Post Show Blues & Ribbons

A good thing! I love the Blues, my favorite music genre. Chairing Vendors with my quilt guild has been fun. My favorite part is meeting vendors and getting to know them. My paperwork is ready to turn in at our wrap up meeting and I am looking forward to spending more time improving my quilting skills and finishing my own quilts :0)

I love to see my customers quilts displayed and am quite proud to say that 5 of their quilts that were entered to be judged won ribbons! More deserved them, in fact all of them ;0) Showing off my customers quilts this morning... starting off with Pam's Swoon (not judged). I am amazed at the talent we have in our guild. Enjoy

Pam's Swoon (not judged)

Cannery Row by Bev (not judged)

Judy with her A to Z quilt

Kelly's Big Wedding

Sandra's Vintage Valentine

Kelly's Kaffe

Janie's Amaretto Cottage

Janie and I worked on this one together 

and one of Beckie's quilts received a Viewer's Choice

Beckie's Birds

altho I believe it should have been pinned to this quilt

also made by Beckie with birds

Beckie's Peacock

a few more (not judged)... 

Karen's ~ It's Finished!

love quilting feathers!
and texture

Sandra's Scrappy Balls

and I absolutely love this one my friend Sandy made! It's scrappy and fun :-) like her!

There are lots more to share. Quilts are posted on my longarm blog too.

and I will do another post, including quilts I did not quilt...

like this one made by Kathy Thomas

The Rose ~ by Kathy T

This is a combination of quilting and embroidery which Kathy is really good at. Kathy is on her way to becoming an accomplished longarmer with quilts displayed as well.

Barbara Michels has been longarming for a long time and is really good! One of her own quilts received two ribbons, a 1st place and Best in Show. Congratulations Barbara!

Lone Star by Barbara Michels

Well done ladies! It's an honor to be in your company 

It ain't over until the fat lady sings

There were no fat ladies singing, the quilts have been taken down, the doors to the quilt show closed, however it's not over. Always those little things to wrap up. It was a grand event. Wonderful vendors, good food from Roots, family and friends came to see our quilts! Life is good!!! Where to start with pix... so will begin with my kids!

My son Chris, better known as Scribles, Kristy and Haley standing in front of Kelly's quilt at our guild's Harvest of Quilt's quilt show. Michael was a gigantic help and support for me. In fact, he was so helpful and quick on his feet, there are no pix of him! That's just how good he is! Love these wonderful people! 

I have the best customers too! with the nicest comments on their placards. Thank you! This week I am posting pix of quilts made by each of them on my longarm/customer blog Moonbear Designs and Quilting. Each day there will be a post featuring each of their quilts, today began with Judy's two quilts... here is the link :0) 

This is another link to Lynn Wilder's blog, Sew'n Wild Oaks with some really good pix of Donna Greenwald's (our featured quilter) quilts plus an even better pic of Amaretto Cottage. Thank you Lynn!

Still recovering along with my longarm. Today I spent the day fine tuning my longarm, Helena. She has been working hard this year and deserves a little TLC. I am changing out her check spring and getting her tuned up for the holidays and ready to frost some quilts. 

Hard to pic a fav but... this one I have to share because I worked on it with my friend Janie for more than a year. Amaretto Cottage... finished and hanging at ASQG's Harvest of Quilts 2015 in Chico, CA... with a first place ribbon in our category... Well done Janie!!!

 Tot ziens, Jo

 

AC medallion top is a flimsy finish

Yea! Amaretto Cottage with borders

This completes my top! 

Close up of the center medallion 

Upper left quadrant 

Pulled from fabrics in my stash to make this quilt. Lots of Civil War reproduction fabrics plus some Thimbleberries and the large floral print used for borders. The outer border was supposed to be wider but without finding more of that floral fabric, it's fine as is. One more small border was also part of the pattern was going to be the red. Instead it will be added for the binding. As is it's just the right size for a Queen size bed. I'm happy! 

Amaretto Cottage was a year plus project I worked on along with my friend Janie. It all started when Janie purchased the kit and asked for help constructing her blocks. They were a challenge! I decided to make test blocks and it grew from there ;0)

Janie's top is also finished,
we finished it earlier this year in April

We have a bunch of ideas for the quilting 

Now to find the time to do it! 

 

Hump day and it's going to be a hot one. Off to fire up the longarm and get some customer quilts done before it gets too hot this afternoon. Enjoy your day!

