Blogger's Quilt Festival (Spokane, WA)

It's time for Blogger's Quilt Festival!  This is my second time participating in this wonderful event hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  Thank you Amy!  I love visiting quilters from around the world it is so inspiring to see their beautiful creations.  

This is my Delightfully Dizzy quilt.  I won a gift certificate from Amy's last Blogger's Quilt Festival.  The gift certificate was for The Quilted Fish.  The shop had some great designer fabric that I have never used before, but decided to try something new.   

I have to admit that when the Delighted! fabric by Riley Blake arrived, I was feeling outside my comfort zone.  The more I arranged and re-arranged the two packages of 10" squares, the more I like them.  I decided to use Cake Mix pattern from Layer Cake Recipe.  

I found matching green fabric for the border and backing.   The blocks had to be made smaller than the pattern's original block size.  I had just enough for five blocks across and seven blocks down.  Perfect for a small lap-size quilt.

36 x 48 inches

As the quilt came together, the fabric took on a life of its own.  I not only found it delightful, but cheerfully dizzy as the colors and patterns swirled together.  Hence the name Delightfully Dizzy!

I had to add some kind of appliqué before I sandwiched the layers.  I knew I wanted to mimic the flowers without actually duplicating them.  I was quite happy when I found an old appliqué design from one of my Baltimore Album pattern books.  Funny how something from an older design can fit so well with a new design fabric.

This quilt started out as a challenge and ended up being so much fun.  I have a feeling I will be challenging myself again with fabric outside my comfort zone.

Thanks for stopping by!   I hope you found my quilt delightful, but not too dizzy!

Happy Quilting!

Finished and Moving On (Las Vegas, NV)

Finished! Done!  WooHoo!.....of course, we will not peek into my closet to see how many more UFOs lurk in the dark corners....

I hung these up in a hurry today to get some photos.  I have a long list of things I want to finish before we leave tomorrow.

I had planned to take these to Albuquerque this summer.  Due to our returning to the Preserve for this winter, we will not be going to New Mexico.  

So, if I find a charity group during our travels, I will give them this quilt along with the Redwork Teddy Bear quilt.  Hopefully, I will find a Project Linus contact.  If not, I know the Escapee's Parks have people collecting charity blankets and I don't mind giving them these two quilts.

I need to iron the border on this one.  I also need to take better photos before I post this quilt on Etsy.  I'm sticking with calling this one "Delightfully Dizzy" spring lap quilt.  What do you think of the name?

Good-bye to Las Vegas

Travel day tomorrow ~ Saturday.  Yep, it is time to start making our way north towards Washington State.  I had fun in Las Vegas and maybe someday, we will come back.

Happy Trails!

Feeling So Good! (Las Vegas, NV)

This has been a wonderful week for me.  Las Vegas is great, I'm seeing the light at the of the tunnel for three quilts, and I am featured in two Treasuries from around the world!  People on Cloud 9 ~ Make room for me!

Vintage Vegas

We spent one evening in the vintage Las Vegas downtown.  We ate dinner at Hash House a Go-Go.  It is a good thing we decided to split a salad because "Huge" salad described in the menu is an understatement!  I barely finished my half and left most of my bread behind.  They don't believe in small portions at this restaurant and it was delicious!

I can see Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack walking down the street....

Vintage Vegas

This is the Fremont Street Experience.  The canopy has thousands of LED lights and speakers setup for the light show.

There is a zipline ride that goes down the length of the canopy.  I got one good photo of four people going by over our heads.

Zipline riders

We watched the first show with Don Mclean's "American Pie".  Talk about Retro!

Go-Go Dancers

Finishing up with a rocket launch.  If you can zoom in on the astronaut on the right, you can see JFK and MLK in the face shield.

Rocket Man

On the Cutting Board

For the last couple of days, the weather has been cold and wet.  Yep, we are getting some rain.  Perfect time to work on my quilts.  I finished quilting two quilts already.

I'm almost done with the third one.  I haven't made the binding yet, so that'll be my next project - making binding for three quilts.  Sigh, it feels good to finish these three.

Featured in Two Treasuries

Two of my quilts are featured in this lovely treasury!  Thank you Lesya!  Check out some of the shops in her treasury:

Lesya lives in Russia.  Amazing how the internet has shrunk our world!  Stop by Rainbow Gerbera to see her lovely shop filled with beautiful crocheted items.

Rainbow Gerbera

Here's the second treasury by Charo.  Thank you so much Charo! Check out some of the shops in this one:

Charo lives in Madrid, Spain and her shop is filled with beautiful detailed miniatures.    

