My life

Doll quilts in review

2011-03-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

This quilt was my first submission for the doll quilt swap I used inspiration from an old children's book my father had. My Grandmother used to read to me from it. The poem goes;

A little yellow monkey
In a banyan tree
One morning got the giggles,
Going tee-hee-hee

And then he went to snoozing
In the banyan tree

And dreamed that the fishes
In the bright blue sea were
Dancing on the breakers
Going tee-hee- hee.

It resides with Dena.

This quilt I mad for a placemat swap but it was really more of a doll quilt. I really liked the back as you could see the tree through the material. My partner liked this one block and I thought that I would incorporate it in the front of the quilt.

This quilt I made in the last doll quilt swap.

I made this quilt a year ago and it is made from all silk. I loved it's texture and quilting..More later

QAL

2011-03-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is what I have been working on in the Doll quilt swap over at Flickr. We make a quilt to exchange with another person. My person usually likes very frivolous things with applique but she said she wanted something different. I free pieced the circles and then continued the curved piecing to the outside to give the illusion of movement. I hope she likes it. My original plan called for this gray linen which I may still do.. but she seems to like color so I will see if this catches her eye...
Ok. I am going to try to start this blog thing again.. as I am shit at it.. excuse the french... I have been following along Lynne over at Flickr and she is having a Quilt A- Long... they are encouraging us to use our blogs and well I have been slack at it. Sometimes I am just too tired to write and near the end I was just sending over things from flickr with out even saying anything. Now I think I will try to start again.. even with baby steps of just a few words at time. Any way you all should go over to flickr and see Lilly quilts.. QAL...

Progress of meals on Wheels quilt

2010-08-04T16:39:00.001-07:00

Progress of meals on Wheels quilt
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Ticker tape quilt done

2010-06-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

Ticker tape quilt done
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

I made this quilt with my son's 5th grade class. I went in and had them design the blocks with pieces of fabric that I had put fusible webbing on. We ironed on the designs and I took it home and sewed it together. This will be presented to the teacher as a gift for their last year in elementary school. It is 56/56. Thanks to ScrapHappy-Quilter for the suggestion on the border and banquopack for the quilt inspiration. I love the idea of a space to designate a border of the s

Pillow for PTS

2010-06-12T16:07:00.001-07:00

Pillow for PTS
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Here is my pillow for the Pillow Talk swap. It is a tree/bird in a pieced in circle surrounded by wonky stars. It is linen and scraps of other projects for the stars. I was going to do half squares, but when I made the stars I liked them so much I thought they would be better in the border. It is 20/20.

Back fo ticker tape quilt 2

2010-06-12T16:06:00.003-07:00

Back fo ticker tape quilt 2
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

I went to my daughter's class and each of the students designed a square. I took the squares home and sewed them together. This time I wanted to sew them on point to make it a bit different. She liked orange/turquoise so I had the orange around the border to keep the turquoise in the middle.

This is the back of the quilt. I tied in the orange/turquoise here.
These will be end of the year gifts for the teachers, from the students.

What you get when you are good at something

2010-06-12T16:06:00.001-07:00

What you get when you are good at something
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Ok... I made another quilt for my son's teacher. Some of the parents got wind of it and asked me to make one for this other teacher. I wanted to do it a bit different and did it on point. This is for my daughter's teacher...

Urban goods swap

2010-04-30T16:06:00.001-07:00

Urban goods swap
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

My runner, hotpads, and my barefoot assistant

Another view of the back of the runner

2010-04-29T13:53:00.003-07:00

Another view of the back of the runner
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

back of the runner

Runner with linen and Anna Maria Horner

2010-04-29T13:53:00.001-07:00

Runner with linen and Anna Maria Horner
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

A runner I made for the Urban goods swap on Flickr

Circle quilt finished~~

2010-02-19T19:51:00.001-08:00

Circle quilt finished~~
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

I did this quilt for the Doll quilt swap.

