Quilt Show Classes

I am excited to be teaching at the North East Ohio Quilt Show this coming July!

I will be teaching four classes

**Plays Well with Others

**Preserving Memories - T-Shirt Quilt Basics

**Granny Gets an Update

**Point the Way - A Paper Piecing Primer

Along with my classes, I am also offering a lecture - Math for Quilters.

For more information or to register click HERE

I hope you can join me!

Quick Catch Up

As usual, I've been quite busy here and blog posts have fallen by the wayside. I've got a few minutes and decided to post a few pictures of recent projects and classes, just so you don't think that I've forgotten about all of you or being lazy. :-)

Here's a T-Shirt quilt that I recently made. I was given a variety of size shirts and needed to play a little with the layout. I'm glad I chose the shadow effect. The recipient liked the quilt, which is always a plus.

This is my version of Poinsettia Millefiori which is a free download by Michael Miller Fabrics. The original quilt is by Marinda Stewart and measures approx. 44" x 59." 

The fascinating thing about these One Block Wonder/Stack and Whack type quilts is that no two look the same. This was fun to make and the quilt is at Chestnut Ridge Sewing in Millersburg, OH. There is a class scheduled for this in July, and I'm looking forward to that. I think there are a few open spots, if you are interested. :-) 

I've recently taught a couple of rug classes and while I am really not great at remembering to take pictures during class, here are a few I was able to get.

I love the greys and blacks of this rug!

This blue rug is made with twenty strips and is from a single fabric - ombre confetti metallic. This exact fabric and a variety of the color colorways is available at Chestnut Ridge Sewing. 

I love the placemat size rugs and this is looking awesome!

I've changed the way the "ropes" are coiled a bit because I've found it so much easier with which to work. Of course another big plus is the fact that we get a glimpse of what the rug will look like when it's complete. (It's actually in reverse, but it still gives you a good idea.)

Even though the picture is blurry, I love these browns together and think the rug will be striking!

Isn't this just plain wonderful?

This is so colorful and fun and can't wait to see it as a rug!

This is so soft looking and it's just beautiful!

I'm loving these fabrics!

This is going to be striking!

As you can see from the pictures, I've been busy and that makes me happy!

Design Wall Monday

I've been working on some smaller pieces and here are two of them. The pattern is called Straight & Easy Table Runner and Place Mats and the designer is Nicole Chambers-Kaya (Tiger Lily Press).

The table runner pictured above is sewn together, but the one below is not. (I do have it sewn together, but I forgot to get a picture of it.)

The pattern was written with pre-cut 1 1/2" strips in mind and although I didn't have pre-cuts cut to that size, that's what I used for the top table runner. I decided that I wanted to see what it would look like using 2 1/2" strips, so I adjusted the pattern and the results are my second table runner.

I had a package of 40 - 2 1/2" strips called Citrus Blast from Blank Quilting and since there were two of each strip, I divided the package in two and cut one set down to 1 1/2" and left the other whole. Aren't these strips pretty?!?

The two tops are sewn and I'm in the quilting process.  The one pictured below is the 2 1/2" strip version and I'm simply using the edge of my walking foot and quilting down both sides of the seam. For the narrow strip version, I'm going to quilt down the middle of each strip. Easy, peasy!

I'm using a variegated thread (Superior Threads, Rainbows #801) on both sides and love how it looks. The backing is from my stash, and that makes me happy.  Yay!

I plan to bind these in a solid Kona purple.

My goal is to finish quilting these today and get the binding machine sewn on so I have hand-work to do tomorrow evening when I get home from another umbrella workshop. It'll be kind of late when I get home and I know I'll need something to relax me. Binding will be perfect.

On another note, I just realized that I didn't share my American Honor contest winnings here on the blog. On April 30th, I was notified that my Freedom Rings quilt was a finalist. I was thrilled and honored beyond belief, but even more so when I was told that I won second place. Woo Hoo!!

Imagine my surprise when I came home one day last week and found this big package waiting for me on the kitchen table. I didn't remember ordering anything so I was intrigued.

Then I noticed the address label...

Oh my goodness! Look at all these goodies that were packed inside this quite heavy box!

