Love getting goodies in the mail!

 Isn’t it fun to find packages in your mail? I couldn’t wait to dig in! The first one that came was my order from the Fat Quarter Shop. I won a gift card during SewCalGal’sRed and White Challenge, so I spent some time shopping there.

Lots of beautiful fabrics and other goodies. It was hard to decide which ones I wanted, I wanted them all! I decided to focus on batiks, as I like to make scrappy quilts out of batiks and collect them as I fabric shop. I also found some cottons I couldn’t resist. I can’t wait to use them!

 I also won the book Fat Quarter Style by It's So Emma. Lots of cute, modern syle quilts using fat quarters. 

Thanks to Fat Quarter Shop and It's So Emma for sponsoring the giveaways during the Red and White Challenge and to SewCalGal for hosting it!

Sewing with friends...and other catching up

 I can’t believe that I have been MIA for a week. It’s been a busy, but enjoyable week of work, classes and family.

 I spent last Sat. sewing with a couple of friends. Dianne worked on her Turning Cartwheels quilt…it is looking so good. She just needs to decide on a final border.  I saw her again on Tuesday night for Sampler Club and she had started on the pieced backing.  I love her floral fabric!

 I worked on some samples for my demo tomorrow at Cut UP and Quilt last Sat. and then finished all of the blocks for the new sampler (as yet unnamed). I spent Sunday sewing the blocks together. I auditioned several fabrics for the borders, and have decided on the two in the picture. Now to get them on!

 Both Sampler Clubs went well and here are pictures from both nights of classes. It’s fun to put the blocks on the design wall and get a preview of how the quilts will look. The students are not making the same quilts. Some are and some chose to make a different quilt design. That’s why there are so many different blocks from only 2 clubs. So it’s fun and busy for me!

 My daughter and I spent the yesterday with family in my hometown, so it was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I haven't decided if I am going to go shopping or stay home and sew. I would love to get the borders sewn on the new sampler so sewing might win out! Are you shopping today?

Finishing touches...

Avis 

 I met with the Beginning Quiting class last night and we got one step closer to a finish! Part of making a quilt is finishing it, so I teach them the steps to piecing a backing fabric,  layering and pinning their quilts in preparation for quilting or tying. In this class we tie because it's something everyone can do, but they learn that the prepping for tying is the same as  if you were quilting it on your home machine or hand quilting it.

Diane

 They got a lot of tying done while I helped them baste the edges. ..a very important step!

Laural

We meet again in 2 weeks to make the binding and attach it.

A new sampler

 I've been working on a new sampler for the past several weeks. I got the alternate blocks finished on Sunday. I have seven of the bright block centers finished last week, but now need to frame them. I had to do one just to see how it looks!

 The coral for the bright block frames.

 Ready to sew together into four patches.  I plan on working on it more this weekend.

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Turning Cartwheels again and again

Caroline's blocks

I taught the class on the Turning Cartwheels quilt on Saturday. This is the quilt I designed for the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge. This is a fun challenge where you submit pictures of couple of your finished quilts. If they choose you to participate, they send you fabric and you design something to make out of that fabric. Since you have limited amounts of different fabrics, it's a challenge to come up with something that fits the type of fabrics as well as the amounts you were given.

Gretchen's blocks

You can see everyone had great fabric choices so it will be fun to see how they progress.

Laura's block

Judy's block

I don't have time to take on every challenge I see, but I was really glad that I participated in this one. I feel like it helped me grow as a designer as well as a quilter. Plus now I have a gorgeous quilt too!

Dianne's blocks

QuiltingHub...new quilting information center

I know that any time I am going to do any traveling to a new destination, I look online to see what quiltshops are located on my route as well as near my destination. We all need that relaxing break on our travels, right?

I've recently learned about a website that lists many shops across the US as well as overseas called QuiltingHub. It's a site where you can find shops, groups, museums, brands, services and events in the area.

Last weekend, friends and I traveled to the Ames/Des Moines area for our own shop hop. I googled the shops in our area before we left to get some ideas of where to go. If  I had know about QuiltingHub, I would've gotten a map like this when I searched.

