Happy 13th day of the month everyone! My lucky number is 13.....

I was born on November 13th, and turned 13 and 30 on Friday the 13th. I was raised in Southern California and after marrying my husband, BC, almost 36 years ago, I've lived all over the country. Indiana, Northern and Southern California and now Eastern Washington. We live on the far right bottom corner of Washington. It's a desert landscape where all those lovely apples, wine grapes, hops and so much more are grown. We've also lived on the "wet side" a couple of times. When it cam time to retire, we wanted a slower pace, not so much rain and cheaper cost of living. So we picked the Tri Cities. We love it here. We have 4 children, 3 with spouses and 6 granchildren. Here's a picture of all of us. (Sadly our oldest daughter and her husband pictured here on the far left are divorcing.)






2018 was a year of caring for my mother and then dismantling her life after her death. It's a bittersweet process as many of you know. My siblings are not at all helpful due to their own difficulties. Thank goodness for my family and all of you! So 2019 is the year for me to get back into what I want and need to do. Besides family, that would be quilting! I just finished sewing down the bindings on two projects. Thanks to the impetus of needing to write on the 13th. Thanks for the kick in the rear!

First I'll show "Direction". "Direction" is made with the last bit of 24 hand dyed fabrics I made in August 2016. I figured out that if I use up all the hand dyes I get to dye more! Yippee! Here is a picture of those 24 fat quarters.




Here's "Jolly Rancher" the first quilt I made from the hand dyes. You've seen this already.




Then I made "Straight to the Heart". Again, you've seen this.




Here's the newest from that batch of hand dyes. "Direction". Background is a wonderful Kaffe Fassett print.




Here's the back.




And here's what's left of those 24 fat quarters! So I'll be dyeing some new fabric next summer!





I belong to a small group within the Tri Cities Quilt Guild. We call ourselves The Gang of Five. There are 6 of us. Funny story, but we are a fun, varied group. Last January we decided to make a small quilt from a photograph. We choose and received permission from Randall Nyhof to use his photo "Snow Fence at Sunset". Here's a picture of his photo.




OOPS! It looks like I'm only allowed to load 8 photos. I'll post this and continue with another post.

geneva

Wow it's amazing flowers and ribbons, birds and houses. Yes forget anything else you're going to be absorbed. Lovely way to get back into sewing.

If I'm going to do one of Caryl's patterns, it's going to have to wait until after I participate in Esther Aliu's BOM. It's an all applique quilt. I'm overwhelmed right now

Yes go on Beverly and Eileen make them as well and we can encourage each other and help to understand the patterns and colour placement. I've ordered 4 colourways of her gradation fabric. It's really hard to choose online not seeing them together so fingers crossed they'll work. I can't find any shops near here or at the show I'm going to next week that stock them to see them in person.

Get your kits out

I have a Carol Bryer-Fallert kit that I bought several years ago too. Maybe let's start on those and the challenge to finish it by the end of the year? And Eileen, I agree, it's wonderful to see activity on the forum again!

twiglet wrote: I understand completely! I bought one of her patterns years ago, and it's still in the package. I'll go back and look at it; freezer paper foundation piecing sounds interesting.

I'm so grateful that we're all talking again. I've missed this.

Wendy,
You’ll knock the socks off for your son! Carol’s quilts have always intrigued me. I’ll probably start with one that would resemble her very early ones, not the illusions, as I’m easily turned around ! LOL. It’ll be fun to see what you do. And,,, thanks for the link, I didn’t know she had free patterns up. Now I do,,, oh, boy, another rabbit hole to explore.... gotta hurry, gotta hurrry,,,,,,

Barb,
If you aren’t sewing or quilting,,,, I’ll bet you’re up to something else !!!! What might that be? Are you traveling? Seeing family? Going out to lunch? Enjoying life to the utmost?! Inquiring minds are asking,,,,, LOL

Hello Barb good to see you

Being cheeky and chipping in when my day is past. My son asked me to make him an abstract quilt for the wall of his flat. I decided to have a go at one of Carol Bryer Fallert-Gentry's illusion quilts. Anyone tackled one? It made my head hurt reading and watching her instructions, they are so detailed. She's got free patterns on her website to share now she's retired but I expect you all knew that. I like the idea of foundation piecing on freezer paper.
www.bryerpatch.com/faq/faq.htm

Thanks Eileen for setting up the 2019 Virtual Retreat!

My Birthday date is the 9th, only two days late! Nothing quilty to report for January, I did help a friend make placemats in December and repaired our Christmas Tree skirt.

Hi All, I also have enjoyed reading your posts, and will also post on the 13th (May) of each month.

Sharon in warm, we need moisture, Colorado

Happy Birthday Eileen and Marilyn! I like this idea of celebrating our birthdays each month. This way we can eat virtual cake and not worry about the calories.

Wendy, I love your door. It's so cool. I want to see what's behind it.

Marilyn, love your hand work and the amaryllis. You and your husband are so creative. Nice!

My birthday is the 13th of November. I'm just finishing up two projects, yay! So I will post pics this weekend.

I saw the pictures on the blog of Freddy Moran's faces. It reminded me of the time we made our own faces. Remember that? I still have mine hanging on the wall in my quilt room. It makes me smile.

It's nice to have us all chatting again. Take care, geneva

Wendy, I really enjoyed reading through your blog posts and seeing what you've been up to! And your two little tots are precious. It's always fun to see what others are creating in their part of the world.

Eileen, I think quilting for others would be too much pressure for me. I would worry about it all too much. I hope you have lots of fun making your own creations!

Eileen,
It must have been a hard decision to stop doing the longarm work for others, but sometimes what’s best for us isn’t easy for others to accept. You’re going to be able to 'breathe' when a stitch is missed, or a nest of threads shows up. The 'outside' pressure is off, and that will be a boost to you in so many ways.
Do share a few pictures of your projects, as soon as you feel they’re at a spot you want us to do our ohhhs and ahhs over. You know we all enjoy seeing works in progress,,,

Hope your day was filled with people and activities you enjoy.