I am sharing this link from Vicki Conley. She has a list of Quilt Shows that are in New Mexico this month. You can follow this link for more info:

https://www.vicki-conley.com/?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=6567d5b3b56c283194327919&ss_email_id=6567f8e3462bf705f1a59deb&ss_campaign_name=New+Exhibitions&ss_campaign_sent_date=2023-11-30T02%3A52%3A40Z

Enjoy!

American Quilter’s Society – Quilt Parade Home

Enjoy the eye candy!

Saturday, May 6, 2023 was our annual studio tour of some of the members of our guild. Diane and I went together to view the homes and we had a wonderful time together. We had been talking about it for a few weeks and we thought that it would start at 9 am and had decided to meet at the first home then. Well, darling hubby dropped me off there at the appointed time and I saw Diane’s car sitting there. I went over and we talked about the time. Can you believe that two grown women, supposedly smart, didn’t notice that up at the top of the ticket, it said 10 am to 2 pm? And we were wondering why there were no other cars there waiting to go in. DUH!!!

Well, that gave us an hour to kill, so we decided to check out how far the other houses were from each other, as some were in Clovis and in Fresno. We figured that would kill some time as we didn’t want to be too early. We headed for Clovis in the southern part, figuring that would kill about 20 minutes. Ten minutes later, we were there. And we went to another home and found that one just fine. We headed to the next house as it was supposed to be 25 minutes away. Not so, about 10 minutes but we were in the wrong side of Sunnyside. We turned around and found our first stop, Nancy Christian, 10 minutes after 10.

Nancy Christian has a wonderful home and a studio I would love to have! It is upstairs that was converted from an attic to a gorgeous studio!!

We then stopped at D & J Sewing. I have no pictures of the shop as I forgot to take any, it’s a great shop full of wonderful fabrics and goodies and they have classes there almost every day!

Here is their website: https://www.djsew.com/.

Our next stop was at Barbara Pearson’s beautiful home. I didn’t get many pictures there as it was very busy but this is her long arm machine, I believe. Such a spacious area with lots of room to create.

We then saw Donna Chipperfield’s home! WOW! Spacious and yet full of beauty! And what a lovely view from her front window out in the country!

We then drove across town to Susan Schara where the guild’s stash is stored. We visited with her for a few moments and she graciously showed us how the Stash works. Sorry, no pictures.

Our next stop was at Teresa Orr’s home where her studio is located in the garage. Plenty of room for long arm and plenty of the vintage Singer machines and stash!

Then to Tracy Newkirk’s home. Her studio is in the front of the house with a lovely view. She also has her long arm there and an array of fabric, notions and collectibles.

Our final stop was Kiki’s Quilt Shop! We turned our ticket in to win a prize and also a free FQ!

We then topped it off with lunch and home!

Thank you to Diana Gardener, Teresa Orr and all the others who opened their homes to us!

I’ve added pictures of My Town.  I have a collection of iron-on embroidery pieces for a while and didn’t know what to do with them.  Well, I decided I paid for them, why not use them on this top?  So, I played around with placement with a fire truck, a dump truck and a little RV trailer.  There are close ups of all 3 in the temp album.  Next, I think I will add some dogs, cats, and some odd little UFOs to it.  Just having fun with it.  I will probably use my embroidery machine to add in some trees and plants and quilt myself.  

Quilts that I have finished over the years. This is mainly to document and keep track of what I have been working on as I do not keep most of the quilts that I make, they are mainly for donation and a few are gifts. These are in no particular order and I do not normally name my creations.

Annalee and latest 3-yard quilt.

Well, I started yesterday at Kiki’s cutting leftover fabric scraps into 3.5 x 5.5 inch bricks. And this is what I came up with. Only 6 more blocks to go. It’s called a Variety block with a 5.5 inch center and 6 blocks surrounding it with different fabric colors and patterns, completely scrappy. I think it will make a nice donation quilt for someone.

What are you working on?

 

Minke Blanket

Baby Blanket needs quilting

Little Houses needs applique

Snoopy Baby Blanket

Another baby quilt

I’ve been at retreat today, and the next couple of days and having fun visiting with my friends, but boy am I tired!!   I did manage to get a small, but overstuffed, shoebox full of 4.5 inch squares halfway empty but I swear I have more waiting in the wings to fill it back up.  I worked on getting a bunch of 4 patches together and plan to make it into a flimsy this week.  Also catching up on the blocks from my blog, Oh, My Stars!  Just way too many things on my plate but I’m determined to make headway with it.  Will post pictures later.

 I have a guild meeting on Thursday and hope to drop off a few kids’ quilts there.  Oh, and I do have a fling finally!  I took 2 of 3 boxes to class today and my friend took those to share with her sewing group, all kids or baby themed.  Don’t worry, I still have a box for myself here and another one on the way.  Just call me the Orphanage for Wayward Fabric.  

Time to put my feet up and rest for a bit.

