Today was the first day of the Valley Quilters' Quilt Show - everyone calls it the Hemet Quilt Show, even though it's in next-door San Jacinto.

I drove down this morning, and was there about half an hour after it opened. They set it up inside the community center, with quilts in the center rows and vendors around the sides. I loved all the quilts, but took photos of only a few of my most favorites.

"A John Muir Moment at 9300 feet" by Phyllis Binkley

"Echos of the Past" by Patti Blackman, quilted by Karen Gehring

"Out of the Ruins, a Nation Thrives" by Phyllis Binkley

"Double Wedding Ring" by Pamela Miller, quilted by Cindy DeWall

Here's why I liked the double wedding ring - it's scrappy!

Another scrappy one! "Crabapples" by Joan Torbett, quilted by Kerry Marksbury

"It's Me Jeani" by Jeani Campbell, quilted by Betty Barney

Jeani's suitcase - all the places she's gone

I finally got to meet Paulette!  For several years I followed a bunch of full-time and part-time RV-ers' blogs, as Don and I had once thought about going full-time in our own trailer or RV.  Her husband Rick's blog was one of the ones I read often, and he occasionally mentions his wife Paulette and her quilting blog. I switched to hers (sorry Rick) and have become a big fan. Paulette and Rick are from Canada, and every winter they come down to Desert Hot Springs, which is only an hour from here. She's a prolific quilter, and from what I've seen her biggest passion is the primitives - woolies. I asked  her earlier this week if she was going to the Hemet show, and she said she'd be there on Friday.

And guess where I met her?  Right next to the vendor for the woolies!  (And I don't know her name - perhaps Paulette does.)

What I've been up to lately

I think it's time to get organized here on the blog. One of the quilting blogs I follow has a list at the bottom of each post of the WIPs and UFOs the author is working on, and updates that go with them. That's a wonderful idea.  I'll give it a try.

First, here are some blocks I made yesterday and today:

30's Pinwheel in a Block - Block Swap Adventure - February

Low volume string hearts - Block Lotto - February

Wonky Houses - Stash Bee - February

Lucky Stars BOM - February blocks - Exploding Star

Susannah - Sisters' 10 BOM - February blocks

Block Lotto
- January blocks completed
- February blocks completed
Block Swap Adventure
- January block completed
- February block completed
Modern Monday - all blocks completed
Pieceful Kwilter SAL - 7 parts completed, ready to start part 8
Quilt Doodle Designs BOM
- January block completed

Sew Bee Wonky
- January blocks completed
- February - It's my month, so I don't have to make any!
Sisters' 10 BOM - Gen X Quilters
- January blocks completed
- February blocks completed
Stash Bee
- January blocks completed
 - February blocks completed
Sugar Block Club
- January block completed
- February block completed
Traditional Tuesday - all blocks completed

UFOs (tops that need to be quilted or donated)
1. Lighted Forest - paper-pieced/batiks - at the quilter's
2. Batik New York Beauties - quilted, needs binding
3. granny squares on white - quilted, needs binding
4. 5 1/2" strings w/red border - quilted, needs binding
5. scrappy +x blocks
6. striped +x blocks
7. selvage strings w/white border
8. HSTs BOM
9. Sow-Along - 30's fabric w/white border
10. Bumblebeans large color challenge
11. Quatrefoil
12. cheddar bowties
13. 100-patch
14. crumby log cabins
15. green Bento box
16. Laurel Burch Christmas
17. 4 hearts/1" blocks

WIPs (tops in progress)
1. Boomerang blocks - turquoise
2. Block Lotto tall fly blocks
3. scrappy rag quilt
4. string quilt #4
5. Mondern Monday
6. Traditional Tuesday
7. bold stars on white
8. Bumblebeans small color challenge
9. Discontinuity

Ideas for Scrapbusting Classes

These are class ideas for a friend, but I don't mind other people seeing this post.

1.  x+ quilt 

I would show the planned version with the striped fabric, and then the scrappy version. I have figured out the size of the quilt - 44 x 52 with a 4" border, along with the fabric requirements.  We could do the initial corner pieces (x) one day, then the center pieces (+) another day, and begin piecing the blocks together either that day or an other one. In the photo above, my scrappy version has a border of strips - but I'm taking that off and replacing it with a solid border in red, blue, green or something like that (I need to see what I've got).

2. bow ties mini quilt

Uses up 2" and 1 1/4" squares.  Makes a mini quilt about 20 x 15 (I can get exact measurement later).

