"Leaves Changing to What?"

This was a quilt I worked on recently. It was huge and I was in a big time crunch. I did the machine quilting in one day. The quilter wanted to take it with her on a trip to work on the binding.

Don't you love this beautiful collection of batiks? The woman who pieced this said she made it from a kit. That's how I would have done it. I don't think I could have coordinated the colors so beautifully on my own! To take a picture of the quilt, I hung it over a balcony in my home. And I still couldn't get all of it in the picture!

But who do you think had to get in the shot? Yes, the Purse Dog of course!Now let's look at the leaves on this quilt. The woman who made it fused the leaves on and I embellished them for her.

I used a lovely variegated thread throughout.
Thread of choice? Signature Variegated Cotton in Tie Dye. Remember I only use the threads my longarm machine likes!

As I quilted the leaves of this quilt I was reminded of something my kids said to me when they were little. "Leaves changing to what?" I was visiting Washington DC with my sister. It was the fall of 1993. The fall season was beautiful in Washington DC. I had some free time one afternoon and told my kids on the phone, "Today, Mommy's going to drive around and take pictures of the leaves changing." They asked...

"Leaves changing to what?"

You see, my kids were raised in Orange County, California. The land of palm trees and beaches. Land of Disneyland and orange groves. (ok, there aren't many of those left anymore!) They didn't know that leaves changed color! Now my kids are all grown up. How I miss those times when they were little and asked me funny questions!

Now to change the subject a bit....

Remember the "Montana" quilt I wrote about in my last blog post? Well here it is in a local quilt show held last weekend.

Didn't win any ribbons but is sure is cute, isn't it?

And as I walked around the quilt show I stopped at this quilt and thought it looked familiar. Why?

Because I quilted it! I know this sounds awful but I quilt so many I honestly can't keep track of all of them.

Here's my name on the sign. I went, "Oh yeah, I quilted that!" More and more the quilt shows are recognizing the machine quilter. Years ago it wasn't like that at all.

I've been quilting for almost 9 years and the older I get, I'm finding it harder and harder to remember all the quilts!

Now get back to work, Vivian!

I'm Not Desperate and I'm Not a Housewife.

...instead I am an Exhausted Quilter!!!

What have I been doing to become an exhausted quilter? Working on a customer's quilt to be entered in The Road to California quilt show.

Such an honor to be asked to quilt it! But it was so different than any other quilt I had done before. Let me share some pictures with you...(I can only show you a few hints). Maybe you'll get to see it at Road. I'll keep you posted.

(front views)

(back views)

And about Desperate Housewives...three years ago Daughter #2 worked on one of that show's first episodes. (Sorry, it's another show I don't watch, unless my daughter is on it) She played the friend of the character Danielle Van de Kamp. My daughter worked on the show before it even aired. Everyone on the set, from crew to actors, were keeping their fingers crossed the show would make it. My daughter was in a scene with a little-known actress named Eva Longoria. She said she was very tiny and very beautiful. It has been on for a number of years and has won numerous awards. Who knew it would be such a popular show?!!

Just goes to show you... you never know where life will take you.

(right: "friends" of Danielle)

(right: Daughter #1 went with Daughter #2 one day to hang out on set. They film the show at Universal Studios and during a break my two silly girls went over to the Psycho house to look for Norman Bates' mother.)

Learning from talented people.

On the last two quilts I worked on I was following a free-motion technique from Suzanne Earley, author of "Meandering Magic." I ordered my books directly from her website and asked her to autograph them. You know me, always looking for the quilting celebrities. ;-)

I got to meet Suzanne at MQS and she's super nice. She won a ribbon for her "Peppermint Ice Cream" quilt.

I enjoyed the meandering magic technique very much. Here's the first quilt I tried it on. It was a beautiful, huge collection of batiks. Required lots of hours and lots of thread. I got lots of practice on this king size beauty!

I love what I do!

You gotta love thread!

Working at the Machine Quilters Showcase in the Cranberry Quiltworks booth, I learned that you gotta love thread. We sold soooooooo much Permacore thread. Of course we sold other brands of thread as well, and patterns and other longarm machine quilting supplies....but mostly Permacore thread. And the names of the colors are not just white and brown and green. There are names like Eggshell, Cocolet, Hacienda, Snomoon, Dark Myrtle and Mother Goose. Mother Goose? Yes, Mother Goose...one of the most popular selling! (In case you don't know, it's an off-white color!)

It was hard work! As you can see by the pictures it was lots of work setting up, selling and then taking down and packing up again to go back to California.

In our booth we also sold Threaded Pear products, which is Gina Halladay and her friend Stephanie's other business. They design patterns for quick quilts...quilts that can be "done in an afternoon or two". And they also design cute apron patterns.

Pictured are Derryl Hill (the technician for Cranberry) and Gina Halladay advertising aprons. Cute, huh?

Here's a picture of another beautiful award-winning quilt from the show for you to enjoy. It won first place in the "Whole Cloth Traditional" category, by Lynn McCartney.

The Constant Quilter

I never did see the film "The Constant Gardener." What does the guy do? Garden constantly? That's what the name would imply. So then I must be the "Constant Quilter" because that's what I do. Not enough hours in the day.

Some of the quilts I work on make me so happy. Others I can't wait to get them done and out of my house. Must be the colors or the artistic freedom I get from working on them. Who knows? Posted are some favorites.

This is a fleece quilt I made for my mother who loves sunflowers. I went to visit her in Oregon recently and discovered that it has now become her dog's favorite. So I bought some more fleece with dog footprints and will make one for the dog. Then my mom can enjoy her's once again!

Next is a pretty wallhanging that was done kinda like a cathedral window or a varation of it. It was small and unique. The customer won a ribbon in the Orange County Fair with it. Too bad she didn't just leave the quilt here at my house! I love it! I was sad to see this one go.

And the last one was a design called "Friendship Crossing." I loved the colors and enjoyed quilting it very much. I was happy with the motif I put in the plain blocks.

Now I need to grab a quick snack and quilt on!