Spotlight : Bali Wedding Star and Bali Bedrunner

The Bali Wedding Star is one of my favorite Judy patterns. It's classic with the wedding ring, and equally modern, with the addition of the star at the major intersection. I have imagined so many variations on this quilt....

a blue and white rings with red stars
a black and white rings with hot turquoise stars
blue and green rings with purple stars
purple and green rings with golden stars
and the list keeps going on and on....

Here is my original version.....

and a few versions that I love from the internet.....

The traditional version.....with multiple fabrics...about 180 strips to be exact.

My personal favorite palette....using a super controlled fabric grouping (16 fabrics for the rings).

With a different border treatment...made up entirely of the scraps from the center. Again this one has matching rings, using only 8 fabrics.

Matching rings as well....

with the optional flying geese border and semi-controlled fabrics.

and a personal student favorite.....still in process....

Happy Quilting 

Feature Friday - Mariner's Compass

Here's my unquilted version of the Mariner's Compass -- the second in Judy's Technique of the Month Series. I am super excited to get this one back from the quilter -- it should be back in just a few weeks, and if I am lucky I'll get to see it on the machine while I am in Montana next month. I love the way this one turned out....and again I made some minor adjustments to my pattern -- I changed the sails to all go out, so that it glowed from behind, and I used a single fabric in my compass spikes because I had a hard time getting 3 of each color that gradiated the way I wanted, so I remade them as solid pieces. I love the  way that the print works in that position, it makes it dance!

And here are a few other samples of the same quilt.

This one has the queen extension, and light sails, and all of the border components.

This one is the basic one, with traditional sails (one light, one dark per segment) and the three piece compass points.

 This one was made by Lisa McCarthy at the same retreat that I was at.....she did three piece compass spikes, off set sails, and gorgeous custom quilting to showcase the pattern.

This one might be my favorite...it is by Tennessee Quilts, which is one of the Certified Shops, they used the same elements as me (matching sails, no border segments, and single fabric compass spikes), and I love it. She did a really nice job on the rings, alternating the black and whites. LOVE IT!!!

Another version of the queen size...but with the border values reversed.


If you are loving this quilt, and are in the Thousand Oaks area, join us on the first Saturday of the month for our ongoing class. Contact Cotton and Chocolate to get into the class!!!

To Do Tuesday

So, I mentioned I make lists, right? I readily admit that I am a list-aholic. And I am generally good with that.....except when the list gets overwhelming......such as this one.....

The Judy quilts I have started.....and should be working on.....but new ones keep coming out, and I must do them also.....these are cut, and partially sewn....

1. Amazon Star

2. Forever Yours

3. Meandering Star

4. Pepperdish

5. Witches Brew

6. Prairie Star

7. Crackers

8. Sea Urchin

9. Coxscomb

And this list of ones that I have picked the fabrics for, and prepped papers for.....and may have cut fabrics for......

1. Tumbleweeds

2. Tropical Sundance

3. Tropical Flowers

4. Feathered Star Queen

5. Feathered Star Tree Skirt

6. Flowers for my Wedding Ring

7. Art Deco

8. Cabin Fever

9. Bali Fever

10. Farmer's Star

11. Desert Sky

12. Sunflower Illusions

13. Bali Fever

14. Cattails in the Meadow

And the new ones out this month that I want to do...

1. Princess Tiara Wedding Ring

2. Cotton Candy Wedding Ring

3. Osprey's Nest

And the one that I am most looking forward to......Not yet available, but coming soon.....

Captain's Wheel

Perhaps I should sew just to get something off the list.....

Happy quilting!

Catherine

Because I can.....

I got home relatively early last night, and was in the mood for working in my sewing room.....but not for sewing......

So, I cut out a new project.....The lights

The darks.....

The goal....desert sky!

Happy Quilting.....

Catherine

Playing at Memory Lane

I got to teach at Memory Lane Quilt Shop in El Cajon this weekend, we worked the Glacier Star, and has a special guest!

These belonged to our special guest.....who came by on Saturday to work on laying out her Bali Bed Runner. I love her colors!

Here is a close up of the blocks!

Here's some of the color fun we had....working on Glacier Star....

Building color runs for Debra....

Building extension borders for Barbara.

And Donna joined us to work on her oriental version....all red and orange with tiny gold flecks, swirls, or dots!

These are looking great!

Super excited to see the homework ---- circling geese here we come!

