Stringpiecing class

Stringpiecing class went well yesterday. Lots of strips, lots of different colors. Several people were working on their first quilt, others were using up scraps from previous projects.

Alison is working on her first quilt.

Here mom Connie is using up scraps from years of sewing.

If there were prizes for the most strips, Jo would win hands down. Hers were collected over 20 years of quilting.

 Kaelan is  making hers for her wall, but when asked how big she was going to make it, she replied she wasn't sure....we all know where that could go, right?

 Kathy has quite a collection of brights!

This mother/daughter team, Jeanelle and Madison,  were tag-teaming it, taking turns sewing and pressing. They cut up lots of handkerchiefs for a bright, fun look. I guess we know who's getting that quilt!

 Madison is a hard worker, she did a lot of sewing.

Marlene was using scraps from sewing doll clothes for her grandchildren.

It was a great class, very lively with so many ladies!

Bargello progress

I had my stitching day with my friends on Sunday and I worked on my twisty bargello. I now have 15 rows sewn together and about 8 more figured out, just have to cut and sew. Hopefully I will get some more done on it tomorrow night.

It irritates me that this picture will not post the right way, so you have to look at it sideways. Sorry.

T-shirt quilt class & Cottage swap party

Everyone came back to the T-shirt class yesterday ready to put them together, so they got a lot finished.

The party after to show and tell the cottage blocks went well too. It gave them a chance to see what others were doing with theirs and hopefully get some inspiration. One lady had her top finished, and several had been working on getting their rows together.

We had a drawing for a batik jelly roll donated by the store and 3 quilt patterns donated by Darlis, at Quiltinghorizon.com, so some even left with prizes!

Cindy is thinking of having her cottages on a yellow brick road....

Darlene really got creative with her trees. One of her swap partners made a church!

I have too many pictures to post here so will post the rest of the party pictures to my flickr page, the link is in the sidebar.

Last chair cover....I think...

I finished my desk chair cover and got it on the chair today. I love this fabric and the new look!

They did some painting last week, so we have a new blue look for the longest wall in the library too. I added this striped runner to the ugliest bookcase I have. We'll see how long it stays on! It's metal, so I can always add magnets if I have to.

This is where kids can use the laptop computers or meetings could be held. The other chair & stool I recovered are back here.
Now you've taken a little tour of the library where I work everyday!

A dicklace? What???

Have you ever heard of a dicklace? Check it out here at UglyExpensive...

I worked all day Sunday on a tablerunner for class...got it made, quilted and got the binding on last night. No pix yet. I also worked a little more last night on the chair cover for my desk chair at school. I am taking it today to see how it fits. The back cover isn't completely done, but wanted to "try it on" first to see how it fits. It's the same fabric as the other chair.

Sunday sewing...

I am having a hard time focusing lately as I have too many things I want to make and not sure what to start first. Plus I have been tired all week, so feel like I haven't gotten as much done as I want. I haven't gotten back to the bargello and need to finish that too. Plus I have ideas for other quilts and want to start them.

I had the day off from school Friday so planned on sewing all day, but a friend was going to Plattsmouth to the quilt store...and ... well...I couldn't really let her go alone, now could I? That would be unfriendlike. So we went there, then went to 2 more quilt shops. Had a good time as Cindy and I haven't gone shop hopping for awhile. And I managed to find some fabrics I really NEEDED.

I did get the chair cover started for my desk chair. The seat is made and the back is quilted, just need to sew it together. It will be trickier to make to fit, as I can't actually recover the back like I did last time. It is a plastic chair and won't come apart so will have to make a back cover also. I hope it looks ok, though if I don't want to take it to school I guess I can cover something here. I have many odd chairs here and several desk chairs.

I had 2 classes yesterday. The T-shirt quilt class went well, they got a good start on it and hopefully all will be ready to put them together next week.After that I had a UFO class. Those are always busy with ladies trying to finish something they started earlier in class. It is also fun for me as I can see how they have progressed.

