I Made a "Pam" Zippy Bag

Happy election day!  I voted, got my flu shot, and made a "Pam" zippy bag.  I also got the tarp out to cover up the picnic table, when little bits of hail or something started falling and big gusts of wind jumped up, as if trying to prevent me from succeeding in my mission.  I managed to resituate the tarp and placed a large rock on top to hold the tarp somewhat in place.  It is now covered for the winter, as the finches continue to visit my thistle feeder and drink at the water pump.  Fall is definitely in full swing!

Meanwhile, after I finished my last project, where I had specific fabrics to use, I had a little bit left over of the wild dots fabric, so I made a zippy pouch for the quilter who shared that fabric with me. 

I hope she did like that wild dot fabric she shared, as she will now have a sweet quilted zipper bag with her name on it.

 

Shark Week! Shark Fabric!

My friend A wanted to go to the grand opening of the re-opened quilt shop in Caldwell, Stitch n Giggles.  So, we went.  They had some great buys, and I found a piece of amazing shark fabric for $3.00!  It is about a yard and a half.  And just one day prior to "Shark Week"!  It was meant to be.

I feel a Hachi quilt coming on!  This is fabulous fabric and I feel I am on target for Shark Week this year.  How did that happen?

Pizza Rounds Quilt

In late August, when I was not working at the Home Arts Dept. at The Fair, I was playing around with some of my favorite bright fabrics and some curves.  I started what I call my "Pizza Rounds" art quilt.  To me, it is an art quilt.  It hangs in my quilt room, where it adds nicely to the atmosphere.  My quilt room has a lot of atmosphere. 

Our daughter came to visit in the first half of November, and we had so much fun.  We went on a day trip to Twin Falls, where we strolled down Main Avenue, window shopping.  We discovered several interesting places and spoke with a number of engaging people, especially small businesswomen.  

We met a friendly print shop cat, and an adorable creativity shop bulldog.  This little bulldog was the shop greeter at "Altered Purposes".  The shop, Altered Purposes, is amazing.  It has stuff creative of all types, not limited to wood, ribbons, decals, metal, paper craft, paint, inspiration for upcycling, classes, and bunting.  I bought some small drawer handles, that I intend to use on an art quilt.  I also bought some woodless watercolor pencils and a length of plaid grosgrain ribbon, which I used to make my "Ever Was" graffiti quilt.  My daughter asked the owner, who happens to be a woman veteran like my daughter and I, if she had a room upstairs for rent, as she would love to live upstairs and come down every day to play.  My daughter does a bit of sewing and is very creative, and her true creative love is everything Halloween.  

She has inspired me to do some Halloween quilts, bunting, and some small art quilts.  I have taken about a month off from quilting, and now I am trying to clean the Christmas lights and wrapping stuff off my quilt table.  Just this evening, I got a little twitch to do some piecing, so I better get my table cleared off, so I can get going again.

What's on the Design Wall in September!?

Actually, I thought I would not get time to post on my blog until after returning from our RV trip up to the Payette National Forest.  But hey!  RVing has so many unexpected situations that are part of the experience.  We did not make it out of town today, so here is what is on my design wall:

It is kind of foundation-pieced applique.  I am using the small blanket-stitch on my sewing machine to sew the curves down.  Here is what happened this morning:

I am nice and clean.  I washed my hair and put on clean green capri jeans and my Life Is Good t-shirt with the turtle playing guitar.  I captured the cat at seven a.m. and put “her up-setness” into her carrier, so I can relocate her from house to RV.  Then all we have to do is load up a few clothes and the groceries I bought yesterday and be on our way.  It is September and it is the first time we have been able to go traveling in our RV in 2023.

