Trying to Catch-Up

When we returned to Sacramento, I knew that I had quite a bit of catching up to finish my Block of the Month (BOM) projects.  

I finished month 8 of "Flock of Feathered Stars."  The block is named, Slashed Feathered Star.

12" Finished Block

I had a difficult time with this block.  If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that I do not like to work with small pieces.  Here is an example of how small this was:

This is a 4" x  2.5" piece.  The teeth were 1/2" inch each.  It was hard to finish these small pieces and sewing all of the parts together made it more difficult.

Three border blocks.

I put-off working on "Fig Tree Classic Yuletide BOM" several months ago.  I believe that I have just a few more months until I am finally done with this BOM.  Here are my finished blocks for month #9.

Peppermint Blocks - 16" Finished

Christmas Star - 16" Finished

Our Travels to Phoenix

I wrote this post several weeks ago.  My desktop computer was not cooperating so I am publishing this now.

My husband and I had the pleasure of attending a Golden State Warrior game on March 7, they play at Oracle Arena in Oakland.  We had a very good time and loved the upper section that we were sitting.  The crowd up there was lively and very into the game.  These seats were "nosebleed" seats but it was great to cheer for the Warriors.  We were planning on leaving early but we just couldn't leave.  We stayed until the bitter end and did not arrive home until after 12 AM. My husband had the entire week off so he also planned a trip to Spring Training in Phoenix.  We had to see the San Francisco Giants.

We had an 8:45 AM flight and did not finish packing at 2 AM.  My husband is in his early 60's and I will be 60 in August so, needless so say....we were so tired but made it to the airport and barely made it through security and to our gate. I believe that I slept through most of the flight and my husband also slept on our way there.

To make this post quick and to the point, we went to all of our favorite places to eat and of course, two quilt stores.  I will tell all about those later in this post.

First, after we landed we went to Lo-Lo's Chicken and Waffles, near the Phoenix Airport.  It did not disappoint.  It is a 4-star rated restaurant.  Some of the best fried chicken I have ever tasted and the okra side-dish was to die for.  I loved it.
We went to "The Mission" in Old Scottsdale.  It was very pricey but delicious. The food was Chilean not Mexican as we originally thought.  It is 4.5-star rated restaurant.  We were told that it is usually rated one of the Top 20 restaurants in the country.  I loved the food but when we received our check...expensive! Another place we love is "Bobby Q."  Our son and his girlfriend took us there when they were pharmacy students in Glendale.  We thought it was good then but this time we decided to expand our selection to other food that we didn't consume at our last visit. 

My husband ordered the rib dinner, St. Louis Style. The meat fell right off the bone.  He shared a small
portion with me and it was delicious!

We went to breakfast twice to "The Original Breakfast House." It also had great service and delicious meals.




I forgot to mention that we also ate at a wonderful place, CIBO Pizzeria.  We had my son's favorite pizza, Tartufata.  It had mozzarella, prosciutto, white mushrooms and white truffle oil drizzled all over the top!  DELICIOUS!

Of course, we attended three Giants games and one A's game.  These were all great games but the food and quilt stores were the most enjoyable for me.

The second game that we attended was in Scottsdale.  The Colorado Rockies were the visiting team.  It was much more fun than we anticipated. One of the players on the Rockies, Dan Descalso, graduated from UC Davis.  It was great to watch him play.





We are down to the best part of the trip, QUILT SHOPS!  I visited only two this time:  "The Other Quilt Shop" and "Quiltz"  both in Phoenix.  I usually go to "3 Dudes Quilting" but they have basically the same thing that the local shops have here in Sacramento.  I wanted to see what some of the other shops had.  "The Other Quilt Shop" is small.  I've been there before during the last trip to Phoenix.  It has quite a few batiks and notions but the shop is small that even my husband commented that it was the smallest quilt shop that he had ever been to.  The next shop, "Quiltz" was huge.  It had a little of everything.  I loved the fact that it was a Judy Niemeyer shop.  They had so many of Judy's patterns that I could not decide which one I wanted to purchase.  

