My favorite quilt from the Pacific International show.  

Survivor, pringles and martini's

Its funny how the simplest things are the best. We do a Survivor night every Thursday night at our house. My husband gets "El Polo Loco" and my girlfriend comes over with her daughter and we all curl up on the sofa to watch Survivor. My girlfriend, Linda, brings over pringles (the official sponsor of Survivor) and my husband makes us apple martini's, or cosmopolitan or Island blue, he surprises us. What a treat for us girls! Its so funny, because neither of us drink, so our martini's are rather light on vodka but sooooo good. We have been doing it so long that we just hate it when the show takes its break and we have months of no plotting and alliance discussions. We all love to get into the the head games they play and we all share our opinions of who should be voted out, or who we are loving to hate this week! Last night, since my familyroom is all torn up we all piled onto my bed and watch it. I wore the official buff from one of the other seasons as we giggled and tried to figure out who was going home this week. We are getting really good at guessing who is leaving and why they are keeping the ones that are the most obnoxious. It's all in the game. This season everyone has noticed how testy and almost mean Jeff (the host) has become. I think it is because he is dating Julie from the last seasons show and really doesn't want to be gone on assignment to some remote island without her. The show already cost him his first marriage so I am sure he is nervous about trying to keep this one going.
On the last show of the first season my sons family had a huge dinner and all of us over to find out how won the million dollars. My grandkids helped plan the menu and my grandson actually made the desert, chocolate pudding with gummy worms! So appropriate, wouldn't you say! So if Thursday night rolls around and your thinking that there is nothing to do, just think of all of us, curled up, drinking martini's, eating pringles and enjoying the heck out of each other. You might just start your own Survivor Party!

Life Happens

Well yesterday was quite interesting, I thought I was going to get a few days to sew uninterrupted but late yesterday I was informed I had to vacate my house due to the toxic nature of the floor sealer. We had to quickly pack up and find a hotel. Man, was that fun! Since I take care of my daughter that is in a wheelchair nothing about leaving the house is easy. I grabbed as much as I could think to and had to call all the women from the bible study that meets at my house and tell them that it wasn't going to be here tonight. I wish I had gotten some advanced notice, I might have liked to stay closer to the beach! I just got home and opened up the house to try and air it out, PU. Stinky stuff that sealer. The smells that have been permeating my home can not be good for us anyway so I enjoyed the night away. I always worry about Jennifers lungs since the accident and all the fibrosis, smells and smoke etc make it very difficult for her to breathe.

I wanted to share some of the things we put together in Melody's class on Sunday. What fun, and such fun colors. Happy colors. I love brights, they just make you smile. My small quilt I made is turning out great. I am quilting it right now, practicing my freemotion on it. It is a great size for that, I did take some pictures but they turned out blurry so I am not going to post them just yet. I hate it that I can't figure out how to take a digital photo with this camera without it being blurry. Its new so I am still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles. I thought I had all the special features figured out but I guess not. It is so frustrating when you think you have taken a good picture but when I get it big enough to see its blurry. Part of the reason is that when I am taking the photo I am not wearing my glasses so everything looks blurry but I assume its not! I am still in glasses denial. I really only need them to read and now take photos, and sew, see the words on the remote, prescription bottles, I guess any labels really. OH, POOH, never mind, I see great driving! So the joke is that my husband sees great close up, he is near sighted, and I am far sighted. So he tells me how many pills to take and I let him know when he turns wrong and ends up on a one way street. We make a great pair of somethings! We are both in denial about the getting old stuff!

The weather is starting to turn chilly, yes, even here in Southern California. This morning, as were the last few, was foggy and cold. It was one of those mornings when you would love to just stay in bed, with a fire, and watch a good movie. Jennifer did manage to do just that, along with our cat, Skittles, minus the fire. Its not that cold yet. I had a very busy day that started at the crack of dawn, although we don't know exactly when that was thanks to the fog. By 7:30 the workman started to arrive to rip out my beautiful wood floor in the familyroom and kitchen. It has been a two year fight with the builder and flooring company but I finally got my floor replaced. It has been a huge undertaking, Friday the "POD" arrived and was delivered to the backyard so the movers had a place to put all of my new and antique furniture while they do the tear out and replacement flooring. I must say, after all was said and done, everyone today did a great job. The floor is out and they put plastic over everything to protect it and did a good job of cleaning up all the mold! It will be nice to get the new floor in before the holiday decorating begins! I can't wait for that too! Well, since I didn't want to be in the way too much and since my husband did end up staying home to oversee the tearout I was forced to find something to do elsewhere in the house. HMMM..... what should I do, clean out my closet???? Nah, Laundry????...mmm Nope. Guess I have to sew!! Yeah, any excuse. And since I had just returned from a class on Sunday with Melody Johnson I had this cute little quilt I wanted to finish and practice freemotion quilting on! What fun. I will update tomorrow with some pictures. I ended up buying too much yummy fabric from her though, but she was so happy to sell it to me! It was a fun day, and I got to sit next to Paula Reid, Alex Andersons quilter, plus she teaches her own classes too. That was fun, and we hit it off great. More tomorrow.

We're Back!!

Well, the show was wonderful and very impressive. We were really awe struck by some of the quilts that were entered. I don't know how the judges were able to select the winners since so many of them were of the highest quality and had unbelievable quilting!

I have mixed feelings about it, somedays I think, why bother, I am never going to be this good. While other days I am up to the challenge. I thought I would come away feeling really motivated but I didn't, I felt like going home and burning all of my material. I swear some of these quilts look like they spent the whole year working on just that one quilt, maybe they did. I haven't been in my sewing room to work on anything since getting back, maybe next week. Well here are a few pictures to share with everyone, I hope to post a album filled with more pictures soon if I can figure out how to do that.

