Quilt for baby #5

This is my latest quilt. I'd started piecing it for our queen-sized bed but soon realized it would have taken me until my level of tennis was that of Steffi Graf, so I created it for Yosef's and Rachel's and Mordechai's and Yisroel's sister, due at the end of April. The border - flying geese - takes quite a while to make and one day I'll be able to make it perfect! Regardless, I'm really happy with the outcome. So, I pieced it and a quilter friend has a long-arm quilt machine and she quilted it.

Fenster family in Bnei Brak Oct. 2010

This photo was taken by Eric - self timer on his camera, the day of their 8th wedding anniversary. They look happy and so am I!

Bold quilt for a little Nugget

I've just finished this quilt top for the soon-to-be grandchild of a close friend. Boy or girl, we don't know and don't wanna know, as in olden times! I found the pattern on the internet and the soon-to-be mommy didn't want the traditional cutesy baby quilt and wanted bold colors. Well, mission accomplished, yes?

New Baby, new quilt: Yisroel Fenster

So very happy! Yisroel Fenster, born March 15, 2010, healthy and handsome. Plus, of course, a new quilt for him. Yisroel now joins Yosef, Rachel, and Mordechai into the arms of Eric and Lili - they are very lucky kids to have such extraordinary parents. You can discern I'm a proud Savta (Grandma in Hebrew). Mordechai can't say Savta, but I like what he CAN say: Tata!

Welcome to Ollie!

Well, Stan and I jumped in and adopted a poochie! We saved a darling (and I mean darling) almost 2 y/o cairn terrier mix, a sweet boy, from a sad ending. I'll post his picture as soon as I remember how to! He and I bonded right away (I went to adoption day at PetSmart) and it was love at first sight. Now Ollie has to get used to Stan - it hasn't happened yet. It will, of course, so we now have another family member!

The Fensters in Bnei Brak

These are the latest from ha mishpaKha in Israel.

Gorgeous, yes?

By the way, if you're automatically getting a notification of my new posts, I apologize and I don't know how to stop it! No need to reply - unless, of course, you want to!

Did you know if you left click on any photo, you can enlarge it? Try it..........

DOTTY'S now hanging properly on the wall

DOTTY is now properly hanging and I can't stop looking at it. I'm currently reading through a quilting book by Freddy Moran, who makes quilts that I absolutely adore and she says never make a quilt for yourself that you won't want to look at all the time. Well, I've done that with this quilt.

Jamie's HORSEY quilt

This is Jamie's now finished Horsey Quilt. The top pic is the back of it. It's queen-sized, so I had it professionally quilted. She loves it and I'm so very glad!

My "Dotty" quilt top is finished!

It's done!!! This is such an eye-stopper, I can't stop looking at it. It's so colorful, you practically need sunglasses. And I did it. Wow, I love it. I still have to quilt it, but it'll have to wait a bit 'cause I'm making a horse-themed quilt for Jamie first, as promised.

What on earth did I ever do before I started quilting?

Cooks.com - Recipe - Creamy Rice Pudding

SCRUMPTIOUS, YUMMY COMFORT FOOD!

I make this in a crock pot. If you, or someone you know, likes creamy rice pudding, make this.
1/2 gallon milk; skim, whole, or anything in between
1 c. raw rice (use short-or-medium grain rice, not long grain)
1 c. sugar ( I used Splenda)
1/2 tsp. salt
Place all the ingredients in the crock pot. Cook on high until it simmers, stirring once in a while. When the rice no longer sinks as you stir, it is done, about 2 hours.
Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and stir. Pour into a dish and cover the top with cinnamon. Chill."

THIS IS TRULY DELICIOUS AND COULDN'T BE EASIER. Stan and I are creamy rice pudding connoisseurs (we love Kozy Shack's version) and I've been looking for an easy, foolproof recipe that will adapt well with a sugar-substitute. THIS IS THE ONE.
I know, I know, it's not a quilt. But we all need to eat before we can quilt. You can quote me on this.........

My African Houses

This was my first paper-piecing class - oh, around Sept. '08. This piece is finished and I'm not sure if I'll quilt it or just set it on a frame and hang it as is. I like it a lot!

Crazy Curves

This was actually my first quilting class - and a difficult one for me. Those curves were tough! I used all batiks and I'm happy with the result. This is about 2 years old.

Jan. 17th - Here's the Slide Show

Slide Show of My Quilts

Above is a slide show of my quilts. I'm so excited! I found a site called slide.com on another blog - I follow several quilt/art blogs - and followed the instructions. Neat, eh?

Completely Dotty - new project

Here's a pic of my new project, called "Completely Dotty" because every single piece of fabric has dots! I'm taking an 8-week class at my wonderful quilt shop in Newbury Park....the instructor is truly inspirational, funny, understanding, you name it, she's got it good. I completed eight units today in the first class....each quarter circle is a unit. This quilt is paper-pieced, so there's few, if any, errors. Easy, really. And the finished product.....well, gorgeous! So these two pics show the complete quilt and my progress as of today.

We don't really have room on our walls for the full-sized quilt, so I'm thinking of making it 1/2 sized and the other half as a gift. Any takers? :)

Ciao for now................................

Sheila's "Pottery"

I'd taken a fusible-web class a while back and learned how to fuse fabric onto a background fabric........we did a huge project in the class.......then make a quilt sandwich and quilt the piece. It took me forever to finish my own huge project and I'd promised Stan's sisters that I'd do a smaller version for them. Well, long story short, I messed up my own project, so it's not even hanging on our wall currently, and had to re-learn how to take a pic of some pottery and transfer the pic to fabric, then cut it out, then fuse it, then.......

