Good Bye 2024

2024 is almost part of history.

Happy last day of this calendar year.

Thank you to everyone that was part of my days.

May 2025 be the best year ever.

Cheers 

Merry 2024 Christmas

Merry Christmas! 

Remember the gift of Christmas is not bought in stores. Celebrate

Happy Winter Solstice

 December 21st is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; and so it is the longest night of this winter. Let the lighten days begin.🌞

December 13

Design wall on December 13th. A hodgepodge of blocks for a few different projects. 

I should be making labels for quilts. But this is more of my calling today.

Photo Shoot

The behind the scene of taking a photo of my quilt. No cropping or any other tricks on this one. The displaced exercise equipment where they landed.Thank you my DH for your help. I am a terrible photografer. I couldn't have done without him.

Cozy and Warm

It is really a lot cozier than it looks. A place to rest.

Houston sticker

I love this sticker. I had to save and post. Cheers from H-town

Floor design board

Some leftover 5 inch squares will become a quilt top soon.

Pick a Petal hanging on my wall

Done and done.

2025 BOM from THe Quilt Show

Every year The Quilt Show site has a yearly run block of the month (BOM). I have made several of these quilts and saved the directions for a few others; but did not made the quilts. Life happens sometimes. Next year's quilt has a lot of the parts that I love to make. I am going to use scraps again and I will buy the background fabric to keep it somewhat uniform. Maybe a few different fabrics of the same line; not necessarily only one background. I have taken this pictures from the Quilt Show website and changed it to a gray scale. I can see that it uses most medium value fabrics for the blocks. I think I have the perfect fabrics for this quilt. Perfect to my make it my own, there is. Below is one of the original colorways offered as a kit from the Quilt Show Website.

She Who Quilts

Another day in the studio. I am about to start quilting another quilt top.

Spider tshirt

Just in time for Halloween 2024. Of course, I saw many examples of this on Pintrest. I had to make my own. I used 2 black buttons for the spider, some black #8 perle cotton thread to embroider the spider legs, White thread for the web thread line and leftover cotton lace around the neck. I love Halloween; but none of the scarry stufffor me.

Pick a Petal quilting

And the quilt is quilted. I used the embroidery unit on my Bernina. The quilting pattern is from My Creative Stitches; and it is called Mixed Up Feathers. Quilted with Fantastico and Sew Line threads on top and bobbin respectively. I did audition a few fabrics for the binding and decided on a low volume white. I had previously made the binding with a "beige" low volume; but I wanted the binding to "disappear", to emphasize the curved border, so I made another lighter binding strips.

Pick a Petal

I finished my Pick a Petal quilt that was designed by Jen Kingwell for The Quilt Show block of the month for 2024. I need to block it and add a label. So, I will photograph it in the future for another post. This is not one of my outstanding piecing. I had a lot of trouble "fitting" some of the curved pieces eventhough I used the acrylic templates sold specially for this quilt. I also modifed the applique border to my own quilt.

Miniature tree quilt

My quilt guild has a quilt show coming on January 2025. My Bee decided on a challenge for us: to make miniature quilts for the upcoming show. This will be my entry. I saw many quilts on Pintrest with similar patterns. I designed my own with inspirations from those posts. Unfortunately, I have not found the orignal creator of these trees to give attribution. But they are all so very pretty on Pintrest. My quilt is 17 inches by 13 inches and made from 1.5 inch squares which finishes at 1 inch.

Fabric selections for a miniature quilt

And here we go. This will be a miniature tree quilt using 1 inch squares.

My Bojagi in place

I have bought these beautiful fabrics in Seoul over a few visits. I could never find anyone there to show me how Bojagi was made. I finally found the directions on Youtube and here it is all done for a few seasons now. But it never fails to bring joy to see it. I have made the seams by hand the traditional way. I have started a new project with these fabrics. But there are so many hours in a day.

Table Runner

The designing floor is active today. A new table runner made out of a charming package from a friend's "collection". To be continued...

Trees quilt

I have wanted to make this quilt since I saw it on an issue of the now out of business, Quiltmania magazine. Thanks to some amazing Kafee Fasset's fabrics from a sweet friend "collection", I was able to make the top. Now, ready to quilt. I am so happy! The hand dyed fabrics for the trunks are also from a friend that used to have a business selling hand dyed fabrics. I am so lucky to have some amazing friends. The pattern name is "Painted Forest" by Scott Hansen of the Blue Nickel Studios.

Memorial Park Pond

A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Pick a Petal Quilt

The top is fresh out of my sewing machine. This is a snap shot of a real day in the studio. The quilt top is not even ironed yet. I think I need a little break from it now. I will iron it later and clean the huge amount of threads from the back. It is a pet peeve of mine. The new fabrics are so loose woven that it creates a pile of threads in every cut edge. So not happy with the new industry standard.

Jellie Snowflake Quilt

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Cissa Kamakura

This is my version of the Sew Along Quilt that "The Fat Quater Shop" so generously shared for free. I finally quilted my top into a quilt that was donated to the Quilt Guild of The Greater Houston for the Comforters Program that, you guessed it, donates quilts as a comfort to someone. The link provided here is working at the time of this publication. PS: The typo on the link is how it was copied from the Fat Quarter Shop site. www.fatquartershop.com/free-quilt-patterns/jell-snowflake-quilt-free-pattern-serires

On Ringo Lake donation quilt

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Cissa Kamakura

I finally finished my version of the quilt "On Ringo Lake" that was a mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter from the Quiltville fame for the year 2017. I made a little over half the amount of the blocks required, so my quilt is a square 60 something inches one; and not the 70" by 90" quilt as instructed by Bonnie. This photo is also from a show and tell from the meeting at the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston, where it was donated to the Comforters Program. This program donates quilts around the Houston community to deserving persons.

Texas Stamp Quilt

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Cissa Kamakura

My Texas Stamp Quilt that was a challenge by my Bee is completed and donated to the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston to be donated through the Comforters Program. This photo is from the Show and Tell part of the Guild meeting because I forgot to take a picture of it.

Flowers and Butterflies.

Just because...

One funny truth

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Cissa Kamakura

Granada 2024

Working on my applique and enjoying the view.

Pick a Petal Block of the Month-March

And, so far, I have made a lot of the glorified 9 patch that were available in February and quite a few of the March block, which is quite challenging to make it to lie flat. I have more than the one shown on this photo; but they are not trimmed and at this stage they look like a mess. I am not really enjoying this block and I think I just need to put it away until my attitute changes a bit.

Texas panel quilt

This quilt top is part of a Bee challenge. We are challenging ouselves to use a panel to make a donation quilt. Now, I will quilt it using my embroidery machine and a 5 pointed star pattern from Amelie Scott.

More Lollipops Blocks

And the lollipops keep on growing. Only 2 more to go. I will miss working on these sweet treats. I am starting to plan the sashing and borders.

Lollipop Blocks

Several years ago, Barbara Brackman had a post that showed a Lollipo Quilt that I loved. It was a red, green and white quilt. I also had seen the amazing quilt that Kim McClean made with similar blocks using Kaffe's fabrics and a light background. These quilts have been in my "to make someday list" for a long time. Fast forward to recent cleaning up in my studio. I found a paper copy of the Lollipop quilt that Barbara had blogged about; and I had noted the blog date, so I could return to it. It was too much to resist. So here I go with a new applique project and I am loving it. More updates to come. Cheers.