Lemon Tree Tales

Drawing for Summer Quilt

This past weekend was another race event at Laguna Seca near Salinas and Monterey (Steinbeck country). In between working the radio at the hot pits for Steve, I took a little time to do this colored pencil illustration on fabric. It's pretty much done, but I may add a few more highlights and shadows here and there. It's destined to be the first window in the Summer quilt.

The Future is in the Fabric

Ahhh, now this is my favorite part of creating anything in my studio. It's that little sliver of time after you've decided what it is you'll be making and the materials you'll be using versus the actual moment of slicing into those beautiful fabrics. It's at this time when I like to sit back, narrow my eyes and gaze at the stacks of fabric, now just barely registering as anything other than pure color. Isn't that the best? If you close your eyes all the way a marvelous thing happens - you'll be able to peek into the future. Don't believe me? Try it right now. Close your eyes. Can you envision the summer quilt now? Five strips of gradated color against a background of white? ... I can see it and can't wait to be able to do more than just peek at it.

But before I start I can see a hint of a project from the sidelines. It's the mermaid asking me when she'll get here. Soon my sweet, soon.

5 Reasons I Sign Up for Swaps

1. Meet new quilters/artists
2. Try out new techniques
3. Push myself to design
4. Share my art with others
5. Receive beautiful artwork

Why do I sign up for swaps? Hmm, my first swap that I ever signed up for was Back-Tack III. It's one of the reasons that pushed me into finally starting my blog. I kept seeing how much fun everyone else was having with the second round and wanted to join in too. Funny how it took me almost two years before I actually jumped in to blogland. Right away it was great! My very first commenter was Judi of Art Dolls. Since then she's become the owner of Doll Street Dreamers and one of my sources of inspiration. I also met Kathy of Pink Chalk Studio through the Back-Tack swap. She made me the cutest little kitty. Of course since then she's grown in her creative life in leaps and bounds. Now she's a quilt designer and the proud owner of an online shop, Pink by post.

After that I found myself joining the second round of Doll Quilt Swap. It was just the excuse I needed to try out a technique from Jane Miller's book, French Braid Quilts. Plus I finally cut into some of my precious Liberty fabric. Then I received an invitation from Margaret to be part of her new 4 Seasons Quilt Swap but I didn't have time to participate in the first round. However I did sign up for 4SQS Winter. Wow, was that a major accomplishment for me! It was the first time that I designed a quilt. What can I say? I felt like James Brown always did, you know, "I feel good!" Sometimes it's the little things in life that make me happy.

Soon that was followed by 4SQS Spring, the Spring Fling Round Robin, and now the final round 4SQS Summer and the Miniature Booty Quilt Swap. Somewhere in the midst of the quilt swaps, I also made softies, pillows, and wristlets.

Created for swaps

1. BT3SOFTIES, 2. BT3Extras, 3. Redwork Swap pillow front, 4. Redwork Swap pillow back and goodies, 5. Finished Quilt, 6. Dream close up, 7. Wristlet Swap for Carrie, 8. Details of wristlets, 9. 4SQS Winter Quilt by Tami, 10. Spring Flower Bed quilt, 11. Fabric origami flowers - detail, 12. SpringFlingRR CENTER BLOCK, 13. Spring Fling RR Quilt - 1st border, 14. Spring RR final border, 15. SFRR Basket Quilt, 16. Spring Bento Box quilt

Received from Swaps

1. backtack 3 from kathy, 2. bt3kittymonogram, 3. Redwork Mama and her kitties, 4. Redwork flowers, 5. One kitty, 6. Two kitties, 7. Three kitties, 8. Wash Day Mini Quilt, 9. Wash Day Mini Quilt, 10. www.raeshadrz.blogspot.com, 11. 4SQS Winter quilt from Debbie B., 12. 4SQS Spring quilt, 13. Embroidered hyacinths, 14. Mini yo-yo flower center, 15. Chocolate and Cherries Quilt, 16. Citrus Heart Quilt

For me, swaps are excellent opportunities to try out new techniques that I find in various books - fabric origami, raw edge applique, traditional applique, redwork embroidery, hand quilting and free motion machine quilting. These are very small quilts - approximately 20" - so they also encourage experimentation with new ideas and designs. In addition I get to meet new quilters and artists with the added bonus of receiving beautiful works to display on my walls. Perhaps in the future I'll begin limiting how many I join, but as long as I have time I'll continue to participate in these swaps. Now I'm off to start cutting out my Summer quilt which is apropos as today is the first official day of summer. Happy Solstice!

Quilt Possibilities

Now that the Spring Fling Round Robin quilt is complete, I can concentrate on my two remaining swaps - Four Seasons Quilt Swap (4SQS) Summer and Miniature Booty Quilt Swap. I've had my partner information for the 4SQS for a while now but I'm still trying to figure out what I should do. I've trolled and lurked around their blog (we have one man signed up for this swap so I must be careful what gender I use) to discover what colors they like. But what should I do about the theme? Should I do what summer means to me or to them? They live far away. Whether that's the same country, continent or even hemisphere I won't divulge. It's a secret swap, remember?

When I'm unsure what design to do, I always begin by sketching thumbnails (small rough sketches). What came out were things that I tend to think of as being summer - sunflowers, roses, watermelon, bees and dragonflies. So I've narrowed it down to these possible designs that I've sketched out here:

I know which one that I'll go with for this quilt .. the other design can wait for the next one. Now comes my favorite part - choosing the colors and fabrics!

