Noah's first quilt

Noah and Hayden hung out with us today and Noah decided he wanted to take a stab at making a quilt. We pulled out a box of fabric and he selected several pieces that he liked. I cut the fabric into 6.5" squares. I was going to have him cut the squares with scissors but in the interest of time I rotary cut the squares for him.

He arranged the blocks on my design wall and once he was happy with the layout he stitched them together.



My sewing machine has a speed control that we set at about half speed which turned out to be a good speed for him. It also has a 1/4" piecing foot with a flange. The fabric edge is butted up against the flange which helps keep a consistent seam allowance. I don't like using that foot but it worked out well for Noah. Once he got the top sewn together he thought he was done but I explained to him that he still needed to do the actual quilting. That's a project we're going to save for another day. We discussed whether he wanted to add a border but he has elected not to do so.

When we came downstairs from the studio to show Grandpa and Hayden the quilt top Hayden looked at it, ran to Noah and gave him a big hug and said thank-you. She thinks it's for her!

It has been so hot here that inside activities like quilting are preferable to being outdoors. With only a couple of exceptions we've been in the 90's with high humidity every day this month. I think it's going to be a long summer.

Yikes Stripes!

When I was a kid I used to like Fruit Stripe Gum and enjoyed their "Yikes Stripes" commercials. I thought of the commercials when I was taking photos of some projects with striped fabrics.

The latest AQS magazine had an article by Eileen Sullivan on an easy method of making mitered blocks with striped fabrics. I got the magazine in the mail a day before a trip to Mary Jo's the perfect place to find a great selection of striped fabrics. I purchased two identically striped fabrics in different colorways.

Here's the first fabric stitched up and set a couple of different ways. I haven't cut into the 2nd fabric yet - but it's a more pastel palette. (click photos for larger view)



I put these blocks on the wall without any prior planning and upon looking at the photo it's interesting to see how the blocks with the teal really standing out are concentrated in one area.








I like the last setting a lot but I used it already. Before cutting into my new fabrics I remembered that I had an orange striped fabric sitting here which had originally come from Karen's stash. She decided she probably wouldn't make anything from it and gave it to me to maybe figure out a use for it with the intent of donating the resulting quilt to our guild charity.



I really like this orange one and may have to keep this and make a replacement donation quilt. I still have to figure out borders for it.

It has been fun working in stripes.

North Carolina Quilt Symposium

Got back yesterday after spending a great weekend in Charlotte at the North Carolina Quilt Symposium. This was a first time event for me although the symposium has been going on for a number of years. It's an interesting concept in that the event moves round the state of North Carolina yearly with a different guild hosting each year. I understand that usually the venue is a college campus. This year we were on the campus of Johnson & Wales university which is a culinary college.

The class offerings from a variety of nationally known teachers were excellent. The enrollment fee included 2 days of classes and a lecture (as well as food and lodging) It was difficult to decide which classes to take! On Friday Janice, Cindy and I took Happy Villages with Karen Eckmeimer. It was lots of fun constructing our villages.

Here's Janice's village. She plans to add more doors and windows. I like her larger buildings. (click photos for larger view)



Cindy wasn't enjoying her work in the morning but after lunch when her piece started looking like a real village she started to like it. I love her trees.



I don't think my water/sky fabric works in my piece. It's just too dark for my bright buildings although I do like the illusion of a beach at the bottom.



Once the villages are complete we are supposed to top the work with a layer of tulle and perhaps I can use the tulle to tone down the brightness of the buildings.

On Saturday morning all 4 of us (Joanne was with us too) attended a lecture with Carol Taylor whose work has always impressed me.

On Saturday afternoon & Sunday morning I took a class with Robbi Joy Eklow, whom I've "known" online for years. Robbi is part of the Chicago School of Fusing. She shared her technique of fusing (yes there can be more than one way to fuse a quilt top.) I only made a small element in class as I didn't have the right fabrics with me at symposium.



There were a number of vendors at the show and I picked up a cool new (to me)set of rulers. They're called Double Diamond rulers and come in 3.5" and 1.5" widths. Here's their website. Last night I made a sample with each size of ruler. I like the smaller version best but both are kind of neat.



The ribbons at the show were very interesting. Each ribbon had an extra small yo-yo flower mounted to a hair clip. These were meant to be removed by the winner and worn on her name tag so everyone would know she won a ribbon and what color it was. The information cards were clipped onto each quilt with clothespins. Attached to each clothespin was a tiny yo-yo topped with a button. As I walked around the show I noticed that the clothespin yo-yo coordinated with the quilt. Turns out the woman who made them just had a big box of them and once the show was hung she walked around and tried to match the yo-yo to the quilt. She did a great job. Some of them looked like they were made specifically for the quilt.







