Guild meeting and then the trip home.

I had a wonderful trip to California! The David Taylor class at Empty Spools was wonderful! My class project is not ready to be shown yet, still a lot of work to get it ready. I also visited friends. I went to the monthly meeting at a guild that I had belonged to when I lived in Sacramento, the Northwind Quilters of Fairfield.

This is the new opportunity quilt for the upcoming show in March of 2015. It is a very large quilt! This group is famous for their applique skills!

Another group was visiting with their opportunity quilt, I forgot the name of the group. I really love the bright colors that were used! They had permission from Karen Stone to use her pattern.  The quilting on it is lovely, hopefully the ticket that I bought will bring me this lovely quilt! One can hope. 

Strips

Block

Just a quick trial of the layout

I stayed with my friend, Diane and I brought a project for us to sew. I had seen an article in an older AQS magazine and thought it would be fun to try it out. I brought 6 different fabrics and we each had a half yard of the six to work with.  Maybe it was seven.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun! I only got to quickly layout my triangles before needing to pack my bags. I will try to get the top sewn after the weekend.

Diane's EZ Crazy quilt

Diane had finally finished a quilt top from a class she took from me many years ago. It is lovely!  The colors are much brighter than in the photograph.

Fresh homemade salsa

Diane made me dinner several nights. She made this fantastic salsa to go along with the pork tacos.

Cactus in bloom

More blooms

Close up

Palm tree coming back to life

Bougainvillea 

I stopped by my Dad's house on the long drive home. His cactus garden was blooming like crazy! I love the delicate flowers!  Last winter his town had an unusual snow storm, it dumped quite a few inches of snow and I thought that the palm trees were gone.  But they are coming back again!

This is my off the wall post for the week.

Guild meeting

Charlotte's Moose.

Charlotte's Fall quilt.

Kathy's Christmas Banner

Charlotte's blocks

Kathie's Block

Kathie's other block

Kathy's block

Last week I had blogged about preparing my demo for my local quilting group.  Last night was the meeting and it seemed to go well.  I missed getting photographs of all the strip sets that the ladies were cutting.  It is always fun to see the other color schemes and fabric choices that others select.

I am still viewing the lessons for the Craftsy class  by Judith Trager that I am taking.  It has been wonderful so far!  I will have a full review for you tomorrow.  

Recess is over, back to class.

Other Stories

Chevron Quilt is finished and turned in for the raffle.

Pretty Pansies at Thanksgiving Point.

I attended my last board meeting for the Utah Quilt Guild on Monday. I have been the Area Rep for the East Central Area for the last 2 years.  I need to take a step back for a bit.  When I came on the board, I did have some friends on the board and I also knew quite a few of the ladies.  I feel like I was able to deepen friendships and also make some new good friends.  Shantelle, Bev, Becky, Kathy, Cindy (well, actually 3 Cindys, all wonderful) Sharon, the other Sylvia, Louise, Paula, Ann, Wendy and many others that I can't quite pull the names out of my head at this moment. Thanks to all for welcoming me into the group.  I will continue to promote the art of Quilt-making in Utah, just on a smaller scale.

I was able to get the binding on the little Chevron quilt and turn it in for next year's Mini Quilt Raffle at Quilt Fest.  I felt like I needed to finish something, anything way ahead.  Instead of stitching down the binding the day before the baby arrives! This is my TGIFF post, check out everyone else's finishes!

Becky's Mom and her quilt.

Last week I wrote a post about the T-shirt quilt that I had made for my brother. I want to thank everyone for their kind comments.  I had a wonderful email from Becky.  She told me about the memory quilt she made for her Mother.  I asked her if I could share her story with you and she said yes.

Reading the story made me cry, because I was thinking of my mom.

She passed away 3 years ago in December, she was 79.

About 3 months before her 75^th Birthday she mailed me her Square Dance Skirts and Vests. She wanted me to make a quilt out of them for her Bed. I made fans out of them and called it Grandma Promandes across the floor. It will never win any contest, neither. I got it sewn machine quilted just following the fans and had the binding machine sewed on before we flew to Minnesota for her Birthday. Every Night I went to bed early and worked on getting the Binding finished. She was so surprised when I gave it to her. I have it back.

Becky brought the quilt to the meeting on Monday and I was able to see it in person. Quite the treasure.  Thanks for letting me share your story.

Board quilt top is finished!

I recently posted about a set of blocks that I made for a group quilt.  The quilt top is finished!  Becky did a wonderful job coordinating the project.  I can even see where my blocks are in the quilt! The pattern is from Karen Combs book, "Celtic Pieced Illusions". She kindly gave us permission to use this pattern for the auction quilt.  I did not take a close up of the black print, but it has all kinds of dog "stuff" like bones, collars and leashes.  Along with the quilt, Becky bought some Clifford books and a stuffed Clifford to go with the quilt. She is taking another position on the Holiday Quilt Auction Board.  I will miss seeing her, she is a sweet lady.

And some flowers from Thanksgiving Point where the meeting was held.  Lovely gardens.  The weather has been perfect the last week.

Auction Blocks

The fabric from the kit.

Lines on the back.

I don't normally pin, but the instructions said to, so I did.

Chain piecing.

Trim the corners.

Press open.

I figured these little guys didn't need 2 pins.

Sew, then......

Trim and press.

Now the other side.

Sew.

All those wonderful leftover triangles!

Press open and Ta Da!  Finished!

I just had to play with the blocks.

Eh, kinda different.

Packed and ready to turn in.

I am on the board of the Utah Quilt Guild. I attended a board meeting on Monday.  One of the board members is "mothering" a group quilt for the Hospital Auction which raises funds for research and education.  It is held every 2 years and the board members of the guild always make and donate a quilt.  Well, I wasn't really paying that much attention when Becky was talking about the block kits.  I figured they would be gone by the time the kits made it over to my side of the room.  Ok, really it was Louise's fault, she is just too good at mumbling under her breath that I end up listening to her comic take on everything instead of what I should be listening to.  So the blocks make it over to our table (and the meeting is continuing on, so I am trying to pay attention) and Louise takes one kit and tells me I should take the last one.  I hem and haw and Becky is just in front of us and says they are very simple, take one.  So I did. Eek! 8 blocks to make! But they are simple, so I guess it can't hurt me.  Becky had gotten permission from Karen Combs to use a pattern from her Celtic Pieced Illusions book.  Now remember, I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't see when Becky showed the quilt in the book.  And I don't own the book.  All I got was the instructions to make a specific block 8 times.  And on the drawing I received, there was a line that shouldn't be there. And Becky had an arrow pointing to the line with the word cream squares.  All I had in my packet were yellow squares.  So I emailed Becky and she emailed back that the yellow was really cream and that the line should have been whited out.  Cool.  I get it now! So I made my 8 identical blocks.  I have no idea what the quilt is going to look like since everyone's blocks are different.  It will be a nice surprise when Becky gets the top together.  So my lesson for the day, resist the urge to listen to Louise mumbling under her breath and pay attention to the front of the room. (even if it isn't as much fun)