Do you need any Quilting books?

I went to Borders here in Seattle for their close-out sale. I ended up with 2 Kaffe Fassett books, each 40% off. I can't figure out if the 780 quilting books on their website are also 40% off OR NOT. You might have to start the "check out" process to get the discount applied, but I didn't get that far, and quit. Anyway, they have lots of K Fassett, Lintott (2.5" strips), ideas for scrappy quilts, "best of" Fons & Porter, etc. I thought I would look at the machine quilting books, but did not want to decide on anything that I couldn't browse the pages.

My Juki machine and frame (50% ownership) is being delivered to my house RIGHT NOW. Beth (the other 50% ownership) and her husband Tom are at my house, since I am still at work. :-)

CFC 2012 progress

Several of you saw this at Clara's last weekend. For those of you who weren't able to come sew with us, this is just an update on Jackie, Elaine and my project for this CFC campaign. This weekend I'll try to do the last bit since Elaine and I have completed all the blocks for the outer edge. And then it will be OFF to the quilter!

Elaine has asked that I take a good picture of it before sending it to the quilters so we can start the sales campaign as soon as CFC kicks off in October.

eye makeup -- not about quilting!

I apologize in advance because this is not about quilting, but it is a scary story I heard from my friend Leslie yesterday. She wore make-up because she was getting a journalism award (she writes travel articles) and since she wears makeup so rarely, didn't have eye makeup remover. So, she used body lotion (L'Occitane) instead. When she woke up her vision was like "looking through waxed paper." When she went to the emergency opthalmologist, they told her that her eyes had little tiny pin pricks. The lotion had burned or scorched her corneas! They gave her really large soft contacts to wear for 7 days that had a gel with some kind of medicine in it, and she is better now. She said that eye cells regenerate quickly.

So... the moral of the story is ONLY use eye makeup remover when you are doing anything near your eyes.

Stitch and Bitch was a great time for all

I made lasagna for lunch. What a lot of work!! I've been experimenting on different recipes and found that the Bertollis sauce in a jar was pretty good. It was also cheaper than making it from scratch. For meat, I used a combination of 1 pound of organic 95% fat free hamburger and 1 pound of Jimmy Deans hot sausage for each 13 * 9 deep aluminum lasagna pan that you buy at the grocery store. I made 1 spinach for our vegetarian friends, 1 gluten free, using rice noodles that came in a brown box, with meat and 1 regular with meat. What a lot of work, oh I said that already. LOL Then I used 3 different kinds of cheese which I thought were very good. I mixed ricotta & mozerella for the cheese layers with a couple eggs. Yum! My sister said to use cottage cheese, that no one will know the difference. Well, I did. LOL I'm not much of a cook really but it was fun experimenting with recipes and seeing what I liked the best. The problem was eating all this lasagna was not good for the waist line. I still have on regular meat lasagna in the freezer. This will be the end. I don't think I'll be eating lasagna for a long while after this.

I think the next tme I host, it will be salad. LOL

Clara was working on her Bellisima quilt with stripped bias binding. It was stunning! I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with.

Here is Snowflake enjoying everyone's attention. She's such a ham. Speaking of which, the vet said that she needs to lose 4 pounds off this 15 pound frame. Has anyone had any luck putting an emotional eater on a diet? I have 3 cats. Sometimes, the cats will have a tiff and Snowflake gets upset and heads for the food dish. oh well

This is Jackie with her center medalion for the next CFC quilt. Every year, they make something even more stunning than last year. I'm going to win this one, even if I have to buy 100 tickets. I can't wait to see the final quilt.

Hope everyone is having a nice summer. See ya'll soon!

ttfn :) Yuki

Jane's Baltimore Bunny Quilt

This is Jane's Baltimore Bunny Quilt. I met Jane 3 years ago at this block a month, Baltimore Bunny Class. My BB Quilt is still a work in progress. I'm on block 10. I am so envious. Jane's quilt turned out so well. Her charming husband Frank, hung it in the dining room. It's just wonderful. I can't wait to finish mine. You can double click on this photo to see the detail.

ttfn :) Yuki

2011 University Park Classroom Quilt

The University Park Elementary School Quilt is done! Each year I work with Ms. Coon's Kindergarten class to make a quilt. This year I got a late start, so we went with a simple nine patch. But it turned out really cute. The kids chose the pattern to use (they could only use triangles and squares so it would be simple) and the fabric for each piece. I assembled the nine patch and top. Then they quilted around their square. Next year I am going to start land have them sew the pieces together. They really love sewing and do an amazing job for 5 year olds!

Sewing with the University Park Elementary Kids

I again leaned on friends and neighbors to help an entire kindergarten class decorate their own "button blankets." We do a very nontraditional version of a button blanket, with lots of pink ponies, lace, and beads.




Each of the kids chose an animal, color for the animal and color for the background. S-n-B members helped sew the basic forms and several members were able to come to the school. I appreciate any and all help, however, I never want anyone to feel pressure to help with my crazy projects.





On our big sewing day, we took over the library and worked with the kids one-on-one. They chose buttons, trim, beads, patches, and thread to decorate their animal.

The grown ups were amazed how well the kids could sew! They had some practice working with me on the class quilts.

The kids really enjoyed the time with their grown-up and were very excited to be able to take home their art at the end of the day.