SF Quilt show this weekend!

The San Francisco Quilt Guild quilt show is this weekend at the SF Concourse. Alex Anderson will be there so that will make it even more exciting. I'll post some pictures next week (providing I don't forget my camera!).

Heart Yo-Yo's

So here's one I haven't seen before... Heart Yo-Yo's. Very cute. You can find a free tutorial over at Penny Sanford Porcelains. People's creativity never cease to amaze me.

Picture Frame

For Valentine's Day I made Lance a fabric picture frame. I pulled together some "forest" looking scraps quickly before class on Monday night, and I think it came out pretty nice.

Cindy made one a few weeks ago for her friend at work made with some of her purple scraps. Vey nice, too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Miniature Quilt Shop

I love things like this! This shop is made almost entirely out of polymer clay. You can go the Polyclay.com website to see some step-by-step pictures of it being put together as well as some detail shots. I've got more than enough on my plate with quilting to take up any other hobby, but if I did have time, I think I would probably work with polymer clay. It is just amazing the things that people create with it.

Fraser Smith

Beautiful work, isn't it. But you certainly would not want to sleep under it. It might weigh anywhere from 80 to 130 pounds!! That's because it is not an actual quilt, it is a sculpture of a quilt completely carved out of wood. The detail is incredible. It is the work of artist Fraser Smith. You can see this piece and many more at his website. I encourage you to go there and take a look around. Also, check out the Frequently Asked Questions page where you can learn all about how he does it. Simply amazing. This particular piece is on permanent display at the Museum of the American Quilter's Society (AQS).

Where have I been???

Don't you just hate when Life gets in the way of all of your plans? Well that's what been up with me lately. The main thing going on in my life right now is that my dear, dear cat, Bear, has been ill. Never mind the fact that my husband and I both have colds, too. For some reason our cat has decided to stop eating and drinking. We're force feeding him thinned down food with a plastic syringe, but we can see that he is getting weak. The vet ran some tests and says his kidneys are fine and he has no fever. It is possibly because we had given him some antibiotics for a sore foot. Whatever the reason, it is an emotional drain on both my husband and myself, when we are both already under the weather and busy at work.

Anywho, on a brighter note, my quilting class started up again this week, and we have lots of people having lots of fun! Helen showed her version of the Batik quilt I taught last year and it looks WONDERFUL!! It was done in juvenile prints for her grandson, Liam. Nice job, Helen!

Lily's Daisy's

Here is a picture of a small quilt I made for my friend Lily for Christmas. We drew names this year and Lance got Lily's name and I got Lance's brother. This worked out nicely. I was able to pick some quilty things for Lily and Lance "consulted" on a gift for Steve. My BIL already has a quilt I made him a few years ago, so I wasn't on the hook for one for him this year. She kept it on her lap and didn't put it away for a while, so I think she liked it!

James Kim Auction

I'm sure that you have all heard of the story of James Kim of San Francisco. About a month ago he and his family were lost in a wilderness area of Oregon, where he died trying to save his family. There is a very nice article on him at CNET new.com. On that page there is also a link to a memorial video where they put together snippets of his show on CNET.

Currently there is an art + craft auction underway organized by his sisters to benefit his family. There are a lot of great items there including several art quilts. Stop by and take a look!

Getting Better

Well, we've all been down with one ailment or another lately. I was sick with a cold just before Christmas, then Lance came down with a worse cold right around Christmas and is still fighting it. I then developed an ear infection that left me quite irritable. And if that wasn’t enough, our dear Bear was injured a week or so ago. We're not sure if he was in a fight with another cat, or if he just hurt his paw somehow, but something definitely happened. His paw was bleeding a bit that first night, but he wouldn’t let us look at it. After a full day of sleep, he was up and about, in good spirits, but walking and running (and jumping) with only three legs. We started calling him Hop Along. He’s finally putting weight on that paw, but we are still keeping a close eye on it. He’s cleaned the paw so much that he “cleaned” the fur right off of it.

Here are a couple of pictures of him. He, like most cats, loves sleeping in paper bags. This is the first time that he fell asleep with his head outside of the bag, though.

Tonight he decided that he was going to sleep in a shoebox where I keep fabric for a project that I am working on. He tends to forget that he is not a kitten anymore…

Fortunately, we all seem to be on the mend.

One Christmas Gift Done!

Here is the quilt that I finished for my Mother-In-Law for Christmas this year. The background print has small roses, so the quilting design is in a rose pattern (detail below). It was beautifully quilted by Julie Murphy at The Laurel Leaf. She's been doing all of my quilts lately and always does a fantastic job.


CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

One more day until Christmas!!!!! Happy Christmas Eve everyone!

Heather Bailey

Heather Bailey of the blog "Hello my name is Heather" has some really great ideas for holiday decorating using fabric. She has lots of ideas for yo-yos. Yes, yo-yos. Here are a couple:

Yo-yo garland. Awesome.

The rest of her blog is great, too!

Leslie Harpold

Earlier today I had made a post about the on line Advent Calendar created by Leslie Harpold. I just found out that she passed away very suddenly a few days ago. It didn't even occur to me that the content on the calendar stopped suddenly on the 7th. I had been reading about the history of the Advent Calendar on Wikipedia, and the entry mentioned her noteworthy on line version of the calendar and remarked on her death. It was shocking to read this and I really didn't believe it, as it apparently is somewhat easy to post content on Wikipedia. I did some reasearch and found that it was indeed true. Such a shame. You will be missed, Leslie.

Hometown Holidays

Over the weekend Lance and I took my sister and nephews to our Hometown Holidays event in downtown Redwood City. We had a great time. There were all kinds of activities going on. There were craft booths, ice sculpting, music, food, Santa, and best of all -- real snow! It was trucked in and dropped into neatly cordoned off squares on Middlefield Road. The boys had a great time:

Jackson

Max

Lance and I went back later in the afternoon to watch the parade (nice and warm with a glass of wine at Savvy Cellar), the tree lighting and the fireworks.

I just love Redwood City!!

Sew Dorky

I found a website called Sew Dorky where they sell hand made felt donuts! This is awesome. Check out their site for a better view.

They also have felt teeth at their "School of Dentistry".