Monday, July 31, 2017

Volcano National Park

I am going to bore you with a few vacation photos because it's kind of like journaling for me and helps me remember our trip :). Maybe some of them will be inspirational for landscape quilts!


This is Rainbow Falls.  I am no photographer, by any means, but I do like to experiment with different "frames" when I'm taking pictures, therefore I have several pictures of the same waterfall.  Two are shown here.


We went to Volcano National Park which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Everything about it was beautiful and fascinating.


Heading inside Thursten Lava Tube.

We had to stop and buy flashlights.  We brought some with us, as my husband had read up and was prepared, but our luggage arrived 24 hours after we did.  Thankfully we only missed it for one day - we were happy to see it when it did arrive!


We stood less than a mile from the world's largest lava lake!  We could see the lava splashing up the sides.



This is Akaka Falls.  It has a straight fall of 442 feet - twice the height of Niagara Falls.

I'll share some more photos tomorrow!

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Big Island Quilt Shops!


My husband is always great about making sure I get to some quilt shops when we're traveling.  There are several shops on the Big Island of Hawaii! I didn't make it to the shops in Hilo but I went to most of them on the West side of the island.
The first one we stopped at is in the Waimea Center in Kamuela.  It is called Topstitch and it's a really fun little shop.  The owner was very helpful both with fabric and information on a good place to eat in town.  I loved her store hours sign (pictured left).

I also visited Quilt Passions in Kailua-Kona.  It is a great store packed full of wonderful fabrics and notions.  They had a Quilting on the Beach retreat going on the week I was there (if only I'd known!) There is a Marriott Hotel next door to this shop and next door to the hotel is the beach!  The quilt retreat was at the hotel and on the weekend - just a day after we left - they were having a quilt show at the hotel.  I picked up a couple of license plates to add to my collection and their Row by Row pattern.
I went to a couple of other quilt stores in Kailua-Kona.  Both were very crowded and kind of dirty... So having said that, I won't mention them by name :) One even had the bolts of fabric on the shelves with the plastic still on them!  How are you supposed to touch it or even see it? Hmmm....  And there was a box of mousetraps for sale in that store.  I don't believe I've ever seen mousetraps for sale in a quilt shop before.  To give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they have more challenges storing fabric, due to the more humid weather than we do here in the desert!
I managed to pick up some nice Hawaiian prints that I plan to incorporate into my Millefiori quilt! My suitcase weighed four pounds more when I came home :)

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Machine Embroidery


As you know, I do not do machine embroidery but I admire the work of those who do.  This adorable baby bath organizer was made by my friend Pam. She said even the quilting was done in the hoop!  Wow!  SO cute!

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Mug Mats


I have not done much in the way of sewing the past couple of weeks but I did finish up my Mug Mats!
It's nice to complete a project :)
My daughter is here this week and today we pinned a large t-shirt quilt that she made for her husband.  Maybe tomorrow she'll start quilting it!


Monday, July 24, 2017

Ketchup Lovers Unite!


I'm still trying to catch up from our trip to - you guessed it - Hawaii!  We went to the Big Island for the first time, and had a wonderful time!  I'll post some trip pictures and sewing pictures soon :)

This week our granddaughter and daughter are here visiting - boy are we lucky!  (We enjoyed all of our kids visiting over the weekend!)

I finally found someone who loves ketchup as much as me!  First she was dipping some fries in her ketchup, then she dipped in her whole hand and sucked off the ketchup, then she just decided to drink it.  We all just need to enjoy life this much!

Have a great day :)


Saturday, July 22, 2017

I'm Back!!


I'm back - again!  Can you tell from these photos where I was this past week?  My husband had another out of town meeting and I went with him :)  We had a great time and returned home yesterday, on my birthday!  Thanks to my family and friends for the thoughtful cards, gifts and well wishes - it made for a really fun day.  I'm also fortunate enough to have all of my children (and granddaughter) visiting this weekend - the very best gift of all!  And I got to see my parents yesterday too - they've put up with me longer than anyone :). They are the best!

I'll be posting some pictures and catching up on my blog so stay tuned!

Friday, July 14, 2017

Millefiori

I started the The New Hexagon Millefiore Quilt Along (see link below). Does it matter if  I am a couple of years behind? Nah....

