I finished stitching In Full Bloom December 30, 2014 and I have patiently been waiting for the custom machine quilting to be completed by Jessica Jones Gamez. Turn around time for custom quilting is 6 months and sometimes it is hard to wait patiently. In Full Bloom was recently published by Sue Spargo, so I am now able to post a picture of my finished quilt. In Full Bloom was Sue Spargo's tenth BOM and this was my second Sue Spargo BOM. Quilt is 36" x 43 1/2".

In Full Bloom label

I finished stitching 2 of the 20 blocks I have planned for my Serendipity quilt. I made quite a few changes from the original pattern. I discovered some super tiny black buttons, so I decided the birds will have button eyes instead of french knots. I used the double cast on stitch for the watermelon seeds and I embellished the tail of the larger bird with some drizzle stitches.

February 2011, I traveled to Tucson to take a 3 day Bali Wedding Star class with Judy Niemeyer. The plan was to make a king size 116" by 116" quilt which required about 27 yards of Bali batiks for the top. I got a good start sewing the arcs and melons during the 3 day class. After returning home, I continued to sew arcs and melons but a remodeling of my sewing room forced me to pack up the Bali wedding star quilt. As happens so often when a projected gets packed away, it is hard to get started again which is what happened. Last week, I was looking for a new quilting project and I unpacked the Bali wedding star quilt. Again, as so often happens, I could not remember my organizational construction logic. What to do? Luckily, I found a Judy Niemeyer Club with certified instructor Kelly Grant which meets the first Tuesday of each month at Arizona Quilts.

Today, I attended the Judy Niemeyer Club and Kelly helped me to get sewn arcs and melon reorganized. I think I need 348 arcs and I have 124 arcs sewn so I still have a lot of arcs yet to sew. I did have a few blocks sewn together and some of the blocks I pinned together. This afternoon, I put the completed blocks on my design wall so I could take a picture.

The Girls is now quilted, bound and hanging on a wall, it always feels like quite an accomplishment to have another quilt totally finished. I selected the poodle, schnauzer and the golden retriever in honor of the breeds of dogs I have owned from Mixed Mutts, a machine embroidery pattern designed by Angie Stevenson. I refer to Katie and Molly as The Girls, so I decided to title my quilt, The Girls. Machine quilting was done by Jessica Jones Gamez. The quilt is 25 1/2" by 32 1/2".
You can see pictures of Katie and Molly my standard poodles plus pictures of my dearly departed dogs at Waiting at the Bridge.

I started another wool appliqué project. A few weeks ago, I saw Summertime Sampler, a wool appliqué quilt designed by Erica Kaprow. I was drawn by the bright colors and the whimsical nature of the designs. I was able to find other wool appliqué quilts designed by Erica Kaprow but the quilts all had different sized blocks. It was quite a challenge to determine a finished block size for my quilt and pick 20 blocks for my quilt. My blocks will finish to 8 1/4”.

Serendipity means the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.  I decided to name my quilt Serendipity because serendipity describes how I found and decided to stitch this quilt.

I have 2 of the blocks ready to stitch.

For the last few days, I have been making Beads of Courage bags. I finished 20 bags and have fabric cut for an additional 30 bags. Beads of Courage was developed by Jean Baruch while working on her PHD in Nursing at the University of Arizona. She piloted the program at Phoenix Children's Hospital in February 2003. Every year, Beads of Courage provides assistance to more than 60,000 sick children coping with serious and life-threatening illnesses, and their families in over 250 children's hospitals throughout the United States, and in six additional countries.

I will be donating all Beads of Courage bag to Phoenix Children's Hospital, in memory of Kendall, a granddaughter of a good friend.

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.