December Quilts, Crafts and Stuff

December went by so fast!  Sadly, I have not been very diligent about blogging but I do have a lot of quilting, craft and travel news to share.

The first weekend in December, dad and I took a short trip to Big Bear Lake.  It was nice and cold and we had so much fun strolling around the village.  There was no snow so we didn't get to go sledding or tubing but luckily, I found a quilt store!  It is called Patchworks Quilt Shop and it is located in the same shopping center as K Mart.  I was so excited to find a very cute Santa pattern.  I wish I took a close-up photo of the Christmas tree ornaments.  It is decorated with spools of thread, measuring tape, etc.  But, they were nice to let me tape a couple photos of the store.

A couple weeks later, dad and I took an overnight trip to Palm Springs.  On the way there, we stopped at Busy Bee Quilt Shop in Calimesa.  

They have a great selection fabrics and kits.  They also have long arm machines which they rent out to customers who have taken their class.  This is Heather, the owner.

I did break my budget  and bought  this pattern

and I could not resist these flannel Yo Gabba Gabba fabrics. 

My 3 year old Godson is obsessed with YGG and I just had to make him a little quilt.  I did not put batting.  Just two pieces of flannel sewn right sides together and turned it inside out.  I did put a bright green rick rack on the top and bottom.  

That's all the creativity I put into this  project.  I thought about embroidering his name on it but I figured this kid will only let someone else take his YGG blankie away when hell freezes over.  

By the way, Busy Bee will be vending at Road to California.  Check them out.  They have great fabrics and kits.

It was a lot of fun window shopping around Downtown Palm Springs.

Look what I found in a store front window!!!  

Got.  To.  Have. This.

The clerk was very sweet to tell me where I can get myself my own lighted Eiffel Tower (Lowe's) and with the help of Customer Service, we scoured EACH and EVERY Lowe's store in Southern California for one.  I heart Lowes!!!

Despite the short weekend trips, I was able to complete a few blocks for my Abundance quilt.

I decided to outline the outermost layer of the turkey feathers in embroidery floss.  Here are the Before and After photos.  What do you think?

Before

After

Here's a close up.  Not a very good photo, I'm afraid.

Here's the wheelbarrow.

Sorry the photos aren't looking very sharp.  But I'm excited that I only have three more blocks to go!  Yey!  Now if I'd only control my crafter's ADD, I'd be done a lot sooner.  But nooooo...I had to dabble into other projects like this wool felt candle mat.

And here's my first completed candle mat project.  I've never made a candle mat before but it was fairly easy and forgiving.  No fabric to turn under or threads to hide.

I just wish I positioned Santa's head a little better because he looks like a floating head without a body.  Poor Santa!  

I enjoyed making this so much, I had to make 2 more.  It's so easy and fun. One goes to Lynn B for her birthday.  Now I'm addicted to wool felt projects.  It is actually sad that our local stores do not carry wool felt.  Thank goodness for the Internet!

Well, that's all for now.  Happy new year everyone and may 2013 bring more joy, abundance, friendships and blessings to all!

November was a blur!

It's December tomorrow!  I am starting to panic a little bit as my schedule is filling up fast!  I've got to finish the gift for my friendship group's gift exchange.  So, I'm going to have to put a couple of projects on hold till I get the gift done.  I have less than a week.  

Here are a few more blocks for my Abundance quilt.  I've been appliqueing a couple hours each night and developing a callous on the side of my middle finger.

Here's the cornucopia.

I'm not sure if I like this corn.  Some of the yellow kernels are melding into the background.  Dare I unstitch them and replace them with a darker yellow fabric?

Here's the pear.  I'm not too thrilled with it either.  I will have to see how the blocks look side by side and then decide if I will have to redo any of the blocks.

And here's the acorn swag.  I decided to use wool felt for the stems.  

I also want to share this photo of a fun, whimsical quilt made by Wendy for her friend Irene, in honor of her birthday.

Irene is from the UK but has lived in the US for a long time.  She likes tea, sewing, her dog Dexter and her cat Popcorn.  Irene is also famous for her soup parties.  Wendy and Sandy made this quilt in the style of Mary Lou Wiedman's story quilt and did a fantastic job.

I should have taken close ups of the different details of the quilt.  The cat Popcorn is made of popcorn fabric.  Very cute!  And the dog is actually a replica of a photograph of the actual dog.  I have never made a photo quilt like this before (save for a self portrait I did years ago) and would love to tackle something like this someday....as in maybe the year 2020 when I am caught up with my applique projects.

And in non quilt related news, dad is here visiting and we took a very short weekend trip recently to Santa Barbara, CA and to Simi Valley, CA.

Here's dad at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.  This is a replica of President Reagan's oval office during his tenure at the White House.

This is the Marine One helicopter which flew President Johnson.

And here we are boarding Air Force One.

Interestingly, I was telling one of my friends from the quilt guild about our recent visit to the Reagan Library and she told me that her husband ACTUALLY FLEW THIS PLANE!  Her husband was an air force pilot who had served under President Nixon.  That is very exciting!  We will have to visit the Nixon Library one of these days.

One our way to Santa Barbara, dad and I stopped at Roxanne's A Wish and A Dream in Carpenteria.  What a fun quilt store!

