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!!

More Quilting Updates

Here is a picture of the FINISHED quilt that I started at our quilt retreat in April. This turned out to be one of my most favorite quilts. I am so addicted to these small blocks. The blocks are 4 inch by 4 inch with a 1 inch border around them. Thank you Ilene for swapping with me. I am ready for another one!! I put flannel on the back of this one so it will be extra cuddly.

Below is the mock up of the quilt we will be doing for our fall retreat. I am really in love with this one. The pastels and white background will be such a nice Spring quilt. I am calling this one "Spring Remembered". My contributions to the quilt are the "laundry" block and the "basket" block. I have all seven blocks of each one done. Can you tell that I am excited about this quilt? You will find the pictures of my blocks below. I have the border ready and waiting as well.

Below is a picture of the borders that I have ready and waiting for the quilt to be put together so I can add them. The stems are green ric rac. I know I am going to like this border!

Here is the "Laundry" block. It is my assignment for the "Spring Remembered" quilt for our retreat in the fall. I decided to do the embroidery in spring colors rather than black. I added some lazy daisy flowers to the embroidery. I loved the tiny clothes pins. I wanted them to look realistic, so I made a small buttonhole on the block where I wanted each clothespin to go. This way I can remove them for laundering when I need to. I just need to remember not to quilt over them when I am doing my quilting.

I really like how the "basket" block turned out. I added a large button to the flower to give it dimension. Again, the pastel colors on the white background will be BEAUTIFUL!!

The quilt below is my very first "long arm job". I quilted this for my sister in law's quilt group. The quilt reminds me of jewels around a fairytale dragon. I used multi colored thread in the colored blocks and black thread around the dragon. Thank you Shelley for the business!!

I saw these shopping bag holders in a Connecting Threads catalog. I thought they were so cute. I had to make up a couple of them. They are little aprons. They have a zipper in the back where you can put those shopping bags to reuse them.
That's it for this time. I have a quilt on right now for my mother in law. I hope she will love it when I am finished! Until next time...... Susan

Quilt Retreat April 2011

Oh, it was good to see my quilting friends again!! We met in Provo on Wednesday the 6th of April. I drove from Farmington, NM and the others came from Shelley and Montpelier, ID. Those who attended were Jill Wray, Debbie Searle, Mary Hobson and Ilene Kendrick. We missed having Dana Searle and Ann Ahrendsen with us. Our family just didn't seem complete!! Hope you guys will be able to come to our next one!!

Debbie kicked her son and new wife out of their house in order for us o stay there. We kept them supplied with good food, so hopefully they will forgive the intrusion!! Below is a picture of the living room BEFORE we moved our stuff in. Bet you can't wait to see the after shot, right?

Well, here we are all moved in. You can barely see the floor for all the threads!! Lot's of stitchin' going on!! It is hard to believe that it is the same room, huh??

SHOW AND TELL:

I will start with Ilene. Ilene made the cutest "topsy-turvey" doll. She bought a Little Red Riding Hood book to tell the story with the doll. Below is a picture of Little Red Riding Hood.

Ten you turn Little Red Riding Hood over and you have her GRANDMA.

Then you turn Grandma around and there is the WOLF! She gave her little granddaughter Payton one and then she made another one to keep at her house. Story time at grandma Ilene's will be a cherished memory.

Ilene had the cutest fabric tool box by her sewing machine. It has tons of zippered pockets and pouches to put everything in! Hoping Ilene will share her pattern! :o)

Okay, you won't believe this! Ilene gathered pillow cases and made this adorable apron!! Talk about "REPURPOSE"!!!

Ilene seems to be the QUEEN of re-purpose! Below is a quilt top she finished at our Retreat. It is made from SHEETS. I can hardly wait to see it all quilted. I am going "SHEET SHOPPING" Say that fast 10 times! LOL

Then Ilene gathered up her old denim jeans that she had been saving, added some red plaids and came up with this fun denim quilt. I want to see this one finished as well.

Next we have Mary. Jill gave us a pattern for a quick table runner. Mary dug right in and made one. Below is her finished table runner that she made at the retreat and Jill is showing hers that she had made previously. I will get one made SOON!!

Mary worked on this wall hanging/table topper for her daughter. I love the newsprint fabric she chose as the background fabric. The bright words are words that reminded Mary of her daughter. What a lucky girl to have such a "cool" mom!! Good job, Mary!! I can't wait to see this all quilted. Hopefully Mary will take a picture before she gives it to her daughter.

