It's the little things....and goats and work

 I had a few spare moments last weekend, so decided to cut up some strips I had precut for models for the Scrappy Braid Workshop last month. I needed lots of different half hexies for the models because I couldn't find my original ones...hmmm ....plus I demonstrated sewing them together as well. So I wanted a nice mix.

I only cut a few of each fabric for the models, so I had lots left to cut. These were scraps from other projects, so there are more of some than others. They are fun and easy to sew together so now they are ready for a day I feel like doing some easy sewing.

 While I was in Earling last weekend, I visited my brother's farm. He raises goats, among other things. Many are kidding right now, so there were lots of babies, from newborn to a few weeks old. This one is about 8 months old and the only one that I got a picture of, even though I carried the camera around the whole time. I guess I got so busy looking I forgot to take pictures! They really are cute and made lots of noise while we were by their pens but as soon as we walked away, they were quiet again.

I am off this weekend with not much planned except a little cleaning. I finally got the tomatoes and peppers planted last night, so hopefully they will be happy. They were starting to look a little sad even though I was keeping them wet.

We have three days left of school, so the library is closed now and I spent the past week checking in, and shelving books. I have been rearranging some books on the shelves as I go as they were too crowded. I had moved some of the books to different locations earlier in the year, but I usually have 900 - 1000 books checked out at any given time, so moving them when they aren't all there isn't the best plan. But I had a good reason...

You might remember that we moved into our remodeled building midway through last school year.  The bookcase that is deeper so better for picture books was the farthest away from my desk, but I thought I should use it for them since that was its purpose.  It didn't take long to realize I needed to switch things around.  Mainly I wanted to get the picture books closer to my desk. It was too hard to monitor the kids where they were, so I moved the picture and easy chapter books over to the other end of the rows of bookcases, right in front of my desk. Much better, but to move one area meant I had to move another to make them fit. So I swapped them.  If the rows were A -G, G went to A and A went to G. It worked, but it scrambled the order up a bit. I haven't had time to move the rest, and decided it was better to do it at the end of the year anyway, after most of the books were returned. So that's the plan for Monday and Tuesday.
Happy Saturday!

Scrappy Braid Workshop

 Yesterday's Scrappy Braid Workshop went well. Everyone is working on their own version of a scrappy braided quilt. Jane is using batiks from her stash and making a quilt for her grandson.

 Dianne is making a king size version for a gift for her brother. She is using fall colors and has a puppy border picked out.

Norma cut up lots from her Christmas collection. She is going to make a runner and then a quilt. 

Diana was given a jelly roll as a gift and is using it to make a twin size quilt.

There are lots of ways to use these half hexagons...after they had a good start on their braids I showed them how to sew them together to make hexagons. I made a small version of this last summer. 

We had our cup swap yesterday after class. When Becky came she and Diana posed for a twin picture in their matching shirts!

 I didn't think to take pictures of all the cups before the swap, but I will take pictures of the ones I ended up with later and post tomorrow. Hopefully others took pix of their own I can share.

My Scrappy Braid quilt

I want to get the last border on the new Sampler quilt today, then I may start cutting out a new quilt. It always seems like borders should go quickly, but they never seem to!

A quilty Sunday...

My quilting group decided to do a little challenge project awhile back. We swapped a bunch of odd size pieces and were to make something with them. We could add to them if we wanted, but needed to use most of them if possible. I had a hard time getting started on it to begin with...lots going on and I just wasn't inspired about what I wanted to do. After much thought, I decided to make braids, so took them with me on my Feb. quilting retreat.

 I cut all the odds and ends of fabrics from the swap into strips, then used my HexNMore ruler to cut them into half hexies. It is so easy to make braids this way that I quickly got them sewn together, and surrounded them with white sashings. I hadn't taken anything along for a border,  so dug through my fabrics when I got home to see what I had that would work.

This red paisley seemed just perfect for some reason so I went with it. I used one of my older pantos, Tumble and quilted it Sunday with white thread. It's a smaller quilt, about 47 x 58.

I had enough  of this floral fabric left over from another quilt for the backing and will use the red border fabric for the binding. It's made, just needs to be attached. My group meets Thursday night, so I will probably work on the binding then and have some show and tell for them!

The inspectors are always around to give their opinion and pose for a picture.

A great Sidekick!

I spent some time playing with the Sidekick ruler by Jaybird Quilts the other night. I am demonstrating this ruler at Cut Up and Quilt next Saturday as part of their After Thanksgiving Saturday sale. Like the Hex N More ruler, this ruler has many functions, but I'm working on the Rock Candy pattern for this demo. The ruler is easy to use and she has many great patterns to use it on! I spent quite a bit of time rearranging these diamonds, but of course I forgot to take pix as I went. This is the final layout.

