4 Patches

Who doesn't love a simple 4 patch? And a double 4 patch is double the fun!

I'm swapping with my friends Kat and Kevin next month when I go to Ohio. (I won't be seeing Kevin in Ohio, but he is still swapping with us)  I better get busy if I want to get all 200 of them made before then! These will finish at 4" and this will not be the setting . 

I generally don't piece lots of blocks at one time except in these circumstances. 

Oops.... 

 This is what goes on at home most evenings. There is a bed behind Porter but he likes the coolness of the floor sometimes. 

I'm hoping to try out my new 1 person tent soon!!

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend. 

I loved hearing and seeing your first quilts! So much fun!!

My First "Real" Quilt

I made a few quilts before taking a class and buying supplies, they mostly consisted of squares and 5/8 seams. My SIL was in Sisters and asked if I'd like to take a beginners class, so we did!

This was in 1993 and Jean Wells was teaching this particular class. I feel so fortunate to have learned from her! She walked us through how to use the basic tools and how to choose fabrics to make quilts that reflect you and what you like. 

My "focus" print was the floral and even back than I like the old fashioned look!

She would show us the blocks and how to assemble them and then we'd go home and our homework would be those blocks. I think it was a 6 or 8 week class. We drove every week during the Central Oregon winters!!

I wasn't able to figure out what the heck I did on the edge. It looks similar to a knife edge, but I know I didn't sew it together on that center portion.

I think I had a small green, wider floral, small green and wider floral, but apparently that wasn't working, so I have this huge seam in the back.

I machine quilted it too! Pretty brave for my first quilt!

It was fun to revisit this one!

We have a local place that delivers organic  produce boxes to my door! This is what I rec'd this week. You can swap out some items and I usually do. I'd rather have more veggies, than fruit. Do any of you have this option near you?

Marvelous Monday

I got a bit of sewing done over the weekend but it is my string quilt and won't share that until next week. 

I started to gather my quilts for next month's lecture. I would like to bring my newer quilts so will be changing up the lecture.  I thought while I was going through quilts I'd hang a few ones too. 

This springy/summery quilt was designed by Cheri Payne. 

We have this old tv stand that I use to store some quilts in. Once when my son's friend came home with him from college, he said "oh a TV" then he opened it and only said "quilts". He was obviously disappointed!! 

I'll be getting more organized this week.

Here are a few I will be hanging up around the house. 

I've picked this handquilting back up for a few nights. Feels good to be working on it again.

The last hike we went on in Zion was full of amazing flowers! I can't help but think that mother nature sure knows how to combine colors!

Those red paintbrush seem to be growing from the rock face!

Always pack your headlamp, because you'll never know how fast the sun will set!!

On May 29th we will be sharing our Spencer Museum Quilt (even if it doesn't have anything to do with the museum! LOL) 

May 31 we will be sharing our string quilts. 

3 swap quilts are in overseas transit. I'm crossing my fingers these last few will make it to their destination. So far on the linky party there are 73 links. I hope you've taken a peek! There are some beauties! Great job this year friends!!

Friday Fun!

As many of you know now if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram I went out of town for a quick getaway. 

We had a little time before needing to get to the airport so we stopped in here: 

 It is in a strip mall but was a really nice shop! I saw the latest Primitive Quilts magazine and spotted the charity article on the quilts for Paradise, CA. Jennifer did a really great job. My backpack was completely jammed but would love to see the article again and show my niece, since it mentions our trip to Paradise. I still think of many of the people we met and wonder how they are doing.

Because I do a lot of machine applique, my favorite thread for that is DMC and it is getting harder and harder to find. These were on the sale rack so I grabbed a couple in colors I knew I could use. The fabric are random finds for my stash. 

I did get inspired for a new small quilt and even have the name chosen- 50 Shades of Brown! You'll have to wait and see. I think I need to get back into my sewing room!

I won this on Jan Patek's blog! I happened to drop by and she was doing a giveaway. The envelope came while I was gone. In the past I have used triangles on a roll- I'm not sure what makes this brand any different, but they are great for accuracy and if you need to make a lot of the same 2 fabrics. 

If you are only interested in quilts you do not have to read any further. 

A friend and I share the same birthday and she asked if I wanted to go hiking at a couple of National Parks to celebrate.  

We met up in Las Vegas and drove to:

The elevation made hiking a bit challenging. 

Bryce Canyon in Utah! On arrival we did scenic stops from the top in anticipation of hiking to the bottom the next morning! I was so giddy!

 We got on the trail about 7:30AM

It was mind blowing, actually! So utterly beautiful!!

A few hours later we were on our way to:

Zion national park! 

 Our first stop was to see "secret" petroglyphs.  

The next morning we headed here on the first shuttle.

If you want to read more about it, you can HERE. 

Michelle was going up, but was going to wait for me at Scouts Landing, about 3/4

mile from the "end". 

Up, up, up with sheer drop offs. 

 I didn't go to the top. Here was a part of the trail I felt comfortable enough to take a photo.  Not as much fun to do this by yourself. It was still pretty exciting.
We hiked just about every trail in the park that was open. We were exhausted that evening!! We had about 38,000 steps on our fitbit!

I was enamored with the variety of cacti we saw!!

This little acrobat was eating leaves. Cracked me up!!

It was a whirlwind trip- left early Saturday morning and returned Tuesday evening. Definitely a memorable birthday!!

Most of the little quilts swapped are on the Linky Party HERE- wow! You all rose to the challenge!!

Check them out! There are 3 pages, so be sure to scroll through.

I hope you all made sure to say thank you to the person who sent your quilt. 

That is the least we can do! 

Have a terrific weekend!!