Next is Debbie. This is a quilt that Debbie made for her son and daughter in law. (They are the ones we booted out of their house). This was on their bed and oh, did it look stunning. The picture just doesn't do it justice.

Below is a quilt made from her son's T-shirts. What a fun memory quilt!! I know that he will cherish this one forever!! What a sweet Mom!!

Debbie started working on this quilt at our last retreat. She got so many projects done last time! This was a huge task, but she finished the top. This one was for her granddaughter. She went shopping with Debbie to pick out the fabric. I LOVE the colors of this quilt!! I want a picture of the finished quilt!! Back and Front!! SEW CUTE, Debbie!!

Now we have Jill, our over achiever!! Can you believe all that she got done? Here is her picnic quilt. I love how the log cabin blocks were made to look like watermelon. Notice the black seeds on each watermelon.

Jill got busy and made this quilt out of SHEETS as well. I love the pinwheels!! The vines really add to make it a beautiful spring quilt. (Debbie showed us a quick way to make pinwheel blocks. I tried it and it works so slick!) CUTE, CUTE, Jill!!

Jill completed this applique quilt while at the retreat. I know she got more than this one done. I just didn't get pictures of all the things she had finished.

Jill is the Home Ec teacher at the middle school in Shelley. She has her kids doing so many fun things. The Jar quilt below was made from jar blocks that her students made. She is going to hang this in her room. How cute is this!! It looks like a regular pantry!!
Below is the finished Bountiful harvest quilt from our last retreat that Jill finished. Do you see where we got the idea for the canning jars? Jill had the fabric at one of our retreats and we had to have a shelf with jars of fruits and vegetables on it. I LOVE this quilt!!

Lastly is me (Susan). Ilene and I had swapped 4 inch blocks most of last year. I put them together in this quilt top. I thought I had the borders all finished, but lacked 2 blocks on each side to finish the border. I do have the quilt finished. I will show it in another post. This has turned out to be one of my most favorite quilts. Thanks for the swap Ilene. Do you have another idea that we could swap? :o)

I found this pattern at one of the quilt shops that Roger and I stopped at. It is an Amy Bradley pattern of a Fabric Addict. I had to get it and make me one. This one is mine with her bolts of fabric, purse, shopping bag, fabric remnant in her pocket and fat quarters stacked on the fabric bolts.

After making mine, I knew I had to make one for each of my "Sewing Sisters". Below is a picture of them in their underwear. (Victoria Secret has nothing on them!)

Here they are fully clothed. I had a lot of fun making these for everyone.

I didn't get a picture of all the gifts that were made by everyone. I will try and remember the fabulous things that I received. It is always like Christmas and even better because we all get what we want!! :o) If I forget something, please refresh my memory!

Mary: Made the cutest apron out of a dish towel. She made the top part from the cutest fabric! Mine had spools of thread. She also made a pin cushion out of a little truffle tin. Then she made the cutest fabric purses to carry credit cards and business cards in. She even gathered a few quilt shop business cards and put them in it. Then she gave us copies of some patterns that will be so fun to make. Thank you, Mary!!

Jill: Jill gave us patterns for her quick table runner and other patterns to make. She had a wealth of wonderful ideas that has my head still spinning!! She also kept notes of the retreat. All this and she had a broken ankle!! We just couldn't stop her from "hopping" around! Jill, I hope you are all healed soon!! Thank you, Jill!!!

Debbie: Debbie had a cute little Easter basket filled with goodies. She has taken it upon herself to keep us with copies of the BEST recipes that everyone has made at the retreats. There was a bottle of Sewer's Aid to put on our thread, a snap and store tool caddy, some Renew intensive skin therapy, a measuring tape to make the Snap shut bag she gave us the pattern for. Plus she gave me some awesome stuff that really helped my sore infected finger AND.... The foot massage and pedicure was AWESOME!! I had never had one before. I felt like I was in heaven! Thank you, Debbie.

Ilene: Ilene made everyone the cutest cosmetic bag. She is the QUEEN of bag making. These have a zipper with a tab to hold for easy zipping and unzipping. They were all quilted and lined. You know that I am going to be using this bag forever!! Ilene also had so many good books that she had read which she shared the titles with us. Ilene always carries with her some awesome quotes that she has read and shared those with us. Thank you, Ilene!!

