More Quilts from Quilt Colorado!

Horses, Horses, Horses!
by Busaba McDermott

Diamond in the Rough by Janice Johner

This is a great miniature!

Frankly Fassett by Betty Barnes

A great pattern to show of Kaffe Fassett fabrics!

Purple Radiance by Katalin Shier

Valentine Daze by Francie Fiechter

On the Bright Side by Gerri Denison

Some Quilterly Gifts

I celebrated a birthday recently!  I received many well wishes and lovely gifts, and celebrated with family eating my favorite Texas Sheet Cake :)

I thought I would share some of the more "quilterly" gifts that I received - just for fun!

My hubby gave me some canned air.  I know you're not supposed to use this to blow the dust and lint out of your sewing machine but .... sometimes I still do....  It is a great way to clean dust off of others things too though :)

My friend Pam made me a set of scrumptious looking napkins with her new embroidery machine.  She is pretty amazing at everything she makes.  She also gave me a set of handmade cards which are fabulous.
I think I need to have a homemade ice cream party now, and use these napkins!

Lori took a trip to Japan to visit her son and brought back some gorgeous Japanese fabric and a Sashiko thimble, which she sent me for my birthday!  This fabric is not only beautiful, it really feels nice.  I'm still deciding what I want to make with it but I will keep you posted!

Michelle took a trip to Russia and brought me back this beautiful porcelain thimble.  She toured the Imperial Porcelain Factory which was founded in 1774 by Empress Elizabeth.  The pattern on this thimble is call Cobalt Net and was created for Catherine the Great of Russia.  It is a "longtime best-selling china pattern featuring cobalt blue intersecting lines and teardrops with gold accents."  This makes an awesome addition to my thimble collection :)

My daughter Michelle gave me this box of sayings.  It looks like a little frame but you can change the sayings everyday.  There are dozens of cards with sayings on both sides, so oodles of inspiration!

I know this isn't quilterly but it goes with the chess table I posted about earlier.  My son who has been teaching me to play chess, gave me this book of problems and puzzles to help me get better.  I am REALLY enjoying chess and am slightly improving :)  My husband and I have a game going on the table constantly.  I have not won a game with him ... yet.

Marla gave me this great scrap quilt book with some really cool patterns that I am looking forward to making, while using up my stash!  She also gave me some fun Christmas prints fabric. Time to start working on Christmas things already!?

I'm sure you've heard of Jim Shore and his statues with quilt designs.  I have a few of his pieces and really like them.  My Mom gave me these for my birthday - an Amish couple with small Amish inspired quilts hanging behind them!  I love these!

Remember me posting the cute crocheted elephant that my daughter Megan made awhile back and I hinted at how much I would like one?  She made me one!  It's super cute!  We've discussed eyes and I may try some small black buttons, although it looks just as cute without any.  The following pictures show mine side by side with hers :)  This little elephant is so cute and she just made it without a pattern!  She gets those skills from my mother - it definitely skipped a generation!

So if we must get older and we all do, we may as well celebrate in style with family, friends, and fun!  It was a great birthday and I am thankful for my wonderful family and dear friends who helped me celebrate :)

Sunroom Update

You may be getting tired of looking at pictures of the back of my house but here are a few more "update" pictures!

They got the color coat on the stucco so it actually looks like part of the house now :)


The white doors have yet to be painted - something that will blend in a little better, like the window trims.

A man has been here all week doing the back breaking job of laying the tile.  One of the days he was here was the day they were color coating the stucco outside, so the poor guy was encased in this room with all of the windows covered in plastic.  It was like a sauna out there.  He kept dipping his head in a bucket of water.  Luckily that was only for part of one day, now the windows are all open and Mike put a fan out there to keep the air circulating.  He should finish up the floor today - it's looking great.

A lot more windows to clean!  It's pretty exciting though to see it get near completion!

Speaking of completion - I finished the wedding quilt!  More on that later :)

Gifts for Baby

While my son and his fiancé were here last week, his fiancé made a baby quilt for her sister who is expecting her second little girl.  This is the first quilt she's ever made!  I thought she did a fantastic job!  At one point she sewed a row on upside down from how she originally planned on sewing it on.  She thought about it briefly, then decided it would bother her too much to leave it that way (because two green squares of the same fabric ended up together), so she ripped the row out, turned it over and re-sewed it back on.  Hmmm.... sound familiar?  I think this girl is a quilter in the making!

She also made a cute little "doll blanket" for this fuzzy little puppy to give to the two year old, who will soon have to share the spotlight with a little sister!

Here is the adorable happy recipient of the puppy :)

Scenes From a Wedding

Yesterday we went to my husband's brothers wedding.  It was a beautiful day and a fun time with family!

I loved this sign that was posted at the entrance.  The wedding was outdoors and the weather was lovely.

The happy couple are avid bicyclists so there was a bit of a bicycle theme to the wedding.  Here are my cute nieces (who provided all the music for the wedding) wearing their adorable skirts with bicycles around the bottom!

I loved all of the texture and the simple colors in the bouquet.  I think it would be fun to arrange flowers, if I knew absolutely anything about it :)

The happy couple on a bicycle built for TWO!  I wish them all the best as they begin their life together!

Quilt Colorado Quilt Show

Here are a few quilts from the quilt show at Quilt Colorado!

1st Place Modern - Almost Squared Away
By Sharon Shlotzhauer

Arms Open Wide by Teresa Rives

Judge's Choice - Basket Case Flowers
by Ann Petersen

Best Of Show - Fire in the Sky
by Alice Kay Arnett

Best Home Machine Quilting
Sunlit Circles by Ann Petersen

A Bird's Eye View of the Ocean
by Daisy Boulter

Zingers

No, not the cake kind of zingers but the eye popping fabric kind!  Phyllis pointed out to me yesterday that we're taught to put zingers in our quilts, so my post about the loud obnoxious guy at the cocktail party was confusing to her.  Just to clarify, what I got from the class is that zingers are good!  We just need to watch the proportion so they don't "take over" the quilt.  This quilt is a good example with the skinny red lines that add a pop of color and draw your eye to them, but are not overbearing :)

I finished my monthly minis for August to give my daughters!  Kind of makes me hungry for some watermelon!  My oldest daughter used to call it "water woman" when she was little :)

In the class this month there were just two of us, but we had a nice time!  It is summer time after all, so we take who we get!

Deena showed us her cat minis that she made, one for herself and one for a friend.  She got the patterns and hangers for these at patchabilities.com as well.

I went ahead and ordered a Fourth of July pattern because I feel like my daughters need one in their set.  They can hang those up next year :)


Have a Happy Day!!  Thanks for reading :)

If you look really closely you can see the cat hanger!

Modern Quilt Studio

Bill shared more of his quilts with the class and described his process for choosing colors and fabrics.  I took some close up photos so we can see the machine quilting choices he made for each quilt.  I am always interesting in the machine quilting because it helps me as I try to figure out how to quilt my quilts!

Remember you can learn more about Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle at their website:

www.modernquiltstudio.com

I am thinking of making one like this!  I have the book Transparency Quilts and I really like several of the quilts in the book, and the whole effect.

He free motion quilted the circles and didn't worry about perfection.  I like that.  It looks great!

One of their newest quilts.

Same effect as the circles only a rectangular shaped design.

The best way to get better at machine quilting is to practice, practice, practice!