Better late than never ... right?

I take lots of quilting classes at Millstream Career Center, via the Community Education side.  This is week 5 of 6 for the Gadabout class, a pattern by Eleanor Burns.  And I FINALLY got my prep sewing done!  It's not a difficult pattern, and the prep work is what takes the most time ... and as you can see, it's a fun block. 

As I don't necessarily follow patterns exactly either.  The pattern was written to use four fabrics, and the examples are really quite lovely.  But June and I are trying to use the fabrics we've already acquired.  So, I went for a dive!  I had purchased these at Forever In Stitches, a local quilt shop, so they were already together.  I didn't have enough to only use four fabrics, so I decided to change it up a little.  I'm quite happy with the result ... and as I opted to make the twin size version, I only have 36 more blocks to make.

Interestingly enough, I'd like to make another one (or maybe two).  One with a less subtle pinwheel, and one that sticks to four colors but lots of fabrics for a decidedly scrappy effect.  Yes, I do smell another J&J Project in the works, too!

~ Happy Quilting ~

Julie

Designing Diva Challenge

So ... I joined the Stitchin' Time Quilt Club this year ... And for the March meeting, they're having a Designing Diva Challenge.  I wasn't to sure about it at first, but decided that it would be a nice little break.  Yes, we only need one ... and following directions can be overrated so I started looking through my scrap pile.  I'll use a couple as fun little gifts for my nieces Caley and Cheyenne as they quilt with me. 

At any rate, it ended up being more fun than I thought it would.  And while they're not quite finished, I am glad that I took the detour and went for a dive!



Chili Fest Quilt

Yay, I finished the binding on this year's Chili Fest Quilt ... It will be raffled on Feb 23 at Washtington Elementary School.  Official stats are 59"x89", which makes it's officially twin size.  

I need to say thanks to my co-workers for their assistance in holding it for the picture.

... A close up view...



Of course, the next question is, what block to use for next years quilt.

Happy Quilting!

Julie

Julie's visit

Julie is coming for a visit in 6 weeks.  We've already been discussing what we plan to do.  We usually work on at least one quilt pattern together.   Julie usually brings a car load of fabric and leaves the majority of it here.  This year I asked Julie to plan scrappy quilts using my stash.  The ultimate stash buster!  Thankfully she agreed.  The first quilt we decided on was the LeMoyne Star.  Julie is star crazy.  But in this case we both were looking at the same pattern at the same time.  I saw a show on Fons and Porter and fell in love with the way they put it together.  It is called "Links".  It was in their magazine in 2012.  Fortunately I have a dear friend, Mar, who keeps her magazines and she had that issue.  So I now have the pattern.  I'm going to do it, but with the scrappy twist.  Julie has another LeMoyne star pattern that is gorgeous and is scrapy, so she'll probably do that.  We'll decide when she gets here. 

The second quilt is a strip quilt.  Julie wants to use pattern ease, something I've never done.  I'm excited to learn a new technique.  We're preparing strips, cutting them 1 1/2".  We'll throw all the stips together and it will be really scrappy.  I'm excited.

Then the third quilt...if we get this far...is one called Opsie daisy.  Julie brought this pattern with her last year.  It is two blocks one is a 32 squares for each block alternating with a flower applique in the other block.  The pattern shows pastels.  I can't wait to see what fabric Julie wants to use.  It should be fun to see the differences in our fabric choices. 

So this is our plan so far...but life changes things.  We need to stop looking at stuff online...hehehehe

What a beautiful day...to Quilt!

The weather outside is frightful....yes it is Minnesota and it's snowing.  It supposed to be pretty bad, worse up north but what a great day to quilt.  So that's what I did.  I finsihed the borders on the auction quilt.  I wanted to duplicate the nine patch in the corners so the borders kind of fell into place.  Here is the finished top.

Now to decide how to quilt it.  I'm not sure if I'm going to send it out or quilt it myself.  I've been practicing free motion continuous quilting on paper.  All the other quilts I've quilted I follow the pattern.  This quilt has a lot of white space so I'd like to do something special in the spaces.  The maple leaf leave me with wonder.  Again a lot of space to add some special touches.  I'll play a while.  I've never played with quilting motifs in EQ, maybe I should try that.  I'm always trying to learn new things, this would be a great time.

Finished the binding on the vegetable basket quilt.  While I was sewing on the binding I noticed a flower pot in the quilting.  Ginger is so talented.  Talked to Julie and she said there were gardening implements throughout.  So I went on a hunt and found several different implements.  That was so cool and fun to uncover.  I'm not sure where this quilt will go or who will get it, but it has been fun! 

Introducing Chloe

Well, since you're read a book about Chloe, I thought you might also like to meet her ...

The picture above was taken January 8, she was still catching up on her missed sleep from the overnight hospital stay.

The picture below was taken last fall.  I was working on the binding of a quilt for my great-niece Brooke.  Chloe was not impressed with the fact that I wasn't paying any attention to her.