Random Photos

I have selected the fabrics for the Doll Quilt Swap6. They are all Batiks .... don't know if I'll use everything here or maybe add more as I go along... we'll see how it go.



This next pic is a pattern from Trudi.... I won it when she had a giveaway a few weeks back.... isn't it cute? Thanks, Trudi!

This is our cat, Tabby. Do you remember her misfortune a while back? Click here for the story...

Well, here she is.... with hair fully grown back in... she's still sweet as ever...

and she LOVES our Yoshi Bear....

and Yoshi Bear loves his kitty friends.... don't they look so cute snuggling in their quilts?

The next two photos are from the Road to CA show back in January.

I just loved looking at this quilt... calm and soothing ... that's how I felt. The whole quilt was made from hand dyed fabrics.

These miniature quilts are to die for .... wow, woW, WOW!

and this last one is a table runner that I made before Christmas. It was intended as a gift, but one of the red fabric bled .... oh no, I was sure I had pre-washed all my red fabrics! You can't see where it bleed in the photo. It's not too bad but enough for me to be disappointed. So now it resides on my kitchen island.

This and That

At last, it's back to normal around here. No more fevers or Dr. appointments or living on DayQuil or NyQuil.... except for the coughs that just linger on.... but I'm sure it will be gone too in a few more days.

I finally got around to uploading pix from Road to California show... thought I share with you a couple awesome quilts. I'm sure you have probably seen them in magazines or at other shows. Click here if you like to see the 2009 winning quilts.

Other than volunteered to hang the quilts, Cheryl and I almost did not make it back to see the Road. We barely made it back on the last day. We had only a few hours to shop and view everything there before it's closed down. Needless to say, we did missed quite a bit.

This is the loot for this year.... I know, not a whole lot. I didn't have the desire to buy much this time... probably the beginning of the flu was coming on that day. The red bag is one of the perks for volunteering.... found 60degrees ruler that I've been wanting... and some special Road 2 CA Batiks in a souvenir traveling mug.

My other "happy" purchase is a book on needle tatting along with some needles and DMC thread.

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Over the weekend, we had a cute little visitor.


It's Miles' little Polish rabbit, Pancake.

Isn't he cute?

But wait....

Ohhhh ....the crying .... the whining.... the begging... the sleepless night.....

it's not from the rabbit.....


but from these two....

Isn't the little wabbit for us Mommy? Please, please, please can't we just play a game of chase with him? We promised not to eat him even though you're supposed to eat Pancake.

LOL


And so .... they were banned from the room....and the crying, begging, whining, scratching at the door continued...

LOL

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It's getting close! My first Cathedral Window class is this Saturday. I decided to make some more to make sure I am prepared to teach. This is a bunch of prepared "frames" ready to be sewn together. Then, I need to write up the instructions. Lots to do.... but I feel like I'm in molasses mode all week.

Sniff Sniff, The Road

It's been busy here.... especially last week... what with the extra days of work and sick kids, I haven't done any sewing. Now that the kiddos all are better, it's my turn to be miserable. Cough, sneeze, sneeze, cough, cough, sneeze, sneeze, cough, and one big lousy headache since yesterday.

One thing that I did managed to squeeze in (before this lousy illness) was the Road to CAlifornia show. Anyone else went to the show last week?

My friend, Cheryl, and I did our usual part of helping setting up the show for half of the day on Wednesday. It's always so much fun to help out at these events and wished we could have stay all day.... but we have kids to pick up from school.... those darn kids! Just kidding.... it's the stuffy head talking. LOL

Here's Cheryl during our lunch break.

We got to hang some beautiful quilts. Here's one of my favorites... this crazy quilt is amazing! It won an award. I wished I had more time to look at the quilt closely, but we had lots of quilts that needed to be hung. I left the picture large... so click on it for a closer look.

It's Cheryl again with an unusual quilt. This one is dimensional! The letters are about 3" in depth! I wished that I had thought of taking a sideview pic to show you how much the letters are sticking out! Of course, the saying describes how we felt last week.... LOL "Too Much Work NO Time NO Enery".

More pics to come... just have to upload from the camera. For now, I need to go back to bed.

Talk to you soon!

Road2CA Slideshow

Do you watch American Idol? We do. I finally figured out how to do a slideshow and put this together last night while watching AI. So grab a cup of java (or whatever you like) and Enjoy!





Road 2 CA - 2008

More Road2CA - 2008

Remember when I said that I will put those photos of the quilt show into a slideshow? Well, I did attempted to do it but couldn't figured how. I think I have to use an outside source to do the slideshow then add it onto the blog. But... I've been a bit busy so haven't had a chance to try it. If anyone out there know how to do it, please, please, please, gives me some tips.

Anyhooo, I thought I will share another quilt from the show that I thought was very interesting.

It's a montage! You've seen it before... it's where they take lots of little square photos and collage those photos into another subject.

This quilt is called "Angel of Peace" 69"x84".

It has 11,400 - 3/4" square pictures printed on fabrics then pieced them in blocks, then quilted around each photo square.

Close-up shot.

Then there's this one... it stirred up a lot of discussions... what do you see? A skeleton or a rope?

In person at first glance, like everyone else, I thought it was the skeleton that we're looking at until we read the title "Nude with Rope". OH? There's a rope? Why is the rope inside the body? So the questions went on. It took everyone quite a bit of time to see the rope. Of course, the rope shows up much better in the pic.

