Hello....

are you still with me dear bloggy friends?

I apologize for my absents and my lack of email replies.

Thank you so much to those who sent me a note of condolences.

I appreciated your thoughtfulness.

I must admitted that my BIL's death hit me harder than I thought.

Last month I felt .... BLAH...

had some difficulties concentrating on any particular projects,

so there's nothing complete to share.

In case I don't make it back here soon,

I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year!!

Rest In Peace

No more pain.

No more suffering.

Only peace.

With our Heavenly Father.

My BIL passed away last week

at the age of 45.

Survived by his wife

and

four little boys

and

two older girls from

previous marriage.

Thank you for your thoughts

and prayers

at this sad time.

Class and Sadness

I'm back in teaching mode. :o)

Last Friday I taught another Cathedral Window class. This time around there were 3 students: Cindy, Ann, and Linda. They did a wonderful job with their class projects. We worked on making a pillow top and a pincushion.

The first photo is Cindy who just started quilting about 2 months ago. She said that she's been sewing all her life starting with making Barbie doll clothes, and her first quilt was a king sized quilt. Awesome! The second photo is Ann who is a seasoned quilter. I love the colors in the Layer Cake collection that she used.

This is Linda; she the last one to pack up for the day but did got her pillow top done. Both Linda and Cindy used soft pastel colors Layer Cake. Their projects turned out very pretty.

On a sad note....

Last week, my BIL, hubby's brother, was hospitalized because he's been really sick. After many tests all week, it is determined that his illness is terminal. Everyone is devasted! Please said a prayer for us as my family heading down this difficult time. Thank you.

Lucky Stars

My LQS asked me to teach a beginner quilting class last Thursday. As it turn out, I didn't have to teach it because there weren't enough people sign up for the Thursday class as most of the students wanted to take the Saturday class.

When I teach, I like to prepare some of the steps ahead of time to show the students.... fabrics cut, partial block assembled, a couple of full blocks done. And since someone else is teaching the Sat. class, I decided to pull more fabrics, cut, sew more blocks, then a quilt top. Afterall, it's time for a new couch quilt.

The pattern is called Lucky Stars by Atkins Design ?? (.. will have to check the pattern again ). The blocks do come together quickly once the star points are made.

Here are the 20 blocks layout...
I got the blocks done over the weekend and have done putting the top together a couple of days ago (.. will get a pic of the top soon). Next up, quilting....

*U*

A Finish!.... + ....

My first finish for October!!

It's a baby quilt that I've been working on here and there for the last two weeks. This quilt is for a my sister's friend who just had a baby girl recently. This so-said friend whom I like very much is happened to be the same person who introduced the Dachshund breed to us... so I guess you can said that we are "kindred spirits".

The pattern, Merry-Go-Round, came from McCall's Quilting magazine. It called for two Jelly Rolls to make a good-sized lap quilt or is it a twin-sized?... anyway, I used only one jelly roll.

Yep, one jelly roll makes a perfect-sized Merry-Go-Round baby quilt. The fabric collection is called Gypsy Rose by Joanna Figueroa of Moda.

If you are wondering what the plus sign in the title for....

I am now on Facebook ------------------->

Actually, I've been on FB since August and have been on there a lot more lately.... that may explained my absents here. *lol* However, you may see me more here in blogland as I am working on managing and scheduling my times differently. And I must apologized if I have not visit any of my bloggy friends lately... that will change as I am working on that too. Ahh... so many things to do, so little time.

Talk to you later.

Catching up ....again....

Goodness! Has it been several weeks since my last post?!! This time of the year is always a busy time for me. The kiddos are back-to-school and have settled in with their newly routines. My Buddy is a senior and Sweetie Pie is in 6th grade this year. That means I will have two graduates in 9 months. I know the time will pass by soon enough.... so I am preparing myself mentally for it now. It seemed just yesterday that they were just starting Kindergarten....*sigh*


Anyway, not a whole lot of sewing being done here as my part-time job at a retail store is picking up. I'm putting in LOTS more hours there and expected that it probably will be that way until after the Holidays.


