2012 CQ Quilt Started

I have been a very bad blogger. I started back to work and work way too much. A lot of things have gone by the wayside. I am back working in a Dental Lab. I wish I could make money doing my hobby of CQ! I still teach CQ sometimes. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people doing CQ in Southern CA. My classes seem to fill up pretty good but I don't make enough to support the bills.

I have been wanting to start on a CQ for the 2012 CQ Challenge. I had a false start but my idea was a little to complex and I couldn't seem to get going. I have changed my plan and have actually made some progress.

This is the antique CQ that is my inspiration. I love that the blocks are set on point and I love the embroidery in the middle. It really is a simple CQ but it has a great visual graphic look.



This is my plan. I have fans all around and the blocks are still on point. It is an evolving plan as I have changed it a bit as I have been working on it.



These are the foundation blocks on my design wall. The blocks are 8 1/2 inches unfinished. I was going to do some embroidery on the 5 blocks in the center but have since decided to do CQ on the 4 around the center. I think I will do my initials on the very center block. This may change though!

I selected fabrics and decided to do jewel tone fabrics. I wanted to use natural fibers so most of them are cotton and silk. I also wanted to use modern fabrics so there are a lot of batiks and hand dyes. I have a nice collection of beautiful hand dyed African fabrics that I am using too. I love these. I found a fantastic booth at the Long Beach quilt show in July called Ba Ba Blankets that I found several wonderful, unique fabrics. One of them will be the border fabric of the quilt.

This is my sewing room with the fabrics I have pulled out. What a mess! Isn't my sewing room great! I love it! That is my cutting table that all the fabric is piled on. My Husband bought me a great little TV that fits perfect! All the little quilts around the ceiling are done by friends. It keeps them close to me. Marci and I have a sheep thing going.

I am going to try and post my progress so check back. I will probably not post every day but I will try to be more regular.

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.