Linen Quilt

I took a class at Thimble with Cindy Needham. The Linen Lady. I just love her! She is a great Teacher and I highly recommend taking her class. I have marked my Linen and I'm ready to sew. I might have to put aside my Garden Window Quilt for awhile. I am easily side tracked. :)

I have been quilting!

I have been quilting ,really! I started this project in 2007. It was the Challenge for my Friendship Group that year. (The Material Girls) I finished the center but didn't get into the rest of it that year. I wanted to do something special. I added a small border Sawtooth border and then a large Machine appliqued flower border. I finished it with another small Sawtooth Border. (1 inch).

Now I'm Quilting it! This is the part I really enjoy. I know I'm Crazy! It has been very time consuming. I've use Bottom Line in both the top and the bobbin. Also some Glitter with Bottom Line in the bobbin. Some Brytes with Sew Fine in the Bobbin. Rainbow with Bottom Line in the Bobbin. I'm not near finished, but thought I would show you a sample.

I'm also going to add some embellishments. So, more to come.........

Oh, and I used Dream Wool for the Batting.

2 More Purses

I made two more purses today. They are suppose to be for gifts. But...... I really like them. I guess I could keep one. Which one should I keep?

Pillow

I love having days off work! I can get so much sewing done. Here is a cute pillow all out of scraps! Even the pillow back is a recycled man's shirt!

Tulip Purse

The pattern said Two-Hour Purse. Yeah right. It took me more than 2 hours just to read and re-read the pattern. It's called the Long-Stemmed Tulip Purse by Janice D. Pope of Anything But Boring. It turned good. I used my Beautiful Red Fabric that I purchased 5 years ago at a Ricky Tims Lecture. I love that fabric so I better like the purse!

Ready to Quilt!

This has been a long running project, as most of my friends know. I think I started it in 2007. As a Material Girls Challenge. It is finally ready to quilt! I finished sewing on the last 1" sawtooth border tonight. All of the Applique is done by machine with an invisible stitch. It was done using the glued stabilizer method. With a turned edge. With a 4 day weekend coming up, I should get a good start with the quilting!

Artichoke Flowers

I bought these Beautiful Artichoke Flowers at the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. I was told that they would dry beautifully too. We'll see.

Time to Block

Finally finished quilting my Nine Patch Pizazz. So now it's being Blocked. It shouldn't take long to dry in this weather!

Sew Eclectic

Last Sunday Evening Mel and Pat Bell hosted a wonderful dinner for Sew Eclectic. We had a wonderful Dinner and a great time sharing. I just had to take a picture of this work of art! Wouldn't it make a great Ruth McDowell Quilt?

Material Girls Party

Today was a wonderful day! I had fun with the "Material Girls"! Diane Mitchell hosted our Spring Summer Brunch at her house today. We had great food and wonderful company! We also got a little work done. This quilt above is a Quilting practice piece I did after watching Patsy Thompson's DVD about Leaves and Vines. That is a great DVD! I want to watch her Feather DVDs next. Today I finished the Binding. All I need is a label. Now I'm off to finish quilting more Leaves and Vines on my Nine Patch Pizazz Quilt.

Retirement Quilt #3

Here is the Retirement T-Shirt Quilt that I made for SueAnn Hillman. It is made with the T-Shirts from all of the Schools in the Tulare City School District. SueAnn is retiring after 31 years of service. Good for her and she will be missed.

Retirement Quilt #2

This afternoon I attended a retirement party for an old friend. I have worked with Rachel Rodriguez for 34+ years at the Tulare City School District. And before that I went to Jr. High and High School with her. She is retiring this year after 39, yes I said 39 years with the School District. I presented this quilt to her. I hope she enjoys it. It is a signature quilt with many, many signatures of people she has worked with over the years.

I am now officially the longest working employee at the District Office. Wow! Time does fly when you're having fun. And you might as well have fun. Because it will fly anyway!

Retirement Quilt #1

I presented this retirement quilt to Barbara Xavier. She is a Principal at Garden School in Tulare. She is retiring after 37 years of service to the children of Tulare. Barbara is a wonderful caring lady and has always been a great supporter of my quilting. I thought I would surprise her with a quilt and I did!

Then today she surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of flowers! I thought the receptionist had called up the wrong Debbie! This was a nice surprise.

The Finish Line

What a great time! My Wild Women Friends and I finished up at Thimble Town today. Barbara did a great job driving. I only had to shut my eyes and hold on twice. I got some great stuff! It was fun just putting it all out on the bed to take the picture. I'm glad we finish today. So tomorrow I can work on some of this great stuff I got.