Anyway, it was a wonderful week of watching great baseball games, eating fabulous foods and visiting quilt shops.  

Tuffet Completed

Yesterday was the final session (one of two sessions) of the tuffet class.  I finished my tuffet in class except for finishing of the underside.  I did complete it when I arrived at home.  

I feel very happy with the final product.  I purchased another finishing kit from Jill so that I could make one for my oldest daughter.  The next time she comes home, I will let her go through my fabric stash and select the colors that she would like on her tuffet.

The whole process of making the tuffet was fun but it was noisy and a bit disconcerting  for me.  Despite the noise and use of tools, it was satisfying to see that I could actually finish the tuffet.  I spent all of last night with my feet propped up on it but I didn't want to make it dirty so I put a towel over the tuffet.  

Well, I am on to more sewing to catch up with projects that I have to do!

I am making a TUFFET!

Several weeks ago, I took a class at my local quilt store, Fabric Garden in Sacramento.  I have seen many, many quilt stores that have this class on their calendars.  I decided to do take this class because I loved the look of them and thought it would be a challenge for me to try.  

When I signed up, I was given the supply list and thought to myself....ugh, how am I supposed to find all of these things on the list! Fortunately, our instructor, Jill had listed that she had finishing kits available at the first class.  Thank goodness!  We were told to purchase the pattern (arriving before the class was to take place) and we had the option of purchasing the finishing kit during class. Again, I did both...Purchased the pattern and the kit. I can't imagine that you wouldn't once you saw the actual finishing kit and the pattern.  by the way, Jill and her partner have a website that is absolutely glorious!  The colorful tuffets (photographs), some instructions and finishing kits were on the website: www.westcoasttuffets.com.  

The first session, Jill showed us how to make the tuffet cover with the pattern, "Pieced 18-Tuffet" by the "TuffetSource.com."  We had a wonderful group of social women so the four hour class went by fast.  The tuffet cover is divided into eight sections and you have the option of using 8-strips per section or 4-strips per section.  It was not made clear to us what options would look like but looking at the website the possibilities were up to you.  I have seen solid sections, 8-strip sections and 4-strip sections.  

I originally decided to make the 8-strips per section.  After I started, I decided that I liked the 4 strips per section better.  The 8-strip tuffet was beautiful but I could not tell from the website that the strips were small and difficult to see.  Of course, that is my opinion only.  I selected to use 'Old Green Calicos" by Pam Buda (Marcus Fabrics).  I love these fabrics and they were featured on a prominent display at Fabric Garden's check out area.  I should've used some of fabrics from my stash but I could not help it.  They were so lovely.

I started out by sewing the 8-strips in each section.  Afterwards, I decided to change to 4 sections of 8-strips and 4 sections of 4-strips.

Here is my tuffet cover.  In our next session of this class we will be putting together the tuffet and finishing it.  Jill is bringing all of the tools needed to finish the tuffet.  I can't wait until it is done.

We were only expected to finish one section during the initial session and finish the remaining sections at home. We were also instructed to finish our  2 1/2" covered buttons.  


I did everything except attach four-18" lightweight cords to the underside of the button.  I will do that this afternoon and I will be finished with my "homework. I need a needle with a large eye to accommodate the lightweight cord.

I can't wait to see the finished product and the other tuffets made in the class!

More....Promised Images

I did finish the second baby quilt last night.  I saw a quilt on a magazine in January and thought that it would be fun to sew for the friend of my daughter. I used the same fabric for this quilt, "Dit-Dot" by Jason Yenter of In the Beginning.  It is 28" x 44."  It was fun sewing this one together.  I used a pattern from the magazine cover, Fons and Porter's Quilting Quickly, the January/February, 2016 issue.  I loved how the individual blocks made a secondary design on the quilt.  Of course, I was limited on my fabric choice.  I used different fabrics and it is not as bright as the quilt on the cover.

River Rock 

I was not sure that I would join this BOM since I had seen a copy of it on most of the blogs that I read.  Well, that was until I saw it in person at my local quilt store, Fabric Garden in Sacramento.  It is so colorful due to the beautiful batiks that are used to make this quilt. I also like to support my local shop so I try to buy the fabrics that I want there first.  If I don not find them there, I usually buy the fabrics online.

