Design Wall Monday

Scotty

Table topper version

Signature quilt

I have been at a quilting retreat in California this week. Tons of fun with good friends! I taught a mini mystery with two versions. A baby quilt or a table topper. The quilts turned out great!  I also brought along a UFO. I had made these blocks 12 years ago and recently got them put together into a top. It is my California Quilters signature quilt. I was gathering some more signatures to fill in the empty blocks. Hopefully I can get the borders on this week.

This is my Design Wall Monday post for this week.

California!

 

I made it to California safe and sound on Monday afternoon. Only a 950 mile drive! I stopped in Mesquite for the night and was able to set up my machine and get a bit of sewing done in the hotel room. Then an 11 hour drive to Diane's house in Fairfield.

Diane, Carol and me.

Tuesday we headed over to my old stomping grounds, Cloth Carousel in Winters. A bunch of old friends showed up for a sew day. I missed getting photographs of everyone, but here are some of the best friends that anyone could ask for.  The quilt on the wall behind us is the class that I taught today at the shop.

Ann

Donna

Kathy

Ethel

Carolyn

Connie

Marsha

Doris

 

 

I had a great bunch of students in the class! Everyone had a different color scheme! I thought the class went well, everyone was having a good time!

 

Tomorrow we are heading up to Walker Creek Ranch for the quilt retreat. I am excited about stopping at Dharma Trading on the way! I have a list of dye colors I want to pick up and I also wanted to look at some roving.

This is my off the wall post for this week.



 

Finished!

Finished! Isn't that a great feeling? I spent way more time designing in my head than I spent putting this piece together. As it is a challenge that may make it into a book, I cannot show the front. But I will show some of the quilting on the back of the piece.

Had to splice in a strip since I mis-cut the back

Love this fabric!

Sleeved

The backing fabric is old. I used it to back a lap quilt that I made for my mother close to ten years ago. The southwest theme was perfect for my piece.

Twila's mini mystery

I taught a mini mystery at the guild a couple years ago and Twila brought her finished piece to the guild meeting on Wednesday night. So much fun to see my pattern up and out in the wild!

My next project will be happening at a quilting retreat next week. Hopefully I will have some access to wifi and check in again from there.

This is my Off the Wall post for this week.

A gift!

Chocolate Cream Pie

I had entered a drawing at LeeAnna's blog in December. She was making these cute pie shaped pin cushions! I had commented on how chocolate cream pie is my favorite and she drew my name! She made a special pie pin cushion just for me! With the Holidays and all, I forgot to blog about it until now. Check out her blog, she has a lot of wonderful ideas!

The only thing on my design wall is something that I cannot show publicly. So this is my design wall post for this week.

A new Beginning

I took a bit of a break from blogging over the Holidays. We had a great time with the kids and grands! I forgot to post the results of my Sew Mama Sew giveaway! Oops! The prize went to Linda, she had offered up her favorite Holiday treat recipe:

Linda has left a new comment on your post "Giveaway day!": 

Hi, Thanks for the Recipe-I'm saving it!
My favorite is: STRAWBERRY LEMON BARS 

Crust: Makes 12 bars
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1/2 t salt
12 T butter, cut into 1/4″ cubes (1 1/2 sticks)

Filling:
1 c sliced strawberries+1/4 c sugar
4 eggs 
1 c sugar
3 T flour
2/3 c lemon juice

Powdered sugar for dusting

Line a 9″ x 13″ pan with parchment paper up 1″ on all sides.
Mix the flour, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla in butter.
Press dough evenly over the parchment lined sheet using your fingers to press the dough into a uniform sheet of dough that goes about 1/2″ up all the sides.Put it in the freezer for 30". 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and 1/4 cup of sugar 
To prepare the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour. Add the lemon juice and whisk to combine.
Remove crust from the freezer+ put in oven+bake for around 25 min. When the crust is done, immediately scatter the strawberries around the crust, pour any accumulated juices into the lemon mixture and whisk to combine. Pour the lemon mixture over the strawberries.
Lower oven to 325.
Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the center of the lemon bars doesn’t jiggle.
Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely. 
Slice, then dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Over the New Year weekend, Sweetie and I went down to Kanab. We took a drive down to Page, AZ and on the way back we stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam. Wow! What a sight! They had an unusual snowstorm a few days before.

