Trip photos, plus snowflake quilt

Here's one more photo I meant to post from our trip to Roseville. Ronin is sitting on his quilt.

Jim took these photos of us on the bridge near their house.

You follow that windy path up to their house.

I'm happy to say that my snowflake quilt is back from its travels with the Noble Seasons special exhibit. It has been to many Mancuso quilt shows across the country as well as other events. Its real name is "No Two Alike."

One last photo from our trip, this time in Pismo Beach. While we've driven through many times, this is the first time we actually stayed here. We stayed at the Cottage Inn, and it was delightful.

Noble Seasons Winter at Road to California

"No Two Alike" will be part of the Noble Seasons WINTER exhibit, which is debuting at Road to California in Ontario, California January 19-22. The full schedule of the Noble Seasons quilts is now on my "Coming Events" listing in the right-hand column.

I also listed my upcoming class at Flying Geese Quilters for the Flannel baby ball. You don't have to do a flannel baby ball in the class; I can tailor the class to fit your interests. Hexagon balls can be contemporary, crazy, artsy, etc.

No Two Alike

My Noble Elements/Winter quilt is finished! I'm callling it "No Two Alike."

It will debut at Road to California in January and move on to various Mancuso venues and other quilting extravaganzas, tba. I'm totally excited that all four seasons will appear together at two Mancuso shows.

I even got Matilda to pose nicely on it. Now on to Christmas projects!

Speaking of Rainbows, etc.

Here's another view of the pumpkin hat that I knitted for Samantha.


I'm still hoping for a photo of Samantha wearing it. Hint, hint, pretty please?

I forget if I posted this yet. Three beautiful pomegranates, the first harvest from our tree. Two more split open, and there are two more left on the tree.

We recently did a driving trip up to the Bay area, one of our favorite places. I snapped this on the Golden Gate Bridge heading towards Marin County. It takes me back - we used to ride our bikes across this bridge when we lived in San Francisco in the early 70's.



Here's the rainbow bridge on the way to Sausalito. It was painted this way back in the 70's, too!

Speaking of rainbows, isn't this amazing? We saw this just as we were heading into Yountville, which is in wine country. Cars were stopped along the road to gape at the sight. I took this through our dirty windshield, hurriedly - I can't believe it turned out so well. 

This was the incredible view of the vineyard right outside our hotel window in Yountville..

Now we're back home and I'm facing my snowflake quilt. I tried to get a nice photo of Matilda on it, to add to my "Cats on my Quilts" collection, but she was in no mood to pose for the camera.

Noble Seasons: Winter in progress



I've been working hard on my Noble Seasons Winter quilt, with both machine quilting and hand embroidery.



Another peek.

I'm excited because I just found out that all four seasons of quilts will be showing at the Mancuso quilt festival in New Jersey in March 2012! They will also be at the Mancuso World Quilt Festival in Pennsylvania later in the year. I'll report more details when they become available. The Winter quilts will debut at Road to California in January 2012.

While I'm at it, here is my holiday ball, finished. Or do you think it needs embellishment?

It's rather large, almost like a soccer ball, so I'm inclined to keep it as is. I'm hoping that the people in my ornament exchange group don't read this blog. If they do, sorry about that!

quilt top and garden

I finished the quilt top and made it more or less square, as seen here. Since then, I've begun quilting, some by machine and some larger stitches with pearl cotton thread.

Most of the fabric was dyed, painted, resisted, discharged, stenciled, sun painted, drybrush relief'd, or... I think that's everything. There's also both positive and negative applique.

Thought you might like to see how my pomegranates  are doing. I think there 6 or 7 of them. It's my very first crop!

A big grapefruit crop is also coming along.

The strawberry guavas are just starting to get ripe. There will be several waves of strawberry guavas in the coming months; last year I froze them as they came ripe, then eventually made strawberry guava jelly. Any ideas about what else to do with them???? Here is some low-hanging fruit that even Ginger can reach.

The kumquats are green and won't be ripe until December/January.

Here's Ginger in her latest top.

new quilt photos and other current fabric projects



Recently I sewed together the six wedges of my snowflake quillt. I'm excited about it. Notice that smaller snowflakes are going into the circle shapes, also done with different techniques. I still need to add fabric at the corners to turn it into a rectangle quilt, not a hexagon quilt.

Here it is with crocheted and tatted snowflakes added in the circles and center. I will sew them on later if I use them. I made these in the 70's!



