Thursday, February 26, 2015

More sampler fun!

When I got to class on Tuesday night, Pat had her finished Row by Row Sampler to show off! What a beauty! Plus Dianne had been sewing with the Tuesday sewing group and had her rows sewn vertically on her Honeycomb Waffle quilt. Lots of color and 3-D goodness.
Most of them got their Ribbon block finished last night and it looked great with their blocks from last time.
Dianne

Rose

Karen

Kellie

Diana

Lora V

I spent time last  night working on some flyers, and other class related stuff. Tonight is probably more of the same, but it's good to get it finished! I want to start quilting the new quilt, but it will probably have to wait until the weekend.
Cindy

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Hard-sewing quilters!

The Garden Window Sampler Club had an extra class this month and what a great surprise to have them all bring their finished quilt tops Monday night to show and tell! Judy's is above, I forgot to have her peek out so we could see whose quilt it was.
They all did a great job. This is their second sampler quilt, they have been quilting for about a year.
Marilyn had worked on Gathering Around during this club, and she brought her quilted quilt to show...I was fascinated by the quilting on this one. The use of the black/white thread made some interesting designs as the triangles wove in and out of the black.


Dorothy started a month later than the others, hence the extra class. I had given her the last block of her quilt last month so she worked on getting the setting triangles in place and started to sew together her diagonal rows.


Carolyn and Judy brought their Turning Cartwheels quilts to work on the on point setting as well. This was a new technique for them so it worked out well that they could bring them and learn how to do it.

Carolyn
Judy decided she didn't like the fabric she had cut for her setting triangles, so is going to rethink them, but sewed her rows together without them for the time being. How many times has this happened to you? Many times I get a fabric that I think will work perfectly and then it doesn't. We can't always foresee every nuance of color and how it will play with the others. 

Judy
All in all it was great fun an I look forward to helping  most of them start a new sampler next month! 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Family sew-in and a celebration!

 We had a great family sewing day on Saturday. We even had some non sewers drop in to catch up and give advice!
 Deb worked on her quilt....she started it a long time ago. She's not a sewer, but wanted to try it. She worked really hard for this.....TA- DA!
Her daughter, Ashley, learned how to make a pillow case for her son.  She started a Tshirt quilt on our last sewing day and worked on it for awhile Saturday too.

 Phylicia made these cute soft cubes for little hands. Some of them had ribbon handles.

 Sharon satin stitched this fact on her boating bag.
 She also finished a couple of small bags with vinyl fronts to keep things dry on the boat.

 I worked on another Reversible Box Tote. I've been eyeing this fabric for awhile...love it!
 I also sewed the backing fabric together for the new quilt. It's an orange, pink, yellow and purple batik with swirls. I might use the same fabric for the binding, but first things first. Quilting it.
 We gathered for a family celebration in the evening...my parents' 65th anniversary. We had a houseful. I didn't get a pic of the happy couple together, but here is dad with some grandchildren...
 Mom with some grandchildren...
 and Dad again with 2 granddaughters and a great grandson.
 We had a great dinner and a great time.
After chasing each other around in circles for awhile, the great grandsons had a little chat on the phone. We were surprised they even knew what to do with it, as they were toy dial phones! 

 I spent some time Sunday prepping for a kids pillow class I'm doing for a 4-H group next weekend. I also partially loaded the new quilt on to the frame. I have classes the next two nights, so I'm not sure when I will get back to it, but it's a start in the right direction.  It still needs a name.
New quilt....Abacus?

Friday, February 20, 2015

More class beauties...and stuff...

Marta
I met with the Sunbonnet Sue Sampler club Wed. night...their quilt blocks have doubled now! They worked on the Churn Dash and Grecian Square blocks, cutting and sewing the sections for both blocks and then assembling them.
Laural
They did a great job!
Diane

Diane

Avis
I will be going to my hometown tomorrow to celebrate my parents' 65th Anniversary. Some of us are going to sew for awhile too. I want to make another Reversible Box Tote, so I'm taking that along plus the backing fabric to piece together for the new quilt. We'll see how much actually gets finished! I am looking forward to some family time!
Avis


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Love those finishes!


Lorraine brought in her finished Scattered Thoughts quilt top Saturday to show me. She used soft colors so the graphics seem to be floating along.
Dianne finished her Scattered Thoughts top on retreat...you can see she had a little help holding it up to show us!
I worked on my new quilt design last night...I hadn't touched it since retreat. I got the rest of the rows sewn together and the border sections cut, sewn together and ready to attach. Hopefully I will get it finished tonight. Here is a little sneak peek....
Newbie, as yet unnamed

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Lots of 3-D beauty!


.Jane. 
I taught the Honeycomb Waffle, Too class yesterday at Cut Up and Quilt. It was a great lesson in choosing fabrics of different values to make an eye-catching optical illusion. Once the quilters got some blocks on the design wall, we talked about how some of the values related to others. 

Susan's block layout


Dianne cutting

 We noticed that the darks didn't always have to be the same level of darkness.
Diane K
 The mediums are the trickiest to choose: sometimes a medium could be a light or dark, depending on what the value of the other fabrics are that are paired with it.

Rochelle
 Tone on tones and batiks worked well for this quilt, but so did fabrics with more definite patterns.

Lorraine

Some lights were really light...some were not so light. It didn't matter, as long as they related well to the other two fabrics in their set.
Dianne T
 Stripes make wonderful patterns as well as add to the design.

Susan J used one fabric that had script.

Betty 
  It was a great class and once they knew what to do, they really worked hard, getting many half blocks finished. I think that there will be some finished quilts soon.

I will be teaching this class again in March, so I asked them to bring their finished tops to show that class what they can do. (it was a thinly disguised challenge!)
Becky C
 I need to do some cleaning today, then hope to finish the new quilt that I started on retreat. Maybe I will get some inspiration while doing so and get it named! Happy Sunday!