Raccoon Mini

(I forgot to take my own picture before I mailed it, so I've borrowed Laura's!)

This little raccoon was my second attempt - there are 6 different parts to put together, and it still doesn't look as good as the original. But he's still cute. The pattern is from Piece by Number's Etsy Shop. I think that when I make him again I'll add a border before I add the binding. I don't know why I didn't do that. I'm very proud of this little guy since it's was so intricate and time-consuming. I sent it to Laura for the Woodlands theme/October STUD swap.

Swaps Received - Wow!

I received from both partners this past week for the October mini-quilt swap. (We're in the Flickr group STUD -Swap Til You Drop!) First was the package from Dee - who included this adorable little doll-like guy who sits on the edge of my tv cabinet.




Her package also included a pincushion, a handmade card made by her nephew, some autumn-themed fabric, and a lovely New York Beauty mini-quilt.











Arriving the same day was this package from Laura, who sent me a mini-quilt for the "Woodlands" theme. See the cute owls? She also sent a sticky-note pad, a pencil pouch made from a recycled pretzel bag, and some Halloween-themed fabric and stickers.


I love the colors in this - and since it's woodlands-themed, it'll be going up in our trailer.

Thanks so much, Dee and Laura!!!!!

Quilts for my great-nieces

One of my goals when I started quilting was to follow the rule of the icon on the right side of the page (Buy Handmade) and give handmade gifts. I also decided that as often as possible, the handmade gifts would be made by me. But thirdly, I made a pledge to myself to make quilts for all my great nieces and nephews. Right now there are three - two little girls in North Carolina and a little boy in Lubbock, Texas. The two little girls in NC are the daughters of my nephew, and I've been developing a nice relationship with his wife - who is, get this, an English teacher like me! We've learned we have a lot in common, and keep in touch via our blogs. Hers is called Perpetually Creating, and you need to go visit it if you want to see some great ideas for vegeterian, vegan, and sometimes raw cooking. Right now she's busy with an infant, but the recipes will soon return. Anyway, the two quilts are below.

This one is a small rag quilt, which is just right for Baby J to lie on. I plan eventually to make her a larger quilt, but for now this is the one I chose to make for her.

The pattern for this quilt is called 5 and Dime, and I chose a set of cute little girl pinks that has large-eyed deer, mushrooms, ants, and other cute designs. This one is for Little J, since she's older and bigger than Baby J.

If you'd like to see photos that B took of the J's with their quilts, go to her blog, Perpetually Creating.

Carol Doak's Holiday Mini Challenge

Carol Doak designed this mini-quilt for her Yahoo Group. Since it had a blank white square in the middle, I thought it would be nice to add a design - and I had an already-stitched Santa ornament just waiting to be placed there.

The Santa has a garland around his head that has pretty red beads on it.

A few new paper-piecing converts

Last week I taught paper piecing to some ladies in the quilting class I take on Tuesdays with Nancy Fraley. I asked Carol Doak for her permission to use "Donna's Block" from her book 40 Bright & Bold Paper-Pieced Quilt Blocks. I felt that was a simple block to start with, and I was thrilled with the colors everyone chose - they were all different. Of the nine pictured above, I'd say that 7 are "converts" to paper-piecing. The other two were glad to learn how to do it but don't like it.

Mother's Christmas Quilt

When I saw the black paisley print at my LQS, I immediately knew I had to make a quilt from it for Mom. She loves what she calls "jewel tones," and this one has them. She'll be able to use this as a lap quilt during the cold northwest Texas winters.

September STUD Sent TO Jennifer

This was a mini I sent to Jennifer for the September STUD swap. The theme this month was "first anniversary," and the pansy is one of the flowers suggested as a first anniversary gift. I found this cute pansy pattern on Four Twin Sisters.

STUD Mini-Quilt from Jennifer

I received this cute little mini, along with the goodies, from Jennifer in Texas. It's for the September STUD on flickr. The travel-themed background fabric reminds me of scrapbook paper. So cute!

Day and Night Star Flowers Mini-Quilt

Designer: Carol Doak
Measures 12" square

STUD Mini-Quilt from Mari

This adorable little quilt came last week from Mari, who was my August partner in STUD (Swap Til U Drop!). It's all paper-pieced, and I hope I can find out who designed it so I try a few like it.

Great Book to Read

Birdhouse Mini finished

I finished the binding on this mini-quilt this morning. It's from Forest Quilting, where you can find lots of great free paper-piecing patterns. The finished mini is about 15 x 10 inches.

