AQS Des Moines, IA Quilt Show

Saturday I am heading to Des Moines, IA, for the annual AQS Quilt Show. I am going with friends, so it will be fun to ooh, aah, and drool over all the quilts. There is also a huge vendors mall...it is really too much for one day, but Saturday is our only option since some of us work. (it is definitely true that work gets in the way of having fun sometimes!) It opened Wednesday...Saturday is the last day.

Here we are at last year's show with Eleanor Burns. (I was on the other side of the camera.) Are you going to this show? If you live in the area, it is definitely worth a trip! 

Sampler class and show and tell...

I taught Sampler #13 last night. Class went well and everyone got lots done on their blocks.

Dianne brought her Windmill Swap quilt top to show....they are all going to look so different with the settings people are using.

Dianne and Eileen have made some progress on their St. Marks diamonds.

I love show and tell!

Baby quilt quilted...

My sister Sharon is going to be a grandma for the first time in November...you can imagine the excitement! She made this quilt using my Peas in a Pod pattern (isn't it adorable?) for the little guy and wanted me to quilt it. Being the good sister that I am, I got right on it. 

I used a bright variegated thread and this design.

Another sister, Deb, is going to be a first time grandma in January, so we are going to have plenty of babies to hold soon! I plan on making both babies a quilt of their very own....need to get started on that!

St. Marks Quilt progress

 The Diamond blocks were starting to pile up on Saturday during the second day of class. Three very different takes on this gorgeous quilt. You use 1 dark, 3 medium, 4 light and 1 medium light for each pieced diamond.  Dianne is using bright florals and prints.

 Betty is using batiks. She is also using the same light for each block, which will give it a different look.

Eileen is using black for her dark, pink for her medium, white prints for her light and gray for her medium light. Can't wait to see them finished!

Letter 26....a line-up....a cat and a star....

 Zeeelightful, Zeeelicious Z. The Z was fun to make and is the last letter! Now let's get on with the finishing!

Here are all my letters, along with my little girl and house. Not sure about the sizing on some of them, the Q especially bothers me. The U, V and W need to be trimmed down a bit.

St Marks quilt class was fun yesterday. When I got home I made a crooked star and a free pieced kitty.

A lot of funny seams and a tail that looks sort of like a hockey stick, but I still like her.

Y me?

Because I love making these letters and I am excited to be finished with them so I can put it together. 

X marks the spot and other beauties....

The X was fun to make. If you haven't ever tried free-piecing letters, you should give it a whirl.

During Sampler class Wed. night, Jane shared her Windmill swap quilt top. She used different bright colors to set her blocks on point.

 Kim is setting hers on point with green....can never go wrong with green!

Jane also finished her Sunbonnet Sue Sampler. Jane added lots of appliqued blocks of her own design to the original pattern. The apron is my favorite!

Wide, wonderful W

It's gorgeous, right? I love, love, love it! I haven't hung the flannel wall and put them all on it yet, but I will soon. Can't wait to see them all together.

Last night I made this little house to go with the letters. If it fits. 

Vivacious V

I really like my V! I need to start thinking about what else I will add to the quilt. I have the little girl I made a while back. If you go to Lynne's blog, you will see one that she made as well as 2 that Katrin made. I think a house might be in order, maybe a flower?

Playing Red Letter Quiltalong catch-up and back to Saturday...

 After I finished working on the round robin block Sunday, I made this unbelievably blue U. Only a few letters left now!!!! Can't wait to put it together.

 When I got to the store Saturday before class, Betty showed me her finished Windmill Swap quilt. She decided to set her blocks on point, using white for the setting triangles. Another name for this block is the Double Pinwheel. Notice how pinwheels show up when the blocks are put together.  

 Saturday's class was the St. Mark's quilt...here are a couple of Dianne's finished diamonds.

 She had these finished before she left.

 Eileen is making hers in blacks,grays, whites and pink...should be stunning in those colors.

Betty is using batiks, and using the same fabric for the light in each block, so that should add an interesting touch.  I have a feeling these ladies will have lots more done by next Saturday's class. 

