Table Runners - Chocolate and Bagels

Tables runners anyone? They seem to be making a big splash. Using some of the high quality, delightful fabrics that are available at quilts stores, it is easy to make whimsical, charming, seasonal, or just plain utilitarian table runners. Here are a few I made recently [the chocolate and bagels are available on line at http://www.beehivequilts.com/]:

Bagels with machine applique

Bagels on black

Chocolate all around

Chocolate all through

Center table mat and 4 placemats. Fall themed.

Sacramento Zoo - No quilts there

When our quilt store was open, Mondays were are play days. Well actually Mondays were often spent doing paperwork at the shop. Anyway today became a play day. No sewing. No quilting. Just playing.

My daughter, her daughter and I went to the Sacramento Zoo. We saw so many beautiful animals. Flamingos. Lions and tigers, but no bears. Gila monsters, snakes and poison frogs. Monkeys, birds - big and little, giraffes, emus and even an ostrich.

So remember to take a day and do something fun. Then get back to quilting.

Red Tail Hawk

Poison Tree Frog - beautiful

Gorgeous flamingos

Posing giraffe

Tiger seemed to love my granddaughter. Something about the weakest of the herd.

Feeding the giraffe. Long tongue!

Tracy Brookshier at Rivercity Quilt Guild

Third Tuesday of every month is Sacramento's River City Quilt Guild general meeting. I am a member and love to go. This is a big quilt guild. I do not know the exact number of members, but I know it is over 200. Great guild and they will be having a great quilt show in November. Go to http://rivercityquilters.org/show/index.html to learn more.

Anyway last night they had as their guest speaker Tracy Brookshier. She is a wonderful quilt designer and a great speaker. She was invited to have one of her quilts shown at a quilt show in Japan. She brought back slides of some of the wonderful quilts shown there and some of the sites of where she was. I tried to find a website that showed the festival after the fact. All I found was the original before website http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/quilt/.

Then she showed just a smidgen of her quilts that she has made. They are really fantastic. She was teaching a class today, but I failed to sign up for it. She will be teaching her Japanese Jigsaw pattern. It looks complicated. She said it is not. I have heard others say it really is not. You do have to purchase a special template to make it, though.

If you want to learn more about Tracy, to go: http://traceybrookshier.com/ I was quite impressed to see she was the creator of the Bento Box pattern. That class was taught at our store when it was open. Everyone who took the class loved it. Many have made several of the pattern. Good job, Tracy. Loved your presentation, too.

Keep on quilting.

Great website for quilt guild shows

I just came across a great website to tell you where and when quilt shows are. Remember it is only as good as the data submitted. Attention to all you guild members that want your quilt show advertised, go to this site, too. Plus much more that I have not even gone into. It has every month listed at the top, so all you have to do is click and search. There are postings for all over the United States - not just California.

The site is http://www.quiltguilds.com/september.htm

Happy Quilting

Georgetown CA Quilt Show 2010

As posted earlier, there was a quilt show today in Georgetown. It was a very winding and narrow road that took up there, but it was well worth the drive. The show was in a small but beautiful park - thank goodness for the good weather. It was only $5 to enter the show, but all funds were to go to the local fire department. A very good cause.


No vendors were there. Just quilts, hot dog sales and the guild boutique. Here are pictures of some of the quilts:



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My favorite - pineapple design. Stunning quilt.

  







The wind made picture taking difficult

  



Beautiful winter quilt.




I will make this quilt design someday.
I will. I will. I will.

 


 

This was one of many honored quilts from previous shows.



Remember. It was for the fire department.



Quilt show in Georgetown this weekend

September 18, 2010: Georgetown Outdoor Quilt Show

Sponsored by the Needle Nellies of Georgetown. Event to be held at Georgetown Park, Harkness & South Streets, Georgetown, CA. Hours: Sat, 10-4pm

Want to go to the gold country for a nice drive today AND a quilt show? Go to Auburn. Then:
Take exit #119C/ELM AVE - go 0.2 mile
Turn Left on ELM AVE - go 0.1 mile
Turn Left on HIGH ST(CA-193)
Continue to follow CA-193 - go 2.4 miles
Turn Right on COLOMA RD(CA-49) - go 3.6 miles
Turn Left on CA-193 - go 12. miles
Arrive at the center of 95634 Georgetown

Love those quilt shows. It is only on today, so get with it.