Tot Ziens, Jo

Janie's Amaretto Cottage

Yea! On Friday Janie and I spent the afternoon together

and finished piecing Amaretto Cottage!

Started on April 16th, 2014

Top finished April 10, 2015

Top finishes at 112" x 112"

It's been a wonderful journey for both of us

Janie made perfect mitered corners in the outer border!

Janie is one of my very first customers and we have become wonderful friends over the years. Both of us growing and learning as we improve our quilting skills. We already have several ideas floating in our heads for quilting ideas. Janie loves butterflies so there will definitely be lots of them stitched into this beauty! 

A King size roll of wool batting is scheduled to arrive this week

along with some black batting ordered for Brandie.

Another friend doing some amazing stitching of her own

Check out her latest blog post with some amazing cross hatch
Brandie used a CD to mark her crosshatch... love it!!!

I consider myself very lucky to be in the company of so many wonderful quilters! 

Enjoy your day, stitching away :0) Jo

November's Goal ~ Amaretto Cottage and Frozen

Janie and I are on the last block for Amaretto Cottage!

Month/Block 9 ~ Nine Patch Star Variation

Not completely pieced and there are three more for a total of four of each block.

Nov. goal is to finish the last blocks and then start setting the blocks together! Yea!!!

A recap with pix below of each block, Amaretto Cottage is a block of the month from Marianne Elizabeth. My friend and customer, Janie purchased the BOM as a kit in 2012 with the original fabrics from Marianne in the Honey colorway. Gorgeous fabrics in mostly golds and purples. Janie asked if I would help her with her quilt. We started working together on it last year and now we are getting close to finishing the top! I decided to pull from my Civil War stash plus a few Thimbleberries to make the blocks myself, making it easier to help. Janie has done a fantastic job with her blocks, "perfection" I say even tho she never agrees with me, she is an excellent quilter! 

The first four went into the center and formed the medallion. HERE is a link to the blog post for Month 7 with both of our centers finished in September with borders. First blocks were 6" finished, Block 1 ~ English Ivy (corners), Block 2 ~ Cake Stand (8), Block 3 ~ Aunt Addie's Album (a challenge!) and the center is Missouri Puzzle which finishes at 15 3/4". 

Center blocks

The first month's block were the same block made in two sizes

6" that went into the corners of the center

and then four more in a 10" finished size.

All of the blocks will be set on point

Month/block 1 ~ English Ivy, the 10 inch block

We didn't follow all the months in order. Instead we would choose a difficult block followed by an 'easier' block just to break it up a bit. It was also nice to work at our own pace! 

Block 5 ~ Log Cabin (changed the fabrics)

There were 12 of these total. 8 regular and 4 that will be corners...

Block 5 ~ Log Cabin

Block 5 ~ Log Cabin corner block

Block 6 ~ Kansas Troubles

For both blocks 1 and 6 I pulled very light background fabrics because they will create a diagonal line into the corners of the quilt once all of the blocks are set. The rest of the blocks are darker.

Block 8 ~ Pinwheel Square
(Block 9 is pictured at the top)

Block 10 ~ Temple Court

Block 11 ~ Beginner's Delight

Month 12 will be cutting the setting triangles, the layout and joining the 10 inch blocks with the log cabin blocks and adding final borders. My goal for November is to finish the last blocks, get the center field of this quilt all together and ready for the borders. I am so looking forward to seeing how all the colors work out. We know Janie's will be gorgeous in the gold and purples. HERE is a link to a google image search for this quilt.

My second goal is to start 2 quilts intended as Christmas gifts for the girls. The focus fabrics are from Frozen with the two sisters which is perfect for two little sisters. Of course, they know all the words from the movie's songs and they both were Elsa for Halloween. This is my pull along with the purchased fabrics... the large pink Frozen fabric will be the backings.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Weather is gorgeous here in Nor Cal. 

Loving it, however California needs rain! 

Groetjes, Jo

Amaretto Cottage center progress

Yesterday Janie and I worked on the center of her Amaretto Cottage quilt. Janie had the center block with the finished 6 inch blocks pieced into what will be the center of this medallion quilt. We added the green border and here we are laying out the next floral border up on my design wall. 

We finished adding that border onto the center with mitered corners. 

