Group Quilt by Quilting Wackos

Our Guild, Quilters by the Sea, has their quilt show every two years. This year it was held in April and they had a category for a Group Quilt. The Wackos decided we would enter. The idea was to make a block by decorating a skirt as it fits your personality. This could be pieced or applique.

This is not the best picture of the quilt but there is a poodle skirt, there is a red, white and blue skirt, a Mexican skirt an Asian skirt, all of them are just great. The shoes are to die for and some are holding a purse or walking their dog. After it was put together, Linda did the quilting.

But see the block, center/bottom? There is our slogan:

Wackos's Rule!

OH WAIT....we have no rules

Robin took a picture of herself in jeans and flip-flops and printed it on fabric. No skirt there.

This is my block, me in crop pants which I usually wear. No skirt there. I even went further, if you look real close, you'll see a tattoo on my left ankle. I always said, when I turn that certain age, I was going to get a tattoo. Well that certain age has come and gone and I still don't have a real tattoo. Just showing a rebellious side of my personality. LOL.

This quilt took 1st Place Group Quilt in the 2009, Quilters by the Sea , Quilt Show.

YEAH Wackos!!!

Christmas in July...but it's October??

Remember, Wacko's Rule, OH WAIT....we have no rules.

Back, before summer, the Wacko's decided we would do Christmas in July. Well, July got pushed out to September, and September got pushed to October. Last night, we finally all met at Robin's house to celebrate our Christmas in July, September, October. We all picked names, I picked Sue. The idea was to take the word, CHRISTMAS, and find a little gift for each of the letters.

This is what I came up with for Sue:
C - Candle
H - Herbs
R - Runner (small, I made for her)
I - I Luv Suchi (gift certificate local restaurant)
S - Screen Saver
T - Tote (LLB pattern, I made for her)
M - Magic Rock (paper weight)
A - Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap
S - Stash (she loves orange and lime green)

By chance, Sue picked my name and this is what she came up with:

C - Cupcake pin cushion (she made)
H - Half yard of Lamb Fabric (my quilting mascot)
R - Red Rick Rack
I - Ice Ornament's
S - Starbuck's Gift Card
T - Tree Fat Quarter Pack
M - Mittens
A - Apron - (she made)
S - Snowman Kit (felt balls to glue together, cute)

This was great fun, good friends, good food and the fact we could celebrate Christmas, almost all year, was the best.

Wacko's Rule!

I think I may have written a little about my friendship group, The Wednesday Wacko's. We started about seven years ago taking a class that Robin taught. We liked the class so much, we sighed up for another class, and so the group began. We have a few that have left the group and a few more that have started, but basically we have kept the group around twelve people.

We first started with the classes in a local quilt shop and we were there for quite a while. We now meet in a class room where my husband works at the High School. Every Wednesday may seem like a lot, but it really isn't. We know life gets in the way and if we don't make it one week, we'll be back the next.

I, myself, feel so fortunate to have each and every one of these ladies in my life. There is not one I can't count on at any given moment. We do retreats together, quilt shows, dinner and movies...and it's just so nice to have people that enjoy doing what you do, quilting and all of life's little pleasures.
I love each one of the Wackos's and my wish would be that every women could belong to a friendship group like I have.


Of course, being a group, we have tried to set rules but it never works, there is always someone that will bend the rule slightly.

Thus, we created our slogan:
Wacko's Rule!
OH WAIT...we have no rules


Just wanted to give you some insight of the Wacko's. In my next two blogs, I'll be writing about some of the activities we have done this year.

Stand by.

It's growing....

Raquel, my daughter-in-law, was over working on finishing up the costumes for the kids. She walked into my sewing closet and said, "I think this closet is growing." That only tells me, I have a lot to do.I'm only giving you a glimpse, but will tell you this walk in closet is filled top to bottom and side to side. See those things hanging on the side, those are charity quilts that are pinned and ready to quilt and have to be ready by December. There are little project boxes filled with unfinished projects and larger boxes filled with more kits and FABRIC of course.

Now I have been reading other blogs and can see I'm not so bad, however, I do know I have enough to keep me busy for years. I plan to take a few days off this week, from my regular full time job, to get some sewing done. I'll let you know how much I get accomplished


As much as I love my fabric, this is my favorite piece inside my closet. This is an antique thread case that one used to see on a counter of a General Store. My parents were collectors of antiques and gave me this a long time ago. I keep my thread and buttons in it.


Anyway, will be back soon.