This is how I feel at times:

Wow!  I never realized how many patterns I have accumulated over the years, and how many are duplicates.  Most of them are in page protectors or in file folders and now I am in the process of organizing them.  What a job!  I started off by buying a large wire mesh file organizer where all of my folders will reside.  I have a lot of folders that will hold the patterns in page protectors and am sorting through them.  What a job!  But once it is done, it will be worth it.  And here it is, sitting inside my closet next to the wall. Now, I can just open my closet and pull out the pattern that I want.

I also had a huge folder full of info, hints and techniques, a lot of which are very good but a lot of them were extras, so I cleaned it out and am donating it to the guild as a donation.  I’m sure someone will appreciate it.  I am putting like patterns in paper binders, such as patriotic, baby, etc. and those will reside in the wire organizer.  The loose patterns that I have printed out will go back in a box or thrown away.  

It feels really good to downsize and purge so my kids hopefully won’t have to do it later on.  I also cleaned out my bookcases and have about 30 books that I won’t ever use or don’t care for that will be donated.  Maybe after the auction, if they don’t go to a new home, I will put them on my blog to give away for the cost of postage.  Will let you know what happens.  

I also cleaned out a bunch of fabric scraps and UFOs that I no longer wish to work on and those will be donated also.

Back to cleaning out.

Oh, and here is my bookcase now:

And my closet all nice and organized.

Oh, those are bags of leftover batting and in the totes, that is fleece that I want to use but have no other place to put it. Right now the front hall and my bedroom look like the will-call section of a department store but hopefully by end of Thursday evening, they will all have found new homes. Maybe after the auction, the leftover books will be put on my blog to give away for the cost of postage.  Will let you know what happens.  

Time to go sew some more.

Guild Auction

Tonight was our guild’s auction where everyone brings gently used items and you bid on it by placing a ticket in a bag.  I flung a serger, an embroidery combo machine, 30 books, fabric, patterns and UFOs, and other goodies!  Guess What???  I didn’t come home with any of my own stuff.  So very happy!  I even brought a huge bag of leftover batting and that is gone!!  Woohoo!!

In fact, before the auction Joanie (guild president) asked me if I would be willing to donate the embroidery machine to an Afghanistan refugee who had that on her wish list.  I said yes, and I am truly happy that it went to someone who can really use and want it.  That really made my day-night to be able to help someone.  

I did come home with some fabric, not mine, as I put a ticket in a few bags, some really fun baby-kid fabric and a bunch of patterns.  I really wasn’t expecting or wanting to bring anything home, but hey, since my ticket was the only one in the bag, home they came.  I can use some of them and the other fabric I will gift it to someone else, along with some of the patterns.

I also turned over a QOV that will be given to a veteran at one of the homes along with some table runners.  Either way, my closet and my bins thank me for cleaning them out.  All in all, a very fun evening with good friends!

Signed,

Sleepy in Fresno.

And the cleaning continues! We live in a very dry area that has been affected by draught the past few years and so we have a pest problem. I keep the house clean but they still love to infiltrate our home, especially my sewing area. I have 2 dressers that they especially love to hide in and so since they are there, DH and I have decided to remove those dressers and put up shelving instead. Luckily, DD has a wire rack that was discarded by a store and it will fit in nicely. I also have a ton of rubbermaid-like products that should fit on the shelves nicely. Once we get it set up, I will post pictures.

I’ve been thinking for a while about rearranging my room again.  I had a tall wooden dresser and a smaller dresser next to my formica table where my machines reside and they are now out in the garage, courtesy of DH.  They have been replaced with wire shelving and plastic drawers.  They are nice dressers but it just wasn’t working for what I wanted plus the wire shelving makes it  more accessible and easy to find things, plus less dust.   The other stuff that needs to be corralled (that also is not used as much)  will probably go in the closet and I will move some of my small shoe boxes full of fabric to the wire shelves.  I’m liking the look already even with my table piled high!! 

The next to bottom shelf will be for my larger rulers, templates and cutting mats.  Not sure about the rest of the shelves yet, one at a time for right now.  Back to my table that overfloweth with stuff.

So, I decided to go ahead and put my threads, accessories and other items not used often on a couple of shelves in the closet and moved all of my shoeboxes full of scraps onto the wire rack. May as well have them right where I can see them and hopefully use. This is what my closet looked like before.

Here is the wire rack.

As you see, my patterns are all in one place and I can access them easily. Also, my machine tote fits right under it. I really like how it looks, even though my room may look a little crowded I can find my scraps easily and hopefully use them up. Of course in other containers around the room there are more scraps waiting in the wings.

I also made a couple of purchases this week. A Panasonic 360 degree cordless iron which I absolutely love!! It is so easy to use and lightweight. No more wrinkles from a cord following behind the iron! WONDERFUL investment!

And a new chair, leather, very comfy!! The old one had a sling back which was starting to become uncomfortable so I decided I was worth a new chair.

I love the new changes to my room and I really do not want to change it again, At least not for a while.

Well, back to my studio!

I came across this photo from about 4-5 years ago and thought I would share it with you. This is an applique quilt that I made for my DGS and it took 4 days of solid quilting plus a few weeks of applique to finish. It was a monster to make but it was worth to see Sam’s face! You look closely and you can see Sam in armor fighting the dragon.