Paint Chip Challenge at Allatoona

We are doing a challenge based on a paint chip. You know the ones that you get at the paint store that have several colors that you would probably never use together! I found a paint chip that has these colors on it. I already had this fabric so I had something to start with. We had to use at least three of the colors from the paint chip.

Last year at the Mary Ellen Hopkins seminar in Las Vegas, she showed several small quilts that she made using large scale prints. If you cut them up small and sew them back together you get a surprising result.

Here is what I came up with. the Center is four log cabin blocks and the outside is two very large blocks, cut in half and sewn on the edges of the center blocks to turn them on point. Each log is cut at 1-1/4 inch so it finishes at 3/4 inch.

Here is a close up of the corner of the block. I still have to quilt and bind it. I have it sitting out so I can decide how to quilt it. It is only about 20 inches square and will look nice on the front door, when finished.

The guild purchased some little pins that you earn if you participate in a challenge but you don't get one unless it is done - done, done! I still have a week so should be able to get it finished in the next couple of days.

I am also busy working on customer quilts and need to finish my exchange blocks for Piecemakers before I go to Southern California on the 11th. Busy, busy, busy!

Quiet Day at the Quilt Shop

It was a quiet day at the quilt shop. Very hot and humid out. We spent much of the day cutting Christmas and Halloween fabrics for kits. When we do Christmas in July, we also include the other holidays - especially Halloween.

This is a quick panel quilt for Halloween. I brought it home and will try to get it pieced in the next couple of days. I leave for Southern California on the 11th so am running out of time to get things done for Christmas in July.

NQA Ribbon and Blog Give Away Winner

Here is a photo of the ribbon we got from NQA. Charlotte and I won first prize in the Duet Wall Quilt category. They are nice enough to send two ribbons. Charlotte also got a small label to put on the back of the quilt. Very exciting!


I also picked the winner of the Green/Grocery Tote. I put every one's name on a little piece of paper and had my husband draw a name. It is Carol. As soon as I get her address, I will get the tote on the way to her.

300th Post - Pat Sloan at Guild Meeting

We had a great meeting today. Pat Sloan was the speaker and her husband/business partner was here with her. They have a wonderful hanging system set up to display her quilts and it is so well organized. Here is Greg hanging up one of the quilts, while Pat is describing it.

The next photo is of me at Show and Tell showing my table runner from Pat's book. I am teaching this on Monday.

The next photos are of me and Pat standing in front of her Times Remembered.
This first photo makes me laugh. It looks like Pat has a halo or crown around her head. After checking that one (don't you love digital cameras) we decided to take another.

Here we are right after the meeting, before Greg took everything down. Poor Greg, he disassembled everything while we took Pat to Ted's Montana Grill. We then went to Tiny Stitches where Greg met us. They were off to Little Quilts and then to see the Big Chicken.

I will draw the name for the give away either later today or tomorrow and will post the name of the winner in the next post.

Pat Sloan Workshop - Wild and Free Applique

I had the opportunity to spend the day at a Pat Sloan workshop. The topic of the workshop was "Wild and Free Applique". This first photo is of Pat and her quilting wand.

Next is Pat's quilt called Slice of Summer. Since it was well over 90 degrees today and we are only about a week from the 4th of July, this seemed appropriate for us to work on.

Pat suggested that we all bring a lot of fabric. Here is the stack of fabrics I brought. Lots and lots of black and whites, along with some hand-dyes. Of course, I also had a bunch of lime greens.

Pat went around and choose three different color palettes to use as samples. After she played in my pile, this is what it looked like.

I then made a few changes and pieced this for my background.

I cut out a narrow lime green border but didn't have time to get it sewn on. The original pattern has half square triangles for the outer border but I will have to think about what I want there.

I took a workshop with Pat a couple of years ago and also made a black and white background for MaMa's Garden. I really want to get some applique on these backgrounds and see how they turn out.

Tomorrow we have our regular guild meeting and Pat will give her lecture. I know everyone will have a great time. This evening we had the night meeting and Pat and Greg were gracious enough to stop in long enough to do a meet and greet. They showed a few quilts and then were able to escape for a late dinner.

