Show and Tell

I have a couple more scrap quilts to show you from the program from Marie Strait. Beautiful quilts.
Love the different blues in this quilt.
There are more blue fabrics in this quilt......very cool.
Now show and tell from the September meeting......this is a beautiful X block ruler quilt.
Love this quilt.....but it looks hard to piece and figure out how to get all the fabrics in the right place.
Barbara's jacket is finished from Judy's class.......I still need to work on mine.
Ginny and a beautiful flowered lap quilt.
Lily made this wonderful mountain themed quilt.
Lily also made this boo wall handing......she has both quilts as kits in her shop Lily Pad in Oakdale.
This is a cool BQ.
Della finished her vest from Judy's class......I love the way it turned out.
Pegi who loves to do needle felting.....made this jack o lantern......love his smile.
A beautiful green quilt.
I visited my ear Dr. today and I am released and healing well......yea!

The Old and the New......

Manteca Quilters first president with our 30th president.....Marie Strait on the left and Janet Dyk on the right. This year we will be holding our 30th quilt show on the first full weekend of March 2009.
At our last meeting Modesto guild brought their 2009 Opportunity quilt......its very striking.

Look at the detail of the quilting and applique.
They will be selling lots of tickets for this wonderful quilt.

September Program with Marie Strait

On last Thursday night at the Manteca membership meeting Marie Strait who was the very first president of our guild came and gave us a program on scrap quilting. It was a beautiful trunk show.
Marie has made lots of scrap quilts.
She gave us lots of tips on how she stores her fabric and how she goes about making her quilts.
Marie makes her quilts big and small.
Here is the detail on a scrapie star.
This quilt was a challenge in her guild......she lives in Los Gatos and for this challenge received a bag with fabric in it that has to be used in the challenge.
Beautiful baskets.
Love this log cabin.
Christmas scrap quilt.
I really like a quilt with black in it and really like this one made with half square triangles.
Black, red and white.......beautiful.
My kind of quilt......bright colors with black.
My ear is doing better.....the Dr. took the packing out and now I can hear again.

My Left Ear....

I've been fighting a ear infection all month......the Dr. said I had swimmers ear and gave me drops to put in my ear and medicine to take.....then it did not get better and I got to go see the ear, nose Dr. He cleaned it out and told me I had to have surgery!! So Monday night I had surgery and he went in and took out some tissue that was infected......I did not stay at the hospital and got to go home. So now my ear is packed and I have to put two different ear drops in twice a day and take cipro for ten days. I get the packing out of my ear on Friday.....I should be able to hear again. So I've been resting and doing no sewing.

Tonight is the membership meeting for Manteca Quilters and on Saturday I will be attending a workshop.....so more pictures will be coming. Stay tuned.

Happy Birthday......

I made another embroidered bag for a special girl who turns 21 today!! Happy Birthday Steph. Stephanie works part time for the company that I work for and is in her last year at Stanislaus State College studying to be a teacher. I took her to lunch on Friday and gave her this bag.

She told me that black and red where her favorite colors and I just happen to have a large stash of red and black fabrics. I should have taken a picture of the back as I used some left over blocks from a red and black quilt I made and they worked perfect in this bag. I have more bags to make.....one for Dawn and one for Makayle......pictures to follow when I get them done.

Look What I Won !!!!

A box arrived at my house the other day and look at what was inside.....four patterns and lots and lots of fabric. Why you may ask did I receive this wonderful package? Because I commented on a blog and in doing so entered a contest.........about what I did this summer and I talked about the first quilt retreat that I attended this summer. The blog is QuiltersBuzz and I've been reading this blog for a long time. If you want to check out QuiltersBuzz the link is here.

Gina Halladay runs the QuiltersBuzz blog and she owns a quilt shop and designs patterns and the blog talks about new fabric, patterns and what's going on in the quilting world. The latest entry on the blog today is about new Moda products that will be out this January and she is having a new contest to win Moda stuff....be sure and check it out.

These patterns are quilt and can be made in an afternoon or two.....can't waite to try them.

Look at all the wonderful fabric that was inside the box......I love bright fabric and all these pieces of fabric are just what I like to sew with.
Lots of FQ's and one piece is at least two yards!
I am one lucky quilter........you can be too.....go check out QuiltersBuzz.