Artisluna Minaturas

Happy Quilting!

Delightfully Dizzy! (Patagonia, AZ)

I finished making the Delightfully Dizzy quilt top.  Every time I thought I was done making blocks...I decided to add more. This challenge turned into a lot of fun!  I finally ran out of squares to make more blocks and the quilt is only lap size.

This is going to be a fantastic springtime quilt.  I can't wait to finish it now.

 

I had so much fun, I could not resist adding appliqué to the top.  I did manage to control myself and I only added one flower to the top corner.

appliqué flower

Close-up of stitching

More Photos from Our Walks

Sonoita Creek

Western Screech Owl's soaking up some rays during his nap

Don't give me the Doe Eyes!  I'm not going to give in!

Spotted Towhee - talk about having "Red-Eye"

Mama and Baby Javalina  Time to go Bye!-Bye!

12 Projects of 2012 (Patagonia, AZ)

A Facebook group called Crafty Mavens invited me to join their 12 Projects for 2012.  Each person makes out a list of projects to finish.

Here's my PhD (Projects half Done) list:

1. Small Stockings
2. Mug Rugs – Seasonal
3. Crochet Blanket
4. Teddy Bear Quilt
5. Dresden Quilt
6.  Traveler Mug Rug
7. Frog – Witches Brew
8. Cat Quilt
9. Valentine Angel
10. Cake Mix Quilt
11. X-stitch Cat Sign
12. Granddaughter’s quilt

I'm looking at this list and thinking it doesn't look all that bad, does it?  I could finish a few of these in one month, right?  This list is a Breeze!  Yep, famous last words...

Since I'm more visual, I decided to add photos from the list.

1. Stockings

2. Mug Rugs

3. Crochet blanket

4. Teddy Bear Quilt

and or

4. Teddy Bear Quilt

5. Dresden Plate Quilt

6. Traveler Mug Rug & Rabbit for another quilt

7. Frog and Mummy Mug Rugs

8. Cat Quilt  (I stashed so well that I can't find it right now)

9. Valentine Angel (No Photo)  The patterns and material are packed in the basement right now.

10. Cake Layer Quilt

11. X-stitch kit

12. Garden Quilt

Then I piled them all together.  Oh yea, the list feels a lot bigger now....

My order of yarn finally showed up.  It only took two weeks to get here.  I think it took the scenic route.  :0)

I will leave you with a couple of photos of birds.  Both of these birds are hard to photograph.  They like hiding in thickets and bushes.  The Albert's Towhee was playing peek-a-boo with me.  I finally got one good photo when he ducked down to see if I was still there.  Gotcha!

Albert's Towhee

Townsend Solitaire

Well, I better get back to my projects, because I've already got another list going of new projects that are floating around in my head.

Oh No! Short on Supplies (Patagonia, AZ)

Must be my week to be short on supplies.  First, I goofed on cutting strips, so I had to use some of my green border material.  Here's the result....

Not too bad.  I haven't decided if I'm going to make more blocks or stop with what I have now.  In honor of the Delighted! fabric, I think I'm going to call this quilt "Delightfully Dizzy".

I accepted a challenge from a Facebook group called "Crafty Mavens" to finish one project a month.  I figured it would be a good incentive to get some of these UFOs done.  I started with this crochet blanket that was halfway done.  I can't believe I miscalculated how much yarn I needed and I ran out!  

The nearest Joann's Fabric Store is an hour away.  It does not make sense to drive to Tucson for one skein of yarn, so I went to Joann's website with hope of finding the same yarn.  Not only did I find the same yarn, it was on sale!  Yes, I know the dye lot will not be the same.  Hopefully, it will not be too glaring of a difference.  It seemed silly to buy one skein for under $4 and pay $6 shipping....so I bought 7 skeins instead for the same shipping cost.  Now I have enough yarn for a second blanket.  The reason for finishing this project was to get it out of my closet so I can have a little more space.   Okay, did that make sense?

Well, back to my projects.  I'll leave you with some photos of a Ladder Back Woodpecker  Red-naped Sapsucker  getting a drink of water from the creek.  I spent two days trying to get pictures of this guy while he was pecking away on his favorite tree across the creek.  On the third day, I guess he felt sorry for me because he landed in the creek right in front of me!  (Oops! I goofed!  Thanks Barbara for letting me know!)

That lady has been watching me for two days..

Okay, lady.  Are you watching me?

Yea?  How about this view?

Heh!Heh! I'm a baaaaad boy..