Two Very Different Results!!

When I cut the latest Stack n Whack, I had plenty of triangles left over, so I decided to make another quilt!! The original quilt has the blocks set on point over a green background... Although the borders help to calm it down a bit and to pull it together, it's still a little "busy" for my taste... and the colors are really not my favorites...

For the bonus quilt, I set the blocks square against an off-white tone-on-tone background. I'm much happier with the results of this one!!

A Snails Trail for Justin

I'm on a roll!! I just finished this baby quilt for Baby Justin... I love the cute little turtles and the fishies...

I Finished the Mystery Quilt!!

This was our mystery quilt from the OIPG retreat at Okuma... lots of little pieces... it's amazing how such a small quilt can take SOOOOO long to piece!! I got it all done at the retreat and then it sat in my UFO pile just waiting for me to put on the binding and finish it...

Another Stack & Whack!

At our class on Saturday, I worked on a new Stack & whack Pattern... I've had the focus fabric waiting for this pattern for quite awhile.... I find the quilt bold and busy -- hopefully the border will calm it down a bit!! :)

Fuji Kaleidescope Update

Making progress on this one! I've added borders... now I just need to get it layered and quilt it!!

Display Pieces for the Shop

I'm going to open a quilt shop in early 2008 and have started to hunt for unique and wonderful display pieces for the shop. I found this set at a bazaar last weekend. I think they'll be perfect and versatile!

These pieces are made of elm wood and are about 110 years old. They originate from the Shandong Province.

Quilting Sensai

I'll be teaching this quilt at our next Okinawa International Patchwork Guild workshop on 9 June. It's an easy quilt to put together and turns out great, I think!

A Quilt for a Princess

This quilt is for my oldest grand-niece, Avery... she's 5 years old, and quite the "girly-girl"... She has a "princess room" at her grandparents' house, so I thought this would be PERFECT for her!

An Interesting Blog!

I just got an email from Mary-Frances who runs the Bloggers Who Embellish webring. Mary-Frances has a great blog named "Frequently Wrong But Never In Doubt."
Just the name of the blog was a draw for me!! :)

Bargello Kimono

This lovely pattern from Castilleja Cotton was my first bargello quilt! It's been waiting patiently in my UFO stack for the binding... and now it's finished!

Cranes and Kanji

I finished this quilt top months ago, but it just sat in that UFO pile waiting for some attention.... a couple of months ago, I made the "quilt sandwich," quilted it, and sewed on the binding... and then it went back into that UFO pile, waiting for me to be drawn to finishing it...




I decided to take it with me when I went to visit my Mom, because I knew I would find some time to finish it there -- and I did!!

My First Stack and Whack!!

When I found this beautiful Asian print depicting Mount Fuji and cranes, I knew it would make an awesome Stack & Whack quilt!! Can YOU find the mountain and cranes in the stars on the quilt??

Sensai Barbie helped me to get the fabric laid out and showed me how to make the fabric match perfectly...





Isn't it amazing that every one of those hexagons came from the very same piece of fabric??? I'm going to use the original fabric as either a wide border or the quilt backing...

If you've never made a Stack & Whack before, I'd suggest that you add this technique to your repertoire!

A Good Use for Scraps!!

I really love making quilts out of the scraps in my stash!! So when I saw a log cabin quilt design called "Mixed Greens" in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting, I decided to use up a bunch of my blue scraps...

What do you think of my "Mixed Blues"??



One of the really fun parts of making this one was combining strips to make the logs for the log cabin! As the logs are sometimes mixed, it just makes the quilt look even more scrappy!!

"Love"ly Quilts!

I haven't posted quilts for awhile, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been quilting!!

Our quilting class in February had two heart quilts to celebrate the season... a scrappy patchwork heart and a woven heart. I decided to try to get both quilt tops done in class just because I wanted to make both of them.





For the scrappy patchwork hearts, I just went to my stash and found some scraps... it's bright and sassy!!


For the woven hearts, I had chosen some cute princess castle fabric -- this one is for my oldest grand-niece, Avery... she's really in to princesses and pink!! I think she'll love it... as soon as I get it done!

