Tag Archives: SFVQA

Upcoming speakers at my guild

2020-2021 SFVQA Opportunity Quilt

The speaker for my next guild meeting is Laura Wasilowski “Art Quilts: The Musical”. This is a members only meeting. It’s open to two of our local sister guilds. The meeting is this coming Monday, 1/11/2021. If this interests you our current membership for half the year (Jan – May) is $20 + $20 for opportunity tickets, for a total of $40.

Some upcoming speakers are:

February 8: Pam Holland “My Life Journals in Textiles”

March 8: Becky McDaniel “Appliqué Journey”

April 12: Kathy McNeil “Quilting for Health and Happiness”

These may or may not be open to the public so if any of these are interesting to you, I recommend purchasing a mid year membership from the guild’s website, sfvqa.net. We often have workshops with our speakers as well. Those are $40/workshop and not all of the speakers are having workshops this year. I do not know yet which are having workshops and which are not right now as that seems to be a fluid thing this year. Again, we offer first opportunities to our members and if the workshop is not filled, open it to the public. As you can expect, the Alex Anderson workshop filled up really quick and left only 2 slots available to the public .

What are your guilds doing during these tumultuous times?

~Melanie

More quilt show pictures

 Karen Van Den Brink
Who was the featured artist of the show.

A week has gone by and I never got a chance to show more pictures from the show.  Karen Van Den Brink was the featured artist and I love the quilt above.  It is reverse applique and very simply quilted.  If you could see, it’s just straight lines diagonally across the quilt from corner to corner of each solid block of fabric. I told her how I liked her choice to quilt it simply and she laughed saying that she quilted it herself on her domestic which is why it’s so simply quilted.  I thought it was a design choice and thought the simplicity really made the complexity of the blocks stand out.  I liked it!

 

We will Never Be Royals
Dottie Cincis

 

The Shaman
Marty Boles

Golden Rain
Victoria Crayne

There were so many beautiful quilts at the show and I am extremely grateful to be part of a guild with the talent that was exhibited at the show.  I’ve taken note of my favorite quilters and I’m hoping to track down the ones who still give classes.  Some of them do periodically at the quilt shops around here.  I personally love the applique and the hand quilting.  One day I plan to start working on practicing hand applique and quilting on smaller projects.  I generally make big quilts and hand quilting a big quilt takes too much time.  I do not enjoy that process.  I’m already hand quilting Raining Cats and Dogs and I barely touch that 1-2 times per month.  I hope I can get to it more.  Now that basketball season is over for my Clippers I’m going to have to find an evening each week to spend some time quilting that project.

On the personal side: The hubby is back from the Philippines and we’re having friends and family come over today to welcome him back.  I hope to get some crafting done before they arrive.  I’m still having trouble staying motivated and working on things.  Knitting is easy because it’s small and travel ready.  I’ve picked up a copy of Love at first Stitch by Tilly Walnes.  It’s all about garment sewing for the beginning garment sewer.  I’m familiar with my sewing machine and quilting but have not ever done anything on garment sewing.  I’m intrigued by the #memademay movement and I’m inspired to start on the path of dressmaking.  I’ve struggled to find the right fit and the right look at commercial stores and pretty much only wear t-shirts and yoga pants on a day to day.  I hate shopping.  If you don’t know about Me Made May it’s all about wearing something you’ve created every day in May.  It’s meant to encourage crafters to use their handmade items more regularly and incorporate it into their daily wear.  I don’t have much of anything to actually wear so I’m just watching from the sidelines.  It’s a wonderful concept and I’m looking forward to trying out garment sewing.

The problem with starting is that I’ve got a backlog of other projects that I haven’t finished up yet.  To be honest, it’s like a weight around my neck. I don’t want to start anything new but I can’t find the motivation to finish anything.  I have an idea of a new quilting project and I want to get started.  I’ve had the book The Civil War Diary Quilt forever and I’ve always wanted to work through the book and make each block.  But I haven’t for one reason or another.  I woke up one morning with an idea to just start with some colors in mind.  I’ve been gathering the items I need and have finally gotten the background fabric I’ve decided on.  I was getting stuck on this and I decided not to get a lot of fabric.  I decided to just do one block at a time and see where this takes me.  There are 121 blocks in the book.  I do not know if I’ll make all of them.  But I’ll start with one and I hope to get at least 1 done every week.  That’s about all I’ve got for right now.  This is very different than how I normally work.  Normally I have a pattern or a plan and I follow it to the bitter end.  This is the first time I feel I’m winging it.  I’m kind of excited about this.

Those other unfinished projects… they’re going to have to remain unfinished.  I need to get my sewjo back and I hope to get that by starting this new project.  If you’ve worked on the Civil War Diary Quilt, any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

~Happy Crafting!