Four - 20 piece fat quarter bundles of Starlet

Four - 20 piece fat quarter bundles of Fabric Illusions

Four - 12 piece fat quarter bundles of Primitive Basics

Four - 40 piece designer rolls of Sumatra Batiks II

One - 13 piece (12 fat quarters and 1 panel) bundle of the American Honor fabrics

Look at that haul! My mind is certainly swirling with ideas for all this fabric.

I do know that at least one bundle from each fabric will be used for a donation quilt, if not more. I can't think of a better way to say "Thank You" to Blank Quilting for these prizes.

Blank Quilting also donated $100, in my name, to the America's Mighty Warriors program. WOW!!

And a follow-up from last week...

I still have not gotten a really good picture of the T-shirt quilt I made for the local Harley Davidson dealership. It was too big for me to get a good one here, especially since the weather was not great that day, so I stopped in that the shop the other day, but the sun was shining on it and kind of messed up the picture. Here's what I did get though.

One of the workers at the shop shared his picture with me, but you can't really see the whole quilt, including the orange flange binding. I'll try and stop in later this week and get better pictures.

I was told that tickets are selling well (close to $1000 since May 13th) and they feel confident that they will reach their $10,000 goal by Labor Day. Next week is Ohio Bike Week which brings thousands of visitors to the area and they know from past events that they will sell a lot of tickets during that time. All proceeds are going to a local charity - Nehemiah Partners of Sandusky

I feel honored to have been asked to make this quilt because this is such a wonderful program they are supporting. I made a similar quilt for the owners last year. It was a gift from the staff and they all really liked it. We decided to make the raffle quilt large (queen size) and keep it simple to appeal to more people. I agreed with that and think that the ticket sales have shown that we made the right decision. 

What are you working on today?

To see what others are creating today, check out the Design Wall Monday posts at

Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

(Yay! Judy took over Design Wall Monday from Judy L)

and

Beth's Monday Making  

Progess, etc.

I missed Monday's Design Wall Monday post...

Here's what's been on my design wall recently. I was asked to make a T-shirt quilt for the local Harley-Davidson shop for a raffle. Here are the shirts I'm using and their locations in the quilt.

There is sashing, but I didn't have room to lay that out because the shirts had to be cut at 16". Yikes! 

The quilt is done and you can see in the picture below that I added an orange flange binding.   

I am pleased with the quilt, and so is the shop. I didn't have a good place to take a picture and I already gave them the quilt. They have it hanging up in the shop so I'm going to stop in later today and get a picture. I'll post it here soon.

Judy L is no longer hosting the Design Wall Monday link up, but Judy over at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts has graciously taken it over for us. Yay!

I'm linking up there today. (Yes, I know it's Friday and I'm just now posting about Design Wall Monday!)

I'd be doing the same over at Beth's Monday Making but the linking time expired. Go on over there anyway to check out some awesome quilt eye candy!

Monday - Design Wall and Last Day of Christmas in July Blog Hop

I can hardly believe that it's the last day of the

Christmas in July Blog Hop

 

Sarah, over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

 

was our organizer and she did a fabulous job.

 

There's still time to check out all of the participating bloggers and see their awesome projects. Some of us even have giveaways in which you might be interested.

 

I posted at tutorial on Saturday and I have a giveaway too.

You can check that out HERE

 

So now that the hop is almost over (at least my post is done) AND I finished all of my projects for the Desire to Inspire Challenge (I'll post pictures after Henry Glass & Co. puts it on their blog), I am back to finishing up a t-shirt quilt and a few other odds and ends.

 

Here's the t-shirt quilt. I have two borders to sew on and then it's ready for quilting. YAY!

 

I have to admit that I am a little bit happy to be sewing something other than Christmas fabric. I loved the hop and challenge, but I kind of feel the need to work in a new set of colors.  :-)

 



Besides the Blog Hop, check out what other people have on their design walls today.

 

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

and

 

Monday Makings

Design Wall Monday

I'm seeing a trend here and I don't really like it. It appears that I have only been able to write up one post per week for quite a while. Well, hopefully this week changes that. Maybe not for good, but at least for one week I'm going to try very hard to post at least three times. Don't keep your fingers crossed though. It all may be nothing more than a pipe dream for me  :-)

But.... I do have something to share this week.

