Friendship Bag Swap Received

I received my friendship bag from the Friendship Bag Swap yesterday.  It is from Nichole in Germany.  She made me a very cute black, white and lime green bag.

Isn’t it cute?  Here is another photo, this time with the fabric that she included in the package.  She also put in some chocolate!

If you look closely, you will also see a package of needles.  I really like it!

I still have to make my bag for my swap partner.  My partner didn’t express any particular preferences but I have an idea that I think will turn out great.  I am going to try to work on it tomorrow between my two beginning machine piecing classes.

I read on my sister Robin’s blog that she has joined in the Aqua and Red disappearing nine patch swap.  She was actually the 100th and last person to join.  She is working on heo blocks and has a few made already.  I have mine mostly cut out but haven’t actually sewn any yet.

Melinda

Beyond Beginners – Lesson 3

This month we are working on half square triangles and making a quilt.  The one in the book (Pat Sloan’s) is a very large nine block quilt that ends up being 81 inches square.  Most of the people in class don’t want to make that large a quilt so I recalculated the pattern and fabric requirements to make it a 4 block quilt.  With borders it will be about 60 inches which will be a good sized lap/couch quilt.

There were only two students.  One decided to make the nine block quilt but instead of 4 of one color combination and 5 of the other, she is making each block from one Amy Butler fabrics, along with white.  Here are her fabrics.

She also has a couple of solid fabrics that she might use as part of her background.  These are great fabrics and her quilt is going to be wonderful.

Here are the other student’s fabrics.

 

She is not an experienced quilter, having only taken one one-hour beginners class at another shop.  It turns out that she wasn’t really prepared for the class so we concentrated on making sure she could cut correctly and learning how to sew a perfect 1/4 inch seam.  She is going to sign up for my beginners class.  In the meantime, she is going to continue to cut out her quilt and it will be ready to sew when she has more experience.  Sounds like a good plan.

Melinda

Fall Swap Received

I opened up my fall swap package today and it is wonderful.  My swap partner is Paula and I absolutely love what she sent to me.

Look at the wonderful banner she made spelling out S P O O K Y.  She also sent two Halloween towels, a nice candle and some embroidery floss.

My package is on the way to Lori and hopefully she will receive it tomorrow or Monday at the latest.  I forgot to take a photo before I mailed it.

I have several other swaps that are due soon.  I worked at the quilt shop tonight and after we closed and before the quilters were ready to leave, I cut about 1/2 of the aqua and red fabrics into 4 1/2 inch squares.  I plan to get them all cut before I start sewing so I can make the blocks very scrappy.

Melinda

The Start of Blooming Nine Patch Quilts

The first class for Blooming Nine Patch was today.  There were only two students but it takes a long time to pick out the fabrics since they need eight fabrics that graduate in either color or value. 

DJ decided that she wanted a red quilt so we started with white/red and ended up with red.  Here are her fabrics.

After she decided on these fabrics, she found an extra-wide to use for the backing.

This will be a stunning quilt when finished.

Helen wanted to start with yellow and bloom into purple.  Here is what she decided to get.

It was difficult to make the transition from the light yellow to the deep purple but the more she worked with these, the better it looked.

Today they cut all the strips necessary for the quilt.  What I provide is the organizational tools to help them keep everything straight.  First they cut strips, then make nine patches and cut larger squares.  I provide labels for baggies and they fill them with what they cut.  We don’t actually sew in class.  The next class is about a month from now and they have plenty of time to make all the nine patches and bring them back ready to lay out the quilt.

I have them buy two large flannel backed tablecloths and sew them together to make a really large one.  At the next class, we will lay out the quilt on the table cloths and they will start sewing it together. 

There were several blooming nine patches in the quilt show last week and that got both DJ and Helen excited about making their own.  I still have my black and white one to complete.  I hope to find time to work on it soon.

Melinda

Flying Geese at the Beginning Piecing Class

We made flying geese today.  All the students did a great job!  Here are some of the blocks they completed.

