Viola Longacre

Viola Longacre

March 6, 1923 - February 18, 2010

Farewell gifted quilter and friend. You will be missed by the many who shared in your life. Viola and I had a few things in common, like quilting, painting, and we are both members of the Manteca Quilt Guild and retires from the SJC Welfare Department.
Viola enjoyed sharing her talent with others. She was a generous quilter and donated quilts to philanthropy.


Viola incorporated her painting talent with her quilting. She painted on fabric and sewed that fabric into quilts. Pictured below is a quilt she made that won an award at the State Fair. She painted birds on squares of fabric and sewed them into her quilt. This quilt is beautiful and unique. Because of the way the quilts were hung I wasn't able to get a picture of the whole quilt so I took a picture of the top and bottom.

Memories are stitched with love and your memory will live on in the beautiful fabrics you so lovingly stitched.

X-Block

This is the fabric I pulled from my stash to make this quilt. It's from the Sweet Dreams line by Robyn Pandolph. The pink is something I just happened to have and it matched perfectly. I played with the idea of using one of the greens but it seemed to fade into the prints. I will use it for the backing. This is the pattern I picked. There is more contrast in the two main fabric they used in their quilt but I was determined to use some of the fabrics in my stash. If I don't, I won't have room for new. That's my logic.

This is 6 1/2 inch X-Block. It also comes in 7 1/2 for a larger finished block.

This is so simple. Depending on the pattern you choose you sew strips together.

Line up the ruler on the appropriate lines and cut. The dotted lines is what was required on this quilt. I find it helpful to starch the strips so they stay true.

By flipping the ruler over you get two different blocks, right and left sides.

Rotate your block, chain sew and your ready to put your quilt top together.

These are the blocks sewen together. Now we need borders.

I hung the quilt outside and there was a slight breeze. It was a beautiful 70 degrees so I couldn't resist. Because it isn't quilted yet you can see the seam lines in this photo and and they don't show in the photo above. In March I will focus on developing my "quilting skills" starting with feathers. This quilt would be great for that. Stay tuned.

I'm getting ready for the quilt retreat in Oregon next week and I will be demonstrating the X-Block using this quilt as an example.

Tonight is the Tokay Quilt Guild meeting and I'm putting the borders on my table runner so I can have it for show and tell. I'm anxious to see how some of the quilts turned out.

Have a blessed day and enjoy the sun.

President's Day

Greetings and Happy President's Day. I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I woke up to a box of chocolates, Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream CD and a beautiful card. My hubby can be so thoughtful. He got a special card and I will share the chocolates.
Today is a holiday so most of my employed friends are having a much deserved day off. As for me, I'm retired and everyday is a holiday. It is a beautiful day and a great day to work in the yard. Before retirement I had to choose wisely on how I was going to spend my days off because the next day I would be back to work. That was then and this is now. Last week I spent most of my time quilting. I'm currently piecing a boarder for my Sleeping Beauty quilt made with the X-Blocks. (Pictures to follow) The book I'm working out of is Once upon a time in X-Block Land by Patricia Pepe. Check out her web site at http://www.patriciapepe.com/about.html I love her patterns because you can use two or more different fabrics and I'm able to work out of my stash. My goal is to buy fabric intentionally and that is much harder than it sounds. There is so many beautiful fabric tempting me. Next week I'm off to Gold Beach in Oregon to demonstrate the X-Blocks. Life is great!
Wishing you the best day ever.

Things to Live by in 2010

A friend emailed this to me and as I read it I thought it would be a great affirmation so I printed it and hung on on the wall next to my desk. Maybe I should pin it in front of my sewing machine since I spend more time there than at my desk.

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water..
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants..
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009 .
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily.. And while you walk, smile.
Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead, invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously.. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need...
18. Forget issues of the past.. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...
Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything..
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 60 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will Stay in touch.
Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come...
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy. Last but not the least:
40. Share this with everyone you care about.

It's a new month and the sun is shinning. I think I will go shopping and and focus on #29. The other numbers I can do at home. Thanks Anita.

Have a blessed day.

What have I been doing?

