I've been busy this last week. We had rain, hail, rain, snow, rain, sleet, and more rain for 3 days. Then the clouds left and Mother Nature gifted us with beautiful Spring weather. It's been wonderful these last few days. My indoor hobbies are starting to take a back seat to my favorite outside hobby: gardening. I am an avid gardener living in an area that can challenge even the most die-hard gardener. Deer run rampant through my property. It's not uncommon to see 10-15 deer when I look out my windows. And they eat almost EVERYTHING. I finally extended the height of the fence in the backyard area so there is one safe area. I have been defeated in the front yard.

Then there are the *&$#^@*&%$^ gophers. I had to give up on veg gardening for a while because of the gophers. When my new beds were built, I had them wired for gophers. Last year it worked and I could tell they were trying to get into the beds. Hopefully it will continue to work. I can't wire the entire property so the only way to grow flowers is to put them in pots. This means I have lots and lots and lots of potted plants because I LOVE to grow flowers. Then there is the winter weather. This year we had the hardest freeze in the 20 years that I have lived here and I lost more plants then I can count. It's been heartbreaking.  But a gardener knows how to grow cheaply so I have been trying to get cuttings from friends and am planting a lot of seeds. I've spent the last couple of days prepping the veg garden beds, re-potting a few plants, potting a few others, raking, mowing, and doing general cleanup. I was hot and dirty and smelly and happy as could be!

During all that rain, I managed to get caught up with the Pinwheel Party blocks.  I'm beginning to really like how this quilt is turning out.  And I am getting really fast at making pinwheels!  The next block is comes out tomorrow so I'll be back in the sewing room again sometime this week.  I've also been mulling over the Christmas BOTM.  I think I will swap out a few fabrics. There are 4 trees to make this month. One of them is appliqué. Not my favorite thing. But this is a learning project so I go ahead and do it.  But first you have to get me out of the garden!

This is the Fifth block in the Jelly Roll Quilt-A-Long being sponsored by Moose on the Front Pourch Quilts. What a fun pattern! It's a bit more complicated than the other blocks and took more time. I think when the next block comes out, I will lay them out against the black & white polk-a-dot sashing fabric to get a feel of what the final quit will look like. This is the first time I have used a jelly roll and I really like it!

I've been watching the Pinwheel Party Quilt-Along on the twiddletails blog for a while. I just love seeing how different the blocks look with the different fabrics.  I had no plans to join in but well, you know what happened next. I've decided to jump in and join the fun. I've chosen a rather weird looking black and white fabric for the background.  The pinwheels will be scrappy. The sashing and border is made out of the background fabric with small pinwheels intermixed.  They are on week 8 so I am a tad bit behind (now there is an understatement!).  I've been working on it this last week and now have 5 blocks done.  I've never done pinwheels and I admit I find them to be a bit tedious.  I'm getting faster though and getting better at it. What I don't understand, and I am not just talking about this quilt, is why my blocks are NEVER the right size. They are always smaller than they are supposed to be.  I measured my seams again today and they are 1/4 inch. I use a variety of rulers and it's hard to believe they would all be wrong.  I just don't get it.


Today we received our first block in the $5 BOTM being offered by SharedStitches, a local quilt shop located in Cameron Park.  It will be a lesson in points. Oh, lucky me!  This is absolutely the last quilt I am going to start for a very long time. I need to finish up some of my many projects and spend time cleaning up and organizing the sewing room.  Warmer weather is also right around the corner and the garden is calling. I am so glad this one is one block a month


Want to meet my sewing buddy?  This is Aragorn. He is around 10 months old. I adopted him from the local animal shelter last Sept.  He thinks that everything in my sewing room is his and he should sleep on all fabric.  He is the reason I need to clean up my sewing room! 

This is the fourth block in the Jelly Roll Quilt-A-Long being sponsored by Moose on the Front Pourch Quilts.  I haven't decided if I like my block or not.  I think I do but I won't really know until all the blocks are done.

