Melinda Quilts etc
What a treat last night. Marie Bostwick was at Tiny Stitches. She gave a short talk about her writing career – it was fascinating. She also read a short part of her latest book that will be out in a couple of months. Here I am with Marie.
Next is Mary and Marie.
Barb and Marie
I can’t wait to get the next book. All the characters feel like friends.
Melinda
On my design wall today is the Shop Hop Quilt. I am using all the fabrics in the Homecoming line by Sweetwater. I still have five more rows to add.
The sun was out and very bright so you can see the sun spots on the quilt. I was really unhappy with it when I first started but as I add more rows, I am liking it better.
The other thing on my design wall is the first 10 months of Saturday Sampler. Only two more blocks to go.
For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times and check them all out.
Melinda
I have 5 rows of the tumbler quilt put together. There will be a total of 11 rows when it is complete – of course that is if my calculations were correct. Keep your fingers crossed. I finished the other shop hop quilt top so will now focus on this one.
I think it might need a border but will decide for sure when all the blocks are sewn together.
Melinda
I thought it was time to check in on my goals for February. I have made some progress but not enough. Still have lots to do.
1. Quilt and bind Easy Street. Done and it is on my bed!
2. Quilt one quilt for donation. I have identified the quilt I want to do but it isn’t done yet.
3. Put borders on mystery quilt and finish it by quilting and binding. Borders on, back made – still needs to be quilted.
4. Work on scrappy trips to the point of getting at least 36 blocks done. I have been working on these but they got put aside for the shop hop quilts. Still hope to get this done.
Not too bad. I think I might be able to finish my list this month.
Melinda
I have made progress on both of my shop hop quilts. In front is the one using the strips from all ten shops. In the back is my tumbler quilt.
I hope to finish at least the bright quilt today – probably not the tumbler yet.
Melinda
Yesterday was the last class that we made blocks. For the next two weeks, we will work on getting the top put together. First here are the log cabin blocks from the morning and then evening classes.
We then moved on to flying geese and made them two different ways. First using Marti Michell’s flying geese ruler and second using the square and rectangle method. It is always interesting that about half the students like one way over another. Here are the flying geese from the morning and evening.
I can’t wait to see how the quilts look like with sashing and borders.
Melinda
Here is another of my many projects. Using the shop’s Accucut Studio, I cut tumblers out of all 40 fabrics in the Noteworthy line by Sweetwater. I designed a simple quilt in EQ7 and am getting ready to start piecing. The tumblers should go together easily since they have the corners cut out. I plan to use them as leaders/enders while I complete the other shop hop quilt.
I also got all the 50 blocks made for the other shop hop quilt. I need to get it arranged so I can sew them together. Here is the stack of them.
I think the bright flower print in the center will tie all the very different strips together. It is difficult to use such a variety of fabrics in one project but I think this will work OK. Especially with the flowers around the outside as a border.
Melinda
I signed up for the Nancy Drew blog hop next month so I picked up some fabric over the weekend. Here is a preview – the rest will have to wait until March.
I have an idea of what I am going to do with it all this. Hopefully it will work out.
I have many good memories of reading Nancy Drew as a child. I admired her so much. Recently I reread the first book – it still is surprisingly interesting. I wonder if children still read Nancy.
Melinda
Shop Hop is coming up in about a month here in Atlanta. This year, each shop will be giving out 10 strips of fabric that are 2 1/2” x 22” or half a strip. There are 10 shops so if someone collects all the strips, they will have 100. Each shop is making a quilt from the strips and that is what I am working on today.
Here is the start. Since each strip is only about 20-22 inches long, there is not enough to go all the way around the focus fabric. I paired up the strips with similar colors and will make 50 of these blocks. Then I will sew them into pairs and finally into 5 rows of 5 blocks. That should get it to about 60 inches square before borders. So far, so good.
For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times.
Melinda
My mystery quilt from the Tiny Stitches retreat is ready to quilt. I had enough leftover fabric to piece the back and I still have enough to make a pillowcase. I hope to get it quilted this week.
Melinda
Easy Street is finished! I quilted it with lime green thread, a green polka dot backing and wool batting. I am in love!
I guess you can’t see the quilting. I will take a closer photo tonight.
Melinda
Wonderful classes yesterday – here is the morning homework followed by the log cabin blocks they worked on yesterday.
Here is the evening homework followed by their log cabins.
Next week we will make the last of the blocks. We will be working on flying geese and then spend the next couple of weeks getting the tops together.
Melinda
Bonnie was at Tiny Stitches yesterday for about an hour. She signed books and showed a few of her quilts.
Here I am with Bonnie and next is Michele.
Here is Mary with Bonnie.
Bonnie brought her version of Easy Street with her.
I had mine quilted by yesterday afternoon so took it to show to Bonnie. I had her sign the back since I hadn’t put a label on it yet. I came home and put the binding on it so I could take it to Guild today for Show and Tell.
Melinda
What a busy day yesterday. It was the annual Super Bolt sale at Tiny Stitches. Big discounts, big crowds and a wonderful time was had by all. By the time I got home, I was really tired – so tired that I went to bed before 9 pm. Feel great this morning.
Here is what is on my design wall this morning.
The spool blocks are from the Piecemakers’ exchange last year. I have more blocks but somehow I sewed them together wrong. I have a few to take apart and resew and then I need to make three more blocks so I can complete it. I hope to get it done this week so it can go into the “to be quilted” mountain.