Yucaipa Fire Photos

For those of you who don't live in the US and/or have not seen the national news stories, we've got some pretty big fires going on here in California. Two of them are right here in the town I work in, Yucaipa.

The Oak Glen III Fire started Sunday afternoon - we smelled it first. We were watching some sports on TV and smelled the smoke, and when we went outside we saw the plume overhead. It had blown over Yucaipa Ridge and was above Forest Falls. I got on the website I always go to for up-to-date information, and learned that the fire had begun in upper Yucaipa about 2 miles east of the Stater Brothers. We were naturally a bit nervous since the wind was (at that time) blowing towards us. It later shifted, though, and this fire burned mostly eastward and a bit southward. The town of Oak Glen had to be evacuated.

When I came down the mountain Monday morning to work and turned on to Bryant Street, this was the first thing I saw. Oak Glen is to the left of the highest peak (Pisgah Peak) in the center of the photo.

As I continued down Oak Glen Road, coming up the hill from the freeway were strike crews from Alpine, Lakeside, Growlersburg, and about 12 other Northern California towns. One of the helicopters was from Mendocino.

From a different angle, this is the Oak Glen III Fire burning all around Pisgah Peak and towards Oak Glen.

Monday afternoon, Ingrid and I were working in the office. Jimmy called her and told her about a new fire - at first I didn't believe him - but as soon as we walked outside, this is what we saw. This is the beginning of the Pendleton Fire, about 2 miles southeast of the Oak Glen III Fire - and this one was apparently started by arsonists. Since Ingrid lives in upper Yucaipa, and this fire was burning towards her home, she left immediately.








I soon followed, and as I got to the top of the wash on Bryant, this was the view I had of the Pendleton Fire from the south.

I stopped at the Stater Brothers parking lot to take some photos - the flames were really high but I didn't capture any from here.

There were seven helicopters, a DC-10, and a 747 (from Canada) on the air attack for this fire. The helicopters were getting their water from the lakes at Yucaipa Regional Park as well as Crafton Hills Reservoir.

My friend Kate's husband Roger took this last night at 7:00 as the Pendleton Fire came down the ridge towards them. They soon evacuated.

My friend Aimee took this one at about 8:00. The Pendleton Fire started over on the left side and burned towards the right. Pretty scary. About this time we got the phone call from the District saying school would be closed today.


If you'd like to see some more great photos of the two fires go here:

Rimoftheworld.net

I'm still giggling over this

I have another non-stitching/quilting post. This is so funny. My office manager, who is a very young 63, was going up to Big Bear over the weekend when she got pulled over for speeding.

The cop came to her window and asked her for her license and registration. She found them and meekly handed them over. When he took off his sunglasses to read the registration, she couldn't help herself, he was so gorgeous: "Oh, my, God. Where were you when I was a young, hot, cop groupie?" He tried not to react, but the smile came, he handed back the paperwork, and said, "That's a good one. Slow down."

She escaped the ticket. She really didn't plan to say what she said - it just came out. Like I said, I"m still giggling.

A Confession and a Resolution

I have a confession to make. I have a colored pen fetish. I can't resist them. I can't walk by a display of pens at Staples or Office Depot without stopping to fondle the various packages of multicolored pens. I must have a dozen different sets of pens, all from different manufacturers: Pilot, Stabilo, Bic, Zebra, Foray, Flair, you name it, I have it. I just can't help myself.













So what's the problem? Well, I CAN'T MAKE MYSELF USE THE COLORED PENS! I keep meticulous notes on everything - school board, member issues, contract issues, quilting, travel and camping, cooking, family, cross stitch, Jeep maintenance - I'm an organizational freak about taking notes and keeping records of everything. But I only use black pens.


Why is that? Why can't I grab a pink pen and take some notes on a member issue? Why can't I do my grocery list in bright purple? Why isn't the fuschia pen all right for my calendar?

Yesterday I bought a new pack of colors - they're called Zebra Sasaras. They're gel pens. They write soooo smoothly. I took them out of their package and put them on my desk, thinking I could use them today. But no. I needed to add an event to my calendar, and spent 2 minutes shuffling through my papers to find a black pen. Then I needed to take notes on a phone call from a unit member about textbooks - I picked up the red pen, started to write, and without even thinking about it, put it down and picked up the black pen. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh.