Better go get busy, hopefully will have some pix later.

Another chair...

I had another funky old chair I wanted to recover at work, so I drew a paper pattern of the seat, so I wouldn't have to take the chair home. I wanted to make a cover for the seat, so I decided to quilt the fabric so that it would hold it's shape better.

I then cut it out using my pattern and added the gusset and a drawstring to tighten it on. It actually fit pretty well!

I took some fabric to work with me Monday so that I could reupholster the back, as it was small and looked like it would be easy to do.

I wish I would've take a picture of it before, but I'm not taking it apart again as that back was a booger to get back on, so you will have to just imagine ugly gold vinyl! It is still a pretty funky chair, but at least it is prettier now!

Now it looks so much better that I think I need to make a cover for my desk chair at work! It's not ugly, but plain, black and boring.

Peas in a Pod

I finished the little quilt top today. I ended up using yellow for a border to break things up. The yellow looks brighter here than in person. I get frustrated when the colors don't look true. I know it is probably the lighting, which I really know nothing about. . I took this at night so maybe I will try again tomorrow.

I put a patchwork block in each corner. I think I have enough strips left for binding, plus some 2" and smaller strips that will go in the "strings" box.

Quilt Barns BOM

I found this cute Quilt Barn BOM pattern recently. She is going to post a new "Quilt" for the barn every month. You do have to scroll down to the bottom of a very long page to get to it. I thought with all the cottage interest lately,  some might find these intriguing too. I have added the link to my sidebar, which brings up a question...has anyone had problems moving the page elements around in their sidebar? I have done it many times, but for some reason, now I can't. It still says to click and drag, which I have always done with success, but now it doesn't work.If you have any suggestions for me, I'm all eyes.

Turn them this way and that way...

Today I had a Cottage Workshop class so that ladies who had participated in the Cottage Swap could  come and start working on putting them together. I had come up with some simple trees, so made patterns for them and shared those today too. Most of them worked on the paperpieced tree since they aren't as comfortable with paperpiecing.

Tonight I have been working on the 30's print baby quilt.  I turned some of the blocks around to make a more interesting arrangement. I was tempted to go find some more fabrics to spice this quilt up, as it seems like they are kind of blendy, but I resisted. The whole purpose was to USE UP, not ADD TO!

I sewed a bunch of the leftover strips together. I think I will make a piano key border with them. I need something to separate the quilt body from the border. I think yellow might be nice, since there is a lot of yellow in the other prints. Or maybe lavendar, as there is only one lavendar in the quilt. Or green, I really like green.

Found

The other night I was looking through some fabrics that were left from other projects. I was going to meet with some friends from work to teach them the basics of rotary cutting, so needed something to demonstrate cutting.  They want to learn to quilt and are going to take the next stringpiecing class but needed some help getting started so they could precut some strips before class.

I found these strips and pieced strips that were left after I made a baby quilt a few years ago. There were also some leftover pieces of most of the fabrics. So I took them with and after demonstrating and helping them get started cutting, I worked on cutting up the leftover fabrics into similiar size strips as what I had. They did a great job and I got my cutting done.

I have been thinking about what I would do with them since I found them the other night. I know there is enough left for a baby quilt, so decided something simple would be best. Tonight I worked on putting borders on  the pieced strips for a simple block. I think these will make a cute baby quilt.

I made 12 blocks so far.  I have lots of strips left, so could make more blocks if I want. Or maybe a piano key border.

This is the fabric I bought for the back on the stringpieced quilt that I finished the other day. Hopefully I will get it on the quilting frame in the next few days.

Take a fun poll!

Yesterday as I was looking through blogs, I came across a cute cartoon of a group of ladies at a Quilter's Anonymous meeting on the Selvage Blog. It gave me the idea for a poll (to the right). Please take a minute to answer. Don't worry, the Stash Police never stop by here, so your secret is safe with me. (If anyone's been cleaning, will you come to my house while you're in the mood?)