Sunday Sewing with Mema

I had my three older granddaughter's, Meggan, Olivia and Madison over yesterday to sew. We had three hours planned out which was just enough time for them to make their Halloween Trick or Treat Bags. This was the first time sewing for Olivia. Meggan has sewn a little and Madison has had a few classes with hand sewing.

Prior to them coming, I had them pick out their own fabric, one for the outside of the bag and one for the inside. I put together a sewing box for each of them filled with notions, scissors, threads, ruler, note pad and pencils, etc. they were so excited.

They did all the sewing as directed, I was lucky to have my daughter-in-law, Erin, who stayed and helped with some of the cutting and ironing. They had a fun time for sure and their bags turned out great.












They all wanted me to send them home with Homework. So I put together a little project making easy blocks so they could get some practice on their machines and sewing the 1/4 inch seams.

Later in the evening, I went to stay with Meggan and Olivia as my daughter and her husband were going out. Olivia had already started her Homework and was doing a fine job on her own.

It was a little later when we all settle down and were sitting on the sofa watching the baseball game, Angels vs Yankee's, Olivia looked up at me and asked, "Mema, is sewing just your most favorite thing to do?". I looked over at her smiled and said, "no Olivia, my most favorite thing to do is spend time with my grand kids".
..... And she just smiled back.

It was a fun day girls.
I love you!

Mema

Memories with my Grandma

I guess it was the lesson I had last week with Natalia that made me think about the times I spent with my own Grandmother. She was a very quiet person, tiny and petite. Out of the six kids my parents had, I was the most quiet so I was the lucky one that got to stay with her most of the time. She only lived next door, but my parents felt someone should be in the house with her.

At a very young age I remember, sitting on her left side, with my head resting on her arm, watching her right hand going up and down as she made the most beautiful embroidery stitches. This would go on for hours at a time with the Lawrence Welk or Jack Benny Show playing on the TV in the background.

I think I was about eight when she finally said, "I think you can do this", and she put a needle in my hand and showed me how to do a printed cross stitch. It took off from there, I did pillow cases and table runners. My first craft!

A few years back, Leora Raikin was at our Guild with her African Folklore Embroidery Kits. I bought four of the small kits and made this small wall hanging using basically the chain stitch. It's done on a black background with bright colors. After completed and quilted, I added crystals to pop out the colors even more and beading on the out side edges which made a great finish. This piece took 2nd Place Winner in my Guilds Quilt Show 2007.

I have heard, everyone has five most influential people in their lives....my Grandma is right at the top of my five for sure.

Beauty is______.

My six year old granddaughter was given a school project this month. Beauty is_____.

She first needed to fill in the blank and then decide what she could do to express her words. She said it would be "Beauty is Love" and she wanted Mema (that's me) to help her make a small quilt. She wanted this to be done in pinks and reds and lots of hearts.

The first thing we did was to go to the fabric store so she could pick out her fabric. We found pinks and reds but not too many hearts in October. That's when Mema's stash came in handy.


Natalia started out strong by putting great attention to detail. She drew a picture on her Etch-a-Sketch of exactly how she wanted her project to turn out and then off to the cutting board we went.

Without going into the step-by-step process we took, I will tell you she did all of her own cutting using scissors (no rotary cutter). She used Heat and Bond to cut out hearts and she cut strips in different widths.




Once all the cutting was done, I put her on my small machine to practice sewing lines on lined paper. After she practiced that for a while I gave her fabric. She just loved it!!!

I had her do a Quilt As You Go, sewing the red strips one by one. After all the strips were sewn we cut the piece into a large heart.

She then made the banner to go across the middle using Fabric Ink to write Beauty is ____. At the end of the banner she put a pocket, inside the pocket is a button that says Love.

So you read Beauty is, reach in the pocket and pull out Love. Just so Cute!!! She then appliqued the hearts to the background. All the ironing had to be done by me.

She had so much fun making this project. I was amazed how fast she learned. Natalia is very proud of her First Quilt.

For her: Beauty is Love

For me: Beauty is teaching my granddaughter to sew.

I love you Natalia,

Mema

BOO!!

YEAH!!!! It's October.
This starts my favorite time of the year, October through December are the best months for me.

At the end of last year I took a class at my Guild using QuiltSmart. This is the Fan Pattern. I used Halloween prints to make the fans. After most of the quilting was finished I did some decorative stitches along the fans to make them stand out a bit. There is a black inner border and the binding is scrappy using the same fabric as in the fans.

This was so quick and easy....but it's all in the fabric that makes it so cute. I was excited to put it on my coffee table this year.

Hope you like it too.