Two more Magical Slice and Dice

OK - here are the last two photos of Magical Slice and Dice from last nights class. This one will be spectacular when finished. The colors are so bright and the blocks are looking great.

This last one is Carol's. I had been looking at a Laurel Burch cat fabric for weeks thinking it would make a great quilt. Carol came in one day and I talked her into buying it. It turned out really great. The colors are bright and cheerful and somewhat geometric since the fabric was blocks color on a black polka dot background. She used the background fabric for the sashing and setting triangles. She has more of the cat fabric for the borders but forgot to bring it to class. I really like this one.

OK - end of the Magical Slice and Dice quilt show - at least until I teach it again.

Even More Magical Slice and Dice

I know it seems like all I do is Magical Slice and Dice but that really isn't true. I did have 7 more students last night. Not everyone completed their quilt but I managed to get a photo of the completed quilt or in progress. This next one is using the same fabric that I used for my quilt. It is always interesting to see how different the quilts turn out even using the same fabric.


This one is using a slightly different black and white fabric. Terry's daughter saw my quilt at the quilt show and wanted one just like it. Since Terry couldn't find exactly the fabric, she found this great substitution. Her quilt looks great!

The next one is more subdued color scheme and is very elegant. Since the colors are not as vivid, it is softer.

Anne picked out a really bright red floral fabric that turned out really great. Her choice of sashing and corner triangles really sets it off.

Bella used the same fabric as Terry but because of her different choices for setting triangles (squares in the photo) and sashing, it looks very different.

I have a couple of more but can't get the photos to load so will do one more post.

More Magical Slice and Dice

Here are three of the Magical Slice and Dice quilts from this morning. This first one needs the outer border put on. The border will be more of the fabric used for the blocks. It is interesting to have some of the fabric in there that has not been cut since each of the blocks turns out so different that most people can't imagine what the original fabric looks like.

Here is another one. She did not have all her blocks done so spent the day putting the sashing on her blocks.

Here is the last of the morning quilts. I love this one also. The red really brings out the red in the fabric.

I have seven more students in the evening class so hopefully will have more photos to post tomorrow.

Magical Slice and Dice

I am teaching a couple of classes of Magical Slice and Dice which is a pattern by my sister Robin. I made the quilt in black and white and entered it in the East Cobb Quilters Guild show last year. Since then, I have taught this class a few times and never get tired of seeing how people's fabric choices turn out.

Here are a few samples from the first session of the class which was last Monday. The second class will be held tomorrow and hopefully I will remember to take the camera so I can get a photo of each quilt. If the students did their homework, they should be able to complete the quilt top tomorrow. There are 4 students in the morning class and an additional 7 in the evening class. One managed to find the same fabric that I used and two of the evening students choose another black and white fabric. All the others are different and it should be interesting to see what the quilts look like.

Making mesh bags for Red Top

We will be going to our retreat in a little more than a week and we had a work day on Tuesday making a mesh bag for each person. The fabric used was some that I got at Tiny Stitches that has quilters on it. We made 45 bags in a couple of hours. These will be part of the goodie bag that each person gets at the retreat.

Mary and I are in charge of entertainment. We are going to play Quilto one night and quilt charades one night. We also have a mystery item that we will be giving to each person to decorate and will have a prize for the best decoration. I can't say what the item is, since some of the members read my blog, but it will be fun. Last year we decorated cowboy hats that I found at the dollar store. The dollar store is where we found this year's mystery item.

The theme of this years retreat is a murder mystery. Polly Pureseams apparently was murdered and one of the retreaters killed her. We will get clues during the retreat and there is a prize for the person who figures out who the murderer is. Dave and Tina are the retreat chairpeople and they are also going to be the quilt police. Should be a lot of fun.

Valentine Swap

I belong to the Hoochy Mama yahoo group and we had a Valentine Swap. With all the trouble I have had recently getting to my blog, I realized that I had not posted about what I received from Molly.

The box was full! Lots of neat stuff, including candy, socks and other cool stuff. I really liked the valentine FQs and especially a fat pen that I am carrying in my purse now. There were also some cool lime green fibers that I hope to use soon. It was a great gift box.

Fun New Website

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Here is a fun new website that a friend shared with me. I found out that there are 3 people with my name in the US. I wonder where they are. I also found out that there are 142,639 Melinda's in the US. I have met or know of about 15 of them. Our name is the 414th most common first name. My last name is less common. There are 7,345 people with this name and it is the 4860th most common last name.

Check out your name! I had fun putting the names of my grandchildren in and found out that they have extremely uncommon names even though their first names are Hannah, Noah and Emilio. Of course, Hannah and Noah don't actually live in the US since they are my little Swedish grandchildren and live in Stockholm.

Purse Swap

I finally got my purse mailed in for the purse swap. I made this purse a couple of years ago in a class I took at a Martha Pullen school. I spent 5 days with Linda McGehee learning to make different purses. This was the first one we made and I think it was the most fun. We used shiny organza and sandwiched glitter and threads between two pieces of organza. We then played with all the stitches on the Pfaff machines, using lots of speciality threads. Linda has great purse patterns and I loved spending time with her.


It was hard to give up this purse but I don't really live the kind of life that I can use one like this. Of course, when we went on the cruise this summer, it would have been great when we got dressed up but I forgot to take it with me so it has never been used and is ready for its new home.