Shop Hop starts Tomorrow!

Tomorrow starts the Central Valley Shop Hop. Can't wait. I didn't go last year, so I'm a newbee. There are 4 of us going together. We should have lots of fun and laughs. Just as long as we get potty breaks at each stop we should be fine. We will be Power Shopping! So we have to keep Elaine focused.

Retirement Quilt Done!

The T-shirt Quilt is finally finished. I finished the binding yesterday and added the label last night. It turned out pretty cute. It's for a friend I work with at the Tulare City School District. She is retiring after 31 years of service. (I remember when she started!) The School District has 14 schools and I needed 16 blocks. One of the shirts had a nice saying about Educators and I had Kathy Morrison make a large label for the last one. It says "Presented to SueAnn Hillman in appreciation of 31 years of service to the students of the Tulare City School District" Linda Matthews quilted. I wasn't about to take that on. I couldn't have possibly finished it by June 2.

But anyway, Linda did a wonderful job on it. I'm sure SueAnn will love it.

My Doggies

Here is a couple of cute pictures of my Doggies. Cocoa is the top picture and Katie is the bottom picture. Katie must have found a bug.

More Purses

Here is a couple more purses that I finished yesterday. These are the Bow Tie Pattern. I would really like to add a zipper. If anyone can tell me how, I would appreciate it.

Visalia Dames

Yesterday the Visalia and Tulare Material Girls "Visalia Dames" got together at Diane's house to sew. I made this cute purse. I used some beautiful Hand Dyes that I bought at BOTV from Kristin Eilers. And some Batiks that I had in my stash. It turned out bigger than the pattern said. But I like it. I can get more stuff in it!

I've been Lazy about Blogging

I'm back! It just seems hard to find the time to blog. I'm sorry. I need to make the time to just do it!

This is a really cute picture of my Mother and my 2 little dogs. Katie is the new one on the left. And Cocoa is the little one with the beard on the right. And Mom is in the middle. All 3 of them are really cute.

We rescued Coca about 2 years ago from Love of Animals. And we rescued Katie a little over a month ago from The Valley Oak SPCA. Cocoa is not to happy about it.

BOTV 2011

Here is Janice Minyard. She is the Featured Artist at the Best of The Valley Quilt Show. She is a wonderful Quilter and you must see her booth!

Diane Mitchell and I went to the show today and we sold tickets for the Orange Blossom Quilters' Opportunity Quilt. It won an Honorable Mention and is a real Beauty. If you would like to buy tickets for it just let me know. I posted a picture of it earlier on my Blog.

We also shopped til we dropped.

These glasses are so cool. They have lights on the sides of them. "the better to see with my dear"

The light fabric is for an Antique Linen Quilt that I plan to make. And the Black pieces are for the May Guild Class. It is Thoroughly Modern Dresden by Analie Belden.

Two Purse Patterns and a Book on Applique. And 2 Big Buttons for my Purses.

Here are the beautiful Hand Dyes by Kristen Eilers. Aren't they beautiful? I plan to use them in my Purses.

Cocoa's New Jacket

My Little Dog Cocoa gets so cold. She needs to wear a Jacket. So my husband Larry and I picked out a cute pattern. I had some leftover Flannel and Batting, added some cute Doggie Ribbon and some Ric Rack. And here are the Results. She doesn't care much for it, but it does help keep her warm.

9- Patch Pizzazz

2 weeks ago I took a class with Judy Sisneros called 9 Patch Pizzazz. It was sponsored by the Common Threads Quilt Guild in Hanford. I used my Marimekko Fabric for the Solid Blocks. I had to order some extra fabric for the Borders because I didn't want to piece them. It arrived yesterday. So I finished piecing it last night. I love it! I can't wait to quilt it. I'll have to live with it for awhile to decide what to do. Do you have any ideas? I would love your suggestions.

Another Retirement Quilt

This will be a Signature Quilt for Rachel Rodriguez. Rachel has worked for the Tulare City Schools for 39 years. She started when she was a Co-op Student in High School. See the green Snowball Blocks? Those will have signatures from fellow employees. I used my Hand Dyes for the nine patches. I Dyed those with Kristen Eilers. She is great at Dyeing Fabric. (Amoung other talents). Kristen will be selling her Hand Dyes at BOTV this year. I have seen a Sneak Peak of the fabric and I can't wait!

