Blogger's Quilt Festival May 2013

Today I'm linking up with the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  The quilt I'm sharing is very special to me and my family.  Back in the 1970's, my Mom started quilting.  She decided to make a family quilt to present to my grandmother (her mother-in-law).  She got everyone in the family to make a block that represented themselves and my grandmother.  She gave each person a packet of fabric, including several purple fabrics (Grandma's favorite color).  My Mom and my aunt Shirley made some filler blocks to round out the setting.

The upper blocks of the quilt depict my Grandmother and Grandfather, Viola and Lee Parham, and their seven children.  My grandmother was originally from Australia, and my grandfather was from Indiana.  They settled in San Francisco, where they raised their family.

I love looking over the quilt and seeing the story in the blocks - those of my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.  My sister and I each have a block in the quilt as well.  I was the youngest contributor at 8 years old!

The quilt was presented to my grandmother in the late 1970's, and it hung in her bedroom until she passed in 1981.  I recently took the opportunity to photograph each block, which I posted to Flickr, so everyone could see the quilt and blocks at any time.  Head on over there to see each one!

Thanks to Amy Ellis at Amy's Creative Side for allowing me to share this very special quilt.  It looks like this time around the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival are split up into categories.  You can find this quilt posted on the Group Quilts page.

Be sure to check out all of the amazing quilts in the festival!

Finally Finished

I finally finished the quilt top pictured above on Easter morning.  I put the last border on and then rushed out the door!  I brought it over to Easter dinner and when I opened it up to show everyone, my youngest nephew laid down on it and pretended to be asleep.  Very cute. I guess it passes the "good enough to use" test!  I'm calling it Chain Link.  There are black borders that you can't see in the picture.  I took a full picture of it on Monday night, but it was hanging kind of wonky.  I'll try to get another one soon.

It took about 5 yards (mostly) all out of my stash.  I ended up buying the narrow gold border, but the rest I already had!

I wasn't liking it very much as I was making it, but this kind of design really doesn't shine until it is all put together.  Now I'm pretty happy with it!

Alden Lane Quilt Show 2011

A couple of weeks ago, my Mom, sister and I went over to the Alden Lane Quilt Show in Pleasanton, CA.  We try to go every year and this year was wonderful as usual.  What was even better was that it was not sweltering hot like in the past few years.  In fact, it was a little breezy and even started to sprinkle while we were there.  I took a bunch of pictures, but didn't get everything.  The wind was blowing the quilts around a bit, so pictures were difficult.  The Quilt Show has a great slide show that must have been taken the day before because it looked sunnier and the quilts weren't flying.  Check it out here.

There was an interesting color challenge that a group made.  I took pictures of those that I'll share soon.  I don't want to bog the page down too much with pictures.  I'm already looking forward to next year's show!

Design Wall Monday - 07/18/11

I actually have a design "wall" today!  This one was too big for the table.  My sister and I are working together on a quilt and here's how far we got in one day.  I just love the zig zag quilt.  It's so impressive looking, and yet so simple to make.  We'll be squaring off the sides (no setting triangles) and adding a couple of borders.  Working together worked out really great. We both cut and I sewed with she pressed and pinnned and did the layout.  I had made this quilt once before shown here, and I didn't realize that we ended up with the same colors as the first one until my sister pointed it out after it was sewn together.  Funny how that happened!  Now to choose borders...

See what others are doing on Judy L's blog!

Design Wall Monday 8/16/10

Well I didn't get much farther from last week. The top is all together and I decided not to put borders on it. I got delayed because I really wanted to use Minkee for the backing and I couldn't find it at my usual LQS at first. But I did find some this weekend, so I'm back on track and hopefully I'll have the whole thing done by Thursday when it supposed to be given to the new baby. The picture above was taken when I was cutting the Minkee to size. I always forget that Minkee is a little heavy, so I need to go out and get a thinner batting so it doesn't end up too heavy for the baby. I'll just tie this one instead of quilting.