Over the summer, I signed up with the Doll Quilt Swap 7 swap. The mailing deadline was on Tuesday. Look what came in my mailbox earlier in the week....

IS IT ADORABLE OR WHAT!! :o)

... the back and goodies...

This cute little quilt is all done by hand!

All the buttonhole stitches, embroideries, and quilting were done by hand. I do a lot of handworks myself, so I know how long it must have taken. I appreciate all the time putting into it and love love this little quilt!

My partner also sent me a charming stationary set and the scraps from the quilt. Ahhh... she's been reading my blog... as she knows how much I love to make scrap quilts. You may see these in a quilt soon as I already have in mind what I want to do with them. :)

And who was my partner?

It's Jennifer at Jennifer Can Quilt!

Thank you, Jennifer!!! I do so love my little quilt and very appreciative of the time you've spent in making it. :D

Do you remember the little Zig Zag quilt top?

Here it is all done... "Tweet Tweet" is it's name.
It is on it's way to ???????? I will reveal who's my secret partner is once the quilt arrive at its destination.

I must admit that it was very difficult for me to let this one go. It's my favorite little quilt as it would be something that I would make for myself. The inspirations came from my partner's Flickr favorite photos. I found that my partner and I have very similiar likes, so this little quilt came to be.

Here is the back side. I used a the leftover zig zag blocks.

I also included a Cathedral Window pincushion and some FQs of my favorite fabrics at the moment.
I hope my partner will like what I've sent her.

It's a slow progress, but I've been working on my Aunt Millie's Garden blocks. I started the 3rd block, then found the fabrics for the 4th block when I was at the quilt shop one day. Of course, I had to start on that block. :) A peek...



Then, whenever I have a few moments, I sat down at my machine and just sewed 1-1/2" strips (mindless sewing) of Kaffe Fassett fabrics together to create this strata. Stay tuned to see what it will become....

Lastly, a cute pic of my baby girl.

Have a great weekend!

Started 3rd block...

I have prepared the 3rd block of Aunt Millie's Garden. As you can see, the pattern is traced onto the back of the background fabric for my favorite method of applique, the back-basting or no template applique. The fabrics I'm using are mainly Kaffe Fassett.

Another quick post for tonight as I'm excited to start working on this block. Also, I like to thank you for the wonderful comments on my blocks so far. I usually like to send a note back personally, but some of the comments have been coming in as "no-reply".... so I'll do it here.

Have a good night! :)

2nd block and .... Elvis....

Woo hoo.... I finished my second block of Aunt Millie's Garden last night.


Look who was in the house on Saturday night!
Elvis...

It was my friend's 40th surprise birthday party.

Her husband had Elvis came to their house.

It was a blast!!

WISP

I posted a peek of this block wayyy back in February when the block was almost done. Well, it was finished a short week later, and I didn't get a chance to get a picture of it before putting it away.

This is the first block of my Work In Slowwwwww Progress (WISP). The pattern is called Aunt Millie's Garden by the Piece O' Cake Designs . I love their applique patterns.

Originally, the plan was to make this as a block a month so that by the beginning of next year I can put the quilt together. Well, scratched that plan... at this rate, I think I'll be done in 10 years. LOL

Not wanting this quilt to be a 10 yrs. project... ok, maybe cut it down to 5yrs... *lol* I pulled the project back out a couple of weeks ago to continue on this second block that was started back in February. I usually like to applique in the evening during my down time, but I've been too tired to work on it. Instead, I bring the block along to Sweetie Pie's tennis lessons during the week. Well not much was done there either because I ended up watching the kids practiced.... So maybe it will be a 10yrs. project afterall. lol

This quilt will be for me, and for some reasons I can never stay on task making things for me. Therefore, I'm hoping that some nice bloggy friends will help keep me going. OK?