~Melanie

 

 

 

SFVQA – Quilting in the Valley Quilt Show! Recap

I had a fabulous time.  Everyone was mostly pleasant and a blast.  There were a handful of grumpies but that’s normal so we can ignore them.  I was able to help the ladies run the credit card app and I traveled between locations to be on hand for any troubles.  They were pleased with my presence and I’m glad to have been of assistance.

Sorry I wasn’t able to post pictures last night.  One of the issues we ran across was that an older tablet was not connecting to the internet properly so I left my phone with that location so they would be able to use the credit card app on it.  I was not able to take pictures on Saturday.  But today, Sunday, I knew exactly which pictures I wanted.  Here are some pics of the quilts I enjoyed.  I didn’t get all the details (like whether it was machine appliqued, a pattern from someone else, or anything like that) but I am including the main quilt maker’s name.

Flower Pot #4
Lois Christianson

“Rainmaker”
Sue Rasmussen

 

“At Home in the Garden”
by Becky Kokkinos

“Fun and Fancy”
Zena Thorpe

“Guess who’s coming to Dinner?”
Victoria Crayne

“Leftover Stars”
Francine Landau

I’ll post more pictures tomorrow.

~Happy quilting

~Melanie

Quilting in the Valley quilt show!

I’m heading off to our guild’s quilt show this weekend.  I’m supposed to be helping the ladies with taking credit card payments.  🙂  I’m not sure what to expect but hopefully, all will go well.

I’ll post pictures on Instagram.  @thousandneedles

I plan to post pictures here later this evening.

Valley Modern Quilt Guild

IMG_8248

 

The first meeting of the Valley Modern Quilt Guild met at my LQS, Quilt Emporium, in Woodland Hills.  I was almost able to leave the shop without bringing fabric home with me.  But my quote of the evening was “It’s linen, not fabric!”

The meeting was more informational letting local quilters know of the new guild and finding people interested in joining.  Many of the people I saw were already members of the SFVQA like me.  But there were a people who were not members of any of the local guilds and was interested in getting more information.  Now I’m a member of 3 guilds – San Fernando Valley Quilt Association which I joined late last year and have enjoyed attending meetings and various workshops.  I’m a member of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild.  I joined earlier this year but with meetings in Santa Monica, it is sometimes hard to get to from the San Fernando Valley.  I’ve only attended about 3 meetings since joining.  I’m really happy that there is now the Valley Modern Quilt Guild.  I’ve already signed up for the next sew in!

~Happy Quilting!

Melanie

New Member Tea Party 2015

I’m a new member of my local guild and I attended a New Member Tea Party on Sunday.  Actually I joined late last year sometime or maybe early this year.  I can’t remember but this is the first New Member Tea Party they’ve had since I joined so I’m technically still a new member.  I met a bunch of guild sisters and met some fellow newbies.  It was fun and some things became clear as various board and committee members spoke about the different things the guild does.  I’ve put my name on some lists and I hope that I will find something that I would like to get more involved in.

There is also a new guild coming to town.  The Modern Quilt Guild is getting a new chapter started here in the Valley.  I’m a member of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild and while the drive to Santa Monica/West LA isn’t horrendous, It is 30 minutes on the 405.  Well, it was 30 minutes from my old house.  It will probably be an hour now.  I haven’t made the trek since we’ve moved and I’m not looking forward to it.  But, the Valley chapter is going to have their first meeting at my favorite LQS, Quilt Emporium!  That’s just 10 minutes from me now and 2 minutes from my office so I’m super excited about that group as well.  The first meeting is next Monday.

Anyway, I got loot – the membership committee went to local quilt shops and sewing machine shops who donated items for goodie bags for all the new members!

LOOT!!! 9/20/2015

LOOT!!!
9/20/2015

Those papers at the top are gift certificates!  I think there are 2 for local shops and there are 2 for sewing machine shops.  🙂   And I got fabric!

 

I’m excited about the new guilds.  There really are two traditional guilds (not that they all do traditional quilting).  There is the day guild and the night guild.  And from what I hear there are a lot of people who are members of both.  Now the Valley Modern Quilt Guild that is starting up. I’m a member of the night guild since I cannot attend a lot of the day guild’s activities.

I’m so grateful to have these guilds near me to be a member of.

Happy quilting!

~Melanie

Stay at home Saturday!

Today is a quiet Saturday at home.  We had pancakes for breakfast because I had the urge for homemade pancakes made from scratch.  They turned out exceptionally well this morning.  It has been awhile since I’ve had this urge.  I think its because we’re finally settling in.  Just a thought. We do not have plans for the day.  The kids will be with their aunt at the mall and just spending some QT together before she goes back to Italy.  The hubby will be doing his thing and is planning something for later this evening.  I’m not yet sure if its just a guy thing or if the wives are going too.  I’m sure I’ll find out once plans are settled.

