Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that you are safe and warm and with your Loved Ones today.

I pulled out the Christmas Round Robin that my Kansas City "Just a Little Crazy Stitcher's Club" did a few years ago. This was my quilt. I pieced it and then the club members helped to embellish it.

My quilt guild, "the Nite Owls", had a Christmas party on December 3rd and part of the fun was that people made things for raffle drawings. I won two quilts. One was this great table runner that I put on my dining room table. I will have to make something like this next year. I made 2 CQ stockings for the raffle. You can see them here.

December in California. Hummingbirds! They must stay year round. We are still getting 20 to 30 of them at times. A lot have moved on but a lot more must have moved in because a couple of the species are not coming right now. It will be interesting to see how many we have next Spring.

By the way, Kansas City had a major snow storm today with 7 to 10 inches of blowing snow and 10 degrees. Burrrrr! I so don't miss that!

Christmas at our New House

I bought this panel at the Corbin Mill Quilt Shop in Liberty, Missouri a couple of years ago. It is flannel and very sweet.

I decided to finally make the stockings from it. There is a fourth one that is not on the table but it is up on my fireplace. It has a teddy bear on it.

Here they are on our fireplace and our Christmas Tree. I really Love our house! It is so exciting to have a house that I want to decorate! No presents yet, though.

By the way, it will be in the 70's tomorrow. Winter in California!

San Diego Trip

My Husband Bruce and I went to San Diego for our 31st Anniversary, the weekend after Thanksgiving. On Saturday, we were going to go to the San Diego Zoo but it rained most of the day so we went right to the hotel. We are only about an hour and a half away so we will go back to the zoo later.

Bruce got us this great room with a balcony, on the 9th floor, overlooking the Bay.

We spent the whole day out there watching the boats and people. It was a little cool but very fun.

A glass (plastic cup) of wine helped keep me warm! The view was amazing!

A ship sailed around the harbor and near sundown, shot off his cannon. It was so cool!

The Holland America cruise ship Oosterdam was docked right below us. It sailed Saturday night.

The whole process of leaving was pretty interesting. It blew it's horn as it left. Very impressive! Just like in the movies.

It backed out and then...

...it was gone!

Sunday, we went to see the San Diego Chargers kick the Kansas City Chiefs butts! It was pretty sad. Bruce wouldn't let me wear red so I wore some red earrings. It was probably a good thing because some of the drunker San Diego fans gave the Chiefs fans a lot of trouble! It was quite hostile.

We took the train to the stadium so we left at half time to beat the rush and go back to the hotel to get our car. The train system makes it quite easy to get around town. A Great Weekend!!!

Football is on today and Bruce gets the TV for the day so I think I am off to my sewing room. Maybe I will actually get something done in there. At least no football will be on my TV!

Xmas Stockings and November in California

It has been a while since I posted to my blog. I have gotten a new job at a Dental Lab so I have less time to sew but my Husband likes football so on Sunday I escape to my sewing room and get stuff done.

I finished these Xmas Stockings for the raffle at my quilt guild for the December Christmas meeting. My Friend Jeanne is in charge of setting it up. She has gotten a ton of quilts for it. I am really interested in how they set it up. I will post back when I know. Maybe I will buy something! There are a lot of really talented people in my new guild!

I made 11 mini art quilts before I went back to work. I will probably use them for gifts. They are all raw edge pieced. Even the bindings.

This is the amazing thing about California. It is November and we still have Hummingbirds coming to our feeders! It was 75 degrees today and it will be 80 degrees on Thanksgiving. That is just not right! I still have tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini in my garden.

I found this blog by Karen Griska that has this beautiful selvage quilt on it made by Karen. It reminds me of the antique Cigar Silk Ribbon quilts from 100 years ago. I think in 5o years these selvage quilts with be in their own category like Crazy Quilts are. Check out her blog.

I have been working on Christmases Stockings for my guild, the Nite Owls, for their December party. I have found fabrics for the cuff and the backings. I will be glad to have these done.

I have been making mini quilts for sale. I need the money and I thought this would be a good way to make some. These are not done yet. I need to quilt them to a background fabric. I have been doing color studies with the selections of fabrics.

On another note, they are building houses so fast in our neighborhood. I have been watching them outside my sewing room. These houses have gone up in less than a week! Amazing! There are 6 up there.

Xmas Stockings

My quilt guild, The Nite Owls in Upland, CA, does a Christmas item auction at their annual Christmas party in December. They ask that members make a Xmas Quilty item for it. I am making a couple of Xmas Stockings for it.

I started with my Husbands over sized wool socks as a pattern and increased the size.

I have crazy quilt pieced them and will do some stitching on the seams. I will post pictures later after I finish them.

I have purchased some new gadgets in the last couple of months. This first one is my Friend Jeanne's fault because she talked about how cool this item was and she sucked me in. I bought it too. Why didn't I just borrow hers? It is a cord maker. As you can see, I have done nothing with it so far and totally have buyers remorse but I will try it out and it will probably be very cool but what the heck am I going to use it for????

This second one is my own fault and it is because Sandy Turner came to our guild and I thought her quilt using these templates was pretty cool so I bought them. Again, I have buyers remorse but I will try them out. Checkout her web site. http://www.sandyturner.com/ I will use this with Batiks which I love.

The Linen's Quilt (aka Retreat Quilt)

This is the "Linen's Quilt". This is just the working title but it is also known as (aka) the Retreat Quilt. It is the quilt I drag to every retreat with the intention that maybe I will finally get it done. I usually take it out, look at it, and put it away. Well, I thought if I hung it on my design wall, maybe I would finally get it done. It has been there for a week now.

