Melinda Quilts etc
The above photo is of my fairy quilt at the shop. See the cute way I packaged the kits. Of course, I found lime green containers.
We had our monthly FiberArt Bee meeting last week and had a collage artist visit us for the day. We painted and played with paper. We then used scissors to create a picure - mine is above. We used the paper we painted and cut out pictures from magazines to use.
We combined the workshop with a bee meeting that I organize for the guild and had about 25 people show up. The price for the workshop was that they each make at least one postcard to give to the publicity committee.
Here are some members making their postcards.
Here are most of the postcards that were made for the guild - aren't they wonderful?
On the table are some of my postcards that I have traded - I brought them all for inspiration and everyone enjoyed looking at them.
Here is a mother/daughter team having fun.
Ray made postcards like he was part of a sweatshop - he completed several and has more almost finished. I think he did about 16 of them.
More bee members with their postcards.
We really had a great time. Almost everyone that attended is planning on making more postcards for their friends and family. Also many of them are making extras for the guild. All, in all, a very sucessful day.
I was going through some photos that my son gave to me last year and found this photo of my first completed quilt. After my disastrous first quilting class where the quilt police were alive and well, I finally revolted and thought about giving up quilting all together.
After cooling down for a couple of months I found another quilt shop near where I lived in Sydney and tried again. This time there was a wonderful teacher who was very supportive. The class I took was quilt as you go log cabin and I used red and blue scrappy fabrics. I guess I have loved scrappy quilts from the very beginning of my quilting experience.
I don't think I will ever make another quilt as you go project, this was my first and last one. The blocks were about 12-14 inches square which meant a lot of handwork putting it together. I got it done though and gave it to my son who is now living in Sweden. At the time, he and his wife (before they got married) were visiting me in Australia during his summer break from college and he took it home with him.
They use it as a picnic quilt, much to the dismay of their Swedish friends. He is doing exactly what I made it for - using it with the children and enjoying it. It is apparently showing it's age and wearing out in a few places but that is fine with me. It is about 16-17 years old and was always meant as a utility quilt. When it completely wears out, I will make another picnic quilt for them.
My son tells his Swedish friends that they belong to the quilt of the month club which is not much of an exageration. They are generally amazed at the quilts that they own. I still need to finish the blue and white star quilt that I am working on for them - it will get done some day!
Here is a close up of one of the cute fairies and my mitered pink and purple attic windows. I designed the quilt in EQ6 and finished writing up the pattern today. I will cut kits for it this weekend and it will hang in the shop for a couple of months.
I quilted it with Minkee on the back - Minkee is such a great feeling for a backing of any quilt and I absolutely love the way it looks when quilted. I used a panto called curling feathers - one of my favorites.
Tomorrow is guild day where all the color challenges will be shown. I wrapped the little prizes this evening so all I need to do in the morning is make peach cobbler to take for the lunch potluck. I am going to use one of Paula Deen's recipes that sounds good and looked great when she cooked it on TV.
I joined a swap for paper inchies at the ClothPaperStudio yahoo group. We each made 41 one-inch paper squares with a floral theme. I should get my swap package back soon and can't wait to see what other people did with these little beauties.
Last night we had a presenter who taught us how to make ribbon roses from his beautiful supply of wire edged ribbons. The pink on was made from two inch ribbon and is beautiful. He brought lots of ribbon and cut two pieces for each of us. Many of the ribbons had two colors on them but the first one I chose was just one color but very simmering and wonderful.
The second rose I made from lime green/lavender one inch ribbon. It is prettier in person than in the photo. We put pin backs on each of them - not sure if I will wear them as is, or find a project to add them to.
The Allatoona meeting was great, as usual. I had scheduled three members to do a mini trunk show. They were going to bring 6-10 of their quilts and share them and the story behind them with the group. Unfortunately, two of the people were not feeling well and had to back out on Monday night. Well, there was not enough time to ask anyone else to bring their quilts so I gathered up some of mine. Had to take the quilt off the wall behind my bed and find others to take.
