Aren't these beauties?

 

Had the second session of the Double 4 Patch class yesterday. We made a lap size, but you could easily make this quilt any size you want.  The quilts are gorgeous.Diana is ready to finish!

Dianne got hers finished, so put a red fleece back on it during class. She put the top and back together like you would for a pillow, turning it right side out when finished. She then topstitched about an inch from the edge to hold it (it looks a bit like binding then too!)  She will either tie it or tack it to hold the layers together.

Eileen has her center finished, just needs borders. She is contemplating a fleece back too.  Fleece makes a nice alternative to batting and a traditional cotton backing fabric. It is easier for people to finish themselves (the static involved holds the layers together well while tying and/or sewing together), and you don't need batting! It is great for baby quilts.

You can see a pic of my Double 4 Patch on the upper right corner of my blog.

Went to Earling last night for a surprise 50th birthday celebration for my sister and her husband organized by their children. It was great fun!

Happy Sunday!

Still at it

I have had classes the last couple nights so haven't had much time to sew, but I did get most of the cottages sewn together last weekend. I sewed some grassy strips in between the rows to separate them a bit. I still have the last row to do, then I will have to figure out where to go from here.
The second session of sewing for the Double 4-Patch is Saturday, so should have some good pix of them. One of the gals has already finished her top.

Stitching with friends....and cottages....

I had a great time with my friends yesterday, we all got some sewing done. We decided maybe it is best to meet on Sunday afternoon as we had more energy than when we meet at night.
Here is row three of the cottages.

And row 4.
Tonight I have the first session of a new Sampler group, should be fun.
We had some snow last night, so freshened up our piles of dirty snow left from the last 2 blizzards.

Class, cottages and birthday weekend

Yesterday was the Double Four Patch class. I got pix of 2 of the quilts in progress, and will get the third next week when we continue. It is always fun to see what people will do and how the color choices really change how it looks. Dianne used 2 that were negative/positive.

Diana used more than one for her light.

Today is my birthday and I have pretty much been celebrating all weekend. Friday night my 2 daughters that live here took me out to eat and gave me an Ottlite. I was pretty excited as I have wanted one for a long time. Last night my hubby surprised me with a cake and gift card to Best Buy (love to shop there!). Today I am meeting my S & B group to sew and chat. We were supposed to meet last week, but it was so foggy and nasty out we postponed. Should be a fun day. This is the group I have been exchanging cottages with, so we will exchange for the last time.

After class last night I worked on my cottages, deciding on the line-up and where the trees would go. I decided to line them up sort of in order by season. I got the first 2 rows sewn together.

I am filling in with strips in between the houses where necessary so that the rows all turn out the same size since the trees aren't the same size as the cottages. I am swapping with 2 others, but have more cottages because some of the ladies in the class swaps have made some for me. Aren't they sweet. So I think after today I will have 27. For the layout I have planned I will need to make one more. They are fun and easy to make, so that won't be a problem.

More trees

I made a few more trees last night. I appliqued these and machine blanket stitched around them. I may add a few clouds when I have the rows put together.

I played around a bit to see how they looked with the cottages.

 

Now I am excited to start putting them together. 

Cottage trees

I played around with some ideas I had for trees to go with the cottages we have been swapping locally all year. I want to have a cottage work day for the participants to work on their quilts next month, so want to have a few tree options for them too. We are going to have a cottage party in March too, to show off what they have done.

My daughter's kitty, Gwennie, is interested in quilting too....

Catching up

I taught the Circle and Spin class in Dunlap yesterday. What a nice group of ladies...after about 10 min. I felt like I had known them forever. They are part of a quilt guild that encompasses several area towns. They did very well, as you can see from the following photos.

I did something I have never done before, and hopefully won't do again. I took my camera, but had left my memory card in my computer!

 

So I went to take pictures and  no memory card! Luckily Paula had her camera and let me use it. 

 

As they worked they talked about upcoming projects and workshops they are going to have. It all sounded like great fun!

 

Several of them had shopped for fabrics, then done some trading, and they were amazed that even though they had some of the same fabrics, their blocks all looked different.

 

 

 

I will post these pictures to my flickr account too. Just click on the link on the side of the page.

 

Somehow I didn't manage to get everyone in a pic, but you can see they are hard at work. We had the class in the local parish center.