Melinda Quilts etc
I was happy to see that Judy has something on her design wall after all these months. For hers and more, go to her blog here.
On my design wall is the Neighborhood quilt from a pattern by Sweetwater for Moda. It is being made from their Hometown line.
I have all the houses fused on – next I have to actually stitch them. Then there is sashing and a border to add. I hope to that that much done this week in between all the other things on my list.
Melinda
I made quite a bit of progress this week. Finished up the music notes and the words. The tree on the right is almost done and then there are two singing snowmen. After that is done, there are only about a million time consuming snowflakes. Can you tell that I don’t like stitching the snowflakes? They do really set off the block and they are worthwhile when finished but a pain to do.
Molly stopped by the shop yesterday to show me her progress on her Beginner quilt top. She did a great job quilting the center of the quilt and is preparing to finish the border.
I love this quilt!
Melinda
Michele brought this wonderful quilt to guild today. She made it in a class I taught a couple of years ago. She is in a finishing up mode and doing a wonderful job.
This pattern is one of my sister Robin’s called Magical Slice and Dice. We have the pattern at Tiny Stitches if anyone is interested. It is a four patch kaleidoscope that is sewn together straight and with two strategic cuts it is turned on point. All the blocks are made from the border fabric. Isn’t it great!
Melinda
Today was guild and our guest speaker was Georgia Bonesteel. She was a good speaker and had lots of quilts to show. One of the collections she brought was barn quilts. Here are a few of them.
Here is another great quilt – a car quilt.
It was nice seeing one of the pioneers of quilting in person. I am sure most of us have seen her on TV at one point.
Melinda
I got the binding, label and sleeve put on the little quilt so it will be taken to guild tomorrow to donate to the Small Quilts Auction. The binding is the same fabric as the back of the quilt.
This afternoon I looked at the dogs sleeping and Max was outside the bed, sleeping on the blanket that should have been in the bed, while Chula was in the bed. Of course there is another bed right next to the one they were sharing.
Not sure why Max was sleeping outside the bed but they stayed like this for a couple of hours. Right now they are both pacing around demanding dinner.
Melinda
This first photo is of the homework they did. Both regular nine patches and nine patch variations.
Then we moved on to square dance and log cabin blocks.
Don’t they look great!
Melinda
I have been quilting for the last couple of days and don’t have anything to show for it yet. I will be able to post photos after the quilts are returned to their owners. I have many quilts to work on and am really working on getting caught up.
In between quilting, I am working on the final plans for the quilt show. It will be the middle of September and that is coming up soon.
Melinda
Today on my design wall is the beginnings of my quilt from Hometown fabrics by Sweetwater. I love this line.
Here are twenty five blocks waiting for the applique to be added. There are five house patterns and each one will be used five times. Of course there is also sashing and borders once the applique is done. When I first saw this pattern and agreed to make it as a shop sample I thought it was much larger. The center of each of these blocks was cut 5 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches so you can imagine how small the houses will be. At least they are done with fusible web so that no turning under of the edges.
For more design walls, go to Judy L’s blog here.
Melinda
Thought I would start posting my progress on my latest stitching project on Sundays. I am still working on Winter Wonderland but made quite a bit of progress this week.
The color is off on both photos but in order to show the part not stitched, I couldn’t keep the background as white as it actually is.
Still have a lot to do but real progress has been made.
Melinda
As you can tell from the shine on the bag, it is made from a laminate fabric. Actually I made two of them. I needed to make one for a shop sample and love the fabric so much that I made one for me also. This is going to be a pattern soon by my sister Robin.
Here is the shop sample hanging on the hat rack in the shop.
Isn’t it cute!
Melinda
Today we went to Brawner Hall to check out the space we are going to be using for judging during the show next month. For past shows we used the Smyrna Community Center but the Red Cross booked it ahead of us so we had to find another place. Look at what we found.
Quilts will be turned in at the main entrance and put into a room on the first floor on the right. We will be judging quilts for three days before they get moved to the Civic Center for hanging.
Melinda
Here is the start of my Hometown quilt. These blocks look large but the outside of them started as 1 inch strips and will only be 1/2 inch when finished. I got all of them pieced tonight during the Modern Quilt Guild’s sew-in at Tiny Stitches.
I started cutting the fusible for the houses that will be appliqued on each block. There are twenty five blocks so a lot of tracing and cutting.
Melinda
Tonight was the second class and the first thing we do is look at all the homework that was done during the week. They finished up the rail fence blocks and did a good job.
Next we worked on nine patch and nine patch variations. Here is what we worked on tonight.
Fun was had by all.
Melinda
Every quilt show, we have a small treasures silent auction. This year the auction will be quilts with 24” as the maximum side. So far we have about 27 of them and I finally decided I needed to get one done.