3. strings, or strings and crumbs

The first two are simple string quilts.  This is a one-day class to show the technique of sewing the strings on a phone book paper foundation. Fabric requirement is a bag or box of assorted strings. The third quilt is called Crumb Chaos, and it uses small pieces at first, and incorporates spare triangles if people have them, and uses a lot of strings.  This quilt top shown is a King. 

4. 9-patch HSTs

The above are the ones I told you about in the shop today - using 2" squares and HSTs (the HSTs are made from 2.5" squares and scrap triangles). I've given away the top 3, but I the bottom one and can get it sandwiched and tied or quilted.

5. tiny squares

Both of the above are made from 1.5" scraps. The top one has 100-patch squares surrounded by more tiny squares. The bottom one is all 36-patch squares.  Neither one is sandwiched/quilted yet.

6. New York Beauties

This is the one we discussed at the shop today. I'll bring it in to be quilted soon. I have paper copies of the patterns as well as .pdf files - how would we deal with those? Perhaps people could provide their email addresses when they sign up, I can email them the patterns and ask them to print them up at  home and bring them, and then I can provide paper copies at the class for late joiners or people who don't have computers.

7. boxed stars

This is a block I designed myself based on the one called "boxes #2."  It uses up a bunch of 2" strips, since I used the companion angle ruler to make the hsts.  The neutrals are 3.5" squares, if I remember correctly. I don't have that top any more, though - I donated it to CBQ.


This last quilt is a completed quilt made during an online sew-along. I can show it as an example of something made entirely from scraps and orphan blocks.

2013 BOMs - January Blocks

I've started 3 BOMs (so far) for 2013.

Amy of Stitchery Dickory Dock is having one called the Sugar Block Club. Each month we get a block pattern AND a recipe for a delicious treat. The January block is called Snow Blossom. This will be my first quilt using all solids.

January - Sugar Block Club

Anne Marie of Gen X Quilters is hosting a BOM called the Sisters' 10 Modern Block of the Month Club.  Each month for 10 months we're making 2 blocks, and they're going to be finished in a unique setting.  I decided this would be the perfect quilt for my Kaffe Fassett fabric!

January - Sisters' 10

Elizabeth on Don't Call Me Betsy calls her BOM the Lucky Stars BOM.  It's all paper-piecing, and can be done in either 9" or 12" (or both).  I think I'll do both!

January - Lucky Stars

Thread of 2012

For 2012 I used 9 extra large spools of thread, 2 large, 1 medium and 2 small.  All was used just for piecing. I'm thinking I can make something crafty with the extra large ones, don't you think?

Modern Monday/Traditional Tuesday - almost finished!

Since I finished my Sow-Along quilt top, I decided to tackle another long-term project - getting caught up on the Modern Monday and Traditional Tuesday blocks.  Today I was able to get 16 of them done - 17 if you count the one that's the wrong size. 

Week 55 - Hearts

Week 56 - Split 9-Patch and Hour Glass 2

Week 57 - Piano Keys

Week 58 - 4-Patch Snowball and Bear Paw

Week 59 - Sunshine Star and Disappearing 9-Patch

Week 60 - No Name Block and Modified 4-Patch

Week 61 - Improve and Square in a Square

Week 62 - Mod Shape and Gem Block

There are only a couple of blocks left to do, and then I need to think about sewing them together in two different tops. Since I didn't do all 64 of each one, I think I'll select my favorites and do 56 of each one. I can put the extra ones on the backs.

Sow-Along Quilt top completed!

Last spring I started the online "Sow-Along" with Randy of Barrister's Block.  Originally, she was going to do a sew-along of the Farmer's Wife quilt, but she was asked by the author of the book to not do it.  So instead, she selected blocks that are in the public domain - some of them are in the book, some aren't - and decided to call it a "Sow-Along" quilt.

I used some 30s reproduction fabric for this. I really don't like 30s reproduction fabrics, but I picked up a half-yard bundle in Oregon about 4 years ago that I needed to use. It had the blue, the red, the white-based multi-colored floral, and a black and white gingham (which I didn't use on this quilt). I wanted some other colors for this quilt, so I found a nice green at JoAnn, and then Donna Sheridan at Calico Horse helped me find a good cheddar.  I decided to use Kona White for the background, and I think it really makes it look "modern."  All the blocks are traditional blocks, the fabrics are 30s' repro, but the quilt looks contemporary (to me).

