One Moment in Time

Have you ever had a day that just felt special? The air was different and every fiber of your being told you drink in this day.  Well yesterday was that kind of a day for me.  I went on a small hike with a group of 10 women. We hiked into a small redwood grove. Here surrounded by these majestic trees we had an hour of yoga .  There was a beautiful breeze. You could hear the birds in the tree all around .

This is Kara. She is the yoga instructor and a very good friend of mine. She puts a lot of love and passion into what she does. She is one of Gods special people. I am very grateful to have her friendship.
Below is a photo of the whole group after we had finished our class and were preparing to hike back to our cars. Everyone was in a great  state of mind. Some were going out to dinner that evening, or to a movie. I was headed home to work on the Camp Sloanie assignment from Pat Sloan's blogg.

Check out the Pat Sloan blog.  She has come up with a virtual Quilting Camp weekend called Camp Sloanie.  For the past week when you went to her blog she gave you assignments to get ready for the Quilt Camp weekend coming up Feb 5,6,&7.

The project is to use up your stash and/or pre cuts you have on hand. No buying for this project necessary. The challenge is to use what you have on hand. Here are my color choices so far.

The assignment for this week is to start cutting the fabric into 2.5" strips and contrasting fabric into 10.5" squares.  I decided to use the greens for my strips and the reds as the squares.  I as I went along other fabrics kept calling me to use them in the project. I ended up cutting three colors for the squares, two different reds,some blues and a really fun green.

I really think the green with the houses is going to be cute.


These squares will be cut on the diagonal.

I cut all my green 2.5" strips. I used 9 different prints to give me plenty of creative choices.

Still have some blues and reds to cut up this week.
Then I'll be ready to go this weekend. Stay tuned and I will post my results from the weekend.

Well this is the end of a great weekend filled with friends, the peace of nature and the creativity of my favorite thing to do.  QUILTING.

A Quilt for Lori

I have a friend at work that likes to tease me lovingly about my quilting.  She gets a kick out of how addicted to fabric I am.  Her thing is Coach purses and we know how expensive they are.
Back in March of last year I was at a small quilt show out here in Calif and found this beautiful panel I knew she would love and I planned on making a lap quilt for Lori for Christmas.  I wanted to show her quilts are artistic and contemporary as well as traditional. Here is a pic of the panel.

I just love the bright and vibrant colors.  Look at the way the pattern gives the water movement.  I was very excited about makeing this for her. 
In April Lori found out she had breast cancer. She underwent a double mastectomy and is receiving chemotherapy now.  Because of this the quilt I wanted to do for her took on a different meaning.  I wanted her to know that her coworkers were thinking of her. I work in the medical industry with the surgerons that care for cancer patients so we all had inside knowledge of what she was up against. 
To include everyone who wanted to be a part of the project I cut up a bunch of 8 1/2 inch squares and asked anyone who wanted to, to decorate the square in any way they liked .   I plan to incorporate all the squares into the back of the quilt. Some of my coworkers really got into it. Here are some of the squares I have gotten back.

This one was done by one of the guys I work with. He like to bike ride and photography. He took the pic when he was out on a ride with his son and the went throught the process of figuring out how to get the photo on fabric.  I was impressed with all the thought, time and effort that went into the block.


Here are a few of the others. Everyone who did one told me they werent very creative and didnt know what to do.  When I saw what they had done I told them all they were pretty darn creative in my opinion

I think this sums up what we all feel

I have added some boarders of batik fabrics to the panel to make a larger quilt and give the panel some more depth.  I hope Lori enjoys the final product. We will be giving it to her when she comes back to work. That will hopfully be in April. Here is a pic of the quilt top so far.

Febuary 2010 Favorite Block Swap

So  on Block Central.com I am participating in a number of swaps one of them being the Favorite Block Swap. It is a bi-monthly swap where the winner of the previous favorite block picks a fabric theme for the next. We all make our favorite block (hence the name) out of the theme fabric.  This month the theme is greens and white. Quite appropriate since St Patty's Day is coming. Yesterday I worked on my block and I thought I would share it with you. Hope you like it.

Yea !! Welcome 2010

I had a wonderful holiday with my family this year.  My grandsons Ethan and Carson came over and we bake sugar cookies the Saturday before Christmas.  We made them as gifts for their other grandparents. As you can see I had a ball. On Christmas Eve I gave my family their PJ's I had made for each of them.  Ethan,Carson & Mom (DIL Chrissie) all got into theirs before the ride home.  Early Christmas morning I caught a flight to Denver to spend the weekend with my son Mark and his family.  I got to see how my grandchildren Hunter and Hannah liked the PJs too.  We went to Evergreen Lake on Saturday to watch the ice skating and just enjoy the beauty of the day. I couldnt resist taking this picture of Hunter in his snow get up.  He reminds me of on of the kids in the Christmas story.  I feel so blessed to have these people in my life and it all started with the 3 young men pictured at the bottom of this posting.  From right to left they are my sons Michael (Ethan and Carson's Dad) Mark (Hunter and Hannah's Dad) and Matthew (Still single)

One of my goals for this year is to update my blog more often and hopefully get better at the formatting. Please come again.  My best wishes to all for a happy,healthy and blessed New Year.

Candy