Glen Canyon Dam

So I am getting my stuff prepped for a trip to CA. I am teaching at a retreat and also I am teaching a class at the Cloth Carousel shop in Winters. I have a tub of projects and class materials. I just toss stuff in there to stage things until it is time to pack. I wanted to use a zippered project bag that has something in it, and I found something that I was looking for!

Surprise!

I knew that I had a spool of copper colored metallic thread! I had been looking for that for the last couple of weeks! It was the project bag that I had my weekly journal quilts in. I had joined a group online to do this project. It started in August 2011. I was going pretty good until December. My brother died and I lost all interest in doing any art. I did manage to do 2 more journal quilts. So I have 14 out of 52. I had the start of one more, note the fabrics under the thread. I will blog about the 14 journal quilts in the upcoming weeks. I am enthused about finishing to 52! On the 29th of December was the 3rd Anniversary of my brother's death. I decided that it is time to let him go and move on.

Perfect!

The project that I wanted the copper thread for is my Capitol Reef quilt for the National Park project. I cannot show the piece until the book comes out later this year. I need to get it finished and in the mail before I leave on my trip.

Sneaky guy

In this post I talked about how I lost a triangle off the design wall. Well guess who showed up yesterday? I swear that I had looked in that pile of quilting samples! Sneaky guy.

This is my off the wall post for this week.

Half over

Border blocks

I got my border blocks sewn for my Wales Sampler quilt. Wednesday is the meeting, so I need to sew the border on and write up the instructions. I will have a photo of the completed top next week.

Emerald Pools

I am getting down to the nitty gritty of my leader project on the wall. And in the bottom corner I just noticed that a triangle is missing! It could easily have been knocked down, and since that corner of the design was sloppily slapped onto the wall, I didn't notice it was missing until I tidied it up. Luckily I had more of that fabric, several of the black and whites were used up when I cut for this quilt. I hope to have this guy finished and off the wall this week.

More bowls for the shop!

I worked the shop on Friday and Saturday. While it was slow between customers, I was able to wrap more cord for bowls. I just need to trim some threads and then photograph them to list in my Etsy shop. I have so much fun making these! The little ones are perfect to put next to your machine as thread catchers.

Cute little guy!

I also made this little guy! My sweetie loved it so much that I told him I wanted him to have it. He put it on his dresser for a loose change catcher. And today is his birthday! So I will be baking his favorite Rum cake as a special treat.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Oh, and BTW, I drew a name for my giveaway. I will announce the name after I hear back from her. Thanks to everyone who entered! It was fun to hear all about your favorite treats!

Really? The 12th of December?

My week started it off with some unnecessary expenses. I broke my coffee roaster. I was trying to move it, and the chamber and chaff catcher went flying to the floor and shattered. The unit is top heavy and I am usually careful about moving it and this time wasn't. Good thing is that replacement parts are available. 

English Nut Bars

I did some Holiday baking. My daughter-in-law was told by her husband (my son) that she was required to get the favorite family cookie bar recipe. So we baked them. She then went home and tried again, forgetting to separate the egg white from the yolk. They were fluffier, but still good. The recipe is here.

Pink scrap bowl

Black scrap bowl

Purple bowl

I got three bowls finished this week. I will be making a few more this weekend. I love how the scrappy ones turned out!  They are available for purchase at my Etsy shop. The purple one isn't up yet, I had trouble photographing and getting the color right. Message me if you are interested.

I am participating in the Sew Mama Sew giveaway. There is still time to enter, my drawing will close tomorrow afternoon (I forgot that I am working the shop tomorrow) Check out this post.

This is my off the wall Friday post.