Finally, it is done!

Well, it is finally finished, label included! This is my friend Debbi's quilt. I did the binding on it last week after I received it back from the quilter. I finished sewing on the label 10 minutes ago. I don't always sew on labels. I am trying to do that more often because of the history thing, but it is like borders. When I get to the borders, I always think I should do something really interesting, but I usually end up with plain borders because it is faster. I want to make a couple of pillowcases for her from the "found" fabric so that I can use some more of that fabric. I think she will like the bonus of pillowcases. I know I would, and I like making them. Pillowcases are much faster to make than a quilt, and they use up lots of fabric. I went pillowcase fabric shopping the other day, so I have a few to sew up now.

The two Hungry Caterpillar quilts are next. Once I get the binding on them, I can deliver them to the new babies. There is a new baby girl, and a new baby boy. I saw that Eric Carle has another fabric design available. It is called "The Very Series". It is bugs and butterflies and a sunny sun and other critters. I am sorry that I did not buy any of his Brown Bear fabric collection.

In this picture of Debbi's quilt, my friend Grace and my husband are holding up the quilt. When Grace came over today, I enlisted her aid to help hold up the quilt. When I posted pictures of it before, my husband was holding it. This quilt is too big for one person to hold so I was not able to get a good picture of the entire quilt. I think the quilt turned out well. As long as Debbi is happy with it, then so am I.

Tomorrow night is the June guild meeting. I want to get some sample blocks made to show for the June Quilting 101 workshop. It is hard to believe that June starts tomorrow. Where has this year gone?

Happy Quilting

Presents, Presents, Presents

Isn't it fun to receive little presents? I am so fortunate to have received these little items recently from quilting friends. I love to give as well as receive. It is rewarding to see the smiles on the faces of folks when they receive something you have made for them. I certainly had a smile on my face after receiving all these lovely gifts. When I receive them in the mail, the giver cannot see my face, but believe me I am smiling from ear to ear, sometimes even jumping for joy! What a wonderful little zipper bag. Jeanne gifted me with this darling little bag. She made this from charm squares. I liked the pattern so much that when I found it in a quilt shop, I purchased it for myself. I love this little bags. They are so handy for small projects, or to carry sewing notions, and so many other items.

This darling wool pincushion was made by Karen. I saw some of Karen's wool pincushions in a blog post. They are so cute. Each one was just a little different and I fell in love with every one of them.

This lovely purple block was made by Patsy and given to me at a quilt meeting. She had made this block with a purple theme. I saw another block that she made with a blue theme. I think she is also in the process of making a green one, too. This block is hand pieced, hand appliqued, and hand embroidered. I hope you can see the little blue and purple flowers that surround the appliqued center piece. Patsy enjoys doing lots of handwork and does a beautiful job of it. too.

This is a darling little purple yo yo mouse that my friend Candice made for me. It is filled with crushed walnut shells. I can use it as a pincushion, or I can use it as a friendly little critter sitting on my sewing machine and encouraging me to sew, sew, sew. Or, I can use it to hold my small fabric pieces in one place so that they do not go flying off my table. Or, I can use it for all of the above. I was so surprised when Candice gave this to me at a meeting. I love the little yo yos on the tail, and on the ears. This mouse is a friendly little critter who will not eat your crackers!

A big thank you goes out to all these ladies for my lovely little gifts. I really appreciate the time and energy that it takes to make hand made items. I truly enjoy receiving them. I think I better get busy and make some darling little gifts and pay it forward!

Besides receiving fun gifts, I have been doing some sewing as well. I am still working on my Puzzled Nines quilt. I received my friend Debbi's quilt back from the quilter so I am in the process right now of sewing on the binding and applying a label. Yesterday I received back my two Hungry Caterpillar quilts also. After finishing Debbi's quilt I will get the caterpillar's bound as well.

I wish you a wonderful week ahead with lots of fun sewing packed into your "free moments". *VBS* Until next time.....

Happy Quilting

Puzzled Nines Class

Yesterday I attended a guild sponsored quilt class. It was a fantastic class. The class was called Puzzled Nines and the teacher was Linda Wagner. She was also the program speaker at our guild meeting on May 3, 2010. She brought lots quilts to share with us that evening. There were lots of quilts that went whizzing by quickly so that Linda could show them all within the time limit she had for the evening's program. The topic of her presentation was playing games with yourself so that you could get those UFOs completed that most of us have residing in our sewing rooms. I say "most of us" because I know there are quilters out there who actually finish everything they start before they will start a new project, i.e. no UFOs. I hold those people in awe!

Linda is a very energetic person. She is also a prolific quilter. With all the quilts she shared, and the many she has finished and given away, I have decided she never sleeps. She works a full time job, and makes quilts in her spare time. She also teaches classes and does lectures for groups like ours. The quilts pictured above are some of Linda's Puzzled Nines quilts.

