Trains, Planes and Automobiles

I bought my Greg a train trip for his 70th.  He loves trains but we have never taken an overnight trip on one.  It was wonderful!  We hopped on at 7am in Oceanside, CA and ended up in Seattle, WA.

Greg and my feet  in our little roomette

between LA and Santa Barbara

Cali coast is awesome

Woke up to this-Mt Shasta area

Greg in the parlor car

Parlor car

Me

Our roof view

Stopped overnight in Eugene to visit the Enquists and Johnsons who drove up from Medford

Columbia river

Washington somewhere

Add caption Washington sunset

Ava's 5th birthday

Future model's "workin' it"

 Went to El Camino quilt guild for a Mary Lou Weidman trunk show

New moose pattern

I just love her work!  Lastly, I finished my encrusted name tag-just looking for a mule to carry it-it is a little heavy but I liked making it.

Almost Done With the Cow Flimsy

I went to the Crazy 9 Patch for a sew in today and got a UFO top done.  Several years ago I bought a One Block Wonder Book and a couple of yards of fabric and cut out 15 stacks of 60 degree triangles and stopped there.  Today I assembled the blocks and made it into a table topper (the rest of the fabric will be great for a border on a fall quilt).  I just need to quilt and bind it.  Yay.  Will show pics when that is done.

Yesterday I got quite a few letters done on "Your Love'.  I had to substitute a heart for the word "love" so I would have enough room.  I am choosing this quilt for my May finish for A lovely year of Finishes (click the aqua button in the right column)

Hopefully will finish letters and plane tomorrow-at least that is the goal.

Progress

I finished the quilt and corn-finally starting to look like what I am envisioning in my head.  The lamb quilt was a giant step for me-I learned a lot.

I also added the bull's tongue giving the lamb's head a little lick:)

"Your Love is Moosic to My Ears"

I am finally back to my cow quilt.  I finished Purple Maze and will post pics when I get the binding on it.  I have agonized over the quilt that the lamb (who is supposed to be me) is wearing.  I wanted it to look like a quilt and drape like a quilt.  I checked out Ruth McDowell"s piecing workshop book at our guild and there was my answer.  It took a day to transfer my design to freezer paper, add a quarter inch to each piece and sew 2/3's of it together.  Can't wait to finish it (lamb quilt) this afternoon.  I still need to paint lamb's face, add a plane, banner, corn, and back end of a Harley.  I am teaching a "What's Your Story" class in August at The Crazy 9 Patch in Ramona based on Mary Lou Weidman's "Out of the Box With Easy Blocks" and need to finish this quilt and one that I have just done the borders for: "Why Make Cookies when You Can Make a Sugar Cube Castle".  I am excited to be able to teach another class at The Crazy 9 Patch in addition to a return of the Exploring Color workshop in May.

Those red and black hanging things are notes and will be connected before done.  Got last 2 borders attached, removed 1 missplaced note, added Harley patch, and made great progress on lamb quilt

Last 1/3 laid out on original pattern.  I was able to turn my plexiglass machine surround and an OTT light to make a light box to easily transfer pattern to shiny side of freezer paper

Going to UFO today to look for fabric to recover my couch.  Gotta run!

Camp Watch-a-Patcher

Well I am happily back from camp. I was looking forward to going to a class taught by Mary Lou Weidman and I was not disappointed.  I learned a lot in my 2 days-about hoochy piecing and also about me.

Things I learned at camp:  I don't like crowds, I am basically shy in a new environment so it is hard for me to connect to others although I made a valiant attempt and met with some success, the organizers had no signs to help you find your way so I ended up in a line for theater tickets thinking all the while, "gee, I am really under dressed, and I could have brought my husband" because of all the elegantly dressed ladies and elderly men in the line with me,  camp food can be quite awful if you aren't fond of undercooked brussell sprouts and overcooked chicken with gummy rice, I was glad I slept off campus after hearing all the complaints about the sleeping arrangements.

On the positive side I learned quite a bit in the class itself and enjoyed the other ladies, I like the idea of not planning and using wild colors in hoochy blocks but I need to find a happy medium: semi-hoochy maybe.  I looked at the Cow quilt border blocks when I got home and they are more restrained than Mary Lou's and I liked them better and that is really alright.  I loved her work and will use many of her ideas and techniques but I would get tired very quickly of all the black backgrounds although I loved seeing them.  She does beautiful, incredibly imaginative work-but I don't want my things to look like a Mary Lou knockoff-I want them to be mine.  Also, I stayed with a couple in Huntington beach who were so kind and interesting.  They were a highlight in my trip.  Their home was lovely and I slept very very well.  I love being an Evergreen member-we have met the nicest people through that organization and Kathy and Phil were no exception.

So-some photos:

Start of class-everyone setting up

Mary Lou showing examples

I am not a big Halloween/witch fan-but this is a fun quilt

detail was amazing-lots of buttons, beads and charms sewn on

candy bucket is an example of the detail

someone else does her quilting-look at the stems!

