Happy Happy Monday!

 I spent part of Sunday working on paperwork for classes, and the rest of it house hunting and shopping with my daughter. I also got the string pieced quilt bound...I love a finish! I will be teaching this class in the fall.

 I am teaching two more sessions of the PJ Pants class this week, one today and one on Wednesday, then Kids Camp 2013 is officially over. Today I have five girls from the same 4H group, so they are all friends. I don't know how much experience they have, but one of the moms is going to stay, so that should help. Sometimes they just need help with the machine issues...threading, bobbin winding...or pinning, so it's nice to have another set of hands! I mark their machines with tape to help them sew the correct seam allowance. It is hard for them to hold it straight. Luckily, pj pants are pretty forgiving since you want the fit to be comfy.

I have already been thinking about more kids classes. If you know of a good craft or sewing project for kids, please let me know. I would love some new ideas!

 I have another quilt I need to get bound this week, plus get back to making letters. That's probably what I will do tomorrow during Tuesday Sewing Day.

What are you working on today?

Quilting finished!

 I went shopping for awhile at Quilt Studio yesterday with a friend. I hadn't been there in awhile and they had lots of new fabrics. They carry a huge line of batiks and modern fabrics. I was looking for fabric to make a Kaffe Fassett pattern from the book Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts and I did find a few that I think will work. More on that later...I will take some pictures of the fabrics.

 I came home and finished the quilting on the string quilt. Here is a picture of the backing fabric. I'm not sure how well it matches the feel of the quilt top, but I had it on hand and I think it will be fine. It has a really pale green background...now you know why I got it.  I have the binding all ready to sew on.

The binding looks great with both sides.

It's trimmed and ready to bind.

 Today I am teaching the Modern Cathedral Window Pillow at Cut Up and Quilt. It's a fun class to teach and I'm looking forward to meeting some new quilters!

Love those strings!

 I have been string piecing blocks for the past week or so. There are so many great things about string piecing, but I think the best one is that you are using up leftover fabrics. That is always a good feeling.

 I've done lots of different versions of string piecing and I love them all. I usually piece to a square of fabric to stabilize the block. This time I used older fabric that has been rattling around in my tubs for awhile. You can also use old bed sheets, dryer softener sheets, or phone book pages (you do have to tear these off when finished!)

I backed it with a soft floral fabric that I had gotten on sale last year. I'm not sure how well it matches, but since I have every color in the rainbow in this quilt I think it will work. I loaded it on the machine yesterday and got one row quilted. I hope to get back to it later today.

A friend and I have plans to go to a local quilt store this morning, so I'm looking forward to that. I haven't been to any of the Omaha quilt stores in quite awhile and this one has lots of modern fabrics and batiks. 

Strings and more strings....

I made 30 string blocks and I didn't put a dent in my strings. Do they multiply in the tub?

More stringpiecing and quilting

 In preparation for my demo on string piecing at the Bluffs Quiltfest on Saturday, I quilted another string pieced design this week. I used the same panto as I used on the Corner the Stringpiecing Market quilt.

 This backing fabric is a little heavier than most, but it fit this quilt so I used it. The panto is Ebb and Flow by Lorien Quilting. I turned the quilt so that the pattern would flow down the length of the blocks. It almost looks like flames.

 I colorized the strings for this one just for fun. It's interesting what many different tones and shades of a color look like when put together. Even some that don't seem to match blend in well.

 Ready to bind. I used some leftover fabric from another project several years ago for the binding, to keep with the "use them up" feel of these quilts.

 I now have four models to take to show different types of stringpiecing, plus some demo blocks, so that should make a good presentation.

 I am teaching the Which Way is Up? class today, and the last session of the Modern Cathedral Windows class tonight, so it will be a very quilty day. Have you done any string piecing?

Hmmm, did I make this for you?

 I came home from class last night and found Smokey looking very comfy on this quilt. I finished the quilting and got it bound yesterday.  It's not very big, about 40" x 48", so it didn't take long. I folded it up and set it on my machine before I left.....and you can figure out the rest.

I made this Corner the Stringpiecing Market quilt a few years ago as a model for a class I taught. I have the very same size and type made using fabric strips/strings. I don't always have time to quilt models before hanging them on display for class, and once the class is over, I move on to more pressing things, so they never got quilted. 

Since it was made with selvages, I sewed the borders together with selvages showing as well. I have one more quilt that I want to quilt before the quilt show to use at my table for the demonstration, just to show different types of string piecing. 

 They always look so much prettier when they are quilted, don't they?

I'm doing a little shop hopping tomorrow with friends. I will try to remember to take some pictures to share!

I love long weekends, don't you?

