Guild Last Friday

We had a great guild meeting last week. Our speaker was Jan Krueger, who is a friend of mine from the Mary Ellen Hopkins seminars in Las Vegas. I first met her about 10 years ago when my Sister and I started going to the seminars.

Here is part of the crowd at the beginning of the meeting. Since we are having such a gas crisis here in the South, I wasn't sure how many people would be able to come. I was pleasantly surprised that we had a good sized crowd.

Here is Jan emptying out her suitcase of quilts for her program. She talked about Log Cabin quilts and all the different ideas you can use when making a "simple" log cabin.

Here are some of Jan's quilts. The diamond one I made several years ago in Las Vegas. Mine is one of my many UFO's. I think I have the top finished waiting for borders.

One last picture from Guild. This is Ben with his landscape quilt during show and tell. This is a beautiful quilt.

We had a great time with Jan. Next month will be Mary Sorensen. She will be the last speaker of the year.

Beyond Beginners

Last night was the monthly Beyond Beginners class. There were three students who come each month. We are working our way through Pat Sloan's book called "I Can't Believe I am Quilting Beyond the Basics.



Here is Stephanie's quilt from last month. The lesson was about putting blocks on point.

She used the same fabrics for this months project.

Lorie is making a beautiful fall colored quilt. Here are two of her blocks.

Here is part of the border of Lorie's quilt. She did a great job on making sure all the points are there.

I thought it might be fun to show a workspace during class. This is Barbara's.

This is Barbara's table runner from last month. She quilted it herself and did a great job.

Instead of making last month's project that taught putting blocks on point, she took some Saturday Sampler blocks and put them on point. We talked about possible borders so she can get this one completed.

Here is the start of her blocks for this month's quilt. She got quite a bit done and should be able to finish on her own.

Allatoona guild today

Today was block of the month day at guild. I decided to take my machine and sew but didn't actually work on the block (row) of the month. I showed the tote bag that my sister made for me a couple of days ago. It is folded up in the picture on the left. The center one is the one I made today for me and the one out of M&M fabric is for Mary. She did help with her bag by doing all the pinning and measuring.

Mine is full of stuff from the quilt shop now. Since it is our 16th birthday of the shop, we are having 16 days of specials. Today's special was 16 FQ for $16. I tried to stay away from them but didn't make it.

Pillowcase Class

I taught a pillowcase class tonight. I always have a great time teaching pillowcases. In the class time each student makes at least one pillowcase and sometimes two. The way I teach it, I make a pillowcase to demonstrate how to do it. This time I found some blueprint fabric to make a pillowcase for Paolo, who is an architect.
I like how it turned out.


Karen was making pillowcases for her granddaughter. She used this cute fabric with letters all over it.
Karen then made a second pillowcase using Halloween fabric - candy corn in blue and and then again in black.

Karol made a coffee pillowcase. In fact, she actually make two but I only got a photo of one of them.

Linda drove a long way to class and got stuck in traffic so she was about a half hour late but was able to catch up quickly. Her pillowcase is made from batiks. She got another one partially made and will be able to finish it in just a few minutes at home. It was her first visit to the shop and she seemed to have a lot of fun - as did everyone else.

Patsy made a Christmas pillowcase. She only made one tonight but will be making a lot more for a nursing home so each resident will get one.

Can you tell I love teaching!

Nine Patch Blocks from Swap

I have belonged to the Quiltbuddies Yahoo group for many years now. Each year we do an anniversary swap and this year it was 9 inch nine-patch blocks. The only rules were that they were to be scrappy and the dark goes in the corners and middle, with light in the other areas.

It is hard to believe that this group started 10 years ago and that this is the 10th anniversary swap. I have not participated in all of the swaps but do have blocks stuck away from a couple of them. Any way, I decided to join this year. We each made 2 blocks for each person and we ended up with 30 people sending in blocks, so I have 60 of these blocks to work with.

I am thinking of cutting the blocks in quarters and putting them back together for a charity quilt. I think it will be a lot more interesting quilt than I was afraid of when I thought about large nine patches. I will play with some of the blocks tomorrow to see how it looks.

Quilts from my Sister's patterns

At the Etowah quilt show today, there were 4 quilts made from my sister Robin's patterns. This first one is from her Magical Slice and Dice pattern and was made during a class I taught at Tiny Stitches.

