Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler - C9

We weren’t able to go anywhere yesterday and looks like the same today, at least until this afternoon.  Bill had a doctor appointment around noon and it has been cancelled.  Both of my classes were cancelled because the store was closed.

I did sew a little and got the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler BOM done.  This is block C-9

Hope to get some sewing done today.

Melinda

Snow in Atlanta

 

Here is out the front window yesterday afternoon.

And my poor little car in the driveway.

The front bushes with the bottle tree in the background.

Out the kitchen windows and the deck.

We are having a horrible time here in the Atlanta area.  The snow started around 10 am yesterday and ended in the early evening.  The interstates were packed from noon on and several schools had to keep the kids overnight.  75 is still blocked and people have been on the road since yesterday.  The Home Depots stayed open as shelters for anyone who could reach them.

My beginning machine piecing classes are cancelled for today and tonight and the store is closed.  Actually, pretty much everything is closed in the whole area.  We are just going to stay home and stay warm.  Hopefully it will get above freezing tomorrow and things will clear up.  We are not used to snow and ice.

Melinda

Hexie Snowflakes

Rose Marie made two hexie snowflakes for the BOM. The first one is using 3/4 inch and the little one is made with 1/4 inch hexies. 

Design Wall Monday–January 27, 2014

Still on my design wall is my Smokey Mountain Stars.  I need to figure out how it goes together.  I believe the rows on the bottom, along with some others are the top left side.  It would have been nice if I had made notes when I stopped so I have some idea of how it goes together.  I did print out the EQ7 drawing so hopefully that will help.

For more exciting design walls, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

Stash Report–Week 4, 2014

Simple stash report this week.  Nothing used and nothing added.

Used this week:                             0 yards

Used  year to date:                        15.5 yards

Added this week:                         0 yards

Added year to date:                       30 yards

Net used for 2014:                       -14.5 yards

Perhaps I can finish something this week.

For more stash reports, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

Grow Your Blog

I found out about this blog hop a couple of weeks ago so decided to join in.  I have been blogging for since 2006.  Sometimes I have been more diligent than other times but I do enjoy it.  I use my blog for keeping track of my projects and especially my students projects. 

I have found that if I skip a few days, someone always asks if I am OK so I try to post most days. 

I belong to three guilds - East Cobb Quilters' Guild, Allatoona Quilters' Guild, and the Atlanta Modern Quilters Guild.  I am a longarm quilter and work at the local quilt shop in Marietta, GA.  I love teaching quilting, especially enjoy working with beginners.

I am having a giveaway with this blog hop. Please leave a comment and tell me about the first quilt you finished. Here is my story.

In the early 90's I lived near Sydney, Australia and decided to learn to quilt. I took a class and it was miserable. Fortunately I immediately took another class at a different shop and made a quilt-as-you-go log cabin which lives in Sweden with my son and his family.  I learned to quilt in spite of my original teacher. 

Leave your story and I will pick a winner on Feb. 15. The winner will get a fabric package to be decided from me.  

Looking forward to learning about your first quilts..

Melinda

Retreat at Amicacola Falls

We got here yesterday and started getting everything set up. Here is the room when we arrived.

Here it is when we finished for the night.

Here is is with 50 women hard at work. 

Lot of fun ahead.

Melinda

Beginning Machine Piecing Class 3

We had a great time in class yesterday.  Here is the homework and work in class from the morning group.

The evening people made these.

I am really liking the fabric combinations and they are doing good work.  Next week we are making double four patches so that should be fun also.

We are headed to the north Georgia mountains for the Tiny Stitches retreat today.  Lots of things to do tonight to get ready for all the retreaters tomorrow morning.  Debbie Caffrey will be arriving around noon and once she arrives at the shop, thanks to Caroline picking her up, we will start the drive up to the mountains.

More from the retreat tomorrow.

Melinda

Hexie Club

We had a great time at Hexie club last night.  We played with 1/4” hexies but most of us decided they were just too small.  Rosemarie finished a flower – she was the only one.  Here is the hexie flower.

Here it is with a flower made from l inch hexies.

Rosemarie also brought her little bowl we made a couple of months ago.  Here is the inside.

and the outside.

We all decided to work on the Hexie BOM that Julia has on The Hexie Blog.  Next month we are going to play with tumbling blocks and share our BOM progress.