I plan on sewing this together today, but would love to finish quilting Owen's quilt too, so it's a good thing I cleaned last night! Yep, don't fall over in a faint...I am not sure what came over me, but I got a burst of energy after supper last night and cleaned for over 2 hours. I hope you are getting some sewing/quilting time on this cold Sunday. 

Leftovers are good for quilting too!

When I made the Tasty Tablerunner, I cut out lots of different fabrics so that I could make some mock-ups for class. I had so many left over that I put some together in rows to make hexagons. I then partially sewed them together and it worked well to show students what else they could do with the half hexies. I decided that I was going to finish it yesterday, so I gathered all of the leftovers and got to work. 

I think it turned out cute. I used some fabric I had on hand for borders and made the binding out of the border fabric as well. Now I need to find something to back it. 

Lotus class today!

 I am teaching the Lotus Quilt class today at Cut Up and Quilt. I really like this graphic quilt and it's all made using the HexNMore ruler. The designer also has a paper template in the pattern as well, in case you don't have the ruler. The ruler just makes it easier to cut! As I made this quilt, I started seeing a flower pattern, so I had to try that out as well. Once it's sewn together, it's hard to see that they are from the same pattern. It changes the look totally.

I haven't had time to quilt this one yet, and really haven't even taken a decent picture of it. I will have to work on that.

You have lots of scraps left from cutting this one and trimming the sides, so I played with those, too and plan to show some ideas of things to do with them in class as well. I love figuring out ways to use the leftovers.....it's almost as much fun as making the quilt.

After class, my daughters and I are going to Earling to celebrate my dad's birthday. He will be 89 on Tuesday. Happy Saturday!

A Tasty class!

I had a great time on Saturday teaching these lovely ladies how to make the Tasty Table runner at Cut Up and Quilt. You can see we had lots of different fabric choices!

 Most of them finished their top, or just had one border left to put on. I don't think they thought they would get that far!

 We talked about all the ways we could use these braids in our quilting projects.

 I will be teaching another session of this class in March if you missed it the first time.

 I spent all day Sunday sewing. I finished the pp diamonds, and then went back to work on the flying geese project I have been working on for awhile, off and on. I had to do some thinking in between, especially when I got to the borders. I ran into a snag today and had to do a lot of unsewing. Not a fan of unsewing. It's not finished yet, but after much figuring, I have the pieced borders ready to sew on. I have a class tonight and the book fair tomorrow night, so I won't get much sewing done for a few days.

My book fair at school starts tomorrow. This is the first time I will be hosting a week long book fair in the new library, so I am excited, though a little worried that I might have forgotten something. I have always had to have the fair in the gym because the library was up stairs and the carts are too heavy to bring up the stairs. And since the gym is needed every day for PE classes and lunch, I would put it up in an hour (with help from students), sell books for 2 hours, and then take it back down. So it will be a new experience for me to hold it all week. The book fair co. rep came out to help me set up, and she was a blessing. I was still open for students, so she did most of it. I helped some and finished it after school Friday, so I think I am ready! 

Half hexies, hexies it's all the same, isnt' it?

I was doing some prep work last night for my Tasty Tablerunner class on Saturday. I had done a mock up of the runner using scraps and had tons of the half hexies left over. 

So I played around with them, using 2 to make hexagons. I know this is probably cheating, since we all know I still haven't gotten back to my hand-sewn hexagons, but it really is cute and very easy to sew together by machine. I have used the HexNMore ruler to make these hexie pillows too, but they don't interlock, so I wanted to try this.

 I sewed them into rows last night and sewed some of the rows together. I am going to leave it incomplete for now as I want to show it during class on Saturday as another option with this ruler. I don't know about you, but I usually don't buy a ruler unless I think I will use it several times. I will figure out how to make a pattern using the rulers I have. But I am really sold on this one and have already used it in 5 or 6 projects.

So since I am teaching a class using the ruler, I want to show different things that can be done with it so that the students have more options to use it. The Tasty Tablerunner pattern does come with a template you can use if you don't want to buy the ruler, which is nice too. 

Happy New Year and a Lotus finish

 I finished the Lotus quilting yesterday, and sewed the binding on, so I guess it is my last finish of 2012. I don't really keep track of all the quilts I make or finish throughout the year. Maybe I should, but I don't think like that. I don't make resolutions either, but I do know what I want to accomplish and just aim for that. I don't always have time to quilt and bind quilts before teaching the classes because of my day job, so I finish what I can, and try to catch up on some of the others when I have time.