I go out through the garage to see how my husband is doing, when he informs me there is another leak.  We had a major leak yesterday morning and it flooded the RV underneath the sofa section.  We got that fixed and now this.  It turns out we did not exactly get yesterday’s problem fixed, according to my husband.  So, he is actually going to thoroughly fix it today.  However, we need to take the cork out of the pipe beneath the RV and drain the tank, again.  I am a little thinner than my husband, so I volunteered to climb under the RV and pull the cork.  I went under on my back, until I put my head down and remembered how dizzy I get with my head on the same level as my body, so I kept my head up until I got under the middle of the RV. I was able to roll over onto my stomach.  Much better.  Remember, I am sixty-five and don’t normally crawl around under vehicles.  I was able to work my way to where the water drain pipe is and pull the cork out.  I really wanted to exit by a shorter route, but RV’s have metal boxy walls coming down here and there just along the insides of the underside of the chassis, so I turned around and scrapped Mr. Turtle and his guitar along between me and the concrete for about eight more feet.  There is nothing like getting all grubby in the morning, before one even makes it out to the woods.

Hubby helped me up and I went and let the cat out. 

We plan on leaving tomorrow, we hope.

Obnoxious II

I have decided these florescent/neon colors in my quilts are obnoxious. I really do love them, but that makes them no less obnoxious.  It started with my aunt's neon California king quilt.  It is still ready to go to the long arm quilters.  Meanwhile, I made one for my dear friend A.  She is very deserving, and her breathless review of my aunt's quilt told me she would love to have one.  This is her quilt:

quilted by Phyllis Oneal

This one is Obnoxious II.  I also had an adventure trying to photograph it on this lovely wall behind the VA Medical Center.  This quilt makes me think of lemonade on a summers day.
I have made another quilt top that is Obnoxious III and have Obnoxious IV on my design wall.  Obnoxious V is in my head. It is never ending obnoxiousness!

What Madness Now?

What is on the design wall in May? I am calling it the creative process. Whomever invented the California king was mental.  But now, I do more research into quilt sizes, and although they vary from website to website, to my reference book, to a reference card from a quilt shop I used to love, to my own long-arm quilter, it is this very pattern I am using that is way out in left field in comparison.  The pattern is Texas Two Step.  It indicates 13 blocks by 13 blocks (nine inch square blocks) is for a regular king.  But that would make the regular king size 117" X 117", and I would want to add at least two rows for a Cal king, but then that would be 135".  That is craziness!  Using my other references, I have come to a decision to make my quilt 11 blocks long and 12 blocks wide, equaling 99" X 108", which is bigger than a regular king.  My long-arm quilter states, 100" X 102" is the Calif king size.  I am pretty darn close to that.  In light of this size revelation, I am much closer to being finished, with the top, than I thought.  Here is what is on my design wall right now.

See the blocks behind my hat tree?  Those are pinned up and I still need another column on the far right.  I need two more rows across the bottom.  These are not all sewed together yet. The nine inch blocks are, but not to each other.  I like the pattern, but the size chart in it is not realistic.  I am happy that I will be able to use some of the 110" wide backing fabric on the back.  I may have to add a ten inch strip to make it wide enough for long arm quilting.  This is the only Calif king quilt this girl is going to make.  I am excited that this one is coming along so well, and relieved I don't have to make more rows/columns.  I am going to sew the rows together, in lengths of 9 blocks, then do the three columns on the right end and add those three to the rest to get the whole thing together.  I either need to move my hat tree or fold the top to the left and continue the pattern on the right side of my design wall.  I think the latter.  I will update soon!  Keep on quilting!

Community Blocks

I bought ten of the community block challenge fabric from Janell, a couple months back, with $10.00 I borrowed from Annita.  Well, I gave Annita one, and kept the rest for me.  I have used all but one and an inth to make 12 blocks.  I have decided to make four more blocks to make the quilt top a little more filled out.  I have decided to just make the whole thing myself.  I was inspired by Gwen Marston's baskets. 

I will need to rearrange some of them as
I add four other blocks to the right hand side of the quilt top.

