Monday, November 16, 2009

October Quilt Camp

The EVQG had another quilt camp in October.  I had fun as usual.  I really enjoy the three times a year that our guild does the week long quilt camps.  It is a good time to catch up on UFO’s, finish projects, or start a new one.  I did a little of each, plus took the fabric basket class.

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This is the little fabric basket that I did in the class.

My “new project” was a purse.

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My new black and white purse.  The hounds tooth print made me dizzy when I was working with it, but I love it now that it is made.  The other black and white print is a paisley, of course. 

Other projects I worked on where a 9-patch quilt that still isn’t finished and binding on the polka dot and stripes Turning twenty quilt. 

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This is the finished T-shirt quilt that I made for a client.

A few of our guild members decided to form and Art Quilt Bee.

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This was my inspiration for my first art quilt.  To me, it looks like a vortex.  Maybe a glimpse of another universe.

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A work in progress.

Our art bee met for the second time last Saturday.  We did cool aide dying.  It was fun.  I ended up with some pretty pink fat quarters.  The red was more pink than red.  The green turned out a light lime green and the purple is hard to distinguish from the pinks. I’m going to wash my fabrics and see if it is really permanent or not.  If it is, I might try it again.  It was easy to do, but it takes about 5 or 6 packs for each color, plus 1/4 c. white vinegar.  Dissolve the cool Aide in a pot of hot water, add the vinegar, fabric and simmer until the color has absorbed into the fabric.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

T-Shirt Quilt

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This is the T-shirt quilt that I’m currently working on.  This is the top.  I did get it quilted.  Although half way through quilting it the clear polyester thread that I used started breaking on me and gave me trouble quilting the last half.  Now to get the binding on it so I can get it to the customer.

Finally, I printed all the pictures that I have of T-shirt quilts that I’ve had a hand in making.  There are two that I’d really like to have pictures of that I can’t find.  One is the first one I pieced, a king size made from baseball shirts and the other is made using  college shirts.  I even used the pockets in the borders and some of the blocks.  I’m wanting to make a portfolio. so I will have something to show prospective customers.

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This is the fabric that I’m going to use for the One Block Wonder quilt.  I’m anxious to get started, but have to wait.  I don’t know if EVQG is going to do a class, or if Sandra, Jean and I are going to do it as a challenge project.  As we are still working on our polka-dots  and stripes, it will probably be next year before we do it.

 

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Quilt Show

Last weekend the East Cobb Quilt Guild had their quilt show.  Sandra, Jean and I went.  We had a great time.  Of course we visited all the vendors first.  I bought a few things.  At Fibers on a Whim, I got 4 fat quarters on sale and some items for art quilts:  2 half yard cuts of hand-dyed cheesecloth, hand-dyed batting grab bag and 2 fancy fabric scraps.  At Schoolhouse Quilts I purchased a holder for rulers.  It is the ring that fits over a closet bar.  I hung it from one of the hooks I have in my quilt studio for my rulers.  I have more fullers than hooks.  At the booth for Elaine’s Attic I bought 2-1yd cuts and a 1/2 yd cut of batiks.  I saw some patterns and kits that I liked, but didn’t get them.  I have lots of patterns already and kits I haven’t made yet.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures.  Although there were lots of pretty quilts.

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I took took these looking down from the balcony.  There were over 400 quilts in the show.  A friend of mine got a 2nd place ribbon for her appliqué quilt.  I should have taken a picture of it but didn’t think too.

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This is the only quilt I took a picture of and that is because it is a One Block Wonder quilt and I’m planning to make one.  I see it won a ribbon too, but can’t remember for what category.  There were several One Block Wonder Quilts in the show.  It fascinates  me how one fabric and one block can make such an interesting looking quilt.  I have both of the books.  I bought the 2nd one first and it only confused me.  The 1st book tells how to make the basic kaleidoscope block and the 2nd book tells how to do the tumbling blocks that can be used as accent blocks to add a little more interest to the quilt.

When we left the show we ate lunch at the Marietta Diner.  It was good and they have generous servings.  I took half my meal home. On the way home we stopped at Red Hen Fabrics.  I got the last of the fabrics for the Paradise Piecers birthdays and Christmas gifts.  I also found fabric to use for my One Block Wonder quilt.

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Guest Speaker

This month’s EVQG guest speaker was Claudia Wood.  She makes art quilts.  I really enjoyed having her speak to our guild.  She taught a class, but I didn’t attend.  I would have liked to, but ECQG had there quilt show this weekend and I couldn’t do both, so chose the quilt show.  I did buy Claudia’s book, but it is folk art quilts which she started with, and then went into the art quilts.  There are a couple of patterns in the book I liked, so I bought it.  Wish she would write one on doing the art quilts. 