New Mexico Quilt

Detail

more detail

 Mary lou was a great teacher.  i am not sure how she even focused as she had just gotten the news that her husband has terminal cancer about 2 weeks before the class. She is a really nice lady and I was very glad to have met her.

My blocks except cardinal that wasn't done at that point

 I went to M and L falbrics which was 13 miles away the day before class and picked up a celery green from Hoffman that does not show up really well in the pics.  this will be the border.  The middle will be a dark purple Kona or batik that will have pieces about my mom who is my artistic inspiration.  I have her oil paintings all over my home.  The binding will be the same dark purple.  Yay, another UFO!

other's blocks

Close up of flower and appliqued leaves on left

The leaves on the right were string pieced and then cut out and appliqued.  i liked those a lot. The flowers were a block we learned in class times 4.  Sally Collins would have NOT liked or approved of this class:)  I must be schizophrenic because I am looking forward to taking a Sally Collins class as well.  There is room for all styles in the quilting world.

Mary Lou and Me

On Monday night there was a trunk show with Joanna Figueroa- a totally different type from Mary Lou. Beautiful soft colored quilts in applique and pieced all on a cream colored background.  Joanna was born in Warsaw, Poland and is very funny.  I heard people talking about her class and thought it was very good.

My personal favorite!

I can see this in a pale batik yellow or turquoise or even cream with jewel tone stars-yes, a combo of Mary Lou and Joanne:) Really, I think that would be beautiful!

Exciting Weekend and Beginning of Week Coming Up

Yesterday was cleanup and rest day after the 4th of July party. Greg was getting in a little nap with Lizzy after taking all the tables and fold up chairs out to the barn:

This was our 13th and last 4th of July party and we have had a great time over the years.  I usually give prizes to the winners of the croquet matches but this year I gave all my unused leftover packs of paper plates, napkins and plasticware in a cute red, white and blue bucket to Chris and Brad who have been there every year-should be some benefit for faithfulness!

Greg and I, our neighbors, Sam and Frances, friends Steve and Candy, Chris and Bill

Pat and Howard (Greg's cousins), Wally who was 88 on the 4th and his SIL, Jim and my Greg

Two games were in progress-Steve was playing croquet and Lizzy was playing Frisbee

Julie was never sure if it was her turn or not!

Every game needs a referee-and that is Howard's job

We had 17 people and had a great time as always.

Yesterday I didn't even get dressed.  I stayed in my nightie, watched Netflix and sewed.  The second block instructions had come out for the Quilt along I am participating in (see the Aiming for Accuracy button on my sidebar) so i finished that.  It was an easy block so it didn't take long and it came out a perfect 15.5x 16.5.
I have been using a tool I have had but had never got around to using-a Dragonfly 1/2 and 1/4 square triangle cutter.  It tells you what size square to cut to get the proper triangle and then gives you the ability to drawsewing lines rather than the line down the middle.  It says you don't have to trim after and it is true-they come out perfectly.  Wendy Mathison designed the Dragonfly.

#2

#1 and #2

Dragonfly tool by Wendy Mathison

After the square, I worked on the last of the swags for the Home Sweet Home quilt-getting all 24 finished. So, when I get my Babylock back, I can go ahead and embroider the addresses on the borders and add the swags-still have the 4 corners to do-am waiting to see about the spacing since I have changed the dimensions.

24 border swags-six coordinated reds

Lastly, I worked on Cow Greg's eyes.  Greg has beautiful hazel eyes which was part of my original attraction to my sweet husband-so, I wanted the cow's (bull) eyes to be green and I wanted to make the sun glasses transparent so you could see his eyes underneath.  Have no idea if it will work but-hey-this is MY vision so I can attempt it!

Original sketch with round glasses and no eyes showing

New eyes with glasses all cut-16 pieces in all

material for eyes ironed on-Elton John glasses in place

All fabrics ironed on-we'll see if the illusion works-not seeing it yet:)

All in All a productive day!   Today I need to pack for my trip to Costa Mesa and Camp Watch-a-Patcher tomorrow, so, I don't think I will get any sewing done.  There is a meet and greet at 2-4 on Sunday which I am not sure now why I signed up for it-I am not usually comfortable in those situations. But I am taking an "Out of the Box" class so I should get out of my box. I skipped the "meet the Teachers" at 7 because I don't know my way around up there and I don't want to try to find it in the dark.  I will meet Mary Lou in class.

Before I go to the college, I am going to go to the sale at M and L fabrics.  They are like a warehouse with tons of flats at 2-2.95 a yd and they are having a 20% off sale.  Need a few pieces for my Mary Lou Weidman class.  I am staying with an Evergreen couple in Long Beach for two nights-I love Evergreen-it made this class doable-10.00 a night includes breakfast and is only 12 miles from the school.

Will write again on Wednesday-have a great first of the week!