A couple More

Before I took my sudden trip to the hospital I was able to complete another two Comfort Quilts. They just needed the bindings sewn on. I can set still and do that and not move around much.

This first quilt is using leftover blocks from a strip club project. Donations came from = Brenda, Jeannie, Victoria and Audrey. Thanks Ladies. I just added the fill in blocks and the borders. Cute. Some little girl will love it as it is red hearts.

This is a quilt for Orange Blossom Guild. I was trying a new pattern. Since I did not have a place to lay it out (they were all full) it was put together wrong and i did not notice until it was quilted.

Not sure when I will feel good enough to sew....need some heavy-duty energy.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting, Paula

Thimble Towne Strip Club

So Sorry this is late being posted. I ended up in the hospital for a two day stay so this post did not get finished on time like I had planned. So Sorry.

I had to attend Tuesday's Strip Club due to scheduling problems and my calendar.

The photos are loaded totally differently as my poor ole brain does not wish to function properly today.

Here is Diane B. and Brenda. We are waiting for class to start. We are excited.....Can't you tell. A new project to unveil. What will it be for September?











Decided to start with Show and Tell.

Here is Brenda's Quilt. Doesn't it just pop out at you. Love it. Great Job, and it is quilted also.

Here is Cheryl C's quilt.

Love the Gold in her quilt. It does remind me of more manly colors. Not sure if that is what she was going for but I like it. Cheryl's is also quilted.

Here is my quilt. If you look to the far right..... the gold and blue Lotus Blossom (the class sample). That was my first quilt. This is my second and I wanted to to be totally different. It is not quilted yet but it is pinned (thanks Karen T.) I ran out of time. So....hopefully can get it quilted soon.

Here we are taking a quilt breather getting all set up and ready to go. We have four more people coming so we decided to visit until they arrived....

Standing is Brenda M. talking to Faye. Way in the back in Brenda #2 and Cheryl.

Here you have Brenda #2 Back left, Bernita Front
left, Cheryl back right, Andria front right.

More quilters

another angle.

Jeremy giving us a peek at the materials you can choose for next months quilt.

Spin Cycle - One version of the quilt for next month.

Spin Cycle done in Halloween materials.

Jeremy just had to tempt us with two different versions. Which one do you pick? Hum.....may have to do them both. Will have o see.

Thanks for dropping by. Happy Quilting. Paula

Field Trip

Today part of our friendship group took a field trip and headed for Bakersfield. We needed to take our machines in to be serviced so we headed to Strawberry Patches first. We dropped off five sewing machines for servicing.

Here is Brenda and Carolyn pulling machines.

Of course after all that work we needed to have a sweet treat.

I think the name of the shop is Simply Sweet but don't quote me.

Here is Brenda, Kay and Carolyn with our Coffee, Tea and treats. YUM! We deserved it after all our hard work.

A couple of nice quilters offered to take a photo of all four of us. That was so sweet. Quilters are the best.

After spending several hours at Strawberry Patches we decided to visit the new Bolts to Binding quilt store.

Sorry, I did not get any photos was too busy fondling material.

Between the two stores my pocket book is much lighter. Not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing. LOL!!! I did add to my stash and found a few new patterns to try.

We discovered we were all famished so the ladies and Bolts gave us wonderful directions to a local cafe. Do I remember the name??? Heavens no. Could I find it again? You betcha!

After a wonderful lunch we stopped at Beverly's as it was just a few doors down. Did not purchase anything but had fun looking.

After Beverly's we decided to head home. We ended up back in Visalia about 4:40.

Wonderful day with good friends and totally a productive day.

Thanks for dropping by. Happy Quilting, Paula

Winners

The saying goes, the third time is a charm. Well, that is not how this story goes.

Our County fair was last month, and I was pressured (lol) by my friend Brenda to enter quilts into the fair. I really did not have anything I felt was quality enough but......she insisted. She even had the entry forms for me and made arrangements to take them to the fair and bring them home. How do you say no to that?