Getting ready for Pacific International

Well, tomorrow is the big day, we fly up to Santa Clara, CA for the Pacific International. I am really looking forward to the few days away. We are not only going to check out the quilts but we are on a mission for some key fabric. Cathy is going with me, another avid quilter, she actually teaches many of my quilt patterns. There is also a group of women from our quilt guild going up. Most of them drove up on Wednesday since their classes started on Thursday. This is the quilt that was excepted at the show, it is called Midnight Moves.
I am still plugging away in my torn up sewing room. I managed to sew a few leaves, I tried to incorporate some commercial fabric in with my hand dyes and I am not crazy about that. It really sticks out like a sore thumb, so I am going to try and repaint fabric to get my darkest darks. What fun the process of creation is, just the journey on my design wall is great. I need to cover the boards with flannel or batting, right now I am just using pins. I don't really like the stuff I put up, its a styrofoam board and it tears if the quilt is too heavy. Cathy's husband found something else called homacote which they use to make bulletin boards. It is heavy duty stuff and doesn't tear when pinned too. It is a bit harder to push the pins in but I like it better, we have just had a hard time finding it so far. I am not complaining, mind you, just making an observation and hoping to replace my boards before I have to cover them.

A new adventure

We went to Idaho to look at property. How absolutely beautiful and the people were very nice. Idaho was so totally different than I expected, in a good way. It was a great trip, Randy and I, Jennifer and my mom, running all over town in a frantic effort to try and find some property before we had to leave. We are still waiting to hear if mom gets her 12 acre parcel she bid on. Everyone was decorated for Halloween and the trees were all turning fall colors, brilliant reds, oranges and yellow. It was like a postcard. Maybe almost to perfect, we kept laughing about the movie "Stepford Wives" and the similarities to that town and Boise! But even with that in mind, I would love to move there and we are going to start the wheels moving in that direction. With all the medical issues Jennifer has I have to check on services up there, we are only familiar with what Calif has.

Well, my sewing room is still all torn up. The drywallers haven't shown up to fix the walls yet so I have to get on that today. I am anxious to work on my latest artquilt. I am so excited about it. I am painting all the fabric and trying some new sewing techniques. I just can't get in there to work on it right now, so I am admiring it from afar. Saturday we leave for Pacific International in Santa Clara California, so exciting, I think I have traveled more this month than I have for the last 5 years! I am scrambling to get all the quilt shops their patterns for the show, they called at the last minute to order more patterns. It is going to be tight with these orders, I am hand delivering some of the patterns. Its always Bees and Ladybugs that are the hottest right now.

No access to studio today

So frustrated that I am home for two days and can't work on my quilt projects. We have some plumbing issues which required the plumbers to cut into my studio wall to get to the pipes. I had to pull all my stuff into the center of the room and cover it with a sheet. I managed to sneak out a few small things I needed to paint or do inks on but I am already done and can't get to much else. Its so funny how much I love having access to all of my stuff whenever I need it and get a minute to work on it. This little room is my refuge and hiding place, an area where I can just do whatever I feel like. It is my creative corner of the house where I can clean it up if I want or leave it messy. I have a TV with TiVo to tape all my favorite shows, quilting shows especially. I love to sit in here and turn on the TV and just quilt away. Hopefully I will have it back up and running late tomorrow night.

Pacific International

I haven't started to show any of my quilts in big shows yet. I really don't feel qualified to be in those shows with all the really excellent quilters out there. I am still finding my way and learning better machine quilting skills. Quilting is as important as the quilt itself, I would like to be able to do both, I hate the thought of someone else quilting my original artquilt. Anyway, our guild had a black and white challenge. The rules were that we had to use their selected fabric in the main body of the quilt and we could only add 10% color. I designed a quilt around these big chess pieces I have because I loved the way the light reflected off of them. I ended up winning for most original design and felt brave one day and entered it in the PIQS. I got a letter that it was accepted to be judged. WOW! I am really excited, just to be excepted. I don't think it will win but it will be hanging there. I talked me girlfriend Cathy into flying up with me to see it and visit the quilt shops that are going to be at the show as vendors and are carrying my patterns. I am really excited, a weekend away! I don't get those very often since I am the caregiver for my daughter, but my husband is doing the duty so I can take a few days and just be consumed with quilting stuff. Besides the fact that he is probably relieved he doesn't have to be dragged around for two days and hear nothing but fabric and quilting talk. I wish I would have gotten into a class or something while we were there. Oh well, we leave on the Saturday after next. I will say that being excepted made me all excited about finishing some of my other misc projects on my design wall.

Its all about the fun. This is one of several quilt patterns I sell. I have found that the quilt designing is great fun, where the actual writing the patterns is the hard part. It poses quite a challange to write down everything you do, in a specific order, with exact amounts and have it be easily understood. All of those artsy people know the true work involved when it comes to engaging the other side of our brains. I often pull in my girlfriend who is much better at the technical side of things. Since I am a muralist and artist by profession, designing baby quilts was another good avenue for my creative energy. Often they come from ideas or rooms I have already painted. I often have several quilts going at the same time. Since I get bored easily I find it is better to move to something else when it is not going well. When I finally go back to it I can look at it with fresh eyes and hopefully see the problem. This pattern has been very popular and I have made several samples, another thing that I don't do well, repetition.

I love the challenge of artquilts and refining my technical skills so that I can enter shows. Its hard to decide which I would rather do, patterns or artquilts. They are both so different. I am torn between the two since the biggest problem I have is not having enough time to do it all.