Kept In Stitches

2020 Road to California

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January 28, 2020

**Boogie Brass Band**
Sharon Casey,
Bakersfield, CA

Greg and I spent a great day with our friend Nancy walking around the Ontario Convention Center at this year’s Road to California quilt show. Tiny pieces, vibrant colors, and incredible inspiration were all there! The quilt show had an art gallery feel, with uplighting and soft music (although, the aisles were very narrow for so many people!) Special exhibits and lots of vendors…we can’t wait for next year!

Valley Modern Quilt Guild: October Challenge

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November 3, 2019

I’ve taken over the duty of ‘ challenge coordinator’ with one of my guilds. I really enjoy the challenges because they encourage me to grow as a quilter and often times I’ll venture into new territory and find other creative opportunities. My first Challenge was an “alphabet challenge”. Each person participating drew a bead with a letter on it and was tasked to create a project using that letter as inspiration. It wasn’t until getting this blog post together that I realized I didn’t get a photo of my challenge piece. Stay tuned…the letter I drew was ‘W’ and I made a block with “wasabi”, an acid green Kona. I’ll post a photo when I get a chance to finish the piece. I’m looking forward to sharing all the creativity of my Guild peeps!

2019 Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA

October 21, 2019

Riffing on a Rail, 2
Jill Fisher, Iowa City, IA

It was a LOOOONNNNGGGG drive, but it was worth it for all the inspiration! I just wanted to share a sampling of what we saw…there were so many amazing quilts. Thanks to everyone for sharing your talents!

Ventura Art and Street Painting Festival

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September 7, 2019

Mermaids, gangster sharks, and Frida…what a great way to start the weekend! The weather in Ventura was perfect and who doesn’t like being that close to the beach. Unfortunately, we attended this event early in the day and we didn’t see the finished works of art. Some of the pieces we saw were pretty amazing…and just to think…they will be gone by the next morning! The chalk they use is real messy and I do love to make a mess 🙂

Rustic Sun with Jean Impey

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July 8, 2019

One of the greatest advantages of belonging to a quilt guild is being able to attend meetings, be inspired by others, and learn from special guests that the guild brings in. Often, the guests teach a class for interested members. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Jean Impey and take a Spider Web class with her before. This time she was teaching an improvisational block called Rustic Sun, and I jumped at the opportunity to spend the day with her and learn more about something that I love to do. Jean is an outstanding teacher and I look forward to her future projects.

Seven Sisters Quilt Show

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June 30, 2019

Our weekend adventures found us driving North to San Luis Obispo, CA and the annual Seven Sisters Quilt Show at the infamous Madonna Inn. This quilt show is a multi-guild regional quilt show that includes the Almond Country Quilt Guild, the Bear Valley Quilt Guild, the Central Coast Quilters, the Gold Coast Quilters, the SLO Quilters, and the Santa Maria Valley Quilt Guild. So much talent and creativity! We look forward to this show every year, and we are never disappointed. Just wanted to share a few photos that we found inspirational…

Square Glass
Janis Benedict
Big Bang
Kate Medvedoff
quilted by June Holister
Spring Cart Wheels
Melissa Biel
quilted by Barbara Burgos
Diamonds—A Gift of Love
Kelsey Parolini
quilted by Gwen Weeden
Minnie Mae’s Pickle Dish
Gini Griffin
quilted by Gwen Weeden
Wayward Transparency
Donn McKnight
Fussy Cut
Donn McKnight
Fussy Cut, detail
Cheerful Row
Debbie Peterson
quilted by Sally Inouye
Eye Candy Optical
Diane Pirman
You’ve Got Mail
Kathleen Jensen
quilted by Loretta Newman
Wheels Turn
Cheryl Zelus
Ringo Lake
Janice Minyard
Ringo Lake, detail
Southwest Sunset
Jeannie Carmichael
Scrappy Zig Zag
Kristina Tingstrom
Paper Plates
Kim Schorer
quilted by Sally Inouye
Through the Looking Glass
Jamie Voss
Quilted by Sally Inouye
Octopus and Bass
Jeanette Inouye
As the Color Wheel Turns
Sally Inouye
Target Practice
Sara Kelly
Jack’s Chain
Linda Lange

Hoffman Fabrics Tour

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June 15, 2019

Ventura Modern Quilt Guild, Valley Modern Quilt Guild, and Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild combined forces to invade the Hoffman Fabrics offices in Mission Viejo, California. The fabulous Jean Impey shared the history of Hoffman, explained how batiks were made, and took us on a tour of the facility. The day was filled with fabric, friends, and inspiration. On the way home, we had to stop off at M & L Fabrics, of course! Thank you to everyone for an incredible day!

2019 Quilt Shops of the Central Coast

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June 3, 2019

The Cotton Ball

We left early Saturday morning for our weekend adventure, visiting the Central California Coast Quilt Shops on this year’s annual quilt run. We covered about 200 miles and visited all 10 shops. There were 2 new shops on the run this year and so much fabric just calling my name. I made it a point to make a purchase at each of the shops. I really want to see our brick-and-mortar stores stay in existence. I’ll share more about my purchases in an upcoming post of a new project that I’m dying to get started on. We spent the night in San Simeon and were greeted the following morning by a large group of Zebras. It was spectacular…Maybe I need to do a black and white quilt?

Is that bread I smell?

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May 1, 2019

I love making bread and I’ve been doing it for many years. I’ve always baked it on a cookie sheet and it worked just fine.

About 20 years ago I won a bread stone at a Pampered Chef party and I tried to use it, but wasn’t too impressed. It was just another heavy thing to store in the baking closet.

A couple of years ago Greg gave me bread cloche for my birthday. I loved it because it was red and beyond that I really wasn’t sure what a cloche was all about. I decided it was the perfect day to try it out…and who doesn’t like the smell of bread baking? It was the BEST bread I’ve ever made!

Splash Challenge

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April 25, 2019

I was excited to see the Kaufman Kona color of the year, Splash. The colors in past years hasn’t done much for me…but, I have to admit that ‘Highlight’ kind of grew on me. A couple of shops are hosting a small quilt challenge for their upcoming shop hop. The objective was to use Pantone’s color of the year, Living Coral, or Kaufman Kona Splash to make a 24 inch quilt. Sounded like fun…so, here’s my tribute to Splash.

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