I wanted to quilt this one before hanging as a class model because the pieces are cut on the bias somewhat, so I was afraid it would get wonky if I didn't. I basted the raw edges since it doesn't have a border.  I had a hard time choosing the quilting pattern as the quilt is so geometric and I wanted something to soften and curve, but didn't want to do flowers. So I used Oriental Illusions, which wiggles around and looks like crab legs to me.

 I used a black batik with a circular pattern for the back and gold variegated thread. I like the quilting to enhance but not take over, so this thread blended well with the fabrics.

 I am going to my hometown today. My sister, Nancy,  always brings halibut from Canada with her (bought fresh, then flash frozen) and treats us all to a delicious New Years Day dinner. She will be here for another 10 days before she heads home. I am also going to check and see if she had a chance to work on her quilt anymore since Sunday. I know Sharon did, so I hope she brings it with her today so I can take more pictures! Happy New Year!

Lotus quilt

I finished the Lotus Quilt top, loaded it on my quilting frame and got it about half quilted yesterday. Hope to finish it tomorrow. When making this quilt, you piece together large triangles, so when it is all put together, you have to trim the sides if you want them straight. So you end up with some half triangles. 

 Well, if you know me at all, you know I love to play with the leftovers! So I sewed them together. I like to make pillows out of leftovers, so that the person who ends up with the quilt has a pillowcase that matches. So that is probably what this will be.

As you cut the jewel shapes using the HexNMore Ruler, you end up with a bunch of triangles left over that seem to be about the same size...sooooo...

 I started sewing them together the other day, using them as leaders and enders when I was making the pillows, so I hope to make something out of them too. Maybe a border on the pillowcase? There are lots of them, so I might be able to make a pillow out of them too.

 Heading to my hometown today to sew with my sisters and Mom...should be lots of fun. I will take pictures!

Finished Tasty!

It was a very busy weekend....on Saturday I taught the Circle and Spin quilt class. It was a great class, many nice quilters with lots of beautiful fabrics. More about that tomorrow! Then my daughter and I went to my hometown, Earling, to celebrate my Mom's birthday. Some of my other family members came over and we had a great time. Her birthday is actually today, so she is having another celebration tonight, but I won't be able to make that one. We do like our parties in my family! She is also finished with her chemo treatments too, so we are all breathing a sigh of relief about that as well.

I spent all day yesterday getting the paperwork ready to post some new classes for my winter schedule. I plan on hanging the models tonight when I go in for my Sampler #16 class. I also finished the Tasty Table Runner, which didn't take long since I only had the borders left to do. So it is ready to go as well. It's a good feeling to have these ready now, as it's hard for me to relax and do anything else when I know I have class work to take care of. I don't have any more weekend classes now until after the first of the year, so I can concentrate more on getting ready for Christmas.

Today is the first day the library is closed and the students have to bring all their books back so that I can get them put away. Then I continue the job of packing for the move. I'm ready and excited to get it done! Hopefully, sometime this week we can go over and see our newly remodeled building!

Friday it is!

When I went to sew the two sections of the braided tablerunner together, I had several fabrics too close to a matching fabric. I sewed these together randomly because I didn't want it too look planned. So I added about 6" of braid to one of them so that I could offset the matching fabrics. I need to get some fabric for the borders and Tasty will be done!

Then I worked on the hexie project that I started the other night and finished it. It is a Christmas present, so I don't want to post pix of it yet.

Today is the last day the library will be open before we move. On Monday, the students have to return all books and I start putting them away and packing. I am much more excited to pack this time than I was when we moved to our temporary location! Seeing the pictures of the new space really helps!

Finished hexie pillows and tshirt quilt class....

Here are pictures of my finished hexie pillows. They were fun and quick to make. I used the HexNMore ruler which made it simple to cut out the hexies and the triangles.

I want to make a couple more projects using this ruler...she is coming out with some more patterns soon.

I put envelope backs on these pillows. The pattern directions do feature this, but I would've done it anyway. I don't like to wash the pillows, and it's so easy to slip them out and wash the covers this way.

Saturday's T-shirt Quilt class went well. There were some quilting newbies in class, and they did very well! I didn't pictures of all of them but here is a sampling.

The new quilters seemed to enjoy the process, so I think we might be seeing more quilts from them!

My sister Nancy came in last night from BC, Canada for an extra long holiday stay. She normally comes for about 3 weeks before Christmas, but wanted to come early this year to help our parents a bit. Mom has one chemo treatment left, thank goodness, but has been pretty worn out so it will be good to have her here to help them. So we are looking forward to some fun family gatherings ahead!