Twin Pretties

I was talking to my friend Sharon and mentioned that I was practicing my long arm quilting.  She asked if I would do some baby quilts she had made for twins.

So this is my first commissioned quilting job, yeah!

Last month I gave my hair stylist a quilt that I had been working on with her in mind.  The back was tula pink Parisville with the crazy hair styles, see previous May post.  She loved it.  I scanned her thank you card which was like quilter crack.  Had to share it.

Working on a baby boy quilt now for my cousin Julie, have a Septemberish timeline on it.  here is a preview....

I am hand quilting this one and am about 1/4 finished.  Better get crankin ;]

Hope you get to sew this weekend!

Aunti-out!

Sedona Arizona Inspiration!

Happy to be Home!  I just got back last night from a week in Flagstaff, AZ.  A successful business trip!  Now I need to get back to the real business of quilting ;]  Arrived in Flagstaff Sunday morning at 11am so I took a drive down to Sedona which took about an hour.  Must have been a cyclists convention or something cause there were a lot of people on the beautiful winding road to Sedona.  

I went to the Quilter's Store Sedona while I was there, course.  Bought some goodies and saw some really unique pieces made by a local quilter Mary Jardine.   I love how her embellishments jump right off the piece.  My photography skills don't do it justice, but you can get the idea.  These pieces are all for sale at the shop. 

She is also featured at http://www.jeromecoop.com/index.html

Here were some quilt inspiring statues I found in a shopping center, while looking for food!  

I ended up eating at Oaxaca...yum!

Here are some goodies I picked up at the Quilt Store.  I have never seen a threader for embroidery needles.  Kind of interesting.  I'll let you know how it works out.

Also this yo-yo style Kanzashi flower maker.  They had some lovely little Kanzashi samples there, I cant wait to try it out.

I worked so much all week that I didn't get to explore much of Flagstaff.  I did find out that the quilt store that was there had to close ;[ very sad.

I did find some interesting food though.

Native New Yorker  (funny website too)- I had Baked Penne and a Bacon Fried Sunday.  Yes, Don't knock it til you tried it!  Vanilla Ice Cream with ...wait for it... Chicken Fried Bacon.  I got it to go and they put it all in separate containers.  I crumbled the bacon (did i mention the bacon was chicken fried by the way) on the ice cream and drizzled a little maple syrup and oh wow.   My heart literally skipped a beat (could be the cholesterol).  It was phone home good.  I had to tell my hubby about it, being the bacon guy that he is.

Thurdsay night I went exploring in downtown and ended up at Criollo   The food was so good.  I had the seasonal fish, which i believe was Halibut.

seared seasonal fish ~ smoked tomato risotto, coconut-ginger sauce, Calabrian chili oil, cilantro-macadamia nut pesto

   The presentation was beautiful and I would have taken a picture but it disappeared before I thought of it... and by then it was half eaten so I thought, too bad soo sad!  Of all the choices on the list of places to eat the "sustainable" caught my eye.  I like companies that are conscious of their community and the environment.  I can't say that I only frequent them, but it makes me more likely to be a patron.  Good job Croillo!

Sorry I was so verbose this time.  I have so much to share and feel like I've been away alot.

Hope you were inspired to quilt (or eat) this weekend!

Love Aunti

Happy Village

My mom was visiting me for the last week.  I got to have her for Mother's Day and that was really special.  

We went to our guild challenge presentation on Monday night.   The challenge was called a history lesson and I was on the committee.  It was a huge success.  Take a look, mine's in there!  http://www.flying-geese.org/SlideShows/may_challenge.pdf  This was a judged showed and really a great success.  I won best Title Sacajawea's iPhone, and got some excellent feedback from the judge.  My mom, Jane St.Pierre, had a quilt in the show as well, its 54-40 or fight!

So during the week, I had a bad cold and lots of work so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with mom, but last night after I said lets make something new!  She looked at me with one eyebrow raised and said O...K?

I pulled out my Happy Village book I picked up when Karen Eckmeier presented at our guild.  I have been wanting to make one and I thought it would be fun and quick.  Well I was right!

We did this in about 3 hours, which is great considering we were loopy and tired.  The pieces are temporary glued in and there is tule over the top.  Now I'll machine quilt it with monopoly.  In the future we will probably listen to the recommendation that you don't use prints, but adding a touch of black helped calm our crazy little village down.  Very fun, I'll definitely do it again.