DQS8 Favorites

2010-01-14T16:41:00.001-08:00

DQS8 Favorites
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

I am going to be participating in the Doll quilt swap #8. This should be fun. These are all thing that I think are lovely. But partner, if you are reading this look at these as things that make me sing, but you make something that does that for you and I will love it!! Bright modern and different are all things that are ooo sooo cool. I am trying to decide what I will do for my partner. She does not comment much and hopefully I will see her style and mix it with something I have wanted to try.

Blocks for Sewlatea III

2009-11-18T20:41:00.001-08:00

Blocks for Sewlatea III
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Here are some more dresdens. These are my attempts at flowers. Hope you like them. They also have the decorative stitch around the middle of the flower.

Blocks for Sewlatea II

2009-11-18T20:40:00.003-08:00

Blocks for Sewlatea II
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Here is my attempt at hexs. Never have I made them before . I really like the end result.

Blocks for Sewlatea I

2009-11-18T20:40:00.001-08:00

Blocks for Sewlatea I
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

I did a dresden and a decorative stitch around the inside circle. I put a bit in the inside rose to make it stick out a bit.

pillow talk front

2009-11-18T20:37:00.001-08:00

pillow talk front
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Here is the front of my pillow. I really love it. It is bright and cheery and I did put the beads on it and I really like them. I made it 20/20 for the insert and put a zipper in the bottom back.

Pillow talk /finished

2009-11-18T20:36:00.003-08:00

Pillow talk /finished
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Blocks for Sewlatea

2009-11-18T20:36:00.001-08:00

Blocks for Sewlatea
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

October Blocks for Bee Modern

2009-09-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

These blocks are for Tweedledee designs on Flikr. I really like the fabrics she chose for these blocks. She is having a baby and wants to make a quilt and bumper out of the blocks. She wanted a tree and a log cabin block.

Here is another picture of the group. I really like making trees. They were fun but my comfort zone is in the applique trees. I really liked making the pieced ones though. This is why I am going these swaps .. to stretch myself and learn new things and develop a new comfort zone ; )

Odds and Ends

2009-09-07T13:27:00.001-07:00

I was asked to make an angel placemat for some one who did not get one. I made this one for Kylie in Australia.

Here is the back of the placemat; Kaffee Fassett

Here is the

back of the placemat. Who doesn't like Pokemon?

I decided to make a placemat for both of her children. This is for her son.

This one is for her daughter.

the back... She said that her daughter carried it around all day. How sweet?

Blocks for Bee Modern...Birds with ric rac...in a flower garden

birds in a cage

birds on branches

Runner in the Dinning Room

2009-08-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

I decided to make a runner for the dinning room. This is the back of the runner on the buffet. I used Kona cotton and in coal. I really liked using the black thread and dark fabric. I used batiks for the front and left overs for the back. I also made triangles on the ends

Here is a close up of the quilting. It was my first attempt at feathers. I think the turned out OK. I overlapped in some places and it was hard to get them to go the same way around corners. However the effect was good and what should I expect for my first try?

Here is the correct side of it . I love it and think it is pretty! It is kind of like the stacked coins but on their sides ; )

Girl Quilt for the Meals on Wheels Auction

2009-08-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here is my girl version for the Meals on Wheels Auction. This quilt has a variety of materials; Moda, Kaffe Fassett, Kaufman, random cotton pieces from my scraps and Kona cotton. Bento Box pattern, free motion quilted, machine pieced, cotton batting; 42'/42'

Tree Quilt

2009-08-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

I made this quilt to donate to Meals on Wheels. They have an annual auction and I have some friends on the Board. They asked me to donate a quilt. I made this quilt with linen. It was the first time working with it and it moves more than cotton, but I really like the way it quilts up.

Blocks for Bee Modern August

2009-08-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

These are the blocks that I made for my online quilting bee. They were very fun to do. This was the first time that I actually cut up a block to make an asterisk. I shuddered when I first sliced it but then I figured that I could fix it if I messed it up. These blocks are a great learning tool and by doing this swap I think I could make just about any block.

