What a wonderful day!

I got to meet my first grandchild yesterday! He is a beautiful little man named Deacon. What fun we are going to have! And what an anniversary gift! Yup, my BFF and I have been married for a reallllllly long time (we were so young). How many of you were around the year of our country's centennial? Anyway, he came the evening before the big day and we got to travel to see him. That 3 hour drive didn't used to feel as long as it did yesterday! :)

Hey! But one thing really helped! I got my very own copy of Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey. Get it and read it! It is as much fun to read as all your beautiful blogs! How fun that many of the blogs I have been reading since I discovered this 'fun place' are in her book!

One other thing that helped that ride go a bit quicker was that Deacon's baby quilt fabric came. I will post pics soon!! (Gotta love me some little boy first!)

Progress

I just love these fabrics! The colors are so wonderful and the patterns look like paintings. I can tell I am going to want to work with this fabric again, using larger pieces! The chocolate brown polka dots will be my binding and the orange with the turquoise vases will be my backing fabric. I originally had the brown as my starting and ending fabric for the zig zag, but changed my mind.

As I am sewing the blocks together (which, btw, is taking some time because I don't have much to give) I am really wondering how they will look in the zig zag. I am a little over half done with that portion. I can hardly wait!! :)

Joy to you!

Vickie

Purse Pattern Give-Away!

Go check out Parkcitygirl and this fabulous purse pattern giveaway! Too fun! Amy, who created this pattern, is also leading the zig zag quilt along that I am participating in over at flickr.

Zig Zag Quilt Along

I just love these fabrics! I chose them to be used on the Zig Zag Quilt Along over at Flickr atOld Red Barn Co. Quilt Along.

This is a fun and simple way to go through a tutorial, and the people participating and leading it are totally fun and supportive! Check 'em out! It is fun just to see what everyone is doing even if you don't "quilt along"! :)

Joy to you!

Vickie

Visiting the Machine Quilter

I am so excited! I have just delivered two quilts to Wanda who does my machine quilting. I can hardly wait for her to have them done.

Here is the binding, stripping and backing fabric of the first quilt! I love Amy Butler. These are from her Midwest Modern line.

These are the 8.5" squares prepared for piecing.

These are from the Nigela group, the binding, stripping and backing of the second quilt.

Here is the layout before I put it together.

I guess I didn't get a picture of the completed tops! 'sad' But I will post the completed quilts!! 'happy dance'

These are the exact quilt pattern that I used for my first quilt ever! My sewing room is up at an old building in town that my dad owns. It used to be a Baptist Church and I love the room, but the carpeting does not make a good background for the photos. Something to do better next time. :)

My First Quilt Ever

Here it is! My first quilt ever! It was made in the summer of 2007 with 12 fat quarters and fabric for the border, backing and binding. I absolutely loved working with this fabric!!

Wow! I really need to get a new camera! The following pictures were taken with a different camera outside, and the colors are truer. I had it machine quilted and it is darling! Perfect for a throw.

Java Jungle

I decided to post these pictures first, because this great baby quilt is now gone! :) It was a baby gift for our nephew in Oregon and it went home with his grandparents after their recent visit over the 4th.



A creative young woman at the quilt shop I was at while visiting my son and daughter-in-law recently, helped me design this simple quilt. I fell in love with the Java Jungle Jam panel and the Java Jungle Jumble that went with it. I placed them on the table and asked for help. The green, red and blue fabrics match the colors in the Java Jungle pieces I chose. The green looks like watercolor and the red has pronounced circles that reflect the circular chocolate brown background in the main panel. The blue has a watercolor circular look to pull it all together. I learned so much about playing off the qualities in your main peice from watching them pull these fabrics out. I then played around with the positioning of the stripes, but this is the one I liked best.

Here you can see the lime green minky fabric that we put on the back. The batting was simply a flannel style batting. I layered them, pinned them and then quilted them in the ditch. (There's my sister's Bernina 830--a great machine!)

After the quilting was completed, I attached the binding that I cut from the center part of the panel.

And here it is!! My husband says I need a new camera. He is right. He got this one for me several years ago to put in my purse, but it doesn't do the colors justice. I am going to learn how to use our big Canon Rebel that we got as a hand-me-down from our son when he upgraded. He is a graphic design major at Kansas University and you can find him at Angell Studios. He has been a student of art and photography since early in high school. It will be fun to learn to use a great camera!

What's totally fun, is that I have the other side of the original Java Jungle panel left to make another quilt. Now, how can I make it look competely different....? I love color!!

Joy to you!

Vickie

Loving Color

Don't ya just love new beginnings?? I do. Well, here's to the new beginnings of working with fabric. And a new blog, just for fun.

I used to be a weaver. You know, with threads and a loom. But I traded my large loom in for a pool table when my three sons were at about the age where that would be fun to do with your buds. BP (Before Pool table) they ran their matchbook cars all over that loom. We sold it a few years ago and once in awhile I feel nostalgic about it. But truly, I don't miss it. Especially since I have discovered the amazing new fabrics out there.

So...how did I get to fabrics? A couple of Easters ago, my Aunt Erma was making graduation quilts for two of her granddaughters using this fabulous fabric by an artist named Amy Butler. I was captivated by the colors and patterns. This wasn't like any quilt making fabric I had ever seen before!

Thus began a fun journey with my two sisters, each of us making two lap quilts in an office in our dad's building. I used Amy's fabrics and gave them as gifts to my two daughters-in-law. (I will post pics when I get home).

Now, 2 summers later, I have now made several other items. It's the fabric I love. No. More specifically, it is the colors and patterns. As I look at the fabrics and handle them, I almost have a physical reaction to the colors and patterns. They are satisfying! Somewhere deep inside they help me fill that part of me that loves to create. What a joy to put them together. Just wait. I will show you soon. :)

Joy to you,

Vickie