This One Time, At Quilt Camp:

1.) I heard the work "farkle" used more times, and in more ways than ever.

2.) Someone measured my bicep.

3.) Cindy wore socks that matched her quilt blocks.

4.) We got a sewing machine maintenance lesson...and then the teacher broke Tanya's machine.

5.) We learned you can still sew if you machine is "off" (the only switch is the light switch.)

6.) I found a group of fabrics that makes me say "I love this fabric" and do a little wiggle dance after every little step to my quilt.

7.) Aunt Maggie sewed and ripped many a seam on her 3...2...1...2...1...3...2...1...blast off quilt. Like some NASA adventures this one took a few tries to get it right before blast off. But Look how GREAT it is!8.) Debbie F. attended her first quilt camp!

9.) The Needler worked on this quite fitting quilt filled with "blood red." I'm thinking "Needlers Twilight Chain" is my nickname for this quilt. (At least until I can come up with something that ties in Twilight which I conned her into reading and getting hooked on, and well needling.)

10.) Dottie made lots of lemons out of lemonade turning what might have been considered not so great salvaged quilt tops into great works of art! She's a quilting master!

11.) Cindy finished this great wedding quilt in the brides most favorite colors. (Not to be confused with my favorite colors.)12.) Jennifer played real life Farkle. Farkle is technically a game that she likes to play online. (A lot. I'm not sold yet, I still prefer Mafia Wars) While at quilt camp we decided that it could be substituted for other words.

I farkled your scissors. The tire on our car is farkled. You don't want to go over there...I farkled. Anyway. You get the point. That night we were all giggles with our farkle sentences.13.) Tanya finished this star-tlingly attractive quilt top! 14.) and these are the pieces I came home with. Far cry from the finished product but...

don't you just Loooooooooooooove the fabric?

Basic Low Down Before the Big Stuff

All track of time has been lost so I will do my best to catch up. Life has been moving pretty quick! We're talking Lightning McQueen fast people. The weekend before finals I was given the gift of Luke, in that his parents very kindly helped arrange for him to come down to visit as soon as he was out of his apartment. Which meant that he finished finals, wrapped up the internship hunt, moved out of his apartment, and then drove up to Spokane by 4:30 Sunday morning where Emma my cousin dropped him off at the airport. Luke then flew from Spokane to Sacramento where my Aunt Cindy and cousin Katie picked him up and brought him down to Fresno where we were having a family gathering! (At this point Luke said he was on 60 hours and only 4 of them included sleep.) When he finally arrived at our house, he was out. For at least 16 hours. I tried to wake him up once, and he said something about Colorado? I snuck a picture of him burrowing in my pillows. Hiding from the heat I think!

I had finals and work all week that overlapped with the credential program at Fresno Pacific, so if was a bit stressful but when I went out to take my mom to the bank I found this friendly surprise wishing me congratulations on graduation! Yay! I graduated from Fresno State!

Once Luke was here my mom immediately created a "honey do" list for him. Haha. She kept it on the fridge and included things like buying and planting zinnias in the front yard, planting her rosemary bush, making the washer stop thumping when it spins, cutting down our palm trees, changing a light bulb in the garage, etc.
Through an unfortunate lack of awareness on both of our parts, we failed to realise that Luke's plane was scheduled to leave Sacramento at 10:45 on THURSDAY not Friday like we had thought. Sooo on Thursday morning that sort of hit us like a ton of bricks.
HOWEVER, it DID give us more time together and for that I was grateful. We were able to spend Saturday up at Lakeview Cottages and I was able to show him around the mountains I grew up "wandering"!

We hiked up to Inspiration Point. (just about 7,000 ft elevation)

It was exciting for me to see all the growth along the trail. Since the wildfire all I can really remember is little shrubs. It was sort of a surprise for me to be noticing young trees that were taller than me!

After our hike we had barbecued asparagus, trout (caught that day in the lake) and country style potatoes! Yum! On Sunday we had intended to go check out some of the golf courses near the beach. Instead, I called Luke who has been staying at Mark and Cindy's house and suggested sleeping in. It wasn't a hard battle to win. We spent the rest of our "lazy day" cutting out pieces for a quilt (me) and working on PGM (professional golf management) binders (Luke). We finished it off with Sal's Mexican food to-go and a movie from the 4 for $20 rack at Blockbuster's. Life is good.

Quilt Camp

Last weekend my mom and I packed our bags, and sewing machines, and cutting mats, and rotary cutters, and headed to Quilt Camp! For those of you not familiar with this strange occurrence it is when quilters take their quilting projects away from home to camp where there are fewer distractions, calling away from the hobby they love! We had two and a half days of sewing and got a lot accomplished.

A picture of the group we took at the end of the week!

This is why when I walk in I think it looks like a factory/sweatshop.

Cindy, Stephani, and Jennifer

A lot of us participated in a 1930's fabric themed friendship quilt block exchange. Everyone makes 15 of the same block, then everyone gets together and trades blocks so in the end you have 15 different blocks. Then each person gets to put them together in the way that they want. Here is Dotty and her completed quilt top.



Here is Jennifer and her completed 1930's quilt top. Don't you just love the pinwheels?



Here I am with a suggestion of what my quilt top is going to look like. I just got started on it since I've been away in Idaho.

Aunt Maggie finished up this Thomas quilt for her Grandson Tyler, and started a really fun Monster quilt!

My cousin Kimmie started her Yellow Brick Road quilt. (Yellow Brick Road is the name of the pattern, I know the colors are purple and green.)

Here is Tanya (also my cousin) with her blocks for the quilt she started. I cant remember what its called.

Cindy is working on a really tricky quilt where the blocks have about a gazillion different little pieces! Pretty!

We had a fun time and were very productive!