Oh... one more thing, I decided to go with this robin egg's blue background because last summer, while stocking up more Kona Snow fabric, I came across this new Kona Robin Egg's blue that I fell in love with and had to have yardages of it without a plan for it. Then, when Aunt Millie's Garden came along, I just have to use it. :o)

Tumbleweeds

This whole blogging thing sure has been taking the back seat lately.

I took this photo on the left on Monday to show you my progress and now just finally got around to posting it. I wanted to share with you that I was done with all the paper piecing on the shop sample WIP, and I was very excited to start putting the units together.

Well, I couldn't contained the excitement of finally getting the top together, so every chance I got was spent on sewing. This is the result...

This pattern is called Tumbleweeds by Judy Niemeyer.

The colors are washed out in the photo. In person, the colors are more vibrant. One thing that I like to change is the background fabric in that swirl in the top left corner. I was concerned that it might be too dark when I was sewing the top together.... I was right..... picture shows all.... that swirl practically jumps out at you. Although, it doesn't show as much in person as in the photo.

Oh well, not much I can do with it now. The top is done! ... was dropped off yesterday at the shop for the quilting. I should be getting it back sometimes next week to put the binding on.

Overall, this quilt was a challenge but doable if you have a few quilts under your belt. It involves lots of foundation piecing, curve piecing, and my least favorite part... partial seams piecing. Don't get me wrong.... I love the partial seams technique when it's done in small sizes like a quilt block. However, putting the whole quilt top together using the partial seams technique was definitely a challenge for me. But I persevered... and happy that I did because the result is a great looking quilt. :o)

Zig Zag

Yesterday, I took a break from paper piecing the shop sample (see last post) to work on this little quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 7. I've been "spying" on my secret partner's favorite list over on Flickr and found that our likes are very similiar to each other.

So off I went searching on the net for some inspirations, came across this zig zag tutorial, thought it's perfect, purchased some fabrics, and made this in a few hours.

What do you think? I didn't measured it, but I think it's about 12" x 15".

The tutorial is from AmandaJean at Crazy Mom Quilts. I think it's simply genius! don't you think so too? A zig zag quilt WITHOUT sewing any triangles. It's strip pieced and cut into squares. It's all in the layout of the blocks that formed the zigzag.

Of course, I have to make a doll-sized quilt, so I started out with smaller width of strips... 1-1/2". I see future quilts with this pattern but big, sleep under, wrap around, cozy kinda quilts. :0)

July-August WIP

Thought I'll shared my WIP (Work In Progress) for this month and next month. It's that big shop sample that I had mentioned earlier. There are 52 paper pieced New York Beauty blocks done so far.... that's 1/2 of the quilt ... lots more paper piecing to do. Just to give you a clue.... it's a Judy Niemeyer pattern.

+++++++++++++++++++++

This is for Kathi...

Kathi, your comment came in as a "no-reply", so I couldn't answer your question concerning the dollhouse quilt. Please email me at quiltingdoxies(at)gmail(dot)com or change your setting to reply. Thanks for your visit... I love getting new & returning visitors to my blog. :o)

DQS7

I have been telling myself to NOT sign up for any swap 'cause of to many committments lately; HOWEVER..... in a moment of weakness.... yes, I joined the Doll Quilt Swap for my second time. ;-)

Shhhhh.... this is a secret swap.... partner is to be kept a secret. I have received info on my secret partner. Heehee... let the "stalking" begins!

Bag and Quilts

I'm still catching up with things from the last 2 months that I haven't got a chance to post before....

The first thing is a messenger bag for Sweetie Pie's teacher. It was completed the night before the last day of school, June 12th. Gosh, it seems like it was so long ago.

SP's teacher loves horses, so I used the horse fabric for the flap and a school patterned print for the bag and handle.

The pattern inspiration came from here. I changed the construction and pattern a bit to fit my needs.

Here's SP modeling the bag for me that morning before headed off to school. Of course, the little doxies snuck in the photo too. :-)

Then, as soon as the bag was checked off the list, I pulled out some of my flimsies that have been waiting for the quilting.

Here they are after quilting.