The Banyan Tree - Back

2009-08-03T22:16:00.001-07:00

The Banyan Tree - Back
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Back of the quitlie

The Banyan Tree

2009-08-03T22:15:00.003-07:00

The Banyan Tree
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

With my favorite picture!

The Banyan Tree

2009-08-03T22:15:00.001-07:00

The Banyan Tree
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

Here is the finished product to the Doll Swap.

DQS7-- The Banyan Tree

2009-07-30T19:03:00.001-07:00

DQS7-- The Banyan Tree
Originally uploaded by mamamary2

I am making this for the Doll Quilt swap. I still have to quilt it and add details.

Here is my start to the doll quilt swap. I still need more leaves. It was inspired by the following poem, by Leroy Jackson, that my Grandmother read to me:

A little yellow monkey

In a banyan tree

One morning got the giggles,

Going tee-hee-hee

And then he went to snoozing

In the banyan tree

And dreamed that the fishes

In the bright blue sea were

Dancing on the breakers

Going tee-hee- hee.

Foolish People

2009-07-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

I have decided to join a doll quilt swap. Ah, those poor people do not know who they have let enter.. ha hahahaha.... I have actually gained a lot of confidence in participating in the last couple of swaps. This is my first doll swap, although, I am not sure how different it is from a place mat. The requirement is a quilt 12/12 to 24/24 and pretty free from there. I am going to include some of the things that inspire me:

and some of the things I might try.

Summer Trip

2009-07-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the Badlands, South Dakota. It was amazing. We saw prairie dogs , deer and antelope. We are visiting the National Parks; Yellowstone, Badlands, Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, and more.

Here we are it Hollbrook, Az. We stayed in the Wigwam Hotel, which is really a teepee. We are still on our trip and I will post more when we get home. Traveling on a road trip with 3 children; 13,10, and 7, has been an interesting experience. They have been good so far, but they get on each others nerves.

Swap progress

2009-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

I made this group for my placemat swap. I am exchanging them with Jessica. She has a little boy and the car one is for him.

This quilt is a wonky log cabin.

Here is the one for the 3 year old boy

dots in applique.. what can I say??

This is a pin cushion. I love the button!! It is ceramic.

This is a block for Claudia in my Bee modern swap. I had wanted to make a sawtooth star in solids with the corners these four blocks. However, it just didn't look right. So I took it apart and sewed the four blocks together and made this wonky block.

This is the same fabric and I think my favorite of the bunch. It is raw edged applique and I added some of my own fabrics. Especially the yellow, to make it pop.

This is the last block. It is a modified log cabin and a flower appliqued in the corner. I like the addition of the other fabrics.

These are the things I have been working on. I still have not quilted the improv block quilt yet. I have a plan yet for it...... however, it will have to wait......

Improv quilt in progress

2009-06-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

After battling the quilt gods, I finally figured out how to finish this top. This top was having sizing problems. It was perfect in length, but 10 inches too short in the width. I wanted it to represent the color wheel and change in color as it descended. I also decided that it would look good if I rotated the blocks to give a little interest.

However, I could not find a solution to the size problem. One night I went to sleep and dreamt about it, the solution came to me to put border on with the same color palette as the quilt, but to make it wider on the sides and smaller on the length. I need to finish the back and then quilt it down. I will post more pictures then.

Vitrual Sewing Bee

2009-05-24T11:47:00.001-07:00

I am in a virtual sewing bee and we just got our first set of fabric. I was so excited. This swap is a modern type swap so the person decided to go with 2 fabric colors. She wanted wonky log cabins with a bird appliqued somewhere on the square. She wanted the bird to have this disco dot fabric.

Of course, I can never do anything easy. I decided to go out of the box and make a peacock. The first bird looks like the partridge family bird and then this peacock......

In the pictures, I have yet to do the stitching around the edges.