Off to beginner class.

Melinda

The Hexie Blog–BOM

We have Hexie Club tonight and I plan to introduce them to Julia’s BOM on The Hexie Blog.  The January block is a snowflake and I put mine together over the weekend.  It was a lot of fun but now I need to decide on the background.  I am going to applique the snowflake when I decide.  Here are two possibilities.

White background (Kona).

Or a light green (batik)

What do you think?  I am leaning towards the batik but since I don’t know what the other colors will be, perhaps the white would be more sensible.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–January 20, 2014

Lots of stuff on my design wall today.  I pulled out another quilt that I started a couple of years ago in the Allatoona Guild and put part of it up on the design wall.  The pattern is Bonnie Hunter’s Smokey Mountain Stars but I have confused myself and am not sure how big I intended it to be.  I have one larger section almost put together and several rows here.  Then there are lots and lots of small blocks that have to be laid out.

I also finished two more blocks for the BOM quilt.  I guess I need to press them better.

These are blocks 30 and 31 of 50.

The new SBS block for the week is A2 and I had already made that one.  Here it is.

With all this sewing, I made 10 more bowtie blocks.

These are numbers 301-310.  Not sure how many I need but I guess it will be time to figure it out sometime soon.

For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times here.

Melinda

Stash Report–Week 3, 2014

I added more to my stash this week but there are plans for most of it.  I bought 9 yards for the scrappy trips backing, my monthly Kaffe half yards came so that is 3 more yards and I brought home 8 yards for a shop hop project.  On the good side, I finished the scrappy trips top so that used 10.5 yards.

Used this week:                             10.5 yards

Used  year to date:                        15.5 yards

Added this week:                          20 yards

Added year to date:                       30 yards

Net used for 2014:                        -14.5 yards

For more stash reports, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

Back to 2012

In 2012 we had a wonderful BOM at Allatoona that was 50 6-inch blocks.  As I started making Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler blocks again, I remembered these polka dot blocks.  I counted and I had made 27 of the 50 blocks so I decided to keep up with the SBS blocks every week but I am taking a detour and am going to finish up this old BOM.  I am using Kona White as a background and only polka dots for the colors.  Here is the 28th block.

Melinda

On The Needles–January 17, 2014

My socks are still on my needles.  I haven’t had much time to knit this last week.

Actually, this is the photo from last week -  I have added a few more ribbing rows since then.

For more knitting fun, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

Beginning Machine Piecing

Here is the sample quilt for my Beginning Machine Piecing class.  I thought it would be interesting to post it so you know what the students are making.

Here is the morning blocks that were made yesterday.

And the evening blocks.

Great progress being made.

Melinda

BOM Day at Allatoona

We started the mystery quilt BOM at guild yesterday.  Since it is a mystery quilt, I can’t show photos of the quilts (not that there are any at this time) but I can show all the participants hard at work.  The first month is mostly cutting, cutting and more cutting so everyone was quite busy.

It was really fun to see all the different fabric that people chose to make this quilt from.

Off to teach my beginners.

Melinda

Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler

Now that my Scrappy Trips is on the to be quilted pile (or perhaps it should be named mountain), I decided to start working on my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler again.  I made about 15 blocks in 2007 and it has been sitting since then waiting for it’s turn.  I decided to do the BOW for the Yahoo Group and work on a couple more each week.

Last week was this one for the BOW.

The one assigned this week is this one that I had already made.

I also finished two others.  This first one is made from scraps from my NYD quilt.

I am using Southern Belle, a wonderful white for the background of all the blocks and scraps of batiks for the rest.  Most of the batiks come out of the scrap basket at the shop.

I am also getting organized to work on a Mystery Quilt at the Allatoona Guild which starts today as well as Bonnie Hunter’s Celtic Solstice.

Too many quilts – not enough time.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday–January 13, 2014

I have an exciting design wall today – actually yesterday is when I took photos.  We had Bonnie Hunter club at Tiny Stitches and I finished my batik Scrappy Trips!  It finished at 96 inches square with 64 blocks set 8 x 8.  Here it is in sections as I put it together.

 

All the intersections are not perfect but most are.  I can live with a few that are slightly off.  Here is the whole quilt.