Hopefully I will get some more photos tomorrow. Also, my next post will be my 300th so I will be drawing for the grocery tote give away. You have until after my next post to comment on the 300th post give away post so you can be in the drawing.

Raffle Quilt - Block from #@&!

We are working on a beautiful raffle quilt for ECQG to be raffled off next year. It is based on a design called "Sampler Magic" by Lori Smith. Check out her website for the great quilts she has designed. Here is a photo from the pattern. We have her permission to use her design and plan to modify it slightly with a different border. One of our local shops, Red Hen Fabrics, is providing the fabric and will put the quilt together, including quilting it.

Janice is the Raffle Quilt chairman and has done a wonderful job of getting the blocks out to members to make. They are due back on Friday so today I finally got around to starting my block. The one I am doing is the large one on the upper right.

Unfortunately, my kit was short fabric. I need 4 more 2-inch squares of the very light green. There are 81 pieces in a 12-inch block. Lots and lots of points to match. So far, so good.

I still need the 4 green squares but have most of it put together. As soon as I get the 4 2-inch squares, I will have it done - thank goodness. It measures 12 1/2 inches across so hopefully it will measure 12 1/2 inches square when I am done.

Now that the block is done as far as I can do it today, I need to get ready for the Pat Sloan workshop tomorrow. The topic of the workshop is Wild and Free Applique so it should be a lot of fun.

Flying Geese and Apron Swap Received

Today was workshop day at Allatoona. The topic for today was flying geese and Tri-Recs. Last month we worked on half square triangles and quarter square triangles. The purpose of what is called special projects to to have a teaching day and hopefully provide information to our members that help them with their quilting. Since we meet every week, we are able to take the time to do some teaching as well as have other projects.

Three of us taught today. Tina showed the Eleanor Burns ruler and also tackled Peaky and Spike (Tri-Recs). Here is is below.

Michelle and I had a communication mix up and both were prepared to teach the Lazy Girl flying geese ruler. Since I got there first, I did it and then Michelle quickly stepped in and taught how to do the same without a ruler. We also talked about using two half square triangles, sewing squares to the base (what Mary Ellen Hopkins calls connectors). Also talked about the Marti Michell ruler. There are a lot of ways to make the same basic block, aren't there.

When I got home and picked up the mail, I found my package for the Apron Swap, all the way from Australia. It was definitely worth the wait. Look at the 3-D flower and the ruffles on the bottom of the apron. I love it. Thank you Louise.

Part of the swap was to include a dish towel, or tea towel as it is known in Australia (I lived there for 3 years in the early 90's). Louise included three towels, one with an applique to match the apron.

The last item for the swap was for a non-alcoholic beverage and she included this great sounding lemonade. This was a very fun swap.

Don't forget - this is my 297th post and I will draw for the Grocery Tote right after my 300th post. If you want to be in the drawing, comment on that post to be elgible.

Scottie Quilt Top Finished

I finished up the Christmas Scottie quilt today. This first photo is all the blocks sewn together with what will become the setting triangles and the sashing.

It is a small child sized quilt. I think it finished at 42 by 52. I have fabric from the same line to use for backing and a wonderful stripe for the binding. I love striped bindings done on the bias. I usually do straight bindings except when I find a great stripe.

Here is the quilt after two cuts, sewing it together each time. I then added the border which is the fabric that the blocks are made from. Didn't it turn out well?

Now I need to decide how to quilt it. The fabric is so busy that a simple all-over design is probably best. The fabric for the backing is black with wrapped presents on it.

Don't forget to comment on the post titled "300th Post Give Away" if you want to celebrate with me in a few days and be in the drawing for a Green/Grocery Tote" made by me.

New Quilt in Progress

It is almost time for Christmas in July at Tiny Stitches. The employees all make samples and kits with the new holiday fabrics. I found this very cute Scottie fabric and decided to make a child's quilt with it. I am using another of my sister's patterns that she created based on her Magical Slice and Dice pattern. I can't find it on her website right now. Her website is Two Wacky Women if you want to look at her patterns.

