Thursday, October 20, 2011

Loving This!

I have really been enjoying my quilting. (As if I wasn't before! :o) )

Trip to Idaho in July

I took a trip to Idaho in July. My daughter Amber and granddaughter Shandeigh came from Alaska. Shandeigh went to her Diabetic Camp above Stanley, Idaho at camp HODIA. Look at the video on the right to see an awesome video of her camp. She is in the video several times. The first guy that you see on the video lost his life a few weeks after the camp. What a wonderful man. Shandeigh loved him and what he did for these kids with diabetes. Don you are greatly missed!! The whole staff at the camp are AWESOME! Please watch the video!

While we were waiting for Shandeigh to finish with camp, Amber bought some fabric to make Shandeigh a quilt for her birthday. We got busy and with the help of 3 of my other grandkids, we finished this quilt top in a day. Thank you Hunter, Hailey and Tyghelyn!! I took the quilt home and quilted it and got it to her before her birthday. I think she liked it! :o)
Here is the label for the quilt. After I got it all stitched down, I read it and realized I forgot the "e" in Tyghelyn. Sorry Tyghelyn. I need to proofread before printing. (Ya think?)
While Amber and I were in Boise, we stopped by Goodwill. We both love looking for bargains. Well, Amber was digging through a bin and found this bag of fabric scraps. (At least I thought that's what they were). She said, "Mom, you might want this." For $.99 cents, I said, "Sure!" When I got home, and opened the package, I realized that I had the makings for a quilt. Some of the 9 patch blocks were already done. I think whoever gave it to Goodwill had become frustrated because they had taken too big of seams. I didn't mind taking them out and redoing for $.99! I added fabric from my stash and bought a little more of the cream fabric. I call this my $.99 Plus a Little Quilt. These fabrics are unmatchable in our quilt shops today. But, I made it work!

Urban Herbs
The quilt below is made from some blocks that I had embroidered a few years ago, They are all different herbs. I saw an idea in a magazine with the houses and the yo-yo trees and bushes. I used my scraps to make the houses and the 9 patch blocks then added a yellow yo-yo to the center. I named this quilt "Urban Herbs".

Quilt Retreat
In September, I made another trip to Idaho to our semi annual Quilt Retreat. We were able to meet again at Dana Searle's cabin in Island Park. I can't say enough about how I love this retreat! These ladies are my sisters. We laugh, cry, have wonderful food, make lots of projects and in general have a WONDERFUL time!! I told my husband, Roger, that it felt like a dream. It went by too fast!!

This is the quilt that we all contributed too. I couldn't wait to get it finished!! We never did come up with a name for the quilt, so I called mine "Spring Begins". We wanted a spring quilt as we have a Fall and Christmas Quilt that we all contributed to. I LOVE how this turned out!! I will add some closeup pictures of how I did the sayings on the quilt.
On this block, I sewed around the lettering with a triple stitch on my sewing machine. I filled in the big spaces on the "S" with decorative stitches. I guess I was just too lazy to do the hand embroidery work. As it turned out, though, I really like it!!

On this block, I again used a decorative stitch on my machine. I used a "leaf" stitch and did it in the green, then I went over it with a little flower stitch in pink. Again, I really liked how it turned out!! I can hardly wait to see how the other "sister's" quilt turns out.
On this block, I did do the hand embroidery, but after I quilted it, I added buttons on the "long johns" and the "dress".
This block was hand embroidered at our quilt retreat. Thank you to Debbie for some beautiful thread to do the word "Imagination" in. Thank you so much to Ann, Dana, Debbie, Ilene, Jill and Mary for the beautiful blocks!! I LOVE this quilt!!
San Juan Quilt Guild Quilt Show
The San Juan Quilt Guild Quilt Show was spectacular again this year!! There were so many beautiful quilts!! This year the theme of the quilt show was the Wonder of Nature. There was a challenge for the quilt guild members to make a 20 x 20 inch quilt that had to do with nature. There were several categories that we drew from a hat at one of our guild meetings. I drew "water". We had to construct a quilt using that theme. There could be only things in nature put into the quilt. This is the quilt that I entered and I WON!! I hand appliqued all the parts of the fish, and the other parts of the scene. I used the "eyelash" yarn to make the sea anemone look more realistic. I used beads and sequins to give the water and coral shimmering effects. And beaded the center of the sea anemone. It was a fun project! I was very surprised and elated that mine won!!
I also won 2nd and 3rd place for my quilts in the lap quilt category. I have posted them previous on my blog. They are the Sweet Memories and our Bountiful Harvest quilt that we did at our last retreat. The ribbon tops on the 2nd and 3rd place ribbons were made by a lady in our guild. I am in awe at her workmanship!! I will cherish these ribbons forever!!

Bead It Down!
In September, I went to a class taught by Judi Goolsby. Click HERE to go to her website. Click on the tabs to see her quilts. Her quilts are stunning!! Each of them tells a story. She said that she loved how people made their own stories of her quilts. She showed us many of the quilts that are on her website and told us the stories behind them. She taught us some wonderful beading and stitching techniques. Below is a sample of some of the things we learned. I made a name tag out of the samples that I learned. It was such a fun class!!
Strips n' Curves
In October, I took a class from Louisa Smith. Click HERE to see some of her work. She is all about "stripping" LOL!! What a fun class! I learned so much about sewing curves and color. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep one night. The quilt below is made out of 6 inch blocks. All night, I thought how I could make 3 inch blocks and add them to the 6 inch blocks. Well, I did it!! The small circle at the top and at the side are made using 3 inch blocks. How I love "miniature"!!!Well, that is all for now.... Hope you enjoyed this portion of my blog. Please leave a comment! I would love to hear what you think!!