What is this - black pen OCD? And I'm not making light of OCD here. I can't use my colored pens, but I own hundreds of them.

I'll start with a simple resolution:

Today I'm going to add events to my calendar in green. Today I'm going to take notes on member phone calls in whatever color I pick up.

One day at a time. I'll report back.

It's Not Easy Being Green

I made this little mini-quilt as part of a challenge on the Carol Doak Quilting Yahoo Group. We were to use the crayon pattern any way we wanted, and I like mini-quilts. Each little crayon is 4 inches long. The upside down green one is deliberate.

Lovin' that paper piecing!

That's my NEWEST delight. I was forced to do a little paper piecing on a quilt back in June - America the Beautiful - and realized that it was not as hard as I thought it would be, and was fun, too. I've now dived right in and am having a great time with little blocks and miniature quilts.

Here are a four finishes from last week:


This is called Indian Summer. It's designed by Wendy Vosters, and is from her book Paper-Pieced Mini-Quilts. It measures 9 1/2" x 12".



This is another Wendy Vosters mini-quilt, called Geese in the Air. It's from the same book as Indian Summer, and it measures 8" x 9".




This is little mini-quilt made from four Carol Doak squares (#G10) from her book Easy Machine Paper Piecing. It measures about 10" square.







While this one looks as big as the other three, it's only 4" square. It's #F11 from Carol Doak's Easy Machine Paper Piecing. I went ahead and turned it into a little coaster for my office manager.

Sunday Stash #6

These are going to be another Jo Morton Quilt. For more info on Sunday Stash, or to join in, go to 1/4 of an inch.

We had a visitor today!

For the story, and the reason he came, visit my cooking blog: Cookin' With Cyndi

Sunday Stash #5

For more info on Sunday Stash, go here.


Breedale- this fabric is for either baby J or little J. I'm going to finish the quilt and send it to you and you can decide who gets it - then I'll pic fabric for the second quilt!

Mini Quilts sent and received

I'm a member of STUDS (Swap Till U Drop), a Flickr group for swapping mini-quilts. I just joined in June, in time to sign up for the July swap. The theme for July was "Summer Lovin," so I chose to do a little quilt with watermelon in it. Below is the one I sent to Meg.




In return, Meg sent me this cute, a bright, cheery little piece she calls "Summer Sunset." I just love the sharp points on the sun, and look forward to when I can make them myself.

New Blocks for Don's "Manly" Quilt

I'm making good progress on Don's quilt. I've nicknamed it the "manly" quilt, since he requested "manly" colors. I also have decided that I'm going to find a good-sized fish to either appliqué or piece, and will use it as a center panel. He really likes that idea.

Pennsylvania Parade

Crockett Cabin

Arizona

Scrapbagger

Pick a Little

Lover's Knot

Ohio Star

Swing in the Center

Kentucky Patch

Japanese Circles

This is from Karen Costello Soltys' book Bits and Pieces - I've done 6 quilts from that book. If you're a new quilter, like I am, get this book! Pick one or two from each "chapter," and do them in order - you learn so much, as I did - from squares and rectangles, in chapter one, to triangles in chapter two, to diamonds in chapter three, to appliqué (different kinds) in the last chapter. This little quilt was so fun! My circles aren't perfect, but I don't care - the overall effect of this piece is beautiful.

Quail Trail - Sandi Selk

I mentioned the Chiloquin, Oregon, quilt show a few weeks ago, and am now posting about Sandi Selk because I finished one of her designs. Sandi, above, is from Chiloquin. I bought two of her patterns - Quail Trail and Kokopelli, both from her Southwest Icons series.


(You can see Sandi's designs at her website: Sandi Quilts. )



Below is the finished wallhanging, which measures 17" x 36". I learned about fusible appliqué and used a new (hand) stitch - the outline stitch - which I used on the baby quail. I used blanket stitch around the mama.








Don't you love the fabric I found? I wanted mine to look like they were in a forest - so they're walking on some rocks in front of aspen trees.

I love Jo Morton!

Before I left for vacation, I visited Donna Sheridan's Calico Horse, a LQS in Redlands. (Donna is the mother of a former student!) I told her I liked to do miniature and small quilts, and asked if she had any books. She didn't at that time, but went back to her office and brought me a pattern for a small quilt by Jo Morton. This one is called Nine Patch Checkerboard, and it measures about 23" square. The original pattern called for shades of red with some dark tan accents, but I decided to try it "scrappy" style. I'm quite pleased with the results.