What I've been working on...

Christmas presents and blankets for two charities....

My offering for a Secret Santa gift at the Ladies church Christmas party...our theme was snowmen.

I based the table square I made off this line drawing I found on Pinterest.

This is an embroidered tea towel with crochet trim that I made for our daughter for Christmas.  Her kitchen is turquoise and red.

Fleece and flannel baby blankets for the Tohono O'Odham Children's Home.

One of the fleece  blankets (lined with the plaid shirt flannel on the back) made for the Homeless Veterans. My church donated tons of clothes, shoes, jackets, etc and also other blankets, some made and some bought.

The baby blanket I crocheted for the Children's Home (my church also donated clothing, diapers, etc)

The quilt square for the Christmas party at the Tucson Quilter's Guild last night..it isn't lying flat, sorry...we did a secret exchange, and I came home with a cute one with an owl on it!  The squares were also voted on, but mine didn't come in in the top four, unfortunately.

Here are a couple of photos from last night's party too...we had AMAZING food!  It was a potluck and I ate till I was miserable!!!!

These are all the exchange squares, up on the wall so we could vote on them.  Number 18 came in with first place. Number 1 came in second place, and I can't remember 3rd & 4th places.  Number 15 is the one I came home with.

While I'm at it, here are a couple of pictures from our church Ladies Christmas party:

You can see our snowman theme...the table square I made that is in the first photo of this series was for our secret gift exchange.

These wonderful crocheted snowmen were on each table, and happened to be the gift I won in the exchange!  Note the cute snowman toilet paper too...we all got one.

Tucson Quilt Guild Meeting for November

Had a great meeting last Tuesday night!  Very soon I will be posting my most recent sewing creations so keep an eye open for that some time in the next three weeks!

Here is the Raffle Quilt that was on display.  It will be given away at the January Quilt Show. It was announced also that we had several winners at the Houston Quilt show from our guild!  Congratulations to our Guild members for their wins!

Renae Allen was our guest speaker about free-motion quilting.  Her presentation was very interesting. After she showed a slide presentation along with her talk, she shared some of her quilts.

This is Renae standing to the side on the right talking about the quilt.

Here she is speaking about this quilt.

This is a quilt pattern that I bought that I really like. Not Renae's...this pattern sale goes to Quilts for a Cause, which supports Cancer help in our local area.  Next month is the Christmas party!

Second Queen-sized Finish

I posted this quilt top two and a half years ago....see that post HERE.  (You can see however that I added additional bordering to it after that).  This quilt has been a long time in the making!  I made the first squares (about 9 of them) when we lived in Texas.  Then later, when we were in North Carolina, and I attended Quilt Bee with Mom in Suffolk, Va every month, I made the rest of the squares. Once we moved here to Tucson, I decided I wanted a center medallion, and I added the appliqued and embroidered parts of the top...when I was done, I took the photos of the top, and then put it in the closet while I made a quilt for my daughter, and worked on some other projects.  Six months ago, I decided I needed to get the top quilted, and I FINALLY finished yesterday!

The center medallion

 

Cathy Geier at Tucson Quilt Guild

At long last, another piece-fulness post! :-)  They are few and far between I know. I missed Quilt Guild in July because we were on the trip, then in August I didn't feel well.  It was great to be back last night.  Cathy Geier was the guest speaker, and oh, was she FUNNY!  Great presentation.  And look at these amazing landscape quilts!

Cathy's husband happened to be sitting on the edge of the stage.  he offered to move, but I told him it was ok. The one on the left is of Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, and the one on the right was inspired by a painting.

Here is Cathy during her presentation.

She loves themes that use arches. 

Another one using an arch.

 And then here's what I saw on stage when we first arrived!  Having just been to Monument Valley in July (and my header photo is one of my photos from that trip on A Colorful World) I was just blown away by this!  I will HAVE to do this at some time! :-)  I don't like the three panel idea.  I will do it in one piece, I think.  The photos just don't do it justice.  It was really gorgeous!!!

This is a close-up of one of her quilts.

And this is how it's done...though I have to admit, I'm not crazy about the use of a foundation-piecing method as much as she does.  I don't like to foundation-piece.  So, I will alter the method a bit for my own purposes.  I am planning a landscape quilt for my grandson soon.

 And a parting shot. :-)

Baby Quilt for Good Friends' First Grandchild

Some of our closest friends just became grandparents.  The baby, a boy named Walker, was born on June 3rd.  I wanted to make a baby quilt, and had a pre-printed fabric piece I decided to use.  But I also wanted to add some personal touches to the design:

I appliqued this duck on the top of the quilt, holding an embroidered blue flower.

A duck on either side, and Florida and banner saying "Its a Boy!"

Applique of the baby's name with blue embroidered flowers, and his birth date embroidered above.

This is the watercolor printed in the center of the piece.

On the back I appliqued this present with duck pulling the ribbon as a place to embroider my name, date made, and a "Welcome Baby."

Goldie Richmond's Museum-Bound Quilt Up Close

If you liked what I showed you of this quilt from its visit to the Quilt Guild meeting last month, you will love seeing it up close.  I know we did!  We were able to visit the quilt at Cactus Quilt shop on the corner of Oracle and Orange Grove in Tucson a few days ago.  It's headed to the Arizona History Museum eventually. This quilt was "found" after years of not knowing its whereabouts, and purchased for the museum. The "portholes" each depict an aspect of desert life, particularly of the Tohono O'Odham people on the reservation where Goldie had her trading post.

Top portion of the quilt.  Click to make larger.  Note also that the grape and floral "border" is not part of the quilt but is from one hanging behind it.

Lower portion of the quilt.

All the portholes were original creations, appliqued by hand by Goldie, and embellished with embroidery.  Notice the lariat extending from the rider in one square to the calf in the next.

Her quilts were all made from early-to-late-middle of the 20th century.

The flag of the Tohono O'Odham Nation. They were called Papago in her day, but the name means Tepary Bean People and had been given them by the Spaniards.  They changed back to their original name later.  Tohono O'Odham means "Desert People."

I loved how she created a "crowd" of people in this square.

This is the book written about Goldie, by Carolyn O'Bagy Davis.  I understand the quilt will be traveling with the author as she promotes the book, for the next two months.  It's a delightful read! Goldie made a number of this style quilt that she won ribbons with, and sold to her customers.  She did some Baltimore album quilts as well.

This quilt hangs in Cactus Quilt shop and is a kit that can be purchased to make a "Goldie-style" quilt like this.  I bought the kit, but think I would use muslin and feedsack material to make mine instead of these more modern fabrics.  It also wasn't as large as a bed-sized quilt, so I thought maybe I'd make several squares of my own design to add to it as well.

A wall-hanging in Cactus Quilt shop that would also work well as a square.

And of course, I would have to do one of the San Xavier Mission!

A HOT sun and cactus...and I think somebody likes cats. :-)