Quick Post

Just want to make a quick post.... I'm still here and still busy! Things are picking up at work, so I've been putting in lots more hours there.

Last week, my brother and SIL, Susan, were in town for a couple of days. It was a quick visit, but we did lots of cooking (I learned a few new recipes...) and did some sewing. :>

If you've been following my blog, you may remember that Susan wanted to learn how to quilt and started blogging also. She wanted to learn how to make the Cathedral Window while she was here, so I taught her that. I'm hoping that Susan will start blogging again and show us her progresses on her quilt.

Like I said, it was a quick visit for all of us.... I totally forgot to bring out the camera for some snapshots. :(

While Susan worked on her project, I sewed the blocks together for the Doll Quilt Swap. Here's a peek of the finished top..... I have today off, so the plan is to turn off the phone.... don't want to get a call from work.... and finish up my swap obligations. The doll quilt is quilted.... the binding is on.... just need to stitch it down and add the label.

Another swap I'm in is the Annie Doll swap... see link on the right. I started the doll a couple of weeks ago, and she's been sitting there naked on my desk. lol Poor Annie! I think it's time I start on that dress for her.

Both of there swaps are due tomorrow! I have my works cut out for me!

Have a wonderful day!

DQS6 Progress

Well, April is flying by real fast... so I really need to get going with my Doll Quilt Swap commitment. Here are the blocks for this swap so far.... .... 3 1/2" unfinished.... I'm off to sew these together into a quilt top. :-)

Busy!

Wow, another week flew by in a blink! It's been a busy week here for me with family life.... haven't had a chance to sit down at the computer at all!


Thank you for your interest in the Easter Tablerunner Tutorial. I won't be able to get the tutorial up for another week, so please be patience.

It was Open House on Wednesday at Sweetie Pie's school. The Basket Auction also took place that night. Sweetie Pie's class chose horses as their theme, and I donated a horse quillow for their basket.

My friend, Pam, did a great job of putting together the basket. She used a horse head for the front and added some yarn for the tail (the photo doesn't show it very well). There were some great themes and creative baskets this year. We placed a few bids on several baskets but didn't win any. :(

This is one of my favorite basket.... Crochet and knitting basket... lots of goodies in there.

Overall, the fundraiser brought in almost $3000... not as much as previous years, but a good turn out.... and the horse basket has the most earnings of $200... and has earned Sweetie Pie's class a pizza party.

Then on Friday, I taught one more Cathedral Window class. There were four students in this class, so it was easy for me to remember everyone's name: Barbara, Judy, Caroline, and Judy P. As usual, I love teaching this class. I get so inspired seeing all the different colors and fabrics combination that I wanted to rush home to make a few more CW..... so many projects so little time. *s*

Happy Easter and passed 200

HAPPY EASTER!!!

I really like my new Easter Eggs tablerunner. The colors are so bright and cheerful; it makes me smile everytime I look at it. On the tablerunner are about the only things that I have that are Easter related. The bunnies were made in 1995 when I took a few ceramic classes with my SIL. The girl bunny was for Mandy and the boy bunny for Buddy (no Sweetie Pie back then). The egg globe was given to Sweetie Pie one year and the flowers basket was given to me by my SIL.



Last week, I noticed that I had went passed my 200 posts. To celebrate, I was thinking perhaps I will do a tutorial.... so how about a tutorial on my Easter Eggs Tablerunner. Now, I know what you are thinking .... today is Easter and Easter maybe over for some of you ... a bit late eh? But it will include how to make those prairie points and a surprise. So are you interested? ... stay tuned....

Easter Eggs Tablerunner

This Spring break week has certainly flown by... not much is going on here.... just the usual work and family stuffs. I'm still having a problem with my laptop where it will shut down the computer when I tried to open any blogs with Blogger. It probably has to do with the security setting which I will have to wait for my very own Geek Squad to fix when he has time. In the mean time, I will use his computer to visit yall.... 'cause I'm having serious withdrawal. LOL

Here's a little project that I've working on here and there during the week....

I used Moda Oh-Cherry-Oh (my favorite collection at the moment) Honey Bun and a white fabric.

The end result is an Easter Eggs Tablerunner ...

.
...don't know why the photo is vertical when it's supposed to be horizontal??

Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Santa Barbara - Part 2

Sometimes the best laid out plan just doesn't happened. Sorry for my my intention to post the second part of our Santa Barbara trip the next day turned into 3 days instead.

