Bonnie Hunter at Tiny Stitches

Bonnie was very popular today.  We had two different sessions where she signed her books

and did a trunk show.

She showed up with three large duffle bags full of quilts.  Unfortunately for me, but great for the shop – we were extremely busy all day and I was unable to actually attend either session.  I did sneak in for a little while and took a few photos.  I wish I could have attended one of the sessions.  I would have loved to see all the quilts from the second book.

Fortunately, I was able to go to dinner with her and remembered to take my books for her to sign.  We had a wonderful dinner at Marietta Fish Market.

Here are a few photos I managed to take of her quilts.

This last photo is of Bonnie’s quilt on the left and Terry’s quilt on the right.

Didn’t Terry do a great job on her version of Bonnie’s quilt.  I love the cheddar in this quilt.

Melinda

Bonnie Hunter today!

Here are my Bonnie Hunter books ready to go with me to the quilt shop today to have Bonnie sign them.

Everyone at Tiny Stitches is excited about Bonnie coming to visit.  She is going to have two trunk show/book signings to day.  One at 2:00 and another at 4:00.  We announced the event with an email a couple of weeks ago and both sessions filled up within 24 hours.  I think there are a lot of Bonnie fans in the Atlanta area and we will be hosting many of them today.

I will try to get some photos today but since I am also working, might not get too many of the trunk show itself.  Will post more later.

Melinda

Pillowcase for the Shop

I made a pillowcase this morning to take to the shop.  Beth painted a mural in the backroom where we keep the novelties and kids fabrics.  Part of the mural is a clothesline and we have hung a selection of pillowcases on the line.  I will try to get a photo of it tomorrow.  We were so busy today that I didn’t even think about taking a photo.

Here is my doggie pillowcase.

 

Tomorrow we have Bonnie Hunter coming to Tiny Stitches.  She is going to do a trunk show and will be signing her books.  I need to try to find both of mine and remember to take them to the shop.  Maetha invited me to go out to dinner with them after the shop closes so I will get to spend some time with Bonnie. I am really looking forward to it.

Melinda

East Cobb Quilters’ Guild Meeting

Today was the monthly meeting for the East Cobb Guild.  The program was our challenge quilts for the year.  We have been lucky enough to have eight of our challenge quilts accepted at Nashville/Knoxville for the past three years but this year we did not get enough quilts of the correct size to enable us to submit them.  This is the first year that we were given two different size requirements, one being a small quilt and one being the size for Knoxville.  Only four quilts were the size for Knoxville.  These needed to be between 30 and 60 inches on each side.

Here are some of the challenge quilts that were shown today.  I missed a couple of them.

The above were the quilts large enough for Knoxville.  I missed a photo of Jan’s quilt with Adam and Eve on it but hope to get one later.  It was really a great quilt.

Next are most of the small ones.  These needed to be 20 inches or smaller on each side.

Each of these quilts were to represent a season and contain a pinwheel block.  If you look close you can find the pinwheel in each of them.

The next challenge was announce and it is about best friends.

Melinda

Night Beginner Class Projects

There were six people in the night time class last night.  Two others had commitments that kept them from coming.  As in the morning class, everyone was able to put their tops together.

As you can see, two of them were able to get their inner border on.  Once again they did a wonderful job.  I really do love teaching this class and will have another one start towards the end of March.

Melinda

Morning Beginner Quilt Tops

We had a great time yesterday at the Beginner Machine Piecing class.  There were five students in the morning class and all but one finished their quilt top.  They are working on their borders now.

As you can see, the last one has the inner border on.  She actually stayed for a little while after class and put her outside border on.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of it finished.  Hopefully they will all bring them in to show me when they have them finished.

Next up will be the night class.

Melinda

More Progress on Gone With the Wind Quilt

I worked on the Gone With the Wind quilt yesterday.  First I finished all the pieced blocks – 10 of them.  I did manage to sew some backwards but got them all sewn correctly, after Danielle and her seam ripper helped me out.

Next were the appliquéd blocks.  I got them prepped and managed to appliqué all of them last night while watching/listening to American Idol.  Now the next step is to sew all the blocks together – maybe this afternoon between sessions of the last Beginner’s Machine Piecing class.

Melinda

Beyond Beginner Class

Tonight was the second session of the Beyond Beginner Session of classes.  Last night the lesson was about putting a quilt on point.

I love seeing all the different fabric selections.

Aren’t they doing a great job!

Melinda

Gone With the Wind Progress

I worked on the Gone With the Wind quilt today.  I got all the four patches made, started on the appliqué blocks and have everything ready to make the star points tomorrow.

Here are the four patches, there are 50 of them waiting for the star points to be made into blocks.

Here are the two appliqué blocks I got done.

