Just Stuffs

Urggghh ... Ohh man.... I picked up that nasty virus that's been traveling around. I feel like crud! After I got the kiddos off to school yesterday, I went back to bed and slept the whole day away. Amanda had only one morning class, so she picked up her siblings from school for me.

Also, I had to cancel sewing morning with Cheryl and Crystal (Cheryl's DD, who's off track for this month). Cheryl wanted to finish her nautical quilt that she's been working on for the last two years. Sorry Cheryl, we'll get your quilt done soon. Crystal was working on some 9 patches; I think her plan is to turn it into a pillow. One summer, I gave Crystal and her girl scouts troop some lessons on sewing, and they all picked up sewing real fast. They made pillows to donate to a hospital. All the girls did a great job!

These photos of Cheryl and Crystal were taken a couple of weeks ago when they were here.

Cheryl had a specific quilt in mind for her quilt, so I sketched out a pattern for her to use. Here's Cheryl drawing out the lighthouses to be applique.

Crystal (11 or are you 12yrs. already?) already can use the rotary cutter quite well and a natural at picking out colors too. Here, she's cutting up squares for 9 patches. I think the next time she's off track and want to sew, I have her do a Disappearing 9-Patch quilt that everyone's been doing. How does that sound, Crystal? Start collecting those fun FatQuarters.

Look who's at the door and wanted to come in? Our Tabby is an indoor cat, but she loves to sneak outside whenever she could. This was last week when we had a lot of rain. I think she sensed the rain was coming so she's begging to come in.

Yoshi was looking on as if to say what are you doing out there? Are you wondering what's that thing above his head, it's a bell that is tied to a pink string that we hung on the door so that the little doxies could ring it to let us know when they want to go outside. In this case, Yoshi was ringing the bell like crazy because he wanted Tabby to come in (so he could chased her!). Don't worry, she'll let him know when she had enough of his silliness. The felines rule the roost here. lol

Here's our little Suki. She came in from the rain and all wet. Of course, she had to jump onto Simon's new blanket that I just got for him that day.

And another photo, we were watching TV one night when I realized that all of our little furries were all line up on the couch watching TV with us. It was a funny sight! See, the cats were looking toward the TV still, and those little doxies get excited when I pull out the camera. I quickly snapped this photo before they moved.

Oh man, I just realized that I forgot to get a picture of Hannah's Mission project that she had been working on for the last two weeks. She took it with her this morning because it's due today. She had to build a model using only stuffs around the house. No kits were allowed! The only things that I bought for her were little bells for the bell towers and styrofoam balls for the domes. She used cereal boxes for the building, cinnamon and paprika for roof color, oregano and parsley flakes for the grass. She made clay palm trees and water fountains, but I burned the clays because I left it in the oven too long. They were black! So we made palm trees out of construction papers instead and clay for the water fountains but did not bake it. Toothpicks for the crosses. Wish there's a picture to show. The project was on Santa Barbara Mission.

This post is long, but there's not much I feel like doing right now. I'm feeling better, but I think I need more of those flu medicines. My head is starting to hurt again. Oh and the frog up on top is for Leap day.

Have a great day!

Pinwheels and Posies

I received my fabrics last Friday for Beth Ferrier's new block of the month. I decided not to do the same spring-like colors as her quilt because I've been wanting to do more of a brown and pink quilt. Hopefully, it will work out OK.

Here are the first sets of blocks and accent strips.

Knott's Photos

Field Trip

I'm all set to go, bright and early this morning. It's not a quilty trip, but a fun field trip with a bunch of fourth graders to the Home of Snoopy -- Knott's Berry Farm! YEP, I'll even get to ride the school bus too! LOL

Hannah and I had to be at the school at 7:30 am to check in. Then, the school buses head out at 8am, and we'll be back at school by 3:30pm. It's a learning field trip, so the kids will get a walking tour behind the scene and then TWO rides.

I'll be bringing my camera for the yearbook, so will post some pictures later.
Have a great day!

Not Much Sewing Done

Here it is... the end of another week and not much of quilty things were done. Life took over this week. Also, the kiddos got 4 days weekend from President's Day really put me out of sync with everything.

To update, there's still NO borders on the Carolina Crossroads top. However, I did manage to make a few blocks for Bonnie's housewarming party. Bonnie moved earlier in the month to North Carolina so to thank and to welcome her to her new home, Tracy and Tonya, came up with these great ideas to surprise her.

I made a Wonky house, 9patch with accent corner from mystery fabrics, and a crumb block so far. All I need to do now is the siggy block and send the squissy envelope off to her.

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Before last Christmas, while cleaning out the garage, John came in and handed me a cardboard box with "Christmas decorations" and "unfinished" written on it. He said that the box belongs to me. At the time, I thought "hmm... the box looked like it's been thru some rough times... unfinished Xmas decor... doesn't look like it's mine per se... should be out in the garage OR JUST TRASH IT!", but I took it anyway, stuck it in the corner of my closet, and forgot all about it. Until last Saturday, I decided to clean out my wardrobe (getting ready for spring shopping ;-)) and saw that box. Curiosity got to me and decided that I need to see what's in that box.

