Row by Row from Secret Pal

My Secret Pal from my guild - River City Quilt Guild - gave me all this last Tuesday. Best Secret Pal EVER!

She [or it could be he] always includes beautiful fabric. This month she also gave me 9, yes nine, Row by Row patterns. Most are from California, but one is from Brooklyn, New York, and one is from Stowe, Vermont. The ones from California are from all over the north state. Represented are Elk Grove, Fairfield, San Mateo, Quilter's Corner in Sacramento, Berkeley, and Vacaville. The one from Fairfield has the material. The rest are the patterns. I will work on Fairfield first and let you see what it looks like. It is pretty cool with sailboats and all.

I had read and seen the ads for the Row by Row experience but had not bought into it. Well I'm into it now. I have to go shopping this afternoon and am planning on going to a couple of local quilt shops and get more. Then I am going to contact my relatives that live out and about and ask them to send me the patterns from their local quilt stores. I will pick and choose the ones I want to put into a quilt. Maybe some day I will include all into several quilts. What fun this will be.

Thanks, Secret Pal!

Keep on Quilting

My purchases at Jenny Doan's seminar

Okay. I know Meissners puts these seminars on to sell product and I totally buy into that premise. Literally! I buy into it!

I needed a light yellow and some pink fabric for a Bonnie Hunter quilt I am working on. The pink was 60% off and since I will be cutting it up into 5 inch squares, it will work perfectly. The yellow is great because I didn't want a bright yellow. It will be the setting triangles to be used in a pink and orange quilt. The green fabric was in their markdown bin for 50% off on two yards. Can't have too much green fabric - or any color for that matter.

 Jenny was selling her Block magazine back issues. Since each book has her patterns in it and interesting stories about them, I bought them all. Cheaper than buying her individual patterns and more interesting, too. I like them so much I came home and subscribed to get them upon publication. She signed the one. Thanks, Jenny.

One thing Jenny is known for is making quilting easier. To do that she often develops her own templates. I already have her large tumbler block template and have made a beautiful quilt for my granddaughter, Faith. I decided I needed her regular size and her mini tumbler template, too. I can see a cool looking border using the mini tumbler.

She had on display her orange peel quilt. I had to buy that template so I could make that quilt. It is the football looking one.

She showed a super easy hexi quilt by using the half hexigraph template. So I bought her large and small one of those. Must make an easy Grandma's Flower Garden quilt or at least a table runner.

Then she displayed the cutest pink quilt where she used her small triangle to make. I have to make that, too.

Hmmm. I have sooo many projects I want to do. But now I have the tools to do some of them if I ever get around to it.

Jenny also teaches using pre-cut fabrics. I am a sucker for charm packs. I bought three very charming ones. I see a darling baby quilt coming from these.

Lovely. Now I just have to use them all.

Keep on Quilting

Jenny Doan Seminar July 16, 2015

Jenny Doan came to Sacramento!

Meissner's Sewing of Sacramento (http://www.meissnersewing.com/) hosted Jenny in a four day, fun filled seminar. Wednesday Jenny gave a  trunk show. Thursday, the day I attended, She gave a full day explanation of how Missouri Star Quilt Company (https://www.missouriquiltco.com/) came to be formed and what they do on a daily basis. She showed us quilt after quilt after quilt. She told us stories about her kids, her husband and her life in Hamilton Missouri. There were 250 people there to oooh and aaah, laugh and even cry. That was Thursday.

Friday (today) she is giving a quilting class. I did not sign up for it because the description was for beginning quilters. I am not a beginner, but after yesterday I am truly sorry I did not sign up. She is truly a remarkable person and makes it fun to be with her.

Tomorrow, Saturday, she will re-do what she did yesterday.

Jenny and me. Don't you love that pink quilt behind us!

Venita and I attended together.