I have 8 more to make for the quilt.  I decided to appliqué by hand – needle turn.  It seems to be the easiest way to do these but takes a little time.  I got two done while teaching a class this evening.

We are continuing our little mini retreat tomorrow so I hope to get more of the piecing done and the rest of the appliqué prepared.

Melinda

Design Wall Monday

Guess what is still on my design wall.  Here is the upper left corner of my block of the month quilt – all sewn together.  I need to cut a lot more 3 1/2 inch green squares to make the rest of the border blocks.  The finished quilt will be 90 inches square and is outgrowing my design wall.  Check out the rest of the design walls on Judy’s blog.

Today I am going to Danielle’s house and am going to work on my Gone With the Wind quilt all day.  It needs to be done early in March so I need to concentrate on it.

On the quilting side, I just finished taking all the quilting out of a customer quilt.  The tension went bad and I didn’t notice in time.  I had finished a beautiful amish feather curl border and now it is time to put it back on the frame and start over.  Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often because it takes about 4 times as long to take it out as it does to quilt it in the first place.

Also, I am teaching a Beyond Beginners class tonight where they will be making a lap quilt on point.  This is a fun series of classes.  Busy, busy day!

Melinda

I am a Winner!

I won a giveaway at Sharon’s blog – Indigo Threads and received this in the mail yesterday.  I am collecting for a dots quilt so these really excited me.  Thank you Sharon!

Aren’t they wonderful!  My guild is exchanging 10 inch squares of dots for three months starting in April.  We take in 12 squares that are traded out and returned to us during the meeting.  I think I will do 2 sets each month so I can collect even more dots.  Have I said that I love dots.  For my birthday this year, I have requested bright dots so by the end of the year should have a great collection.

Melinda

Dear Jane

I started working on a Dear Jane quilt several years ago.  What I had planned was a very scrappy quilt in 30’s fabrics.  I have 42 blocks and have decided that I really don’t want to make any more.  I laid them out on the floor and am trying to decide what to do with the blocks I have made so far.

They are a lot brighter in real life but they just don’t excite me enough to continue on.  I think I just need to sash them and make a small quilt out of them and move on to the bright Dear Jane that I really want to make.

I am not sure what I want for sashing but I do think it needs sashing to separate the blocks and let each one stand on it’s own.  Not sure what color sashing to use.  Any ideas?

Melinda

Busy Day at the Quilt Shop

Today was the third Saturday and that means another round of Saturday Sampler.  We had a lot of women and a few men at the shop.  During one of the busiest times, some of the local Gone With the Wind fans came in.  They wanted to buy more Gone With the Wind fabric to make curtains and a quilt from.  I think we have sold more Gone With the Wind fabric to non-sewers than we have to quilters.

One of my favorites is a guy with this wonderful hat.  I asked him if it would be OK to take a photo of it.

See all the pins on the hat?  It was amazingly heavy with all the pins.  Each pin is from a Gone With the Wind event that he has been to.  He was buying fabric to make curtains for his Gone With the Wind room.  He also bought 8 yards of another GWTW fabric.  I think he was having a quilt made and the 8 yards is for the backing.

Also, one of my students from an earlier beginners class brought her finished quilt by for show and tell.  Here it is.

Didn’t she do a great job!

Lastly, a Mother/Daughter came in and they were picking out fabrics for a neutral Blooming Nine Patch.  When Pat Wys came to guild last year, this is one of the favorite quilts she showed and several guild members have talked about making a version of it.  She also had a all neutral log cabin quilt that is wonderful.  Her pattern is called White Chocolate.

Here are the fabrics they picked out.

They bought an eighth of each fabric to play with and will be back tomorrow to buy enough to make a quilt.  Should be a great quilt when finished.

Melinda

Dog Quilt Progress

Maetha has asked that I finish the Dog Quilt so it can hang in the shop for The Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop next month.  It was finished except for the last three borders so I worked on it last night and got it finished.  Here it is in the quilting studio waiting for its turn to be quilted.  It is number 6 on my UFO list but if I get it done, I will select another UFO to replace it – there are certainly enough of them to choose from.

Since our theme for Shop Hop is “As American as Movies and Popcorn”, it needs a movie name.  I googled dog movies and I think the best fit is “All Dogs Go to Heaven”.  These dogs look heavenly.

Now that I am looking at the photos, I realize that I forgot to follow part of the pattern.  There is supposed to be a small nine patch in the outside corners of the outside border.  It would be easy to make the change but I am not sure I need to.

This quilt was a block of the month last year but we are still able to get the patterns if anyone wants to make it this year.  As a block of the month, I packaged all the fabrics including the buttons for the eyes but this would be a great quilt to use scraps on. 

I am teaching the Wacky Devine Nine class this evening so won’t be able to start quilting.  I have a customer quilt that is ahead of it in line anyway.

Melinda