Happy Day after Valentines Day!

Well I'm in the middle of about 4 projects that need finishing by next Friday so some how this Valentines day missive did not get posted yesterday.

Last weekend at the  SF Quilt Away my Art quilt students were so exceptional and self- sufficient I even had a little time to sew myself so I finished this sample that I had started as a sample for the class.  I'm in the process of making holiday door hangers.  Thus the Valentine theme.  Except for the puppy fabric and batik behind it,  these are all scraps from scrap swaps.  Randy is probably looking at this and saying "hey, I recognize a lot of those fabrics..." lol, thanks Randy!  

These little projects go really fast when you don't have to cut a lot of fabric to get the variety you want.  That's why I'm always collecting little baskets of theme fabrics.  When they get enough scraps in them I lay them out and make little compositions.  See also my Halloween post here .

Happy day after Valentines!

Cheers, Claire W.

Quilt Away with SFQG

I was lucky to be invited to teach at the San Fransico Quilt Guild's "Quilt Away"!  It is a 3 day retreat held at the Mercy Center in Burlingame.  It was great fun and I really had a lot of fun with my students and many of the members.  The SF guild is very diverse in background and interests and it made for lots of interesting conversation at meal times!

The Mercy Center is a wonderful complex.  There's a conference center and rooms,  Chapel, and rooms for retired nuns. 

 The grounds are really beautiful.  Lots of mature Oak trees and even a Labrynth!

Here are some of my students hard at work.  I taught my art quilts class "Let the Fabric do the Art Work".  It was great fun!  It is a challenging class and all of the students produced their own one-of a-kind compositions.  A very talented group of women!  

Now I must get off to my sewing room 'cause  my Guild, PVQA's   Faire is Feb. 22 & 23 and I've got some quilts to finish for that event.  Cheers, Claire W.

Congrates to My Give Away Winners!

Congrats to my 100th Blog give away winners Barb, Jmniffer and Myself.  I have emailed them and they will be receiving some fabric treats real soon!  Thanks to all who stopped by and especially those who left comments!  

I had a rather long break from posting over the Holidays but I have not been totally idle.  We took one short road trip to LA which yielded the following blue work square.

This cute little fellow was traced from a pattern given to me by my friend Stacey.  Stacey visits our local Flea Market regularly and she saw these and purchased them for me as she knew I am working on  these Blue Work squares.

They look pretty vintage to me?!  I thought maybe 30's +/ - ?  I checked my Ruby Mckim book thinking they might be her drawings but did not find a match.  Any one recognize these patterns?

I will definitely be using a few more of these in my project!  They have just the right vintage style / flavor I am looking for.

Have a great weekend everyone!  Thanks again for visiting!  Cheers, Claire W.

100th Blog - Giveaway

Well, it only took me about a year and a half but I've finely come to my 100th blog!  And my new grand baby is here visiting so I thought I'd celebrate by giving some fabric treats away!

1- charm packet of 6" patches, 2x15 bright colored for a total of 30 patches from Free Spirit.

                                     

2- I've been working with the same basket of Xmas fabric for a while now and I think it's time I shipped it off to someone with a fresh perspective.  There's more than a yard of the angel fabric (on rt) and a  lot of patches, fat 1/8ths and some FQs.  Xmas fabric for next years homemade gifts could be yours soon!

                                     

3- charm packet, 1/4 of strips & 1 yard of the plaid on the right all home spuns from Jubilee fabrics.

All you have to do is visit my home page where all of my 100 blogs are displayed in little picture tiles. Pick one that you like and leave a comment and tell me why you like that particular post. You don't have to ponder this assignment to long just something that you like and why.  I will leave this post open until Feb 25th and then pick 3 names. I will ship overseas.

Oh, and I did mention that my granddaughter is here visiting (she did bring her parents).  Well Of course I had to make her a few quilty goodies to keep her snug while visiting...

I lined this basket to make a bassinet for her to sleep in.

I quilted a nice message into the liner. 

I made Arielle a quilt before she was born.  It was kind of gender neutral but I decided to make her something more 'girly'. 

I quilted it with 'hanging diamonds pattern.  It's a really good sturdy-simple all over pattern.

And you can never have to many receiving blankets... 

I love that Dick and Jane fabric line!

I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year!  We are certainly enjoying having our kids here and we do seriously miss the rain here on the central coast but the weather is gorgeous.  It appears there is a high pressure zone that has settled over the West coast that is keeping the rain away.  This could be the worst draught year in memory!!!

Christmas Quilts for Kids

I make quilts to donate to cancer patience at the City of Hope.  Usually I make them for adult patients.  My reasoning was that the kids probably already have 'blankeys' but the adults probably don't.  But I got to thinking about the kids who are stuck in the hospital for treatment at Christmas time and what a drag that must be on top of being really sick so I made a some Christmas quilts for some of those kids.

These are pretty small 36" x 42".  I kept the construction really simple so I could make more.  I did not use batting just nice soft flannel backing so they could be quick-turned and then there's no binding and the quilting could be really basic. They wash and dry real easy too. 

 Just a little something to cuddle and delight the eye. 

                                           I just love this snow man fabric,  It is so playful!

These Holiday fabrics are so much fun to work with and I used up a lot of the large pieces left over from my apron projects!

I hope these little quilts bring some fun and comfort to those kids who receive them.

Happy Holidays! CW

More Easy Pot Holder Ideas

I'm always on the look out for cute Holiday fabrics 'cause a clever graphic can save you a lot of sewing.  Here's a good example!

These pot holders have the simplest construction possible!  One patch,  quick- turned and ta da!  Notice  the border is printed on the fabric so when I quilted around that, along the edge, it produced a nice finished look without a binding!

These cuties came from this wonderful Holiday Fabric!

I used the recipes for the backings on each of the potholders!  But you could use them seperately and yield twice as many potholders!

I think I will laminate the gift tag portions of the panel to make bookmarkers for stocking stuffers!

Oooooh, I'm feeling like some Gingerbread!

How about you?

Happy Holidays!

Claire W.

Side Tracked by the Button Box

This time of years my mind turns to little crafty ideas to give as gifts...I was searching for a few little stocking stuffers and went to my button box for inspiration.  Like the fish attracted to the shinny lure I got completely side tracked...and frittered away some precious sewing time on sorting my buttons.

I have bought more than a few grab bags of buttons in my day but there are also buttons from my mother's and grandmother's button boxes here.  It's so much fun just to think about the possibilities...Maybe string some for a bracelet for a little girl (or a grown up) and some of the one sided ones would make good post earrings.  Actually my favorite pair of earrings are made from a pair of antique gold buttons!  

My husband will be happy to tell you I am a hoarder.  Not true I say, everything I save has a purpose I just haven't figured out what that purpose is yet!

Don't worry, my hallways are not lined with  stacks of old Newspapers.

But I do like to collect little bits and bobs and think about what to make with them.

How about you do you have a favorite craft use for buttons?  (besides securing the front of you blouse)

Happy Holiday Crafting!

cheers, Claire W.