MYSTERY QUILT PHOTOS

sI'm so bad - I have these photos that you all sent me and I got behind and didn't post.

Debbie Yadon, Me and Mom. In case we haven't told you, Deb is nearly a realtive - I think it goes like this. She was related to the man my sister in law was married to before she married my brother. So it's the thing about we're all connected in degrees. Not nearly as interesting as the Senator Brown from Massachusets being like a 10th cousin to President Obama =), but similar. We're fresh eyed because we've just gotten setup and haven't even started sewing yet.

Here is Mary's completed top. I know, Mary wasn't in class. That's because she had shingles in the eye - hope I got that right. So of course she was not feeling like being in class. I sent her the instructions after class and she was able to put it together at home. I really like the fabrics and colors that she selected. Shades of purple, how could you go wrong!

Show the group having a good time. I can't remember if this was before lunch.

Here is Mom and Patty Young focusing on one of the construction steps.

Here's a shot of the some at the triming phase of one of the steps.

Here's our Jill. Jill really was not ostrasized but arrived a little late so this was the only spot  available. Jill has a party even when she's the only one there. She is such a special person and we enjoy having her as our newest teacher at Strawberry Patches. I enjoyed being able to chat with her and everyone else during the class that day!

I think this was Shelly's block. She sat next to Patty so I hope I remembered correctly.

I thought I had taken a picture of us in our tiaras but couldn't find it after all. But we all got to wear 2010 tiaras after we came back from our pizza luncheon.

SAY IT LIKE IT IS

Well, isn't that special!! My husband and I already have seats at the Bakersfield Conference in October. This is the first one that we've attended and the line up of speakers should prove to be a full day of good speakers and world news. I keep telling him you can't complain unless your willing to roll up your sleeves and get involved so we'll see.

Back to embroidery - Loralie designs has a new free design. When I looked at their folder of free designs I saw a few more that appeared new to me so check them out here.

ORGAN needles - have I said lately how much I like these needles for embroidery? If you're not using them you should buy a package of needles and try them out. I use the titanium needles and they really do last longer than the regular needles.

I almost forgot about this. Maybe if I put it in print I won't forget again. I received a Christmas card from a vendor at work in December and in it they had included this small gift. The gift was a cell phone holder that you put together. Well, it's something that we can do as an embroidery project! I drew the pattern and when I went to scan it realized the software for capturing scans to my laptop had disappeared. I'll have try this with version 6 and see if it works any better.

Enjoy your week end and hope you don't have too much wagered on the game tomorrow. I split a square with 5 other gals so our outlay was minimal.

OESD SALE

OESD had a sale that ended Jan 31st but I just checked and was happy to see that some of the design collections I wanted to order are still available. If you haven't seen this click here and you can see what's available. They are only $30 each - cd, artista memory card or memory stick. Not all choices for each collection but 3 of the ones I wanted are still available. That's a pretty good savings! SO CHECK IT OUT!!

I'm HERE!!!

Wow, January was packed full of fun things. We're trying to get the Software Sampler going at the shop and well, Bernina just isn't cooperating. We'll get it worked out though. Hopefully you were able to attend our bi-annual quilt show for the Bakersfield CottonPatch Quilters. I'm not sure yet what the attendance was but Saturday was pretty darn busy! We had about 188 quilts this year, which was down a few from the previous show but that still is a lot of quilts. I tell you, there are a lot of very talented quilt makers in this town. Wow! Everytime I walked down the isles I saw a quilt or two that I hadn't noticed before. This year we had a photographer record each quilt and sold them on a dvd for $7. I just finally had a chance to watch mine last night and it was pretty good, and especially for that price. Again, I saw pictures of quilts that I did not remember seeing at the show. I saw him photographing the quilts so unless we had fairies come in and swap out the quilts they had to have been there!!
I finally entered a quilt that I created for judging in this years show. I was soo surprised to see a blue ribbon pinned to my quilt Friday while getting the show setup! Wow!! I am so excited because this quilt was started as a project for a software class at the shop. And then it turned out earning a ribbon, just amazing. Anyway, the original intend was a software class to explore using the pattern outline function of our awesome Bernina embroidery software. I realize that not everyone has the software so will have to get busy and package the embroidery designs for those folks to purchase. I could go on and on about the software and this function but guess I'd better save some of that for the class. Can you believe that the quilt judge even complimented me on the stitches I used on the quilt!
So now January is gone and we're about at the end of February and Valentine's Day will be here before we now it. Better get something special for your Sweetie!
My sister is moving back from Ohio in May so it will be nice to have a sister close. She sews too but embroidery is totally new for her so we'll see how we can get her going. She works from home as a medical transcriptionist for a hospital in Michigan. We were talking on skype Monday night and she was telling me about some of her ghost experiences in her house. It was built in the 1920's so imagine there might be 1 or 2 around. Her house is one of those Sears catalog houses you may have heard about that were out during those times. She's had enough cold weather and they are putting the house up for sale and moving out. So she's moving in May and the hubby is staying there to get the house sold.