Country Nine-Patch

I got the binding on this wonderful little number, on May 31.  It turned out a little scrappy and a lot fun! Brooklyn and her parents just adore it. My mission has been accomplished!

February is still Winter: Snowman Wallhanging

I have been a maniac this month! I just finished this cutie-pie snowman on Feb. 22.  I completed two mini-quilts the week of Valentine's Day. I also did an experiment with my fancy stitches on my new Husquav sewing machine. I just got it at the end of August and I don't usually use the fancy stitches. I bet I will get the binding on that wallhanging, that I made from my experiment, by tomorrow evening, at The Confab.  That makes perfect sense!  The mini-quilts can be viewed on the link to the left, titled "Gluten Free Doll Quilts."  That page has been taken over by Kirsten Larsen (the American Girl Doll turned maniac quilter).
This little snowman, I started on Valentine's Day evening. It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes from start to having it sandwiched.  The buttons and hand sewing are not my favorite thing, so those parts took me longer. Plus, I had to go out and buy black snaps. All I had were silver ones!  The mouth is black snaps, while the other buttons are from my grandma and great-grandma's button tins/jugs.  I found the "Slim The Snowman" pattern in "Primitive Quilts and Projects" magazine, Vol 2, Issue 4.  It was sew e-z it blew my mind!  I want to make another with retro-green background and another with reds and whites, but another time.   I made mine a little wider and with a shorter hat. I like to be different. E-mail me with any questions. Thrilled to answer!

Route 66 wall hanging: I finished it this last week. I will also post a photo of it on my Adventures In Quilting list: Hen House Quilting Retreat. I started it on the retreat and got alot of it done at that time. I quilted it along the edge of the wavy parts and around the post cards on the bottom parts. I kept it as simple as possible.

Baby quilt with space ships. I got the quilt top completed. I just need to find some backing fabric and get it quilted. I found another use for my summer bunting that I brought into the house for the winter: hang your small quilt tops from it with clothes pins, so you can take good photos of them.  I copied the odd border layout from a quilt I saw on someone else's blog. I can't remember who's. Tut tut, it looks like rain. That little glow is the pellet stove firing up in the corner of my room.



Zebra Quilt layout for Zebra II Quilt

Zebra Dreams quilt: First quilt I made in 2012, has plenty of unused yardage left over.  My adult daughter has wanted me to quilt her zebra wall hanging or quilt for sometime.  She picked out a couple fabrics two years ago, and I found some other fabrics last summer to go with it.  I started it in November 2011 and completed in February 2012.  I did some zebra research and decided on Zebra Dreams as the name. I actually began sewing the sun part first and grew it from there.  I really am satisfied with how it came out and Mary really likes it. She has moved to a cooler climate since I made it, and I am now progressing on a quilt to go with it.  I used my curved piecing skills to piece the landscape and the night sky to the edge of the sun.  The center of the sun and the moon are appliqued, as are the vulture, trees, dreamy fish, and zebra.       The quilt I am working on now is not curvy and does not have applique.  It is going to go on her bed and I have decided on a block pattern.  See preliminary layout above.



Zebra Dreams quilt



Totally finished! First quilt made on my new machine! It is a baby quilt, but was alot of fun to use the scraps from another quilt and totally use them up.

"Moose and Squirrel quilt" or "R&B quilt" or "Rocky & Bullwinkle quilt" or "Sew Lucky to Get It Done in Time"
Pete is very happy with this quilt.  It turned out very well.  I really like the design.  Thank you Elverta for keeping me sane, while I was doing this on the sly, so it would be a surprise.  Thank you, Bryan, for the terrific job of quilting it.  The writing with the characters and segments of the show "Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" turned out very nice indeed.  People read the words: Fractured Fairy Tales, Dudley DoRight, Nell Fenwick, Snidley Whiplash, Boris and Natasha, Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman, WABAC Machine, Bullwinkle's Corner, Frostbite Falls, etc. and it brings back their memories.  Now, I have a hankering for a salad made with rapien and mooseberries!