 When you click on a shop, a window pops up so you can see details of the shop, including the address.

When you click on it you see more info on the shop. I'm assuming people have posted these shops, not the shop owners, or there would be more info on the shop itself. So if you are a shop owner, you might want to go and add your shop if it isn't there already, or try to edit what's there so shoppers have more info, including phone numbers and websites.

They have forums too, which I want to explore more as I get more familiar with the site. There is one forum that is Quilt Project Show and Tell. You can post pictures there and get feedback from other quilters. It looks like it would be ok to ask questions there as well.

There is also a Services page, and you can click the area to search for services as well.  

I found lots of services when I searched for this and the services I checked had complete listings and info on what services they offer, including hours of business. It looked like the business owner could add as much info as they wanted in the different categories. This shows the main info page.

They are starting to list blogs now, so fellow quilters know where to go to enjoy some quilty reading and sharing of projects, so I am listing mine. If you are interested in listing your blog or quilt shop, check it out....it is sure to grow into a large quilting network in the next few months and it will be fun to be a part of it. If you do list your blog, let me know and I will come to visit! (there is a small fee for listing, but if you write a post about QuiltingHub, the fee is waived. If you have any problems along the way, you can email the site master Paul and he will help you.) You can become a member too without listing a blog.

I have plans to sew most of the day today as I want to work on the new sampler's alternate blocks. I would really like to get them finished....wish me luck.

Oh yea!

Diane

 The new quilters worked on measuring and attaching their borders last night. Next week we layer and tie!

Laural

 Avis was working on her 2nd border, but I didn't get a picture of it. Next week I will get them all together. They are doing a great job!

 Deb missed the Sunbonnet Sue sampler class Tuesday night, so came last night to make her blocks. Looking good!

I'm teaching the Turning Cartwheels quilt tomorrow. I'm excited to see what fabrics everyone is using and how they come together. It's just as fun as making another one myself!

Happy Friday!

Sampler class progress

Lots of progress last night in the Sunbonnet Sue Sampler class. Last month they made one block and then I gave them the sashing directions with some instruction on how to start adding sashing and making the in between sashing rows even though they are not sure of block placement yet. I stressed that this could be done anytime between now and January, whenever they had time to work on it. That way they are that much close to finishing it when the class is over. 

They all showed up with sashing on their finished blocks and sashing rows ready to go! It was fun to see their quilts in position. 

Last night we worked on cutting and sewing two similar blocks so I wasn't sure if anyone would finish a block, but  I knew that they would leave with their block sections very close to being finished.

This quilter accidently left her background at home, so cut out her block fabrics and then played with the layout. She put the main fabrics for each block in place and decided that the bottom row was ready to sew together, so she got the row sewn together with one of the sashing rows on one side. 

Nancy and Shirley did get one of their blocks finished before we left. 

Nancy

I think they are learning a lot about color choices and how they go together in this class as they watch their fellow quilters decide on fabric choices for each block as well as seeing the sashing choices and how they help the the blocks show at their best. 

We had one quilter missing, but I think she is making up later in the week so I will share her blocks when she is finished.

Shirley

Progress

I spent most of Sunday working on blocks for the new sampler. I had cut all of the fabric for the eight black and white blocks last week and finished one of them. So I spent Sunday working on the sherbet colored blocks. It's coming along and I love the fabrics I chose...so happy!

A little fun....

 Saturday I spent the day on a shop hop with friends. We headed to Ames for our first stop at the Quilting Connection. It is a huge store with thousands of bolts of fabric. Cindy checking out the fried egg fabric.

A batik heaven! I found a few I couldn't resist here.

Our next stop was Quilter's Cupboard in Ankeny...love this shop with all its nooks and crannies. We got caught up in a bag frenzy here, as they had lots of cute ones made up.

 Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures after that, but we did go to three shops in Des Moines and one in Adel on our way home. It was a fun day and we enjoyed the inspiration of fabric and friends!

I collected some new batiks on our travels.

 I am starting a new sampler design and worked on it all day yesterday. Isn't this a pretty stack?

 One person's mess is one quilter's progress, right?