Camarillo Quilt Guild show

My busy weekend included a few hours among other quilters--at the biannual show put on by the Camarillo Quilt Guild.  There were a few hundred quilts to look at and I could have taken pictures of all of them, but managed to restrain myself.  My mom and I enjoyed the exhibits very much. I'll share some favorites over a couple of posts.

I seemed to have been drawn to a lot of quilts with mixed piecing and applique--which is a goal of mine in a future project.

So simple with the 9 patches and flower appliques.

My blurry picture aside, this was a sweet calendar quilt of Victorian ladies with embellishments of charms, buttons and embroidery. 

May's block had this adorable puppy with a bee at his nose.

Multiple "stack n'whack" quilts were in the show.  This was definitely the showiest!

Interesting all neutrals quilt with very sharp piecing skills.

All Japanese fabrics.  I liked the offset squares and indigo fabrics.

A Ricky Tims Convergence quilt.  The diagonal lines in the borders added a lot.  Mom and I looked at all the vendors and I fondled fabric but did not buy anything.  We had the most fun in the guild's boutique area--a flea market of old books, vintage and antique quilt tops, and all sorts of leftover kits, fabric, patterns, and tools.  More quilts next time!

Final chapter of the zig zag quilt

May Day found me putting the last of the quilting stitches into the zigzag quilt.  I had a few "aha" moments with this project.  The first was during the quilting stage, when I thought about the description that Leah Day of 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting gives for her samples, describing them as either fillers or edge to edge designs.  So instead of starting in the middle with my free motion (totally unoriginal giant stipple), I started at one end and stitched edge to edge in rows across the quilt.  This was so much easier than struggling with a pile of quilt surrounding my needle, trying to decide which direction to go next and dislodging my platform.  That led to my next "aha" moment, unfortunately when I was already 3/4 through with the quilting.  See my foot pedal?

 I have a square of gripper fabric to keep it from moving around on the carpet.  It occurred to me that a little square under each leg of the platform would keep it from sliding around on the desk.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of that years ago, but it worked very well.   I also tried a hint I read on Kim Brackett's blog for testing out stitching designs by using the excess backing/batting on the edge of the quilt sandwich.  I have always been scrounging around for scraps big enough to test on and this provides two of the layers ready made.  I just plopped a leftover that didn't make it into the backing and tested out my free motion foot and thread. Later this was simply cut off when I trimmed after applying the binding.  Clever, no?

My work on Saturday of finishing the quilting, making and applying the binding and adding a label was just in time to get ready for the wedding of the secretly intended owners of said quilt all along, my dear friend Tanya and her new husband. 

 I put nearly everything I could into the backing to make it the right size.  I think I have enough fabric leftover to maybe make a potholder!  Congratulations to the happy couple and I hope they like the quilt and use it often. (Thanks go to my quilt holder for doing a great job on a windy afternoon!) 

What's in a Name?

Not quilt related, but along the line of "things I think about while working"...

As a medical transcriptionist, I come across lots of names.  Mostly names of old people because I work for a physiology department and that means lots of echocardiograms, vascular studies, and pulmonary function tests.  It seems to me that the first quarter of the 1900's dispensed a lot of very unusual female names, many of them just plain unattractive (to me, anyhow!).  There are many I am sure will never rise again in popularity.  Now, I'll start with my very own grandmother's name: Thelma.  My grandma, however, was never called this by her family, she was always Sis.  Later, she was called Aunt Sis by her nieces and nephews.  Her sisters were Ella May and Clara--not so bad. 

Another one on the top of my list: Ethel.  Who looks at a newborn baby girl and thinks that is a lovely name?  or how about Mildred, Millicent, or Myrna.  Elsie.  Doris.  Ora.  Eudora.  Eunice. Bernice. Bertha!!!   Where did these names come from?  My mom hypothesizes they came from books or plays.  Then there were all the flower and gem names: Pearl, Ruby, Violet, Lily--but those have been recycled through the decades.  I have a niece named Lily. I can't see a new crop of babies, however, named Opal, Pauline, Eula, Maxine, Beulah, Fern, or Agnes. Oh! and the men's names--Herbert? Floyd? Clarence? Willard? Who came up with these?



Just stuff that goes through my head, and of course, just my personal taste...

Thoughtful designer

About a month ago I was visiting designer Sandy Gervais' blog, Pieces From My Heart.  She started her blog last year and I have been reading it regularly.  Very creative, funny and talented lady.  The quilt I made Grant was one of her designs, so I have been a fan for a long time.  Sandy posted that they had some scary news about her mom, who was diagnosed with colon cancer.  I expressed my sympathy and concern, as did many other commenters.  Upon checking back, this post gave the news that her mother was able to come home from the hospital and as appreciation, she had gathered the comments, cards and emails and picked some names for a giveaway.  What a thoughtful thing to do, I thought, as I continued reading.  Then, my name was on the list!  Well, sort of my name.  I sent an email and Sandy confirmed that I was indeed selected to receive a Turnover of Frolic.  I love Frolic and had been petting a layer cake in my LQS just the week before.  A package arrived within a week and I am the happy and grateful recipient of this:

80 precut 6" triangles of Frolic, a line that has so many of my favorite colors.  I have already bookmarked some Moda Bakeshop ideas but for now am just happy to look at it.  The caramel popcorn was half gone by the time I took this photo last night and is now 3/4 gone!  It was really yummy (company name is The Chocolate Season).  So, thank you again, Sandy Gervais, for your thoughtful and unexpected gift in your time of worry and concern. I hope your mom is feeling okay and getting the care she deserves. 

