Purse Class

Purse class was tonight.  I had three people attend tonight and two people finished their projects.  We found a cute new pattern that we are all going to make next month.

Aren’t they both great!  I really want the black and white one.

Melinda

Beginners Class 5 – Flying Geese

Yesterday was the fifth class of our beginner series.  Only one more week to go.  At the end of this week, all the blocks have been introduced so next week we will be putting the quilt tops together.

This week we worked on Flying Geese blocks.  Since we are making them one at a time, we are using Marti Michell’s flying geese ruler.  It works great for these blocks.

Here are the blocks they made:

 

Don’t they look great?

Melinda

Rain!!!!!!

We have had five inches of rain so far today from Ida.  It started raining early this morning and is still raining at 10:00 tonight.  Too much rain!  Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of flooding this time although some of the creeks and rivers wouldn’t crest until tomorrow some time.

Anyway, I decided to stay home and quilt today instead of going to the guild BOM day.  Since I was going to be home, I decided to bake bread.  I started the sourdough yesterday so it was ready to go this morning.  It takes a long time to make it although very little actual work is involved.

I have been making sourdough bread every week for about a month and today’s bread was the absolutely most beautiful loaves I have made.  Here they are:

They taste as good as they look.

I also decided to make whole wheat sandwich bread.  Since we don’t need two loaves of sandwich bread, I decided to try pecan sticky buns.

Here is the whole wheat bread:

And here are the sticky buns:

They were really good – really sticky also.  We ate two each so there is enough left for tomorrow.  They should be good reheated in the microwave in the morning.  The house smelled so good all day.

Melinda

Advent Swap

I joined in an international Advent Swap.  The rules say that we wrap and send 25 small gifts to our partner, including a handmade Christmas gift to open on Christmas day.  My partner is in Italy and we definitely have a language barrier.  Fortunately she has a daughter that speaks English and has done some translation for us.  I have her blog on my Google reader but the English translation that Google provides leaves a lot of room for imagination.  I can tell she does beautiful work because thankfully the photos don’t need translation.

Here is Dorianda’s blog – check out her beautiful stitching.  She sent me a note last week saying that my package was on the way.  The sending deadline was today and I managed to just make it in time.  When I got home from the post office, her package was in my mailbox.

First here are the packages she sent me.

and here is the box of gifts for her, just before I sealed it up.

Now all I have to do is wait until December 1 to open the first present.

Melinda

Fiber Art Fusion Round Robin

I belong to a local art quilt group called Fiber Art Fusion.  About a year ago, we completed our first round robin and we are about to start the second one.  We start with a 9x12 piece of Timtex and cover it with something.  Each month it goes to the next person and they add to it.  Last time there were no rules about what you could add but this time we decided we would make a list of possible techniques and pass it along with each piece.  Once a technique is used, it is crossed off the list and no one else can use it on that piece.

Last time, people did what they were most comfortable with and frequently did the same thing on every piece.  This will require us to stretch ourselves a little more since once beading is added to a piece, no one else can bead, or embroider if that is already done.  We came up with a very long list of techniques so it shouldn’t be a problem to find something interesting to add even if you are one of the last people to get a piece.

Here is my starting piece from last time.

It is just a single piece of fabric fused to the Timtex.

Here is what it looks like now after everyone worked on it.

It really turned out well.

Here is the one I am starting with this time.

Selvages, of course.

This is a very busy start to the round robin but hopefully it will look even better at the end of the year.

Melinda

Magical Slice and Dice

Tonight was the magical slice and dice class.  Cindy is making a Christmas quilt and she is planning on keeping it for herself.  Like most quilters, she gives most of her quilts away but has fallen for this one and wants to keep it.

The fabric has birds in a pear tree, along with Christmas flowers.  The blocks are beautiful and her choice of the gold for sashing and red for the setting triangles really sets off the blocks.  We had a little cutting mishap the first class so her blocks are slightly smaller than the pattern calls for but it is still a nice sized lap quilt.

Since there was only one person in the class, I made a quilt along with her.  I was able to show her each step on my quilt before she actually did hers.  Here is mine.

I ended up putting a larger border on mine so it is quite large.  The flowers are so large that I thought it needed a larger border.  I think I cut the borders 7 inches, instead of 5 1/2 as called for in the pattern.  I am going to bind it was the same lime green as the sashing.

