Tuesday sewing day & class

Tuesday is becoming sewing day for some of us this summer...we've been meeting the past few Tuesdays to sew in the classroom at the store. I love the chance to sew with others! I got the St Marks quilt sewn together so am ready to make the borders.

As I was cutting the diamonds for this quilt, I had some 1 1/2" - 3" strips left over so I sewed them together in sets. I plan on cutting these up and making a  border with them and sandwiching it in between borders of the dark blue floral. Hopefully I will get this top finished today. I really need to shop for backs now, as I need a back for my daughter's asian Circle and Spin quilt too.

Laura continued work on her Spiraling Out Sampler #13...she is now officially caught up!

Diana finished her Circle and Spin top. She was working on this one on a past Tuesday sew-in day.

 Dianne finished her Twisterweave Mystery Quilt. Betty was there working on her mystery quilt as well, but I didn't get a picture of hers. Yet. I will. She missed the last class, so had a little catching up to do.

 Diana finished this one at home so brought to share. This is her Jigsaw Puzzle #2.

 Dianne had borders to put on this one, so finished it in no time.

 I also had the last session of the Centrifuge Sampler Quilt Tuesday night. Several ladies put their blocks on the design walls so I snapped some pix of that as well.

 It is always fun to see my patterns come to life with someone else's fabric choices.

It is going to hit 100 here today, so after our unseasonably cool summer weather, we will be sweating today! We are hoping it will dry things up a bit here too. The flooding goes on in this area, though we personally haven't had any ill effects yet, and we had about 3" of rain over the weekend. I know some people in the south really need rain, so I wish we could build a pipeline and send it to them!

My list and a binding finished...

I spent some time yesterday cleaning my quilting room. I also made a list of all the quilts ( assorted sizes, some are table toppers) that have "needs". Now I'm not saying I will get all these needs taken care of this summer, but it helps to know what is there so I can take a stab at it.

I have 7 that need bindings....but the good news is that I have 3 bindings ready to go, and the fabric ready for 3 more.  I will need to find fabric for the 7th one.

I have a lot that need to be quilted, so I organized them into 2 groups by whether I have a back for them or don't have a back. I was surprised, but there are 9 that I have the backs for, so they will go first. Most of the quilts that I teach monthly classes on are unquilted because I have a hard time hanging them at the store...plus sometimes I just run out of time. I still have 2 quilts to quilt for my friend, too, plus my daughter's quilt to quilt and bind. Her birthday is in July!

So today, after some gardening, I cut and made the 3 bindings that were left to make. Then I sewed one on this table topper. I sewed both sides by machine, so it went quickly. It's a start!

Tomorrow I am sewing with friends...this is becoming a usual Tuesday thing. I hope to finish sewing my diamonds together for the St. Marks quilt. I haven't touched it since last week. I might take a small quilt along to bind, just in case I get in the mood.

I also have a Sampler Class tomorrow night. It is the last night for this quilt, so I will need to take some pictures of their blocks.

Twisterweave Mystery Quilt revealed!

Drumroll please......\../

Today was the last session of the Twisterweave Mystery class, so they got to see how all the pieces they have been working on will come together to make this quilt. You might remember when I quilted it back in May. It isn't bound yet....more about that later.

Here are a couple of guesses to what the finished quilt would look like. Jane was pretty close!

I'm sure there are probably other settings that would look good too. It's fun to just play around.

The ladies that were here today had all their pieces ready to put together, so they got a lot of sewing done. There are just 2 different blocks to make, then when you put those blocks together, you see a different pattern as well.

Kim is making hers as a baby gift, it has colorful dinosaurs all over it. She has a cute dinosaur border print that goes with it too.

 Jane has a cat scene print that she is using for a border.

 I think that Eileen's would make an adorable baby girl quilt.

Don't you love the dots? Dianne said that was all she could see when she looked at hers, but I think the pattern shows up well too!

Two of the students couldn't come today, so I am looking forward to seeing their quilts too.