I had finished quilting my Christmas Stack and Whack earlier this year. It was the first quilt I have tried quilting custom. Every block was quilted differently. It took me forever (it seemed like it was forever). This is my favorite stack and whack quilt. I really liked how it turned out.

Anyway as the story goes, I won a blue ribbon for the quilting. I was very very excited as I had never ever entered anything let alone win something. Yes, I was proud.

There were tons of beautiful quilts there. The grand winner (I think that is what it is called) was by a sister guild member Diane Mitchell and the quilt was breath taking. When I grow up I would like to quilt like her.

This was my second entry. It also won for the quilting. I am still in shock. You can't tell from the photo but the rain drops have beads on them. That was also my first attempt at beading.

So two quilts entered, two quilts that won. I could not be more pleased.

Sandy, I posted this post just for you so now you can quit bugging me.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting, Paula

Lotus Blossom

Our strip club for the month of August was to make the quilt "Lotus Blossom". Since I did the shop sample, I wanted to make one in different colors.

While on the shop hop last May I found this beautiful floral Batik. It has lavender, peach, green, etc. in it and I know I had some strips in my cupboard that would go. While looking for the strips I found the background material in my stash You can't really tell from the photo but it has pink, lavender etc in it also. The only thing I still needed was the accent color which I had to go shopping for

After many trials of different materials I close the forest green Batik. I really like it and it does make the other colors stand out.

Now to get it quilted.

Thanks for dropping by. Happy Quilting, Paula

Charity Quilts and Block of the Month

Using up your left over fabrics can be fun. It is hard to tell from the photo but most of the fabrics used on this quilt has frogs on it. It is so darn cute. It will make a great charity quilt for some little boy to snuggle with.

Every guild meeting we have a block of the month that we get a piece of material and directions to make a block. You then return your blocks and you get a ticket for every block returned and your ticket goes into a drawing.

This quilt was made using the blocks I won August 4th. This is the first quilt. I have the second top made just need to get some batting and a back then I can finish it. Both quilts will be donated to our Charity Quilt Program. I love all the bright colors. Just a fun quilt.

Thanks for dropping by. Happy Quilting

What are friends for

Let me tell you tell you the story behind this Wall hanging.

every year a few of us quilty friends get together
and do an on-line mystery quilt.

My friend Jeannie also had a magazine challenge where you were given a magazine photo and you had to use five of the colors from that picture.

Jeannie combined the two challenges and came up with this wall hanging.



Now.....on with the story. I have been quilting (meandering only)for several years) I decided it was time for me to do other things a few months ago. I wanted to do feathers oh so badly. So....... I watched two other people make feathers. (Barbara S and Karen T) Then I tried it. I was hooked I have now been practicing feathers for a few months. So......... When I found out Jeannie was just going to stitch in the ditch on this wall hanging I asked her if I could quilt it. "She let me".

This was my very first attempt at making flowers on a quilt.

This shows the meandering around the flowers.
The thread is variegated but you really can't tell in this photo.

On the feathers I used a glitter thread (Thanks to a thread bar class I just took with Cindy Needham). I am no longer afraid to try different threads or to move my tension around.

More flowers













Here is where I ran into problems

These pale green rectangles gave me fits. I did not know shat to put into them and did not have time to research designs to try. So. It got wavy leaves.

This was around the middle block and I really think it turned out more like sea weed. Oh well.


I was under the gun. I got Jeannie's wall hanging around 3 p.m. on Thursday and she needed it Sat morning for her guild challenge.

I worked on it all day Friday and she picked it up about 8 p.m. Friday night. For my first quilting challenge I am very happy.

You can see the stippling here pretty well.

I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Thanks Jeannie for letting me quilt your wall hanging. I am almost ready to tackle a lap quilt now. LOL!

Thanks for dropping by. Happy Quilting, Paula

Class With Cindy Needham

This is Cindy Needham.

The class I took from her was Open Thread Bar. It was held at Thimble Towne on August 4th. When we arrived for class we were ushered to our seats so we could set up. We were then presented with a light breakfast (Quiche, fresh fruit, coffee etc. Wonderful to start the day.

