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

 

Hearts & Flowers, Tiara Time, WIPs

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