International Quilt Festival

Going to Houston for the International Quilt Festival has been a dream of mine - and my best friend, Rhonda - for many years and this was the year to go!   

I thought I'd share a few of the many photo's I took over several blog posts.

Rhonda and I.  :)

The convention hall in Houston is HUGE.  I've been to the show in Paducah before but this is much bigger. 

 We started with the quilts in the main show on the first day, then did the special exhibit quilts on the next day. So much beauty and inspiration.  

This is the Best in Show winner.

"Chihuly's Gondola" by Melissa Sobotka.

Such an amazing quilt.  My photo does not do it justice.  All that shading, etc, was done in fabric.  No digital photo's on fabric or painting. 

This was my favorite of the ones that just delight me and make me smile.

"You are what you eat" by Kathy York. Honorable Mention in the Art - Whimsical category.

Here's some examples of detail and texture that is achieved with fabric.

"Cock of the Walk" by David Taylor.  Third place in Art- Pictorial category.

"Did You Wash Your Beak?" by David Taylor.  Judges Choice award.

The machine quilting was phenomenal.  I didn't get too many great pics of it but here's one that shows up.

Close up of "Zen Magpies" by Helen Godden. Honorable Mention in Art - Painted Surface category.

And the only pics of hand quilting that I have were from quilts in the special exhibit.  I'll share some of those in future blog posts.

You can see all the winning quilts here.  Go look.  They are amazing.

Quilt Retreat in Leavenworth

This was the 12th year that Tink and I have gone to Leavenworth on a quilt retreat with friends from our online guild, WASIQ.    It is such a treat to spend 4 days quilting and having fun.   Leavenworth offers other diversions that take me out of the sewing room......shopping, of course....food....and a fabulous spa just 2 doors down where I enjoyed a 90 minute massage!

One of our favorite restaurants is South...yummy Mexican.  Actually they say its Latin.  We went three times this year!  Twice for dinner and again for happy hour.

Here we are with our server Jessie, who remembered us from last year...including where we sat!  I didn't think we were that rowdy!  LOL!

Something new we did this year was have a "Jelly Roll Race".   This link best describes the race.

Here are the gals with their quilt tops right after they finished...I labeled who came in 1st, 2nd & 3rd.  You can click on the collage to see it bigger.

Here we all are with our tops:

A better shot of mine:

I also made this quilt top at retreat:

Another great retreat over.   Can't wait for next year!

Fabric Friday and Firsts

This is just a few bolts from the "Nicey Jane" collection by Heather Bailey.   I hadn't seen any of her work before seeing these at the Kingston Quilt shop.   Seems like there are more and more new fabric designers out there!   Hard to stay current but I do love the additional choices I get for my quilts.    :)

Tink and I got to add another "first" to a long list of things we've done together.   I've mentioned that both of us got dream jobs at the Kingston Quilt shop last June.  Last Wednesday was the first time we got to work together ALONE.  The whole shop to ourselves.  So much fun.   

Days end....time for a rest.

We get to have another day next month....thank you dear boss.......can't wait.

Charm Bracelets

A while ago us Yaya's started talking about making/gathering charms that would represent parts of our friendship...both the serious and the funny. M & Y came up with the idea of making bracelets to showcase our charms. Coolio! We've collected a few charms and a few were made (thanks to M & Y). And last Friday we set to work on the bracelets. Here we are with our supplies ready to go:

Lots of laughter, of course!

This is my bracelet in progress. All of us chose the same design of three strands of beads. The differences are in which beads we chose and where we put our charms.

M & I have finished! Woo hoo.

Here's my finished product! I love it! There are still charms to be added that we haven't made yet. But they are easy to incorporate later.

Such a fun project loaded with memories!