Happy Quilting,

Cat

Feature Friday

So, I'm going to try to do a new feature here on the blog.....starting this week every Friday, I will feature some pics and information on a different pattern every week.....starting with Glacier Star.....

Here is my Glacier Star before quilting.....

I made some small changes to the pattern, and I am really happy with them......1) I adjusted the points on the New York Beauty to roll, 2) I changed the fabric in the lodestar (because I was 1/2 yard short on the focus fabric), 3) I separated fabric #9 into 2 fabrics (one for the feathered star points, and a second for the inner border.

I am super excited to see how this one will turn out once quilted, but that may take a while, as this one is in heavy teaching rotation at the moment.

Here are some other colorways that other Certified Instructors have done for this one.....looks like several of us made minor changes to the patterns to achieve the look we wanted. Love how easy it is to customize this pattern!!!

If you would like to join us and work on this quilt, I am currently teaching it at Memory Lane Quilt Shop in El Cajon, CA. There are classes this weekend, as well as In September and October. Just call the shop for details and they will take care of you.

Happy Quilting!!!

Cat

Moving on UP (by Jawbone)

So, I have been looking for a pedometer for a while now, in an effort to track how much walking I am getting in on a daily basis. My biggest issue is that I don't like the ones that hang around your neck, since they always get stuck in my hair, and the ones that clip on your waist interfere with my clothes -- specifically my goal to wear dresses more often (it seems dresses don't have waist bands, imagine that??). So when I stumbled across this one, I thought "that could be an option" and didn't think much more about it. And then it kept popping up -- in blogs, in pictures, in articles.....so I decided to really do some research and see if it would fit my needs.....

1. Is it accurate??? so far, so good....
2. Does it track steps or time, or both? Both -- plus sleep cycles, yes, sleep cycles. It knows when I sleep, for how long and whether it was light or deep sleep
3. Is the data easy to get to? -- yes, it is available via download to your iphone or android and then to your UP account
4.  Does it integrate with other apps for fitness tracking, etc? yes, it integrates with several of the popular free ones....yippee!!!!

And so, I bought one. It's actually more of a structural bracelet, I got the blue one, which is more turquoiseish. I originally wanted the navy or the purple, but both were on back order until September, and you know me, I'm impatient...So far, I have found out that I get more steps daily than I thought, and significantly less sleep than I thought....

Some other cool features.....
1. It charges and downloads data through a headphone connection.........
2. It is fairly inobtrusive.
3. it has a "power nap feature" -- where it calculates the perfect length of a power nap for you.
4. IT calculates resting and active periods and calories burned.
5. It has an inactivity feature -- where it vibrates if you stay in one place for too long. A little annoying in staff meetings, but useful in other places.

I'll keep you up to date on how I am liking it after a few more weeks of use.

p.s. -- no I am no paid to promote this product, I just bought one and have been a little surprised about how little I sleep....


Happy Quilting!!!!


Cat

Friday Funday

It's my favorite Friday of the month -- when I leave for a teaching day in Thousand Oaks at Cotton and Chocolate Quilt Shop. The best thing about this Friday, is it is the day before Glacier Star Class!!! And since we will be half way through with Glacier Star this month -- it is time to pick our next pattern!!!! Oh, the choices and options available.....

On a serious note, we survived the Long Beach Quilt Show -- we had a great time (and I had some fantastic help, thanks again, Tracy!), and met tons of people, and got some great leads on classes, workshops and guild presentations, and realistically sold a lot of fabric and patterns (which is great, because now I might be able to get into my garage). And I am STILL tired. 4 Solid days of being on your feet for 12+ hours a day, and going right back to work was maybe not the smartest idea.....but then it was fun, so why complain? I'm almost back to feeling normal, which is to say that I have finally had a good night sleep where I didn't wake up remembering something that I forgot to do or mail or call.....at least I remembered right???

I was just looking at the calendar and realized that it is only a few weeks until market -- 11 to be exact -- so the countdown has begun....I have about 8 weeks to get all 12 patterns proofed and photography completed to be ready for the big release. Super nervous and super excited at the same time -- I'm hoping to have some fun sneak peaks here weekly over the next few weeks, that is IF I can get myself organized....so if anyone has some organizing advice for me about how to make more hours in the day, let me know, I sure do need them lately. Also accepting applications for house cleaners, meal preparers and diet coke applicators.