Busy, Busy!!!

This has been such a busy summer; it's been almost impossible to keep up. To that end, I'm going to be giving notice with regard to one of my four jobs and that will get me down to a nice, tidy, doable three! Much better!!

I've been quilting and several quilts have gone back to their owners this week. These first two are from Barbara. She's a new customer and does really nice work. Of course, what did I do??  I missed this one teensy, tiny, spot. Best part, I told her about it and she couldn't find it! (She's binding them now and will return it to me for a quick fix.) Below are both of her quilts, with close-ups of the front and back. She used muslin on the back of both of these.

This quilt was just returned as well and since my customer lives in Reno, I just had to go to the Reno Quilt Show while I was there.  She made this quilt for her daughter and asked me to quilt it after seeing the many quilts I had quilted on display at our quilt show this last May. That was a real honor for me.

Don't you love the "pretend applique"? I thought that was such a clever idea!!

More quilts coming up...

Dory

Sixteen Very Long Days

Its been 16 days since I last posted. Granted, 16 days is really not very long for some things, but in "blogland," it can be a lifetime. It can be the end of anyone taking the time to check to even see if  I did finally post.

I'm back now and perhaps even a bit more consistent. During that time, my netbook crashed. Who knew you couldn't treat a netbook like a real computer? Not me. I had it loaded with many programs and it was so slow--go figure.

But, for your patience, you shall be rewarded with pictures of quilts recently finished.

First up: Stars on Parade. As you can see, it had a human holder whose main objective was to keep it from touching the floor.

I took this photo with my iPhone, so its not super clear; however, with the computer crash, it was the best I could do. 

Then there was this Underground Railroad quilt. My customer wanted the blocks to stand out and be "puffy." I used Quilters Dream Puff batting and did a tight fill around the main part of the design. I have no idea what the pattern of the fill is called as I just started stitching and it's what happened. Luckily, she loved it!

And the back with another happy "accident." For some reason, my brain and hands disconnected and this is how the sashing turned out. Piano keys are in the outer two borders with my new fill design (that I probably won't ever be able to repeat) in every other "key."

Thanks for not giving up on me!!!

My Granddaughter Comes for a Visit

 Over the 4th, our granddaughter was here for a visit. My step-daughter, Hannah, and her boyfriend were up to enjoy the music festival, so Violet stayed with us. She's such a joy to have around and is absolutely no trouble. She plays with the boys, avoids Chloe, and they all have a grand time.

We go for a 2-4 mile hike every morning (depends on which route we take); Violet loved the hikes and even taught the boys to swim! These ponds are up behind our property and are usually dry by now, but with the heavy snowfall in the mountains, they're still quite full. She went in just to swim around and again after a stick. Dash watched, but he was none too sure about the whole process.

Later, on the last day of her visit, we took her out for a ride with the pones. What a site we must have been...three  Border Collies running around and a Pitt Bull following along. She had a great time and seemed to enjoy meeting Andy!

All in all, it was a perfect weekend!!

My First One Block Wonder

Every year my guild has a retreat. This year, I won't be able to attend, but since it's being taught by one of our members, I was given the sample quilt to quilt (does that makes sense?) Anyway, Donna will be teaching the One Block Wonder and this is the sample that she made. I used Dream Puff batting and tried to isolate a few of the more unique designs that the piecing created to give it sort of a trapunto effect. It worked in person...not sure about the photo.

I also tried to give the blocks definition. Funny thing was, when I had the quilt on the frame, I had a hard time seeing the blocks. They had no dimension. Luckily, when the quilt was off the frame and I stood back to look, the individual blocks took shape nicely.

The quilt itself was so busy that I did an allover swirl in the border and the main body, just adding some interest with the continuous curve in the sashing.

Happy 4th!!

I Spy....

Okay, admit it.  Isn't this the best kids "I Spy" quilt you've seen? Marei put out a call to all her quilty friends to send her blocks that could be added to her granddaughter's "I Spy" quilt and then she designed this.

I love the fact that the blocks aren't all uniform and that the designs are so fun! Her granddaughter will be busy for hours with this one!



Bet you can't guess who sent her the Mythical Horse piece ...........

And look at the back! Remember the 1600 Quilt? Marei did her own version using the fabrics that she owned that were in the quilt to make her strips with. I thought it might be difficult to quilt with, but my Millennium had no issues at all! 

Finally, my very own iPhone!!

I've been coveting the iPhone for quite some time. However, I had to wait for Verizon to be able to sell them and then I had to wait for my contract to be up.  I think I showed great restraint, after all, my contract was up on June 28 and I waited until today--a full THREE DAYS--before ordering.  And I was pleasantly surprised with my new contract price. I was expecting over $100 a month, instead, it will be around $85. Much better!!

Okay, so no great photo of an I-phone to add here, but how about this one? Do you think Cash was trying to tell us something with his head in the bag of puppy chow???

Got me some learnin'

I tried to post this the day before I "got the learnin'," but Blogger was down (can you imagine??). Anyway, I went to Reno on Thursday last to the Quilt/Sew Expo held at the Grand Sierra. It's a great venue if you don't actually want to be in a casino; if you enter through the back doors, you never have to go upstairs!

I went to take a class I'd taken before from Pam Clark. She's an excellent teacher and offers a great class on background designs. I seem to get in a rut with my designs and just needed something to make the juices flow again.  I took several classes from Pam and many other instructors at Innovations only a few weeks after purchasing my longarm. I went a little crazy that year and took so many classes, I'm not sure I retained anything!

While I didn't learn a lot of new things, I did come away with some ideas and the class sample...not bad, eh??

Stay tuned for new and exciting backgrounds on my quilts...