Lo and behold, there was no unfinished Christmas decor; instead, the box contains an unfinished teddy bear with an unattached head that I worked on for Amanda (18yrs. ago!), an unfinished hooked rug for Amanda, some craft supplies, and wayyyy down in the bottom, was this Lone Star kit.

I thought I had lost this LoneStar kit because we moved quite a few times throughout the years.

I worked on this kit when Amanda was one year old... so that makes it 17 years ago! I always wanted to try quilting back then and loved this pattern (and still do), but I soon found out that this is not a pattern for first time quilting! So when we moved, I packed this away. You know what happens when I put things away... out of sight, out of mind. LOL Life took over with family, and my attempted at quilting ended there.

Now, I am itching to get to this quilt and get it done! And I'm glad that I didn't tell John to toss the box in the trash!

I'm a Daffodil

I just took this flower quiz and found out that I'm a daffodil! Funny... do you want to know what flower you are? Take the quiz... click on "What Flower Are You" at the bottom of flower....

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

New BOM

I'm planning to do a new block of the month by Beth Ferrier called Pinwheels and Posies. The first block instructions posted today at her site. Anyone else doing this BOM?

I ordered my fabrics earlier in the week and haven't got them yet so will have to wait. :[




This collection is Emilie's Raspberry Patch from Connecting Threads. The colors are really different than Beth's spring-like blue quilt, but a brown/pink quilt has been trying to come out from me... so couldn't resisted.

Valentine's Day

I Want, I Want, I WANT....

a HQ16 QUILTING MACHINE! (Can you hear me whining) LOL

This is a record for me ... two posts in the same day.

Last Friday, I stopped by Quilter's Cocoon (LQS) to look for quilts wash/soap ... can't remember what's it called? ... that helps stop the bleeding of the dyes while you wash your quilts. I really needed something because I was in a hurry and did not prewashed the fabrics for James' Pinwheels.

Well, the shop does not carry the product, but what I found out was that they are a rep for HQ16 now. They had been at training for the last few weeks and just got the machine in. After talking with the owner, Pagan, she invited me back this week to try out the machine.

Sooooo.... I stopped in today and tried it out. I spent about 45mins. on it and loved it! I tried the Tin Lizzie at Road to CA last month... wasn't really impress with it. (am no expert or anything) but I think the HQ16 is way better. However, ouch... the price tag sure hurts; it's NOT cheap!

Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I will pop the question to John. tee hee Hey, gotta give the gal credits for tryin'! Afterall, it is Valentines. At least, he won't said NO too quickly. lol

BTW, Pagan gave me a couple tips with the washing: 1) use 1 cup of vinegar with the washing water 2) use Shout color catcher sheet. I tried the sheet; it worked great!

Crumbs, Crumbs, Crumbs Madness

This is what my sewing desk looked like lately.... filled with little bits and scraps of fabrics from other projects that I could not bare to throw away. I have a huge laundry bag of scraps, and this is just a micro bit of what I pulled out!

There were times when I thought of throwing out the bag of little scraps but just couldn't. Then when Bonnie posted her Crumbs tutorial last month, I knew that THERE IS a reason to my madness in keeping all of those crumbs. LOL

This is the result of all those crumbs. I called this one, I Heart Crumbs! It's a baby quilt and for a little girl... can't you tell? lol Perfect for donating to Project Linus for this month... don't you think so?

Yeah! My machine quilting is improving! :-)) With this quilt, I focused on even stitches and am quite happy with how it turned out. I quilted loops in the borders and around the hearts, echoed hearts in the heart-shaped blocks and cornerstones. The quilted hearts came out a bit wonky in a few places, but that's OK.... I'm happy with the even stitches. I found a piece of pink and white checkered flannel and used that for the backing.

This is the center of another crumbs top that I'm currently working on. I'm planning to add borders and applique vines and leaves... will post my progress when I have it done.

It's Done!

Here it is! The SuperBowl Baby Bargellow quilted and bound! I'm on a roll... second quilt for 2008! That's a big accomplishment for me! Normally, my quilt tops get to sit and aged before becoming a quilt! *U*

My journey to better machine quilting has improved with this one also. I did an overall meandering for the first time and it looked decent! lol

This quilt will be donated to my local chapter of Project Linus and will go to the same hospital where Hannah was borned.

Thanks, Bonnie, for a fun project! I think I will make another one since I still have a bunch of strips leftover.

James' Pinwheels

This special quilt was made for my soon-to-arrive nephew. Yes, you guessed it! IT'S A BOY! Do you know what his name will be? *U*

The theme of this quilt is firefighters (James' DGP was a fireman). I found these Hoffman fabrics at my local quilt shop (LQS), Quilter's Cocoon, and knew that I had to use them.

The design on this quilt just happened. I knew I wanted pinwheels, used 2 1/2" strips, and to try out the new little ruler, Easy Angle. Well, note to myself, I must read the directions first before using a new tool. Somehow using the new ruler, I managed to cut the fabrics wrong, and the pinwheels came out smaller than what I wanted. But I do like the way how it turned out, I guessed you can said that it's a serendipity.



