Sacramento's River City Quilt Guild Show 2013

This is the guild I belong to. I spent a good portion of this past weekend there and loved it all. I took A LOT of my fabric and notions that I just didn't need any longer to the Country Store. I took 10 of my quilts that I thought could go to a new home and sold all but one. The one that didn't sell was the one I wasn't sure I wanted to sell, so that worked out for me. So besides of narrowing down my stash, I also made a few dollars with which I can go buy more fabric. Or maybe Christmas presents. We will see which wins out. I have my bets on the fabric.

I took a new camera (to me) to take pictures of the quilts. I went just before close Sunday so I could get pictures without lots of people. The sun was coming through the windows, so the lighting was very bright. I just didn't take very good pictures. I apologize. The guild has posted pictures to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/rivercityquiltersguild. Please go there to see what they posted. They are far better than the pics I got.

That said here is what I took:

 

The one above is probably the one in the show that I would love to own. I walked in and thought I love the colors. I love the design. I want it for my bed. Very nice.

 Nice white basket quilt. I love basket quilts. I probably will never make one, but I love the look of them.

 The above quilt is a smaller one and in the picture, it really shows it off. When I walked up to it, I thought what is it. I was too close. When I went back to take pictures, I stood back and the design really popped out. The quilt is very simple. It is the quilting that makes this quilt. Love it.

 This has a blast of sunlight coming in the from the window. I tried several shots and this is the best that came out. This quilt was made with woven fabrics and is absolutely stunning.

 

I started to crop this down to see just the white quilt, but I liked the setting and the quilt behind it showing up. Very nice. I love applique. This quilt is beautiful.

 

 This quilt was made by a lady that taught in my quilt store when it was open. She is a designer and does beautiful work. Laurel Anderson. Very nice, Laurel.

 New York Beauty. I am in the process of finishing New York Beauty blocks. I really like how this one was set and may use it as a pattern for when I get ready to put mine together. Very colorful. Well done.

 This was a quilt group effort done by the Pins and Needles Art Quilters (see picture below). Birds Eyes. Wow, my daughter and I walked around and saw that and were stunned. Very effective eyes. I'm not sure I would want to hang any one of them on my wall, but I loved each of them. The far upper left hand corner that is so white is the sign below:

 The above is truly magnificent. It is a quilt. A quilt that is framed in wood and looks like a cross cut of a tree. I went up close and it still looked like a tree. I had to ask my daughter, Elisa, to come and tell me if it was wood or fabric. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Unbelieveable.

 

The picture above is a challenge quilt submitted to the guild in October. The theme for the challenge was Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. This quilt, with its pictures, represents it well. I love this quilt. It is a great historic quilt that could be passed down to progency for years to come.

 I think this was another Laurel Anderson quilt. If it isn't, I apologize. I love the cat going outside. The flowers were done in 3-D. Very nice.

 This is a small quilt done in an art group. The theme was houses. They were to make houses of any kind. I took another picture of them all, but it was very blurry. Too bad because each house told a story. The above one was my favorite, though. It is a two story outhouse. I would definitely hate to be the one on the bottom story. Too cute.

 One of the quilts I would like to make is a quilt with two of my kids walking hand-in-hand with my grandma in a park in San Juan Bautista when they were very young. On my absolute have to make list is a quilt using that picture. I am assuming this is from a picture. I love it it. These men look real. Very nicely done.

 Love this basket quilt. I could see me doing this one - well that is if I could find someone to do the handles. I really like the colors and fabric the quilter used on this quilt.

 I just ordered a book from Amazon with a pattern a lot like this one in it. I cannot wait to work on it. I love the flowers. I especially love how the border was brought in to match the flowers so well. Beautiful.

 One of my favorites in the show. On the information card the quilter stated this bee was to go on the back of the graduation quilt she made her son (which was also at the show but I failed to take its picture). She said the bee was so great that the quilt took on a life of its own. Love it. Go Sacramento State!

 This pattern is in every show I go to. I want to make it. It would probably take me a few years, but some day maybe mine will be hanging in a quilt show. I'm sorry the picture is not so clear.

 This quilt is fluid. It is primarily blues with a wavy cut and the quilting adds to the motion. Then, as you can see, there are fish swimming in this ocean. Very large quilt. Very beautiful.

 Like this. I also like that you can see how the show was set up. Nice and airy. Sometimes quilt shows are put up so close together that it is hard to see the quilts. This year was perfect. Room to see. Room to take pictures of the larger quilts.

 My obligatory Halloween quilt. Love Halloween quilts. This is embroidered, which makes it even more beautiful in my eyes. A lot of work went into this quilt. I love it.