Sew What's New?

Well, here is the new artwork project from willowberry designs. A 9 month project of underwater life! Charming. Sheryl has used watercolor pencils as shading for the outlining stitching of her original drawings. She says 16" of background fabric is all that is needed for the 9 blocks so definitely a project that can be done easily by hand or use your Bernina embroidery software to stitch out the outlines and then shade with watercolor pencils or even crayons. Click here to see the site.

Now this is another that is a favorite of many, including my Mom and that is Sunbonnet Sue. The Sunbonnet Sue block pattern has been around for eons but emb library will have a new Sunbonnet Sue and Fisherman Fred design every week this year. Check out Fisherman Fred sledding! New designs each week offered for $1 each. That's pretty reasonable. Not sure if anyone needs that many SunBonnet Sue and Fisherman Freds around but that's their plan! Even one a month depicting something special for that month would give you enough for a darling quilt!!
Click here to see the kids. Be sure and scroll way down to find them.

Our friends at Birdbrain designs have posted a new image perfect for use on a winter gift. Be sure and file this one away for use on a holiday gift for this year. They've had several over the last few months that are snowman designs which are perfect for stitching on the nice tea towels that we have at the shop for a Christmas gift. Make them now and stow them in your gift closet for later this year! If you've missed the other designs just let me know! ( you have less than 360 days left -ha ha)

Click here for this one.

OESD or Embroidery Online is not to be out done. This is a new collection they just announced and I think it is lovely. It reminds me of the group that Hatched in Africa did for them several years back now - but these are by a different designer. The link for the page is here and then you can view each design included in the collection. Very nice and also on my "must-have" list!

Create Redwork & Quilting Outline Designs

Bernina just posted a new mini tutorial on using V6 embroidery software to create redwork and quilting outline designs from a graphic image. Here is the link to the Bernina blog.

Happy New Year!

Wow, 2010 New Year's Mystery class came and went. Whew! And even with the few corrections I think everyone enjoyed the project. It's always a treat to see so many wonderful fabric combinations of the pattern. I've already started working on the plans for the 3rd Annual Mystery Quilt class!
Having lunch at Magoo's was easy and delicious - plus no clean-up since we walked there and left the dirty dishes behind when we came back. All 13 participants had a great time sewing their hearts out making this year's project. Suzanne came in the late afternoon hoping to have her store back so she could get it setup for 1st Saturday. What she found was all of us running around in our tiaras and we were just in the process of unvieling my completed mystery quilt since the puzzle of the block had been completed. By the time we left it was after 7pm. First thing I did was get into my comfy flannel pjs and then fell into my favorite recliner. In about 30 minutes it hit me. Whop! I forgot to turn off the heater at the store. I had turned the classroom thermostat down in the afternoon but I had forgotten to turn it off before leaving. I knew what I had to do. In a moment I had my shoes on , threw on my jacket and jumped in my car and down the freeway I went to right my wrong. Once back at the store - baby, it was cold inside so at least I had turned it down low enough but it would have come on during the night if I hadn't remembered. Close call.
So on with the new year!! May all your sewing projects go together correctly the 1st time and may you finish some of your orphan (UFO) projects.
Did you realize that today's date is a palindrome? That's a phrase or a series of numbers that read the same way - in either direction. 01022010