A Busy Weekend

Life is like sailing.  You can use any wind to go in any direction.  

~Robert Brault

I'm glad it's Monday!  The weekend was quite busy and I'm ready to get back to my sewing room and a bit of quiet.  Friday evening we had a nice dinner out with family and friends - even if I was sitting directly under the A/C unit and froze - lol!  Saturday morning it was out the door early to attend a 6 hour quilting workshop (more below) followed by dinner out (again) to celebrate 3 birthdays - mine, DH's, and my Mom's (which is today).  Delicious food along with family and a good friend made for a wonderful time.  Sunday was spent doing wash and washing Weasley but I did manage to get in a bit of stitching.  Not a bad way to celebrate my birthday.  I now have 2 gift cards to spend at my favorite online stitchery store (thanks to my DD#2 and good blogging friend, Annie) and 2 gift cards to spend at a LQS (thanks to my mom and sister, and my sweet DH).  I love going shopping when it won't cost me a dime :)  Now onto a new week and to spending some time in my sewing room.  What are your plans for the week?

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LITTLE FACT OF THE DAY

Lizard

When I was growing up, we used to have lots of lizards in the fields around us.  Now the only time I see a lizard is when we go visit my daughter in New Mexico.  Here are some facts I found on these speedy little guys:

* There are almost 5,000 lizard species

* Lizards smell with their tongue—like snakes.

* Lizards shed their skin.

* If caught by the tail, to escape, most lizards can break their tail off at a weak vertebra link and later grow another. The new grown tail is smaller and has no bones.

* The largest lizard is the Komodo dragon—it can reach 10 feet in length.

* Some lizards, in order to protect themselves, can squirt blood 2-4 feet out of their eyes.

* Some lizards can live over 30 years—the record, 33 years and 11 months, is held by a Mexican beaded lizard.

* How can you tell that a legless lizard is not a snake? He has eyelids and you can see an opening for his ears.

* The basilisk and the collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) are capable of bipedal locomotion (they can run on their hind legs). When young, they can even run on water.

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GUILD MEETING

Thursday evening was my guild meeting (Cotton Patch Quilters of Kern County).  We had a tutorial and a small trunk show presented by Cindy Seitz-Krug.  She gave some great hints for free motion quilting.  Here are a few of the quilts she brought to share....

This quilt is amazing and the colors remind me of Delft.  

Cindy is on the right talking about her first ever Wedding Ring Quilt.  This was one of the first quilts she ever made.

Cindy made this quilt when she was pregnant with her son.  She had always wanted to make a Baltimore Album style quilt and thought this would be the perfect hand project to take her through her pregnancy.  It ended up taking her three years to complete.  It is completely hand appliqued and hand quilted.

I'm hoping you can see some of the absolutely amazing machine quilting that she did.  Cindy does all of her quilting on a domestic machine.

"Simply Santa Fe" has won numerous awards.  But that is not the reason I'm showing this photo.....

This is the back of Simply Santa Fe.  Cindy said that after the quilt was all put together, she threw it in the wash as she does with all of her completed projects.  The darker fabrics ran everywhere!  After several washings and soakings with different remedies, all of the dyes that ran were successfully removed from the front but the back still had spots that showed up on the light backing fabric.  Almost at a loss of what to do, she contacted a friend and they came up with the solution of fabric stamping.  She used a waxy type of dye and stamped all of the floral designs you see disguising all of the dye spots.  And it still went on to win numerous awards.  Aren't quilter's clever people?

After several wins, people kept telling her she needed to design her own pattern.  This was her first one.  The beauty is really in the quilting.

This was a gorgeous wall hanging and even the backing was beautiful.....

Look at all of that thread painting.  The backing fabric is a plain light, mint green - all of the rest is thread.

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SATURDAY WORKSHOP WITH CINDY

Saturday I spent the day at a workshop hosted by our guild and taught by Cindy Seitz-Krug.  She taught us some wonderful filler free motion quilting.  Here's is what we created....

A Christmas stocking.  I used a deep red (the photo makes it appear brighter than it really was) and gold colored silk thread.  This is the first time I've used silk thread and really liked the effect.  It was also the first time I have ever worked with wool batting and I'm still not sold on it.  There were 18 of us in class and it was a fun day spent with fellow quilters.  Cindy is a great teacher and so encouraging.

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NEW SWAP GROUP

There's a new swap group out there in blogland dedicated to 12" mini quilts.  It is called 12 Inch Mini Quilt. There is no set time for when you have to get a mini made.  You just make and swap whenever you want to.  Easy enough!  I'm holding off for now but am adding the button to my sidebar to remind me that it is open.  They already have several participants.  Check it out!

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TODAY'S GOAL

Today I hope to complete the little paper pieced quilt and maybe get it sandwiched.

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FINAL THOUGHT