I took a break from working on Folk-Tails, Sue Spargo's 2015 BOM, to stitch Bertie's Spring by Bonnie Sullivan. I added some embellishing stitches, notably the buttonhole scallops on the baby chick wings and bullion knots for the bird legs. I decided to eliminated the half square triangle sashing and border on Bonnie's pattern and I was really undecided on borders for the wool appliqué. I thought about designing a wool appliqué border but then I saw some linen fabric I purchased at the 2014 Houston Quilt Festival in my sewing room. There were 7 15" by 15" of beautiful 100% Italian linen. After some careful calculations, I determined I would have enough linen fabric to make a piano key linen border. Linen is more loosely woven than regular quilting cotton and tends to shift and fray easily so I starched each piece of linen with Mary Ellen's Best Press which made cutting the 1 1/2" strips much easier. After machine quilting, I will be giving the quilt to my daughter. The quilt is about 32" by 38".

About 3 weeks ago, Molly was looking out the living room windows and barking. Molly is on alert, it is a cul de sac EMERGENCY! Molly is getting more agitated. I get up to check out this cul de sac emergency. I don't see anyone walking on the sidewalk, I don't see any vehicles, I simply do not see anything which would cause Molly and Katie to be on hyper alert. Molly and Katie continue to look out the living room windows and barking. I go to look out the window again and this time I see the cul de sac emergency. It is a rabbit, a cute little cottontail rabbit.


I live very near the North Mountain Preserve but a rabbit in my cul de sac does not seem possible. The rabbit would have to exit the preserve and then hop about an eighth of a mile down Central Avenue to get to my cul de sac. It appears that the rabbit has taken up residence in my cul de sac which is definitely causing Molly and Katie extreme angst. Yesterday, I was able to get a few pictures of rabbit.

Rhonda, the rhinoceros, is now awaiting machine quilting with Jessica Jones Gamez. Rhonda was designed by Barbara Jones of bjdesigns. I almost had all the necessary fabrics and supplies in my stash, I only had to buy the background fabric. After machine quilted, Rhonda will hang over my daughter's bed. The top is approximately 29" by 42".

Arizona Centennial Kaleidoscope quilt is finished including the label and hanging sleeve. The kaleidoscope blocks were constructed using the Stack-n-Whack 45 degree Triangle tool designed by Bethany Reynolds and the Arizona Centennial fabric designed by Jason Yenter of In the Beginning fabric. The quilt is 29" by 41".



I inserted mini piping using a companion Arizona Centennial fabric which I also used for the back of the quilt.


I will be donating this quilt to Quilt for a Cause which auctions and sells handmade quilts and quilt patterns to support breast and gynecological cancer research. Since 2003, Quilt For a Cause has raised over $750,000 and donated 99% of the proceeds to Tucson area organizations in support of research, training and assistance for uninsured and underinsured women.

In January 2015, I attended Quilting at the Lake, a quilting retreat held in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Linda Hibbert of Silver Linings Originals, designed Strolling at Lake Havasu specifically for this class. Even though I have done a lot of paper piecing, Linda's paper piecing patterns are quite challenging. I enjoyed learning some of Linda's techniques for paper piecing. Jessica Jones Gamez did the gorgeous machine quilting. The top is about 16" by 36".


Close up of some of the machine quilting

Finally finished and delivered. I belong to Carol Doak's on-line Yahoo group, Carol generously designs blocks specifically for the on-line group. In 2007, I started making the free block designs in patriotic fabrics so I could donate a quilt to Quilts of Valor. I made 16 12" blocks, enough for one quilt but not 2. I received 8 more blocks and I was able to make 2 quilts. After the quilts were machine quilted, my sister, Lucie, had a relapse of cancer and after her death, the quilts got put into a drawer and forgotten. A few weeks ago, I discovered the quilts and took the time to bind both quilts. The quilts are 56" by 68". The Bernina Connection, my local quilt store, sponsors sewing days to support the Quilts of Valor project. Today I delivered the 2 quilts to the Bernina Connection so they can finally be sent to the Quilts of Valor Project.

Quilt top was finished in February. Machine quilting was finished March 10th. I finished sewing the binding the end of March. I embroidered the quilt label the beginning of April and today I took a picture of the quilt. 2 years ago, I purchased the Judy Niemeyer Starburst pattern at my guild's yearly tag sale and I actually started piecing the top. At some point, I stopped working on Starburst. In January, Marcie moved into a new home which has lovely blue walls and I became inspired to finish Starburst for Marcie's birthday. The quilt is 94" by 112" and I used Quilter's Dream wool batting.



While I had the quilt stand up in my living room, I took some pictures of large quilts which I had previously finished and check off another item off of my to do list.
I started collecting blue and yellow fabric in March 2007 after seeing Robin Strobel’s quilt Spring Fling in her book, Quilter’s Bounty. The quilt is made with a traditional kaleidoscope block. I drew the kaleidoscope block in Electric Quilt and paper pieced 144 7” blocks. Machine quilted by Jessica Jones Gamez. I finished the quilt in March 2013. Finished quilt is 104” by 104”.

I discovered a few quilts which did not have labels and decided I could not procrastinate any longer. In 2013, I had 2 linen hand embroidered table cloths machine quilted by Jessica Jones Gamez. I hand embroidered the linen table clothes in the late 1950s and it seemed rather sad to have these vintage tea cloth languishing unused in my linen closet. Fuchsia Cross stitch needed a label and hanging pocket while Purple Daisy only needed a label. It was rather nice to cross a few things off my to do list.






I then decided to hang 2 quilts and a cross stitch picture behind my bed. The cross stitch picture was hand embroidered by my sister, Lucie Protz, circa 1978 when she was living in Lake Jackson Texas.

Last week, I finished paper piecing all the Gambel quail, well almost finished. 10:30 pm last Thursday night, I realized I did not have enough of one batik to finish the male quail block. I need a strip 2" by 11". Luckily, my quilting buddy, Sandy had a small piece left from her kit and was kind enough to mail me the fabric I needed. Today I was able to finish the male quail block, piece the blocks together and add some borders. Although there were many tiny pieces, I actually found piecing the quail easier than I expected. The top is about 16 1/2" by 37". Tomorrow, I will be taking the quilt to Jessica Jones Gamez for machine quilting.

Introducing Emmie, an adorable miniature poodle born September 20, 2014. I drove to La Jolla California on February 6 to pick her up and she proved an excellent car rider on the long drive back to Phoenix on Saturday, February 7. Marcie, my daughter, is thrilled to have Emmie living with her. Emmie has the sweetest personalty, she loves Marcie and both are eagerly awaiting the start of training classes at Petsmart in a few weeks. Katie and Molly enjoy having Emmie come to my house for playtime and Molly has been teaching Emmie how to patrol the wall for lizards.