Quilting Comfort

Getter Done

2011-03-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

On the first Saturday of every month I have the good fortune to have a special group of women gather in my sewing room. There are 12 of us and we range in age from 40 to 96. We bring what ever we are needing to get done (hence the name) we share,laugh,give creative input and enjoy good food.

I wanted to show some of the work being done.

I will be posting more of the finished projects as we go along. One is a beautiful double wedding ring that is just going to the quilter. Stay tuned.

Hope you all have a Happy St. Paddy's Day. This is how we are sporting the green this year.

Happy New Year Everyone

2010-12-31T14:58:00.000-08:00

I have been making a list of my sewing and quilting projects for 2011. Have any of you out there been planning too? With my move to Rogue River, Or. I have been blessed with a beautiful space to share with my sisters and some new quilting friends I have made. I am looking forward to a creative filled year and will enjoy following what all the rest of my cyber buddies are doing.

Bless all of you and be safe this New Year's Eve

Candy

Still a Blogging Novice

2010-09-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else have as hard a time with getting your blog to look the way you would like it to? I sure do. For example I just added the header photo but for the life of me I couldnt figure out how to get my blog title in the center of the header.

I also tried to put a pretty divider between each of my past post. I got the first one where I wanted it but the next one went all the way to the bottom of my blog page.

I would appreciate any help I could get from my fellow bloggers.

A Quilters Nightmare

2010-06-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

I had to pack my sewing room for our upcoming move to Oregon.

How sad is that but I just think of the new space I will have when I get to the new house.

Remembering Mom

2010-04-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about my mom today and thought I would share some of her hand work with you. Mom liked to knit and do needle point. When I was a little girl I loved getting these bootie slippers from mom that had a little pom pom on the front top of the slipper. I thought they were like ballet slippers. Mom use to knit little beanies to donate to the hospital for the newborn babies. She loved babies.

I am fortunate to have two of my mom's needle point pieces one finished and one not. This is a sample stitch pillow mom did.

The other piece I have mom never did finish and I keep it just the way she left it with her needle still in place.

Mom developed Alzheimer's and little by little lost pieces of herself. I keep these works of hers in my sewing room where I can see them everyday and feel I still have her with me.

A Sisters Quilting Retreat

2010-03-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

I have three sisters and we are all into quilting. Every year for the past three years we get together, just after Valentines Day, for a week of quilting and reminiscing. We gather at my sister Eileen's house in Rogue River, Oregon. It is a perfect retreat place on ten acres in the woods of Southern Oregon. We take projects to finish and some to start. We hit every quilt shop from Medford to Grants Pass just to be sure there isnt a fabric we may have missed. Last year on one of our shopping excursions I found this quilt pattern for tea pots and tea cups. My second favorite thing to collect is exactly - Tea Pots and Tea Cups.

Eileen and I decided to work on these blocks together this year and Cathy wanted to finish a quilt top she had been working on for her granddaughter Liberty.

I used 1930's prints and Eileen pulled from her stash. My sister Maureen kind of came and went working on hand work. She likes to do all her quilts by hand piecing.

Here are a few photos of what we accomplished.

Eileen hard at work . Last year she was working in the diamond covers you see on the chairs. They are like a extra long table runner covering the front and back of her dinning room chairs.

Here is Cathy working away on Liberty's quilt top. They just love me to take pics cant you tell. Maureen never sits still long enough for me to get her. Cathy's finished quilt top

Here is one of Eileen's and my tea pots before the spout and handle is appliqued on

I love these visits and I love and cherish the time I get to spend with these women

Finally a pic of Maureen. That is her on the front left and me front right. I had her captive when we went to lunch one day

One Moment in Time

2010-01-31T19:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-17T08:16:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

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

A Quilt for Carson

2009-10-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

My grandson Carson is quite a character. He is animated, funny and old beyond his years. Sometimes he just kills my with the expressions on his face. He is a real trip to be with. When I was out at a quilt shop a quilt pattern caught my eye that said Carson all over it.

It is so bright, busy and full of life just like he is and he happens to love turtles (the Ninja kind of course)
He also loves the ocean and goes sailing with his Oma (his other grandma) all the time. I started working on the quilt in Febuary when I was up in Oregon visiting with my three sisters. I love batiks and have been collecting them for some time.

The pattern called for paper piecing and a little applique. I had never done any paper piecing so the first block went a bit slow. Once I got the hang of it I really enjoyed the process.

I am happy to say I finished on time for Carson's birthday in October and I was pleased with the outcome.

A friend of mine, Vickie, collects sea turtles and she liked the quilt so much she has ask me to do one for her. I guess I will be getting more practice in paper piecing next year,lol

Hope you enjoy the blog and please come back again

My Creative Place

2009-09-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

My sewing room has to be my most favorite rooms in my house. This cabinet was given to my by my mother-in-Law and is a great place for all my threads. Everything is easy to see and right in reach. The desk I use belonged to my mom. She left it to one of my sons when she passed away and I am holding onto it for him til he and his wife purchase their first home. He likes the idea of things for the family being make by his mom on the desk belonging to his grandmother.

I have a comfortable chair for hand work and reading. The pile on the table is my to do projects including the fabric for all the PJ's I make for my family at Christmas every year. I always say I'm going to start early each year but here I am it's September and I havent started.

My fabric cabinets double as a cutting table and gives me alot of storage my favorite addiction FABRIC !!.

Well thank you for visiting. Please come back soon. I will be posting projects as I get them done between now and Christmas. Happy Quilting

Candy

One of My Favorite Places

2009-08-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

When I read other quilters blogs I love seeing where they live and everyday things they do. So I decided to start my first blog with one of my favorite places. It's my back yard.

I like to sit out there and watch all the commings and goings of the local bird life in the morning or the little lizards while they sun themselves and do their pushups.

The picture on the bottom is the view from my back door. The big tree in the middle picture is a Mulberry tree and gets delicious berries every year. The birds love to snack on them. I have always wanted to make a jam out of the berries but havent learned yet.

The top picture I took just because I thought it was a pretty the play of light and shade.