Here we sit Saturday morning after all of our stuff was packed up and the house was cleaned. As you can see.... none of us have a smile on our face. It was very sad to leave. We look forward to the next retreat! I think it will be in September? Waiting to hear on the date... :o)

Here is our poor crippled Jill. I hope she will be able to toss those crutches soon!!

I can't forget ALL the wonderful food and snacks that everyone brought. I have tried a couple of recipes on Lorna and Bill. Amazingly, no flies were killed or harmed in the process!!

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

More Finishes! :o)

While Hubby has been gone on a business trip for the last three weeks, I have been keeping myself busy finishing up some things. Below are the leftover blocks from by Buzz Saw quilt. I was able to use up a "few" of my 1 1/2 inch scraps for the border and the intersecting block on the sashing. I made a nice table topper for my table. I love the "cornflower" blue and wish that I could have found more for the outer border, but, oh well.... I still like how it turned out in the end... Thank you Firth Quilt Group for the great swap! I love the fabrics that were chosen!

Here is the my block and month name for April. It turned out very "Springy" looking. The Electric Quilt company has a block of the month and instead of making a quilt, I am using the block to change out each month. Again... notice the smaller duplicate block at the end of "April". I am always wanting to do something miniature! :o)

Finishing up the UFO's and making NEW Stuff!

This has been a long time in coming! Since I have my wonderful Long Arm Quilting Machine, I have been able to really get some projects finished up and also some new ones done. Can you tell that I am loving my Long Arm? :o)

Below is what I have titled Sunlight and Shadows. These blocks were from a swap that we did in 2009. The criteria of the swap was this; the birthday person chose the block that they wanted made and included instructions on the colors that were to be used in the block. I chose this blcok because I loved the contrast of lights and darks. The blocks came from Australia, Denmark, Canada and states scattered across the US. I will cherish these friendships!

Below are a couple of samples of the quilting designs I used for the Sunlight and Shadows Quilt.

This is the tag I made to go on the back of the above quilt. I made 2 inch blocks as a replica of the larger 12 inch blocks on the quilt top. These were very tine pieces and all the seams do not match up exactly, but I loved making this label!!

The quilt below is entitled "Buzz Saw" This quilt was from a swap as well. Our quilt group in Firth, ID exchanged 9 inch half square triangles with an 8 x 2 inch strip of the same fabric. The colors were all country colors with a cream/tan background. The half square triangle blocks were then cut into 2 inch strips; then sewn back together. I loved Terry Anderson's idea of the buzz saw block extending out into the border. I used my scraps to complete the outer border. of the quilt. Thank you ladies for a FUN, FUN swap!!!

Below are some close up samples of the quilting I used in the Buzz Saw Quilt.

Again I made a miniature block of the Buzz Saw block for the tag on the back. I did not, however, use a half square triangle. I cut and sewed each angled piece and put them together to form the buzz saw. It was very interesting to say the least! :o)

In my Electric Quilt Newsletter this month this Calendar Keeper pattern was there. Also Andrea Bishop gave a challenge for a block of the month. I thought how fun it would be to combine the 2. The large block is the challenge for January. If you will notice, I made a miniature of the larger block at the bottom of the "March" hanging. My goal is to make a block and the month name for each month of the year. As you can see, I am working ahead, not behind! LOL

This is my very first large quilt done on my long arm. It is from Bonnie Hunter's "Quiltville" website. The quilt is entitled Scrapy Happy Houses. The scraps I used were all novelty prints. It was a great way to use these prints. This was a fun quilt to make and now it is keeping us warm during this cold New Mexico winter!!
The San Juan Quilt Guild invited me to teach a class on the Spider Web Quilt block. I had used this method to make a table topper. It is posted in one of my previous posts. I wanted to show how different this block could look. Below. I chose a focus fabric and then grabbed scraps from my scrap bucket that coordinated with my focus fabric. I loved how this pillow turned out! I especially love working with the scraps that I already have. (BTW... my class got canceled due to a snow storm! I will reschedule.... :o)

Below is another sample of using the Spiderweb pattern. This time I controlled the width of my strips. and put the circle in the center instead of the star. This will be a nice 4th of July topper for my table. The Spiderweb block is so versatile. And.... another fun way to use up scraps.

I hope you have enjoyed this post! Be sure and leave a comment. I love hearing from you!!