The program was well received and we have scheduled a second one for July where the two who were sick will show their quilts plus a volunteer that I got yesterday. It is a fun program and interesting to see a body of work from the members. It is much different from seeing show and tell. With this program you can see the progression of their quilting lives.
The first one is my daughter's. She is not a quilter but she picked the fabrics and width of the strips and we sewed it for her. The table runner ends up about 23x29 and looks great on her table.
This second one is mine. I will get home on Friday night so will be able to put it on the table for a couple of days before the holiday is over.
The last one is Robin's. She left for home on Jet Blue yesterday afternoon so hers should be on her table already.
We had lots of leftover fabric from making the table runners so decided to make each of us a set of coasters. Robin's are the round ones, and the others were split between Christina and me.
Had a lot of fun and got something nice out of our little projects.
At the baby shower last year, Christina gave the guests a 5 inch square of white and some fabric pens. They all decorated a block for Riley, who was not born yet. They didn't just sign their names but decorated the blocks with pictures and words.
After the shower, Christina sent me the blocks and a few scraps of fabric with the pink and green that were going to be used for her bedroom. There were 27 blocks which created my first problem - how do you set 27 blocks into a quilt. Then I couldn't decide on fabrics to use. I decided to border each of the blocks with color but just couldn't find the right fabrics to use.
Finally, I found a fat quarter pack that was perfect. It had 4 pink, 4 green and a couple of purple fat quarters. The pink and green coordinated well with the fabric scraps that were sent to me.
The next problem was the 27 blocks. I finally decided that I could applique her name at the top of the quilt in a block that would measure the same as 3 blocks. That allowed me to set it 5 blocks wide by 6 blocks long. Making progress.
I put the blocks together and then tried to decide on a border for the quilt. I looked at every pink or green fabric we had at the shop and finally found one that would work. I bought enough for the border and backing. The next morning, I started to cut the fabric for the borders and realized that the fabric I bought was breast cancer fabric with small pink ribbons on it - not good for a baby quilt.
Of course, I went back to the shop (at least I now am ready to make a breast cancer quilt when needed) to look for something that would work. After putting the quilt against almost every bolt in the store, I realized that it really didn't need a border - it was finished as is.
I then found a pink and white checked Minky for the back of the quilt and got it quilted today so I can take it with me when I go to San Francisco on Friday. I love the look of Minky after it is quilted and this one is really nice. I will try to get a picture of Riley with her quilt next week.
I just reviewed my photos and see that there is a block that is upside down - I can't believe that I did that! Oh well, it doesn't how up as much in person and it was a square that didn't really have a top side so it will have to stay there. I am not going to take out the quilting!!!
I really enjoy this type of swap where everyone can use their imagination and talent to create something to share.
I also have ornaments for Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, Halloween and of course, Christmas.
Here is part of my thread collection for the longarm. I need to have more room for more thread - it seems that I am always wanting a different color that what I have.
I do a lot of custom quilting but like to do pantos also. Here is my panto storage. It is actually two shoe storage units stacked on top of each other. I number each panto according to the storage bin number and have a excel spreadsheet that lists them alphabetically, by bin number and by type. So far, it seems to be a good way of keeping them in order.
My regular sewing machine is a Pfaff 2144 that has been upgraded to a 2170. I love this machine. I also have a 2030, a 4870 serger and a Janome Gem Gold that lives in my car trunk - ready to sew anytime, anywhere.
I also have 2 treadle machines that I use as end tables, a Viking 1+ that I hate and a little blue Kenmore machine. I hate to admit that I am lusting after an embellisher but haven't given in and bought one yet. I think I will take the little blue to my daughter's house when I go next week. I need a good machine in my room there and since I don't use it here, that is probably a good place for it to live.
Above is one of the Easter ornaments that I talked about yesterday. They are all in the mail to their new homes. I made small quilt blocks using a square in a square and machine binding. They are very cute.
We each made 10-16 of them and then traded 2 of ours with each of the others. I made 16 and the picture has mine and the traded ones. We had fun - it is different working so small.
I quilted flowers in the border and just did a wavy line in the squares. Turned out real cute and took very little time. 
