Signs of spring

I was recently going to get my grandkids and had a few extra hours so I stopped in at a beautiful garden I belong to, Filoli, and took some wonderful pictures of the gorgeous flowers (and peacock).  I almost missed the tulips.  I think the colors are so inspiring!

They also had a display of arrangements made by students in their program.  I was totally overwhelmed with the job these students did.

And the winner is....

Thanks for all the great comments on what the highlight of your week was!  My random number generator chose:

HOLLY FIELD

as the winner of the Betsy Chutchian book.  Please send me your email address so I can ship it off to you right away!

We had a very busy family weekend;  my grandson had his first communion on Saturday morning (my very first event of this sort) and we had all our kids and  almost all the grandkids together for brunch afterwards at my daughters house in SF!  Little Eli was back at their house with my daughter in law's parents who are visiting from Germany this week.  My son turned 30 and they had a little party for him, too.  This pictures includes my son (left) and my two daughters (standing in the back).  My kids have grown up and it's now a totally new generation, watching the grandkids do what we watched our own kids too. Talk about feeling old!

On a sewing front,  I am back to sewing the triangle gatherings together and am starting to think about a setting.  There are just a few more to go!


I tried using Bonnie's new Quiltmaker block but I think it's too dominant:


Then I went with the original idea I had, to put them with hourglass blocks of very bright colors.  Still not loving it.



Then I went with pulling lots of different fabrics from my stash for possible sashing strips-- not sure I'm loving any of them, yet.

I've seen some with sashing strips-- someone has made sashing using 2 or 3 different strips of fabric, often two lights and a dark.  That just seems like a heck of a lot of work and I'm not sure what colors I'd like for the sashing...

I also played with dark corner stones...

What would you do with 98 different blocks, all finishing at 7"???
I'm really perplexed... and now my sewing room is a disaster, by my having pulled so many different things to try.


Let me show you what I did complete and am happy with... I made another Hawaiian bag, for an auction in Kauai.  Two sides to every bag, of course!

Just FYI... I think I ran out of the x-rated Santa fabric!

coming on my blog this week will be some gorgeous flowers from Filoli Gardens and also the mini quilt show from First Friday in Bend at Quilt Works...

Have a great week!

GIVEAWAY time

I think it's time for a GIVEAWAY!!

I'm in a good mood this week (actually I am almost always in a good mood!) but particularly good this week!  Why?

1--had the 3 grandkids this weekend
2--had the littlest #4 grandson on Monday
3--had the littlest #4 grandson again this morning
(note I am not a very good sharer of grandchildren--my daughter in law is from Germany and her parents come frequently-- they are coming on Friday for about a week and when they're in town... I'm persona non-grata!!)
4--I sold my mom's car this week (the last piece of deconstructing her California life is now complete)
5--Claire came over to sew with me and I am closer to getting my triangle gatherings all done
6--made a Hawaiian bag for an auction
7--my youngest son is going to be 30 (how did that happen) on Saturday

8-- most importantly:  LIFE IS GOOD!!!

So, in honor of life being so great, I'm giving away a book I just realized I have two copies of:

Classic & Heirloom Quilts, by Betsy Chutchian
Eight 1800s inspired quilts in three sizes.


How to win?
Please leave me a comment detailing one great thing about your week...
please be sure to include your email address
I'll draw a winner on FRIDAY!!!

xxxxs,
Randy

My doll quilt

I received in mail a most adorable little doll quilt made in England and sent to me by Sue Phillips!  It's really sweet and she hand quilted it, too.  She enclosed two great Jo Morton fabrics and some chocolate, which you'll note is not in the picture...hmmm, where could it have gone?? VBG



This little swap is such a fun project to participate in.  Thanks to Lori (humblequilts) for organizing it once again!

I'm happy to also report that on our drive to and from Oregon, I worked on my  Primitive Gatherings freebie project from last summer.  I figured it's time to get it done (the main project I did is awaiting a million tiny half square triangles to be sewn and attached...).  I think I've shown you some of the blocks.  Here are the other ones I've done.  Hopefully not duplicates... You'll note that my applique is pretty rudimentary. Kind of primitive but I'm not really bothered by it.  No one will notice when it's all together.

  
No, the tree is not supposed to be bent over...but it was windy in this neighborhood.  (Hahaha).


Roof is crooked and chimney isn't built onto the roof very well!  VBG


The pieces are so tiny that I lost a window in transit... the last two windows (which were missing) need to be sewn down, next time I take up the project!


I think these bushes need something (some texture?)... and the roof is similarly crooked.  What terrible carpentry!!

I have 7 or 8 sewn down;  two more have been prepped and ready for sewing.  That means only two more to prep and sew.

The finishing pack is just adorable.  It will be an adorable quilt when done.  And I'm almost ready to start thinking about putting it together...
Wool applique is really fun and I enjoy playing around with different threads that don't always match.  It's just a big bag of things to shlep around.  Not a project to take on a plane, that's for sure.

Doll quilt swap sent and received etc

I participated in Lori's (humblequilts) doll quilt swap and managed to get my quilt in the mail and got it delivered weeks before the deadline.  Amazing for me!  I did forget to snap a picture and enclose a card...but heck... I got it done.

Robin Boggan was kind enough to send me a picture of the quilt.  I'm delighted that she liked it. Sewing thimbles is no small feat, especially for someone as inaccurate as me.  And sewing small ones?  Don't look too closely!! I made this using the Primitive Gatherings tiny template. They might be 2".    Since then I've bought different templates for different size thimbles.  I even bought a die for my Accuquilt but have yet to use it.  I think thimbles are really fun to look at and I've seen some awesome quilts.  I think I recently saw one using homespuns, which was awesome.