On Saturday, I took the girls shopping for the day, but by the time we got home in the evening, both Sweetie Pie and I felt very sick. Ughghgh.... we came down with a nasty cold that wiped us out the rest of Saturday night and the whole Sunday. It's not a very good way to start Spring break. :(

BTW, sales tax for California went up by one percent! How could they to that in a time when the economy is so bad?!! I'm definitely will cut down my shoppings to the bare necessities.

Anyway....

Well, if you guessed the winery was our next stop, then you're correct. Not only one but two wineries .... with 8 different wine tastings at the first one and 6 more tastings at the second one.

I must admit that I'm a light weight. By the time we arrived at the second winery, Bridlewood, I was a little bit tipsy. TEE HEE

The weather cleared and the sun came out by then too. I took quite a bit of scenery shots. It's difficult to decide which one to post... just a few here....

This last photo is the view from our room out on the patio. Peaceful.... isn't it?

Santa Barbara is such a beautiful place. We will have to visit again when it's not so cold and with a longer trip.

Santa Barbara

Today I'm sharing photos from a few weeks ago....


On March 18th, John & I celebrated our 20th anniversary. Since that was on a Wednesday, we didn't have any special plan. However, John scheduled a special trip for the following weekend for just the two of us to.... you guessed it.... Santa Barbara. It is about 3 hours drive from where we are, and it's our first time there.


John arranged a fun day with Captain Jack's Tour Guild. The first part was....

horseback riding. We had hoped for sunny weather, but as you can see, it was very cold and misty that morning. Just the same though, it was fun and beautiful place to see on horse back. We took a trail along the backside of the mountain and arrived at the vista point on top. Too bad the mist came on more heavily when we arrived there, or else it would have been a beautiful photo op.

The last time I'd been on a horse was more than 20 years ago. I wasn't quite sure if I could handled it for almost two hours. So I was quite rather proud of myself for not feeling sore at all the next day... LOL ... except for wobbly knees when I got off the darn thing. LOL


Afterward, our tour guide took us to an original-old-stagecoach-turned-restaurant place for lunch. They have the best BBQ Tri-tip steak sandwich I'd ever tasted. Yummy!

The weather cleared as the day went on. I love taking scenery shots... especially trees!

I love these photos!

Can you guess where the next part of our tour was?

I'm stopping here as I have to get ready for work... will continue tomorrow. Have a great day!

Quillow

It's so frustrating! I finally have a free day today to catch up with emails and blogs, but the laptop is still having some hiccups! When I tried to open a blog site (including my own), the blog opened up on the screen but then froze on that page and closed down the whole thing after a minute. ... Argghgh.... at least I can still get to my email... no problem with reading the messages..... but to send a reply took FOREVER! Sigh.... I will have to ask the in-house tech to take a another look.

Well, it's a good thing that I still can open blogger and make a post.

Every year Sweetie Pie's school have a Basket Auction. It's a fundraiser to raise money for the school field trips. Each class supposed to make a theme basket, and the supplies for the basket are donated by the students and their families. When my friend, Pam, asked me to help with our girls' class basket, I offered to make a quilt since I haven't been as involved in the school PTA as in the past (feeling guilty here).

That was at the beginning of March, but when the last week of the month came around with NO quilt in sight, that quilt plan quickly changed into a quillow instead.

What is a quillow? It's a quilt that folds up into a pillow.

Can you guess what is the theme of Sweetie Pie's class?

HORSES ....

I love Sweetie Pie's teacher and so do her students. She is the best! Mrs. Mathews loves horses and owns a couple of them. Naturally, the kids picked horses as their theme.


For the front of the quilt, I found a flannel with horses on it by Debbi Mum on sale at Jo-Ann's Craft Store. The back is burgundy with little yellow stars. I also used the same stars fabric for the pillow front.

Here's that horses flannel. As usual, there's always a helper around... she's playing peek-a-boo here. LOL.... See those eyes? ....

See that nose? ....

How about now? lol So cute! Look at those pleading eyes! I had the quilt on the table. She wanted to try it out. Sorry little doxie.... this one is not for you either. :(
The quillow instructions can be found in Jan./Feb. 2007 issue of Fon's & Porter's Love ofQuilting magazine. The horse silhouette and chenille rope inspirations came from another issue of Love of Quilting. I don't have a pic of it but will look for the magazine if anyone needs to know which issue it is.

Technically, this project should be counted as a March project for the One Project a Month since it was finished yestesday morning before I headed out to work. However, I didn't get a chance to post it last night. It will be counted as an April project instead.