BUSY, BUSY Weekend!

I had a busy weekend.  I did no sewing but some organizing, again of my sewing area.  I purchased many patterns last month and I had to add them to my existing patterns.  I have a tendency to purchase a couple copies of a pattern.  In other words, I forget whether I already purchased the pattern or not.  I see the pattern, like the pattern and decide that I can't live without it, so I purchase it.  This is not a great idea.


Anyway, Saturday, we drove to Berkeley to visit our daughter and her fiancé.  They sail around the bay and bring their bicycles with them and ride where ever they go.  My husband had a brilliant idea to purchase them fold-able bicycles for Christmas.  We were not sure when our future son-in-law was planning on going back East to be with his parents for Christmas so we drove down to Berkeley (a 1 1/2 hour drive from our home).

Sunday was so bad for us.  Our youngest daughter was to drive home from San Diego.  Her car had a problem and she could not fix it herself.  My husband tried to talk her through it but without the proper tools she could not fix it.  We drove to Kettlemen City (a six hour round trip from Sacramento), my husband fixed her car and we drove home.  

After that long weekend of getting very little accomplished, I am going to try to catch-up with my Quilty Fun Sew Along today and tomorrow.

A SURPRISE came in the mail today.

I won Day #7 of Kate Spade's 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway.  I just received it today in the mail.  I want to open it when my husband arrives home from work!  I am so excited!

The giveaway on Day #7 was all Scrap-booking materials.  I am impressed that Kate designed all of these products.   She is amazing.  I am sure that the other products that were included in the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway were designed by her also.  

She has an additional day of giveaways that are still open to those who want to enter.  She is giving away fabric four days from now.  

A Jelly Roll of Solstice - 2014 Line of fabric

A Layer Cake of Solstice - 2014 Line of fabric

A Jelly Roll of Sunnyside - Current line of fabric

Go to her blog, the Drawing Board, http://katespaindesigns.blogspot.com/ and enter.  It is so much fun!
  

Thank you, Kate Spain!

 

Finally finished the Hour Glass top!

I have been working quite a bit at the local high school.  I have been administering/proctoring the MAP: Common Cause test to all of the 9th graders.  I've enjoyed it but I will not say anymore than, some of them treat me like I am their substitute teacher!

Today, I am finally finished one of the tops that I started before Thanksgiving,  the Hour Glass Quilt.  It is approximately a 28 1/2" square.  I started this last night and finished this morning.  It isn't a long project but I had to watch the "Sing Along" on NBC.  I love A Capella music.

I used a charm pack of Juggling Summer by Brigit Heitland for Zen Chic.

San Diego Trip

Last week, my husband and I went to San Diego to visit our daughter.   We stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado to see the Christmas lights and decorations that we heard were very festive.

The hotel looked great and the Christmas tree in the lobby was beautiful.  Unfortunately, I did not take more photos of the tree.  The lobby for the rest of our stay was full of people taking family photographs beside the tree.

We went to two quilt stores in La Mesa:  the Country Loft that carries quite a bit of primitive patterns and fabrics.  It was fun to look at it all.  The second store that we shopped at was Rose's Calico Cupboard.  It has over 2,000 bolts of fabric.  It is so overwhelming that I usually do not purchase much.  They have a large room full of 1800 fabric, a large room full of books and patterns and many, many fabrics sorted by color.

This was the view from our balcony. It was fun at night, watching the ice skaters below and smelling the ocean in our room.  It was much too cold to keep the doors open.  The high during the day was about 53 degrees and the low was about 38-40 degrees.  Unusually cold for San Diego but warmer than Sacramento.

Friday morning we decided to go to a quilt store in Vista, the Fat Quarter Quilt Shop.  I loved the store because every nook and cranny was full of fabric, tools, patterns, rulers, etc.  It isn't too far off I-5.  It is on the way to San Marcos where Eleanor Burns' shop is located.  It has everything from Civil War fabrics to the modern fabrics that are so popular.

View of our balcony from the ice skating rink.

 

More Kate Spain Charm Swap Pictures

 

I am just amazed that Michele of Quilts from my Crayon Box sorted through 112 charm packs and distributed them to all 56 of us who participated.

These pictures are from Michele's blog.

All of the envelopes from the participants.

Michele's daughter, Sunshine, helped with the emptying of the envelopes.













Can you believe this?

6,272 charm squares from 112 different Kate Spain fabrics.











Here is another photo of the charms when Michele started to sort them.  All participants, 56 of us, received one of each charm!  

That's a lot of sorting!

Here is the final product that all of us received. 

 On Michele's Flickr group, she named each of the fabric lines and the individual fabrics.  Michele, you are amazing!  Thank you so much!

FQS Layer Cake Lemonade Quilt and Kate Spain Charm Swap ARRIVED today!

 I ordered a layer cake (10" squares) of the Bobbins and Bits fabric line.

I like the reds, oranges, greens and aquas of the entire line.

I started the Layer Cake Lemonade Quilt this morning.  It did not take long to complete it because it does not require much cutting just sewing.



 

This is the pattern that was free 
from the Fat Quarter Shop (FQS).   
You can download it from Kimberly 
Jolly's blog:  the Jolly Jabber.

Last month, Kimberly had a jelly roll
pattern that was quick and fast also.

Both can be seen on YouTube.

 


I love this quilt because of the colors and the ease of completion.  It was so much fun.

Kate Spain Charm Swap - Hosted by Michele Kuhns of

Crayons from my Crayon Box blog

 

My charms arrived today.  I can't wait to start using them!

 

Month 2 - Hampton Ridge and Thanksgiving is approaching!

Next week is Thanksgiving.  In honor of the holiday, I am posting pictures of wild turkeys that were in the street this morning.  My husband took these pictures.

 There were about

ten male turkeys and

approximately

fifteen females.

 

One of our neighbors owns a female peacock.  The female turkeys chased her away.  We were wondering if the female turkeys felt threatened.

I picked up my Hampton Ridge BOM fabrics and instructions Friday from Fabric Garden, my local fabric shop in Sacramento.  I finished them today, blocks 5 through 8.  They are quick and easy.

Quilt Fun - Week 3 - Courthouse Stairs

I decided not to change my courthouse stairs blocks.  

I just turned one of the blocks once and it looks okay.  

I do like it better and I am trying to have my quilt have a modern feel.