While I was at the shop getting the backing, I finally broke down and got some Paper Pieces to make hexagons - or "hexies" as they are being called now. They are SO popular right now and there are all kinds of tutorials for making them so that you don't have to baste them to the paper foundations. I prepped two just to get it out of my system. They go pretty fast, so we'll see what happens with those. Maybe nothing or maybe a pillow or something. We'll see...

I'm So Excited!!

I am a huge fan of The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. It is an on-line quilt show where members can view a new episode premiering every two weeks. But it's more than that. It is also an on-line quilting community with forums, patterns, projects, and a blog that is updated at least once daily. Last I heard, there were over 30,000 members (probably a lot more now) from all over the world. Each member gets a profile that they can update if they choose, and even post pictures of quilts that they have made. In an effort to create a database of quilts, when a member posts a quilt, they fill out all kinds of information about it, like when it was made, size, techniques used, etc.

Anyway, here's the exciting part -- a while back they started featuring a Quilt of the Day pulled from the database of member quilt photos. I recently got an e-mail from them saying they were going to feature one of MY quilts as a Quilt of the Day! How awesome! There are literally thousands of quilts on their site and they picked one of mine! I'm on cloud nine!

You don't need to be a member to look at their blog, so anyone can hop on over there on Tuesday, August 17th to see my Double Pinwheel quilt.

Stashbusting 2010 - Week 24

I finished the quilt for the summer class, which I'll also be teaching in the Fall. I went with all batik fabrics on this one. I haven't used batiks for a while and I thought the mottled colors lent themselves well to this type of design. I'm really pleased with it, and it went together very quickly. So now I'll be teaching the Zig Zag quilt as well as this one at the three-day workshop later this month.

I did add to my stash since I posted last. I bought all of the fabric for this quilt plus 1/4 yard, which came to 4.5 yards. But then I get to count 4.25 yards back out for finishing the top!

Fabric added this week: 4.50 yards

Fabric used this week: 4.25 yards

Fabric added this year: 17.00 yards

Fabric used this year: 19.75 yards

Total fabric used this year: 2.75 yards

Sewing Day Mother's Day

Last Saturday we celebrated Mother's Day by having an all-day sewing day at my Mom's house. My sister and I brought our projects and sewing supplies and we talked and sewed and ate and had a great time. We started out with a little show and tell. I showed my recent class projects that they hadn't seen in person. My sister's project was in pieces - but during our day she got the whole top together and was working on the borders when we decided to call it quits. My mom had some recent finishes that I snapped some quick pictures of.

The first one was all made with fruit and vegetable prints, which she calls "Farmer's Market". It came out really great! I had seen it a while back when it was in pieces and I am amazed at how it wonderful it looks all together. I've seen these prints in the shops and I could never figure out how I would ever use them in a quilt. Well done, Mom!

The next one is all done in black prints and white on white prints. The entire quilt is made of squares of different fabrics that are pieced together. A lot of work went into this one and the end result is stunning!!

Meanwhile I'm still working on my last class project until fall. Then a much appreciated break over the summer. It will be really nice to be able to sew without deadlines. Maybe I'll be able to work on my Dear Jane quilt again! I'm still plugging away at the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along for fun. I have the third block done and the fourth is cut out. Those will (should) be done over the weekend. I have some fabric purchases to confess, so I'll be back for the stash report on Sunday. Enjoy your weekend!

Stash Busting 2010 - Week 16

I finally made a zig zag quilt!! I had a great fat quarter bundle from the Hopscotch line made by Red Rooster. I didn't know what I was going to do with them when I got them about a year ago, but they worked perfectly in this quilt. It turned out bigger than I expected and I could only get a good picture of it when I hung it for the class preview last week. A draft blew over the lower left-hand corner that I only noticed the next day. It really is square down there in real life! The picture is a little dark, but the white is nice and bright and crisp in person. I am teaching the "no triangle" technique for making this design in class this session. I'm very happy with it. I didn't get a really good count on the yardage used because I have a lot left over, but I'm going to count this as 5 yards that is finally GONE from my stash. I only had to buy the border fabrics, but I did add those to the stash count already.