My next task is to make a backing - I think I'm just going to piece together the rest of the yardage of the 30's repro fabrics - I said I don't like them - and that way I'm DONE with them.

My machine eats my fabric!

I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem.  I have a new Babylock Grace sewing machine. I bought it in October. 

When I'm sewing two pieces of fabric together, everything is fine. But when I'm sewing together two rows of pieces - say, HSTs, - the machine wants to eat my fabric.  It happens nearly every time I go over some intersections where there are several layers of fabric "bunched" together. About 8-10 stitches AFTER I sew over the seam/intersection, something grabs the fabric behind the needle, the needle starts to sew in place and then turns sideways.  I have to stop, take it all out, unstitch, and resew the area that has been grabbed and bunched up.

I took the machine back to the shop where I bought it, and tried to reproduce the problem with Teresa. It happened ONCE.  But at least she understood what I was talking about. Off it went to the repair guy, who returned it after a week and said something about adjusting the feed dogs. 

But after only a week or so of using it the problem has returned.  I will be taking it back to the shop again.  I think tomorrow morning I'll grab a few scraps and reproduce the problem so I have some examples of what's happening. I didn't have that before.


I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

Scrappy New York Beauty

I subscribe to many blogs, and as I was zipping through my Google Reader last week, trying to get caught up, I passed a quilt made of New York Beauty blocks and black sashing. Aha!  I grabbed my batik scraps, pulled my New York Beauty paper-piecing patterns out of my notebook, and got rid of a bunch of my batik scraps. My patterns are from Ula Lenz and Donna Duquette (whose patterns are no longer available. So glad I saved them!) 

These are 8" blocks, so this is a wall hanging-sized quilt.  I'll get it quilted sometime in the spring.

Don's Manly Quilt - Finished!

After several years of gathering and making brown sampler blocks, I decided to sew them all together and get Don's quilt finished. It's been quilted and bound, and now he's using it!

Keeping Busy

One of the joys of retirement and doing some subbing is being able to say no when I'd rather stay home and sew. So lately I've spent lots of days in my sewing room, working on various blocks for swaps, blocks for sew-alongs, and all kinds of miscellaneous projects.  As a result of doing this for many months, I've developed a huge backlog of tops that need to be completed.  I decided to make backs, and will be taking several tops and backs tomorrow to my guild for donation to community service. Someone else can donate batting and quilting! 

This one is a scrappy trip-around-the-world top I made with some of the blocks I won in Block Lotto. I have more, and will be making another top with them.

This is one of four string tops I've made with blocks I made while camping in my trailer. I've tried different patterns; this was the first.

A couple of years ago I was in several different swaps where I kept asking for browns. I also made a bunch with some coordinating fabrics. My goal was to make what I came to call Don's Manly Quilt - he asked for browns. Originally it was going to be a queen, but he and I decided to make a smaller one for him to use as he sits in his recliner. The top above is made from some of the leftover blocks.

I"m Late! Traveling Pic-Stitch Blog Hop!

I'm never, never, late for anything - which is why I'm so aghast that November 17 came and went without my post on the Traveling Pic-Stitch Blog Hop.  I sat around the house doing a little bit of nothing on Friday, and then yesterday, the 17th, my day for the blog hop, I went to a "Quilt Till You Wilt" activity at my LQS. I was there from 9 am to 9 pm, and in the middle of the day I realized I'd forgotten to do my post.

Please forgive me.

But here it is!

We spent 3 months in Colorado this summer, deliberately scheduling our trip to end in October so we could see the aspens turning. That was a bucket list item - something I'd always wanted to do but never could since we always had to return home in August so I could go back to work.  As I was going through my photos to choose one for this blog hop, I decided to use one that had the yellows of the changing aspens.

After running it through the Palette Builder, I selected this combination of colors:

My next step was to select fabrics.

I ended up not using the brown on the left - but just one dark brown piece for the center to represent the cabin.

As I was designing my block, I realized my focus was on proportion.  I deliberately planned the block to have the appropriate ratio of yellow to green to brown to sky blue to the gray of the mountain in the back.  I was quite pleased with the results:

My next step was to create something with the block.  I chose a pillow:

It's now sitting on our couch, and I can look at it all the time and fondly remember my beloved yellow aspens.

Go to Laura's main post about the bloghop for more information. She has a list of all the posts so far, and all the rest still to be posted. Have a great time going through all the links - there have been some wonderful photos and blocks so far!