The weather last weekend was miserable forcing me to stay inside so I decided to spend some time cleaning up and organizing the sewing room.  I didn't get very far before I ran into this pattern and fabric and the next thing I knew I had started another quilt.  Doesn't take much to distract me. The pattern is simple and very fast to cut out and sew. What really makes it dazzle though is the fabric.  A real eye catching combination!  I even have orange fabric that works for the backing. I just love it when it all works out like that.  The weather is looking good this weekend and I have tomorrow off work so I won't be spending much time in the sewing room. But I am going to work on the Jelly Roll QAL tonight and Saturday is the reversable quilt class.   Leave a comment and let me know you stopped by!

Got a Jelly Roll itching to be used? Then come join the Jelly Roll Quilt-A-Long being offered by Moose on the Porch Quilts! It's free, you choose your own fabric, you work at your own pace, and you could win a prize! How easy can it get?  I wanted to do something that used only fabric from my stash and this fit the bill perfectly.  This first picture shows my fabrics.  The jelly roll consist of solid colors (they are bright of course.  What else would I choose?) so I decided to add a bit of pazzaz with the red and white stripe. I plan to use the black and white polkadot fabric for the sashing.  I think I will wait until all the blocks are done before I pick out a border.  

So now we get to talk about my current projects!  I join the BOTM at one of my local quilt shops.  It's a 6 month project that makes a Christmas quilt. The pattern is called Be Merry from Bits 'n Pieces.  This is the first time I attempted to make a picture quilt and it's definetly a learning experience for me.  Now I am going to whine (although I would rather have wine and cheese).  I am not pleased with the fabrics the shop has chosen and neither are a lot of other people.  I've swapped out quite a few. The instructions in the leaflet are written for an experienced quilter without much direction and that annoys me because the quilt shop owner swore to me that it was a good quilt for a beginner (NO IT'S NOT!). And, what really ticks me off is when we meet to pick up the blocks we are NOT given any instructions just a sales pitch.  Grrr!!

The tall church at the beginning of the post was block one.  I've swapped out the fabric for the sky, the roofline, and  the church. I ripped out the church so many times that I had to replace the fabric.  I did learn from my mistakes though and that is important.

These 5 blocks were the next BOTM. Yes, 5 blocks in one month. Someone needs to learn to count. These were much easier to make.  I swapped out the fabric in the sky again and a couple of others.   I liked making the houses and hope someday to make a house quilt with very bright and colorful fabric. I would much rather make a fun quilt! 

I pick up the 3rd installment on Sunday.

This quilt-top was finished this month.   The pattern is called kaleidoscope or modified spider.  I believe I have finally found my niche in the quilting world. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this quilt-top! It was so much fun to choose the fabrics for each block.  Making this quilt was liberating. To be able to use so many prints and colors with such freedom brought me a lot of joy. And now I find myself designing quilts in my head or during boring meetings at work. (sssh! don't tell anyone that I am not really taking notes!).  How I wish I had found this creative spot within in me years ago. Who knows what wonders I may have created? There is so much freedom in designing with bright bold colors. And how can you not smile when you look at it?  I am currently signed up for 2 BOTMs and a Jelly Roll QAL but what I really want to do is start another wild quilt. Soon...soon....

I almost forgot! This is the first quilt where all my squares laid flat. You have no idea how proud I of that! LOL  I plan to give this quilt when it is finished to a friend.

I took a class to learn how to do French Braids which I found out are surprisingly very easy. The instructor supplied the fabric for the braids but no border.  After I made the braids I set them aside for several months because I was afraid to do the trimming. It sounded so intimidating. And I figured that lining up all those points would be a nightmare.  When I signed up to take another class I challenged myself to finish two UFOs before the class so I finally got around to trimming and sewing the braids together.  And it was easy!  I felt so silly for waiting all that time.  I tried out many fabrics and patterns before I could settle on a border and I am so glad I waited because this border suits this quilt perfectly. And I love the colors!!!!  It is a very HAPPY quilt! This quilt will probably stay with me. I don't think I can give it away. It makes me smile too much!

The center portion of this quilt is called "Afternoon Delight" because you are supposed to be able to make it in an afternoon. Yeah, right. It took me weeks. I think of all the work I have done, this quilt defied me the most. Nothing lined up. It was so frustrating but the experience was valuable because it did send me back to the books to figure out what I was doing wrong. From this quilt I learned that you cannot ignore the basics and have to pay attention to the details.  My technique really improved afterward.  The fabrics came from my stash and the border is my own design.  The picture does not do this quilt justice. The colors are really very deep and vibrant and mesh very well.   I think the other thing that I notice with the quilt is that I frequently use black. I like the way it makes the color pop.

