Guild's Bargello Raffle Quilt

It's the end of August and my goal was to finish the guild's Bargello raffle quilt before September when I start back quilting for clients.  I am happy to say it is done and hoping this will be a great fundraiser for the guild.  This pattern is called Surf Song from Eileen Wright's book Twist and Turn Bargello.  The guild members gave me the okay to spend extra on custom which was great but after a lot of thought I decided on an edge to edge design.  I really feel that custom quilting on this quilt would not sell more tickets so didn't feel it was necessary to spend the extra money. (That's the down side of being the guild president and the guild's longarmer...I debated this decision in my head for a long time!)  I know how hard it is to sell tickets so keeping the costs within reason was my main goal as this is our main fundraiser. If I though that custom quilting would have sold more tickets then I would have definitely gone that route.

I used a medium blue So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

The backing is a beautiful blue Shadow Play fabric.

The pantograph is called Curlz.  I like how the swirls create a softness to the piecing and give it a water effect. 

Sock Monkey Quilt

My client made this fun baby quilt out of Sock Monkey fabric using the Yellow Brick Road pattern.

I quilted it using a new pantograph called Flirtatious because the curl shapes looked like little bananas to me! 

Brown So Fine thread on top and bottom.

See little bananas.....or am I bananas?

Summer in the Park Quilted

I quilted my SITP quilt yesterday and used a new pantograph called Mimosa.  I realized I didn't have any binding picked out but I have a good collection of batiks from my trip, I'm sure one of those will work.  Then I had that thought that I am sure most of you all have had ..."I can't cut into that fabric, it's new and I really like it"!!!!     **  I can't believe I just thought that.  What was I thinking, if one works I'm cutting into it!  Really I will!  

So I dig through my batik stash this morning and found the perfect binding fabric....whew it's an older fabric!

But I'm sure if it was a new fabric I would have cut into it, well I'm pretty sure I would have ;)

Love the Shadow Play fabric I bought for the backing.

Mimosa is an Urban Elementz design.

Goldfish

Since I have a few quilts for September coming in already I thought I would work on this special one early.   This is Leslie's quilt and it is for her first grandchild that is due this week.  When we were flipping through my panto sample book and she saw the "Goldfish" panto she knew right away that was the one.  It makes a great baby/toddler quilt design and reminds me of goldfish crackers.

I used Purple So Fine on top and bottom.

Goldfish is a Beany Girl Quilts design.

Vacation Part 3

One of the highlights of our vacation was going to be to take the boys to see the volcanoes on the west coast.  They saw Mt. Hood and Mt. Baker but it was too cloudy to see Mt. Rainer and Mt. St. Helens.  We drove right up to the top observatory at St. Helens and were right in the cloud so that was disappointing for the boys and Tim.

 I saw St. Helens in 1985, it was a sunny day but the landscape was still very grey and only a few plants were starting to grow after the 1980 eruption. To see the surrounding area green and colourful 26 years later was wonderful.

Then off to Vancouver, B.C. to visit my sister for a few days.

Our favourite adventure there was going to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a must if your visiting this area.

Once you walk across the bridge there is a Treetop walk in the 1000 year old Douglas Fir forest.

We also did the Skywalk and a glass floor walkway off the rock cliff.

Once our time in Vancouver was over we had a three day drive back home with a planned stop in Lake Louise and Banff.  Fortunately I had a few address of quilt shops I wanted to check out along the way. The best was in Kamloops called Katja's Quilt Shop, I highly recommend this shop if your driving in that area.

So in the end, in addition to my Fabric Depot shopping, I had acquired this pretty pile of fabrics too.  If you might recall I had made a New Years Resolution to not buy precuts if I didn't have a plan, well I was sooo good on this trip until Katja's shop.  The two little rolls and fat quarters were from her shop.

When we got home we discovered that we had a bit of rain when we were gone and the lake level is now at the highest we have ever seen and the end of our dock is floating!  Our neighbours dock is completely covered.

Vacation Part 2

After leaving Portland we made our way to Seaside, Oregon.  I had booked a hotel right on the beach for 3 nights, this was one of our main destinations.  When I booked the hotel I chose a 'partial ocean view' room and wasn't sure what to expect...would I have to lean off the balcony to see the ocean?  We were pleasantly surprised to see how great a view we got, minus the foggy of coarse. I know the ocean is out there somewhere as I can hear it.  We has fun walking the beach at high and low tides, it was quite a trek out to the waters edge at low tide.
We spent a day driving down the coast to explore the area and first came across the Rockwork wall.  Beautiful views here but the fog was still in.

Next was Cape Meares lighthouse for those that wanted to know where this picture was taken.  We were finally finding some blue sky too.

Just a bit further south was a small town called Oceanside.

We had a great time exploring this beach and all it's tidal pools.  This was the boys favourite spot and one of mine too!

 Here are the boys in one of the tidal pools finding crabs.

This is the smallest crab I found!

 Tons of purple and orange starfish.

I thought these sea anemone looked like eyes!

The sand here was hard packed so you could barely see your footprints. It was great to walk on.

The rock cliffs were amazing and Tim went off to explore them some more...

..while the boys and I went back to explore the pools again.

Andrew took this picture as I am usually behind the camera where I prefer to be!!

Now back to our hotel and sunshine!!

Vacation Part 1

Two years ago we travelled North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.  So this year our vacation started in the part of Montana that we missed that time, Glacier National Park in the northwest part of the state.

The next day we drove though Idaho going over Lolo Pass then followed the Snake River to Lewiston.

Very windy road and after 3 hours started to feel a little car sick!

From Lewiston we drove through Walla Walla where I found a fantastic quilt shop called Stash!  Bought some Shadow Play fabric for backing for my SITP quilt. I had never seen Shadow Play before and it has great texture, much nicer than Moda Marbles.

We spent the night in Hood River, Oregon.  The next day we found Multnomah Falls. 

Then we continued on to Portland.  I have been looking forward to this stop as Portland is the home of....

WOW!!!!!!!! Now that's a fabric shop!

I am sure I just walked around in a daze for the first 15 minutes trying to soak it all in.  First I found the Rayon Batiks which I don't find that often and they had about 100 different prints!  I bought 2 to make a few bathing suit skirt wraps. Then I found the White tone on tone fabrics....picked out 2.  Then I made my way to the batiks, there must have been about 1,000 bolts of just batiks, it was insane.  I picked out 4...talk about self control!!  Then I remembered I still needed to find backing for the guilds Bargello quilt. Found the Shadow Play fabrics and they had the 9 yards of the blue I needed.  Oh I also bought some beige fake suede with embroidery to make a skirt. (Tim and the boys were sitting in the waiting room by now and they were great to give me 2 hours there!)

The prices were amazing and better yet I had my 30% off coupon from my Quilter's Travel Companion book. The cashier even asked me where I got such a great coupon. Grand total $230 US and $70 of that is for the guild.  I wish I had bought more, darn self control why did you have to show up that day!

Well that's enough for one post.   Next stop Seaside Oregon!