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This is Claudia with one of her poem quilts.

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This is one of her folk art quilts that I thought was really pretty.  I didn’t take any pictures of the art quilts.  guess I didn’t think a picture would show the details to be helpful to try to make my own art quilt.  Besides, I don’t want to copy hers.  I want to make my own.

A few of us from the guild are thinking about starting an art quilt guild or club.  We are wanting to do it on a Saturday and that will make it hard to find a place to meet.  I could maybe accommodate a couple extra quilters in my studio, so it would have to be a really small group.

Finally, I finished the 2nd Saturday Sampler from 2005.  Got the label on this week.  It is a wedding gift, but the couple have been married long enough to have two children.  Better late than never, I guess.

SaturdaySampler

This is the only year that I completed.  I started going in 2006, but fizzled out half way through.  There are duplicate blocks, because I made two of each.l  I wanted a queen size quilt.  The other four blocks I used to cover pillows.  I’m not sure where they are.  Don’t know if they are in the attic, or if I gave them away.  I just noticed, it looks like I sewed the flag block into the quilt upside down.  Wonder how I managed to do that, and why it took to just now to notice it.

I’m making a little progress on the T-shirt quilt I’m supposed to be working on.

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Some progress is better than none.  There are 3 more shirts to cut into squares.  They already have the interfacing on them.  Than I can cut my sashing strips and corner stones and start putting the top together.  It shouldn’t take long once I get started back on it. 

 

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

What I’ve Been Doing

It must have been last month when AGQ did an apron class for the special projects.  I really wanted the apron.  It was a free pattern from Jo-Ann's web site, so I went ahead and made it on my own.  I would have like to have gone down for the class, but it is just so crowded and no room to work.  That apron had big pieces to work with and I just felt more comfortable at home. 

Apron 

This is my canning apron.  It will also work for Christmas.  I used the red print so tomato stains wouldn’t be so noticeable.  I’ve already made good use of it and have washed it.  Originally I had an orange paisley print picked out for a colorful, fun apron.  Than I realized that I would be upset if it got stained.  I’m on a paisley kick and collecting them.  I’ve bright ones, bold ones and pastels and muted tones.  I’m saving them for several special projects, as they won’t all look good together in the same project.  This was an easy apron to make.  Maybe it would make a good Christmas gift.  I’ve already got ideas for this Christmas, but there is future Christmases.  Maybe I should start a notebook of patterns for gift ideas.  Otherwise I’ll misplace the patterns.  Like I did with the pattern I planned to use for next year’s challenge project and it is no longer on the web site.  I’m going to have to do some hunting or hope someone else knows where their copy is.

This coming Tuesday AQG special projects are quick Christmas gifts.  They will be doing coasters, notebook cover, and a loyalty wallet.  The coasters we’ve done before and the notebook cover sounds like the steno pad cover we’ve already done and I gave as Christmas gifts a couple of years ago.  The loyalty wallet I’d like to do.  Those instructions are free on the web and I’ve already printed them.  Think that will go in the notebook for future reference.   Doubt that I will make it down there for the class.  Next month special projects will be a journal cover, but it only fits one brand of journal that Wal Mart carries.  The cover won’t fit other brands that are supposedly the same size.  We had to sign up to get the pattern and I signed up, so maybe I can make it down to that class.  Wish they would do the classes in the other room that is bigger.  They use it for day long sew-ins.  Wish I could find the notes I made for the class. 

I had a few projects I wanted to finish up before starting the T-shirt quilt.  One was quilting and putting the binding on a community service quilt for AQG.  I sewed the blocks into a top, but didn’t make the blocks, then quilted it and put the binding on.

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I think it turned out cute.  I used 16 of the 17 blocks that were completed.  There are enough triangles and squares to make about 20 more blocks.  Think I’ll take them back and let someone else make them.  I also quilted and put binding on another top that was already made.  I didn’t take a picture of it.  I didn’t have anything to do with the making of the top.    Figured I should get them done, it is about time to give them to the recipient of of our community service. 

Yesterday I went to Jo Ann’s looking for backing for the T-shirt quilt.  It poured down rain on the way down.  It was nerve wracking driving down I-75.  It was raining so hard I couldn’t see the tail lights of the car in front unless I was close to them.  I wanted to keep my distance, last thing  I wanted was to have to slam on my brakes to keep from rear ending someone.  I was so glad when I finally got to Jo Ann’s.  Thankfully the rain had let up when I left to come home.  I couldn’t find any black with green fabric.  Everything with green had other colors and was either a bright or a floral, nothing masculine.  I ended up getting a green with a little black.  Hope it will be alright with the lady who asked me to make the quilt.  I’ll look at Red Hen on Saturday and see if they have anything.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Zebras in the Jungle

Finally the baby quilt I was working on at my daughter’s request is finished.  I finished the binding on Thursday at a bee meeting.

