Archive for July, 2014

Lots of Quilting going on here!

Thursday, July 31st, 2014

I have very little room to maneuver in my studio. If I want to quilt on the long-arm,  I have to pull it away from the wall and squish everything else in the room. So when its time to quilt, I tend to gang things up. In the queue this turn, are two T-shirt quilts, 7 placemats, one full size quilt, a small wall hanging and a spiderweb.

I thought the placemats were coming along nicely. Love the texture on the black set.

black placemat quilting detail

Try to ignore the threads and junk all over the black – its Kona cotton and black is a big, big lint magnet!

Same placemat with a light background. Got to open a luscious new spool of yellow thread for this one. Daisies seemed the perfect background for this light and lint-free version.

quilting detail 1

I easily filled up the backing fabric that all these placemats were set on. So I took it all off the long-arm and loaded another backing fabric and the first T-shirt quilt. After finishing that one, I am contemplating what to put on the bottom half of the backing and take a moment to trim up the placemats. I’m thinking these have turned out really well …

quilting detail 2

until I took a closer look…

black placemat missing quilting

Totally missed a big section to quilt – and yes, its trimmed – auggghhh! So I guess I’ll have to do this on the regular ol’ sewing machine – sometime, eventually… its not like I don’t have three more… I’ll get to it … soon…

After all, I’ve still got another t-shirt quilt, regular quilt, small wall hanging and that spiderweb thingy…. And then there’s all that binding… yep, I’ll get to it soon…

Chevron Garden Update!

Monday, July 28th, 2014

chevron garden wm

Hi all, it has come to my attention that there could be a little confusion in the Chevron Garden pattern – nothing that will mess you up too badly but confusing just the same. Apparently I switched the strip sets illustrations. So on page two and three of the pattern where the instructions and pictures show you how to make “Strip Set A”  and “Strip Set B”, the letter “A” needs to replace  every “B” and every “B” needs to replace all the “A”s .

The directions are correct but for this one exception. So if you follow the instructions, when you finish making Strip Set A, you have actually just made Strip Set B and vice-versa.

So sorry for any confusion this may have caused. It all goes back to me having trouble with my lefts and rights… its a long standing problem of mine, knowing my lefts from my rights and it drives my family crazy!

Do you MAQ?

Tuesday, July 15th, 2014

Mid-appalachian Quilters, that is. This is a great opportunity for all you quilters out there. It is an annual event – every July  – at Mount St. Mary College in Emmittsburg, Maryland. Twenty-five teachers come and offer an array of workshops from machine and hand quilting,  machine piecing, fabric painting and dying, wool work, applique, wearable items, cool piecing techniques, new tools and gadgets to speed things along, as well as just doing your own thing in studio. This unique retreat is put together by a group of volunteers every year, is very well organized and I am honored to be heading out there for my fourth year of teaching this weekend.

First up on Friday is Chevron Garden. It used the Creative Grids 45-degree Diamond Dimensions Ruler and some 2-1/2″ strips!

chevron garden wm

There’s not a bit a fabric wasted as the applique in the borders is created using the ends of the strip sets.

chevron garden applique wm

Machine Quilting is my bread-and-butter class and I am so excited to be bringing it to MAQ for Saturday’s class. Lots of topics are addressed – basting a quilt, different types of batting, thread and needles, resources…. We start out with a simple meander stitch and finish the day with feathers!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sunday’s class is the classic Cathedral Windows. All done by machine, this clever adaptation of the Cathedral Windows technique enables the quilter to hurry up and get ér done!

cathedral window collage

Hope to see you there – if not this year, then maybe the next!

Ah, Reflections….

Thursday, July 10th, 2014

Just got this beauty back from the Mason Dixon Quilt Professionals Network Challenge/Exhibit. Reflections of My Life – it highlights all the things that bring me joy – my children, hubby, cats, dogs, chickens and, of course, quilting. Shadow Trapunto and extensive hand beading. Lots of bridal sheers, not much cotton.

reflections entire quilt.  chris detail  jamie detail  mm detail  erinandjohn detail  chickens detail  dogs detail