The pattern only calls for 3 fabrics but I decided that the stripe is perfect for the binding. I can't decide where to use the red bones and polka dots. One is the sashing and the other is the setting triangles.

I couldn't sleep last night so I cut out all the blocks. Here are 6 of them. It is interesting how different they look even though they are made from the same fabric. I pieced them before work this morning and can't wait to work more on it.

This is really going to be a cute quilt.

300th Post Give Away

I just realized that this is my 294th post so I guess it is time for a give away. If you want to be eligible for your name to be drawn, just comment on this post. I will wait until my 300th post which should be in about a week to draw the winner. Be sure that you are not set to no-reply with blogger so I can reach you if you win.

I will make a grocery tote for the winner. In case you don't remember what the tote looks like, I have put the photo up again.

Next Purse Project

I decided on the next project for my purse club at Tiny Stitches. I have this class every month and the students usually bring what ever purse project that they want to make and I help them. We have decided to have a feature purse each month so that means that I need to make a purse/tote every month.

In July, we are going to feature the grocery tote so I need to get something make for August. We had this kit at the shop for the Charm Party Tote so I decided that this will be my next project.

It uses 35 5-inch squares and about a yard of fabric. The pattern looks easy enough so it should go together easily.

Today was Saturday Sampler at the shop which means that it was one of our busier days. Don't think I will do anything on it tonight - will just try to get the zippers on a couple of customer quilts so I can make progress on my backlog starting early next week.

Also, Pat Sloan is coming to ECQG and I am scheduled for a workshop with her on Thursday so need to find the supply list and make sure I have everything I need.

Busy Sewing and Quilting Day

I had a busy sewing day. I stopped at Target to pick up something and looked at their dish towels. I wanted to make another of the cute purses made from two dish towels. They didn't have much of a choice but as I was giving up, I found a two pack of white/blue towels.

This is so easy to make and really very cute. Next, I decided to make a couple of Steno Book covers.

This one is for me - every time I make myself one, I give it to someone. I am not going to give this one to anyone, I am going to use it myself. I also wanted to make one for Maetha. I made her one for Christmas and she uses it all the time so thought she might like another one.

It is made from bright, cheerful fabric and I had enough of the polka dot left that I made a screen bag from the leftover pet screen from the grocery tote that I made earlier in the week.

Then I decided to quilt the table runner that I made yesterday. I finished Charlotte's quilt and then got this quilted. I used a variegated green thread on all of it. I had thought to use black in the black and white in the white but decided the green looked good everywhere.

I just did a continuous curve with some circles in the sashing. It turned out as good as I had hoped.


Here is the back of the table runner where you can see the quilting better. It is lime green Fossil Furn.

Table Runner - not yet quilted

After teaching two different beginner classes, it has become obvious that I need to teach a Beyond the Basics class. I have decided to teach from this book by Pat Sloan. It is titled "I can't believe I'm Quilting Beyond the Basics. There are five lessons in the book and we will teach one a month. Each lesson has a table runner, or quilt as a project that highlight a different technique.


The first lesson is a table runner. Here is the fabric I decided to use. In the book, Pat used black and white with red accents. Of course, I decided to use lime green instead. Here are my fabrics this morning.

The table runner is made of 36 3x6" flying geese units, with just a narrow sashing between rows.

I really like how it looks. I need to finish quilting a quilt for Charlotte tonight or in the morning and then I will throw this on the machine and hopefully get it bound tomorrow evening. I would like to have it to show for the Saturday Sampler crowd at Tiny Stitches. I have more lime green for the backing and binding.

Winner in Columbus NQA Show

Charlotte called me this afternoon to let me know that she had been called by the NQA show in Columbus to let her know that Star Light, Star Bright had won in the category she submitted it in. This is the quilt that won second place in the East Cobb Quilt show in the 2 person category. Since I quilted it for her, I am the second person.

I love quilting Charlotte's quilts. She has a great color sense and her quilts are always flat. See all the curved seams! I quilted each separate fabric with a different background fill, using black thread. I did Curling Amish Feathers in the borders.

For the stars, I switched to a variegated thread and did a little something different in each star.

This is really exciting to win a ribbon in as well known show as the NQA show in Columbus.