Well I'm off to Las Vegas.  Today is our 10th Anniversary!  10 years is Tin so my Tin Lizzie is very fitting.  We are going to a gun range in Vegas so maybe there is some tin or aluminum in there somewhere, lol.  I'm a horrible wife, not really ;]

I hope you all get a chance to sew this weekend!

Love Aunti Nicole

4 Patch Posie - Hawaiin Style

At Road to California this year, I picked up this beautiful  fabric from Beyond the Reef.  What to do, what to do?  

I was at an EZQ meeting last month and my friend Sharon did a 4-patch posie and convinced me that it was much easier than stack and whack.  

and she was right!  The blocks only took me a couple of hours.  The setting again a couple of hours.  

It so fun to see how different each block turns out.





I a making this one for my Aunt Debbie.  Will probably quilt it with lt blue and grey thread.

That's all for now!
Hope you get to sew this week!

Love
Aunti Nicole

Summertime - Living is Easy

 A few years ago I picked up some bright colorful fabric from Orange Quilt Bee.  I started making my own version of Turning 20 (it was late and I couldn't run to the store) and when I finished I realized I had a space in each of my blocks.  I added a little white square in each.  Then I got the hair brained idea to embroider in each of the squares.  That the part that took me so long.  It was fun though!

So here are a couple of the embroidery pieces. 

I machine quilted it on my Tin Lizzie, experimenting with different quilting designs.  Each block is a different pattern.  I am having trouble photographing it well, I want capture all the different patterns I did before I give the quilt away.

Yes, Im giving it away to my Hair Stylist Colleen.  She likes to wear black but she is always so sunny on the inside.  These bright colors make me think of her.  So on the back I found the perfect fabric, Tula Pink - Parisville.  I have this fabric for a while, but did not want to cut it up.  It must have been waiting for this quilt to be finished ;]   Incidentally, Colleen used to do stuff like this to her daughter's hair on crazy hair day.  She once told me about the time she made a birdcage out of her hair, with birds and all.  

Today I am helping out with the judging for our quilt guild challenge A History Lesson.  I am so looking forward to the reveal next Monday.  I'll share my favs with you next week.

Monday I leave for the week to Texas for a work conference and Friday night my mom is arriving to spend Mother's Day here.  Yeah!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you get a chance to sew this week!
Love Aunti Nic

From Girl and Dog to Moose and Squirrel

Big news!  Last week my niece Marisa  obtained her AKC Master Handler certification thru the AKC Junior Handler program at just 12 years of age. I understand she is the youngest person to accomplish this level of certification.  


Way to go Marisa and Dolly!
Photo by Lee St. Pierre, go Dad!


Read more...
http://www.pepperjackkennels.com/



So last week I was on a business trip in Newcastle, CA.    I stopped into Runs with Scissors quilt shop in Roseville, CA http://www.runswithscissorsquiltshop.com/ cool shop and very nice people.  I always try to pick up something I  don't have or have not seen before.


Here is what I found...

This panel reminded me of my friend Sandra Usher who has made two little black dress quilts.

Oh and remember these guys?  I grew up watching Rocky and Bullwinkle.  I had no idea what they were talking about until I watch the shows as an adult.  Very deep stuff, for a moose and squirrel.  So I picked up this 5 fat quarter pack.  Not sure what will become of it, possibly a bag for me!

I just finished quilting a gift for a friend.  I'm putting on the binding today so hopefully will post it tomorrow!

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you get to sew this weekend.

Love Aunti Nic

Tessellated Mint Chocolate

At my Flying Geese Quilt Guild I joined a UFO Challenge.  The challenge is to finish 5 quilts that were Unfinished prior to the challenge.  This is my first completed quilt.  I started it about 2 years ago.  It was my month to big a block in my EZQ group.  Each member made me a block and I put them together.  This is actually a one block quilt.  I chose mint chocolate for the theme.  I love the fabric choices and the quilt came out great.  I finally finished the quilting on my new Tin Lizzie.  I have a feeling a lot more UFO's are going to be completed here in the new future, challenge or no.

 Here is the block.  Its created by sewing and slashing and resewing.

For the backing fabric I used some fabric I got from Beyond the reef.  Kind of a beachy toile.

Some of my friends Donna and Pat created some simple philanthropy kits and passed them out at the last EZQ meeting.  Great idea.  I whipped this rail fence up in no time.  Its a pretty good sized lap quilt.

I'll be traveling next week to Sacramento.  So I've got this weekend to sew, do laundry and pack.

I hope you all get a chance to sew this week.

Aunti

Nicole