I can't wait to see what I receive in the trade. I love purses of all kinds.

Judy Niemeyer Class

I attended a class last Friday with Judy Niemeyer that Tiny Stitches sponsored. She taught two different classes. The first one was for 2 days and was for people who are experienced paper piecers who have made projects by Judy. I have paper pieced but have not done any of her patterns so I decided to take the one day beginner class. In this class, we started making her Rain Drops project. I got a collection of bright batiks with dark backgrounds and should look great.

Here is Judy at the class. Look at the wonderful quilt behind her! I would love to get the fabric she used for this quilt.

Here I am with the first block that I pieced. After doing this one, I started chain piecing and have about 14 of them 1/2 done. I think I will take them to the Red Top retreat in early March and work on them some more. We will have 3 whole days to sew and I should be able to get the top of the quilt pieced.

I am back!

I have been having problems getting to my blog for over a week. Two days ago I contacted Comcast and they told me that I had a bad modem. I could get to most of the internet but not to blogger - no matter when or how often I tried. They suggested that I take my modem to the Comast store and get a new one. Sounds simple, doesn't it.

After waiting in line for about an hour, the nice lady gave me a new modem and told me that all I had to do was just plug it in and it would work. Right!!!

I tried that and then called Comcast. They told me that they had to register the modem and it would work at 5:00. At 5:30, I called and they told me that the ticket had been sent to the wrong department and it was being redirected and everything would work by 7:30. At 8:00 I called again. This time it was being escalated and should work sometime - no estimate of what that meant.

Since I have to send some emails and pay my bills, I decided that I would go to the Library as I understand they now have free wireless available at my local branch. I decided to give it one more try and it works! This is the first time I have been able to get to my blog in almost two weeks. I have a lot of pictures to post and things to talk about but have to go teach my beginning machine piecing class in a few minutes. Will post again this afternoon.

Valentine Gift and Doll Quilt

Here is what was in my Valentine swap package from Sherry. She sent two embroidered pieces. There were also two cards, including one that she made.

Look at the CQ heart that Sherry made for me! It is absolutely beautiful and wonderful. I love it!

On the back, she wrote that it was for me. I have it hanging up for the next few days - at least until Valentine's Day.

Here is a photo of the back of my quilt from Ginger. The little ladies are wonderful, aren't they. I have the quilt hanging on my front door. It is protected by a storm door and really looks cute hanging there.

Pay It Forward

I had forgotten that I had signed up for Pay It Forward on Paula's blog. I got my gift from her yesterday. It is a cute little bag that she made. It is the perfect size to carry my new stitchery project. The pattern is above. We are doing it at Tiny Stitches as a BOM. I got the first block last month and the second one is coming on Saturday. I need to get started soon!

Isn't the bag cute. It will hold my hoop, pattern, fabric, floss and small scissors.

Paula also included these two fabric pieces. I am happy to add them to my stash especially since they are colors that I don't have much of.

OK - if you want to play Pay it Forward with me, I will send a gift to the first 3 people who sign up by commenting on this post. I am committing that I will send a gift sometime in the next 12 months. In return, you need to promise to post on your blog that you are playing Pay It Forward and send gifts to people who sign up on your blog.

Anyone interested?

4 Seasons Quilt - Winter

I received my quilt from Ginger for the 4 seasons quilt swap. Isn't it wonderful? I forgot to take a photo of the back. It is really cute and hopefully I will take another photo of the back to show you.

Ginger appliqued 8 circles on the top and handquilted it. I don't handquilt myself and really appreciate the work she put into my wonderful quilt. This swap was a lot of fun - both planning and making a quilt and of course, receiving one.

The one I made is still on the way to Germany but hopefully it will be received in the next week or so.

Four Seasons Quilt Swap

Here is the doll quilt that I made for my swap partner. It is on the way to Germany. The bow tie blocks were made several years ago and have been quietly waiting in a plastic tub all these years just for a project like this. Of course, I was only able to use a few of them but I think it turned out nice. The blocks finished at 4 inches and the quilt is 20 inches square.

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

I got an IPhone yesterday! Bill's phone finally died and we needed to get him a new one. Since we had identical phones and could move the SIM card from his to mine, we decided to get an IPhone for me! Lucky me!

So far, I love the phone. I have lots of photos on it and am learning how to use it. I figured out how to get photos from my computer to the phone and today learned how to take pictures with the phone. I love that you are able to have picture of the person calling come up on the phone. For home, I have a picture of the dogs. For the quilt shop, I took a photo of the batik section.

Danielle and I went to lunch after my morning beginning machine piecing class and I got a photo of her for my phone. I still have a lot to learn about it but think I will really enjoy it.

Another Wacky Devine Nine

Here is the latest shop sample/UFO that I finished. You can't tell from the photo but it is quilted with lime green thread and I did an overall meandering feather.

This is such a fun quilt to make. It is one of my sister's patterns and is available from her website, Two Wacky Women. I am not sure how many of these I have made but at least 4, maybe 5. It is a simple quilt and it uses all of 9 FQs for the main part of the quilt. With the two borders added, it is a very large lap quilt. I should have taken a photo of the backing - it is a white background with green, turquoise and pink dots/circles. It came with the line, but didn't fit in with the front of the quilt because of the white background.