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Zebras in the Jungle is the name of this quilt.

ZebraLabel

I don’t usually like large labels, but I wanted the zebra on it.  Guess I could have shrunk the zebra, but I didn’t feel like it.  This is also the quilting design that I used to quilt it with.  Dora drew the zebras and then I made copies and taped them together to make a pantograph. 

ZebraQuilting

This is the quilting, but it doesn’t show up well in this picture.  This was a challenge for me.  This is the hardest pantograph that I’ve done.  I usually do just simple ones.

The Polka Dots and Stripes “Turning Twenty”top is put together.  I found out that all stripes don’t go together.  I had to take some of the blocks apart and replace the striped fabric with different striped fabric that I liked better.  I’m still not sure how I feel about it.  Dora likes it, so I may give it to her.

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Don’t know why there is such a glare in the center.  Hope the picture of the finished quilt turns out better.

Went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and got interfacing for the T-shirt quilt.  I looked for backing, but all I found in black and green was a dice print or maybe it was dominoes.  I’m thinking about going to JoAnn’s today to look.  I haven’t been down there in awhile.  I need to have my flyers scanned so they will keep sending them to me.  It is so far down there and if they don’t have what I want, that will be a waste of a quarter tank of gas.  There isn’t anything else I need.  I’m saving my money for Saturday when we go to the ECQG quilt show.  I need some Civil war prints for a birthday coming up and Christmas present.  We will probably stop at Red Hen while we’re down there.  If I don’t have any luck at JoAnn’s, I can always look for the backing there. 

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Woodworking

Paul’s hobby is woodworking. He has a nice big shop with lots of equipment. This week he built a pantry type cabinet for someone.

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He hasn’t had time to work in his shop the last few months. He has been busy working on finishing the basement. He has finally gotten to the point where he can start making the cabinets, vanity, and built in closet system for the basement. So for the next few weeks he can spend lots of time in his shop.

I finished the crazy borders top that we did as a class at the last quilt camp. I’m not real happy with the way it turned out. The pieces in the border are too large for the center print.

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It is a little hard to make out the design of the center panel. It is a cowboy riding in the dessert. But it does show what I’m pointing out about the scale of the border in relationship to the center. It is hard to tell from the picture, but the colors in the border do coordinate with the colors in the panel. I had so hoped that this would be the answer to how to use this piece of fabric that I didn’t want to cut. I have more fabric. I must have gotten at least 3 yds. I should see if fussy cutting the cowboys out would work in a “Turning Twenty Around the Block” or a “Just Can’t Cut It” quilt. I also have Southwest Indian print fabric. The print is a larger scale, so still may go a head and try this border on it. That is what I originally planned, to make both quilts as a set.

Back in July, I believe it was, AQG had a class for making a quilters travel case. I went down for the class.

QuilterTravelCase

This is one that I made in class. I used some of my birthday Oriental FQs. I worked on two in the class, but forgot to take a picture of it before giving it away.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Challenge Quilts

At last months EVQG meeting we revealed our challenge quilts.  Everyone did a really good job of making a quilt to represent the gift bag they drew.

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Next years challenge is wide open.  We need to find our birth month on any calendar and make a quilt to represent the picture.  All we have to do is use the colors in the picture.  The quilt doesn’t have to look like the picture.  The picture I found was fireworks, because at the time I thought the quilt had to look like or at least have the theme of the picture and I have been wanting to try thread art.  Thought the fireworks would be something easy to start with.  Now all I have to do is make any quilt that is red, gold, white and black. I think I know which quilt I want to make using black and white fabrics with red and gold accents.  It is the quilt from the AQG black and white exchange.  I didn’t participate in the exchange, so I may have to collect some more black and white fabrics. 

The Christmas exchange for the AQG is a table runner.  We must make it and it has to be at least 14” wide and 44” long.  I found a table runner pattern in  a quilt magazine and made the top.  Well, I left off the last two borders.  It looks nice without them and more than meets the size requirements at 16 1/2” x 47 1/2”.

I also have a T-shirt quilt to get started on.  I just want to get a couple of projects out of the way first.  Like the table runner and quilting and binding a community service quilt.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Just a Little Behind

The AQG had a guest speaker in August.  Pat Wys came with her trunk show.  Think she is going to teach a class at next year’s retreat.  I’m just now finally getting the pictures off my phone.  I forgot my camera and took a few pictures with my phone.  So they probably aren’t the best.

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Pat is the lady in the pink blouse and red skirt in all the pictures.  She is an interesting speaker.  She also had her patterns for sale.  I didn’t buy any this time.  I’ve already have several of her patterns. I haven’t made any of them yet, but maybe one day I will get around to it.