Again this picture is not clear. What I loved most about this quilt, though, is very clear. That's the colors. I love the bright background fabric. I love the vines and flowers around the border. Very, very nice.

This was a fun and very nice show. Good job to everyone who submitted quilts. They were all beautiful. Good job to the guild for the fine manner in which it was run. I am glad I was part of it.

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Organizing my fabric stash - WHEW!

Yes, I decided I needed to get a little more organized in my sewing studio. I always said I knew where things were even though it was super cluttered. Well I found as I started this project yesterday that I don't know where things are and what I really have here.

Two weeks ago I took a class from Peggy Martin. I decided I wanted to work in batiks. Since I swore I didn't have any batiks, I went out and purchase four fat quarters and a yard for background. I liked the class so much, I decided I needed to make the quilt bigger than I had planned. So I went back out and bought four more fat quarters of batik and more background. Yesterday as I was cleaning out my fat quarter stash, I found eleven (11) batik fat quarters mixed in with all the other fabric. So I bought eight (8) when I didn't need to. Darn. I don't mind buying fabric that I really want or think I need. But to have fabric that I could use and really wanted when I bought it makes me angry. But now I know how much batik fabric I have and where it is located.

Oh by the way, as I have been going through my containers of fabric, I have found more batik. I don't have anything that could have been used as the background fabric, so that wasn't a mistake in buying. I am finding I have a lot of fabric stash! More than I even thought. The nice thing about it, I am finding fabric that I don't think I will ever use. River City Quilt Guild, my guild, is having their quilt show in November. Some of this could go to them for the basket drawings. A lot of it will go into Country Store. Hopefully, if I price it right, I will get a few dollars off of all this. I like that.

So back to cleaning, straightening, discarding. Not as much fun as sewing, but a needed task just the same.

Keep on Quilting!

Row Quilt

Two years ago I joined some quilters in a row quilt challenge in our guild. When I had our quilt store, some quilters participated in one that I just kind of looked at over their shoulders. I was sorry I had not been part of that group. Their finished quilts were beautiful. Each one so different. So when the chance to join one in the River City Quilt Guild came up, I jumped at it.

I love to applique, so my starting row was an applique row with bees and flowers. You can see my row in the picture below. It is the center one. Each person then was to provide a row that went along with my stated theme. I did tell them they did not have to do applique, as some expressed concern in doing an applique row. In fact I didn't want all applique. I wanted piecing to offset the applique.

Well you can see I got my wish. I love what each of the ladies came up with. I was so excited to put it all together and love how it came out.

 

One lady did a row of honey jars. She was so nervous about doing applique, but they turned out very cute. Some button bees were added to sit on or near the jars and then I put the bear trying to get into the jars.

 

The above picture is a close up of one of my flowers and bees on my row. I put a yoyo in the center of each flower.

If you have a chance to participate in a row quilt with a group, take that chance. You just don't know what you will come up with.

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United States Quilt

Last year my sister, Kris, asked me to make a United States quilt for her daughter, Lyndsay, who is living in England with her husband and son. Coincidentally I had seen a pattern on-line just the week before. I went back and found that quilt. It happened to be a pattern on Etsy, so I bought it.

I made this quilt for Lyndsay. I'm sorry to say I didn't make two. It is always easier to make two at once than make a second one after you have finished the first. At least for me it is because I never go back and do a second quilt.

I love how it turned out.

Yeah. I think I will have to try this one again. It was fun to do. The best part of making it was choosing the fabrics that would represent the state. I graduated from high school in Wyoming, so it got black with gold stars. California is made from a batik, of course, with palm trees on it. Texas has cowboy boots, spurs and ropes and all things Texan. New Mexico has chili peppers. New York is made from bagel fabric because I love New York bagels! Washington state has pine trees. The only thing I would change is I did Michigan in blue, which makes it look like it is the lakes while the lakes are just part of the background. Oh well.

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Georgetown California Quilt Show 2013

I have not been out to very many quilt shows this year. I am very content to stay at home and do my own. There are a few that I have to attend. I love the Needle Nellies Quilt Guild quilt show. Georgetown is not far as the crow flies. Now as the road goes it is probably about 60 miles. Still not far for a quality show, but the road there is not freeway. In fact there are a lot of twists and turns.

Gil and I left this morning around 10. As we drove east, up into the hills, we saw dark ominous clouds. The closer we got to Placerville, the darker they got. In fact there was moisture on the ground. Yep. It had been raining. No big deal, you say. Well not if you are not headed to an OUTDOOR quilt show!

We pulled into Georgetown and went to the park it is normally in. We didn't see signs. We didn't see quilts. Oh oh. It was either cancelled or they moved it somewhere. Now Georgetown is quite small, so we drove back down the main street. Sure enough there was a quilt hanging out on a corner of the main intersection with an arrow pointing on down the road. We found it!

