Bluebird is finished.

 Details on the class will be coming soon.

 Love the quilting that Cut Up and Quilt did. I bound it with the border fabric.

Love some more Mirages!

Susan B

 I had a good time on Saturday working with a fun group of quilters that wanted to make the Mirages quilt. They came prepared with fabric squares cut, so we could start right in on cutting our circles and sewing them back together. Lots of pretty fabrics and great attitudes made it a fun day.

Dee

Kathy

 As you can see, some very creative minds at work here. Different color choices always inspire us all.

Christie

Susan

Dianne

This is another quilt in the Circle and Spin series. It's a little more organized that some of them, and not as many cuts, but I still used not so perfect circles. The challenge quilt I recently completed was another one in the series with many more cuts and more muted fabrics. I like the way it turned out as well, thought it's definitely a different take on this type of quilt than I usually do. I will be posting pictures of it soon.

Mirages again

 Deb N. recently sent me this picture to show me her finished quilt. She only used four different fabrics, which makes for another interesting design. I'm teaching the techniques for the Mirages quilt tomorrow at Cut Up and Quilt so I'm excited to see what the new students come up with.


I finished the Challenge quilt label last night. I plan to sew it on tonight (or soon). This one has kept me thinking the whole time and at some points I didn't know if I liked it. Does that ever happen to you? I guess it has to go through the ugly stage before Now I can go on to working on the new sampler and finishing the mystery quilt for upcoming classes. 

Bluebird is ready to fly...or at least to quilt!

 I sewed the borders on Bluebird last night and love how it looks with the quilt. I used the same fabric as I had used on the triangles that straighten it up top and bottom. As you can see, it's Conrad approved.

 Smokey is still deciding.

I love this teal batik and pieced a back out of it for the quilt. I can't wait to get it quilted. 

I will get some cat less pictures later. He really didn't want to get off!

Bluebird

 I've been working on the Bluebird quilt from the Marci Baker book, Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin and it's ready for the borders. I love it and hope to get them sewn on and the backing made today, so hopefully more pix tomorrow! You can see by the pictures that you sew this quilt together in vertical rows, then sew the rows together. It really goes pretty quickly once you get the pieces cut. I love it because I could use lots and lots of batiks! It is a great one for using up stash in lights, mediums and darks.

 When I teach the class in Feb. it will be taught in a mini retreat style class...we will meet on Friday night for several hours to get some of the cutting out of the way, and then come back on Saturday all set up and ready to sew. I think it will be fun and everyone will get lots accomplished.

Ignore the orphan block laying in the lower left corner. That block lives on the design wall...it didn't make the cut on one of the samplers and has no home.

I received my Quilting the Blues 2016 Challenge quilt back from the quilter last weekend. She really listened to my vision for the quilting, added some ideas of her own and it turned out great. I spent some time this week deciding on the binding and sewed it on yesterday morning before class. Now for the task of hand-sewing it down. If the quilt is chosen as a finalist, I will have to put a hanging sleeve on it before I can send it, so I am debating whether or not I should do it now so that I could sew one end of  it into the binding. But that might jinx it. Still haven't decided. I have to have it entered by Dec. 1, so I need to get it finished soon so I can take some pictures.

Swag Bag class

I had a lot of fun working with ladies making their own Swag Bags, by Square Rose. Lots of pretty fabrics and the bags were almost finished at the end of class.

They learned how to make this cute side pocket.

There were roomy inner pockets on both sides.

Most of the students still needed to attach the straps, so we went through the final directions. Time allotted for class is always hard to determine. We could've used an extra 30 - 60 min for everyone to finish. I will be getting together another time with any of them that want to.

Now I can finish my class model...it's so pretty too!

I have the Circle and Spin to the Moon class coming up on Saturday at Log Cabin Quilting in Exira, so if you want to make this fun and graphic quilt, let me know or call Robin at the shop. There are still spots open!

Bluebirds...or birds of any color

....

Block A

I started working on a new quilt the other day, Bluebirds by Marci Baker. I love the ease of putting these blocks together after precutting the logs. All of the Block Bs are made  (below) and about a third of Block As.

Block B

I have been collecting lighter batiks for awhile. I don't use them as much as the more color saturated batiks, but I think they are working well as the lights in this quilt. I can't wait to get it finished!

Blocks A and B mixed

Spinning and spinning

One of my evening Sampler Clubs are learning how to piece circles making the Circle and Spin or Circle and Spin to the Moon quilts. They had lots of blocks finished when we met last time. Love all those colors!

They are doing a great job and found out that doing circles this way isn't that hard at all!

I will be teaching this again on Nov. 12 at Log Cabin Quilting in Exira. If you live in the area and want to try it, give Robin or me a call!

Two of the quilters from the last class of beginners are making the Double Four Patch quilt. These will be gorgeous when finished!

I have been working on my entry for the Quilting the Blues 2016 Challenge, so I can't really post my progress, but I took a picture of the 16 fat quarters that I received to use in the challenge. You can add 3 of your own fabrics to the mix. There are size requirements as well as other rules for this challenge, but if your quilt is chosen as a finalist, it will travel to the Original Sewing and Quilting Expos next year.

It's fun to try challenges and this one was challenging for me because I knew what I wanted to do, but at one point it wasn't happening. I had to rework it several times before I thought it conveyed what I wanted it to. It is at the quilter's now, so hopefully she is working her magic on it and it will be how I envisioned. I can't wait to see what everyone does with this challenge. If you took this challenge, let me know.

Family Sewing Day...

I spent a Sunday in Earling recently sewing with family. My sister Deb finished her Jelly Roll Race quilt. This is her second quilt, and it's a beauty! She wants to try making a bag next.

My two nieces worked on their T-shirt quilts. They are both novice quilters and anxious to get these first quilts finished.

Not sure what my daughter was doing on the sewing machine, she worked on jewelry all day. My sis Sharon helped her daugher with pinning the T-shirt quilt.

Jessie's quilt, all laid out and ready to sew together.

Phylicia worked on a puff quilt. All ready to stuff!

Ashley's almost finished quilt. She has since finished the top and bottom borders and it's ready to layer. I didn't do much sewing, opting instead to help them and visit. That's important too!

 Phylicia is bottle feeding a baby kitten so she brought it along. My dad was the official cat whisperer! Mom worked on getting some backings ready for 3 quilts to be quilted. I will get pictures of her and her quilts once she gets them back!