Round Robin block

 Four of my friends and I are participating in a medallion round robin. I posted about my block here.This is my friend Jo's block...I was supposed to have my part finished a couple weeks ago, but didn't quite make the deadline, so I worked on it yesterday. I wanted to make it into a frog, but wasn't sure that is what she had in mind...(can't you see this as a frog with crazy legs, though?) So I decided to continue the green zigzag into my part.

I think it took more time to figure out what I was going to do and find fabric than it did to add my round. I don't know if you can tell it here, but I had some of the same pink as she used in the center square, so I used it.

We decided that we would get to see them each time we swapped, but I forgot my camera last time. I will take some next time we meet. Now I need to get Cindy's figured out so I am ready!

A rainy Sunday layout...

I have been playing around with the layout for the Windmill quilt. The blocks aren't going to tilt dramatically, but it will be more noticeable after they are sewn together.

It's a rainy start to Sunday here, a good day to play catch-up. I want to work on a round robin block that should've been done over a week ago...

I would also like to get caught up on the Red Letter Quiltalong...she posted X today, and I need to do U, V, & W first....

There is also some cleaning....notice that it is last on the list?

Feels like chili weather, so I am off to get some started in the crock pot!

Still on a bender!

 I like to make some of the blocks tilt to the left and some tilt to the right. (see previous post) The blocks don't have to be exactly the same. If some tilt more than others, it will just add to the charm.

 You do need to be careful to leave at least 1/2" between the seam and the border for seam allowance at the narrow end. Otherwise you may not have any border left! This one is going to be close!

You can see how they will look as they come together. These won't tilt a lot because I used a small border. If you want them to tilt more, just add a wider border and you will have more room to "tilt".

I am teaching the St. Marks Quilt today...should be a great day and I should have some great pix to share!

Swap blocks go on a bender....

I wanted to add a little twist to my swap blocks, so I added a different 2" border to each one. I used some of the fabrics I had used in the blocks I made. This made the blocks about 15 1/2".

I decided I could recut them 14". I have a 15" square up ruler, but I was afraid I might mess up the cutting so I cut a 14" square of cardboard. That helped me center it on the square, and see that I was staying in the area I needed to be in.

Then I laid the ruler on top of it, lining it up with 2 sides of the cardboard, to get a good cut.

Then I used the ruler to square up the last 2 sides.

Now my block has a little tilt to it. 

Swap day!

 A friend decided she wanted to make a scrappy Windmill Quilt, so she convinced 9 of us to join her in a swap! We each made 20 blocks, so we would each end up with 20. These are the ones I made. This block is also called the Double Pinwheel block...you can see the white pinwheels show up where the background comes together as you put the blocks together.

 We wanted everyone to have a set that would be 20 different blocks, so you could make 2 sets of 10 the same if you wanted to, since you were giving everyone 2 blocks. The result was a lot of gorgeous blocks! Most of us made ours using fabrics left from other projects.

 We met yesterday to swap them and took turns passing our own out to each other. This gave us a chance to see what each person had made!

 Diana has been talking about barn blocks, so Jane made her a special Windmill with a barn in the center!

 It was fun, because everyone was in anticipation to see what each person would give them! Our rule for color was that they should have a white background and bright colors used.

 The great thing was that everyone finished them on time! One lady was out of town, so couldn't come for the swap.

 After we swapped, those that could stay started working on layouts for their blocks. You can see Diana's special block in the center of this layout.

 We had a great time. Dianne is sashing hers, but I didn't get a pic of the progress she or anyone else made yesterday, but I will when they bring them back!

What's really fun is that all the quilts will be unique, since we used so many different fabric choices!

 Several people are going to put their blocks on point, so we figured out what they would need for setting triangles.

 Betty made extra, so had to choose which ones to take out for this setting...that was hard too!

Kim got her blocks sewn into rows, and was going to go home and look through her stash to see if she had something she could use for the setting triangles.

I didn't get any pix of the blocks I received, but did start working on them. I will take some pictures later and show you my progress as I get them made into a quilt.

I hope to get back to my Red Letter Quiltalong blocks this week, though I do have classes Monday and Tuesday night. I also want to work on quilting something....doesn't really matter at this point what....I have a long list of quilts waiting.

Happy Sunday!