Card Making

I needed to make a few home made gifts for some friends of mine and didn't want to sew anything. I wanted to do something new. I headed to the local rubber stamping store to get supplies to make cards. It was a bit overwhelming with all the choices. I imagine that's what others feel like the first time they walk into a quilt store to buy fabric for a quilt! I ended up seeing a couple cards made up that I liked and asked the owner, "to get me all the stuff to make those", and she kindly did....and she let me take pictures of the cards so I could remember what they looked like once I got home. Here's my goodies:

I made them assembly line style...just like I do my quilting.

And here is a sampling of what I made:


And these are my little gift packets:

It was so much fun. If ya want to come over and make some.....call me....I've got lots of supplies left! :)

Another Petite Yaya Quilt

When my daughter Jennifer turned 18 many years ago, I wanted to give her a quilt made by the adult women in her life who were close to me & her. You've read about the Yaya's before and how special they are in my life...well, they also hold a special place in Jenn's heart. You can read her blog about her Yaya quilt here. I know she feels loved when she looks at her quilt and I also hope it reminds her about the value of friendship....we women need each other!

Well, another of the Yaya daughters had some significant milestones in the past year (marriage and moving away) that I thought would be great to celebrate with another sampler quilt made by us Ya's. This young lady loves that bright spring/lime green color and wanted something psychedelic. This is the fabric I found for our focus:

It's a Kaffe Fassett fabric called "Millefiore" and I thought it fit what she wanted nicely. Isn't it fun?

Here is top that I just finished yesterday:

Each Yaya made a block, Jennifer made one also and I made two. Tink helped me with finishing. It's a bright and happy quilt, don't you think? I can't wait to get it quilted and then on it's way to its new home to warm the heart of another daughter. We love you, S!

Friendship and Vacation

“Life would get busier and more varied, populated both by beautiful things and unfortunate circumstances. If their friendship demanded exclusivity or solitude, it couldn’t work. If it required everything to go as planned, it would turn brittle, and ultimately it would break. On the other hand, she knew that if they could be flexible and big, if they could encompass change, then they would make it.”
Ann Brashares

I have always loved this quote from “Girls in Pants. The Third Summer of the Sisterhood”. This last year with the Yaya’s has been one of both “beautiful things and unfortunate circumstances”…marriage, separation, birth, moving, cancer, retirement, college graduation, children leaving home, parents ailing…and we have encompassed change (some times with a bunch of kicking, screaming and tears!) and we have made it.

This year’s vacation was such a wonderful time of renewal…of choosing to grow together…to love together…to be together. What I enjoy most about our time at the beach is the level of intimacy we gain by not having to go home and do life. We have many uninterrupted days to talk. One day flowing into another.

We were blessed by waking up our first morning to snow. I have never seen snow on the coast before. We took just enough time to run onto the beach, get our pictures, then back to the warm house and a warm drink. It was seriously cold with the wind blowing like it only does at the coast.

Our group project this year was aprons. I only made one while the other girls each made two. They all turned out so dang cute!
Dancing was on the agenda for each night. One does have to do something to burn the immense number of calories consumed! Toga night dancing was the best.



The weather turned clear and nice after the snow. That meant beach walks. I was “challenged” to get an artistic shot…which resulted in getting quite wet as I couldn’t get up fast enough!

Pacific Beach has a couple of cute shops to be explored. Although we certainly didn’t need to find the fudge place!

Time to start putting away our pennies for next year! :)

Feet Friday

Chillin' at the movies!

To Obsess

Here Tink and I are a Red Hat convention back in September. Notice what we are doing?
Both of us were new to blogging (me more so) and picture taking is a natural thing to do when one is a blogger, right?

The dictionary defines obsess as: to preoccupy intensely or abnormally. Hummm….we are definitely preoccupied with our blog picture taking…..yeah, I’d say it’s intense…but abnormal? I suppose that depends on who you ask. Did our fellow Red Hatters think we were being “abnormal” when we were taking pics of everything? Kinda hard to do when one is dressed in red and purple jammies with a hat made from a bra. Ok, wrong crowd. Hee, hee. Do our friends think we are “abnormal” when we whip out cameras to capture the cracker box or the doughnut at the store or their feet….or the myriad of times we are found with camera’s pointing at ourselves? Maybe!