This is a quilt that I have in progress and I am loving it! I modified a pattern called Scrappy Strips from Allison over at Cluck, Cluck Sew

 

As usual, the picture does not do the quilt this justice, but it is full of bright and cheery fabrics. It's pretty much a stress-free and fool-proof project, which is just what I need about now. The quilt will measure about 49" x 63" and will not have a border.  

 

I wanted to work on something really fun while I worked on a couple of t-shirt quilts. Here's one that I delivered this past Thursday. I'm thrilled that the recipient liked it.

 

 

The young lady's favorite color purple so I was happy to see that it worked as the sashing and border with all of these shirts. I also used another purple fabric for the backing and she was really happy about that.  I love it when people really like their quilts!  :-)

 

What are you working on today?

 

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

 

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times

 

and

 

Monday Makings

 



Friday Finishes

Happy New Year!

May 2016 find you happy, healthy and with lots of time to quilt!

2015 ended with some finishes and for that I am happy. It's been kind of crazy around here and the first few months of 2016 doesn't look like it will be much different. I've decided to look at this as a positive, as I could be struggling with things and not able to quilt or teach at all. :-)  

I finished a t-shirt quilt for a friend. She and her daughter started it, but soon ran into issues so they asked me to complete it for them. I was happy to do it and it's done and was delivered in time for Christmas, even if this picture doesn't show that. (I send them this picture to determine if they liked the border corners and forgot to take a picture when the quilt was completed. Oh well...)

And, I finished and delivered this Carpenter's Star quilt, complete with embroidered names to my friend Janet. It was a gift for her mom. I love the fabrics in this quilt!

And Brandon's quilt was presented to his twin brother and mom on Monday. This really was an emotional challenge for me.  I am glad I made it and hope that it brings comfort to the family.

I hand-wrote a message to the family on the back of the quilt, along the binding.

I promised Quinn and Sadie that they could sew a little bit over Christmas break. They each chose 6 strips of fabric from my "collection" (That's what they call my stash and I love it!), and sewed them together to make a baby quilt. I set up the machine with a guide for them to keep an accurate (or close to accurate) 1/4" seam allowance and they both did exceptionally well. Here they are showing Grandpa Jack what they've created.

Sadie decided that she thinks hers could be used by Bailey when her baby doll isn't using it. She's trying out the size to make sure it will work. They do love their sister!  :-)

I did the actual quilting for them (in the ditch) and they love them. Since we finished these right before supper, the girls asked if these quilts could be used for placemats too and since I said yes, it was decided that I (or we) need to make one for Ronan. I think I'll try to do that later today. 

I love this backing fabric and have just enough to make Ronan's placemat and maybe one more. 

And finally, although not quilt-related, I am happy to say that I'm thrilled to have finished with what I hope will be first of many purging episodes. 

My sisters and I challenged ourselves to do some "housekeeping" and here's what my car looked like when Jack and I made a trip to Goodwill yesterday. Feels good!

Do you have any Friday Finishes to share? 

I'd love to see them.

Hooking up to 

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Friday Finishes

It's Friday and I've actually finished something! WooHoo!!

Remember THIS little backing fiasco from a couple of weeks ago that I ran into while preparing to quilt my Zen Garden quilt?

Well the correction has been made and the quilt is done. By done I mean pieced, quilted and bound. YEAH!

Here's how I corrected the back. As you can see, I added a strip of the same blue that I used in the binding and I'm quite happy with the results. 

I also made a small T-Shirt Quilt sample.

I am in the process of making a couple of T-Shirt Quilts for people and I've had a couple of other people express an interest. Unfortunately, whenever I've made a T-Shirt Quilt it's always been for someone else so I don't have a sample to show a perspective customer. I've taken plenty of pictures, but it's not the same as looking at the real thing. 

So, last night I decided to make a very small sample. I decided against adding extra borders, alternate blocks, etc. because I can show pictures of those. I just wanted to have something that a customer can touch so they understand how they actually feel, since they are a bit different than "normal" quilts. 

So, all in all, I feel like I finally accomplished something and I'm happy. Now I think I should get back to working on my Prairie Star quilt.  :-)

Have you finished anything this week? Why not post about it and link it to Sarah's Blog - Confessions of a Fabric Addict? Go ahead and head on over to the site even if you haven't finished anything. I'm pretty sure you'll find some wonderful eye candy and inspiration. I know I did! :-)