This is the label and back side of the quilt. Can you see the firefighters fabric? My quilting on this quilt is not very good... well, it's quite bad really. But I wanted to do spirals and found out that I cannot follow the drawn lines. I probably won't be doing any more spirals on my domestic machine. It was very difficult. Overall, I like how the spirals add texture to the quilt if I stood back about ten feet from it. lol
Click on the photo for larger view of the label, but be warned, don't look at the quilting too closely. *U*

With the leftover fabrics, I made a Mini Pinwheels. This mini is about 8"x8", and the pinwheels are a little more than one inch.



The mini quilt is for the teddy bear of course.

Baby Shower

This is my much younger sister, Thuy. She and her hubby, Brian, are having their first baby!

She had her second baby shower given by baby's grandma yesterday. The first shower happened two weeks ago and was given by her two best friends, Hillary and Sandy. My whole family (minus Amanda) went to this co-ed shower, and I completely forgot to bring the camera, so there're no pictures for that one. Yesterday baby shower was a traditional one... only ladies attended. This time, I did not forget the camera!

We arrived a bit late due to heavy traffic jam, and everyone already began to eat. So I jumped right on in and ate too. lol I forgot to eat that morning and was starving! Champagne was served with the lunch. Champagne makes me giddy! so I had just one glass. I know... I'm such a light weight!

After lunch, we played some baby shower games. I'm really bad with these kind of games; needless to say, I didn't win any prizes. The first game we played was Guessed What's in the Diaper! There were six diapers with an assortment of melted candy bars in them and we had to guess what the candy bars were. It was a fun and somewhat gross game because melted chocolate bars in diapers sure look like the real THING that you would find in baby's diaper! EEWW....LOL

Then, it's time to open the presents! Lots and Lots of cute baby clothes, stuff animals, onesies, bibs, blankets, and more! And there were quite a few handmade gifts from this group of talented ladies!

To view larger photo, click on the picture.

These two crocheted afghans and jungle quilt are so soft and cuddly!

The back side of the quilt is Minky, a really really soft kind of fabric just perfect for babies. It was made by a close friend of Brian's family, Nina.

And this baby quilt was made by yours truly... will post details tomorrow.

IS IT FRIDAY ALREADY?!!

MY, how the week has flown by! I didn't have time to stop in and write a post. Even yesterday flew by before I realized that it's Chinese New Year.

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Rat. It's the first sign of the Chinese zodiac. The Rat represents prosperity and leadership.

Our custom is usually to celebrate the new year with family, lots of food, and the kids' favorite, lucky red money envelope!

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Tonight's agenda for us is Starry Night at Hannah's school. It's a family fun filled evening with hands-on activities and star gazing. Yes, there will be 12 large telescopes there this year for gazing at the stars. It should be a good night to look at the stars 'cause the day has been beautiful and the sky is clear. For dinner, Carl's Jr. trailer will be there. Then, I'm on cotton candy machine duty for the night with my friend, Pam.

Baby Bargello

I finished with the last of the borders on this quilt top as the family were heading up to bed tonight! I really like how this turned out... this pattern was quick, easy and so much fun to do! Thanks Bonnie!

Oh, I did said that I wasn't going to do the SuperBowl Bargello because of my hand, but I couldn't resisted. I could still sew but just have to take it easy and not using the rotary cutter that much. Besides, I had wanted to try this pattern for a long time. *U*

It was a perfect night to sew last night. John was at the Anaheim Stadium to watch the Supercross, the girls were at their friends' houses, and Simon was playing games online with his friends.... So that meant, it was just me and the animals left. The cats at their usual spots on the sofa, and the little doxies followed me around in my little sewing corner and got underfoot as usual. Finally, after an hour of roughhousing, they settled down for the night and went to sleep.

BTW, I had Amanda (DD1) cut all the strips at 2 inches for this project before she left for the night. She did a great job at cutting. HMMM.... maybe she can cut more strips next weekend for the larger Bargello that I wanted to make for my bed. I might have to sweeten her up with some kind of briberies though. LOL

Anyway, I sewn half of the quilt last night then sewn the rest of it during the Super Bowl Sunday. The border was added after dinner. I'm planning to sandwich it tomorrow and start on the quilting. I will practice my meandering on this quilt and bind it with a dark blue. This quilt will be for Project Linus.

SuperBowl Bargello

Bonnie did it again! She has enticed the Quiltvillechat Group to join in her madness *LOL* to make a Scrappy Bargello quilt on Superbowl Sunday!

The logo on the right is a creation from ForestJane in response to Bonnie's enticement! Thank you Jane!

Well, I had decided earlier in the week to do this Bargello Bowl madness with the group and was planning to make a queen size quilt in cream/tan/brown for my bed. Also, I was thinking of a baby bargello for Project Linus to donate at the end of the month. HOWEVER, that darn carpel tunnel has shown its ugly head again..... So, per doctor's order, I'm limited the usage my right hand. :( That means no Bargello quilt! 8((((