Next is Friendship Star Twist. I was playing around with colors and I decided the stars looked a bit like flowers and if I colored those red with gold centers, and made the corners green, I would get that flower effect. For some reason, it just didn't occur to me that this would end up looking like a Christmas quilt. Oh well, I didn't have one of those, so now I do! Christmas in Spring! This is not a very large quilt, so I think it will end up mostly as decoration during the holidays. All but the outer border came from stash, which was already added into the count, so I'm figuring a good three yards here.

The third project is a table runner that is actually finished (the other two are tops only), but there is just a small run of binding that is still not sewn down, so I'll take a picture of that one later. That one came completely from the stash. Not sure on yardage here, either -- I'll say 1 1/2 yards out (including the backing and binding).

It's so nice to have some "finishes" to report. I also gave away some fabric as a birthday gift, which amounted to about 1 1/4 yards.

Class officially starts tonight. We'll be zigging and zagging and having a good time, too! If I'm lucky, I'll be able to squeeze in a Dear Jane block tonight. We'll see...

Fabric added this week: 0.00 yards

Fabric used this week: 9.25 yards

Fabric added this year: 8.50 yards

Fabric used this year: 15.00 yards

Total stash busted this year: 6.50 yards

April Quilting Month II

Sew, Mama, Sew! is having their second (annual?) quilting month all during April. They will have information, ideas and tutorials every day this month. And, of course, Prizes! Here's a schedule of events. They are starting off with the basics, which I always find informative even though I've been quilting for more years than I can remember. I am always interested to see if other people have different ways of doing things than me. Hop over there often to see what's going on. There will be lots of inspiring quilts to see!

Quilting in the Garden 2009

Quilting in the Garden is coming up this weekend. This is such a wonderful quilt show. It is held at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, California. They hang the quilts from the trees and buildings. You wander through the plants and trees looking at the great quilts. And they have great featured artists there, too. This year is fusing wonder, Laura Wasilowski, as well as Joanna Figueroa, who owns and operates Fig Tree Quilts. I love Joanna's style and the colors she works with. Of course, Alex Anderson will also be there, which is always a treat! Admission is free, which makes this event even better. See you there!

Class Show & Tell

Here are some more pictures from the last quilting class a couple of weeks ago. First up is a quilt that was made by Laurie, a new recruit to the class. She brought this project, and boy was she organized! She had each block pre-cut and each packed into its own baggie with the corresponding pattern. The blocks are small (maybe 8" each??) and all different. Each block has a special meaning and they all relate to her life story. Her piecing was superb. There is a lot of detail in the blocks. I didn't compress the picture, so you should be able to click the picture to make it bigger.


Next is Irene showing her finished (except binding) Buzz Saw quilt that she made from the project that I presented last summer. Looks great!! Irene is on a UFO finishing binge!

Here's another top that Irene finished. I had presented this project last year, but some of the newer students hadn't seen it, so I brought it back as a bonus project and a few people made it. This one looks great - the medium color in each block is a ladybug print and she pulled all of the colors from that fabric. She is thinking of appliqueing some small ladybugs in the border. Can't wait to see how that turns out!

There were lots of great projects completed this time around but unfortuately I didn't get pictures of all of them. I need to remember to bring my camera to all of the classes and not just the last one!!

Winter 2009 Class Projects

The preview for my Winter 2009 quilting class was this past Monday night, and I had a pretty good turnout. I'm always very nervous before the preview, because it is the night that I have to do the most talking in front of everyone. Most of the other nights I do more one-on-one or small group talking and teaching. But I made it through and everyone seemed pretty excited about the projects that I'm presenting this time around.

Below is a wall hanging of the Carpenter's Wheel block that is all made with half-square triangles instead of diamonds. This one goes together very quickly. I've seen this technique before, where you take a traditional block that uses diamonds and alter it to use half-square triangles, so I got out my encyclopedia of quilt blocks (by Barbara Brackman) and looked for this type of block. I've also seen it done in a Lone Star quilt. It looks pretty big in relation to the other pictures, but it is really only about 42" square.


