Week in review: dots, frickles, dads, tickles

Happy week. Dots: got a lot done on my spotty quilt
Frickles: found a great BBQ restaurant that serves fried pickles aka frickles. Also great breakfast as younger son will attest, battling his chicken fried steak. (The steak won.).  Dads: Went to visit family. We took "pumpkin" aka "princess" aka "sweet pea" on a road trip to northern AZ to see my Dad. So we both got Daddy time.  Tickles: playing with pumpkin / princess / sweet pea and reading the latest Skippyjohn Jones book was so much fun.

Dizzy. Spinning dots

I have started the spinny circling dots quilt, everyday best, and here is my proof. This one is going on the bed. We went and bought dotty sheets at Target to match. Yay! I wonder if I will have spe-dotted dreams?!

Promilicious

My youngest went to prom last week. In his words, it was Sooooo Awesome!!

I am not permitted to "tweet the deets" actually I am not allowed to even know the "deets" but here are some sooooo awesome pictures:

Prom attire has changed quite a bit from when I was a teen in the Awesome 80s. Remember these getups?

OOOh, yeah, lots of shiny taffeta, asymmetrical hemline, off the shoulder and a big poufy flower. ALL the ingredients for an awesome dress. I can almost hear "True" by Spandau Ballet, or Journey "Faithfully"

Queso, if you are in need of a diversion, google this: ghetto prom dress. or redneck prom dress. but don't be hatin' on the most awesome vision ever, the Hello Kitty prom dress:

2 words to describe this: sah-weet!

Wish I had an appropriate event, alls I'm sayin' Here me, honey? Bust out the top hat, tails and cane, dust off the ruffled shirt and we will go to town.

Deep thoughts about perfect paper pieced points

The Spiked Melon Class has been so much fun to teach! One session left, and we all have such different quilts in progress. I do love paper foundation piecing; the results are so fantastic. Perfect points rock. I have actually started the dotty one, too; that's how much I love paper piecing. Photos to follow; for some reason I can't mobile upload them to my blog.

HERE THEY ARE:

What should I ask to teach next schedule?? I am thinking Peppermint Twist, my original design Christmas quilt. hmmm.

I will ponder that on this rainy day, while I ponder why my feelings run so deep, and why life keeps trying to give me lemons even though it knows I just love lemonade. Keep the faith in whatever you're passionate about - I believe that you know what you are doing, and that it will all work out if you stay true to you.

Spring has sprung, and is launching us into summer.

I LOVE QUILTS

Can I just tell you how much I love quilting?? And teaching quilting. And shopping for quilting stuff. . . and reading about quilts . . . and watching an episode of Hoarding on TLC that featured a quilter who had shloads of fabric strewn about. Oh, my sewing room looks so tidy in comparison.

It was so nice teaching a class at Thimble Creek yesterday. I so enjoyed helping everyone with their fabrics, figuring out how to make their quilts work for them. I love it. I am teaching the "spiked melon" class again, based on Karen Stone's book and pattern. Here is my quilt:I can't wait to show you all the different versions in class, from Kim's miniature "fruit punch" batiks, to Christina's melange of happy and colorful florals and geometrics, to Pam's baby quilt in soft blues, greens and tans, to Cindy's wonderful mix of greens, rusty reds, golds in all types of fabric from batiks to 1800 reproductions. Marvelous.

Oh, and mine that I am making in class too, which is based on my lovely "ugly" fabric in gold, cheddar, brown, purple and black, paisley weirdness.

I am looking forward to session two on May 15 and our final session on May 22.

I also visited a few quilt stores this week as my work had me travelling from Sacramento to Newark and San Jose all last week, so might as well make the most of it, right? oh, I got the cutest pattern at this little store in Fremont. For a minature dracula. TDF. I love Halloween, too. And, let's see, some cute bird in a tree fabric from the fabulous folks at Quilter's Inn.

QUESO

I have this habit of sayin, "K, so . . " when I change topics, which when I say it, sounds like the mexican word for cheese, "Queso" which is pretty funny because I do love cheese. K so, I am going to use "Queso" whenever I introduce a new topic, as such:

Queso, my boyfriend and I are working on finding some great breakfast places. Easter we took the boys to Sandy's Home of 101 omelettes in Fairfield and the men all had "kitchen sink" omelettes. 6 eggs, all manner of crazy fillings. I went for the less major 3 egger with stuff, lotsa cheese and linguisa. The biscuits were awesome. I highly recommend.