The building it was in was a nice building but very small for a quilt show. The ladies, and I'm sure several husbands, did a great job in getting them up, giving the vendors room and finding space for the luncheon area.

I, as usual, have pictures to share. I just have to tell you they are all close up pictures, as the aisles between the quilts was just wide enough for one person to walk through. So some are taken at an angle. A few are taken just up close, as I was unable to get far enough back to take in the whole quilt. One, that I didn't take, was a whole cloth white quilt. Beautiful. It was quilted on a machine with some spectacular quilting. I didn't take a picture because it was a white quilt with white thread. Plus there was a bunch of admirers standing in front of it.

Here are the pictures:

There were several quilts using this same pattern. Each one a little different. This quilt was taken because I could step back and get it all in the picture. They were all beautiful.

I had to include this one, for sure. After all I am Beehive Quilts. Too cute.

Again several of this pattern was done. I loved how each looked so different. Each one had adorable embellishments.

Again the Quilt Diva. One of several. Real earrings. Love it.

I love Halloween. I love witches. This is a cool wall hanging. Very nice.

This is a beautiful quilt. Take a note how the black shines back at you a little. It is faux leather. The flowers are wool. The background is cotton. I really like how the quilter used the different kind of fabrics to get the effect. It is really stunning.

The guild or a group must have had a challenge to do barns. There were several. Each one was beautiful. My husband even loved them. He said we should take some of the pictures we have taken of barns and you can make them into a quilt. Good idea, actually.

Each barn is just a wall hanging. Each is a work of art though. The quilting in each one really gives you a feeling of land and wind, boards and grass. Good job, ladies.

If I were to choose one over the other, which is hard, I would have to choose this one. It is hard to tell in this picture, but the mountains behind the barn are covered in pine trees that seem as real as in a picture. The lightening in the darkened sky is very realistic. Best of all is the quilt design on the front of the decaying barn. Love it.

This is just a portion of a larger quilt. I took this picture to show off the blue flowers. They are squares of fabric that have been folded and sewn onto the quilt in 3-D fashion. Very beautiful. Something I may do someday. Really nice effect.

I have this pattern. I have had it for at least two years. It is in my to-do box, but that is as far as it has gone. I love how she did the embroidery and then colored every so lightly inside to give the crows, hat and other items dimension. Yes, I will be doing that on mine when I get around to doing it. Thanks for the idea.

Love the inner border on this quilt. Too cute all over, for that manner. The flowers are 3-D, also. Good job.

I enlarged this picture more than the others, so you could maybe get an idea of the workmanship in this quilt. This quilt was completely done on black fabric with thread. It is stunningly beautiful. I did not vote, but if I had it would be for this very small wall hanging. The back is just as beautiful as the front.

This is large quilt, but you are only seeing a very small section of it. It is all purples and pinks for all you purple fanatics. Gorgeous quilt.

This table runner was on a table as you entered into the quilt room. Very cute. Love scarecrows.

Owls! If you could all see my personal Pinterest posts, you would see owls, owls and more owls. I would love to own this quilt. Very adorable.

 Needle Nellies, it was worth the trip to into the hills. I look forward to next year's display. Hopefully the weather is more cooperative for you.

Georgetown itself is a charming town to go to. It has a couple of shops that we went into, which were fun. Good luck on your celebration for founder's day tomorrow. I hope the weather is sunny and dry for you.

Keep on Quilting

Dr. Seuss' Lorax Quilt

I need to get a copy of Dr Seuss' Lorax book. I am a big fan of Dr Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham is one of my favorites. Read it often to my grandchildren. Many others come to mind, but not the Lorax.

This quilt is made using a panel and coordinating fabric that came out last year about this time. Elisa, Lorena, my soon to be daughter-in-law, Martha, and I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving in southern California. Of course we had to attack a couple of the quilt shops down there. Hanging in the last one we went to was a sample of this quilt. Martha saw it and told us it was Dan's favorite Dr. Seuss book. Well we had to but the fabric.

I came home and looked up the pattern on the manufacturer's website and started cutting. Hoped to get it done for his Christmas, but that didn't happen. His birthday in in April, so that was our next goal. The top was pieced by me then over to Elisa it went to be quilted on her long arm machine.

Done and mailed in time for him to open before he went to the mountains for his birthday. He was totally surprised. Martha said he was really pleased and amazed at it.

It did turn out pretty good.


I'm sure it will wind up being a baby quilt sometime down the road. We were happy to provide it early. This way Dan can use it to curl up in to read his favorite book.

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Black Apron Quilt

Yes, I made a black apron quilt. No, the aprons are not black. But the background tends to overtake this
quilt.