Linda is working on a series of floral Puzzled Nines quilts. She has three finished quilts in this series. She started class by placing her focal fabrics for her fourth quilt in this series on her design wall. She then added nine patches here and there and talked about how all the pieces could play together. By just moving one or two pieces, she showed us how a section could look better, how it could flow into the next design element, or even change the whole design concept with just a change of a nine patch or a focal fabric.

Linda had given us homework for this class. We were to bring at least 50 completed nine patches and our cut out focal fabrics to class. After Linda's class lecture and demonstration, we then started working with our own pieces on our design walls. Linda moved about the room for the rest of class and helped us with our designs.

This was such a great class. Linda is an excellent teacher, and shared with us so many wonderful design ideas. What I like so much about this class is that everyone's quilt will be different even though we all had the same teacher and the same class instruction. All the students asked for a follow up class so that we could see everyone's quilts again, and have Linda critique our designs.

This last picture is of my design wall at class. I have focus fabrics and some nine patches placed on my design wall. I have at least 100 more nine patches to place, and I want to find some more focus fabrics that will blend with what I have. I need to move some of my pieces around so that there are not too many umbrella pieces together. I think it looks a little bare right now, but when I get the nine patches all placed with the focus fabric pieces, I think it will look a lot better. The quilt size I am thinking about is a lap size, but as Linda said, the quilt will tell you what it will be.

For me this was a very liberating class. I feel much more confident that I can design a quilt on my own, and execute the design to my satisfaction. I usually work with patterns. I have never felt the need to make "original" designs, but after this class, I feel that I can design and sew a unique quilt without a written pattern. My grandbaby's quilt was inspired from a picture of a quilt in a magazine. After Linda's Puzzled Nines class, I am much more at ease with working without a pattern.

Happy Quilting

More Retreat Pictures

The first picture is my grandbaby's quilt. The theme for the baby's room is teddy bears. My friend, Grace, embroidered the four teddy bear patches on her commercial machine. The next two quilts are the Hungry Caterpillar quilts that I made for two pregnant teachers who teach at the school from where I retired last year. These two quilts are at Shari's house waiting for quilting. These quilts, and my hunky cowboy pillowcase are what I worked on at retreat. I was so thrilled to finish these quilts. I have known for months that the babies were on the way, but of course I waited until the last minute to get them sewn. I need that pressure of a tight deadline to get me motivated I guess! *VBS*

This quilt I made a few years ago in a class with Alex Anderson. It is her scrap bag beige class. I have had this quilt in a plastic bin since I finished it. I finally decided it needed to be quilted. Now all that is needed is the binding and a label to finish it.

Jeanne made this quilt for one of her Girl Scouts.

This is another quilt that Jeanne made for one of her Girl Scouts.

This is Monica's patriotic quilt. You will notice it has many of the same blocks that my patriotic sampler quilt contains. We were both part of the same block exchange. She added some embroidered patriotic redwork blocks, and also added some blocks of her own to finish the quilt. My picture does not do this quilt justice.

Here is my hunky cowboy pillowcase. Neat, huh? LOL!

Retreat, baby quilts and more

This is a quilt top that Shari put together during retreat.

This is a quilt top Jill put together during retreat.

This is a quilt top that Jeanne put together during retreat. All the flying geese are dimensional.

This is a quilt top Roberta put together and gave to Shari for quilting.

This is a quilt that was quilted and reunited with the maker during retreat.

This is a quilt Jeanne received back from Shari after quilting.

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Weekend before last I attended a quilt retreat. The pictures above are a result of that retreat. I made a hunky cowboy pillowcase for myself, I finished three baby quilt tops, and worked on my Mandarin Squares blocks. Last week I worked on my grandbaby's quilt and finished a row for the row quilt exchange group. Last weekend we attended the grandbaby's baby shower. It was a co-ed shower so there were husbands and wives attending. And of course, I attended my knitting classes and my bees. Lots of things to do and even more to get done.

I have all the blocks assembled for my Mandarin Squares quilt. I put it on hold to get the baby quilts finished and the row for the row exchange. Now I will get back to the Mandarin Squares quilt. I have sashing left to assemble, then I can decide on how to make the borders. They are large inset triangles and I want to get the stripes going a certain direction, which is (of course) not written into the pattern.

There is a guild quilt class this Saturday that I signed up to attend, so then I will have another quilt not finished. If we make all the required nine patches and squares and rectangles before class, then we will assemble the quilt with the help of the teacher at Saturday's class. I think this class is a design class more than a sewing class. I am waiting until after the monthly guild meeting on Tuesday evening to finally decide on what fabrics I am using in this class.

I will post a seperate post with the baby quilts and my hunky cowboy pillowcase I made at retreat. I also have recently received some darling gifts that I want to post about as well. I guess I better get busy.

Happy Quilting