So here's the one I finally did for sister-in-law Sheila and SHE HAD IT FRAMED! I looks quite smashing on her wall and the fact that she likes it enough to actually hang it in her already beautifully furnished home is very flattering. So, thank YOU Sheila.

12-12-08 Pillows and our pretty kitchen

I appliqued two pillow covers for Family Fenster in Israel to replace the ones that good old time and kids have demolished. I'm going there on the 16th and it'll be a JOY to see the family, since it's been since July, when Mordechai entered the world.

These are pretty much my first attempt at using fusible web, then machine applique to make pillow covers. Lili likes mauve (maroon? wine? dark red?) and deep blue and flowers, so I just had to include some green too! I hope she likes them.

Here's also a pic of our newly-painted kitchen cabinets, black on the bottom, white on the top, new pulls. We're loving the look.

Nov. 2008 Devon & Courtney

Here are my darlings Devon is 12 yrs. old and Courtney is 4 yrs. old....Jamie's darlings too. These are school pics and turned out quite nicely, thank you very much. They are the sweetest kids!

Nov. 2008 Two more quilts

Here are two more quilts I made about 6 months ago. The blue one was for little Mordechai and the pink one for Dave & Isla's little Lilly.

Nov. 2008 Courtney's Quilt

I have not been keeping up with this blog until today, so this is catch-up time. This is a picture of a Dick and Jane quilt I made for Courtney about 8 months ago. This was a really steep learning curve and I made so many mistakes, I had to buy extra fabric to correct them. I had it professionally quilted but now I wish I hadn't because it was too heavily quilted, which made it rather too stiff. On the other hand, with repeated washings, it should soften nicely and Jamie tells me Courtney cuddles with it all the time.........and that's the important goal.

Those are Stan's legs peeking out from the bottom!

Nov. 2008 Triangle Quilt

I purchased a kit to make this quilt. It came with pre-selected fabrics and instructions, but I didn't enjoy some of the chosen fabrics, so I substituted some of them. I learned so much about how to join triangles so that I'd have the necessary 1/4 inch seam allowance to stitch them together.

I really love this quilt and it is gracing our dining room wall. There's a reflection in the dining room mirror....which only doubles the joy!

We'll look upon it with pleasure for many years to come.

Nov. 2008 My beautiful Israeli family

This is the latest pic of Family Fenster in Israel. From left to right, Yosef Chaim is almost 4, Rachel Miriam is almost 2, Mordechai is almost 6 months, and Eric Ivan is, well, forget his age.....He's the papa! The mommy is taking the photo.

Are they gorgeous or what?!?

Devon's Quilt posted 2/28/08

I've finished this quilt for grandson Devon and I think it turned out quite jazzy. I love color and I love quilts that incorporate the color black, so this has it all. I didn't use a pattern - I just decided that each block would be approximately 5" by 5". This is called a scrappy quilt because I used so very many different fabrics.

I hope he loves it. My next project is making a Dick and Jane quilt for Courtney, who'll be four in July. This one will follow a pattern and since I've never done that before, I'm a little apprehensive. Making up my own scrappy quilts is easy; I don't know about following a pattern!

Tuesday Feb. 26, '08

I haven't blogged in months because I've been too busy quilting and reading and seeing films and visiting my family in Israel and taking care of my health and taking care of Stanley and...

More to come. I'll post a photo of a quilt I'm finishing for Devon (11-yr-old grandson).

Ciao for now...

Yosef & Rachel, Tues. Dec. 4, '07 entry

These are my darlings Yosef & Rachel who live in Israel and I get to live with them from Dec. 10th thru the 25th on my semi-annual visit to Israel. Yosef will turn 3 - all those beautiful curls will say "bye-bye" - and Rachel will turn 11 months. I'm bringing them quilts and toys and children's CDs with books that go witht hem and lots of other goodies. My new camcorder will let me see them whenever I need a fix back in L.A.

Courtney & Devon in August 2007

Jamie's kids are terrific. Courtney (3 1/2 years old) is an eager ballerina and wears her tutu everywhere - well, always around the house! Devon (almost 12) loves dirt biking and is growing bigger by the minute.

When I return from Israel, my next quilt project is for Devon. He'll help me pick out the fabrics and the general idea for a pattern, since I'll do my own thing regarding that. Then comes a quilt for Courtney and I've already selected the fabulous fabric for that one.

Sun. Dec. 2, 2007

This is working? I'm new to this blog site and trying out all sorts of options.

The first photo is a flannel rag quilt for Yosef. The 2nd, for Rachel, is kinda special. I ordered the 30 center blocks from a site on Ebay, then designed the quilt around them. I didn't use any pattern, thus this is my ORIGINAL creation and I'm pleased as, well, the proverbial punch.

I like COLOR!

The kids will get their cuddlies when I visit Israel from Dec. 9 thru Dec. 25.

Ciao for now...

11/13/08 New Quilt Top

This is the new quilt top I've finished. Now comes the grunt work!

Sat. 6/23/07

This is my first blog on blogspot. I'd like to change the color of this font. I'll try now. Did it work? NO. I'm italicizing this. I'm making this bold. See, I'm just trying out the little buttons on the compose page.
I think I like this font better. More easily read I think. Although quite large. It's Verdana. This is Trebuchet. This is arial. This is (This is Webdings!)
Well, now I have to learn how to upload photos. There's a button for that but it's not responding to my click at the moment.
Ciao for now...