Quilty Adventures

I have had some fun the last couple months!

 

The guild had a sew-in in July, where I introduced the idea of Tiara Time to more of my fellow quilters.  I saw the idea on my friend Ronnie's blog where a teacher told her students that when she put on her tiara, it was her time to focus and they were not allowed to bother her.  I thought, what a great practice for quilters, especially for those with kids!  For myself, it is "me time", and I'm allowing myself to quilt without guilt.  Here is my favorite photo of me with my tiara that Jessica took:

 

At this sew-in I focused on working on this gorgeous quilt for my friend Cheryl, who is weaving me a picnic basket in exchange:

 

 

 

 

Our guild retreat was in August, and again I was only able to be there on Saturday.  It was so much fun though, I left at 6am and came home at 9pm.  The ladies are always so much fun to be around, and I took a few projects that I wanted to make progress on.

 

This was the amazing goody bag they had put together for us, so many awesome and useful items!  The new Missouri Star Quilt Company thread, a calculator, a notebook and pencil, fat quarters, Chapstick, seam ripper, tape measure, Row by Row license plate, just so many incredible gifts.  Thanks again Kay and retreat crew!

Early morning view of the room.

Here is Mary!  She though the idea was so great that she found herself a tiara, and then we strategized to wear matching shirts for this event.  Of course, we ended up sitting across the room from each other, but whatever. :)  We still had fun.  She has a great photo of us on her blog.  I love this quilt she made, it's the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage quilt and is SO CUTE!

This is one that Leann was working on, we had a good discussion on how "ugly" fabric can look so different depending on what it is used with.

This is my first project I worked on, I just wanted to get the blocks assembled.  We did some quilting by committee and decided it looks best on point and with the cornerstones.

This is Pat's, and I love how it turned out.  She quilts on her home machine.

Here is Pat with her finished Ten Pack (Laurie Shifrin pattern)

I brought my Ten Pack as well, just to throw on the wall and see how it looks outside my sewing room.  Everyone loves the color-way I have going.  All I can say is, that's what layer cakes are all about!  I have more blocks than can fit on a design wall, so I will have to figure out another way to lay out my blocks.  Maybe on our bed.

Mary brought this for me, from one of the shops in Tri-Cities.  I have since found it incredibly useful, I highly recommend this size ruler.  I know Bonnie Hunter over at Quiltville has mentioned in her videos about getting some for her store.  I like how it's working with my half-square triangles, when I want to draw the line across, this ruler has some grippy on the back-side which helps keep my fabric from moving around on me.

This is what Melanie was working on, it will be a gift for her pastor.  I love the bright colors.

This is the Hunter's Star that I am working on, I wanted to make progress on this as well and I am feeling pretty good about it.




I recently started an English Paper Piecing project that I am very excited about.  John bought me the rainbow of fabrics and said make whatever I want.  I had seen the photo below of a table topper with butterflies and I really like it.  So I've decided to make something similar.  My grandpa made me the box on the right, it uses a ruler that slides as the top.  So cool!  This one uses a 7 inch ruler, he also made one with a 12.5 inch ruler that will work well for holding larger blocks.  He made extras, and I plan to take them to guild and see if anyone is interested in buying them.  I think they'll make some awesome Christmas gifts!



This is so pretty, I hope mine looks good when it's done :)

This was something I had hoped to finish before the Walla Walla Valley Quilt Festival, but it took longer than anticipated.  And then we started working on buying our house.



I made progress on this pillowcase this weekend!  Finally have it to the finishing stage, I think I will make a tutorial for the process I am using, as it's different than what I've seen around.  I can tell you, that wavy quilting was difficult for me to do, I am much more comfortable with actual shapes apparently.



And this is what happens when I walk out of the room for a few minutes...

Well, I hope you are all getting some progress made on your projects too, I would love to hear what you are working on.  Anyone starting Christmas presents yet?  I just remembered, my blog anniversary is next month, sounds like a GIVEAWAY will be happening soon!

~Brandy