Road to Califorina-2008

I went through my photos last night and thought I would post just a few of my favorites today. There are a lot of photos that I would like to share with you, so I'm thinking of putting them in a slideshow. Don't know when it's going to be done... so StayTuned!


I love LoneStar quilt! Then to add applique to it... Spectacular! This one won first place in Outstanding Traditional Quilt.





Eventhough this Dear Jane quilt did not win any ribbon, I love the use of colors in this one...very soft, then the dark sashings and border add a punch to it. The photo didn't do its justice; this quilt has to be seen in person.









Close-up shot.









Cheryl and I happened to walk by one big booth when I spotted Ricky Tims. He was interviewing Cindy Needham for his podcast show. I didn't know who she is but was told by one of her student there that she an excellent quilter on a domestic machine. She was a featured artist there for the show this year.



I looked at some of her quilts on displayed, and they ARE wonderful.











Last but not least, this quilt speaks for itself. It's hilarious! Wonderful threadpainting!

Back of the quilt has carrots!

A Fun Day!

Cheryl and I headed back to Road to CA today.... not to work, but to see the quilts and shopping. We arrived before 10am, and already the parking lot was packed with cars. I had to park across the street from the convention center.

The first thing we did was to go see the winning quilts. We only had a sneak peak at them on Wednesday. WOW!! They are spectacular! I took lots and lots of pictures... will have to go through them and post some tomorrow.

We had a wonderful time looking at beautiful quilts and chatting with other quilters, non-quilters, and even their spouses. Were there more men attending the show this year? Cheryl pointed it out to me. It seemed so!

Of course, we also did a little of shopping in between here and there and managed to put a dent in my budget.lol

Some red and yellow FQs to add to my stash, more black & white, white & black since I used up the ones for the mystery quilt, stencils, AND brown/pink sets of FQs for the NEXT mystery quilt. Yes, you heard me right! Bonnie has decided to do quarterly mystery quilt, and the next one starts on April 1st.

Back to the show, I think we covered only half of the exhibit before we realized it's lunch time, and we're starving. It took us another half hour to get out to get lunch because we got distracted quite a bit on the way out. lol

After lunch, we went into the other exhibit hall. We looked at the $100,00 Quilt Challenge... no photo allowed. :[ Something to do with the quilts already photographed for the magazine. Amazing quilts! There was one that I absolutely love. It's a scrappy quilt in neutral with tiny little blocks! Stunning! I'm gonna have to look for this magazine.

Before we know it, it's 2pm. Cheryl and I had to leave right at that moment to make it back in time to pick up the kids from school. Oh how I wished that we didn't have to leave; I need another full day to see all the quilts and more shopping. Oh wait, no more shopping... I already hit my limit. lol

As we were leaving, Cheryl said that she's so inspired to go home and do some sewing. Yes, Cheryl, that is exactly what you should feel after a quilt show like this. Go home and sew. Talk about sewing, I need to get going on the mystery quilt. Yes, the mystery was revealed the other night, and I only made one block so far.

Setup Stage

I wanted to post this earlier in the morning, but the computer was tied up. John was working from home today.... actually, he'd been working since 1am last night! I don't know how he could do it, my brain would be loopy if I only get a couple hours of sleep.

Anyway, Cheryl and I made it to Ontario Convention yesterday to help set up the Road to CA quilt show. We were assigned in group of four; one helper in our group came in from Tucson, AZ, and our group leader, Pat, who is pro at this, who helped set up with the show for many years came from San Diego area. We spent four hours (well, maybe 3 hrs... took a break and had lunch) climbing up and down the ladder to hang quilts. While we were working, we spied Ricky Tims walked by and gave us a quick hello.

I didn't bring the camera, but the cell phone was with me so used the cell camera instead. Pictures a little bit dark and unclear, but it'll do. Here are some quilts that we hung....

Here's Cheryl up on the ladder adjusting the quilts, and Pat stood back to make sure they are straight.

This flower vase is MORE than life size. The quilt is huge... 74"x80"? Spectacular!

Here we are in front of our favorite flower quilts that we hung.

My Quilting Buddy and I head for the show

The head above the quilt top belongs to my friend, Cheryl. She is my quilting buddy and quilting student. (That is the center of her first nautical quilt.)

More than 10 years ago, Cheryl started out as a panio teacher to all three of my children.

On many occasions, I would bring my quilty projects with me to the lessons. My projects sparked Cheryl's interest in quilting, and after a few years of wanting to learn how to sew and quilt, she jumped on board.

We bartered with each other for piano and quilting lessons. It worked out great for both of us. She learned how to use her sewing machine, and the cost of music lessons for three kids was way down for me.

Now Cheryl is a very busy gal. Not only does she gives private lessons at home, she also teaches at Park and Rec. and have a family with two little ones to take care of. So she comes over whenever she could to work on her quilty things.

I got Cheryl started in quilting, but the thing that I got her hooked on the most is going to California's largest quilt show, Road to California . Tomorrow, we are heading out right after we drop the kiddos off at school to help set up the show.... mainly will be hanging beautiful quilts! Then Friday, we'll be back for shopping and see more quilts!


Last year, we went to the show mainly to see Alex Anderson. Here she is with Cheryl at the book signing. Alex is just the same as she is on Simply Quilts... very personal and loveable.

At her seminar, we got to pet her quilts (she WANTED us to!) and took lots of pictures.

These are my favorites of her quilts.