This quilt was a turning point for me. My earlier work was mostly made from kits or charm packs. I bought the panel for this quilt several years early before I even started sewing again. I spent a long time trying to figure out what to do with it and to find complimentary fabric.  Then I finally hit this combination. The irony is the fabrics I eventually used were in my stash all along!  Nothing in this quilt was properly squared off - a lesson I hadn't fully learned yet. And I was ironing instead of pressing which also caused distortion. But it doesn't matter because I LOVE THIS QUILT!!!  Color! OMG!  Color! I finally discovered color!  If you look at my earlier work, I always used bright fabrics but I didn't really understand using color and pattern.  Now there was no turning back.  Look out world!  There are a lot of crazy wild color combinations coming from me!!!  As an aging old hippy I would really like to keep this quilt but I have been thinking of sending it to my niece who is at college.  But I worry someone may steal it so maybe not. :o)

This is a quilt with a story.  My grandmother was a very lucky woman who lived most of her life with no major medical problems.  She took no medicine and up until the last year of her life she walked on her own.  A remarkable feat for a 96 year old woman.  In July 2009 her body started to give out and she spent 3 long weeks in hospice.  My mother was spending her days with my grandmother at the hospice home and her evenings at my grandmother's apartment. It was difficult time for her watching her mother wither away.   On her 79th birthday she was driving back from hospice to the apartment when she rear-ended another car. Then my brother and sister (who lived within driving distance) canceled dinner plans with her. One very crappy birthday. 

My mother had plane reservations to visit me about a week and a half later but told me she was going to changed them to a later date because she would need time to clean out my grandmother's apartment.  I decided that I wanted to give her something extra special for her birthday and had just enough time to make a fast quilt for her. And I would have until she decided not to change her plans and show up as originally planned. I had to quickly zig-zag the binding in order to get it done before she arrived.   Whew!  She loved it of course. I told her that anytime she was depressed that she should wrap herself in the quilt because all those sunflowers are bound to make her smile. :o)

I suffered a very bad tendinitis episode after I made this quilt and finally realized the problem was the machine quilting.   I will probably always have to send out my quilts for quilting or else borrow a long-arm quilter.  I have find too much joy in creating quilt-tops to give it up.

In the Spring of 2009, I organized an EGA Regional retreat (embroidery guild) for 40 people. I never would have been able to do it without my wonderful committee. I made these needle keeper kitties as a thank-you present for them.  I thought they would be "quick and easy" to make. Hah!  The cats are made from muslin. The fabric for the dresses came from my stash.  Each cat has a pink felt heart that holds a needle. They were a lot of work but were worth the effort. My committee ladies were very surprised!

This a Christmas table runner that I think came from a charm pack.  I had to supply the background fabric.  If  I remember correctly, I didn't finish it in time for Christmas. I call this a learning piece because every single point was cut off.  I think the only thing I learned was frustration!  At this point I was still struggling with points and squaring off blocks and other basics.  I like the patterns so maybe I'll try it again. I can do much better now!

After the Halloween quilt I started a couple of quilt-tops that still aren't finished. Both were kits. The first one is a wall hanging made up of colorful tropical batiks done in stack-and-whack style. I like the quilt but I made a ton of mistakes. I took a quilt-as-you-go class and I brought this quilt to work on. That was a big mistake since I really dislike the technique that was taught. Then I tried to improvise and that made it even worse! So it's been hanging around as a UFO for the last year and half. But last week I took a good look at it and decided that it was salvageable. Mostly because I have learned so much since I had given up. Look for this to become a finished product sometime over the next few months.



The other quilt-top I started was a teapot themed quilt for a friend. Sadly none of the tea pots are centered properly. I tried to balance it off with some fusible applique but it doesn't really work. Partly because I hadn't had much experience with fusible applique! I'm not sure if I will finish this one or not. I need to stare it a while and decide if it is salvageable. To be honest, I don't really care for the fabric and I have since made another quilt for my friend.