The blocks are basically done, it just needs to be put together. All the blocks are different sizes so it takes some effort to figure it out. I took this class from Jo Crabb in Liberty, MO at the Liberty Quilt Shop. Unfortunately they are no longer in business. It was a great shop. Julie Kiffen was the owner and what a nice person she is. Jo Crabb is the best too. I miss them.

This block with the embroidered Belle was on a very worn out pillow case. The embroidery thread had rotted and the fabric was very thin. The crochet was in great shape so I carefully removed the old embroidery thread and fused some very fine inner facing to the back of the fabric. You could still see the holes where the embroidery thread was so I re-embroidered it and now it is as good as new!

There are dresser scarves, doilies, pillowcases and a table cloth in it. I have 2 Friends that did finish theirs and put them in 2 different quilt shows and both of them won "Best of Show". It is a great way to show off your old Linens that otherwise would be sitting in some drawer somewhere and then when you are gone from this world, a relative will give them to Good Will or use them as rags!

Wildlife - Inside and Out

October in California means we still have Hummingbirds. Not as many. Some of them have left like the Black Chins and Allen's but we still have plenty. I think we are going to take one of the three feeders down for the winter. We may even go down to one if more quit coming. I am not sure if some stay around all year or not. When we moved here in February, we had Anna's at the apartment we stayed at. Each of these feeders has 10 feeding ports.

We have a lot of Finches too. We so seldom see them taking a bath but this day must have been bath day! It's funny, the Hummingbirds will take a bath on the leaves of our plants after the sprinklers have been on in the morning. They flit from one leaf to another for about 15 minutes.

This Dove decided the water on the patio was better.

This is our Flicker that comes to visit for a drink every day. He is quite loud when he arrives. He always does a little dance on the fence.

Speaking of Wildlife. This is our indoor variety. This is Fergie. She is the Queen of the house and keeps the boy cats in line. She has been known to growl and slap them. She is the smallest but she is not to be messed with. She is a horrible beggar for food and she was probably doing that in this picture.

This is Buster. One of two male black cats we have. He is the lover of the household. He follows me everywhere and wants to be touched all the time. He is quite a pest! We shaved him about a month ago because he is a beast with very long hair and he is like velvet when shaved.

My First Earthquake

I felt my first Earthquake this morning. At first, I thought my fat cat had jumped off the bed. Then my jewelry box started rattling. It lasted only a second. The epicenter was literally right under my home. It was a 3.4 magnitude which is not that big but I felt it. I am no longer a quake virgin! There was a 1.9 afterwards at 5 AM in the same spot. This is looking from in front of my house to the South.
This is looking to the North which is where the San Andres fault is. It is very close to my home.

Birthday Quilts for Friends

Two of my Friends have Birthdays this week. I made each of them a small wall hanging quilt. This first one is for my pal Marci. She loves these colors and is always trying to get me to steal quilts at shows that are these colors. I always tell her to do her own dirty work! Hopefully giving her this quilt will stop her from trying to start me in a life of crime.

This quilt is for my Friend Gretchen. She works with my Husband. She is a pal. She comes over and sits on the patio with me and has a glass of wine and she makes the best artichoke dip that she brings too! Yum!

Today we had some rain. It is the first time I have seen the ground that wet since we moved here. It is supposed to rain more tomorrow. I love the view off our front porch. It is still a little overcast. It reminds me that Fall is here in Brown Land.

Xmas quilt blocks and Nite Owls Retreat

I went to the retreat for the Nite Owls quilt guild and I finished piecing the blocks for my Noel Village Christmas quilt. It is fused with Steam a Seam 2. I think I am going to stitch around the pieces with mono filament, invisible thread. Isn't it the cutest thing? Now the challenge will be to get it done before Christmas so I can hang it in my new home for the Holiday!

This is the sewing area at our retreat. It was a packed room with a lot of Great New Friends.

Xmas Quilt and Visit From Marci

My Friend Marci, from Kansas City, came to visit me for 10 days. We shopped and shopped. We attended the San Diego quilt show, too. It was a nice show but not that big. It had some really nice vendors.

This is a picture of Marci as she is packing up her stuff to leave. She gave me that fat quarter that is in her hand. I am going to do a pink and green quilt some day.

Before she came here, she called and said we needed to make a quilt while she was here. We decided on an applique Christmas quilt by Piece of Cake Designs called the North Pole Village.

Hand applique was out of the question because of time, and we don't do the "A" word. We decided to use Steam a Seam 2 and fuse them. This is my quilt at this point. I have 3 blocks left to do. There will be a block that goes the width of the top that has Santa flying by in his sled and reindeer.

Marci's quilt is more like a Dr Seuss village. I should have taken a picture but didn't before she left. I am getting ready to go on a retreat with some friends so I am going to try and finish mine up then.

Road Runner in My Back Yard

I had the back slider open because it was nice this morning and the cats like to look out. All the sudden, I heard a weird noise. The cats looked a little freaked out so I looked outside and found this guy hanging out.

He was very interested in our hummingbird feeder and was watching them and they were watching him. I carefully got my camera and snapped a few pictures. I also got a short film of him but it was of him leaving.

They are fairly large birds and quite the character!

Nitetime Needlers Crazy Quilt Blocks

I think I have finished my blocks for the Nitetime Needlers Opportunity Quilt. An Opportunity Quilt is used by a quilt guild to raise money for programs for the guild. Tickets are sold for a raffle of the quilt.

I made 3 total for it. Here are the last two.

Here are some details of this first block.

I was worried a little bit about how much to add to them as I don't know what the other block makers will do on their blocks. So, I left it up to Marci and Pam to decide if they want to add more after they get them all back. They will have a challenge with this quilt but I am sure that it will be fabulous because they are both so talented.

A detail of the little silk ribbon flowers. Silk Ribbon is not my forte, but I try.

I will be buying several tickets for this quilt for myself. I would really like to win it!