Monday Morning Design Wall 122/2013

 Good Morning, I enjoyed a long break and took several days of vacation over Thanksgiving.  I was able to spend a lot of time sewing and cleaning!  My house is clean and decorated for Christmas so now I can spend the next few weeks finishing up holiday projects.  I made bags last night, the pattern is called "A Little Duffle Do It" by Karen West.  They are so cute, I made Medium, Small and Tiny.  Tonight I make Large.  I also began outlining my Hexagon project with white so I hope to be able to start putting that together during my Christmas break!   I was very fortunate this holiday and all the kids can home for the holiday!  This might be out last year of everyone being able to come home so we enjoyed it by spending a lot of time together playing games and cooking!!    Remember to check out Judy's blog and see all the rest of the design walls. 

Monday Morning Design Wall 11/11/2013

Good Morning, I have started another Hexi project, this time with one inch hexagons and am making triangles with them to eventually make an entire quilt.  Might take a while but I will have fun doing it!  I am taking donations of 2.5 inch scraps for the shapes as I found out quickly, I don't have a huge stash.  I have stuck to certain colors and fabrics and am a bit limited!   I will be finishing up the Grandmother's Flower Garden of last week pretty quickly as it is such large hexagons.   I also completed the Bay Area Quilters Quest shop hop on Friday and I had a blast!  Hit all seven shops in one day and found a ton of great fabric and stuff!  Remember to check out Judy's blog to see the rest of the design walls.

Monday Morning Design Wall 10/28/2013

Ok, so my design wall is technically my living room couch...but the Hexies I am working on are too heavy to hang up on the wall as I still have paper in most of them!  I am working on a Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagon quilt and have been using my stash fabrics to start whittling down the amount of fabric I have as I am running out of space!!  Here are two of the groupings I have sewn together and I am hoping to have 12 of these groups for the entire quilt! 

So much fun to have a hand project to take with me this fall!  Remember to check out Judy's blog for the rest of the design walls.

Monday Morning Design Walll 10/14/2013

 Good Morning, it has been a rough few weeks for me as I am spending every spare minute machine quilting!  While cleaning out my sewing area (a corner of my bedroom) I found this old quilt.  Old as in 2003 or 2004?  I made it from a Block Of The Month Quilt Kit from Joanne Fabrics back when I first started to quilt.  This was before I was brave enough to attend the BOM at my local quilt shop!!  It is not too bad, fabric quality is HORRIBLE and the backing fabric is atrocious but I thought if I quilting it well I could give it to my daughter to use when she goes to the beach!!  I was able to get some major design work done and sewed every stinking seam in ONE DAY!!  Amazing how fast that can be done on very simple quilts.  I am using Magnifico by Superior Threads for my design work and it stands out beautifully! Should be finished in a day or two with this and then it is back to other projects.

So many quilts to quilt, so little time!  Check out Judy's blog for the rest of the design walls!

Monday Morning Design Wall 9/2/2013

 It has been several weeks since I posted as I have nothing new on my design wall.  I have been getting kids ready for school, both high school and college, moving them in and out of apartments, dorms and bedrooms.  I have also started quilting my king size Baltimore Album, which is going to be a challenge in itself but should keep me busy for the next two to three months.  At the beginning of August, I took Linen Lady's, a machine quilting class by Cindy Needham and worked really hard to get to the point where I could start beading my piece of lace!!

I love the blue batik background and I have both beads for the lace and beads for the background!

Nicolas took his quilt to college and seems pretty happy in the dorm and working pretty hard with 5 classes, 4 morning starts at 8:00 a.m.  My youngest begins Junior year and I wish him the best, most of his classes are AP and he will have to study his        tush off to make it through.  Remember to check out Judy's blog for the rest of the design walls.

Monday Morning Design Wall 8/12/2013

 I have had such a great couple of weeks!  First I signed up for the Linen Lady class with Cindy Needham for the last weekend that my boys were all going to Boy Scout Camp in New Mexico so I spent an entire week getting ready for that class.  So...I drop them at the airport at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning (picture taken upon their return after a 6 day backpacking trip) and and I am free...free to lay on the couch and pet the dog...free not to make dinner...it was great.