The fish quilt was designed by Mary Johnson and I just love it. Mary's so creative and I am always inspired when I visit her blog. I haven't quilted it yet, but I have a lot of ideas for quilting and embellishing. I even busted some stash with the fabric for the fish! I bought the blue background fabric because it was just perfect with little circles and dots that look like bubbles.

Last I have a quilt that my mom made that I adore. It is such a simple quilt, but really wonderful. Now this is a stash buster for sure. I am using hers as a sample for class, but I plan to make one of my own in short order. A friend of hers did some really lovely quilting on with her DSM that really enhanced it.

There is no class next week, as the building in which I teach is closed for the holiday, so the first class of the nine-week session will be held on Monday, January 26, 2009 (6:00 pm - 9:00 pm) at the Veterans Memorial Building in Redwood City, CA. If you are local and are interested, just drop in to the first class to enroll. See you there!

I'm sewing finally

Yes, I'm finally sewing at home. I'm not sure why, but I've been in a real sewing slump lately. I just haven't felt much like setting up my sewing machine at home. I mostly have been traveling with my machine and supplies (to class and my mom's house) so it all usually stays in the car. This weekend I finally set myself back up at my dining room table and did some sewing and it was great! Above is a picture of the progress that I've made on the quilt my mom chose (see previous post) and my newly, if not only partially, cleaned off work area. The unfinished projects, patterns, and stray fat quarters were closing in on me. It doesn't look very clean in the picture, but then I didn't dare take a "before" picture for comparison.

And now for a picture of the blissfully happy Bear, whose main happiness seems to be laying on a reclined lap.

Birthday Sewing

Every year for my sister's and my birthday, my Mom puts together a quilt project for us to work on at her house. We were finally able to get together this past weekend for this year's project day. It's always a wonderful day with sewing and laughing and eating. The project is a surprise until we get there and everything we need is provided by my mom. We had a great time as usual.

Above is the sample of the quilt that my mom made. The fabrics for our two are different from hers and will look really different. I didn't finish my top, but I can't wait to see how it will look.

I snapped a picture of the project that I mom was working on that day, which I thought was really interesting. She'll cut the strata in a curve and piece in another fabric, if I understand it correctly. I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

PIQF 2008

The Pacific International Quilt Festival was held last weekend at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Oh how I look forward to this event, and this year was as wonderful as ever. I've prepared a slide show again this year. It looks like I took 81 pictures. The worst part of the show is the lighting. I found that if I turned off the flash, the quilts looked closer to real life. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that you have to hold the camera extremely still when there is no flash. Quite a few pictures turned out blurry, but not too bad. I'll have to remember that for next year.

edit: These slide shows tend to show very small in the blog. If you double click on the center of the picture, you will link to the web album and see much bigger and clearer pictures of the quilts.

Two more practice blocks

I have two more Dear Jane blocks done. These are the practice blocks that I started while I was waiting for my bolt of background fabric to arrive. I'm making four practice blocks that I'll put together for a small quilt for my hubby Lance. I gave him the book and had him pick out a list of about 10 blocks that he liked, and then I chose four for the mini-quilt. I have two that are foundation pieced and two that have applique. They are going well and I can't wait to start the actual quilt!!

Workshop soon!

The summer workshop grows near! This Thursday, Friday and Saturday (06/26, 06/27, 06/28) from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Veterans building in Redwood City. Just show up and register on the first day. Above are the the projects being presented by Barbara Hall and Erna Koch. My project is shown in the previous post. It will be lots of fun!

Summer Preview 2008

The last Monday night quilting class of the session is tomorrow night, Monday, June 16, 2008 at 6:00 pm. We'll have a pot luck dinner, drawings, and a special challenge that I'll annouce tomorrow. Also, Erna and Barbara will preveiw their projects for the three-day summer workshop. The project that I will present for the summer workshop is called Buzz Saw, shown above. It will be sad to say goodbye for the summer, but it looks to be a busy and fun night, so be sure to come!

Really?

What do you mean not everyone likes quilt shows????