Vitrual Sewing Bee

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

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

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!!

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

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

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.

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.