36 Little Kimonos

I am making this for my neighbor who is Japanese - she is the sweetest lady dealing with her husband who is on hospice now. She always admires my quilts and I want her to have this one. I absolutely love all the fabrics. They are joyful, colorful and appropriate for this quilt. I hope to get it done asap do to the situation. 

Blocks on the design wall....

I will be adding sashing of a black and gold oriental flower print I ordered on line. There will be three borders with mitered corners. The black and gold, an inch of red and then two inches of black to frame the quilt. The quilting will probably just be stitch in the ditch u unless I come up with a huge amount of mojo. :)

 Here are a couple of the individual blocks...

Koi

Koi

A little fussy cutting around the mountains.

Sumo Wrestlers

Dragons

I hope your Labor Day is a grand one. It is always nice if you get to spend some time with your family.

Spooky Cat Blocks Finished

These spookie little cats were fun to put together. The are all finished and cut to 10 1/2" ready for sashing. I ordered the sashing fabric online this morning so it will have to wait a few days. Don't you just love the 3 legged pirate cat with wooden leg and patched eye?

From the Garden

The concord grapes in the garden were ready so now we have 17 jars of jam. Unlike jelly you have to skin the grapes first, sieve off the seeds and then you can combine them. You get the texture for jam which I love. 

Skins off.

Progress of the cat quilt.

Linking up with a few of my favorite blogs.

Check it out here.

FreeMotion by the River, 

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Love Laugh Quilts

Off the Wall Friday

Guild Challenge - Inspiration American Gothic

I love guild challenges, they make you move out of the box. This one was: 

"Artful August" 

Art or Architecture 

Inspired by:
American Gothic
Grant Wood 1930
32" x 30"

 This is what I came up with. I wasn't going to do the challenge as I have so many unfinished projects ... but the guild but off the competition until September as we have a speaker this month and time didn't permit it. So I decided to go ahead.
I love the way it turned out but it did not turn out as a quilt. I stretched it on bars. Couldn't figure out how to incorporate the pitchfork so I used a Holy Bible as an American iconic symbol, it was heavy and hard to keep in place on a soft sculpture, thus the stretcher bars. I also added a broach on the Mrs.

Original layout on cutting table - only sewing here was the making of the apron and dress.

Four Years Later...back at the farm...

Twister Mini

Finished my Twister mini and got it mounted on this cute little hen hanger 

found for a dollar at the Goodwill Store. 

 King Tutankhamun

Steve got his book signed by Dr. Zahi Hawass

Last night DH and I went to a special event at the California Science Center downtown LA: 

Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

dinner and lecture with Dr. Zahi Hawass

and the IMAX movie Mysteries of  Egypt.

AMAZING  TO SAY THE LEAST!

I am hooking up with Freemotion by the River - see what others are doing by clicking here.

Finished Baby Memory Quilt - OC Fair Winner!

Lots of great stuff...
1st of all a finish!

This quilt was unusual, Mia, my daughters friend gave me theses baby clothe over 4 years ago. 

It was having a real design wall that inspired me to get a start on it.

It turned out damn cute, even if I have to say it myself.

Love the stuffed feet, the real clothe line with appliquéd birds on one, the upside down nighty, the cute sayings like..." My Uncle Is Single", "Captain Adorable" and "I Can't Be Calm, I'm A Toddler"

I am sew happy with it.

AND... 

I won 2 ribbons at the County Fair!

My "In The Garden" quilt entered under my husbands name won a 2nd Place.

The "9 Degree Evolution of a Quilters Mind" quilt wasn't displayed very well but it won a 1st Place in the Original Design category.

My friend Jamie won for her Buggy Barn "If Pigs Could Fly" quilt

And my friend Ann won 2nd Place for the blue, green and purple batik star quilt.

Hea you two.

QuiltCon Charity Quilt

I volunteered to purchase the fabric for next years quilt because I was going to the M&L sale. And then I put together the kits for the guild and then I put together the tutorial. I think I am the assumed "chairperson". So much for volunteering.... ugh.

Here is our inspiration:

The theme this year is "Small Piecing" You can see the color palette on the board (from the OCMQG meeting below. Then on the right below a pieced block of the quilt which will be cut up to make  either a tree trunk or branchs. The participating members will all contribute sections like this. There is no right or wrong way to piece this and all in all I think it is going to be a really cool modern quilt....we'll see. I'll keep you up to date on its' progress.

Kits ready to go.

And what am I working on today....

In cleaning  and moving my sewing room, yesterday I found a little twister ruler I lost years ago. I have pulled out the unfinished project I was working on when I lost the ruler and I am going to finish it now. 

Here it is:

1.5" Little Twister Ruler

On the top is the first piecing, then you cut it up with the little  ruler,
and sew it back again. The project reduces form 22 1/2 " to 11".