(Oops, I forgot to mention that the bottom quilt is inspired by the "Unfinished Business" quilt by Funquilts as well as the "Windows" class by Angela Jarecki that I recently took. The other blocks are traditional ones that have been placed in various sizes a la' Kaffe Fassett.)

Are you a quilter?

Michele of Quilting Gallery has created an amazing blogroll of quilt blogs at Quilting Bloggers. If you want to find quilters in your area then you can search by country, state or province. You may also search alphabetically or by blog name/web address. She has a mission to sign up 1000 blogs by the end of June. Those first 1000 that are signed up by June will be entered in a drawing for some quilting goodies. She needs a few more blogs so go and check it out!

SCCA Race Weekend at Reno-Fernley

This past weekend was Steve's first national race! It was at a little race track just outside of Reno in Fernley. (This isn't a picture from Reno because he's no longer considered a novice racer .. no more green 'N' for him.) He had a blast because the Reno-Fernley Raceway has a very long straight away. At the end of it are a few little S turns and the cars were still accelerating past those into the first major turn at speeds of 115 mph! Watching the cars speed by I kept being torn between excitement and rooting for Steve to go faster and the worry that he would be okay. He did have a few spins but luckily he was able to get back on the track without any damage each time. Of course my heart beats much faster when that happens.

It's funny to see the group of us SRF (Spec Racer Ford) wives watching at the start/finish line. If our husbands could see how much we 'ooh' and 'oh-no' and scream during the race they'd laugh. Little by little I'm starting to learn everyone's names and match them up with their husbands and cars. And the rest of the people involved with SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), the track workers, volunteers and announcers take their hobby very professionally. Overall they're an incredibly welcoming group of people and make this racing experience extremely enjoyable for both Steve and me.

On another note, Friday we saw about four military helicopters flying over the hills just north of the racetrack. We knew that this was near an airbase and didn't think anything of it. Unfortunately we later learned that two aircraft, an F18 and an F5 had crashed somewhere outside of Fallon, NV. The helicopters were on a search and rescue mission to find the ejected pilots. Sadly the F18 pilot didn't survive.

Miniature Booty Swap Round 2

Yes, the Quilting Pirate has begun taking sign-ups for the next go-round of this miniature quilt swap - Miniature Booty Swap Round 2. If you love to quilt and have a blog that's updated often through the month then consider going, no, make that running over to sign up. These little quilts are the perfect size to try out new patterns and ideas since they're so small and easy to handle. Why don't you join me and make a little quilt today? Hurry there's only 13 spots left! Update .. it looks like all the spots have been taken. I can't wait to find out who my partner will be.

A-tisket, a-tasket quilt is on its way home

This is my final contribution to the Spring Fling Round Robin. When I received this lovely top that was pieced by [Kathy (Humble Quilter) - center, Laura - 1st border and Nancy (With thread in hand) - 2nd border] I knew that it was too traditional to quilt by machine. So I opted to finish it with hand quilting. Yes, just one problem with that plan. I don't "know" how to do the proper hand quilting technique with little running stitches. I didn't think that I'd be able to learn it in time. Instead I approached it as if it were embroidery with each stitch made by inserting the needle up and down through the layers, stitch by stitch.

Here are some detail pictures of the quilting. It's mostly subtle because I used an ecru quilting cotton.

Many, many, many hours later I completed it with a striped binding and two hanging triangles. It was actually very soothing to do handwork. Usually I'm either cutting at the rotary mat or at the sewing machine. Other than sewing the binding to the back of quilts, I don't often do sewing by hand. I may try a long term quilt and sew it by hand.

This was my very first experience at a round robin. It was fantastic because I had to set aside my personal preferences and work with what I was given. It's challenging to do what's best for the design as opposed to your favorite techniques. But that's what made this such a growth to my creativity. If you've never tried participating in one, I highly recommend it.

Chocolate and Cherries Quilt has arrived

This gorgeous little quilt arrived in the mail all the way from England! I've been participating in my very first round robin, the Spring Fling Round Robin that was hosted by Margaret. Four people are involved in the creation of each quilt that is then sent to the lucky 5th person to keep.

Liz (Florence's Attic) of England made the center block that really set the tone for what this quilt would end up being. Isn't that pale pink Heather Ross fabric darling?

Luisa (De Ponto Em No) of Portugal decided to add all those adorable little squares in luscious shades of pink, rose, green and brown. Suddenly the quilt looked like a box of chocolate covered bonbons. My favorite are those four little cherry colored accent squares.

Kate (Kate's Quilting) of England took one look at it and decided that it should have little hand appliqued vines with colorful leaves. This really married all three components into one gorgeous little candy box.

Finally the quilt top arrived at Anne's (Quilting Bebbs) house in England where she promptly did an amazing job of machine quilting! Look at those little stipples in that heart! And the leaves motif in the checkerboard was a nod to the applique which was echo quilted. I'm just blown away by the creativity and workmanship that all four ladies put into this quilt. It is so sweet and rich that I had to call it "Chocolate and Cherries". Thank you!!!

If you enjoy quilting and have participated in quilt swaps in the past you may want to check out Margaret's Round Robin website. I believe that she's planning on hosting another one sometime this summer.