 I then drove into San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon and picked up my son Spencer's stuff from his apartment upon the end of his internship since I would be in my quilting class when he had to move out of his apartment.   He is standing outside of Marina Sushi where we ate dinner, it was great!!

 I then discovered a cantaloupe in the garden!!  What a surprise.  On Wednesday I found a blender for my daughter on craigslist!  $15 for a $65 blender!!  Below are two of the projects I worked on during my class this past weekend, Linen Lady's,  and it was so much fun!  I took advantage of Cindy's extensive templates and marked multiple projects.

I need to order more thread, different colors to make the quilting pop but it was a great weekend. So much quilting fun with some great people.  Remember to check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.  Dang, I had such a great week I probably should have bought a lottery ticket!!

H

Monday Morning Design Wall 7/15/2013

 Ok, I seem to be addicted to just making quilt tops!!  Such a horrible problem but I would have loved to have made this for my last son graduation quilt but he is a junior in high school, so I have two years to go!!  Not sure I can save it until then but then I want to make him something special.  This pattern is from the Modern Quilting magazine I found at the store the other day.    I made 6 blocks of 4 colors and may need to make more!  I need to think of another setting solution.  I finished, well finished the beginning quilting of my double wedding ring quilt, bound it, and so far so good although I have a feeling I can quilt more and it would be better!!  The quilting pattern is a bit simple so I might have to do more!!  Please see the pictures below to see the blocks on my design wall came together.  Also check out Judy's blog for the rest of the design walls.  Quilting suggestions welcome!! 

Monday Morning Design Wall 6/24/2013

Good Morning!!  I had a great week, finished up my son's high school graduation quilt and presented it to him this weekend.  He loves it!!  He was happy it was big enough to fit a larger bed although I did not have the heart to tell him how small dorm beds are!!  He will learn!!  He is heading off to college in the fall and this will be a bit of warmth from home.     I also finished up my Miss Emilia quilt, a mini-Baltimore album applique quilt.  I finished the borders and mitered them on, adding the last little bit of applique.  It turned out so well that I want to hand quilt it!!   I brought the quilt to the Winters Quilt Show this weekend when I helped in The Applique Society (TAS) booth during our membership drive.  I had a great time at the show, tied for Viewer's Choice with one of my quilts and had a great lunch with a good friend Pam!  Wonderful day. I also have all four blocks of Alex Anderson's The Grape Escape quilt done and will be finishing the sewing of them before I start the border!!So many grapes, so few hours!  But, so much fun!!  Check out Judy's Blog for more great design walls!

Monday Morning Design Wall 6/17/2013

 Happy Monday!!  I have no design wall as nothing has changed in several weeks!!  I did finish and present one graduation quilt last week, as you can see Kelly was delighted with her graduation present!!  I used fabrics she chose on a visit to Hawaii and tried to showcase them in a quilt with her name.  Good Luck at Sacramento State University in the fall Kelly!!

Last weekend we enjoyed our son Nicolas' high school graduation from Davis Senior High School.  He is off to Chico State University in the fall and is looking forward to studying International Relations, German and Chinese with the goal of spending one year studying abroad. 



Also, this past weekend was our daughters graduation from California Polytechnic State University located in San Luis Obispo California.   She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Biology.  The future is very bright for her and she is looking into grad school for the fall of 2014!!

 Last, but certainly not least, today is my 24th wedding anniversary!!   Happy 24 years Stuart!! (And happy Father's day yesterday).   So my design wall is pretty empty right now so please feel free to check out Judy's blog and I will have something new and exciting next week!!

Monday Morning Design Wall 5/27/2013

Good Morning!  My design wall has not changed in weeks as I have been working on pinning and quilting a couple of graduation quilts which need to be finished by the beginning of June.   So much fun but so much work!!  I am chained to my machine for a few hours every day but the more I do each day just means I will be finished soon!!  Remember to check the rest of the design walls on Judy's blog.

