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!

Two finishes!

I didn't get much quilting done on this new Circle and Spin series quilt ( unnamed as of this AM) through the week, so I was determined to finish it Friday after work. I came home, didn't sit down to relax first (that is my key element to getting something done after work!) and got busy. 

 Here it is coming off the frame. I always take some pictures at this point so I have a record of each quilt, the backing and the panto design.

 Because of the flowing nature of this design, I used the Ebb and Flow panto by Hermione Agee and variegated thread. I love how the quilting design flows with the quilt design to enhance it. I am having difficulty naming this quilt, as I see mountains, I see a flowing river...

 The backing is a batik fabric with a basket weave effect, so it flows as well. I used a darker blue/green batik with shots of orange and gold for the binding to bring out the colors in the quilt.

 Since I had some cancellations in my Stitching Oasis Machine Apron class yesterday, I took the quilt with me to trim and work on binding while my student sewed. I never cancel classes because of low student signups, as I know they have already carefully chosen their fabrics and are excited to make the project. I don't usually sew while teaching a class unless I'm demonstrating a technique, but since I only had one student I didn't want to spend the day hovering over her (that can be unnerving for them).So I took her through each step and then trimmed, and made the binding while she sewed. It worked well, we had some great conversations and she got her project finished except for the final sewing down of the binding. She has it all pinned and ready to sew. I love her vintage look fabric! She made this for a gift, another good reason for the no cancellation policy.

Plus I got my quilt bound in between. And no hovering!

As I'm working on a project, names flit through my head as I work. Sometimes I think of the perfect name right away, other times it takes some brainstorming. Since this project has been waiting to be quilted for awhile, so has the name. Here are some of my thoughts on names:

Riverflow

Sleepy River

Sunset Mountain or Mountain Sunset

Slow Dance

Valley Trail or River Trail 

(yea the whole river/mountain thing is what I see when I look at it, can you tell?)

Any thoughts on these or any other ideas?

I tried to do a closeup of the binding but you still can't really see it. I need to take some better pics outside. 

 I have a busy day of paperwork (ugh, not my favorite) and then want to load Spinning Parasols on the frame and begin the quilting. It won't take long to quilt if I can just get to it! Happy Sunday!