Sisterly Surprises

My sister, Sharon, has been teasing me for several weeks about a gift she made me. I tried to guess what it was, but she didn't want to give me very many hints. Since she has many talents, among them woodworking and sewing, I was clueless about what it was until I went to my hometown for Mother's Day last Sunday. 

Using repurposed wood, she and her friend Kelly made me this beautiful table and set of boxes. If you look closely, you can see that the design on the table is a log cabin pattern!  

She used wood from several remodeling projects to make this table.

They also made this cute box by clueing  wood together and cutting it the shape they wanted.

When you open the drawer....there is another little box.

When you take it out and open it...

Another drawer. Is this adorable or what?

The biggest surprise of all came when you looked at the sides of the boxes...another log cabin block. The block shows up on both sides of the boxes. I couldn't believe how cute this was and we spent some time looking it over and figuring out how she had done it. I love figuring out how things are put together!

I am really excited over this gift from my talented family!

I love when quilty things come in the mail! I received some gift cards for Mother's Day and ordered some new fabrics and a panto, Cool Beans. They came yesterday! You know I can never have too many batiks, and I decided I needed to collect a few "wordy" fabrics for a future project.

I don't have any classes tomorrow, so I plan on working on a new Sampler. I've been playing catch up for awhile now, very little actual quilting being done, so I'm ready for a sewing session!

Just a little challenge among friends....

 I've been meeting with a group of sewing friends for many years. We met last week for our bi-monthly meeting and I challenged them to a new project. I cut up an old calendar and laid out the pictures upside down. Then each of us picked one without looking at it. We had the chance to re-pick if we really didn't like the picture we got. The challenge is to make something using the picture as inspiration. We can use the colors, something in the picture, or recreate the picture if we want. The quilt can be any size.  (I like to keep the guidelines loose so that individual creativity can blossom.) We then talked about ideas that came to mind as we looked at our pictures and each others.  Here they are with their pictures! Mine is the bird below.

mine

 Our friend, Jo, moved to Florida last year, but she was game to play too, so I skyped her over the weekend and blindly chose this one for her. She liked her bird, so we are ready to go. We set a date in July to meet again and have to have at least a start or a plan or something to share by then, with the finished projects to be shown in Sept.  I'm excited about this challenge and think it will be fun to explore some possibilities. What would you do if you got my picture?

Jo

Circle and Spin to the Moon

Saturday's Circle and Spin Plus class went very well. Every one had gorgeous fabrics and jumped right in to cut and sew their curvy blocks. I think that they found it wasn't as difficult as they thought it would be. The one thing that always seems to be hardest is to keep the seam allowances at 1/4". I think as they are concentrating so hard on sewing the curve, that the seam allowance is a second thought. They all got better after a couple of tries.

When you are finished sewing them together, they need to be squared up...the bottom two haven't been squared yet.

I'm excited to see these quilts finished!

I meet with the first group that is making the Highlights Sampler tonight. 

Beads, Buttons and Baubles remix

I was very excited to receive these pictures of Kerstin's version of the Beads, Buttons and Baubles quilt the other day. She agreed to test the pattern for me...you might remember that she tested the Against the Tide Mystery pattern last year as well. She has a great eye for color and I love her beautiful quilt. Her fabrics capture the playful aspect of this design perfectly. 

Jane tested the pattern as well and made a smaller version last month for a baby gift. She chose soft colors to match the cute animal print she had found. The two quilts look so totally different, yet both are so pretty in their own way.  That's what I love about seeing different versions of the same pattern.

If you want to try this design, the pattern is available now through my Craftsy shop. I would love to see pictures if you do!

Beads, Buttons and Baubles

Prepping odds and ends

I love it when quilters bring in their finished quilts from my classes....this king size T-shirt quilt is a good example. Plus I get to hear the story behind the finishing. 

I've been doing a little prep cutting and sewing for my Circle and Spin Plus class this weekend. I love this effortless way to make circular patterns. I've taught the Circle and Spin class many times, but this is the first time to teach it with two sizes of circles. I made this version for my daughter several years ago, but had never updated the pattern. 

It will be fun to see what fabrics the students choose to use for this one...wonder if they will choose fabrics so as to make "hot spots" like I did? I love this pattern made using batiks because of the blending possibilities, but it's pretty made out of other fabrics as well. 

I've been working on some plans for my small group's next challenge. We meet tomorrow night so we'll see what they think of it then.

Wendy's Circle and Spin Plus

Ready for a Summer Fling!

 Or they will be once they finish their Summer Fling scrappy quilts.It started out as a gloomy, rainy day, but these quilters got to work quickly and started turning out scrappy hexies! That put some bloom in the room!

 I had sewn some selvages together just for fun and cut those while they sewed to show how they could be used as well. I made other class model blocks to cut and show for class, so I will be making another version of this using all of those.

Selvages used...so cute!

I also cut some more non-piecied blocks, but used busier prints than last time (I found some strips that were just right!). I think I like this too. I am mixing some of the black/tan blocks in that I made using leftover jelly roll strips too. I really need to clean, but now I just want to sew these together!

 It would actually go together much quicker using a jelly roll, as the strips would be wider and already cut. Plus you could use a fabric collection that suited the person you were making it for.

My design consultant, Smokey

I do love scrappy quilts, how about you?

Original Summer Fling 

Help a girl out...VOTE for this beautiful quilt!

Lora's Carpenter's Star

Recently our local quilt shop hosted the Piece and Comfort quilt challenge. The participants were to make a quilt using fabrics from the Moda Because of the Brave line using the inspiration of someone they knew who had served in the military. The proceeds from the sale of the fabrics would then go to USA Cares.  After completion of the contest, the veterans used as inspiration  receive their quilts.

A very talented mother/daughter duo I know decided to enter the challenge, as they have several family members who have been or are currently in the military. I met these ladies a few years ago when they started taking classes to learn the basic skills of quiltmaking. They are both enthusiastic and help each other with their quilting endeavors and are so much fun to have in class.

Kelli's challenge quilt

As you can see, Lora and Kelli both made beautiful quilts for the challenge and Lora's quilt won the local challenge, so hers has moved on the the national level! We are all so proud of her! If you would like to help her win the national prize, please click here. The quilt entries are on the left...to vote, scroll down the right side through the shop/winners names to: Cut Up & Quilt! - Lora Veitenheimer and VOTE. You can vote once a day if you wish until May 6. You can also click on the quilts themselves to read the inspiration for each one if you want. Let's help Lora win this national challenge!

Diana

Here are some beautiful blocks from Tuesday night's Highlights Sampler class. Enjoy!

Pat

Karen

Kelli

Cindy

Lora

Dianne