New Quilt Store - Sew Fun

The following is a review about a new shop in Folsom. They are so new they do not have their website up and running yet. But it is well worth the drive to see it.

There's a new Shop In Town

Review! by Margaret Ann Ward

The brand new quilt shop, Sew Fun, located at 150 Natomas Station Blvd, suite #200, is going to shape up to be quite the shop. Although their doors have been opened less than a week now they have been bombarded with lots of new clients. Shop owners,Traci and Dayna started the shop out of love and devotion to the art of quilting. Friends first-quiters next- and on to shop owners. Plans are being made for a wonderful Grand Opening Event near the end of September. They intend to fill the shop with what we want most. Of course- we all want fabric- but what kind? So far they are kind of trendy, modern, lively, Batiky, and have plans for generosity and ampleness. Need more than fabric? How about Viking Sewing machines!? They are an authorized new dealer for them and have eight in the shop so far, and when you buy a machine from them, you will get a five year maintenance package with it. The shop may be a bit tricky to find; especially if you get Natomas Street and Natomas Station Blvd mixed up. To get there from us Citrus Heights, head East on Madison towards Folsom, or East on Greenback and then East on Madison. When you get down the hill, you come to Folsom blvd. Go right, cross over the new bridge, drive past Blue Ravine road, taking the next left at Natomas Station Blvd and make an immediate left into the small shopping center. The railroad tracks will always be on your left heading to the shop. Park, look, shop, talk, and have fun. [If you are coming from Highway 50, just take Folsom and head towards the factory stores. Pass by the street that takes you into the stores and go to Natomas Station Blvd. I think it is the next road. Turn right and immediate left. You are there.]

Gold Bug Quilters Quilt Show

Gold Bug Quilters Quilt Show was held in Cameron Park CA starting today and will run through Sunday. Elisa and I drove up to see what there was to see. There were some beautiful quilts displayed there! I am including some pictures of the ones I liked the best.

These two pictures are one of four quilts a lady put together honoring soldiers that have fallen in Iraq. We were amazed at how beautifully she free-handed the names on her machine. I took a picture of what the quilt looked like and one upclose of some of the names.

The one below is my favorite. It was done in shades of brown and quilted with a gold metalic thread that really added to the quilt.

The one above I liked because of the colors used. This picture does not do it justice. The greens are mostly very vibrant green. Loved it.

There were so many to see, plus you get to vote on your favorites in each category. That was fun, too.

They had a very nice Country Store, but I felt many of the prices were a little high. I kind of like getting a bargain when I go to the Country Store. I still wound up buying a few patterns from there. I think my motto is "I cannot turn down a good pattern." I have so many that if I sewed constantly from now until forever, I would never get them all done.  Plus I would have to do a lot of shopping of fabric to complete them all.

The vendors are always fun to see what is new. I did not purchase a lot, but there was some fabric I could not resist. It was used in a quilt that I have a pattern for, so I had to have it, too.

One of the vendors was demonstrating a pen they were selling. It is marvelous. They said it was great for marking your fabric for embroidery and/or quilting lines. Elisa and I both bought one. The best part of this pen was when you use it, if you make a mistake, you just apply heat to it and it disappears. She said you had to be careful because if it got too cold, it would set it. But it would not rub off while you worked on your design. She had black, yellow, pink, red, purple and orange. It is a Pilot pen named Frixion. The cost at $3.98 is nominal for the great uses this gives you.

So my advise is if you live in or around the Sacramento area, take the drive up highway 50 to Cameron Park. Take the first exit, turn left, go to next light and turn left again. Then just follow the signs. Easy to find. Lots of parking. A show worth seeing.

Binding Calculator

Do you have problems figuring how much materials to buy/cut for your binding? Have I got a site for you. Go to http://www.quiltpox.com/calculators.html Type in width, length of quilt and how wide your finished binding is and press calculate. Lo and behold there is the amount of material you need. I always cut too much fabric, because I have cut too little for so long that I love this site to help me cut just the right amount.

That said, I must say I just found the site. But I compared it against a chart I have that Victoriana Quilt Designs has, and it seems to be close to the same except for one size. This link said for 102"x 90 says to purchase 3/4 yard. The hard copy chart I have said 1/2 yard. If I would have purchased that amount only and got home with not enough, I would have been sad. But the others seem to be pretty accurate.

Have fun quilting.