Where to begin. Life is good. I feel like I'm living this charmed life. I'm retired after 43 years of working for somebody else. Now that I look back on those 43 years I have to say they went fast. I don't have another 43 years to go but I do plan on making the best of the time I do have. There are so many things I want to do now that I feel a little overwhelmed. After being off work for two weeks I do seethe potentioal for wasting time. It's too easy to do nothing and at the time it feels good. At the end of two weeks it feels like a waste. So here's what wasn't a waste.

I attend a work shop with Anelie Belden. She wrote the book Thoroughly Modern Dresden. She teaches her quick and easy construction method. I'm making the table runner so I can use up some of my stash. I picked out some beautiful oriental fabric and I hope it's not going to be too busy. I will post a picture when I'm done. The quilt pictured below is Romancing the Reds, one of the quilts featured in her book. I have the fabrics to make this and it's 3rd on my To Do Lists. I love red and white. These are Alex Andersons fabrics. Love them! That's Anelie on the right, holding up her beautiful quilt.
This sweet wall hanging is Blue and yellow Shineshine. I like blue and yellow's too and this might be added to my To Do List too.

This quilt is named Luisita and is 71" x 71". I looks like a kilidascoup but it is peaked-top blades that are fussy cut. It's very beautiful.

This was a great workshop and I recommend the book. She also has a special ruler, sold separterly, that assists in the cutting of the various blades. The book has a sheet of templets.

This is Tokay Stitch'N'Quilt Guilds 2010 Opportunity quilt. It's called Reflections and I'm proud to say, I helped make the blocks. Their quilt show is November 6 and 7 in Lodi.

On the 17th family and friends joined together to celebrate my Mom's 80+ birthday. I guess after 80, who's counting. Personally, if I make it to 80+ I'm going tell ya about it. I might even give you some tips on how to live till your 80. My Mom is in fairly good health and has a lot to be thankful for. This is a photo of my brother and his son and grandson and my daughter and one of my grandsons. So now she has a photo with four generations. We had a full house, lots of food and a great time. My Mom brought out some very old photo's, from before my time, and shared the life and times of the Donner Party. Just kidding, but that's what it was beginning to sound like. She complained about the white chalk they had to grind and mix with water so they would have something to polish their shoes with. Gee, have priorities changed or what?

What's a party with cake. So here we go, chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. I practiced my royal icing daffodils. Good thing this is just a hobby. A scoop of vanilla ice cream really topped it off, in more ways than one.

So now everyday is a weekend and I can do just about anything I want. How cool is that? I would say very cool. I'm going to finish my Dresden table runner and cut out my Turtles 'n Tidepools quilt.

Wishing you a blessed day.

2010

It was a crazy night in my neighborhood. Now I have an idea what it's like in Pakistan. It's quite now and starting to rain. I love the rain. I have my new year's list before me and I'm ready to start my new habits. Have a wonder start to the new year.
God's peace be with you.

Happy New Year

2010 is just hours away and it doesn't seem possible that another year has come and gone. My focus for 2009 was redefining who I am. I'm not sure I accomplished that but I can tell you, I have a new attitude about life and how I should live.

Do you make New year Resolutions each year? Are you able to keep them? What ever your resolution happens to be, the only way to succeed is to take it one step at a time. Set specific goals and make the decision to stick with it. So, my first and most important goal is to establish healthy eating and exercising habits. I've read that it take 26 days for a task to become a habit. Since I am retiring in two weeks I will have the time to plan and follow through with purchasing and preparing healthier meals and spending time in action. Being home this past week has shown me how easy it is to get comfortable in front of the television and just sit. I don't want to get into that habit. I am starting with a walking regime. I will start with 30 minutes a day. My other goal is to spend more time reading. I have been putting together a list of books I want to read. They aren't all fiction. I'm going to read Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue. I admire her so much. More about that in the future. I'm going to spend more time in prayer and reading and studying the Bible. I can add to this list but I want to be realistic. These are the most important things I want to accomplish. I have UFO's to finish and other things I want to do but next year I want to report, mission accomplished.

I wish you and yours the safest and happiest New Year every. God's peace be with you.