Me, Jenny and Venita

Pat Miljarek attended, also. She grew up in Spreckles California, as did Jenny. When Jenny came on stage and started welcoming us, she saw Pat and stopped and talked to her directly. Then explained to the audience they came from the same small down just south of Salinas California. With tears in her eyes, she told Pat how happy she was to see her. During the break, Pat was able to get a picture of her and Jenny and Jenny's husband Ron, who grew up in Salinas.

Ron Doan, Jenny and Pat Miljarek

I took a camera with me but the battery died after taking just a few pictures with it. So most of the following pictures were taken with my phone. The quality is not the greatest but you will be able to see some of the beautiful quilts that were displayed and discussed during the seminar.

 The above quilt was made with layer cakes. Jenny explained how to scallop a quilt and then how not to be afraid to do bias binding and how easy it is to sew it on even in the grooves of the scallop. It does make the quilt more charming. But so does that fabric she chose.

 Pinwheels. Offset them so you do not have to line them up perfectly. Plus it gives more motion to the quilt.

 Disappearing Pinwheel. Love it!

 Jenny said she was making a bunch of Dresden plates when someone put her large tumbler template down on top of one set. The above quilt was born. Charming.

 This quilt is called Orange Peel. Venita and I wondered why it was done in blues. I like it though so much that I bought the template to make it.

 Jenny's Disappearing Hour Glass quilt done using a package of layer cakes.

 A simple and quick baby quilt made using one charm pack package. Too cute.

All the quilts Jenny showed us has had a tutorial made about how to make it. Her tutorials are on You Tube, but you can also get an app that has them all listed with a link to each of them. I have been saving all her tutorials on my Pinterest application but after installing the app to the links this morning, I now have instant access to them.

Jenny showed us a turkey she made using the Dresden template. Too cute. There is a tutorial for that, too. Plus on her blog there is a pdf file you can down load for the pattern. The link to it is http://blog.missouriquiltco.com/?s=turkey.

In her little town in Missouri, she has been creating an empire. She has several quilting shops now. They have developed a retreat center that will house 40 people (minimum of 10 needed). It is a bed and breakfast set up, with her caveat of "you make both." There is a wonderful restaurant, bakery and hamburger joint if you don't want to cook your own food. There is no hotel in Hamilton, so bring your ten best quilting buddies and stay and sew at the retreat. In case you can't do that, there is a motel 12 miles away.

At the end of the seminar, Jenny said quilters are selfish. Yes we are. We spend an inordinate amount of money to purchase beautiful fabric that we cut up into smaller pieces and sew into quilts. We give these quilts to family, friends, charities and others less fortunate. We put off cleaning, cooking and other household duties. But at the end, we are leaving our legacy with these quilts. These will be passed down to future generations. They will be sold at yard sales or thrift stores to excited quilt lovers. They will become dog beds and furniture covers. But in the end they will be our salvation. As Jenny said "when you create, you heal." So go heal yourself and work on a quilt.

Keep on Quilting

Farmer's Wife is going forward

Block on left is called Country Path. I really like how that blocks looks. I had to do a little tearing out, but once it was done, it was wow!

Block on the right is called Flock. Super easy to do.

The Farmer's Wife is a wonderful quilt to work on. It is giving me opportunity to make several different blocks. I sometimes get in a rut and only do a certain block or work only on applique, which is my favorite quilting technique. Plus these patterns are stretching my abilities in working in a smaller dimension. My blocks are almost always 9 or 12 inch blocks. These 6 inch blocks make me want to try more miniature blocks.

Six done. 105 to go.

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The Farmer's Wife continued

Yesterday I posted the first two blocks I had done from The Farmer's Wife book. One done well over a year ago and one yesterday. Last night I printed out several more paper templates. This morning I drew out on plastic the templates and then traced them on to fabric for four more blocks.

Below is a picture of two of the blocks I was able to complete today. Who knows, I may even due the other two before the day is done.