I appliqued this several years ago in a class with Gerry Kimmel-Carr. She came to the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild and taught a quilt that included this block. In fact, the quilt consisted of 4 of these blocks surrounded by pieced blocks to make a bed-sized quilt. It was made in country colors – lots of plaids and such. I knew I wasn’t interested in making it in these fabrics and I didn’t want a large quilt so I decided to just make one block. I used hand-dyed fabrics and enjoyed the process. I then set it aside and forgot about it. Recently I remembered it and got it quilted yesterday. Now all that is left is the binding, sleeve and label and I can take it to guild next week to be included in the auction.
I am glad I am getting it finished!
Melinda
Here is my entry in the Pets on Quilts contest. This is a pattern by Amy Bradley. I finished this quilt last year and have entered it in the ECQG Quilt Show in September. It is fusible applique and I ran it as a block of the month at Tiny Stitches. It was lots of fun picking all the fabrics for each block. I quilted doggie sayings in the yellow border.
Each of the dogs has such personality – it was a fun, fun quilt to make.
Melinda
It is finally finished. I put the last stich in last night and started the other large one – the top block that says Walking in a Winter Wonderland. This one will also take a long time but hopefully not as long as this one. I think I started it a couple of years ago. Obviously didn’t work on it much but have focused on it the recently.
After the title block, there are three smaller ones to do. I located the box for fabrics for the star blocks and round up all the finished embroidered blocks so next thing will be to start making the pieced stars.
The end is almost in sight!
Melinda
These photos don’t do justice to the quilt. The embroidery is lovely and the quilting textures the quilt in a good way. Each embroidery has and extra piece of batting behind it. It allows the embroidery to stand out slightly and meant that I didn’t have to quilt in the actual embroidery squares. The quilt belongs to Jan and I always love what she does.
Melinda
I finished quilting the lattice patch and got the binding done last night. It is going to the shop tonight as a sample for the retreat in October. This will be the featured quilt at the retreat.
This is the smaller size of the two sizes in the pattern. It uses 24 layer cake 10 inch squares.
Melinda
Our new little wool group met today. I haven’t done anything on my journal cover since the Sue Spargo class. I didn’t do much today but added some of the beads. I think I have finally figured out how to sew the beads on, thanks to Jan.
I had forgotten how much fun working with wool is.
Melinda
Time for another session of Beginning Machine Piecing. I had three students in the evening class – cancelled the morning one because there was no one signed up.
Here are the fabrics we will be playing with this.
We may get another student or two by next week.
Melinda
Look at the wonderful little quilt I received from Margaret. We were partners in the Solids Swap. I mailed hers but haven’t heard from her if she has received it. Here is what I sent to her.
I love this little quilt.
Melinda
You might recognize this photo from last week. Actually I have sewn more of the blocks together but it still looks basically the same.
For more Design Walls, go to Judy L’s blog. Be sure to wish her well on her move to Texas.
Melinda
My lattice patch quilt is ready to quilt. I hope to finish it tomorrow. Here it is on the back of the couch.
Melinda
Here are the other two fabrics I bought at Ikea. Actually I have one more piece but the print is so large that I couldn’t take a good photo of it. Hopefully it will be used as a backing sometime and I can show it then.
First is one that I thought would be great as a tablecloth.
And this last one has the most amazing graphics on it – everything from a ghost to flowers to a horse to a bird to a birthday cake and much more. I think I will use it on the back of the mystery quilt.
Off to Saturday Sampler at Tiny Stitches – big day!
Melinda
Stella, Danielle and I went to Ikea on Wednesday. We were looking for fabric. Robin found wonderful fabric that she used for the backing of a quilt at Ikea so we went on a hunt. Here are two of the fabrics we found.
This flower it huge! It will be wonderful as a backing. I also found the house print.
More tomorrow!
Melinda
I completed my July swap commitments earlier and they are all in the mail so I thought I would share them.
First is the August gifts for Marta for the Santa Sack swap. They will go into her Santa Sack to wait for Christmas. Since I am wrapping each gift in fabric, she will have a small collection to add to her stash.
Next is the block for the Let’s Bee Together Bee for July. Wendy is the recipient of the block.
I also finished these two blocks for Sandra in the Scrap Bee.
Lastly, I participated in the Solid Segments swap. We were to take a piece of art and interpret it using only solid fabric. I have always like Andy Warhol so came up with this. It is on it’s way to Margaret’s house and I can’t wait to see mine from her.
I did deviate from the solids only by using a stripe on the binding but I consider that just a frame so decided it was OK.
Melinda
I think I forgot to mention that the retreat Robin and I attend in Las Vegas was started by Mary Ellen Hopkins 25 years ago. For the last couple of years, we have had several teachers and Mary Ellen has not attended.
This year, we had a special dinner at the Mexican Restaurant at the hotel. For a surprise, the organizers invited Mary Ellen to come to Las Vegas for the dinner and to visit with everyone for the evening.
I tried to get several photos of Mary Ellen but this is the only one that turned out.
She is as lively as ever!
Melinda
Today was the August meeting of the Allatoona Quilters’ Guild. We tried out a new meeting place that has a lot more room and much more comfortable chairs. We decided to move the general meeting each month to this new location. Since we meet every week, the other meetings will continue at Roberts School where we have been meeting.
Here are a few photos from show and tell.
Melinda