 I quilted this smallish (45" sq.) today. I have used it as a model for a string-piecing class I teach, but it had never been quilted. I am teaching it again in late October, so thought I would get it quilted before I hang it at the store. The dark strips might look like I can't match up very well, but in this version, you put a darker one through the middle, not actually lining up perfectly, so you get the illusion of blocks.

I really like to string-piece...such a fun and low maintenance type of piecing. No worries about matching, no tedious squaring up HST....fun!

 This is the back. It is actually a dark blue check, looks sort of brown in the picture.  I thought using this panto would spice up the design a bit. Besides, I really love it!

I used Signature Victorian variegated thread for this one....it is not exactly pastel, but not bright. I love it for colors like these.

I am going to use the back fabric for the binding so I am off to make some binding. Have a great holiday!

Stringpiecing class

Stringpiecing class went well yesterday. Lots of strips, lots of different colors. Several people were working on their first quilt, others were using up scraps from previous projects.

Alison is working on her first quilt.

Here mom Connie is using up scraps from years of sewing.

If there were prizes for the most strips, Jo would win hands down. Hers were collected over 20 years of quilting.

 Kaelan is  making hers for her wall, but when asked how big she was going to make it, she replied she wasn't sure....we all know where that could go, right?

 Kathy has quite a collection of brights!

This mother/daughter team, Jeanelle and Madison,  were tag-teaming it, taking turns sewing and pressing. They cut up lots of handkerchiefs for a bright, fun look. I guess we know who's getting that quilt!

 Madison is a hard worker, she did a lot of sewing.

Marlene was using scraps from sewing doll clothes for her grandchildren.

It was a great class, very lively with so many ladies!

Back to the Bargello

I worked some more on the twisty Bargello Mirage by Derek Lockwood. I pieced together 12 more rows, and have 9 sewn together now. It's a lot of fiddling around (sewing and unsewing) for a quilt this size, but I think it will be worth it.

Here are 6 more rows lined up ready to sew to the rest.

 I taught a stringpiecing class yesterday. It was fun and everyone had mounds of strings/strips in front of them. I will post some more pictures later.

It motivated me to come home and work on a model that I had previously made  for a different stringpiecing class. For this one I had colorized the strings just to see how it would look.( I usually just put them together in any color order.) Most of the time I have to finish a whole quilt to make a model for the class, but for this class I had only done 4 rows of 6 for the model, as you can make these any size you want.  I had made some more blocks and just never finished putting them together. So I dug them out last night and and worked on it.  Now I have to decide if I want a border or leave it as is.

Still stringpiecing...

I spent most of a cold sunny Saturday (high about 2) stringpiecing, with a little help from my friends. lol I made some using scraps, and now I am making some using selvages...yes I have that many selvages! I looked down at one point to grab one out and there was Smokey, ready to grab whatever I moved.

I went to my hometown on Friday to celebrate Christmas/New Years with my family. We had a great time.

Back to work at school tomorrow. Loving this time at home to sew!

Sewing day ...they loved the pincushions!

Had a great day in Earling sewing with Mom and my sis-in-law, Amy. I almost forgot to take pictures! Here are my mom's blocks, or the parts.She has been working on this quilt only during our sewing days, so it is fun to see it come along. She is ready to put all the stars together now.

Amy started a new quilt called Fantasy Fish...she is using batiks for the first time, even though she has quilted for years. She didn't want to hold this up, as one of the fish needs to be turned around, but it will be a beautiful quilt when finished.

My dad went out in the shop for awhile and worked on some wooden braces he is making for me for the bookshelves in the library. They will keep the books from sliding back all the way to the back of the shelf. I didn't get a pic of him with them, but will soon.

I stringpieced all day. I got 14 blocks done and 4 partway done. Since I started stringpiecing,  I like to cut smaller pieces left over from other projects and throw them in a bin until I need them.  There are usually  strips cut and not used from other projects so I throw them in too. These are mostly brights. I am adding corners to them to form a star, and will do a class later on. I want to make some string blocks using selvages too, since some people are interested in using them in projects, but not sure what to do.

One of my sisters was sick, and the other had something come up, so they couldn't join us. Hopefully next time!

Yesterday I did something sort of scary...I installed a new harddrive in my computer. My friend Rose has been helping me try to figure out what is wrong with it and we have tried many, many things. We were out of ideas to try so I went and got the harddrive and put it in last night. Believe me, I am no computer genius, but I have learned a lot from Rose in the last few weeks, and she told me how to do it. (Have you ever seen the inside of your computer? It is sort of scary that there really isn't that much in there, to do so much!) We figured if that wasn't the problem, I would have to go out and buy a new CPU. So far everything is working well. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Thanks Rose!