These are Hill and Valley and Silver Lake. The Hill and Valley was a fairly easy block to do. Silver Lake was a little more complicated. It had a lot of small pieces to work with. I love them both now they are finished.

What do you think?

I now have four of 111 blocks completed.

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The Farmers Wife

In September two years ago, my husband I traveled through San Juan Bautista CA. We used to live there and always stop on our way through. There is a restaurant called Dona Esther that has the best Mexican food I've ever tasted. Just down the street is a quilt store that is such fun. Of course I visit it whenever we are there, too. On this trip I bought a few things - okay, maybe more than a few. One of the things was a book called "The Farmer's Wife." It has 111block patterns on it, as well as a story about how they all come together.

The blocks all measure 6 inch square. Not too bad, I thought. I will make a block a week. In less than two years I'll have this quilt done and ready to be quilted. I came home and started the first one in the book. It is called Cut Glass Dish. It took me three days to finish this block. Three days!

So a year and a half has gone by and no other blocks are done. I keep that block pinned on the wall near my sewing machine to encourage me to get the book out and start on the next block. At this pace I will not live long enough to make 111 blocks!

Today out it came. I printed the templates, made the plastic templates, cut the fabric and actually sewed the second of my 111 blocks. Now only 109 left to do.

This one was easy. It is called Kitchen Woodbox.

Maybe I will try another one tomorrow. Or next week. We will see.

The one on the left is the Kitchen Woodbox. The one on the right is the one that gave me so much grief. It is the Cut Glass Dish. Those half square triangles are what gave me the problem. They are very small. The block barely came out at 6 inches. The one today I had room to spare.

I am excited to try another one now. Oh oh. The next one is called Country Path. It has a lot of small squares in it, too. At least they aren't half square triangles.

Keep tuned. I will post more blocks as I do them.

Keep on Quilting

Ricky Tims 2015 seminar

Venita and I went to another Ricky Tims' Seminar yesterday at Meissner's in Sacramento. Great fun. Learned a lot. Heard a lot that we heard at the one in Modesto last year, but it was worth hearing again. Here are some of the pictures we took while we were there:

This is a picture of me, Ricky and Venita. It was taken in front of his Bohemian Rhapsody quilt. I am going to make a quilt something like that someday. "Someday."

This is a self portrait quilt of Ricky. Looks a lot like him, don't you think? Maybe that should be a challenge. Make a self portrait quilt.We'll see.

The above quilt looks more like a photograph than a quilt. I took the close up to show off his thread play. Love this quilt.

 The above three pictures are of the same quilt. It is a simple (yeah, sure) nine patch. He asked us which was harder: this one or his Bohemian Rhapsody. He said this was. Surprising. But he qualified that by saying he hates 1/4 inch seams, rulers and rules, and matching things up. I included a couple of close ups. The middle one to show the intricate quilting he accomplished on this with he domestic sewing machine. He does all his own quilting - all on a simple, Bernina sewing machine.

 Venita went to his shop in Colorado last year. She made a quilt like the two above using her own design as she went. She loved going there. We hope to go together some day for a week long retreat.

This is a combination Cave Man quilt (thus the crazy, free form arcs, and in the center, his Harmonic Conversion. Love how it goes so well design wise.

 More traditional quilt. Log cabin. It is hard to tell in the picture, but the pieces that make up the blocks are probably 1/2 inch finished. Sheesh. It would take me forever to piece a quilt like this.

Take note of the beautiful quilting in the border.

Below is a close up of this quilt. There are bears in the corners of the bear paw blocks. Didn't show up very well in the picture.

Towards the end of the presentation, the visual equipment decided to take a break and went dark. It was right during a time he was explaining a video on quilting. While Meissner's worked on getting that back up, Ricky pulled out a few of his collection of flutes that he has had made for him. He played from three different flutes. All the songs were his own compositions. This man is truly talented in many ways.

Thanks for a great day, Ricky.

Keep on Quilting