I have decided that I am going to have to have a binding week or a binding day every week or some way to get bindings done on my quilts. Sometimes I am in a hurry to get a quilt hung on display for class, so quilt it (it looks so much better) but don't bind until later (this is one of my excuses). Most of the time I sew the binding on both sides by machine as it is so much faster.  I even have the binding made for three of them. Does anyone else have this problem? What do you think? binding week? a day every week to bind? I don't actually know if I could stick to a day a week, but I need to do something and get them done!

I went to the Omaha Quilt Guild's Quilt Show with friends yesterday. It was fun and inspiring to see so many pretty quilts. I took some pix so will post some later. Lots of great vendors too, though I managed to keep my wallet in my purse! We drove up to Country Traditions quilt store in Fremont, NE afterwards and I did buy a few fat quarters there. It was a great quilty day.

A quilting finish and a quilt show!

I got the quilting finished on this quilt today. She made it  in one of my Sampler classes. 

Tomorrow I am going to the Omaha Quilt Guild Quilt Show with friends. Should be fun...pretty quilts, vendors to tempt us...We don't have a lot of quilt shows in this area, so I really enjoy going to this one. I will try to remember my camera to take some pictures!

A finished top!

I finished my daughter's asian Circle and Spin quilt top. Now I need to find the perfect fabric for the back.

I sewed with some friends yesterday which was fun. I arranged my diamond blocks on the design wall and started sewing them together. I forgot to take a picture of it before I started sewing, but here is a pic of it partially on the wall. Eileen looks like she is demonstrating something!  I got most of the diagonal rows sewn together yesterday.

I loaded a friend's quilt on the machine this afternoon. Hope to get some quilting done yet today.

Twisterweave Mystery Class

 The Twisterweave Mystery Class met for the 2nd time to work on their 2nd clue Saturday. When you are doing a mystery quilt, you have to think a lot about how the colors will relate to each other. You don't know what you are making, so you have to go by the color suggestions you are given. In this mystery, there has to be one fabric that is definitely dark compared to the others. Then you need a light to work as a background, 2 that are medium in color (which I think is the hardest to decide), and a light.

 I gave them a color chart that has the colors I used on the pattern, so they can tape snips of the fabrics to them. That way it is easier to keep on track using the correct fabric in the correct place.

As I took pictures of everyone's Clue 2 pieces, Jane was busy playing with her pieces from Clue 1 and mixing them with Clue 2 to see if she could figure out the mystery.

Hmmmmmm.......

This clue uses their dark, a medium and their background/light.

 Will she figure it out?

 I think all of their color choices are going to work out well.

Maybe she will figure out something else that is just as interesting...
They will find out next Saturday how their clues come together to make this quilt!

A quilt quilted!

 I finished quilting my mom's quilt last night. I am going to my hometown today to visit and attend our family reunion, so will take the quilt with me.

 The back is a solid torquoise, so the thread blends in well with it.  I really like this panto and plan to use it on my next quilt.

Wednesday night was the last night for this Sampler Club, so while they sewed I hung their finished blocks on the design wall. There is a third member who is working on a different sampler, but I forgot to hang hers as things got busy for a bit. I will catch her next time. She might have it finished by then! They will start a new Sampler next month.

With such different color choices, they really don't even look like the same pattern.

Tomorrow I have the second class for the Twisterweave Mystery quilt, so the students get the 2nd clue. I have seen a couple of them this week, and they are caught up and finished with clue 1. Next Saturday I will give them the final clue and finishing instructions. I quilted it soon after I made it, but haven't put the binding on it yet....probably should...soon.

A sewing day

 I spent Tuesday sewing with a few friends at the store. I put my asian Circle and Spin on a design wall and moved and rearranged for a long time. It is very busy and very bright. I hope it is not TOO busy and bright.  I got all the rows sewn together and some of the rows sewn to each other, so I should be able to get it finished soon.

I didn't do any sewing yesterday...I defrosted the freezer and cleaned the basement instead. All day. Not fun.

