Melinda Quilts etc
I delivered two more last night. First here is Margaret’s little quilt.
She asked for squigglies so she got them.
The other one was Jeanne’s Mystery quilt from earlier this year.
I modified my usual swirls to be more oval in keeping with the look of the quilt – I like how it turned out.
Melinda
I went back to see the Monks and noticed a sign I didn’t see yesterday. They ask that no photos be put on the internet so I removed the previous post about them. If you are anywhere near Marietta, GA, stop by and see the Monks and their sand Mandala. It is worth the trip.
I delivered four quilts last weekend. One is for a special project and I will not be able to share it for a couple of weeks but it is worth waiting on. Pia had three quilts for me to quilt for her and I got them all done on last Thursday.
There are two that are very similar.
Here is the second one.
Here is the last one – although it is also made with Asian fabric, it is a different pattern.
All of them are simple overall patterns but they are just what she wanted.
Melinda
Here is what is on my design wall – blocks from the Scrap Bee. I have several more coming and am really excited about what this will be when all the blocks are received.
For more design walls, check out Judy L’s blog. Off to the quilting studio to work on customer quilts.
Melinda
Carolyn told me that I hadn’t posted the photos from the Magical Slice and Dice class. I really thought I had, but she is right, as usual. Here are the photos.
First is Marti’s before setting on point.
Here it is after slicing twice and sewing back together.
Here is Carolyn’s before.
Here is Karen’s.
Lastly, here is Linda’s.
They all need the outer borders put on and they will be ready to be quilted. Marti stopped by the shop yesterday and her top is done. She is working on the backing that will include some of the extra blocks.
Fun class and wonderful quilts.
Melinda
Bonnie Hunter is talking about first quilts over on her blog. I made my first quilt when I lived in Australia in the early 90’s. I didn’t know a lot of people since I was there working mostly with men. I decided that I wanted to learn to quilt. I went to the local patchwork shop and signed up for a series of beginner classes. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the teacher was the worst teacher in the history of quilting. There was only one way of doing things – her way or else. She wouldn’t allow you to choose your own fabrics since of course, she knew best. At least that was her story.
We made 12 inch blocks by hand. Here are a few of them.
There is only one thing you can say about these blocks – they are ugly! I didn’t like them at the time and I don’t like them now. I think we were supposed to make 12 blocks but I only lasted through 7 of them. I still have some of them. I don’t know why I don’t just throw them away. I will never make more of them or use them for anything. I have a plastic box with the rest of the fabric still in it. I need to go upstairs and get rid all of it.
After this miserable experience, I was still interested in learning to quilt so I went to another patchwork shop and found wonderful quilters and teachers. Here is the first quilt that I actually finished.
The photo is of the quilt folded up at my son’s house in Sweden. It is wearing out but has been used and used and loved. It was a quilt as you go log cabin and I made it in red and blue – can you tell I was somewhat homesick at the time I made it?
After this great experience, I can’t even imagine how many quilts I have made and how much difference it has made in my life. I teach quilting, I work in a quilt shop, I have a longarm quilting business and most of my friends are quilters. I belong to three guilds and spend part of every day playing with fabric – what a great life.
To see more stories of first quilts, go to Bonnie’s blog here.
Melinda
We had a wonderful dinner. I am sorry we are so far from our families but we had a nice time cooking the turkey and all the trimmings. Of course, I forgot to take any photos. We had a pumpkin streusel pie from Publix and I made a red velvet cake. Bill has discovered Angry Birds on my iPad and is having a great time.
The above is a quilt top from a round robin several years ago. It is in the to be quilted mountain down in my quilting studio. Waiting, waiting and waiting to be quilted.
It would be a great quilt to put on the dining room table at this time of the year, if it ever gets quilted. I have been busy working on customer quilts the past few days. Will continue that over the next couple of weeks and hopefully will be able to take time off over the holidays.
Melinda
This was a very old quilt made by someone in the family. It has some age spots (but who doesn’t) but it is still beautiful.
It is also a very large quilt and had a unusual dark green backing. I would have preferred a muslin backing but it still turned out nice. Dot, the customer, is planning on using the quilt on her bed.
Melinda
I got more blocks in the mail. I am really getting excited about this wonderful collection.
There are lots of different sizes so it will be fun to figure out how to put them together.
Melinda
Here is my design wall today. These are my blocks from the Scrap Bee. I will get blocks from 11 people and these are the first 3. I asked for stars of any kind on either a black on white or white on black background – any size. These will be a fun challenge to put together.
For more design walls, go to Judy L’s blog.
Melinda
Today was a Make and Take class at Tiny Stitches. We had seven wonderful women who came to the shop at 9 am to spend the day making small projects that are perfect for gifts. We started the morning with bagels and cream cheese – also coffee. Our first project was a baked potato bag. You know, the kind you put potatoes in for the microwave. I know there are a lot of patterns out there, but this is one I made up. We have pre-quilted potato fabric in the shop. It even has Warm Tater batting in it. A couple of hems, a couple of seams and the bags were made.
Next we made a rice bag, the type you heat in the microwave and put around your neck. This was made from a commercial pattern and involved flying geese.
The next project was a pet screen zipper bag. Mary made some bling for the zipper pull for everyone.
After the zipper bag, we had lunch. I brought potato soup in the crock pot and Mary brought quiche and salad. Yummy lunch!
Mary then taught a scissor case, made from a quilt block. This project took a little more time since the block had to be quilted and bound before turning it into the scissor holder.
After this we had dessert/snack. I made brownies and we had them with ice cream, hot fudge and whipped cream – definitely not the low cal special.
The last project was hexagon pot holders. They are a variation of the table topper, using Insul-Brite and only two fabric strips.
Here is a photo of all the projects.
All in all, it was a wonderful day.
Melinda
After teaching the class earlier this week, I decided to make another Magical Slice and Dice. I bought a few yards of Southern California Shop Hop fabric a few years ago. It is perfect to make a kaleidoscope block from. I got the fabric lined up, the blocks cut and put them together at the Modern Quilt Guild Sew In on Thursday night. Here are a few of them.
I especially the the second one in the bottom row – avocados and surfers, plus the California poppy. I found a gray to use as sashing and an orange/red for the setting triangles. It will be fun to see how it turns out.
Tomorrow I am teaching a Make and Take class with Mary. I have brownies in the oven right now to take for dessert. The class is an all day session where they will make 5 projects. Lunch is included so I picked up soup, ice cream, fudge sauce and whipped cream tonight. Mary is bring quiche, crackers and salad. We won’t go hungry.
Melinda
I belong to a wonderful bee called Piecemakers. We meet at the church once a month and have a great time together. At the beginning of each year we ask the members to sign up to lead a program and November was my month.
I decided to show them the hexagon table topper. I learned this in Las Vegas this summer and taught it again at the Tiny Stitches retreat. It has been very popular.
Here is the results of the morning.
Lots of different fabric choices but each of them turned out wonderful. I made the two in the lower left corner. They still need to have the backing attached and turned.
Next I want to make the sizes of the strips smaller and see if I can make an ornament sized one. I think it would be cute. Stay tuned!
Melinda
I have received four blocks so far from the Scrap Bee. I asked for stars made from made fabric on either black on white or white on black. These are perfect!
These are from Sara and Barbara. Aren’t they wonderful?
Melinda
I haven’t posted in a week and think I finally have my act together so can get back on track. First here are a few photos from the last Beginning Machine Piecing class last Wednesday. We meet again this evening for the final class.
This evening we will put the borders on the quilts – I can hardly wait.
Melinda