Here's a detail of the sunpainted mini snowflake. I made it by first cutting out a paper snowflake and placing it on wet painted fabric (Setacolor), then letting it dry. Presto!

I made each wedge using a different process. I used freezer paper templates, both positive and negative, to enable each process, including applique, sun painting, discharge, glue resist, and stenciling. This is an unusual way for me to make a quilt, and I must say I'm enjoying it.

I had a huge urge to sew baby clothing this week, in between quilting and other stuff.

As a last minute impulse, I embroidered around one bird in the middle of the pocket. I think it's a nice little touch.

I don't know what possessed me to dab extra fabric dye onto this t-shirt for Sam. I wonder if they'll actually put it on her?

I also am putting together this little sundress. Notice there is piping. This is an experiment in attempting to enlarge the tiny sundress pattern from last summer. I hope it will fit Samantha, fingers are crossed.

Award ribbon fixin's for the upcoming Flying Geese Quilt show.

More of same.

Lastly, here is a fabric postcard made by Del Thomas. I bought it at the AAQI auction, and it arrived yesterday. It reminded me of my Grandma Noble, who loved to grow flowers, and her favorite color was yellow.

winter quilt in progress

I'm excited about this snowflake quilt I'm working on. It reminds me of the Hawaiian quilting that I used to do. Each section was done in a different technique, starting from left, clockwise: positive applique, stencil, discharge (with liquid bleach cleanser), sun painting, and negative applique.

This is the sixth section, done with glue resist. I had to wash it some more to get rid of all the glue. I'm having so much fun with this quilt! I'm going to add smaller snowflakes in the circle areas. Did I mention that this quilt is for Noble Seasons: Winter?

I thought I'd share this photo of Ginger with her new bff, Gramps. Just kidding, they really don't interact much, except that Ginger steals his food.

Here's Ginger in her 4th of July outfit. I have photos for a dog coverup tutorial - I'll try to put that up next time.

happy may day!

This is a detail from "A Dance to Spring," which was inspired by a photo of my mom as a little girl, dressed up for May Day. The full-sized quilt photo is not at my fingertips right now, so this will have to do.

This traveled around in 2009 as part of the Noble Seasons/Spring special exhibit.

Noble Seasons - Fall 2011 schedule

My "Fall Color" quilt will be in all these places this year:

Dates for Noble Seasons - FALL 2011



ROAD To California - January 20 - 23 2011
Ontario Convention Center
Ontario, California


Mancuso Show Management

Denver National Quilt Festival VI
April 28 - May 1, 2011
Denver, Colorado


Quilting, Stitches and Crafts Expo
June 23 - 25, 2011
Reno, NV


Ohio Sewing & Quilt Fest
September 8 - 10, 2011
Cincinnati, OH


Nebraska National Quilt Festival
October 20 - 22, 2011
Lincoln, NE


QSC Expos

Oklahoma City Winter Quilt Show
Oklahoma City, OK
January 2012

fall color

This is my "Fall Color" quilt, submitted to the Noble Seasons Autumn special exhibit.  It will debut in January at Road to California.

Here's a detail. I figure that I ought to post it, while it's still fall! I was inspired by the fall color we saw on our trip to the northeast almost two months ago.  I made "positive" and "negative" leaves, similar to earlier projects that involved hearts and arrows. .

What I've Been Working on Lately

I've started a new art quilt! It's for the Noble Seasons challenge for Fall. I have found that I've missed art quilting, even though I've thoroughly enjoyed my knitting and other projects. In this photo I'm just playing with shapes, color and texture. It was fun to pull out my Misty Fuse, silks, chiffons, and home dec fabrics.

I recently finished the thrift shop challenge that I'm in. I began with fabric from a black wool skirt; I added fabrics from three pairs of old pants (I'm never going to be a size 4 again). The buttons were covered with silk from old ties.

Here's the view from the back. I made bias strips from an old pair of pants. The jacket turned out a little shorter than planned; I'm still getting used to current-day pattern sizing AND my current-day size. The blouse is an old Faconnable blouse my husband gave me in the 90's. It was super long and too big for me, so I downsized it for a more stylish fit.

Here's a detail of the blouse pocket. It was the first time I'd used a handy-dandy yo-yo maker. It's not perfect but I hope it's good enough. I zigzagged seams to purposely make the blouse a little rough around the edges. I don't pretend to be a grand couturier!