HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Do You Believe in Make Believe?

If I make believe that it was only yesterday that I last blogged and just continue on as if a whole year hasn't gone by, perhaps nobody will notice. Hmmmm........let's just give it a try. LOL!

Just to capsulize a tiny bit of my 2011 doin's, I will post a few pictures taken thru the year and before you know it, 2012 will be upon us and hopefully I will stay more up to date with blogging.

In July I took a trip with my son and his family to Catalina Island and we all had a grand time sightseeing, hiking, exploring, playing on the beach and enjoying a few of the island restaurants.

Even Dorothy, Scott's little princess Chihuahua enjoyed the boat trip over and back.

Another summertime favorite of mine is enjoying many of the amazing entertainers at the Hollywood Bowl.

The Hollywood Bowl is the largest natural outdoor amphitheater in the UnitedStates. The Bowl is a friendly sociable place where Southern Californians gather topicnic and enjoy outstanding music under the stars.

Throughout the summer the LA Phil presents the best in jazz, classical, Broadway, and world music, featuring artists that range from Sarah Chang to Diana Krall, John Williams to Pet ShopBoys, and Nancy Wilson to Arcade Fire.The Bowl is the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Both the food and the ambiance at The Rooftop Grill are simply amazing!

Not to be forgotten on my list of fun summer activities is the free outdoor concerts in the park right across the street! I've been enjoying these concerts in the park every summer for about 20 years!

There's nothing like special time with girlfriends, is there?

Here we are at some of our monthly happy hour get togethers.

While driving along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu to enjoy my 9-11 birthday dinner with friends, we saw this amazing display of patriotism on the campus of Pepperdine University.

In October I travelled to PIQF with 3 good friends for a fabulous quilt show and days of fun and frolic while visiting Cambria and Hearst Castle on the return trip home

For the past three years the creative residents of Cambria have put their talents to work to create over 200 stuffed and wired fantastical and real-life creatures to decorate their little village by the sea. Up and down Main Street and along Moonstone Drive we found creatures and lifelike humans that fool you into thinking you are not alone in your meandering through town.

Hearst Castle is a National Historic Mansion located on the Central Coast of California It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate Willian Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California.

Since that time it has been maintained as a state historic park where the estate, and its considerable collection of art and antiques, is open for public tours. Despite its location far from any urban center, the site attracts about one million visitors per year.

Hearst formally named the estate "La Cuesta Encantada" ("The Enchanted Hill"), but usually called it "the ranch".

The castle and grounds are also sometimes referred to as "San Simeon" without distinguishing between the Hearst property and the adjacent unincorporated area of the same name

It's been at least 30 years since the last time I visited Hearst Castle, and it was so nice to visit this beautiful place once again.

In November I participated in a 30's Scrappy Basket Swap.
Love these precious little blocks!

This year I participated in a Shoebox Swap with a group of quilting friends.

I received such a wonderful shoebox full of quilty goodies from my secret santa, complete with a handmade pincushion and potholders! I love my shoebox -- thank you Santa :)

A Magical Christmas Day with my wonderful family....................

I think they liked their Christmas present, don't you?

See you next year!

I'm SO Excited!!! Guess where I'm going tomorrow???

I'm off to a fabulous quilt show:
 The Road To California
 at the Ontario Convention Center.
I don't think I've missed a year since I was bitten by the quilting bug in 1995

 I'm really looking forward to meeting up with
 many old quilting friends while there. 

Be back here tomorrow with oodles of pictures to share and lots of quilt show chatter.  

Goodnight and Pieceful Dreams,

Childhood Memories

Dad gave me this today - it's one of my childhood favorites!  It was originally my Mom's and I have such fond memories of hours and hours spent solving this puzzle, over and over and over again. The little papers with the different solutions are still intact.  Oh, how I treasure this little trinket of youthful memories.  

A Tisket, A Tasket.................

As soon as I saw this quilt pictured in this book I knew I had to make one - what a perfect little take along project that fits in a small bag to carry wherever I happen to be with idle time.
And the other positive to making these blocks is that I don't have to buy any fabric!  I can just dig in my stash.





















So far I have 20 little baskets appliqued and

 20 more prepped and waiting.  

I don't know right now how big this quilt will be - 

wall hanging or bed quilt -  it all depends

on when I'm tired of appliqueing little baskets.

I just love these precious little guys - aren't they cute?

Organize my Quiltmaking Time? You Must Be Kidding!

I was just over at my BFF's blog and I cannot believe that she told the whole blog world the truth about me! 

She told everyone what a terribly disorganized quilter I am!    I suppose that means that I am totally and completely out of the closet now.  Just because I cannot even stand to tie myself down to a regularly scheduled manicure appointment for fear that I may not be in the mood for it at the previously scheduled time,  how could I possibly organize my time as to when I will work on which project?   

Tis a mystery to me as to why I should do that.  

Thank goodness that I'm perfectly organized in my business life or I'd never have any clients!  

With all of that being said, in my spare time today, since I only have the setting blocks to make for an old UFO, I got them all made, and now once I cut out the setting triangles I can put the top together.

I should be able to cross this off the to do list as my first 2011 finish.  Stay tuned - anything is possible!

Happy New Year!!!

At the start of a new year many people like to make resolutions, things they want to accomplish or change or improve upon. The only real resolution I am making for 2011 is to be the best person I can be!

That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about what I'd like to accomplish this year quiltwise. I've been giving lots of thought to actually applying the "F" word (finish) to my bazillion projects which languish in varying degrees of completedness. Is that a word???

Now, don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that I won't start a new project whenever the mood strikes, just that I will spend A LOT of time working on some of my older much loved projects.

Temptation and inspiration out in blogland too often has me mesmerized and I am suddenly out of control with wanting to make all the loveliness that I see others creating.

Upon further reflection, I've come to realize that I don't really care how many quilts I have in production stage when I get excited about one more new project - I suppose that makes me more of a process person - I'm not as interested in the completion of a project as I am in the journey I'm on in order to get there.

I also gravitate towards intricate time consuming projects with tiny fussy pieces. 

Oh how I love this quilt creating life - it's so freeing - I can create whatever I want, whenever I want - it's my time to play and revel in the yummyness of the scrumptious fabric to my hearts desire.

With all that being said I've spent some time inventorying what I want to delve into first.

Since I've got all of the blocks and border completely appliqued

except for a small amount of embroidery here and there on

The Great Pumpkin Quilt, I've been spending

most of my time working on this one. It will be exciting to finally

see it put together. I don't remember where I took this picture, but this is what it should look like when done.  

Next time you  see a picture of this quilt it will be a picture of mine!

__________________________________________________

Another applique quilt that I've finished 

6 of 12 blocks from is "Flourishes"

by Piece of Cake, seen here:
Again, I don't remember where I took this picture.

And then there's Autumn Joy - I have 4 of these applique blocks completed.

It is my hope to have all three of these quilts completed this year.

One More Try

As the year winds down I've decided to redesign my blog and actually become an active blogger.
I know, I know, actions speak louder than words. So I suppose I will just become wordy! LOL!

I've forgotten how to upload things, so before you see pictures I will have to do some reading and learning once again. I'm looking forward to this - it will be fun.

Does anyone know how I can make my top picture bar narrower?

This is a threat and a promise - I will be back before you know it!

Fran