The next three are all from the Wacky Devine Nine Pattern. I have taught it at the Allatoona Quilt Guild and also at Tiny Stitches. It goes together very quickly and is a great quilt when you need one in a hurry.

It is really fun to see so many quilts from Robin's patterns in one place.

Vending at a Quilt Show

Tiny Stitches was vending at a quilt show today. Mary and Maetha got our area set up yesterday and today was the first day of the actual show. While it isn't a large show, there seems to be quite a few people attending. The show is in Cartersville, GA and is held by the Etowah Quilt Guild.

Here is one view of our booth.

And a slightly different view. I quilted the round tree skirt earlier this week. I doesn't have binding on it yet but looks pretty good. It is made from two panels sewn together. I also really like the table runner. It is made from charms of Christmas junk food fabric - candy and cookies.

Bag Swap Sent

I sent out my bag swap a couple of days late but hopefully she has received it by now. I was going to wait until I heard from her to post the photos but decided that since she doesn't know where her bag is coming from, me posting photos won't spoil the surprise.

Here is the bag I made. The pattern is one of Pat Sloan's called "Tote with Ticking". The bag is made from a great fabric called Sandcastle and after it is washed, it is wonderful. I like the shape of it and hope she likes it. It is a large bag but still has shape and very comfortable handles.

I also made her a steno book cover and sent some fall fat quarters and my favorite type of seam ripper. I hope she likes everything.

Gift in the mail from my sister

I got a fat envelope in the mail today from my sister Robin. I wasn't expecting anything but she always sends good stuff so I was excited to see her return address.

I opened up the envelope and this is what was inside. It was all neatly folded up, ready to go into my purse.

Here it is opened up. A great shopping bag to carry with me. I have had one that I clip to my purse but this one is much cuter. Both of us have a bad disease of attraction to bags of any kind and unfortunately, rather than helping each other cure the disease, we fuel each other's passion for bags - big bags, little bags and in between size bags. Any way, I love it. She also sent the pattern to make more!

It easily folds back up after using it and goes back into my purse for the next shopping trip. I actually used it today when I stopped by Tiny Stitches to put together some kits and couldn't pass up the fat quarters for only $1.50 each. I got a few and popped them into my bag and felt quite "green". I always use my reusuable bags at the grocery store but sometimes forget when I go to a non-food store.

Salt and Pepper Shakers

When Kim came from Missouri last week, she brought a box of things that Bill's mother had sent to him. In the box were several salt and pepper shakers. Apparently, she is trying to declutter her house - while cluttering ours. Bill was quite excited to see some of these that he remembered from growing up.


First is a pair of teddy bears. It is hard to tell how old any of these are, but my best guess is at least 50 years old.

Here are a pair of chickens. The paint is worn on them so they were probably used a lot.

Cows are next. One is laying down and the other is sitting.

This looks like a humpty dumpty pair.

And last is a pair of mushrooms. There was also a glass dish that I didn't get a photo of.

Bag Swap Received

I received my bag from the bag swap today. My partner was Kim and she made this wonderful bag.

Don't you love Santa? He is beautiful! The bag is made from a tea towel and is lined with a great green polka dot fabric. The handles are red on red polka dots.

Santa is sewed with hand blanket stitch and has buttons to decorate his hat. His eyes are also buttons.

In addition to the wonderful bag, she filled it with all this stuff. I got 4 charm packs of a Moda fabric, enough to make the quilt pattern she sent along. There is also a heart shaped yoyo maker, a little notebook with pen and larger paper clip. She also wrote a wonderful note on a beautiful note card.

I love this type of swap - getting to know new bloggers and exchanging things we make for each other.

Cupcakes

Next week is the anniversary of Tiny Stitches, the quilt shop I work at. As part of the celebration, we are giving away a pattern for a cupcake block. I brought the pattern home last night and made a couple of cupcakes this morning.

We decided that putting a cupcake on a towel might be a good idea. This is a chocolate cupcake in a blue liner. It has orange icing with a dollop of whipped cream on the top, with sprinkles!

Here is another one that I just made a quilt block out of. I used the sprinkle fabric for the background with a orange liner, a different chocolate cake, pink icing and orange topping. I think an apron made from cupcake fabric with a cupcake on the front or on the pocket would be great.

I love cupcakes!