They have a great selection of fabric, embroidery stuff and gift items!  I would love to come back and take my time shopping.  If you visit their website, you will see a sample of the wonderful items they carry.

A Shopping Trip to Los Angeles

So far, January has been a very busy month partly because my computer crashed and I've had to reload all my programs and files.  I've got a lot of news to share but lets start with a trip to a Los Angeles quilt shop.

Dad went back to Asia and on the way to the airport, we made a quick stop to Sew Modern.  I've heard a lot about this store as it is where the LA Modern Guild meets monthly.

The store is beautiful, clean and spacious inside and has a "minimalist" look so it is very easy to shop and not get too overwhelmed.

Here is the sitting area for shoppers to browse books, patterns or visit with other quilters.

I met Lauren, the owner, and she is so warm and lovely.  

They were also having a great sale and I was able to purchase backing for one of my future quilts at 40% off!  Yey!  Now that I have the backing, I've got to get to work putting the quilt together.  I would really like to take some classes here but it is quite a drive from where I live.  I found a great article about Sew Modern here.

This quilt on the wall also caught my eye.  I had quite a chuckle because I recognized Marcel from the Bravo  TV show "Top Chef" (one of my fave reality shows!) and his penchant for adding foam to almost all his dishes.  The quilt is made by Alissa Wright as part of a series of quilts called "Reality Show Villains".  Here is an article (and better pictures) of Alissa's quilts.  Love it!

A few of the LA Modern Guild members and shoppers work in the entertainment industry so the store has a different (as in fun and creative) vibe!

I also wanted to share with you this beautiful Sashiko tote bag one of my friends (Carolyn Y.) received from her mother-in-law.  The handwork is just gorgeous.  Carolyn is a very lucky girl!

Welcome to the USA

Sadly, our vacation had to end.  After an early lunch in Richmond, we headed back to Seattle.  I had to take a few more photos of the fall foliage as we don't really have any in Southern California.

Can you identify this plant? 

 It is called Living Lantern or Chinese Lantern. The red lanterns are like paper in texture and there is a bright red fruit ot bulb inside. Makes you want to squeeze and pop it like those packaging bubbles.

Took a few more pictures while we were waiting to cross the border.

I wish the colors were more vibrant but it was very gray and we encountered very strong rain on the way back to Seattle.

We made it back to Seattle in good time so I squeezed in one last quilt store before going to the airport.  This time, we stopped at Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop in Woodinville.  There are a lot of wineries in Woodinville so this store carries a lot of wine themed fabrics.

Goodbye Pacific Northwest.  It's been fun.  Hopefully, I'll be back in another year or two.

Beautiful Victoria

Day 9:  Arrived Richmond,Canada and took the ferry to Victoria BC with dad and our family friend.  Beautiful 57 degree weather without a drop of rain.  The ferry ride took approximately 1.5 hours but we had to get in line (or in queue as the British and its commonwealth would say) and then disembark from the ferry so in all, it took about 2.5 hours.

We drove down to Government St. to browse the stores, shop for souveniers and get a bite to eat.  While having lunch at Murchee's I looked up the ceiling and thought what a great quilting pattern the ceiling tile would make so I took a photo of it.

After lunch, we walked outside and happened to see a street artist working on a couple of pictures with chalk on the sidewalk.  He was very nice and allowed me to take photos of them.

This first one is a mushroom which if someone stepped on, look like they are standing on top of it.   Pretty cool, eh?  I think he should have painted tulips so we could tip toe through the tulips.  :)

Here are a couple more of his artwork. 

There is a quilt shop on Victoria Island and it is called Satin Moon.  Of course, I had to check it out.

It is just right across the street from Chinatown and the shopkeeper, Sarah was very warm and accomodating.  I put a link to her blog becuase it is quirky and fun.  Here she is with one of her adorable Halloween projects.

And here are some photos of the shop.

They had quite a few mini art quilts on display as there is an art quilting group which meets at the store.

The one thing which disappointed me about my trip to Canada is that I did not find any Canadian or British or Australian quilting/patchwork magazines.  I was looking for "exotic" and foreign magazines just to get inspiration and really did not find any. 

Satin Moon did carry patterns from local quilt artists.

I took this photo from a floral shop.  Great idea, don't you think?

Not a lot of color in the trees and we didn't really have time to visit Butchart Gardens.  I will have to make it a point to return again and visit the gardens.

However, we did pass a pumpkin patch so here it is.

Day 10:  Cold and rainy.  Considering we have not really encountered strong rain till our 10th day on the trip is pretty lucky.  Here is the view from our host's kitchen.  It is gray and wet but at least there are purple, red and gold leaves to enjoy.

We had super delicious dimsum for lunch and went to the mall to stroll around.  We went to this HUGE 2 storied store called Daiso, which is a Japanese dollar store.  Everything in the store was $2.00 Canadian and there was soooo much to see it was overwhelming.  Unfortunately, they do not allow photography in the store so I can't show you all the fun stuff they have in the store.

(Photo from the Internet)

They have office supplies, kitchenware, food/snack items, decor items, toys, bento boxes, etc.  I would have bought a boatload of stuff but I don't want my suitcase to be overweight and so I resisted and will have to come back with a half empty suitcase next time so I can load up on cutesy Japanese stuff.

Here is a round billboard or advertisement for the Richmond Public Art program.  Since it is quilt related, I decided to post it.