Thursday, January 27, 2011

New Sampler

I do a series of classes I call Sampler Clubs that meet once a month for 6 months. So every 6 months I need to design a new one so that the group doing the newest one can keep going. I have several people in this class that have done all 12 samplers so far and have taken classes with me since I began teaching them. I also reteach them as people want them, so I usually have 4 or 5 Sampler Clubs going on at once.

 I have been working on the design for the new quilt for a month or so, but finally started sewing Sunday. I decided to use batiks because I have quite a nice collection, including some new ones I got for Christmas. I got 2 blocks done on Sunday.
 I worked on the third last night, but this is as far as I got.....

Monday, January 24, 2011

Classes and other stuff... well, just hexies I guess...

 What happens when you start stringpiecing? Your strings seem to multiply and start leaping all over your table. These strings were much more orderly when they came in their box!
 Saturday's Spiderweb Stringpiecing class went very well, with everyone getting lots of use out of their strings.




As you can see, everyone got at least one block finished and they all had parts of more done as well. I can't wait to see these quilts finished!

I got 3 more hexie flowers done and a couple more started.

Friday, January 21, 2011

A win!

I was lucky enough to win a gift card to Fashionable Fabrics on Sew-fantastic's blog the other day....I am so excited because now I get to go shop. I have been getting dangerously low on fabric since I have been quilting quite a bit, so it couldn't come at a better time!  I have been checking out the site and it is loaded with beautiful fabrics. I will keep you posted on what I choose!
I started a new Sampler group Wednesday night. Didn't do much of anything last night.  I am teaching the Spiderweb Stringpiecing tomorrow and I know that will be a fun class. 

Tonight I am going out with my daughters to dinner. Maybe I will feel ambitious when I get home and work on some more hexies.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I'm on a roll....

I finished quilting my fourth quilt for my friend the other day. I am over the hump, with three left for her. I need to get to work now on a new Sampler quilt, so might not get too much quilting done the next few weeks.

I worked on hexies last night....got a couple more sewn together.

The way the beads on the blue go around, I think I should've cut a new one that matched for the one on the left touching the orange hexie. It is funny how it worked out.

Monday, January 17, 2011

It takes a village...

  Thursday night was a fun night with friends. You might remember I hosted a swap that ended about a year ago. Cindy has been working on her blocks and brought her cottage quilt to share...she used the yellow brick road fabric for sashings and the bottom row is her street. The bottom border is dandelions! Love it! We also helped Debbie lay out some blocks from a quilt she started a few years ago so she can get it done. It was  great!
 I have had mine hanging partially finished in the classroom all year, and received so many comments on it, so decided to teach a class on it.Of course, first I had to finish it!  So Saturday, we spent an enjoyable day making cute cottages, trying tree patterns and talking about layouts. I didn't give them a final layout pattern because this is a quilt you want to let develop into your own design. Nancy has snowflakes flying in hers!
 Jane wants a night sky and wants hers to have a cabin feel. She said hers might have more trees than cabins, though you can see she has a good start on the cabins. She is holding up her foresty border fabric.
Barb had fun making her cabin with a dark, windy sky....she is making some with light skies and some with dark. She is a fairly new quilter and enjoyed learning some new techniques as well.
There are more pix of the cottages we made in the swap on my Flickr page.
I can't wait to see what they do with these! Sew, people, sew!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hexie flowerpatch

Here they are, the first 19 hexie flowers sewn together. I have 4 more sets of hexies ready to sew into flowers. I think I'm hooked!

Monday, January 10, 2011

More hexies and another quilting finish!

I have most of the next row of hexies partially sewn around the first circle of seven, so these two will finish off that row. I will take a pic when I get them all sewn together.
I had a chance to finish the second quilt for my friend today since I had a snow day from school. I also got her runner almost finished. I still have to tie the knots.
Now I'm just chillin' with my cats.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Quilting finished!

I have some more quilts for a friend that I need to quilt, and have had them for awhile, so I want to get them finished soon. This isn't the greatest picture, the lighting wasn't great.
 I finished this one last week and have been working on another today. Neither one was that big, about 50" x 75" so they are going pretty fast.

I have been working on my hexies too, and have almost another row around sewn on....will post a pic when I do. They are becoming an obsession!

It is snowing here. We are supposed to get 8 -9" before it is finished.
We ended up with a snow day here, I get to stay home and quilt!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Flower Power

Since I just have 88 of the mylar hexies, I had to start sewing them together so I could make more. Yes, I suppose I could order more...but this makes it more challenging. I like it so far.

Going out to eat to celebrate my nephew's birthday tonight...should be fun.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New Quilter!

 My sister Nancy has been talking about learning to quilt for a long time. When she goes to quilt shops with me, she always finds fabrics for ME to buy. She loves looking at fabric! While I was visiting her last summer in BC, she picked out some fabric and a pattern for her first quilt. She said I could teach her to quilt while she was here for the holidays. So we got together Saturday and got her started. She got all her blocks cut out and one block completely sewn.
 Some of the blocks will be blue and some will be purple. She has a pansy border that has both colors and is gorgeous.
The light blue is the sashing fabric. All of the four corners were supposed to be the same fabric as the sashing to give the block a rounded look,  but we thought green on 2 corners would look like leaves on the flowers (yea, we think they sort of look like flowers...especially once she gets that pansy border on!)

I think this is going to be a good beginner quilt for her, not too difficult, but an interesting pattern. I should've taken a pic of the picture in the book so you could see what it will look like, but I forgot. Now I just hope she keeps working on it when she gets home again!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Quilt finished....

 I finished the Spiderweb Stringpiecing  Quilt the other day. The binding is on, even though it isn't on this picture.
 Here is a close up of the back. This is the first time I have used this panto, but I like it. I got it last fall in DM.
I love stringpiecing...guilt free quilting.