More Peas in a Pod beginning piecing....

The quilters in my beginning piecing class are off to a great start! They worked on putting their Peas in a Pod blocks together Thursday night.

They were excited to see the blocks fit together like they are supposed to!

Lots of different colorways and beautiful fabrics!

They had a little homework this time....finish the 12 blocks.

When we meet next week, they will start sewing the blocks together.

This is the quilt they are making. 

quiltinjeanie designs

Zigzags are always fun!

I always love it when I get to see a quilt started in one of my classes after it is sewn together. This Zigzag quilt was started in my Nov. class and is almost completed....Pat wants to add one final border. As you can see, it's big enough for her to hide behind!

Last night's beginning piecing class went well, and everyone got some blocks finished. I DID remember to take pictures, and will post them tomorrow.

I am teaching Miss Tess tomorrow...there are still a couple of spots open if you want to spend the day piecing this beautiful tessellation quilt.

Catching up

Monday night I met with the Sampler 18 group. They are half way through their classes now. Last month they started their Friendship Stars, but had multiples of them to make so didn't finish in class.  They were mostly finished Monday night.

They worked on Astra Monday night, but have to make four for the center of the quilt, so they left with some homework!

Can you figure out which block goes with which set of blocks above?

Tuesday night I met with the Colorwheel Stash group. During the class we decided to meet again to continue working on art type projects using our squares and trying some different techniques with them. We had a great time. I took some art type projects I have done to show how you can use stitching and beading to enhance these types of quilts.

 Several people worked on getting a border they liked on their original project, others worked on new ideas. I played with yellow and blue 6 x 6 blocks, but for some reason...again no pictures. I was really upset with myself but I guess we were just having too much fun playing and discussing what we could do. Luckily we are meeting again next month, so we can see everyone's progress. I hope to have my sunrise/sunset quilt quilted by then. I have some ideas and am anxious to get started on that.

I meet with the beginning piecing class making More Peas in a Pod tonight. I WILL take pictures! 

The weekend.....

I taught a T-shirt quilt class on Saturday and while I was there I picked up the backing fabric for the mystery quilt. It picks up all the colors I used, so I think it will be perfect.

The class went well, lots of questions about t-shirt quilts in general, but also specific questions about what to do when you have multiple sizes of shirts. The day went by quickly and I felt like we covered a lot of content from basics that have to be done and more creative things you can do with your shirts. I hope they send me pictures when they are finished since I forgot to take any during class!

I spent Sunday working on different types of class/quilty related paperwork. I did manage to get in some play time with some colorwheel squares so that was fun. I worked on purple and red 6 x 6 squares. Here are the green and orange ones I have already made.  I didn't take a picture but will the next time I take them out. I have a project in mind for these that I hope will work, but I'm figuring it out as I go so we'll see!

 I have a busy week of classes this week so I'll keep you posted on their progress!

Microwave bowl potholder

I met a new group of quilters Thursday night and got them started on their road to quilty addiction! No pictures yet, but I will take some this week during class.

I had some questions about the Microwave Bowl Potholder that I made on retreat last weekend, so I'm adding the link so that you can make one of your own! It's a great tutorial and they are fun and easy to make.

I'm off to teach quilters how to make a T-shirt quilt...Happy Saturday!

Lots of sewing!

I had a lot of fun on retreat working on some new blocks made out of batiks. I am in love with the background fabric and think it looks good with everything I've chosen so far.

You might remember the 3rd colorwheel quilt that was waiting to be finished...I spent more time trying to decide what to use for borders than it took to sew them on. I'm still not sure if it's finished...hopefully I will decide soon.

I played with colorwheel orange squares one night when I was too tired to sew and sewed it together the next morning. I have an idea in mind for some more colorized squares.

Dianne made a microwave bowl potholder...

...I love these things and plan to make more!

 Diana finished her Tangled in the Kite Strings blocks out of her mother's stash....this will be a stunning quilt.

Rose finished one ZigZag quilt and started another one. They look so different!

She also finished this quilt that she started on the last retreat....

 And made a quick and easy scarf!

Dianne worked on her polka-dotted Which Way is Up quilt. She is going to add a green dotted border.

Diana also worked on her Sparkling Prisms blocks.

Rose made a cute snow globe wallhanging....

Dianne liked it so much, she made one too!

Pat started and finished this quilt on retreat. We all loved the soft colors. She worked the rest of the time on her ZigZag quilt, but sadly I didn't get any pictures of her blocks. She was finished making them, just had to start assembling the quilt.

Diana finished a sampler quilt she started a few years ago. She went back to school while continuing to work fulltime and raise 3 kids, so she didn't have much time to sew. She recently graduated and is happy to be able to devote some time to quilting again.

It was a great weekend of sewing, laughing and sharing stories. I can't wait for the next one!

I spent some time working on the mystery pattern last night and got more done than I thought I would. I'm home today (SNOW DAY!!!) so hope to get it finished. Maybe I'll have time for a little sewing too.

Talk about challenges....

I took my challenge bag from the fabric swap I did with friends a few months ago along on my retreat. You might remember that we all brought fabrics of different sizes with the guidelines and we had to make something out of it. I had some trouble deciding what to make plus have been busy with other things. So I decided it was time to get busy on it.

I cut it all into 2 1/2" strips and then cut those into half hexies. I sewed them into 2 long braids, then cut each in half. I had about 36" of braid in each row after trimming.

I had taken white along to put in between the rows. I think it adds some clarity to the busyness of all those scraps.

I like it! I hadn't taken along anything to border it with, but when I got home last night I tried out several fabrics I had here.

So far this is the winner. It's a reddish paisley. I don't think I want anything multicolored, though not sure.

Here is a close up of the design, though the color isn't right in this picture. It's not this goldish.

Cindy is in the same challenge group and I posted pix of her blocks in progress awhile back. She finished her blocks and put them together on retreat. We all loved it!

Now for our RETREAT challenge.....

We like to play games while on retreat. We play the L-C-R dice game with fat quarters. It's fun and someone ends up with 6 fat quarters at the end of each game. We also play Trader's Dice, which is fun because there are no losers....everyone ends up with whatever you are trading. Last year we each took 10 width of fabric 2 1/2" strips, cut them in half and played with them every time we played Trader's Dice. The challenge came after we got home...using them to make a project that we would show at the next retreat. I procrastinated until about a month ago, but made this cute snap bag with mine. It's got the strips in the lining too. I used them all and didn't use any other fabric except for the point in front.

Diana made each of us a soothing eye patch that can be heated or frozen .  They are filled with good smelling scent and flax seed.

Rose made this cute quilt sign for her quilt room.

Here is Dianne's bag....she had it started so it was her first finish on the retreat.

Cindy finished hers on the retreat too. We all loved it...and thought she did such a good job that she could make each of us one too.

I will share more of my retreat pictures through the week.