On the quilty front, I’ve got some news – I got the backing for my secret project!  I was pleasantly surprised to receive it last night instead of next week.  I bought more of the fabric that I couldn’t use for the secret project but thought it would be a great backing.  Because of my last experience I purchased the fabric from Amazon, instead of fabric.com.  Apparently, the fabric still came from fabric.com.  I’m not sure if it said that anywhere (I wasn’t paying attention) but that’s where it came from!  And it only took 4 days to get to me!  I ordered it on Monday, the 16th and received if Friday, the 20th!  Amazing, I guess ordering from Amazon provides you with a better experience than ordering directly from fabric.com.  I even got a nice letter hoping that I had a good experience with this order.  Kind of made me think they read my not so nice review last week.  I don’t think so – but it was very coincidental.  Because it’s a secret, I can’t post a picture of it. 🙁

I joined a local guild!  I went to the first meeting a couple of weeks ago.  I hope they have a lot of sew-ins and mini retreats like my guild in Fremont.  There were a lot of people so I’m excited about the possibilities.  I also want to join the LA Modern Quilt Guild.  I don’t consider myself a modern quilter.  But it will be nice to not be the youngest person in the room!  The problem is that their meetings are all the way in the Pico area the first Monday evening of each month.  That means a good 1 hour(++) in traffic for those of you not familiar with LA traffic.  It’s not technically far (probably 15-20 miles from me).  And once you get past the traffic, I’m concerned about parking.  There are a lot of concerns so as much as I want to join, I haven’t been able to move past those two items to get me to a meeting.  Maybe next month. 🙂

Since I do not have pictures of actually made things or pretty fabric.  I’ll post pictures of my fruit trees in our backyard.  I’ve been seeing so many pictures online of snow covered outdoor furniture and icy mailboxes… here’s how we fare in Sunny Southern Cali today.  Not to make you all jealous or anything – but to give you hope that spring is on its way for y’all.

 

Grapefruit 2/21/15

Grapefruit
2/21/15

First up, is our grapefruit tree.  It’s laden with ripe/ripening fruit and is ready to be picked.

Lemon Tree 2/21/15

Lemon Tree
2/21/15

Next is the lemon tree.  We’ve been enjoying the citrus smell of the flowers from this tree for the past few weeks.  The great thing about a lemon tree in Southern California is that we get lemons pretty much all year long.  But there are some times in the year where there are a lot more than usual.  That will probably be the case in a few months and I will need to make something with it.  I actually already picked all of the ripe lemons within reach last week so the picture doesn’t really do it justice.  But there are a lot more ripe ones higher up and I will need a ladder or a fruit picker to retrieve them.

Orange Tree 2/21/15

Orange Tree
2/21/15

Similar to the lemon tree, our orange tree has had really delicious smelling flowers the last few weeks.  The flowers are now mostly gone and we are starting to see the little green oranges coming out.  There are a few early oranges that are on the tree and I’ll be picking them soon to try them out.  I love fresh squeezed orange juice.  At our old house we had a Valencia orange tree and it ripened in January.  So every Saturday in January/February I would juice a bucket-full of them for the week.  It was SO good.  These are not Valencia oranges and I’m not sure when they will ripen.  I’ll just have to periodically pick one to try it out.  ;0

Fig Tree 2/21/15

Fig Tree
2/21/15

The fig tree is still bare. But the green is starting to come out.  I’m not sure if it’s the leaves or buds or flowers.  This is my first fig tree and I’m not sure how it’s cycle goes.  This one will be ripe around August/September.

This is how they will look when they ripen…

Figs from Fig Tree August 2014

  Figs from Fig Tree
August 2014

Ripening Figs in Fig Tree July/August 2014

Ripening Figs in Fig Tree
July/August 2014

I never knew how sticky figs are just by picking them from the tree.  And a milky substance comes out when you do so.  That substance looks milky but is VERY sticky. ;0

Mystery Tree 2/21/15

Mystery Tree
2/21/15

I’m not sure what this tree is.  When the leaves were on I thought it was a plum tree because it looked very similar to the plum tree at my parents’ home.  But there hasn’t been any fruit during the entire time we’ve been here. Granted, it’s only been since July of last year but that is enough time for a fruit tree to have produced something.  Unless its a fruit tree that produces early in the year like apricot which is April, May, June.  Anyway, I didn’t think that it was a fruit tree and could possibly be just a big tree.  However…

flower on mystery tree 2/21/15

flower on mystery tree
2/21/15

I found this flower.  I think it’s a fruit tree… only time will tell what kind of fruit tree it is.

We’ve got a guava and an apple tree too but I couldn’t get good pictures.  Maybe next time.

Happy Saturday, it was a bit overcast this morning but the sun is out now and I may spend some time outdoors.

🙂
Melanie