My New Tee Shirt

I also embroidered this tee shirt while I was on the retreat. I found the image of Obama on line on a blog that said it was for use as red work......but I thought it would make a cool statement on a tee shirt and I wanted a tee shirt that told everyone about my support for Obama.
I used a stabilizer that is used for machine embroidery that washes away.....I usually use tissue paper for embroidery on a fabric where I can't trace it because the fabric is too dark. It worked very well and I will use it again. It washed right out in cold water. I then used a white pencil to wright Obama's name and then embroidered it below his picture.....just in case people can't recognize his picture......I plan on wearing this shirt quite a few time's before the election.
So now I have a one of a kind shirt to show people who I support for President. You can too....weather you support Obama or McSame.

Joan's Beautiful Quilt

While at the retreat Joan finished the quilt below......she and Bill picked it up at a garage sale......where all the fabric and pattern for the quilt was in a package. A man was selling all of his dead wife's quilting stuff.....and Joan got boxes of fabric and batting and other stuff for not too much money. What a beautiful spring and summer quilt....with the 3d flowers and pastel colors. I didn't get any pictures at the retreat because of the size of the quilt.....so Joan brought it last night to the library and she spread it out on the floor.
Here is a close up of Joan's quilt......beautiful.

Retreat.....final pictures

At our retreat we help each other......give advise......and are happy to see one of us finish a project. This picture is of Pat helping Diana.
The view from my sewing machine......everyone looks very busy.
I worked on my scrambled eggs quilt after I finished all I wanted to do on bellla bella......here is the first block all put together.
This is my sewing space...working on the scrambled egg blocks.
We made many trips to the pharmacy and down to Sonora to Bearly Quilting.....on the last trip Diana bought this fabric to make another nine path pizzazz ........it's really going to be another beautiful quilt.......can't wait to see it all done.

Well that's all the pictures from the 2008 retreat.....our last year at the house we've been using for three years. The lady who owns it.....and yes she is a quilter......has put the house up for sale........and is not renting it out next year so she can show it to buyers.......boo hoo. But we have found another house to go to and it should work out well.

Retreat....more pictures

Julie spent the whole time at the retreat working on these angles......they are beautiful. She has a dinner party for her bible study group at Christmas and these angles will be holding the persons name so they know where they are going to sit. She's been doing angles for name tags for many, many years and her guests can't wait to see what she comes up with every year.
Julie used bias strips and made tubes and then used a fast turn to made the strips that wind around the body of the angles. They all have different hair and different looks on their faces.
Julie still has more angles to make but she got most of them done on the retreat.
Here is my bella bella......all the wedges sewn together to make four parts of the circle. I am so glad I got all this sewn on this quilt......I still have lots more.....the corners to sew together..... before I sew it all together/

Betsy worked on this quilt that is sewn together then cut and sewn back together to make it come out on point.
Here it is after she cut and layed it back down the way it will be sewn......beautiful.
Pat made this X block baby quilt......I love making these quilts.....they are so easy to make and look like it is difficult.
The last of the pictures taken at the retreat will be posted tomorrow.......

****** Fields of Fabric Grand Opening *******

I stopped at Fields of Fabric to check out their grand opening sale. They are having a 10% off sale...every day a different fabric...today it was batiks, Tuesday it will be blank and Maywood, Wednesday.....Clothworks and Classic Cottons, Thursday....Gladwick and Wilmington, Friday.....Michael Miller and Moda and Saturday....Red Rooster and Shannon and Andover and Makover. AllFQ's are on sale for $2.25. They are giving away a large basket filled with cool quilting stuff and just for coming in you can enter. I helped the slow ecomony and spent some money there.

More on the Retreat

I worked for two day sewing on the rest of the wedges for my bella bella quilt. Here are all the wedges done and trimmed up.
Lunch served outside.......on the front deck....good food.
Last year two member of our group bought this kit from Bearly Quilting in Sonora.....a nine patch pazzaz.....they both worked on their quilts at this retreat. Beautiful
Pat worked on this chop stick quilt.....and she got it all put together....she was smart and cut all her fabric at home so all she had to do was sew.
Here is Jan....busy working on one of her projects. A couple of us did hand work too.

Besty is busy sewing.....she sewed at least two or more backs for quilts and finished a couple more.
Carol and Diana busy working on the pool table.....we used a hard top for the pool table and it was our big cutting board.
We always stop at Fishers fruit stand and bring lots of fresh fruit to our retreat.....and some wine and other hard liquor. But we don't drink and sew.