This is also going to be my April mini-, per Wendy Reed (ConstantQuilter)!  She said it was ok and that's good enough for me!

I also finished my basket quilt (Bea et Cecile Quiltalong) and because of the deadline today (and the fact that I forgot to take it with me to Oregon to quilt), I took it to a new local longarm quilter nearby and he did a fabulous job!  I'm very pleased with the result.  At first, I wasn't really fond of it.  But now I'm liking it!  I think I'll add it to my wall of small quilts!



And  for the backing, I used up some fabric and blocks I hadn't been very fond of either.  In hindsight, I could've made the quilt smaller and included the baskets on the back in the total calculation (needed 16 blocks) but it's ok...


Remember I made little Emma the Frozen quilt?  Well, little Jack (4) wanted a Thomas quilt so I found some fabric at Joann's in Bend and we worked on it this weekend.  Little Jack sat next to me at my machine; I had the foot pedal on a stool and he'd operate the pedal as well as the scissor button.  Now I just need to quilt it.  I am happy with the pattern.  I found it in a book of Nine-Patch quilts.  Seemed really simple.  Blocks are 6" finished.



This is a week with lots of grandkid time.  I am actually getting little Eli for most of tomorrow (first time!!) as his mom is going to run some errands and will drop him off in the morning!  We had the 3 this weekend;  I wound up keeping the oldest one (8) because the principal at his school passed away from cancer this week and he's having trouble understanding this so I offered to have him stay with me (school is out tomorrow because of the funeral)-- he and I are going to make a quilt for her family!  He's very excited to be the only one here.

A little bit of progress

Remember that hourglass quilt I've been working on?  It's the one that Bonnie Hunter did for a leaders/ender project a few years ago?

Well, when Bonnie was visiting me recently I showed her my project.  I had changed her colors but she was excited about it, as was I.

I brought it up to Oregon and finally got another border on.  of course I hadn't realized that I sewed on one small side before sewing a whole extra set of hourglass blocks.  Oh well.




My husband and I have spent the past 10 days at our cabin in Oregon, trying to take care of honeydo type things and checking on my mom.  Yesterday, finally, it warmed up, for the first time.  Enough for us to sit out on my new patio furniture and enjoy the sunset (yes, and a cocktail).  Here's Max sitting with us!
 

I had forgotten Max's arthritis medicine in California, as I told you.  We figured it would be smart to get a local vet here in Sunriver so today I took him for his first appointment.  
What a difference!  The new (and very young) vet checked everything;  he's had a small lump back by his left leg and she aspirated it -- called me later to tell me it's a type of mast cell cancer which needs to be removed.  OMG.  Aren't we happy that we took him to another vet and got another opinion?  Our usual vet had felt it and was indifferent as to whether we removed it or not.  Never mentioned the possibility of it being cancer nor suggested we test it.  So now we need to decide if we're going to do it in California or up in Sunriver.  I'm inclined to go with the new vet in Oregon...

Anyway, now there's something else to be concerned with.  My poor Max. ;-(

And I thought I was done....

I have been doing the Triangle Gatherings project with Primitive Gatherings for what  seems like forever.  I fell a little behind at the end, printed all the patterns out and have been working hard at finishing what I thought was the end.  WRONG.

I just learned there are 98.... don't know why I stopped printing at 93!  And the patterns have been removed.  Oh well.  My quilt will have 93 or maybe some duplicates if I need more.  If you have printed 94-98 and wouldn't mind sharing them with me, I'd be greatly appreciative!  If not, it's ok, too.


I'm not loving how this one turned out but I'm not changing it.  I used birdy fabric along with triangles!


Better contrast in this one!










In cleaning up my sewing room up here at our cabin, I found a couple of bags of half square triangles.  Initially I was thinking of different settings and then realized I have 93 different choices (although I only have the last ones with me) so I'm happy.  Might just be my April mini!!

I also put on the binding on my doll quilt for Lori's swap and will sew that down on my way back home on Wednesday. That and my wool blocks, which I'm now motivated to get done!

It's a sewing weekend for me (rainy and windy) so I'm excited to finally get something DONE (well, I thought it was done...that counts for something, right?) VBG.

Moving along slowly

You might remember that I started working on the Quiltmania mystery from 2014.  I must admit that i got stuck on the corners of one round, which was supposed to have tiny tiny hexies.  I struggled, got nowhere and finally decided to switch it up.  I found a lovely flower in a strip I had been wanting to use.



Once it's done, I don't think it'll be apparent that I substituted something in the corners!

And I also finally did a little handwork on our drive up to Sunriver.  Picked up my Primitive Gatherings from last summer... Better get going.  I think the new project will be released in a few months.  I really do enjoy wool applique; and once you get all the prep work done, it goes pretty quickly.  I added a chimney to this house, as I thought it looked a little naked!!



Last night I sewed the last of the Triangle Gatherings papers together and now just need to cut them apart and resew them to the final 8 patterns I've got left to do.  Progress!!!

Last but not least, here's Max.  Max is 9 and is having some arthritis issues.  We got a very strong medication from our vet for him, which seemed to be working very well.  Then I packed a bag with his stuff (etc) and LEFT it in the kitchen on our way to Sunriver.  UGH.  Try getting vet medicine replaced.  I did learn something:  Costco carries vet medicine;  problem is that my vet isn't licensed in Oregon so couldn't call ion the prescription.  Well, Max is going to get a local vet this week so we don't have this problem again... especially with him getting older.  We had to buy a RAMP for him to get into the car as he's no longer able to jump into the back. SAD...  Hope it works!