Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy over at Park City Girl has set up this fun quilt festival which is running from October 9-16.  I participated in the Spring Festival in April, and didn't want to miss out on the fun with this one too.

Here's the little quilt I'm showing today:

 

But I'd like to start at the beginning with a story about my sister Trisha and I.  We both share the love of quilting...I believe it all started with a quilt kit I made for her many years ago:

 

She must have enjoyed it because she started quilting too and even jumped right into her own quilt business. 

Eventually she got burned out on making quilts as a business and wanted to enjoy the art of quilting on her own terms.

 

Trisha and I in 2004

One year we found some time to get together in WA (she lives in WA and I'm in CA) to work on a project.  And I believe we've been able to get together one way or another every year since.  Sometimes we've been able to get a project done or mostly done, other times we've gone on shop-hops or worked on our Dear Jane blocks or gone to Quilt Shows together.

Our first "sister quilts"- Friendship Star

We started our blogs at the same time last year and have enjoyed this world of blogging together.

I cherish her friendship and the love of quilting that we share.  We're able to learn from each other and have fun collaborating on projects.

Five years ago we wanted to make a small quilt for our parent's anniversary.  At the same time we were working on our Dear Jane blocks (and we still are!).  Somehow in one week's time were went from having the idea of making this little Dear Jane wall hanging, to having the little quilt that we both worked on (she in WA and I in CA) delivered to our parents for their anniversary. 

Both of us made blocks for the quilt in coordinating fabrics.  I sent my blocks to her, she put them together into the quilt, quilted and bound it, and sent it in the mail to our parents.  It was an amazing accomplishment with us being in different states to get all that done in such a short time.  And we had such fun doing it.

 

13 is a lucky number for our family because of our parents, so we took the 13 blocks from the 13th column in the Dear Jane Quilt and made this little quilt for our Mom and Dad.

Five years later now, they just celebrated the 45th wedding anniversary!

We were pretty gung-ho about getting our Dear Jane quilts done back then.  We need to re-commit ourselves once again.  Someday we'll both have amazing Dear Jane quilts that will hold many wonderful memories of working on them together.

Trisha and I a year ago

What I've Been Up To

I've been making a quilt top with these fabrics...



I've been shopping and buying these fabrics for quilts...

And I purchased this book so I can make a couple quilts with the jelly rolls that I have piling up (I bought another roll today because they were on sale)!



And I've been working on a card for the card group I'm in.

As things are made and given away, I'll be posting pictures, stay tuned!

...also amandajean was so kind and had a retrospective giveaway and my name was chosen from a comment I made on her 4th of July birthday post. What a surprise! I'm feeling lucky lately! She's sending me one of these cute layered pincushions!

just playin around (photo meme)

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
The Questions:
What is your first name? - Tina
What is your favorite food? - vegetables
What high school did you go to? - el camino real
What is your favorite color? - red
Who is your celebrity crush? - Jack (don't really have one)
Favorite drink? - root beer
Dream vacation? - hawaii
Favorite dessert? - ice cream
What you want to be when you grow up? - loved
What do you love most in life? - family
One Word to describe you. - mom
Your flickr name. my pieces of me

Show and Tell

Thanks Diane for tagging me today. What a fun project, it's taken me all day, doing a little bit each time I've been home from the days activities. Here we go with the show and tell...

1. Kitchen sink...amazing, no dishes!

2. Refrigerator...a mess inside and out.

3. Toilet...and a glimpse of my valentine mini Dear Jane.

4. Laundry...I must put in a little tip here. My new dryer never worked very good, which was so disappointing! It took me forever to get through a load of laundry. Luckily my washer went out and I had to call a repairman. I had him look at my dryer. The lint was backing up into the dryer and we found out that the vent that goes out to the outside was soooo clogged. We almost had a fire! Now my laundry gets done in record time! So go check your vent and make sure it's not clogged with lint!

5. What the kids are doing...

One is playing video games...

One is eating some cereal...

And one is getting off the bus...

6. Favorite room...It's new as of this year, I have my own dedicated sewing space and a place for my laptop! As you can see the doors are open to my fabric cabinet...the kids were picking fabric for the stuffed balls I made for them.

7. My closet...don't you love all those books piled high? I've got to get to them...they are genealogy books from my grandma who passed away!

8. Favorite shoes...Red!

9. Self portrait. First I tried to take my own picture with my arm outstretched...what a joke, but I do like my hair in the back! Then I realized I have a timer on my camera, so here I am sitting up straight and tall at my sewing machine.

10. Dream vacation...really anywhere for more than 2 days with just my husband and no kids!

The Conner Posse tag your it...it's your turn for the show and tell!