We had our September meeting this past Tuesday.  The meetings have been change to the 1st Tuesday of the month.  That works better with my schedule. Now I have one or two quilting groups going on each week, instead of three in one week.

I’d like to say canning season is over, but I still have a few more tomatoes to do something with.  The pepper plants are in full stride, finally.  I’m a little tired of chopping up peppers to freeze. I’ve given quite a few away.  Think the cantaloupe are still producing too.  As much as I like cantaloupe, I have a hard time remembering to eat it.  Guess that is because I’m not used to having it around.  If we hadn’t planted it this year, I wouldn’t have any now.  I very seldom ever buy any.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

New Computer

Got a new computer and I’m slow at getting everything set up.  Just now got the windows live writer set up so I could post.  I prefer to use the Live Writer, it seems to be easier to post.

This computer has Vista and I’m still getting used to it.  Had a hard time finding my Kodak pictures.  They weren’t were I thought they should be.  I finally found them.

Hopefully canning season is nearly over.  The beans and corn didn’t do well, so didn’t can any.  I did freeze some corn on the cob.  I’ve lost track of how many jars of tomato sauce I’ve done.

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This is just some of what I canned.

Also canned 25 jars of carrots.

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I’ve already started using them.  That was a lot of carrots to clean.  Took me two days.  The pantry is so full, it is a good thing the corn and beans didn’t do well, there isn’t any room for them.  I still have a few tomatoes that I need to do something with.  Probably will do diced tomatoes.

Finally got around to taking a picture of my Birthday FQ’s.

BirthdayFQ

There are a lot of pretty Asian fabrics.  I’ve already used a couple of them to make a  little travel case.  It was a class at the AQG.

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This is the Zebra baby quilt top that I made at quilt camp in July.  Finally got around to quilting it yesterday.  Now to get the binding made and put on.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Day Four

This was day four of quilt camp.  Still having a good time and accomplishing quite a bit.  Sandra took me out to lunch.  We ate at the Meeting Place.  It has been around for years, but neither one of us had ever eaten there.  We had half a chicken salad sandwich, soup and a cookie.  It was good and reasonably price.  After lunch we made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 yd. of grass fabric that I needed for the sashing on the baby quilt I’m making for Dora to give to Aiden, Kristy’s baby.  I’ve got the top ready for borders, which I hope I can get on tomorrow, before the crazy border class.  The rest of the day will be taken up with that. 

Yesterday I finished my purse.

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After I show ‘n tell it at the guild meeting Tuesday, I’ll start carrying it.  I really like this pattern.  This time I only used two fabrics on the outside.  Think I like it better with the contrasting pocket, but it looks ok this way too.

Terry was working on a real cute quilt this week.

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It still needs borders.  She is making it for one of her granddaughters.

The Pincushion class was yesterday.

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Busy at work making cupcake pincushions.  I hadn’t  planned to take the class, but Bev was working on another version of it that looked like the cupcake had frosting on it and I wanted to try my hand at one.  The only fabric I had was left over fabric from my purse, so I made a striped cupcake.

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I’ll use different fabric next time, probably brown for chocolate or a cream color for vanilla.  Sandra suggested making the icing patch smaller.  Guess I’ll be making this version of the cupcake pincushion for Christmas presents.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Day Two

This was the 2nd day at quilt camp.  So far it has been fun.  I’m still working on my purse. The “four sided placemat” class was today and I  finished it.

4-SidededPlacemat

It was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be. 

Yesterday I took a few pictures.

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Here is Helen with her Dresden plate top that she was working on.

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Judy at her work station.

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As you can see, we also do a lot of socializing too, but we do get a lot accomplished.

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Sandra and Wennell looking at a quilting book.

Tomorrow is the cup cake pincushion class.  I won’t be doing that, as I’ve already figured out my own way of making them.  Although Bev’s are real cute.  I like how she covered the bottom of the can with felt. 

I hope I can get my pursed finished tomorrow so I can get started on the baby quilt Dora wants me to make.  She came up with a cute, but easy pattern.  She needs to get some more fabric for the sashing, Don’t think 1/4 yd. will be quite enough.

The Allatoona Quilt guild met this morning.  Sandra and I went down for part of it.  I wanted to get my birthday FQ’s.  I got a lot of nice fabrics, mostly Orientals.  I asked for Orientals or reproduction fabrics.  I left them in the truck.  I’ll have to remember to get them out so I can drool over them some more.

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These are the Ort Jars I made to match the pincushions.  They were pretty easy to make and turned out cute.

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This is a picture of them closed up.

Can’t wait to go back to quilt camp in the morning.