I wanted to make a quilt that would show off this adorable apron fabric. The fabric has a black background with beautiful, bright aprons. I had a yellow that was the same as the yellow in the aprons, so I used it for the corners of the snowballs.When you first look at this quilt, it is the yellow corners you see first. But as you look at it the aprons start coming out.

Plus adding a large yellow apron applique in the lower right corner helped bring it all together, too.

The border fabric was from the same line as the aprons and had the same colors going through it. It is a fabric that had kitchen utensils in it. It is a very busy border, so I didn't want to use too much in this already busy quilt. I like how it kind of broke up the snowball pattern and brings your eye to the large apron.

It will look great on a kitchen wall. Only problem for me is my house has glass on every wall except where the oven and stove sit. So where to show it off?

Keep on Quilting!

A quilt for our bed

This was an act of love. I had LOTS of 1930 fat quarters that I had picked up here and there knowing that some day I would make a large 1930s quilt. Here it is.

I cut the 1930s fabric into 3 inch strips and sewed them together. Then I cut these strips into 6 inch widths. After getting the strips the lengths I wanted, I then cut 6 inch wide lengths of white fabric and sewed that next to the pieced '30s fabric strips. I bordered the quilt with the strips of 1930s with mitered corners, which turned out quite nicely. It is 96" x 107".

 Elisa quilted the quilt on her long arm.

It took me several weeks to break down and put it on our bed. We have a black and white border collie who likes to sleep on our bed. I was quite concerned about what she would do with it. I finally decided to put it on, but only folded at the foot at the bed. After a couple of weeks, I finally put it on the bed completely. How beautiful it looked. Then within two weeks after deciding it was a quilt to be used, my dog had an accident on it. She likes to run in the park area on our property until she is exhausted. Sometimes after doing that, she falls so sound asleep that she forgets to get up to to potty. So my new quilt had to be washed, which didn't hurt it at bit.

 Love it. I am so proud of it and of Elisa's quilting of it.

[See http://www.quilterscache.com/C/ChineseCoinsBlock.html to see how to make this pattern.] 

Keep on Quilting!

30s Reproduction Quilt

I have a ton (almost) of 1930 reproduction fabric fat quarters. They have been staring me in the face for some time. I knew I wanted to do a quilt with them. I just had not come up with the pattern to do with them.

Wednesday afternoons are often taken up sewing on some project at my neighbor's, Joyce, house. This past week I grabbed a bunch of my 30s fat quarters, my rotary cutter and a pair of scissors and headed up to her house with no real plan on what to do with all of them. I figured I would cut them into strips and then decide what and how.

I chose to cut them into 3" strips, as many of them have cute patterns that I wanted to be able to see in the final quilt. As I was cutting, I thought I will do a Chinese Coin quilt with white in between the coins. [See http://www.quilterscache.com/C/ChineseCoinsBlock.html to see how to make this pattern.] Since my strips sewn together would allow me cut them into 6.5" columns, that is what I did.

At first I did not like what I had put together. That was before I cut them into the smaller columns. I thought oh well, keep going and see what they look like. So I cut them up and laid them out on the cutting mat separated like they would be with the white fabric between them. They looked better then.

Between then and now I have 216 3" x 6.5" blocks sewn together.

Next was sitting down and figuring out what size I wanted to make and how many I would need total. We are moving from the full King size bed to a Queen when we move into our travel trailer, so I thought I would do a Queen size quilt. Then I needed to know what size a Queen really is. I found a great website that has all that in a form that you can download to keep. You can find it at http://fgqg.com/Quiltsizes.htm. Thank you to Flying Geese Quilt Guild for putting that together and making it accessible to everyone through their website. I will put your guild on my list of places to visit when we start traveling. Hopefully I can say thank you in person when we get over that way.

My plan is to put by 3 x 6 blocks all around the outside, plus nine columns of the 3 x 6 blocks in the center. Then 3 inch strips between each of the columns and the borders using a coordinating white. Since I have no white that will work with the 30s reproduction fabric, I will have to go shopping this next week. Oh shucks. How I'll hate to do that. Not really.

This quilt is going together really fast. I hope it looks as good as I think it will. I will post a picture when I have one to post.

Keep on Quilting

e-Bay Selling

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know it used to be a website where we sold fabric and patterns. I still have a ton of fabric that I need to sell off. I am doing it on e-Bay. If you are interested in seeing what we have and maybe even purchase, go to ebay.com and do a search for my fabrics at probles22. I am selling my fabric for $3 a yard. It is all high quality cotton fabric.

Check it out.

Here are samples of what I have listed:

Check it out. Try this link http://www.ebay.com/sch/probles22/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

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