I love this quilt and it used a LOT of fabric for next week’s stash report.  I picked up an extra wide batik for the back but don’t know when I will have time to quilt it.

For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times.  I love Monday’s design walls.

Stash Report–Week 2, 2014

Here is my stash report.  I bought two yards of Southern Belle White for my SBS quilt that I am trying to get started again.  I used five yards for my NYD quilt.  I have the backing ready but won’t count it until it is quilted.  I need to get backing for my Scrappy Trips – I think I will get an extra wide so I don’t have to sew lots of pieces together for a back – there are enough seams on the front so it will be nice to have none on the back.

Used this week:                              5 yards

Used  year to date:                         5 yards

Added this week:                           2 yards

Added year to date:                       10 yards

Net used for 2014:                         -5 yards

I have the Scrappy Trips top almost finished and am taking it to Bonnie Hunter Club today.  Hopefully it will be done tonight.

For more stash reports, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

SSCS Gift

I received another part of my SSCS gift from Shari.  It is wonderful!  I am so happy with it – just need to find the perfect place to hang it so I can admire it every day.

Isn’t it lovely!

Melinda

On The Needles–January 10, 2014

I am still working on my socks.  With the smaller needles, I am working on the ribbing for the cuff.  With the larger needles and yarn, I just did a few more rows but have a long way to go.  I didn’t have much time to knit this week but I have been sewing a lot.

For more knitting projects, go to Patchwork Times.

Melinda

More Scrappy Trips Progress

I have been sewing the Scrappy Trips blocks into four block units and got quite a few done yesterday. I did manage to longarm one customer quilt but it is still too cold in the basement. It took me a long time to warm up after that. 

We have Bonnie Hunter club on Sunday and I would like to take this quilt and get it made into a top.

While working on this, I made 10 more bowtie blocks. These are 291-300. 

Today's plan it to longarm at least one more quilt and sew the rest of the four block Scrappy Trips. 

Melonda

Working on Scrappy Trips Again

In the background, I have been working on the scrappy trips blocks.  I got all 64 of them sewn into two block units and am starting to sew them into four block units.  Once I get that done, I will play with the placement a little and hopefully get it all sewn together soon.  I don’t think it needs a border but it will be easier to quilt if I have something around the outside.  It is be 96 inches with just the blocks.

Here are the stack of blocks sewn into two block units.

Here are the first two four-block units.

I am really liking how it is turning out. 

It has been too cold to work on the longarm but it should be a lot better today with a high in the 40’s so hopefully I can get down there and work on some customer quilts so that I have time to work on the NYD quilt.  I am excited about quilting it but have to finish up some customer quilts first.

I taught the first classes of beginning machine quilting yesterday but forgot to take photos of their fabrics.  Oh well, next week I will get it done and share all the delightful quilts in progress.

Melinda

Hexie Coaster Tutorial

I have had some requests concerning my hexie coasters.  They are made similar to the four patch coasters that have been popular for quite a while.  Here is my attempt at a tutorial.

I started with a Moda Hexie Precut.  Each of the packs have 40 hexies that measure about 6 inches point to point.  They come with a plastic template to cut more with or you can use any of the many hexagon templates that are out in the market.  40 hexagons make 5 coasters as you need 8 for each coaster.

The first thing I do is separate out 10 of the least exciting hexies for the back and middle of the coasters.

Be sure to stack them wrong sides together, with the one you want to be the back of the coaster on top.  Then you need to press all the rest of the hexies in half, wrong sides together.  Apparently I didn’t take a photo of the stack of pressed hexies but here is one of them on top of the full hexie.

Start by putting one half hexie on top of the backing hexie.

Next add a second hexie

Then a third one

Here is the fourth one.

At this point we have covered the backing hexie completely and it now is kind of like folding the top of a cardboard box.  First you lay it on top.

Next, lift up one little triangle that is showing and tuck the last one under.  Hard to say but look at the photo and remember folding a box top.

We now have five hexies on top so we need to add the last one.

Now you need to lift up two triangles and tuck the last hexie under.

At this point, I pin it all together.  Now on to sewing.  Stitch all around the outside (about 1/4 inch but don’t worry about it).

Next we need to trim the corners.

Now turn it right side out and press.  Here is a set of 5 coasters from one hexie precut pack.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to clarify.

Melinda