This and that

It's been a busy week so far. I sewed and quilted all day Sunday and sorted colorwheel squares in the evening for kits for the class this Sat. I'm not sure anyone needs a kit, but I decided I had them cut so I might as well make them as it will be nice to have them sorted that way anyway. These are the fabrics I'm using on the mystery quilt...I wanted to take a picture of them in good light as it helps to have it on the supply sheet for the class. It's hard enough to pick fabrics for a quilt you haven't seen, so it helps to see what I used.

 I taught a Sampler Club Monday night and went out to eat with my sister and her husband last night. It was their last night in town before they went back to Vancouver Island today. I have another Sampler Club tonight, so that will be fun and keep me out of trouble.

You might remember seeing this quilt in its early stages awhile back when I taught the class on free piecing letters. This quilter sent me a picture of her finished quilt! She is going to use the letters again when she makes a t-shirt quilt for her daughter.

Hopefully I will get some more quilting done tomorrow night, I'm really anxious to get the tessie quilt finished!

Rock Candy...very tasty!

 I had a great time teaching a group of ladies how to use the Sidekick Ruler to make the Rock Candy tabletopper yesterday. They all chose charm packs for this project, so  part of the challenge of this project was placing the scrappy diamonds in a pleasing arrangement. We spent a lot of time playing on the design walls.

Barb wanted to make something for Valentines Day as she likes to change out her toppers by season. We loved the contrast between the pinks and reds with the white background.

 Kathy B. chose deep jewel tone batiks for hers and they shine! It looks like stained glass.

 Kathy S. chose batiks that blended somewhat and came up with great layout (after much playing!) to accent those blending colors. Hers has a shimmering quality to it.

Yuko chose a bright, modern charm pack. Notice the pattern she made using the doubles she found in her assortment of patterns.

Even though this was the first time for them to use diamonds in a project, they caught on to the tricks of sewing them together quickly. It's always fun to work on a project that you can finish in a day too. That doesn't happen very often when we are piecing quilts.

I want to finish the blocks for the new mystery today as well as get some more of the quilting done on the tessellation quilt. Since it's going to be almost 50 outside today (yes, I still live in IA...) I'd love to get a walk or bike ride in too. Wish me luck!

Some scraps and some friends...

A few months ago I issued a challenge to the small sewing/quilting group I meet with bimonthly. We all brought a selection of scraps, mixed them up amongst us and took them home to make something...anything out of. I also gave them each a piece that everyone had to use in their project. Last time we met, they had all made some progress on their projects, but when we met last night, Debbie had hers almost finished! She is sewing the binding down now!.

Rose made some nine patches and might make some more. She is uncertain what she will make with them, so it's a work in progress.

Cindy is still working on blocks, but will soon have enough to sew into a quilt.

Mine still looks like it did the night we swapped. I'm not proud of this, but unfortunately it is. I have been working on other projects and will get to this. I have a retreat coming up soon so I might take it along. It would be fun to play with it with lots of people around for advice!

I did get a few more passes quilted on the tessie quilt. I am using the Leafage panto, which is one of my favorites. I am almost half way, so hope to make some progress on it this weekend. I am teaching the class on the Rock Candy topper on Saturday, so will probably quilt on Sunday.

I also worked for a little while on the mystery blocks too and only have a few more blocks to finish. I am anxious to get it on the design wall. I've been putting blocks up, but without all of them the design is incomplete. It's always exciting to get to the next phase of the project!

Quilting has its perks

I got the tessellated quilt loaded on the machine yesterday and started quilting it. One of the perks of quilting on the frame is that you can examine it closely, clip stray threads and pick off the fuzzies before you quilt it. This one is queen size and picked up some kitty hair while I was pressing it. Not sure how that happened since my house is always spotless...

Hmmmm,  I know you  know better since I'd rather sew than clean. This is the back, I like the way it ties in the smaller black and white dotted fabric from the front. I plan on working on this a bit every night after work. We'll see how that goes.

I also spent some time yesterday putting blocks together for the mystery quilt. It's coming along, and I only have 13 blocks left to put together. I am excited to lay it out to see if it meets the expectations I have!

My holiday break is over and I'm back to work today. Happy Tuesday!

Snow day, cold day

We were supposed to go back to school today after our holiday break, but the bitterly cold temps overnight caused them to cancel school for today. So I have another day to sew!

I worked on the mystery quilt most of yesterday and it is coming along nicely. I love the batiks that I chose for this quilt...they are so pretty! I want to get the tessellation quilt loaded on the machine and start the quilting on that today.

Are you sewing/quilting today?

A-tessellating we will go....

I spent a good share of the last week working on this new tessellating quilt. I got all of the rows sewn together during my family sewing day. I needed fabric for the borders so I switched over to working on the new mystery quilt Thursday.

There are a few half square triangles in this design!

 They're prettier when flipped over!

They are all squared up and ready to go. Luscious fabrics!

I am teaching a UFO Saturday today at Cut Up and Quilt today so I had better be off! Happy Saturday!

Sewing day...

 I spent some time sewing with my mom and sisters the other day. Two of my sisters aren't really sewers, but have started quilts and work on them when we get together. Deb finished her borders and we layered, pinned, and basted it so she can tie it.

 Sharon has made multiple quilts and wanted her make her own version of my Starflower Cascade, so she started working on it over the weekend, so got the center sewn together that day.

 Nancy is here visiting from Canada and only works on hers when she comes to visit at Christmas. She got seven purple blocks completed, so it's starting to look like a quilt. We laid it out on the sashing fabric so she could see how it will look assembled. She has eight more purple blocks to make. Hopefully she will find some time to sew with Mom and my sisters before she goes home!

 Mom got her blocks sewn together into rows. It's going to be so pretty!

Nancy always cooks dinner for us on New Years Day, so I stayed overnight. When Sharon came over she had finished the borders on her quilt! 

I worked on my new tessellation quilt and got the blocks sewn together. I need to figure out what to do for borders next. It was really fun working together all day! My dad was around too and gave his advice as needed!