Another Evening of Beautiful Quilts

Today's workshop was fantastic!  We learned to weave a basket with embroidery floss (yes, I am serious!), made a tiny little butterfly by gathering a circle of fabric, made a sheep with colonial knots, learned a couple of silk ribbon flower techniques, and made the tiniest little bee wings with organza and wire (that one wasn't my favorite - I will stick with the sheep!).  I am truly enjoying this class.  Never a dull moment!

Tonight's show & tell brought more gorgeous quilts.  Sharon Schamber displayed her newest piece which I assume we will see hanging with a big ribbon in Paducah - it is gorgeous! The Massachusetts quilts were also displayed tonight.  Here are a couple I particularly liked:

Mildred, a relatively new appliquer from Hawaii (she started in 2005), showed two absolutely gorgeous quilts.  This one was inspired by Captain Cook and has all sorts of symbolism designed into it - it was amazing!

I wish I could have gotten a picture of the whole quilt.  It was truly outstanding!  I did get a chance to get a picture of Rita Verocca with her award-winning quilt:

Time to get back to my sheep - I can't wait to get his little body filled with a thousand or so colonial knots!

Surrounded by Inspiration

Today was the first full day of my four day class with Janice Vaine at The Applique Academy.  I opted to shorten my visit this year to avoid having to be away from work (or rather, to avoid having to work through another vacation!), so I am only taking the main conference class.  Our block is not my "thing" - it involves a person and I absolutely hate putting people on quilts - but the stitches and techniques we are learning are wonderful!  I don't have much to show for my time so far as we are mainly working to build a stitch reference book, but it has been lots of fun!

After class ended today we were treated to a presentation by Faye Labinaris, one of my favorite teachers.  She presented a trunk show of "Cover Girls", the quilts featured on the covers of her many books.  She is a very entertaining speaker!

 












Sorry about the blurry pictures - we weren't able to get a seat in the front and I only brought my little point-and-shoot camera along.  After Faye's presentation, we were treated to a bunch of wonderful quilts during show-and-tell.  There was a particularly wonderful group of quilts from a teacher in Massachusetts and her students. We are hoping to get those displayed again tomorrow so we can get a better look. Here's a partial picture of one of them:

My friend Pat shared a quilt that she made from blocks exchanged with other friends with whom she has attended the Academy for many years. We had a chance to get a picture of all of them with Elly after the session:

I will be up late tonight practicing the things I learned today - doing my "homework".  I have to have something to show for my time in class!

Keeping Up!

Saturday was a very long but amazing day!  My daughter's team did an outstanding job and landed the championship at sectionals, making the eight hours I spent in the car traveling to and from Mahomet, Illinois completely worth it.  In spite of spending most of Saturday behind the wheel, I actually managed to get a few things accomplished this weekend.

Our TAS group learned to make rick-rack roses Saturday morning.  They are surprisingly easy and look really awesome!  

The yellow rose is made with medium rick-rack and the red with jumbo.  I need to find a place to use these!

I actually managed to finish the other three Just Takes 2 blocks from the second set on Sunday.  I have to say that the schoolhouse block was not my best friend!  I have a new appreciation for people that make entire quilts from those buggers - it was an obnoxious block!  I also think there was a template missing...nothing critical, but it was a bit confusing. 

In any event, they are done - and I still have a couple of days before the next set is posted!

Falling Behind

I'm behind on both posts and progress...  I spent a little time at the machine last weekend and finished two of the five new Just Takes 2 blocks.  I planned to finish the other three before the next set comes out on Wednesday, but I have very little time to spend in the sewing room this weekend so I probably won't make it. Hopefully the next set will be simple and I will have a chance to catch up!

I also started a new project last weekend - the Insanity Quilt.  It is definitely named appropriately - it is made up of over 10,000 half-inch hexagons.  The pattern comes from an issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting from a few years ago.  A wonderful Yahoo group friend from Australia sent me the magazine in exchange for a fat quarter (I sent several - one definitely didn't seem like enough!).  I've tried a couple of different methods for working with the hexagons - more on that in another post - and think that the English paper piecing method is my favorite so far.  I made quite a few flowers on my flights this week.

The toughest part of getting started with the hexies was choosing fabric.  I originally planned to do the quilt in thirties fabrics, but after making the first flower I was unimpressed.  I decided to switch to bright and jewel tone batiks. So far I am quite happy with my color choices!

Wonder how long it will take to assemble over 10,000 hexagons?  I'm not sure I will live long enough to find out!

Finally Finished!

I am very excited to have finally finished the binding on my Runaway Mystery quilt!  It was quilted by Terry Russelberg, the leader of the mystery each year.  The fabric, all Civil War reproductions, is from Homestead Hearth.  I picked up a bunch of fat quarters during their Super Bowl in 2010.  I am very happy with how it turned out!

One Step Done!

It's been a crazy week!  I had high hopes of finding time to complete the first TAST assignment, but that never happened so now I am two weeks behind.  I also had big plans for sewing a couple of Dear Jane blocks, but again - nothing.  I did manage to finish my JT2 blocks for step one.  I am still undecided on the redwork.  I like the look of it - that is, I like it when someone else does it!  I was not overly impressed with my first attempt.  I'm going to live with what I have for a while and decide whether to remake the block I embroidered or finish the redwork to the other block. 

I finally managed to find fabric for my Sarah's Revival project last weekend.  I have prepped the first block and done a little bit of applique.  I think I am goign to like it a lot, but I really need to get at least a couple of blocks finished before I can truly decide. The colors are completely different from what I originally planned - it's impossible to find a decent printed background to use with blue!

I'm off work on Monday and am hoping to get a lot of sewing done this weekend.  I'm trying to resist the temptation to start yet another ridiculously complicated project - one that involves over 10,000 half inch hexagons and my collection of thirties fabrics.  The instructions suggest that the quilt is a multi-year project. Is there any other kind???

Back to Work

I had such big plans for my holiday break!  I had visions of making lots of progress on projects and posting something new here every day.  And although I thoroughly enjoyed the time off, I can't say that I spent much time at all in the sewing room.  I didn't really manage to get up there until the last three days.  I wish I could say I spent that time wisely working on projects already underway, but instead I was inspired to begin several new projects. I need to have my head examined!

The first thing I couldn't resist was the Just Takes 2 project.  I will have to add the button to my blog.  I prepped three of the first six blocks.

I also prepped another Stars & Sprigs block and an Applique Affair block (a blast from the past!).  While I was working on prepping applique, I listened to the current episode of The Quilt Show featuring Eleanor Burns.  One of the quilts featured in the episode was one that has been on my "want to do" list for a very long time.  It's the Nancy Page basket quilt. I dragged out my pattern and the next thing I know I was at Jackman's buying all the fabric to make it!  I didn't get very far - I hope to get back up to the sewing room after work to finish piecing and prepping the applique on the first block.

I did actually manage to finish up another block of my Flower Penny Garden BOW last week.  This makes number three.

I wish I could say that was it...but I am expecting to receive my "Sarah's Revival" pattern today.  I haven't settled on a background yet, but hope to find something before the end of the week so I can start that one, too. I really should resolve to just stick with one project until it is finished, but where's the fun in that?!?  I'm sure glad I don't make resolutions!