 This is my finished center made with Civil War repros 

and other fabrics from my stash

We have some of the 10 inch blocks that will be added next finished along with lots of log cabin blocks with 12 more to finish, four of 3 more block designs. They will all be added with setting triangles and then we will be ready to finish our quilt tops! Yea!!!

 

It's been a long process and some very challenging blocks but after yesterday's progress, we are very happy! That's on my agenda for the weekend, to finish the blocks that I was glue pinning in my last post. btw, I tested some fabric and the generic white glue and it does wash out with water. Yea! I heard from other quilter's that tried this and were also happy with the results. Roxanne's Glue Baste It was also used and a very good choice. 

Enjoy your weekend

Groetjes, Jo  

March finish

My NYD Mystery quilt is a finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes. (Goal post #44 and finish post #113) Thank you Shanna and Melissa for hosting :0)

Quilting, binding and a label are finished. After reading a thread on labels on Pinterest and theinboxjaunt, I made this label by folding it in half, machine sewing it on to the edges of a corner, the binding is stitched over the edges and then the one fold is hand sewn down. Worked great!

Hummm, I'm thinking there needs to be a moon added to the corner :0) Janie, who joined me on New Year's Day and started her top, finished her top this week. It's here on my table waiting to be quilted. Along with my label I also made one for Janie with a butterfly :0)

Besides finishing our mystery quilts, we cut out the center block of Amaretto Cottage. Here is my finished test blocks up on the design wall.

Post update: Amaretto Cottage is a BOM from 2012 by Marianne Elizabeth, Classically Home collections for RJR fabrics. Janie asked me to help her put this quilt together. She is working with the RJR kit fabrics. There are errors in the directions including cutting sizes. number of cuts and finished block sizes. We have done allot of unsewing and we are not sure if Janie will have enough fabric to finish if we remake blocks.  I am now "testing" the pattern for Janie so the blocks above are pulled from my CW stash and are different from the original kit.

The fabrics in the kit are gorgeous and the designer deserves kudos for that. Hopefully she has a better pattern tester now for her new kits.

LynCC in Colorado made Amaretto Cottage, HERE is a link to her post to see her finished quilt in the RJR fabrics. Also a link to one of her posts as she was struggling with this project, the same two blocks Janie and I just finished. We contacted the designer and heard back from her assistant Amanda who has been wonderful! She is sending Janie some templates.

Mother nature is not playing nice this year. Now that Spring is on the calendar, Winter has decided to show up! Good that we are getting rain (lots of it) and snow because we were headed for a drought. Along with the rain have been days of thunderstorms and tornadoes, yep in California. Forecast is more for tomorrow.

After a busy month, happy to choose an easy goal as it took until this evening to get it finished for A Lovely Year of Finishes. I do appreciate setting a goal each month to stay focused and make it happen! Yea  Click this link to see all the finishes for this month, over 100! 

Now to think about what I would like to finish for April

Enjoy your April, hope we have Spring soon!

November is coming to a close

Can you believe it, tomorrow is the 1st of December! Don't know what I was thinking, my busiest time of the year and getting UFOs finished. Yea right. I did make a little progress on my Tree of Life quilt. It is fun to work on a quilt without a pattern, making it up as I go. This is my latest layout.

I am happy with the center medallion. Debating about adding a sawtooth border as an outer border design. It's between adding the sawtooth border into the corner tree blocks or letting them float between the trees... or leaving them out altogether and make a solid outer border.

Nada accomplished on two other UFOs. It's OK tho, I am getting quilts done for customers including a WIP with Janie. We are working together on a BOM she purchased last year. Amaretto Cottage. She asked me to help with some piecing techniques. I am making the quilt along with her in CW repros. Janie has her first two blocks finished...

 Four of block #1 in a 6 inch size finished and is working on 4 more 10 inch size blocks

 This is block #2 which she finished 8 in the 6 inch size.

Here are my blocks made in Civil War repros.

including block #3, another 6 inch block, my favorite size :0) Next are 12 log cabin blocks, easy for December. Janie can handle that on her own. She is doing great!

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving Day with Mom. Worked Friday. Today we spent the afternoon with friends that live up in the pines, picking up greens for some Christmas decorating. Having way too much fun (and time) on Pinterest gleaning ideas for quilts and the holidays. With the weather turning cold, it's evening time, cuddled up in a quilt, my laptop and my sweeties watching football :0)

Enjoy your weekend!  Groetjes, Jo