This one isn't Quilted yet. I will have Linda Matthews quilt it. She does a great job with her Long Arm. And that will free up some time for me to make another Retirement Quilt. It will be a T-shirt Quilt. My Material Girlfriends gave me some ideas for that one. Hopefully I can post a picture of it in a few weeks.

Retirement Quilt

Finished! I made this Quilt top last September while at my Pismo Beach Retreat with the Material Girls.

At the Orange Blossom Quilter's Christmas Party I won a Gift Certificate from Linda Matthews to have a Quilt top Quilted. So I used it on this Quilt. She did a fantastic job. I love it!

I work for the Tulare City Schools. There are several of my friends retiring this year and I am making them Quilts. This is the first one. It is for Barbara Xavier. She is the Principal at Garden Elementary School. She is retiring after 37 years of service to the Tulare City School District. I can't wait to give it to her. She has always been very supportive and interested in my quilting. So I think she will enjoy this. I hope so.

Embroidery Machine

I've been busy with my Embroidery Machine. On Sunday I got out my Embroidery Machine for my Bernina 200. I made Quilt labels and more Quilt labels. I had been saving up. But I also made these cute little iphone cases. They were made entirely in the Hoop. So fun and so easy. I surprised myself. I thought the zipper might be hard. But it was easy too. The pattern is down loadable from DigiStitches.com. A very fun website.

Tomorrow I take a quilt case with the Common Threads Quilt Guild. The teacher is Judy Sisneros. The class is 9-Patch Pizzazz on Point. Should be fun.

Sparkling Gemstones

I finally finished Sparkling Gemstones. I have had the top completed since September. I just had too many other projects to finish before I could quilt this one. It is made from a Jelly Roll of Kaffe Fassett Fabric and I used White Fairy Frost for the sashing. Very simple, but Bright and Summery. I'm happy with it.

Tomorrow I bring out the Embroidery Machine and make labels. I have a ton of them to make.

Flower Postcards

I joined an online Postcard exchange group. Here is my first project. I copied my Precious Memories Quilt and made my postcards. My theme is Flowers. I hope my group will like them. I will mail them next week. I'm looking forward to seeing what I will get in the mail.

Precious Memories

I made this quilt from a class with Terry Waldron. I started with an antique hankie that had Roses printed on it. I then added a vase with Appliqued Whimsical Flowers and silly button centers. It has my Mother and Father's wedding picture on it. My Father passed away September 15, 2010. So I gave this Quilt to my Mother for their 64th Wedding Anniversary on October 16th.

2011 Orange Blossom Opportunity Quilt

This is the 2011 Orange Blossom Quilters Opportunity Quilt. Isn't it a Beauty? Diane Mitchell and I were the Co-Chairmen for this Quilt. Janice Minyard Quilted it. (She is the Featured Artist for the 2011 Best of the Valley Quilt Show). The other members that helped with the quilt are

Nanette Blumer, Juanita Cairns, Lynn Drennen, Sue Rowell, Kathy Elick, Eileen Pitts, and Elaine Berry. The name of the quilt is Blueberry Wine. Because of all of those itty, bitty circles it was almost named Blueberry Whine.

Too late or too early?

Am I too late or am I too early? I'm too late again! This was the Material Girls 2010 Challenge. I made the center Medallion and the Material Girls made the signature blocks. I finally finished the quilting. It's name is "Scary Girls" I think it turned out cute. And I love the signature blocks from my friends.

Valentine Postcards

I've been really bummed lately. I've had little inspiration to do much quilting. So I decided to do something small tonight. I made 4 Valentine Postcards. I used a pair of my old Cropped Pants that had a Floral Embroidery at the hemline. (The zipper had broke) I added the Heart Ribbon and the Ribbon with I Love You printed on it.

For the back of the Postcard I use the Shout Color Catchers that I have been saving. (I always knew I would find a use for them)

I think they turned out kind of cute.

Back from Road 2 Ca

I had a wonderful time at Road 2 California. The Quilts were wonderful! I can't believe how talents those artists are. I was honored to have my quilt Blue Berry Wine juried into the show.

I traveled with 3 great gals. Barbara Sindlinger, Diane Mitchell and Kathy Morrison. We also took the same class together. It was David Taylor's Advanced Pictorial Applique. I am working on a picture of my little dog Cocoa.

Here is Diane and the picture of the flower she is making into a quilt.

David talking to Kathy and Barb's group.

I also did a little bit of shopping there. Here is a picture of my great finds. At least I think they were great finds.