It is fun and I cannot wait for the next challenge. Also, I have to decide what I want to do for my quilt. I hope she likes them: )

Improv blocks

2009-05-14T12:33:00.001-07:00

I decided to use up some scraps from my last couple of quilts. These are just modified log cabin blocks. I started with similar material or color in the middle and continues around using one dominate color.

I am going to make 3 of each of the 4 colors and sash with white. I will have 3 blue, pink, yellow, and green. I was thinking about rotating one of the blocks so that the rectangle will be on its side and the other two opposing. The blocks will be 20 inches square.

I really like the wonkiness of these blocks. I will make a lap quilt out of these and I think I will give it to my hubby. He keeps saying "is this one for me??" lol They usually are for someone else. It is his turn ; )

Katie's Quit

2009-05-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been pretty busy lately.

I am in charge of this big event at my

children's school. It is called the Amigo's Fiesta. I chair it with Katie. We transform the school into a Mexican fiesta and fair. This takes about 3 months of preparations and happens in one day. May 8th is the date for this year. We have Aztec dancers, Ballet Folklorico, fruit cups, nachos, store, games, tatoos, face painting, sack races, cupcake walk, animal toss, loteria, golf, craft booth, tortilla making, treasure chest, and more.

The 18th of April was Katie's birthday and she has been admiring my qu

ilts so I wanted to make her one for her birthday.

This quilt was made with batik fabrics. She has a lot of earth tones in her house, but I wanted some fabric to pop.

These are saw tooth squares and it is a sampler quilt No two stars are the same. I used sashing and bound it with the remaining material from the squares. It changes, I am not sure you can see it in the pix.

Notice there is one of the squares that is a pin wheel. When I was assembling the stars, the instructions called for the the wrong sized pieces, so it was too small. I kept it and put in on the back. I machine quilted it in a flower meander pattern.

I need a photo class!!

2009-04-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

I cannot figure out how to rotate the picture. I thought about linking my Flickr account to this blog, because there you can rotate the picture. This way you can just turn your computer.. LOL Also, I need to learn how to stage my picture.. Libby, maybe you can help me with this I seem to be camera challenged.

I do like how the quilt turned out. I liked this pattern of freemotion. It was fun and relatively easy to do. The colors are fresh and springlike. I think it would be perfect for a baby boy. Well, time to move on to the next project.

So many projects , so little time......

Coin Quilt

2009-04-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! After feasting at my Mom's, I came home and basted this little quilt. I have been wanting to make a stacked coin quilt since I have seen them on Flickr. Iwas trying to do a little different freemotion pattern this time. Before, I have done just a feather type back and forth, loop-d-loop, or a stipple, but now I want to do a spiral with a feather around it. I will post more pix when it is done. I think I will use a blue polka dot to bind it. What do you think?

The back has a reproduction yellow with blue flower and a strip of the coin stack..so I think the dark blue polka is it.... More to do...

Roots quilt went camping

2009-04-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

I just finished this quilt. On first thought, one would think that this was a pretty easy quilt, right? Wrong... The quilting of this quilt gave me a major head ache. I never knew how difficult working with a large piece of one color could be. Also, I do not like quilting straight lines or at least in this quilt. The way I had to quilt this was to start in the middle(as usual) but I had to work fron one half stop and start again, which made bunching an issue. I had to follow the pieced parts on the front as guides to the lines and they are different on each side. So I had to work from one way and just continue with the bulk under the arm of the machine.

This weekend we went to Julian, CA to camp. The three children and my husband went to a small cabin out in the woods for three days of fun. I finished everything on the quilt except for the binding, which I sewed by hand on the porch of the cabin while the kids played. It was very peaceful and quiet. We saw deer, wild turkey, and wood peckers. We are such city folk. Where we live there are just seagulls and seals. If you go to the tide pools there are more critters, but not deer and turkeys.

Denyse Schmidt Roots quilt.