We Learned to Tie an Obi!!

Barb, Jan and I took a class at the Arts and Crafts Center at Camp Courtney to learn how to tie an obi to make a wall decoration. It wasn't terrible difficult, but I know for sure I couldn't replicate it!! :)

Here's some pictures of our results. (Rebecca took a class a few weeks ago, so she joined us for "show and tell"!)

Quilting Retreat at Okuma

Barb, Rebecca, and I spent the weekend at Okuma with about 30 other quilters.

Here's pictures of the quilts we made while we were there. For pictures of quilts by other members, check out the OIPG Blog

Barb is HERE!!

My sister, Barb, arrived on Saturday night for a two-week visit, and I think she's beginning to understand why I love this place!



Sunday at noon we went up to the Renaissance Hotel for their Italian Buffet... this is NOT your typical pizza and spaghetti buffet... it starts with pumpkin soup... yummy salads... ceviche... smoked salmon... grilled salmon... mixed grill.... garlic pasta... lamb ragout... fresh fruits... pineapple and kiwi and lychee... and then... the dessert table... TO DIE FOR!!! The cool thing about Japanese desserts -- they're not overly sweet... so you don't get sick of them...




After we ate our fill, we went down to the water to watch the dolphins playing in the pens... the trainers were out with them, so we got to watch them practicing their tricks. One of the dolphins who wasn't working with a trainer was clearly trying to get attention -- kinda reminded me of a toddler dolphin!! So cute!!

On the way home, we drove out to Cape Zanpa... we stopped at a gift shop that carries all sorts of Okinawan pretties -- and lots of sweet potato stuff....





Today, Barb had a massage at the fitness center. Now SHE worships Mimi, too! She decided that she just had to have another one before she leaves here, so we got that scheduled. Then we had lunch at a little soba shop down by the seawall... and went for out pedicures complete with nail art... an altogether decadent couple of days!!

I did assure her that they're not ALL like this... I do work sometimes!!

A Quilt for Jeff and Marie!

I completed this quilt top when we were stuck in the house during a typhoon this summer. Then it went into my UFO stack waiting for that "urge" to go farther with it... finding the right backing fabric, making the quilt "sandwich," quilting it -- and then hand-sewing the binding. That last part always keeps them in the UFO stack for awhile!! :)



But it's finally done -- and I really LIKE it!!



Let me tell you a bit about this quilt... I found the fabric while I was visiting my Mom in Bloomington, IN this summer. Jeff and Marie had hosted our family for a GREAT family reunion, and we'd spent lots of wonderful family time on their fabulous front porch. This front porch is really amazing -- more like a casual living room, complete with a stone fireplace. I know that Jeff and Marie and their friends spend a lot of time out there, and I just thought that they needed a quilt for their sofa. Marie had recently recovered the cushions on the sofa, so I "borrowed" a piece of that fabric and took it with me the next time I went fabric shopping. I found the two yellow prints that just seemed to want to be together... the paisley and the floral blend together in the quilt until you look closely... then the dark blue print just seemed like the perfect fabric to pull it all together! I found the backing fabric here in Okinawa... the colors were perfect and it just seemed like a fun fabric for a "porch quilt"! Now that I had the fabric, I had to figure out what pattern to use... I pored through books... turning down pages... searched internet pages and found lots of possibilities... and then I ran across http://www.quiltswithstyle.com and found this pattern called Folkloristisch. The pattern was inspired by traditional Dutch dance steps. I made a few pattern modifications so that I could strip-piece it (this was the my first attempt at doing that with a pattern all on my own!!)



Since you're reading about this quilt for my brother, you might be interested in Jeff's website

Quilted Star Table Runner -- A Bright Spot on a Gloomy Day!!

This is one of the first quilts I made, but it stayed in my UFO stack for a long time!! It was time to get it done!! It was just the project for brightening up our gloomy winter weather!!

New Years Resolutions

I'm a firm believer in NOT making New Years' Resolutions... they're seldom kept and then we just feel guilty for not living up to our resolutions...

But I really like this New Years Resolution generator!!

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Be kinky more often. Get your resolution here.