Cindy is a gracious Bar Tender (Play on the Open Thread BAR. We covered tons of information about threads, how they work, when and where to use them. We had wonderful handouts plus a C.D with tons of info (Which I have not had time to play yet). We went through several different types and plys of threads and we each took samples to attach to our handouts so we could refer back to them. Some of the thread samples were:

Masterpiece: a 50 W 2-ply Egyptian Cotton

King Tut: 49 w, 3-ply Egyptian Cotton

Bottom Line: 60 W 2 -ply polyester

SO Fine: 50 Wt 3-ply polyester

Highlights, Living & Nature Colors plus Art Studio Colors : High Sheen premium 40 Wt 3 -ply trilobal polyester

Rainbows: High Sheen 40Wt 3-ply trilobal polyester with a 1" color change

Brytes: 30 Wt. 3-ply polyester

Kimono Silk: #100 silk filament thread

Metallic: 40Wt spun metallic

Glitter: Flat hologram thread

Razzle Dazzle: 8 Wt decorative thread

This beautiful piece was hanging on the wall and we were told that most of the thread used on it were the Art Studio colors which were NEON in colors. On this piece you would not know they were neon. It is just beautiful. What a wonderful way to show off threads.

This was a piece that was passed around the class room. Of course I had to get a photo. Look at those colors and the quilting is .........no words to say breathtaking.

During break time some ladies continued sewing, me I had to wander and get photos.

Sorry about his photo. My arm was bumped just as I snapped the photo.

Cindy is holding this sample and trying to hold and explain another.

Some up close photos of the different threads used. Notice the thread color changes for the centers of some of the feathers.

And the beading.

More feathers.

When I grow up I want to quilt like this.














Last quilt. Sorry about the photo again, we were working in tight quarters.


Some of the things I learned that day was that for machine quilting a Microtex sharp Topstitch needle is the way to go. You really will not need any other. Sizes are anywhere from a 70/10, 80/12, 90/14, 100/16. It you can find the Titanium needles the last about 10 times longer than regular needles.

So.....It will sure save me from purchasing a lot of other needles I won't use anymore. ( I love saving money so I can buy more fabric.

We all took a break for lunch which again Thimble Towne provided. Yum. We all got to select from a menu when we arrived a lunch arrived right about noon. I had a sandwich (Turkey, cranberry sauce and cream cheese with lettuce and tomato) So good. Also a cookie and drink. I was very full and needed a nap but.....back to sewing. I did take a quick break for some fast shopping. There was a 40% sale going on so naturally had to partake. Jeremy has to stop holding sales while I am in class. Of course it did not damage the pocket book too much.

Some of the other hints or tips were:

Use a pipe cleaner to clean the inside of your machine. Never use canned air as it spreads the lint around in areas you can't reach.

Well, that's about it for today. Thanks for dropping by. Happy Quilting, Paula

Charity Quilts and More

You know how some of us put things off until the last minute? Well, I can say that has been me lately.

I have had so much on my plate. Just kinda feel like I am getting nothing done.

The last few days I have been working on Charity Quilts.

I needed to get them finished for our Guild meeting tomorrow night and .....between classes and strip club (2- 1/2" strips girls, not the clubs that have polls) I just can't get caught up.


The first quilt is an all over printed quilt that I just did a big meander on.

The second quilt did not even have borders just big pieces so I did a fast quilt on it too.






This third quilt had borders so I put feathers in the borders. Sorry, photo is not close enough to tell.










Another all over pattern















Now this one was a bit larger so I did the outside border with feathers the inside border just a quick pattern and the inside a meander. Just needed to get them done.








Last but not least, another larger one.

I tried a new binding thingy that someone told me about so I did not have to do any of them by hand.

Boy am I bad at it. You sew your binding onto the back, bring it around to the front and sew it down from the front. Yikes, do I ever need practice on that.


Tomorrow (Thursday) I am doing a class on Thread Play. It is put on by Superior Threads and I can't wait to play with all the different threads. I am excited. Until next time, Happy Quilting, Paula