2009-04-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

I have not entered much lately, because I have been working on this quilt. I have admired the work of Denyse Schmidt. She is a quilter from NY. Her lines are great with there bold color and modern designs. Most of what I have is definately not modern, even my name reflects tradition, Mary. I have inherted most of my Grandmother's posssesions and have kept them in my house to enjoy. I love them.

However, I love me some modern tooo; ) The simplistic line of this roots quilt spoke to me. The colors of brown, green and blue are great. The simplistic quilting with straight lines show a minimalistic beauty. Working with a large broad piece of material was challenging. Even quilting in straight lines, in queen size was too. But I am almost finished and I will post some pictures of it complete soon.

Growth as a quilter

2009-03-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

It is an interesting thing to start a new hobby. I remember asking my mother to help me make a quilt when I was about 13. She told me maybe and then we went and bought the material. I think that we got as far as cutting out the squares. However, we never actually sewed anything together. That my first experience with quilting.

I have always admired the Amish quilts with bold colors and beautiful appliques. The simplicity of these quilts have always created images in my mind. As a young girl, I had ideas of making these, but alas my Mom was not a person who sewed. My Grandmother could sew anything and I have fond memories of her making my doll clothes. She died when I was 11 and my mentor was gone and my voyage began on my own.

Jump ahead some 30 years and my children wanted to have Indian Halloween costumes. I had no sewing machine and could not find a Native American costume in all of Southern California. We had just returned from a Route 66 trip and bought mocchasins for all three..... but no costume. I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest sewing machine($65) and some material, ribbons, fringe, thread and off I went. I made 2 dresses , vest, leggings , and apron. I rememberd that I liked sewing and being creative.

You might ask, "How does this apply to quilting?" Well, after this my 12 year old daughter wanted to make a quilt and learn to sew. I told her let's make a quilt for your birthday and I was hooked. With minimal sewing experience, but good math skills and research skills, I took to the internet and found the easiest free pattern I could. The Chain rail...

Applique quilt

2009-03-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

This is the quilt that I was making. For no apparent reason other than I wanted to try flowers. Kind of a whimsical flower.

I like the flower with the purple pedals

when it rains....

2009-03-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Well, today is another one of those days when there is too much planned. I just cannot do it all and stay mentally sane. Apart from all I have to do on a normal day the kids have a minimum day and parent conferences. That means that they have to be picked up at 12:35 and given lunch. only to be back at schoolat 2:20 for a conference. Somewhere in ther I have exercise, visiting the round robin for tennis of which I am captain, make dinner, prepare for softball game....etc. I am tired just thinking about it and I haven't even done it yet.

Wednesday Mayhem

2009-03-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that every hump day is too full. I have three children and each one of them has something on that day. It starts off with the fact that they have a minimum day and get off at 12:30. Since I am the only one that picks them up, that means that my Wednesday is cut in half too and I must be ready to pick them up at that time. Bob and Kat need lunch so it is a mad dash to the house to put food in them before heading out the door to pick Lisa up at 2. Now each of the girls have softball practice at 4. Usually today I also have Ad in tennis at 8:45AM and my tennis lesson at 6PM.

Today Lisa has a game. I am an assistant coach. I will explain how that grates on me later. I don't mind the fact that I am helping her team because I really like to help kids, but I swore I was not going to coach again. Here I am, coaching, more than assisting. My experience before was that in these types of team sports, parents live vicariously through their children. Parents are coaches who give their children unfair advantages. It always seems like the coaches kid is the pitcher? why? Because they are the best player? probably not, but in order to get any time on the mound you need to coach or find a team who doesn't have a pitcher child. Trust me, my child is hardly the best, and farthest from the best behaved. I will say she is getting better in disposition and talent, but I am biased. I have never pushed for her to to be the only pitcher, but I have wanted her to get the experience.

First Entry

2009-03-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the quilt that I have made for donation to La Jolla Elementary:

Well, this is the first time that I have blogged anything. I have been making a quilt for the Gala at my kid's school. I saw this in a magazine and then I made it and a pillow.