 Jane came and got her version of the Disappearing Nine Patch sewn together. So pretty!

 Diana worked on her Circle and Spin too. Her daugher helped her choose fabrics from her and her mom's older fabric stash.

Laura worked on more blocks from her Sampler #13....so pretty!

Jane's Sampler #1 Club met that night. Last month they made the Churn Dash and Grecian Square blocks. She got ambitious and started dipping into her Thimbleberry stash and made a bunch of blocks. She was thinking about using the Snowball blocks in between, but doesn't know if she likes them, so is dreaming up a new plan! It's fun to see them in all their variations!

Have to clean up the kitchen and do a little more work in the basement, then hope to get back to quilting my mom's quilt. I would like to finish sewing the Circle and Spin together as well. We'll see what the day brings.

Missouri River flooding and other quilty stuff...

 You might have heard on the news about the flooding in our area. We live in Council Bluffs, IA, and it is getting pretty bad around here. We have a levee system that is supposed to protect us from flooding, but with the river rising because of water being released at Gavins Point Dam, a lot of people are worried about the levee breaking. This is a picture I took last Friday down by the Pedestrian Bridge. Those cement "noodles" are supposed to be on dry ground. They are slowly disappearing. You can still see the top row as of yesterday. We live on the west end of town, so if the levee breaks, we could have problems. Luckily we don't live in our basement, it is used for storage, but I have been uncertain whether to bring things up or wait and see what happens. I brought up some fabric I had down there....important things first. People around here are starting to be in panic mode, not sure what to do. They say the water level will be high all summer.

 I had some strips left from cutting diamonds, so sewed those together the other day. I might use them for some kind of strippy border for it. If not, I can use them for stringpiecing.

 I started quilting a Stack and Whack quilt my mom made on Monday. I hope she likes this pattern.

 I decided to use a turquoise variegated thread for the stitching, so it will show up on the black background.

 I had a problem with the bobbin so had to take out a 2 foot area, but luckily a friend called about then, so I was able to talk and unsew. It helped the time go faster.

I sewed all day yesterday with friends, so hope to get some more quilting done today. I will post some pix tomorrow of what we worked on....I have the Circle and Spin I am making my daughter almost put together, after about an hour (or 2) of debating about block placement. It is very busy and colorful, so I hope she likes it. 

Would be nice to just sleep the day away, wouldn't it?

Weekend projects

 I have these 2 older mismatched stools that I have in my kitchen. They are very comforable stools, but I had things draped over them to cover the ugliness. I decided to make covers for them. I have done this before, though am no expert.

 These chairs don't look so bad in the pix, but are stained and dinghy looking.

 I started by making a pattern, tracing the shape of the chair onto newspaper. You then have to cut it out and lay it on the chair to make sure it is the right size.

 Then I cut the seat out with about an inch extra added for seam allowance and fudging if it doesn't really fit.

 I added a 6" band around the outside edge of the seat, and turned it up with a one inch hem. I put a drawstring through this hem so that I can draw it up to fit when it is finished. You could also use elastic. The color shows up the truest in the above picture. The fabric is a dark red.

 The seat on the blue chair fit perfectly. The orange chair seat was a little large, so I adjusted a bit and it worked out ok.

For the back I cut two back pieces, and added a gusset for depth. You have to add a couple of inches and  square off the bottom end so that you can hem it and put a drawstring through.

 Doesn't look too bad from here....

 but I had trouble with both backs fitting well. This back bar is part of the problem. I have it tucked up right now and pinned. I think I will go back and hand sew it shut across the bottom of the back. It would look pretty much the same as this, but not so obvious across the bar.

This chair has a funny curved back, so  it was hard to get it to fit right. I added a layer of foam, but then the cover was too short.

I had some leftover pieces so made little "towels" to hang over the backs. Not sure if I like it, but they hide the backs.

These chairs might have a little bit of a redo yet, as I play around with those backs. But they definitely look better than they did before!