I found some larger print fabrics at the quilt shop in Midway, Utah last week.  I'm determined to use mostly what I have in my stash.  I just needed some large prints for fussy cutting and to kick start the color choices.

http://www.katjasquiltshoppe.com/the-new-hexagon-millefiore-quilt-along.htm


Here are some pictures of the first Rosette taking shape!  So far I'm liking it!



I also wanted to share some photos of my bees and lady bug up close - because they're pretty cute, if I do say so myself :)

Have a great weekend!!

Thursday, July 13, 2017

David Taylor at CWQG

Last night was the Colorado West Quilt Guild meeting and our program speaker was David Taylor.  He gave a very entertaining talk and slide show and brought a couple of his quilts to show.  He sells most of his work so most of the quilts we saw were in the slide show.

He does turned edge hand appliqué - the edges are all turned before he appliqués them down.  His pieces are also heavily machine quilted. He uses commercial fabrics. His quilts are so artistic and his use of the fabrics to create the art is quite amazing!


Look at all of the different fabrics in the birds!  His thread choices also play a roll in the design.


This is his App quilt for a challenge he participated in.  He said he loves jigsaw puzzles and his company used to be called Blue Leaf Designs.  Check out the photo below to see the quilting on this wallhanging - very clever!


David said that the CWQG invited him to speak 10 years ago (I remember going!) and that was the very first time he'd ever spoken at a quilt guild.  He speaks all over the world now.  He said he still finds it hard to believe people will pay him money to talk about himself :)




I was sitting way in the back so I only caught a couple of pictures of the wonderful Show and Tell items that were shown.


This table runner will be sold at Apple Fest in the Fall.

July is my birthday month, so I was able to pick a present out of the birthday basket :)


And Gini, just for fun, gave me some hot air balloon fabric and a fan, made from hot air balloon fabric!!  How sweet!!  I just may have to print off one of my hot air balloon pictures and make a quilt!!

Stay tuned - tomorrow I'll show you what I worked on today - Millefiori!!

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Bear Block

My Dad's surgery went very well and while he was recuperating I worked on my bear block and got it all done! I am really loving working on these blocks - they are stretching me a bit and that is fun.  I think they're SO cute :)
The bees were made using the bullion stitch and I am happy with the way they turned out!  I embroidered them last because I was a little nervous about making them, but they weren't too difficult!  Yeah!  So fun :)



Miss Cutie is cooking up crayons in her kitchen!  She is talking, talking, talking and SO fun.  I love every minute that I get to spend with her!


And a late Happy Birthday wish to my son Jeff!!  his birthday was on Monday.  It sounds like he had a great birthday :)

I hope your summer is going well.  I have another busy couple of weeks but I'll be posting here and there!!

Monday, July 3, 2017

Artwork


When we stayed in Telluride a few weeks ago, we rented a house that had a lot of cool artwork.  I don't know if the owner is a quilter or not but she had several miniature quilts hanging around the house!  Most of them were framed, behind glass, so the pictures aren't great but enjoy!



This is a fun embroidered pillow.



Sorry, it was hard to get a picture without getting my reflection in the glass :)





This is an embroidered piece too.



And I liked these because they look very Zentangle.


I hope you have a great 4th of July tomorrow!!

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Tempting!!

My friend Lori sent me a picture of a beautiful hexagon rosette that she made and told me about a book called The New Hexagon by Katja Marek.  Lori's quilt is so pretty and curiosity made me buy the book.  Then while traveling we stopped at a quilt store in Cedar City and they had all the paper pieces to make the Millefiori quilt along on Katja's website.  I really don't need a new project but the quilt is so pretty!  Ah!  So I bought them.  I am thinking it will make a great

take along project - even though at one point I said I'd never do English Paper Piecing again....

You can see the quilt and read about the quilt along on her website here:

http://www.katjasquiltshoppe.com/the-new-hexagon-millefiore-quilt-along.htm



I am making a bit of progress on my Bear block for Woodland Whimsy.  My Dad is having surgery this week so I will take this project along with me as I go to help him for a few days.

Have a wonderful 4th of July!!