Next up is a place called, "Lois the Pie Queen" in Oakland. We are going with the boys for Mother's Day. I can't wait. They are famous for chicken and waffles, and of course, pie. Lemon icebox pie. My younger son and I are crazy for lemon desserts. crazy, I tell ya. I will report on the grub after we check it out. I will present our greater bay area findings on breakfast joints here when I have something to report.

Queso, went to the movies with same younger son last night. Saw "The Losers" and I know it is based on a comic book and all, but it was pretty cheesy. (queso fits, right?) although the bad guy is kinda darkly hilarious and the character Jensen is quite buff and funny. I think this is a definite wait for dvd/netflix/on demand kind of flick.

Queso, I love baseball. BF does too. He is a Phillies fan, I am a Giants fan. So we really enjoyed going to the game last week! Especially since the Giants won! YAY!

Back to Quilting. . .

I am anxious to start a new/waiting project, so I am going to continue the paper piecing progress and work on a dotty one from Linda Jenkins and Becky Goldsmith's book, Quilts with a Spin. This one is called Everyday Best, and I have been collecting the fabrics for it for a couple of years, so I think it is ready to come out of its box and be sewn now. I have even precut about a squillion rectangles so I am ready to paper piece. I am only using dotted fabrics, so it should be quite cheery to go with the sunny weather. I think I may even make it big enough for the bed. we shall see.

And look at this version made by the wonderful quilter at redpepperquilts

I really shouldn't start on this one, though because my friend Kim and I are trying to finish 12 quilts this year. My first quilting year I made 34, so 12 should be doable, especially since we are talking about finishing, not start to finish, and we both have a lot of works in progress. I have a tough time getting my quilt tops to finished. I even have a hard time getting quilted quilts finished. that binding always taunts me so.

So, Kim has finished 3 and I have finished 1, but have 3 that just need binding, one needs to be quilted, one needs borders and then quilted, two that all the blocks are done and just needs to be pieced into rows, and about 5 more in various stages of over half way done.

Until next post, have some pie, and think about joining in on the 12 finished quilt bandwagon.

I am going to read some quilting blogs. Did I mention, I love reading about quilts??

HIATUS is OVER

Well, I have been on a hibernating hiatus long enough. Time to get back to bloggy land. I have not been idle. I have been lurking around the bloggernet, working on quilt projects and trying to create some order out of the chaos of my personal life. I will spare the details on the divorce, the lack of employment, downsizing my surroundings and possessions and INSTEAD focus on the wonderful details of a re-discovered me, a happy heart, a wonderfully romantic soul-mate, my recently landed awesome job, and a renewed creative spirit. Pictures and junk to follow.

For now, here is a picture of a little sewing tote I made in a class taught by the vivacious Pati.

I can't wait for Spring to actually be sprung here in NorCal. Feels more like Seattle lately with the rain and clouds.

Shop Hops!

South Bay Shop Hop was a lot of fun. Stores I have never been to before. I like the charm bracelet idea -- each store gave out a charm to add to a necklace or bracelet. Really cute. I will post a picture of the charms once I get them on a bracelet. Here are some pictures of the stores.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23532947@N03/sets/72157620549783357/

The weather was perfect for running all over the area and collecting charms. We ate fabulously, too and even drank a bit of spirits. MMMMOjitos on the beach in Capitoloa, it doesn't suck.

Finally got to check out Santana Row, in San Jose, which was a trip. Felt like Rodeo Drive, even saw a bright yellow Lamborghini. And shoes that cost more that one months rent on my first apartment, more than a plane ticket to Hawaii. yikes.

Also managed to work on the jellyfish quilt, in between shopping, eating, drinking and chatting, so hopefully I will have it done this week before the class. More pictures to follow.
Au Revoir

Peeps quilt

Peeps quilt, originally uploaded by kristin.jenny.

I got the Peeps quilt back from Quilter's Studio, where Lori did her usual lovely quilting job. I really love the swirls around the two peeps in the center. And, then, lucky me to have Tracy hand stitch the binding!! Woo Hoo!! Now I just need Easter to roll around again and I am all set.

Ryokan block 2

Ryokan block 2, originally uploaded by kristin.jenny.

Just so you don't get the idea that my life has been an endless stream of work, graduation parties, work, birthday parties,work and whipped cream games, I actually DID manage to sew last night. Yay. I made block 2 of the awesome Ryokan block of the month. I love those Cherrywood fabrics, and the Japanese Lecien, too. I love Thimble Creek!!

Whipped Cream Game

Whipped Cream Game, originally uploaded by kristin.jenny.

Kaity shows off her mad skills at whipped cream toss. 8 years of education put to good use.