Road to California

 We drove to Road to California together, just a 5 hour drive! 

On our way to the quilt show, we shopped at Cotton Gin, the cutest fabric store.  It's located in Redlands, California.

Here are some of the cute quilts they had on their wall.

Now, on to the Ontario Convention Center. Our favorite vendor was Minky Kim, and her creations are adorable, just like she is!

Minky Kim is the only vendor where we  spent our money at!

The next day, we went back to the quilt show to enjoy all their beautiful, breathtaking quilts.

This quilt won grand prize, it's mostly needle turn appliqué.

There were hundreds of quilts, these are a few of my favorites.

This quilt is incredible!  Even the frame is part of the quilt!!!

Then we got in the car to drive to M&L fabric store in Anaheim. It used to be a grocery store, but has been a fabric store for 60 years!   The fabric is end of bolt and goes on and on. It's Riley Blake and Robert Kaufman fabric for $3.98 a yard!!! You see how big this aisle is, there were 5 of these aisles with fabric on both sides.  We stocked up on backgrounds for our future quilts :)

This is what we bought $$$

We went to Paul's Place for a late lunch. They have the best onion rings I've ever had!  I ordered a Patty Melt, it's a hamburger patty with melted cheese and grilled onions, grilled on caraway seed bread. It was soooooo good!!! Not that healthy though....

The next day we drove home, but not before we stopped at one more quilt shop on the way home. Trish Tac Sew in Desert Springs.

I'd like to thank Nedra for taking all the photos ❤️❤️❤️

Woven Together block

 I belong to the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild and their first meeting in January is always a lot of fun because they have so much information for the new year. I didn't join the block of the month last year in the guild because I wasn't crazy about the block.  When I saw everyone's cute quilts, I was really sorry that I hadn't joined. Part of the fun of being in a block of the month, is sharing your blocks and especially sharing your finished quilt in January!  It was so much fun seeing everyone's interpretation of the quilt and the colors and prints that they used. 

This year's block of the month is titled "Choose Your Own Adventure". Elisabeth Hannafin, one of our guild members, is hosting the block of the month.  She gave such a wonderful presentation, and gave us ideas of three quilt layouts we can do, or make our own.

I chose a fat quarter bundle that I've been hoarding for the perfect project since 2011!!!  It's called Daisy Cottage, designed by Lori Holt. I think it's the second line she designed after Sew Cherry. Lots of pinks, yellows and grays.

I'm going to make two blocks each month, the same pattern but different fabric from the Daisy Cottage line.

This block is called "Woven Together" and it's designed by Sue Daley.

It will be fun to see everyone's progress throughout the year. Our big quilt reveal will be in January 2026!

Have a great week ❤️

Progress on my Quilted Jacket

I've been spending a lot of time on my quilted jacket.  It's very scrappy and it looks like the coat of many colors!  Everything I used in the jacket has a special meaning to me.

These are all the pattern pieces.  Two sleeves, two fronts, a back and a collar.

On top is the collar, I made it out of Ruby Star Society selvages, because I love those designers and their selvages are so cute! The two bottom pieces are the two front pieces.  I made some economy blocks and used an "orphan" Pineberry block.

All the center squares in the economy blocks are special to me. Dwight Schrute from "The Office" TV show.  That's not my favorite TV show, but my kids all love it!  The orange meat cans is fabric that I made for my grandson Bridger's scripture cover. The little cowboy is from a quilt that I made for our oldest grandchild Bridger when he was born, almost twenty years ago!  Next is Anne of Green Gables. Both of my parents are from Prince Edward Island and I spent most summers there as a child and teenager. There are more, but maybe I'll talk about them in another post.

Some American Jane squares, I have a small collection of that fabric that I've been hoarding for years!

This is the back of my jacket, it's all quilted.

I'm using this Art Gallery flannel for the lining.  At the bottom, I've added a strip of Ruby star fabric, including the selvage.  When I have the jacket on, I will turn up the cuff and it will show.

This is the other sleeve.  I love the Union Jack block.  It used to be Canada's flag until 1967 when Canada turned 100 years old. I had to draw that flag a lot in Elementary school and it was really difficult!

That's what I have done so far. My goal is to have the jacket finished by the middle of February, so I can wear it to Quiltcon which is in Phoenix. I hope I won't be embarrassed to wear it, lol!

Quilted Jacket

I'm going to make this pattern, there's a tutorial on Riley Blake you tube.  I watched it and all the seams are finished with binding.  I also like the collar.

I have wanted to make a quilted jacket for years. I thought it would be fun to make it scrappy and use up some of my orphan blocks. 

This beautiful red fabric were leftover from a quilt I made and gifted. I trimmed the pieces and sewed half square triangles and trimmed them again and made this!

My youngest son Sean is 31 years old and father of two. When he was 7 or 8, he shared his bedroom with my sewing room for a little while after our oldest daughter moved back home. He embroidered a baseball player, drew the picture and everything! He wanted to make it into a pillow but never did. I couldn't bear to get rid of it, so am going to use it on my jacket!

Here's some beautiful Ruby Star that was left over from a quilt, it's going to be a sleeve.

I had this Union Jack block left over from a mini Jumping Jacks pattern. I'm going to use it as the other sleeve.

I'm so excited about creating this jacket, I hope it doesn't look too crazy!

Have a great week ❤️

Village quilt pattern

 I joined a swap group using these little houses in Heather Ross fabric.  I have a small collection of her fabric that I've had for quite a few years, so I was very excited to join! 

Rusted Silo Studio on Instagram, is hosting the swap if you would like to join too! The deadline is March 31 which leaves lots of time for busy people! This "Village" pattern has been on my wish list for a while, so win win! If I remember correctly, there are 134 houses in this village. 

I'm so excited about this, it's right up my alley! Aren't these fabrics cute together?  I forgot to mention that the doors need to be fussy cut fabrics which I'm so happy about.

I'm fussy cutting the adorable little bees in this yellow fabric and using the rest for houses.

I only had a fat quarter of this little ballerina fabric and was able to get about 33 little ballerinas from it.

My friend told me about this swap and she makes the cutest quilts.  We are also swapping some of our house blocks with each other. I can hardly wait to show you my finished quilt which won't be complete until May at the earliest. 

Let me know if you join the swap :)

Reindeer Xing quilt

This quilt is Reindeer Xing by Lela Boutique. There are 13 reindeer I think, the middle one is Rudolph. See his red nose? 

Here's Rudolph. See the beautiful machine quilting?

I had the perfect label for this quilt, and see the gorgeous, velvety pinky?

The pattern showed lots of gray prints from the Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning fabric lines.  I chose to add a little more color in my quilt. It took forever to make the antlers, lol!

I collated fat quarters after Christmas when they were on sale.

This quilt is perfect for a queen size bed.

I made this quilt while I was on a four day quilt retreat before Halloween. It took me the full days to get it sewn together. I mass produced. I made all 26 antlers first, then created the deers' faces, then on to the half square triangles, etc. 

I'm thrilled that this quilt is finished, I've had it for about two years! 

Thanks for stopping by ❤️