Melinda

Beginners – Class 4

We had our fourth class on Wednesday.  Unfortunately the flu has hit hard in Georgia and two of the students were unable to make it.  The rest of the group did a great job with half square triangles and we made friendship star blocks.

With that last picture, I remembered that we also made the square dance block.

Here are the ones from the morning class.

We only have one more week of teaching new techniques.  Half square triangles this week and then flying geese next week.  The following week we will put the quilt tops together.

I love teaching beginners!

Melinda

Stitchers’ Angel Package Received

I got an email from Yvonne today saying she received my package so I can show what I sent.  She lives in the Netherlands and her blog is in her native language but I was able to find a translation on Google and it sounds like she is pleased with her gifts.

Here is the armchair caddy I made.  I used selvages for the pockets and then embroidered a small flower bouquet on the pin cushion.

Here is a wool pincushion I made for her.

This is a covered steno notebook I made.  I love the angel that is embroidered on the front – especially the little button flowers.

  I also included a folding bag for shopping.  I love these since they can be refolded and put in your purse when going out.

I also included a chocolate bar – what quilter doesn’t love chocolate.

Melinda

Gift from Rachel

Rachel is trying to get a permanent resident card from the government and she asked me to write her a recommendation letter to include in the package her lawyer is preparing.  Of course I was honored to do this for her.  Rachel is a wonderful quilt artist from Korea who has recently joined the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild.  At the guild meeting on Friday she presented me with a beautiful little package.

Isn’t this bag beautiful!  Rachel made it for me.  Inside was a small jewelry box from Korea.

As if that wasn’t enough, this is what is inside.

It is a pin that she made for me.  There are lots of buttons and beads on a base of organza.  I love it!  She certainly didn’t have to give me something for just writing a letter – I was happy to do that and didn’t expect a gift.  That said, I really appreciate her little thank you gift.

Melinda

Allatoona General Meeting

Today was the general meeting for November for my guild.  Can you believe I forgot my camera.  We had a wonderful speaker Jim Warf from Decherd Needlework’s in Decherd, Tennessee.  He is a lover of 30’s fabrics and feedsacks.  He brought several quilts to show and shared a couple of little projects with us.  He showed us a great way to make Christmas stockings and little scrap bags.

As usual we had a wonderful lunch with many great dishes.  The guild supplied turkey and gravy and the members each brought a dish to share.  I made Krispy Kreme bread pudding and it was GOOD!

We have a birthday club at guild where you buy a FQ of fabric for each person in their birthday month.  There are about 35 members that are participating and November is my birthday month so I got a wonderful basket of fat quarters.  We each listed our fabric preferences when we signed up late last year and I chose Black and White or White and Black.  Here is what I got!

I know there are a couple of lime green FQs in the basket – I bought a few extra FQ from Jim and couldn’t pass up the lime green ones.

Here is something else I brought home from guild today.

There are many very supportive members of the guild and each month I get a bunch of selvages!  I love selvages!  I admit I am spoiled by all the great people I get to spend time with.

Melinda

Halloween

We had a great time on Halloween evening at Tiny Stitches.  A group of eleven brave quilters got together to make  very cute wall hangings called “The Witch Is In”.  We had kits cut for them so when they arrived they started tracing the pattern on their fusible and by the end of the evening most were ready for the blanket stitch around the applique.

We stopped for a quick dinner of pizza and other goodies and then kept going on the projects.  Here are a couple of them finished.

Aren’t they cute – both the witches and the quilters!

Melinda

Design Wall

Here is what is on my design wall today.

I have sewn together 1/2 of my Magical Slice and Dice.  The pink squares will end up as the setting triangles once it is sliced and sewn back together.  The second class session is Thursday night so I need to get the rest sewn together so I can use it as a demo for the class.

If you want to see others design wall today the links are here on Judy’s blog.

Melinda

Selvage Blog

I am featured on the selvage blog again today.  She has a photo of my selvage journal.  I have been carrying it around and I can’t believe the comments I have gotten.  It seems like everyone likes it as much as I do.

I finished another selvage project last week but it is on the way to my stitchers angel partner across the ocean so I will wait to post it until it is received.

Melinda