Monday Morning Design Wall 5/13/2013

 Well, my design wall is rather boring this week!  I have my four borders ready to go and also prepared another Grape Escape block (see last picture below) but.....it is not like I did not have an exciting weekend.  I won Best of Show, First Place for Applique Division and Best Applique (and First Place for the section) for my applique quilt, My Whimsical Quilt Garden at Dixon MayFair in Dixon California.  I was so shocked, as a friend of mine told me I had won best of Division, not the entire show!!  She hid the information  My other quilt, Miss Kyra, won First Place.  Well, I cannot wait until the county fair....just to see how they do!   This just makes me want to do more applique!!

Monday Morning Design Wall 5/6/2013

 

 Another fantastic week, well for quilting progress anyway!!  I got two of my borders for my Miss Emilie's Garden quilt ready by be sewn down.  I have the next two borders ready to go, well ready to prepare anyway.  So excited!!  This quilt looks great!!  The weekend was busy for many reasons, my high school senior, Nicolas, went to his Prom with a date!!   I rented him a tuxedo and he looked great.  He declined my offer to pay for a hair cut, sigh, but I am not going to die on that hill!!  He is the one with the long red hair!  Parents, warn your kids not to leave their wallets in their jacket pockets.  Nicolas had his wallet stolen at the prom but it was found (sans money) and at least we will get his license back.  He learned his lesson!!

My husband was attending our Boy Scout Camporee  with our youngest boy this weekend and our troop took home the top award for the 6th year in a row.  Yeah Troop 466!!   My wonderful husband rushed home from camping to drive into San Francisco on Sunday morning with me (1.5 hours away) and our son to check out an apartment for our son who has an internship in the city for the summer.  The rent was $2300 a month, furnished, for a room the size of his bedroom.....and he would have to share with a friend.  Yikes.  Too small and the furniture could not be changed.  He is checking Craigslist and is hoping to find something near the financial district but I am not holding my breath!!  America's Cup is in San Francisco this summer and all the short term rentals are gone.  The picture below was taken from the window at the end of the bed looking toward the kitchenette!!   I have high hopes for this week of quilt work!!  I will get so much done as I pre-made dinners for days this weekend!!  Check out Judy's blog and see the rest of the design walls!! 

Monday Morning Design Wall 4/29/2013

 Ok, whole new quilt on the design wall.  This is "LAST" Nicolas' Graduation Quilt.  The pattern is from Quiltmaker, May/June 2013 and the pattern is called Over Under (page 39).  I showed my very disinterested 18 year old the pattern and asked him to pick colors but he could have cared less and just said to get the same colors.  I got a bright green, teal, lighter blue and a green yellow.  I ordered two colors of Kona Cotton, black and Pepper, and the pepper looked so much better!!  The quilt is larger than I wanted so I cut back on the numbers of squares (the pattern has 7, I only did 5) and I even left off the last row of squares.  It was too large for my design wall if I tried to add the last row.  This allows for a bottom border, with his name in large letters!!  I will be forced to use the extra blocks, (see below) in some project, but then I could always make another quilt using other fabrics!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               I also had time to get the first border on the graduation quilt for my friend's daughter ready.  I will need to do the second border, which will contain her last name and then miter the borders....and everything else!! Don't worry, I am still working on applique but not finishing or starting anything right now!!  Don't forget to check out Judy's blog and all the other design walls. 

Monday Morning Design Wall 4/22/2013

Good Morning!!  Wow, I had a great week.  I successfully finished both quilts for Dixon Mayfair and they were turned in on time!  Yippee!  Now, since I discovered so much free time (in my dreams) I started the top for a friend of mine's daughter, who is graduating high school in June.  I love the pattern, Boho Girl from the May/June 2013 issue of McCall's Quilting magazine.  Some of the fabric is what she picked out while on a trip to Hawaii last year and I brought in a few batiks that worked with those purples.  She wanted green and purple and I think it worked well.  I love the little strips of white and there will be a small white border but I would love to personalize the border with her name so it will be a bit of a challenge.  I think two sides will be colored and two sides will be white, mitered with her name in the colors on the white. Ohh, I think that will work!!  Don't forget to check out Judy's blog to see the rest of the design walls!!