I'm so glad to be back to sewing! I had a break there for a bit, as I was preparing for my new job, which I have now been at for a whole month. I am the new receptionist for an engineering firm, and am incredibly happy about my new job. I get to learn about all sorts of different things involving engineering, biology, water flow rates, and my grammar/proofreading skills are going to increase exponentially. I mean, who doesn't want to know these things? LOL (FYI, I went to school for engineering and then for oceanography before I switched to art.)
On March 19th we had a sew-in for the Hearts & Flowers section of our guild. I can't recall if I have shared what we do for Hearts & Flowers, so I will explain. The guild asks our members to donate 6.5 inch blocks of nine-patches, heart, and flower themed blocks. Then usually twice a year we get together and sew up the blocks into tops to then be quilted and bound by whoever donates their time to do so.
The ladies setting up. I brought my White as I am most comfortable working with it for piecing, and I knew we'd be at it for at least 6 hours.
I received a great new sweatshirt from John for my birthday.
I dedicated this time to be Tiara Time. To see the post that inspired the idea, visit my friend Ronnie at Road Home Quilting. I read this on her blog a few weeks before the sew-in, and love the idea of when the tiara goes on, it's MY time. I can see how this would be really applicable when a person has children. The ladies at the sew-in also think the idea is pretty neat, we talked about sharing it with the guild at one of the meetings, I'll have to bring it up again.
After sorting through the stacks of finished blocks I found I was one short so I whipped this block up.
You can see my block in the upper right hand area. I was drawn to the green and blue blocks that day. Mainly because most of the other tops assembled were in the pink and purple range.
This was a top in process that Sherry and Kay were assembling.
Mona assembled this one, she actually got at least 2, if not 3 together. She was working with four-patches that consisted of 2 nine-patches and two heart/flower blocks, and they go together much faster than individual blocks. Which may be why the group leader requested them, come to think of it...
Me plugging away at assembling my top.
The nine of us completed six tops, which is pretty amazing!
I took home fabric I had picked out for the borders, and finished my top in time for our next guild meeting, which was actually a Symposium. So I dropped it at the front door then wandered around learning about all sorts of things, like different styles of applique and that a gentleman who just started quilting 7 months ago is hosting a sew-in at our local quilt shop and we will be making sailboat quilts. I also picked up 4 packets of nine-patch makings for our guild's raffle quilt, which will be laid out as shown below:
Lots of nine-patches! These are little guys, they will finish at 3 inches.
My current project is working on my sister's birthday present, her birthday is May 19, so I have a couple weeks to get this done! The pattern is one a member of our guild created, and I was so inspired I immediately bought fabric to make one myself. I do wish I could have taken her class, but funding prevents that from happening. One of these days...
Last weekend I was able to get it up on the design wall and organize the four-patches into a comfortable setting. It was more work than I thought it would be, and is probably why I don't usually go scrappy. I had to walk away at least 6 times so I could be level-headed during this process.
Also, I completed my niece Susie's quilt! We sent it down to Arizona, and my brother-in-law Shannon sent us a photo of her unwrapping it. I hope she has many adventures with it!
I really appreciate John's help, every time. Also, look at this sweet flanged binding!
Of course, the cat's have been terribly helpful:
I was really surprised, I could NOT get Thomas to leave this quilt alone! He loved on it from conception, so I assume that it means my niece will also enjoy it. By the way, I used two layers of batting with this one, and could barely feel the seams of the jean material from the top. And it is really cozy.
Belle is giving very sage advise on how to attach the flanged binding: "To begin with, you need to cut off all that extra fluff, and then give it to me to tear into tiny bits". No sweetie, not today.
I also gave my Grandma Kathy her table runner, and she loves it! The quilting came out really nice. She thought the fact that I used Insul-Bright as one of the layers was pretty clever, I just think it will be so handy to have a giant hotpad. I'll have to remember to get a photo of it on her table, with the cup of flowers she placed on it.
Well, I hope you all have been happy and healthy and are enjoying this change in weather towards sunnier days! I'm hoping to get my flower seeds planted tomorrow so we can enjoy them this summer. Have a wonderful day!
~Brandy
