Sisters Souvenirs

When we were in Sisters, Oregon on Friday night- I saw some beautiful stained glass hangings in a store window. The store was closed, but I was hoping to go back on Saturday and see if they had something that I could hang in my kitchen window.

I have been looking for something to hang there for a few years.

Since, I wanted the glass, I decided not to buy any fabric as a souvenir,

but then these old nine patch blocks called to me.

They are beautiful colors and all hand sewn. I had to get them! And after much looking around town, I finally found the stained glass.

Robert was there at a booth selling his work, so I got to meet him!

I love it. We just need to hang it up!

Can you tell I love RED?

Our trip to the Sister's Quilt Show

Sisters was beautiful with the flowers hanging everywhere. Here is a closeup.
I like this picture because you can see that Sister's is surrounded by forest

There were also flower gardens on every corner.

I've always wanted to go to Sister's Oregon to the Outdoor Quilt show. This was the year we decided to do it. We had never been to Central Oregon, so we had a fun three days looking around. We enjoyed the beauty of Mt. Hood on our drive there.

Around every bend we would see it in a different scene.

We couldn't decide which one was our favorite.

It is so majestic!

Driving into Sisters you can see the "Three Sister's" peaks.

My favorite was this shot with the mountains and the barn.

My husband has found himself a place to "hang out" during the quilt show!

Really, he barely got to sit there. He walked around with me and took pictures.

This is one of the buildings and Sculptures in Sisters.
See the flag advertising the Quilt Show?

This is the quilt panel they made for the show.

It was sold out, but we found it framed on a building.

Here is the quilt store called "The Stitchin' Post".

They sponsor the quilt show each year.
Here I am on Friday night, in front of the Stitchin' Post

Here is the Stitchin Post on Saturday- the day of the show

The ladies from Gee's Bend were in front of the shop signing their book and Singing!

This is the way the streets looked.

Thousands of hanging quilts and thousands of people.

What a cute shop. I'm there on the corner in the green shirt.

Here are some of my favorite quilts.

There were so many and lots of art quilts, but my favorites tend to be simple and colorful.

How about this one for a reminder of a trip to Paris?
Two Christmas Quilts
They always grouped like-quilts together

and color coordinated them to the building they were hanging on.

I had to add an "Art Quilt".

Love the bears!

When we got to hot and tired we left and drove to Sun River

We ate lunch at the Lodge in their outdoor cafe

Bryce's Birthday

"Bryce's real birthday!"

Our baby is 23! Couldn't skip showing his cute picture with his cake.

.

Pinwheel Quilt Block Tutorial

I saw the cutest, bright PINWHEEL quilt on a blog called VanessaChristenson.com

My quilt group decided to each make 8 pinwheel blocks a month and trade them for 8 months.

There are 8 of us and we will each end up with 64 pinwheels!

We chose to use sherbet colored fabric.

On Vanessa's site, she makes each pinwheel separately, so I decided to do a Tutorial on the fastest way to make 8 pinwheel blocks, from the same fabric.

You could use 2 fat quarters or 1/3 of a yard of a colored fabric. You also need the same amount of a white fabric.

You would draw a 10" by 20" rectangle on the back of the white fabric. One 10 x 20 will make 4 blocks. Draw two if you are making 8 blocks. Then divide each piece into 8 five inch squares.
Next draw a diagonal line though the four squares. You will need to enlarge this to see my lines.

2. Pin the white fabric to the colored fabric, right sides together

3. Start sewing 1/4" from the drawn diagonal line. Sew on both sides of it. then turn and sew on the opposite diagonal line.

4.When you are finished sewing, cut the squares apart with a rotary cutter, on the lines you have drawn

5. Now cut on the diagonal line. Soon you will have 16 half square triangles sewn together

This is what one looks like. It's all sewn and is ready to press and trim

Iron it open, pressing the seam toward the colored triangle

Now turn it over and square it up using a 4 1/2 " ruler

Here are all the yellow ones squared up and ready to go.

Next lay them out like pinwheels to get ready to sew again.


An easy way to put them together is to chain sew them. First sew the two top squares together, then sew the two bottom squares together. Keep sewing until they are all sewn together.

Now cut them apart in twos. See how they are different. One is a top unit and one is a bottom unit.

Lay them out and press them. ( they will still be connected in the center) Press the seams toward the colored side. This will make both seams going opposite directions.

Fold them together and sew

Open up and press.

Now finish the rest. Look at how pretty they are.

Watch for pictures of all the cute blocks we will trade and finally the finished quilt!

Patriotic quilts

In February, my quilt group sponsored a quilt show to raise money for "American Hero Quilts". Sue Nebeker is in charge of a group who provide an American Hero Quilt for every injured soldier at the Madigan Army Hospital near Fort Lewis, WA. We wanted to help her make quilts and raise funds to finish and ship the ones she makes.

This is the picture that was in the local paper to advertise our show.

I had just finished two patriotic quilts that I donated to be raffled at the Quilt show.

The 1st is a "Stars and Bars" quilt

The 2nd is a Mystery quilt that I made in a church quilt group

I still have my flag quilt that I hang on the wall


I made this top years ago, when I first started quilting. I thought if I gave the other two quilts away- it would force me to get this one quilted by the forth of July!
Here it is, still unquilted - but very festive!

Maybe I will finish it by the next 4th of July!