I’m not the brave type when it comes to picture taking. You’re more likely to find me hiding behind a chair and zooming in rather than standing right up for everyone to see. I’m hoping to be more like my picture taking mentor, Tink, by the time this “picture a day” thing is done with. She’s a good example when it comes to that.
So if you ever see me with my cute little red camera – SMILE!

Winter Quilts

Yesterday we got our Christmas tree decorated, which completes the little bit of seasonal decorating that I do. We’ve had a fake tree for the past 5 or 6 years but this year I wanted a fresh one. It smells so good…love it….and so does the cat, but that’s a blog for another day. LOL.

I have two quilts that I take out this time of year. One is my Warm Wishes quilt made of flannel. It stays out all winter since it’s the best for keeping me warm on the couch during the cold months.

It’s an easy quilt to make and one of the patterns I actually get done fast. What I love about this pattern is that it looks more complicated than it really is. It only has one pieced block in it…a rail fence (3 rectangles sewn together) which is alternated with a plain square. By turning the rail fence blocks around the plain squares creates the pattern.
Can you see the blocks and how they are turned?

Easy peasy. Not much to cut out and not much sewing.

The other quilt I take out is my Yaya Christmas quilt.

Several years ago when all us Yaya’s were quilting we made birthday blocks for each other based on a fabric theme. I had picked a red/green fabric for them to use…it wasn’t really Christmassy…just red & green. I had the 4 blocks for many years before I decided what I wanted to do with them. When I saw this pattern (can’t remember what it’s called or what book I got it from….sorry) I noticed the plain middle of the blocks could be replaced with pieced blocks…and that’s where my Yaya blocks went.
Here are a couple of them:

Sally Howard machine quilted it and thus completed the friendship spirit of this quilt.

I love having it out as a reminder of the people in my life that I am blessed to know.

Whose idea was this anyway?

Notes to self:

You are NOT 10 years old anymore.

Your body can NOT handle the bumps and jolts of sliding down a flight of stairs.

You WILL pay for it the next day.

Your hubby told you not to try it...you may want to listen next time.

And lastly......who cares? IT WAS FUN!!! Let's do it again....this time with better equipment. Maybe we'll go faster. :)

Togetherness

Tink and I have been best friends for nearly 20 years. We have done so many things in those years. She loves life with exuberance and I can count on her for trying new things…especially if it involves togetherness! She loves togetherness.

Several years ago I wanted to try a sprint triathlon. It’s a shortened version of the one you are probably thinking about. Only ¼ mile swim, 12 miles on the bike and a 3 mile run. Hubby graciously agreed to go with me and keep me company. It was a leisurely day for him as I didn’t really train and spent most of my time in the back of the pack. Heck, I was in it for the experience not the competition. We finished and enjoyed the weekend at Lake Chelan. We had a great time. Cross that off life’s “to-do” list.


But hubby was curious about what his time would have been if he had not stayed with me. Let’s try it again. But I needed something to be different the second time around, so I asked Tink if she and her man wanted to go with us. She agreed.

Occasionally during the year of our non-training training, Tink would comment that she didn’t know how to swim. Really?...I didn’t think she means that she can’t swim….just that she’s not good at it…I mean, who agrees to a triathlon if they can’t swim? (that would be one of the things I do that frustrates my dear bff…not believing her words!) Oh, but I forgot Tink’s love of togetherness…of relationship….of creating new and meaningful memories.

We won’t go into any details but Tink swears she nearly drowned! All I know for sure is that I had an awesome time racing side by side with my best friend that year, hubby was able to race for his own time (cut off over on hour), the four of us had fun at the lake and we have a great story to add to the memory books.