Mystery Quilt Top Finished

I finished putting the borders on the mystery quilt top this morning and am liking how it looks.

Now I need to get the backing put together and get it quilted. We only have one black and white extra wide fabric in the shop and there isn’t enough for the back. I think I will use four different fabrics in a giant four patch for the back. I have lots of black and white but mostly small pieces so I am planning on picking up some tomorrow and getting the back pieced. Hopefully I can get it quilted before the weekend.

Melinda

Beyond Beginners Class One

I taught the first of a five part class tonight.  We are using a book by Pat Sloan with five projects and we do one project a month.  Tonight was making a flying geese table runner.  There were five students but I only got four photos.  Somehow I missed one.  I also forgot my camera so these photos are from my IPhone.

I forget that the IPhone takes pretty good photos. 

Next month we will be making a quilt on point.

Melinda

My Design Wall – Mystery Quilt

I got my mystery quilt top up on my design wall but it isn’t all sewn together yet. Hopefully I can get this done this afternoon before my evening class. I showed the fabrics a while ago and I am pleased with how it is turning out. Of course, I did have the advantage of knowing what the finished quilt looked like.

I don’t think you can tell that the background is white with small black dots. The yellow is my medium fabric and the black with white is my dark.

There are lots of other design walls to look at on Judy’s blog.

Melinda

Mystery Quilt

Here are a few more quilt tops to share.

Hopefully I will get some photos of the completed tops soon.

Melinda

Amicacola Retreat – Day Three

We finished up the retreat around noon today. The weather was miserable pretty much the whole time we were up in the mountains but it was pouring while we tried to load the car. We were drenched by the time we got in the car to head down the mountain. I was worried about the drive but it was fine.

I think I have mentioned before that we purchased the mystery from Debbie Caffrey. It was extremely well written and had clear illustrations. Even the beginner level quilters were able to follow her directions. If you ever want to do a mystery quilt for a retreat or guild, I recommend you check her out.

The mystery we chose uses three fabrics or fabric groups. I had a camera problem today and don’t have photos of the completed quilt tops but I do have a number of quilts in progress. Henry took photos of all the completed quilt tops and I have asked him to share. When I get them, I will post again.

Here are some of the ones I have.

Can you see that the last two quilts have two of the same fabrics with different backgrounds? I love seeing what a difference fabric choices make.

I did get some time to sew but my top is not together yet. I didn’t even turn my machine on today but I hope to get it sewn tomorrow. I have a class in the evening and am meeting friends for brunch in the morning but should have some time to sew between commitments.

More in a little while.

Melinda

Amicacola Retreat – Day Two

We had a great day today.  The weather outside is miserable.  It is raining now but was cool and foggy all day so even though the sewing room has big windows with a view, today the view was just fog.

We had our scarf fashion show tonight and it was wonderful.  Here are the ladies modeling their scarves.

There was some tough competition but the winner was Melisa and here she is with her winning scarf.

She sewed batik circles on a base of batik and her scarf was wonderful.  The second place winners were Marianne and Carolyn. 

Carolyn had a great scarf but her runway walk got her the prize – you had to be here to understand.

Lots of great quilts are being made – the mystery is solved.  I will post quilt photos tomorrow.

Melinda

Amicacola Retreat – First Day

We made it up to the mountains with no problem early this morning.  There was a lot of fog but nothing dangerous.  I picked up Danielle a little after 7am and after a stop at Starbucks we were on our way.

We got here around 9am and immediately got to work putting together the goodie bags for everyone.

The room was arranged differently from last year and we were able to fit all 52 people in without too much crowding.  Here is the room as it started to fill up.

The mystery we are working on has 12 clues plus a border and we managed to get through five  clues today.  The sixth one is waiting on their sewing machines for morning.  Here are a couple of  photos of the clues being worked on.

Everyone is working at their own pace but getting a lot done.  Our special project/challenge for the retreat is a scarf.  Each person had a 6 inch by 118 inch piece of muslin in their goodie bag.  The challenge is to turn it into a scarf.  We had a table full of fabric scraps, lace and trims.   We also told them to bring embellishments with them.  We will be having a fashion show tomorrow night – with everyone wearing their scarves and voting on the best ones.  There will be prizes.  From what I saw being worked on today, it will be great.  I will be sure to get photos of the scarves during the show tomorrow night.

At the end of the day – before dinner, I set up my sewing machine and actually got some sewing done.  Here are my results from the first five clues.  Got any ideas about what it is going to look like?

Melinda

Beginning Class 2 – Evening Session

We had a very full class last night.  The student who came for the first time to the morning session came back and I was lucky enough to have Michele come in to help out.  It was great to have the extra help.

We are still focusing on the quarter inch seam, cutting correctly and learning to iron/press.  They are learning and are excited.  It is so much fun teaching quilting to beginners.

Spent the day getting ready for the retreat tomorrow.  I made all the name tags and tags for the goodie bags.  Packed up the car with all the extra extension cords and table risers, along with the retreat things and my sewing – just in case I have time to sew for myself.  I am getting up early in the morning, putting my suitcase in the car, picking up Danielle and we are headed up to the North Georgia Mountains until Sunday.  I will be taking the laptop and the camera so hopefully will be able to post from there.

Melinda

Beginners Class 2 – Morning Session

Today was the second class of beginners.  We reviewed the rail fence blocks and moved on to nine patches.  There was one new student who did not attend last week so there was some catch up to do also. Here are the new student’s fabrics – aren’t they wonderful?

Here are the rest of the blocks the other students made.

One more class tonight.

Melinda