Plaid Tidings: My Husbands New Nightshirt (M8379)

In my November and December podcasts, the theme was plaids and tartans. 

I'm in the mood to sew more than one this winter season. Hope I can make that happen

My husband's nightshirts were wearing out - he usually needs one or two new ones about every two years. Since the last ones I made him, I've misplaced the pattern. I found McCalls 8379 on the web. It seems to be out of print, but there are probably still many available the same way I found this one. I liked the front tuck and simple neckline. 

I got the side seam plaids matched, but since I quilted the pocket, the flannel in the pocket tightened up quite a lot more than the flannel in the front of the garment. So the plaids didn't match up when I laid the pocket down. My husband doesn't care! He's glad to have a place to put his iPod or reading glasses when he's hanging out on a Sunday morning reading the paper.

He likes it!

Fantasy Quilt Blocks: Jen's Moved (haiku)

Jen has a new door 

With striped camellias.

Hooray, still close by!

Guardians of a Time Portal: Fantasy Cat Quilt

Don't think you're gonna paw past MY way

Without a little donation to the gods 

That guard your house

And keep those old mice at bay.

I used to think my kitties were just sleeping their day away in the sun. But just recently I learned that they are actually the guardians of a local time portal. In their case a little donation, of the right sort, will get me farther than just on to my back door without suffering a swipe on the ankle.

It will take me back to times long past.

Just what era would a cat be caring for?

First Signs of Fall:Quilts, Squirrels, Fighting the Good Fight at the Polls

Please click on this quilt picture for more beautiful details.

I wish I had this fall beauty to toss on the bed. It's a lot quicker stitching up a new quilt in Photoshop than on my machine. When I did make quilts, I loved appliqueing designs on top of other patterns.

It really is getting cool enough here in the San Francisco Bay Area for an extra light quilt. As romantic as chilly fall weather sounds in books, I don't actually miss it. Or the snow that can go with it. Our summer crops are all harvested - all three apples worth. My neighbors little boy ate the other five while they were still somewhat green. And he was quite welcome to them. He clearly found the idea that edible food was just hanging there within reach of his fingers fascinating, and it was a pleasure to see him munching them. According to his mother, they never made him sick.

The squirrels weren't too happy when those few apples disappeared. They had to content themselves with harvesting our cherry tree during the summer. We've never yet managed to beat the squirrels to the cherries, but we have options they don't have. We're fighting higher density building in our area. Where are the birds and squirrels going to forage then? I guess that's what happens when you don't get to vote. I'm going to reread those city council platforms really carefully before I go to the polls.

Fine Fruit:Quilt Block, Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

This entry won FOURTH PLACE in the Silicon Valley fusionwearsv contest!

This garage on Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, is where the story that transformed the agricultural Santa Clara Valley into today’s technological Silicon Valley began. When Bill and Dave built their first oscillator in this garage, my husband's family lived just a few blocks away. My father-in-law remembered the area of that time, as a land of cherry orchards. In 1938, my own family was involved in the information technology of the day, as telegraphers. As Silicon Valley grew my family's information skill set evolved with it. My father, sister and myself were computer programmers.

I enjoyed biking over to photograph the restored HP garage that represents an important foundation of the Silicon Valley. I used Photoshop CS4 to alter that and other digital photos I’ve taken, to create my own 1938 vintage-style fruit crate label, honoring the birth of the Silicon Valley. All images are my own. I loved being able to honor the history of the valley by using the technology that it represents.

Tumbling Chips: Quilt within a Quilt Block , Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

I'm much taken by the spirit of modern day style, versus a vintage design. Here I was inspired by the much-loved 'tumbling blocks' quilt block, to create my own modern-day variation of silicon chips gone wild. These chips dance right out of their tidly-bordered frame. The well-behaved, neatly balanced background checkerboard of chips, is outraged by their bolder colleagues non-standard behavior.

Another one of my original designs for the Silicon Valley fusion wearsv contest.

I used Photoshop CS4 shapes, filters, drawing tools and line art tools, to compose a picture of a silicon chip, inspired by a real-world photograph.

Contours: Quilt Block , Contest Entry Silicon Valley fusionwearsv

My Contours' quilt block, represents the beauty and excitement the programmer feels when she realizes her power to duplicate, concatenate and transform.

Sparked by the fusionwearsv contest, I created this piece in Photoshop CS 4, using a combination of contour filters worked against the melding of filtered and conglomerated chips, I created for the Transformations quilt block.

Please CLICK ON THIS IMAGE to see the nice detail in the design

Voting in the Silicon Valley Quilt Design Contest is through June 11'th, 2010

Please follow this link to VOTE