I have Easy Street on the Gammill and am about 3/4 done. I am going out to breakfast in a couple of minutes but plan to come home and finish it. Bonnie Hunter will be at Tiny Stitches this afternoon and I want to take it to show to her. I should be able to get the binding sewn on and do the handwork this afternoon after showing it off.
Fun, fun fun!
For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times.
Melinda
I finished my little quilt today. I quilted it this afternoon and then finished it by putting on the binding and label this evening. I think it turned out pretty good – I am pleased. The guild meeting is tomorrow but I am unable to attend because of working at the shop. The guild meets on Saturday one month and then on Sunday the next month. I only attend the Sunday meetings because they are held at Tiny Stitches.
Fortunately for me, Pam comes to the shop on the 1st Saturday for our Saturday Sampler and agreed to take the quilt to the meeting for me. I feel good that it is ready but I wish I could see all the quilts.
Melinda
I had high hopes of getting a lot done during January, I made some progress but not enough. Here is the list I made on Dec. 31.
1. Complete Easy Street, including quilting and binding. Easy Street is pieced and ready to go to on the longarm. I should get it done early this month
2. Quilt Winter Wonderland. Not even started
3. Finish one quilt for donation. Identified the quilt I want to finish. Just needs to be quilted and bound.
4. Get out my scrappy trips and complete the blocks necessary to make a quilt for my bed – not sure how much work that will be. Made several more blocks. Still can’t decide how many blocks I want to have to complete the quilt. Once I get 36 blocks done, I can more easily decide what to do next.
It was a good idea to make the list but I am somewhat disappointed in my progress. My new list won’t be a lot different but I hope the report at the end of the month will be more positive. Here is February’s list.
1. Quilt and bind Easy Street.
2. Quilt one quilt for donation.
3. Put borders on mystery quilt and finish it by quilting and binding.
4. Work on scrappy trips to the point of getting at least 36 blocks done.
I think it will be a reasonable amount to get done this month – at least I hope so.
I am linking to Judy at Patchwork Times. You can check out other people’s progress there.
Melinda
Yesterday was an exciting day in Georgia with the Tornado sirens going off a couple of times and nothing on TV but news. Unfortunately for those north of us, several tornados reached the ground and severe damage was done. Fortunately for us, we got a LOT of rain but no damage. It was a bit scary though.
During the breaks in the weather, we were able to hold both the morning and evening classes.
Here is the homework from the morning class – friendship stars.
Here is what they worked on yesterday morning – double four patches.
By the time the evening class time came, most of the weather issues were over. Here is their homework.
Here is last night’s new blocks.
Next week we are moving on to log cabin blocks!
Melinda
I am working on my challenge quilt for the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild. It is due on Saturday but because I will be working at the quilt shop on Saturday, I need to finish it to give to one of the ladies to take for me. That means tomorrow night.
We were given a fat quarter of one fabric – the light one in the fan, and 6 eighths of the others. We were allowed to add only solid colors so I am using gray/grey. Right now it is about 20 inches square. The rules only state that it has to be at least 12 inches square so this fits.
I am teaching this morning and evening but hope to quilt it this afternoon.
Melinda
My friend Danielle, started Chemo and Radiation for her brain tumor yesterday. Before her first treatment, we met for coffee. Danielle and her sister believe that red socks will make you well so in support of Danielle and the treatment, here are our feet – kind of blurry but try to ignore that part.
Mine are the sock monkey socks! Love them.
Off to look for more red socks – hopefully with Valentine’s Day coming up, I can find some.
Melinda
I finished the center of my mystery quilt and am ready for the borders. I have a bold flower print for the borders and have decided that I do not want to piece it so I will pick up another piece of it today and use what I already have for part of the back.
Here it is with the sashing/inner border on.
I will be using the check for the binding after the floral border. Hopefully I can put the border on this afternoon.
For more design walls, go to Patchwork Times. I always get inspiration from the others.
Melinda
Back in the fall, I ordered a wonderful Christmas present from Carol Turznik. If you don’t know about Carol, you should go to her blog and check her out. She makes wonderful portraits and I commissioned her to make one of Robin. I received it in plenty of time but after getting the rest of the California Christmas presents together I mailed it exactly a week before Christmas. I mailed my daughter’s family gifts at the same time and they received theirs before Christmas. Robin didn’t. I kept checking with her and it didn’t arrive and it didn’t arrive. About 2 weeks ago, it finally came back to me.
For some unknown reason, I put the correct street, city and zip code but her house number is 4373 and I wrote 4341. How did I do that? 4341 is the number of the house we grew up in. I haven’t lived in that house for over 50 years! What was I thinking?
Anyway, she finally received it yesterday so I can finally post a photo of it.
Here is Robin’s blog post about it. I am so glad it finally arrived. Here is the photo of Robin I sent her for inspiration.
Melinda
I spent the last three days at the Ricky Tims Seminar. I didn’t take my laptop, just my iPad but it didn’t really matter because the internet was non existent at the hotel. My last few posts were from my iPhone and short because it is hard to type much on it. Now that I am home, I thought I would post a few more photos.
This one is what Ricky calls Caveman style – I think I would like to try a small of of these.
Next are a few Convergence quilts. I know I want one of these.
I also liked this one with all the half square triangles.
I think this was made by Alex Anderson but can’t see the label.
Lots of inspiration and lots of ideas for projects. It was a fun time.
Melinda