Isn’t it interesting how the different fabric choices turn out?

Next week we put the quilts together so I will have some finished tops to show.

Tomorrow I am teaching a Blooming Nine Patch class.  It is one of my favorite quilts and I really enjoy helping people pick out the fabrics to make this quilt.  Can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Melinda

Aqua and Red Disappearing Nine Patch Swap

I couldn’t resist – I found a Disappearing Nine Patch Swap that is using Aqua and Red!  What a great combination.  I am glad I was able to get into the swap.  Jane is taking up to 100 participants and I am #94.

I picked out some fabrics to start making the nine patches.

The Nine Patches will be 12 1/2 inch unfinished blocks before they are cut into quarters.  They are supposed to be scrappy so I will use several of the fabrics in each block.  There is no particular order the colors need to be in and this will be a wonderful quilt when finished.

We are each making 25 large blocks, which will yield 100 smaller blocks that will be 6 1/4 inches.  I have enough fabric so I can make a few extra since I really don’t like square quilts and an extra 5 large blocks will make it into a really nice size quilt.

Melinda

Featured on the Selvage Blog

I am featured on the Selvage Blog today.  My 15 minutes of fame from the newspaper article has been expanded!

Here is the link.

And here is yet another photo of my Kiwi Zinger hanging at the quilt show.

Melinda

Purchases from the Quilt Show

I did purchase a few things at the quilt show.  First here is my basket from Baskets by Dawn.

She calls this one a Sewing Cabin Boy!

Next is my Kaffe fabric roll from Intown Quilters.  I love all their bright fabrics and would go over there often if I didn’t have to go clear across town in the Atlanta traffic, so I was glad they brought this luscious fabric.

This is actually only one big roll of fabric but it was too fat to get all the different colors in one photo.

I also stopped at Sweet Home Quilt Company’s booth.  They had this wonderful little table topper that I couldn’t resist.

I almost forgot that I also purchased a little something at Log Cabin Patchworks. 

I really liked the twill tape and couldn’t resist the pattern for the pinkeeps.

I had one more purchase but will save it for tomorrow.

Melinda

Cobb County Civic Center

The Civic Center that so nicely held our quilt show last weekend is now a Red Cross shelter for flood/rain victims.  Thank goodness we were able to get through the show before this need came up.  I am not sure what would have happened if the Red Cross had needed it during the show.

Imagine what this looks like today with more than 200 people living where the quilts were hanging just two days ago.  Hopefully they will be able to get back to their homes soon.  The water is still rising in many of the rivers and lakes and a lot of subdivisions are still under water but it didn’t rain all day today.  School has been canceled again tomorrow.  It looks like we might have a couple more days before we get more rain.

Melinda

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We have had a drought over the past few years but this year has been average or slightly above.  A couple of months ago, we had enough rain that our severe water restrictions were eased.  We can only water on odd or even days depending on our address but last year we couldn’t use outdoor water at all!

Well, we have had so much rain over the last week that we really are having too much water problems instead of too little water.  We have a rain gauge on the back deck and we have had over 8 inches of rain since this morning.  The schools are closed tomorrow and we decided to cancel our guild meeting because of the weather.  Hopefully it will slow down and we might get a break for a few days.

Since last week we have had between 17-18 inches of rain here at the house.  Some places around here have had even more.  We even made the national news tonight with all the flooding.  Several people have died because of floods.

We had some leaking of the roof at the quilt shop but nothing actually making fabric wet – thank goodness.  I am working there again tomorrow because one of the usual Tuesday girls has the flu.  I hope she is better soon since I am teaching most of the rest of the week, with Guild on Friday – busy, busy week!

Melinda

The Quilt Show is History until 2011

Well, the Quilt Show finished it’s run today.  We had a lot of excellent feedback and it was a success.  We will find out how financially successful we were in a couple of weeks, after all the expenses have been turned in.

