New Fabric In!

Lots of goodies came in yesterday!  Fat quarters and charm packs and jelly rolls and desert rolls and oh my they are beautiful.  We arrived home late and too tired to take pictures.  This morning I'm on the road again . . . for my allergy testing.  The doctor is in Palm Desert and that is 70 miles away.  When I get home and recover I promise to take pics and post them.  I might even take pics of the precious pink baby quilt I'm working on and post them too.      Stay tuned.

Allergies and Quilting in the Desert

It has been cool and windy here and today beats all I've ever seen in May. At noon it was raining sparsely and was 54. Yes - 54! I think it is up to 64 now with the wind still blowing. All I can say is thank God for global warming because without it we'd be freezing to death! This is the desert, isn't it.


On Tuesday I go for allergy testing - lots and lots of drops of stuff up and down my arms. In the meantime, for the last week I haven't been able to take any of the 3 prescription allergy drugs that I usually use and have for years. Can you say swollen face, crusty eyes, clogged nose, trouble breathing? Yep, all of the aforementioned and more. Of course she will probably tell me I'm allergic to sand, or dust, or maybe even cotton fabric and sewing machines. Whatever the allergies are I'll be happy to take shots for them because nothing else has worked. Plus, this is the worst spring ever for pollen. Even my son in Phoenix said he can't talk because the allergies have caused so much drainage into his throat that his voice is gone.

In the meantime, I've been sewing and playing with fabric. I need to take some pictures, but haven't yet. I made a cute apron and a fabric basket for my friendship group's brithday party. We call ourselves "Hot Needles" and every May we have a party and potluck to celebrate all of our birthdays. We also bring handmade gifts to exchange. We do the exchange by picking a number and choosing gifts in numerical order, being able to steal a previously chosen gift if you like it. It is always lots of fun. My gift was well received and exchanged a few times. What I received was a gorgeous set of 6 placemats with napkins. Plus, I received a special gift of a beaded bracelet of gold beads! I've wanted a beaded bracelet from this particular friend forever. I am cherishing this one.

Yesterday I made two little aprons for a friend's church's missionary group. They go to Peru every year and they take aprons to the ladies there. They report that the ladies cherish them and even bring them back to show to them year after year. I've also been working on a precious pink and mint green baby quilt for a little unborn princess. It is still not together yet, but coming along.

Sea Glass

This is one of my favorite quilts that I finished this year.  The color in the picture really isn't good.  It  isn't as pink as it looks in the picture. 

I made it for my sister and brother in law who live on the gulf coast of Florida.  They wanted a simple quilt in ocean colors to hang on the wall in their guest room.  When they saw it, they immediately decided it was too beautiful to go into the guest room and should go in a more conspicuous spot.  I used a pattern from an old Sewing Savy magazine and collected fabrics for several years before finally putting it all together.  A professional quilter did an awesome job of quilting it in a pattern that looks like water.  Click the picture to see a close up and you can see the totally appropriate quilting.

Be sure to view hundreds of beautiful quilts and their stories at Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival

Happy Friday!

Thought I'd start this new blog only about quilting.  My new Bernina 820 sewing computer has arrived!!!  I can't take a class on it until June 1, but I'm going to learn to use it before then.  I've cut some fabric strips and squares to work on charity projects while I get to know it.

Today I found another great blog, www.honeyrunquilters.blogspot.com and Carmen is having a great GIVEAWAY of a Moda jellyroll and charm pack of Tweet, Tweet.  I just love Moda precuts because they are so easy to work with and there are at least a million easy things you can do with them.  So get on over there and enter to win.

I have to get back to organizing my stuff so I can sew some more.