Off the Beaten Path....baby style

 

About a month ago, I took part in the Desire to Inspire Challenge at Henry Glass and Co blog. The premise is that you agree to design something using their fabrics...and they send you some really cool fabrics. What could be better than that?  I was sent fabrics from the #LaughLoveQuilt collection by Amy Hamberlin.

You can read my blog post here or follow the link above to see the post on the Henry Glass and Co. blog.

Aren't these elephants adorable?

 I really like the pattern I came up with, Off the Beaten Path, and wanted to try it out using brighter fabrics. I needed to make a baby quilt, so decided to make it a bit smaller, but still child size. I don't know about you, but I always make my baby quilts at least 50" x 50". Then they can use them as they grow. I finished the top yesterday, so it is ready to be quilted. I purchases some cute orange and white polka dotted fabric for the backing, so as soon as I get that pieced, I'll be ready to quilt it.

Fabrics I used in the baby Off the Beaten Path quilt.

I finished the new sampler yesterday too, so as soon as I get some good pictures of it I will post them. I am really excited about this sampler design, and I hope others will be too. Here's a sneak peek....

One block used in Sampler 23, Doing the Splits.

Partial Off the Beaten Path  blocks chillin' in the shade.

Miss Tess... Piecemaker's Quilt Guild style

I did a trunk show for the Piecemaker's Quilt Guild in Missouri Valley on Tuesday night and they requested I teach a class on the Miss Tess quilt on Saturday. First off, the trunk show went well because they were such a great audience. I had a good time talking to them before and after the meeting.

The Miss Tess class went well too. They had done some precutting so it didn't take them too long to finish cutting and start laying out their quilt.

Because it's a tessellation quilt, the rows interconnect, so you have to lay out at least a few rows before you can sew them together. They meet and hold classes in the Methodist Church and they had plenty of room to spread out. It was great!

They were a busy group, cutting and sewing like crazy. A little chatting too...

Jeanine

Priscilla had limited colors, so decided to make this design with hers. It made me start thinking of doing vertical rows in different colors.

Lots of pretty colorways and interesting centers. Midway through the day, we talked about tessellation quilts and I showed them a few other designs I have made that fall into that category. .

Priscilla

Kathy

Karen placing her blocks

Denise P

Rita

Rachel

Karen

Bonnie H

Kathy D stacked up!

Pat

Kathy D

The rest of Kathy's, wouldn't stay on the wiggly design wall.

Bev

It was a happy day of sewing, chatting and learning, with everyone sharing ideas. They asked me if I was going to come back next month for their meeting, and I said I would, then issued a challenge to them to finish the quilt top by then so I can see it. I can't wait!

Rachel

Summer sewing....

 I filled the second bean bag chair the other day....I think the bag was a little fuller as it is a little fuller than the green one. It looks more like the picture on the tutorial, DIY Kids Bean Bag.

 Since I used a directional fabric, it is going sideways. I could've pieced it, but wasn't sure I would like that look either. So since I liked the fabric, I went with it.

 Conrad likes it no matter which way it faces or which way is up!

I had a great time on the retreat with friends last weekend. I sewed on the new sampler all weekend. I will have some pictures soon. 

These pictures are from last week's classes...an assortment of pretty projects!

I did a trunk show at the Piecemaker's Quilt Guild in Missouri Valley Tuesday night. It was a great group of ladies. I knew more of them than I realized and had fun chatting with them afterwards. I'm not sure public speaking is my forte, but it's easier when talking about quilting! I'm heading up to teach a class on the Miss Tess quilt today, so that should be fun. I will take pictures to share tomorrow! Enjoy the mini quilt show below!

Not really Slow Dancing this week!

It has been a busy quilting week since school break began last Thursday. I taught a group of enthusiastic quilters the techniques to make the Slow Dance quilt, the newest in my Circle and Spin series. They were pleasantly surprised by how quickly the blocks came together and how much they accomplished in class. 

 They got many center blocks made, as well as making the setting and corner pieced blocks.

One of the quilters had to leave early, so she spent the time cutting and I went over all of the instructions with her so that she would know the steps when she worked on it at home. 

 Lots of beautiful fabrics and sure to be beautiful quilts! I have been asked about purchasing the Circle and Spin series patterns. Contact me at quiltinjeanie@yahoo.com for information. I can't put them on Craftsy at this time because of the template size, but can mail them out.

 I teach my Sampler Clubs on a monthly basis. So if you come on the second Monday, you always come on the second Monday of the month, no matter what date it is. It works well to do it this way, so that everyone can easily keep track of their class night. This month, the first was on Wednesday, so that meant that the second Monday, second Tues. and third Wed. were all in the same week, and I have sampler clubs on those nights. So each night this week I've met with a group. I will post pictures from those classes soon. It's always fun to meet with them and see if they got their blocks finished from last time, and get them started on their blocks for this month.

The new space at Hobby Lobby is working out well. Everyone seems to enjoy the added space to work. I just need to figure out a way to have a design wall. They have a policy of nothing on the walls, but I love having a design wall to put up blocks.  We all really miss that! I have thought of hanging pieces of flannel backed tablecloth using that sticky tack putty, but I'm not sure if it would take the paint off the wall with reuse. If anyone has any ideas for a design wall that I could carry back and forth to class, please tell me in the comments.

Someone put their blocks in a circle, just for fun. This is reminiscent of other Circle and Spin quilts.

There are 2 long shelves hanging above the sink that I have been using to display quilts and I have hung a design wall there too.I use those large office clips and it works pretty well. Easy put up and take down. 

I've been working on the pattern for the Off the Beaten Path quilt (Henry Glass fabrics and blog post). this week as well. I hope to finish that today. I'm going on a retreat with friends tomorrow, so lots of sewing time in my future this weekend! I have the design finished for the new sampler, but need to actually make it. I got the fabrics the other day, so that will be my retreat project. Hopefully I'll make some good progress on it!