Gardening and sewing

Can you guess which one I worked on this weekend? 

New Zealand Flax

Manzanita tree

Nope, it wasn't gardening!  My mom and I did, however, volunteer as docents on a garden tour fundraiser by Ventura Botanical Gardens, which is trying to raise money to build a public garden up in the hills surrounding the Father Serra cross--otherwise known as Grant Park (we were married there!). These pictures are of the Mediterranean house and garden where they held a dinner and silent auction.  It is way up on the hill above downtown Ventura and the place was spectacular!

Front driveway, and below, view down the steep drive to the hillside abloom with wild mustard.

This home is owned by a cardiologist and his oncologist wife.  I often hear the doctor's voice as I do transcription for the physiology department.  He's one of my favorites!

Beautiful, large Spanish tile fountain at the back of the house's large patio.  The outdoor kitchen was about the size of my entire downstairs.

I have never had quite this perspective on our coastline before.  You can see in the distance the breakwater for our marina.  It was a gorgeous day. 

Dragon sculpture in a sheltered patio between wings of the home.

Mom and I visited one other garden before spending our afternoon at another lovely home, volunteering as greeters in different parts of the garden.  It was fun to chat and joke with people and be outside for hours, a rare occurrence in my life at present!  I saw several folks I knew and met some lovely others.  As for sewing, I spent all of Sunday afternoon putting together the backing for the zig zag quilt.  I think I will end up with a pile of scraps large enough to make a potholder maybe, after all the pieces I cobbled together to make the backing large enough!  And now I am off to get the thing pinned together which will probably take me two hours.  My deadline is May 1 so I gotta get to it.

P.S. What do you think of my new profile pic?

At last, a finish!

The Quilts for Kids charity quilt got finished last night.  It took three nights for me to get the quilting done and label put on, binding made and attached; last night the binding was stitched down and the little quilt got its bath.  Here's my method for machine applying binding on a quilt that I know is going to be washed a lot.

After making the binding and ironing it in half lengthwise, I accordion pleat it like so:




 
 
 

Then I put it into a drawer of my sewing desk (ignore the chipped paint and missing handle--this is mid century metal furniture I inherited from Grant, who had it since he was a kid) and close it almost all the way, leaving the tail ready to be pulled up to my machine.
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
 I stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, following a line of basting sewn a scant 1/4" from the edge of the quilt top. I do this after I complete the machine quilting. The binding is sewn on in the traditional fashion, turning the corners and joining the tails diagonally.

After trimming away the excess batting and backing, I turn the binding to the front.  The only thing I pin are the corners, as I come to them.  I have long fingers so I can hold down a good section of the binding as I sew.







This is a three-step zig zag stitch and as you can see, it holds down the binding very securely and looks good. 

For the machine quilting, I just did simple diagnoal "cross hatch" with a wavy line (no marking needed), outlined the border, and did a couple of wavy lines in the border.  I called my quilt "Spotbot's Day Out", as there is a little robot dog on a leash held by one of the robots in the print.  Now the hard part will be getting this in the mail! 

Plethora of Projects Pending

Oh, that bane of my existence, having too many projects going at once!  But still I make small steps toward a finish.  First up, since Erica's Edict is still on my whiteboard, silk prep and cutting of about 3/4 of the needed squares took place, followed by some actual sewing on the blocks. 

In this pic above, you can see a bit of the cream on cream print, and the sheen of the dupioni, both of which are hard to photograph.  I love this Collections for the Cause print.  It is now difficult to find!

The blocks will be 12 inches finished; that makes a big quilt very quickly.  I likey that!  I used my spray bottle quite often to deal with the silk owing to the woven stabilizer.  It is a bit thick but is laying flat so far.  These were fun to do block by block, just chain piecing the 6 triangle squares and then attaching them to the large square for near instant gratification.

Next, realizing the deadline to mail back the Quilts for Kids quilt is nearing (and oh boy I will not hit it), I quickly put on the borders and pinned the sandwich.  Some simple quilting will paste this baby together and I'll slap it in the mail as soon as I can.

What's that you say? Terrible photo?  I agree...not so cute wedged into the opening to my master bedroom's vanity area but the light was better here than in my sewing room.

Progress on a UFO from last year also resulted in borders and a sandwich.  This is from a now defunct quilt site's online mystery pattern.  I simplified it to make this small wallhanging.

Finally, the zig zag quilt received its borders...

I went with a 5 inch finished border.  There was a lot of trepidation as the assembly of the zig zag rows meant bias edges on all four sides once the points were cut off. 

Of course it is hard to tell where the border ends as it is lying on my red coverlet, but you get the idea.

Now to piece a backing, get a sandwich made, quilt, bind and label.  When did I say I was going to have this finished?  Oh, yeah, end of April.  Yikes!