The BOM started just last month.  I love the large blocks and beautiful colors. These blocks are from month #1.

Block A - 13" x 13"

Block B - 20.5" x 20.5"
 Spacer - 8" x 20.5"

Here are the blocks from month #2.

Block B - 20.5 x 20.5"

Block A = 13" x 13"
Spacer - 3" x 13"

It is fun, fun, fun!  The difficult part of this BOM, so far, is sorting through all of the fabrics of 10" squares.  I believe that this is a 9-month program.  I'm hoping that it will continue to be FUN!

Promised Images

I finished the binding of one of the baby quilts that I shared with you yesterday. I did not include a photo so I am posting one today.  The quilt is 35" x 43."  I used a Bella Bleached White fabric for the background and all of the other fabric was from the "Dit-Dot" fabric line by Jason Yenter from "In The Beginning."

I enjoyed making this quilt for many reasons:  I love making stars and the size is so much smaller than the other quilts that I usually make.  I quilted this by myself.  Most of the larger quilts I can't even imagine doing on my sewing machine.  I usually take them to a quilter that lives close to me.  I will finish the other boy baby quilt today and I will post a photo of it as soon as I can.

Fabric Organization

Yesterday, I mentioned the book, "the life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo.  I took some photos of some of the things that I do to keep my stash in some kind of order.  I must say that in the past, I could not find fabrics that I know I had purchased but had not used.  I just flung the fabric that I just purchased into any place that I could find space and it was hard to find it when I finally had the time to use it.

I use two types of boxes,  a small square, 12" x 12" and a larger box, 15" x 17."  The smaller box is full of fat quarters and the large box has fabric that are large cuts.

This view is from the top.  I put all of my red/pink reproduction fat quarters in this box.  

They are all upright so I can see most of the fabrics and I can pull one out and easily put it back in the box if I decide that I don't want to use it.

This is the larger box and it is also the view from the top of the box.  I put the red/pink fabric upright so I can see most of the fabrics.

While I was folding the fabric, I pulled out the one's that I thought I would never use and always questioned myself with "Why would I buy this piece of fabric?!"  I pulled it out and decided that I would try to sell these fabrics at my quilt guild to a person who would love to have more fabric to add to their stash.  We have a lovely Country Store and the consignors are so talented when they make quilting items to sell.

Posting AGAIN!

Sometime in December, my computer got sick!  It acquired a virus.  It has been down for almost two months now.  I believe it was called a Trojan Horse Virus, at least that is what my husband called it.  He has been trying to bring my computer back from the dead and I believe he has done that.  At any rate, I am happily typing another post.

At the end of December, our oldest daughter, Erin, had two friends that had baby boys.  In the past, she usually made quilts for them but since she finished graduate school and started working full time, I have taken over those duties.  I think it is my subtle way of letting her know that I am happy to take over these duties because I want my own little grand-baby!  I started both quilts after the first week of January.  I will take photos after I am done.  I have only the binding to finish.  I can make a baby quilt fairly quickly, if I make the time, that is.  It has been pretty easy so far.

Erin also has a friend who is the Athletic Director and graduated with her at our local high school.  She is having a girl, this is her third child and she is due in March.  I've already started so I will post photos of that quilt as soon as I can.

Have any of you read the book:  "the life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo?  The book is about "the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing."  I love the book and she gives many tips on the order of tidying.  I decided that I liked how she suggests storing t-shirts.  I could use this to organize my fabric stash.  I used small containers and folded the fabric "standing up" instead of laying them flat.  I have two types of fabric:  reproduction or civil war and everything else.  I separated them into two piles and sorted them by color.  When I stood them up, I could see what I had in each small container.  This process took me a good two to three weeks to complete.

At any rate, I have quite a few BOM (block of the month) programs that I needed to keep up.  I didn't do so well but here are the results.

Flock of Feather Stars

Month 6 - Star of Chamblie

Month 7 - Aunt Betty's Star