On Retreat Up In Twain Hart

I'm on my second quilting retreat in three weeks.......what fun! Back at Brown Bear Lodge where we've been renting a house for the last 3 years. We stopped at every quilt store on the way up today and really helped the slow ecomony. We quilters know how to spend money.
Here is the full room.....with the pool table covered with a special top and we use it for a large cutting table. We brought up tables and rearrange the room.
See my machine below....with my bella bella project all ready to sew.
The table that we use for ironing.
Here is Julie reading magazines and resting on the deck out front.
Pat working in the kitchen.....we won't go hungry....lots of goodies to eat and keep us fueled to sew.
The first person sewing.......Pat hard at work.
We had a wonderful dinner and some people have gone to bed. Only a few people sewing right now at 9:30 at night. I'm done for the night and will be going to bed soon.

Where Did The Week Go?

Is it Saturday already? Having Monday off for Labor day makes for a short week....and it was a busy week....a board meeting at work in Merced Wednesday night....didn't get home till 9:30 and then on Thursday night I had a Manteca quilters board meeting. Then yesterday I got in to see the Dr. because my left ear has been bothering me and its all plugged up.....figured I had too much ear wax inside and then the Dr. tells my I have swimmers ear!! Now I have not been in a swimming pool...in a long time....so I guess I got too much water in my ear from taking showers.....who knew? So I have ear drops and meds to take and it will get better soon. I will be leaving for my second quilting retreat on Wednesday.....this is the retreat that I go on every year.....the one last month was an extra one. I will be working on my bella bella wall hanging.

Which brings me to the quilt below.....Sandy's bella bella all done. She sewed the larger size for this quilt. Mine is the smaller size. I just love the way it turned out.....love the colors.


These pictures are from the Tuesday night sew......Joan wanted to see the class sample for the workshop at Manteca Qilters this month. I took a couple of pictures for the Manteca web site...and I am posting it here. Cool quilt. Love those circles.....its so modern looking.
Here is a close up.....I haven't decided what fabric to use for this quilt......you all know I love batiks...but Asian would be nice and there are other possibilies. I'll have to make up my mind soon.
Well off to sew while it's still cool......I hope we get some cooler weather soon. I don't like to sew when it is so hot!

August Show and Tell

Ginny finished her bella bella top and showed us all how beautiful it turned out. I really like the fabric and colors she used in this quilt.

Lue-Anne made this quilt for Amber.....a yellow brick road pattern....Amber picked the fabric...good job.....a mother and daughter designed quilt.
Sue made this beautiful quilt.....she collected the fabric....all paisley's and then decided to use this design to high light the fabric.
Here is a close up of the quilt.
Look at this truck quilt........with different people in the windows......the wheels are attached with velcro.
Look who is peeking out of the window of this turck......it's Elvis!!!!
I like the colors used in this quilt.
What a simple design.......very easy to do and sews up fast. Lots of room for wonderful quilting.
Wow.....this is my kind of quilt.....love the bright colors.
Beautiful fabric in this top.....my picture does not do it justice.
Another blue and yellow quilt with flames......cool.

Workshop.....More Than A Vest

Judy Mullen taught her More Then A Vest workshop last Saturday.....it was so much fun. Here are the samples for the class and it shows the different ways to make the vest.
After deciding on the size of the vest we were making and what changes to make to each vest we all got busy cutting out our vests.

The front of my vest....made with two different fabrics. I used two different batik fabrics that went together. I then quilted the batik fabric to flannel with the inside fabric on the other side.
I love the new tiny bright light that I have installed on my 301a.....I don't turn on the light that came with the machine anymore.....this tiny light really works. I am sewing the binding on myvest in this picture.
Judy demoed how to make covered snaps.......yes covered large snaps.
Here is my covered snap......if you use the covered snaps then you don't have to make button holes for your buttons on the front of your vest......you use the snaps and sew a button on front.
Barbara's black and white fabric that she used for her vest......I love the way she pieced the left side and used solid on the right.
This is the back of her vest.......love the red and black together.
Look at what Char used for her vest.....she took left over blocks and parts of blocks from projects and joined it together for this back of her vest.
Here is the front of her vest.......it matches!! Can't wait to see all the finished vests next month at the membership meeting!