The show comes down a lot faster than it goes up – I was able to leave the Civic Center with my quilts at 5:45.  Take down was complete and there were only a few quilts waiting to be picked up.

We tested a new hanging system like the big shows use – Houston and Paducah.  For us, I think it might be overkill especially since the cost is very high to purchase enough to hang all our quilts.  It was worth the test however.

The raffle quilt was won by a guild member.  I don’t think that has happened before.

Here are photos of the two ribbons won by quilts that I quilted.

The ribbons were paper pieced by guild members.  I think they are beautiful!

Melinda

More Quilt Show

I thought I would share photos of a few of the vendor booths.  There are several quilt shops, a basket maker, thimble and other jewelry shop, a woodworker, several sewing machine companies and more.

 

I look forward to seeing Dawn with her baskets every year.  She had a lot of great ones again this year.  I have bought a basket each year and this was no exception.  I will take a photo of my new basket later and share it with you.

Log Cabin Quilts is up north of the Atlanta area and I love seeing them at different quilt shows we both vend at.  I got some tape measure twill tape and a pattern from them.

 

Fiber on a Whim no longer has a physical location but they still have lots of tempting stuff for sale.  They vend at lots of shows.

Intown Quilters always has a wonderful selection of Kaffe and Amy Butler and other bright colored fabrics.  I have a roll of Kaffe being held for me here to pick up tomorrow.

Stacy and Marti Michell are sharing a booth.  Look at all the wonderful Hawaiian appliqué using Stacy’s hand dyes.

Sweet Home has lots of fun things for sale.  They have lots and lots of Moda fabrics.

Here is Red Hen Fabrics.

Fiber Arts has hand dyed fabrics to drool over.

And lastly, here is where I spent part of the day – Tiny Stitches!  We had Saturday Sampler this morning and as soon as that finished, I went over to the show.

One more day and we will be taking it all down and we will be finished for two more years.

Melinda

Quilt Show!

The Quilt Show started today.  We had the preview party last night and it was wonderful.  For the first time, we had the awards ceremony in the theatre next to the Civic Center.  This meant that everyone was able to be seated during the ceremony.  Before it started, Lynda, Deborah and I pinned all the ribbons on the 2nd, 3rd and honorable mention quilts, along with the Judge’s Recognition Awards.  The 1st place blue ribbons, best hand quilting and best machine quilting, plus Best of Show were awarded at the ceremony and then the winners lead the crowd across the plaza and into the Civic Center to open the show.  They  then pinned their ribbons on their quilts.

Best of Show is a beautiful Baltimore Album all hand appliquéd and hand quilted.  It is spectacular!  I didn’t get a photo of it today but will try to remember to take it tomorrow.  Unfortunately, the winner was not at the Preview Party but she did come to the show today.  One of her friends pointed her out – I am not sure she would have said anything to us if it wasn’t for her friend.

I was fortunate enough to get two ribbons, both for my part (quilting) in two person quilts.

Here is the first one – Mary and I won 3rd place in the Medium Two Person Appliqué category.

The second ribbon is for Bodacious by Charlotte and also quilted by me.

Here are my quilts that I entered hanging in the Civic Center.

Kiwi Zinger

Noah’s Ark for Noah

Floral Log Cabin

In addition to my own quilts, there were several other quilts that I have quilted.  I think I got photos of all of them.

This is Jeanette’s

Here is one made in one of my classes by two sisters.

This one belongs to Liza

Here is Lynda’s

And Suzanne’s

Danielle and Lyman’s

and this final one by Marianne and Maetha.

OK – it looks like I had a total of 12 quilts in the show.  The three I personally entered plus nine made by others that I quilted.  I was very happy to see them all hanging.

I spent most of today acting as greeter at the front door of the Civic Center.  It was fun to welcome all the quilters to the show and help them find their way.

I also spent time looking at some of the vendors – that is also fun.

Here is my last photo for the day – it is the view of the show when you first enter the Civic Center.

If you live anywhere near Marietta, Georgia, please come by!

Melinda