A few more finishes...

I try to make at least 10 or twelve Charitable quilts a year.  I'm a little behind this year so I finished a few lap quilts to take to City of Hope Cancer Center last month.  There nothing fancy but I try to make them all different (to entertain myself mostly).

This was a trial sample of a much bigger quilt that I posted about here.  

Some times when I need to figure out how to quilt a large quilt I will make a lap size version and experiment on it; thus all the different squiggles! 

I've been trying to use up large flannel chunks so all these quilts have pieced flannel backs. Alot of those chunks are donated by my friend Randy.  Thanks Randy!!

This quilt started with some leftover my friend Esther gave me.  I love leftover (both the food and patchwork kind, tee hee)

That center flannel was soooo soft and cuddly!

This was a piece of already pieced yardage,  a real ready to go kind of quilt ! 

I feel very free to experiment on my charitable projects.  I figure the recipients are most likely non-quilters they will appreciate whatever cuddly textile they get?!

What's your favorite go-to pattern for a charitable quilt?

Happy Weekend!

cheers, Claire W.

Visiting Gualala, CA. and Seeing Whales!

I was invited to teach a class for the Pacific Peacemaker's in Gualala CA.  It's a beautiful part of the Northern California Coast and the class was great fun!  Everyone really stretched themselves with the new techniques and came up with some great designs!!!

And as an added bounce while walking on the Bluff above the Beach in the morning I saw the most incredible show!

Sorry for the graininess of the pictures.  I did not have my good camera with me, these were taken with my iPhone.

I watched a number of whales cavorting around near the shore for over a half an hour!

 They were very close to shore because the bank of the beach is very steep and so it gets deep quicky.

 Here you can see a mom with her calf!  My Hostess at the hotel told me the mom's and calfs come in close to shore to rest on their long journey to Alaska and the other whales travel along to keep them safe from Orcas!

I really had to kick myself for not bringing my good camera.  Alas a real photo op missed ^%#%^$!!!

Here are some other great things I saw along the way!

Just North of Jenner looking South towards Bodega Head.  Sunny and clear a rarity on the Sonoma and Mendocino coast this time of year!!

Looking at the South end of Gualala Beach. 

Eceum on parade! 

Redwood forest. 

The Gualala Hotel, 1903. 

California State Flower in many shades.

And some of my wonderful students at Show and Tell.

This was a great group of quilters, really fearless and willing to try new things it was great fun working with them and visiting their guild!

One of the things I love about teaching my Scrap Strategies class is by teaching strategies rather than a pattern every quilt comes out different reflecting the makers creativity!  And it's so gratifying when students say 'It was so much fun' or ' I was kinda stuck in a rut and this has really helped me move on!'  I feel so fortunate to be a part of that process for some quilters!

And I feel so fortunate to be able to have such fun adventures like visiting Gualala!

I hope you are all having a great Spring with lots of fun adventures too!!!

Cheers, Claire W.

Some Finishes for the Fair!

I finished a couple of quilts for my local Fair that I have not shared yet...

The idea for this quilt came from the fact that I have always admired vintage harlequin quilts and I wondered what it might look like in Modern colors?!

The quilting had to be something simple so I could replicate it freehand several times ('cause I was running out of time) So I picked a few motifs that I could easily repeat and looked kind of 'modern'.  I got the idea for the layout of the motifs from studying this fabric:

The other quilt I put in the show was this one.  You can read more about the inspiration for this quilt here 

This quilt was a lot of fun to make.  I think I will try making it again but more scrappy and not in flannel as the flannel was a bit too stretchy.

Tha Fair is always a good motivator for me otherwise some of these ideas would never get finished!! LOL!

cheers, Claire W.

Watching Out For You- Happy M- Day

Standing in Line at the Post Office this card caught my eye.  Superficially the women looked a bit like my mom in her youth.  My mom passed away a while back and I realized this was the first year I would not be sending my mom a card.  But I liked that image (of my mom) and the sentiment, 'cause she always Did watch out for me;  so I bought the card anyway!

So here's to all those readers who've got somebody watching out for you!  (I think that is pretty inclusive)  Have a Wonderful Mother's Day!

I was not that kind of Kid!  But I have a kid who was.  He's grown up a lot since his teen years!

Ironically he was born on Mother's day!

Blessing come disquised in many ways. 

Happy M-Day even if you aren't one you have / had one!

cheers, CW

PS-  I've probably broken some copy right law here so I'm giving the card company some advertising.  Well I Did buy the card and they are selling @ the USPS so they can't be doing to bad?!

Malaysian Batiks #2

I went a little nuts on this trip...I bought a lot of sarongs.  One was more beautiful than the next!  And they were all between $3.00 and $10.00 per 2 meter sarong.

These first three sarongs are of a similar style and quality.  They consist of 2 panels repeated 3 times.
The cotton? fabric is a bit on the course side and I think they are printed not true Batiks; still pretty none- the- less...below you can see how the pattern repeats front to back.

 These next 3 are of much better quality cloth and labeled "Batik"!

 Usually good Batiks are actually labeled with a 'Batik' label, such as this one. 

Plus a paper label.

 This is the back side.

 Another style also from Buatan.

 I think this one is a print but the quality of cotton fabric is much better than the first 3.

No "Batik" on the label.

This Sarong was made in Sarawak one of two States of Malaysia in Northern Borneo.

The swirly things that look kind of like star fish are actually a design motif typical of Sarawak.  They are based on some 10,000 year old Cave drawings found in caves located in Sarawak.

Here's another 'Best Quality"  sarong.

Backside.

Another "Best Quality".

Another Batik signature.

Yet another design!

Here are two with the same design and two different color ways!

If you are interested in the history and evolution of these wonderful "Art/ Fabrics" this is a great book.  It focuses on Indonesian Batiks but there is a lot of general info and great pix of these amazing  fabrics.

You might well ask,"What are you going to use these fabrics for?" or "How can you bare to cut into them?!"  Welllllll,  I don't know!  Some will become gifts, I might use one as a sarong for myself and eventually I imagine a few will get into a quilt or two.  Who knows?!

Right now I think I will just look at them and study them for the beautiful works of art that they are!

Cheers, CW