From the top:

1. Fractured Crystal - I made the top a few years back after seeing it on Simply Quilts.

2. Strip Twist - a Quiltville pattern - the top was finished in February and blogged about it here.

3. Summer Breeze 2 - if this top looks familiar to you, then you may remembered that I had made two of the same tops. The first one was done last year, and I blogged about it here and here.

Quilts No. 1 and No. 3 were completed right before we left for vacation. I will count these two as June finishes for the One Project a Month Challenge (OPMC).

I wasn't able to finish sewing the binding down on STrip Twist, so it was completed during vacation time at Susan's house. Then it was washed right afterward. This quilt made the July count for the OPMC.

All three quilts were handed out to the recipients during our mini family reunion/camping.

This is a full view of Fractured Crystal....

... it went home with my SIL, Reyna....

Strip Twist went home with my nephew, Justin.

And Summer Breeze 2 went home with my older sister. Here it is on her couch. I didn't get a chance to get a photo of her and the quilt. :(
That concluded all the finished projects to date!

Have a wonderful day!

Hidden Stars and Shop Samples

A few weeks before we left for vacation, I started working at Quilter's Cocoon (the quilt shop where I teach) one to two days a week. I truly enjoyed being there wholeheartedly.... from cutting fabrics to helping customers making fabric selections (my fav part).




So I was cutting up some Kaffe Fasset fabrics (luv luv luv these) into charm packs and had to ask for the scraps. These ------------------->
are about 1" strips. What do I want them for?


Well, I blogged about how much I like to make string quilts in this post. These Kaffe Fasset strings will eventually become a string quilt too. But first, I need to get those other string tops quilted.




Hidden Stars was loaded onto Dolly and quilted with simple arcs from corner to corner. My quilting skill is rather limited, so these arcs were quite difficult to quilt evenly. I had thought of taking the stitches out and re-doing it, but then again ... what the heck!... this quilt was made with throwaways (dryer sheets for foundations and little bits of scraps that most people would throw away), and it would ended up on the couch as a snuggle quilt for us. Besides, it would make a great documentation of my quilting journey, right? :)

The quilting will remain as it is!

All Hidden Stars need now is the binding, but that will have to wait as I'm working on a big shop sample

<------------out of these Batiks.

I worked on it before vacation, has picked it back up since I've been back, and now it is keeping me occupied.

Pictures will come once I put the blocks together.

When I went back to work at the shop on Friday, Pagen needed another sample done. Since all the fabrics were selected and cut, this was quickly sewn up. The quilt top was done in a few hours yesterday. It was a nice little break from the other more challenging sample. :>
I am not quilting this top; therefore, I am counting this sample as a finished project! for the One Project a Month Challenge.

Vacation photos....

....of our RVing trip....

After stopping in at Eugene, OR, we continued to head north toward Washington State and stopped in for the night with my brother and SIL, Susan, who live in Vancouver, WA. They prepared a big and delicious dinner for us. Yummy!

Later on the night, Sue got out her sewing machine and a baby quilt top that she was working on for a co-worker. She wanted to learn the next step of making a quilt which is to layer, baste, and quilt it. Sue is a quick learner and did a great job quilting her first quilt. I can't wait to see the finish product!

The next morning .... onward to our next destination (top photo) ... Mt. Ranier. We were to meet with my other brother and sister and their families and friends for a little family reunion at La Wis Wis campground.



I love camping and being outdoor! There were so much to do..

It's nice to take a mid-afternoon nap in a hammock....

...or just chill in a hammock or two...


or a nice stroll around the campground.....

...or a bike ride if walking is not your thing....
then how about a game of horseshoe after dinner or before dinner or anytime you please....

there's always the river to play in.... toss in a few rocks....
... a game of catch and retrieve the stick...... or just get your feet wet...or just hang out by the edge of the river...or keep watch on the younger ones....... what ever you do during the day....




... the best part was by night fall, the kiddos were fast asleep.... lol

This group photo was taken on the last morning. We're missing a few people who had to leave early.
Well, this is it for now... will post again soon. :-)