It was a great weekend and I'm already planning to attend next year - especially since I WON A SCHOLARSHIP for next year's symposium. How cool was that??

Memorial Day

We've just returned from a week at Myrtle Beach - the ultimate tourist trap. It was a fun trip and of course we encountered "interesting" people during the week - including the woman on the beach who had a monitoring ankle bracelet because she had just been released from County (her words). She was visiting the beach with her pet parrot.

We missed seeing the kids while we were away but got some kid time today. They brought our new granddog Nicholas with them and he sure is cute. (click photos for larger view)



He's a lab/corgi mix and looks like a lab but has the short corgi legs. It's a really funny combination.

He's very calm and allows the kids to love on him without complaint.


The kids were being silly. Don't you just love Noah's freckles?


Noah kept trying to stick his face in the way of the camera so I fixed him and took an extreme closeup. You can really see the freckles here!


Hayden got upset that she wasn't getting some extreme closeups.



She got her smile back when I stuck the camera in her face.



They liked just hanging out on the back porch.

Settings revisited

Since my design boards are not big enough for this log cabin quilt I put two of them together to give me enough room to try a couple of layouts. My design walls are actually sheets of insulation and you can see a blue strip of one of the boards peeking out between the blocks.

I think I like the first 2 settings best, but will have to decide between the two. All comments welcomed. (click photos for larger view)

Curved Log Cabin settings?

I finally finished piecing all the blocks for my curved log cabin quilt. Now I have to decide how to set the blocks. This will be a bigger quilt than I usually make and turns out I don't have a design wall big enough to try layout possibilities. I tried 2 different layouts on my living room floor but really need to try a couple more before making a decision.

Which layout do you like better? I think I like the 2nd one. (click photos for larger view)

Camp Happy Days

My guild, Cobblestone Quilters, has adopted Camp Happy Days as its community project this year. The camp is for "kids kickin' cancer." Our goal is to make 92 quilts by September when they hold family camp so that each person in attendance will have a quilt on his/her bed when they arrive.

My splinter group, the Duck Ditch Quilters, has been busy making quilts for this good cause. We've already turned in about 20 quilts and are working hard on more. Yesterday we had a sew-in and worked on several tops.

(click photos for larger view)



Sheila assembled this top which started with the preprinted panel. There was a lot of discussion about this one. It took a while before the group could agree on exactly which yellow fabric should be used as the inner border. In the end, even those that didn't think this particular fabric was the best choice agreed that it worked.



These green blocks started out as block of the month at guild a year or so ago. Betsy won them and decided to donate the blocks for charity quilts. There are still a lot of kits left to make more blocks so I expect we'll see more quilts like this before we're done. Pat and Melissa worked on this one.




Cindy and Janice cut big blocks out of these fun bright fabrics. This is going to be a really happy quilt when it's done. (I suspect that I especially like this one because all of the fabrics came out of my stash!)



Betsy made this pretty purple top which looks more complicated than it is.



Janice and Crystal worked on this one - assembling it from bits and pieces left over from previous quilts. They added a couple more rows after I took this photo.



Frances and Joanne worked on this one.

Somehow I missed getting photos of one or 2 more that were worked on.

Next month we're going to try to quilt some of these!

Curved log cabin

I have finally progressed far enough on my retreat project, a curved log cabin, to post photos. I got this pattern from the book Blendable Curves by Peggy Barkle.

I first had to construct 21 red log cabin blocks and 21 white log cabin blocks. After each complete round the blocks were squared, but only on one side so there were skinny logs and wide logs. (click photos for larger view)




One red and one white block were stacked aligning the wide logs on the red block with the wide logs on the white block. The two blocks were cut through both layers at once with a random curve. Here the 2 blocks have been separated but you can see they were cut together.






Then one side of the red block was sewn to the opposite side of the white block and visa versa resulting in 2 new blocks.



Here are 4 blocks showing one potential setting.



It has been a fun project but sewing all those log cabin blocks got a little tedious. I'm glad I'm getting to the fun part now.

Is it today or tomorrow?

Craig is turning 37 either today or tomorrow depending on how you look at it.

He was born in Scotland on April 11th at 3:10 a.m. Because of the time difference between the UK and the US, when Jerry called family here in the states to let them know Craig had arrived safely it was still April 10th. To this day my brother jokes that since Craig is an American citizen he should celebrate his birthday on American time.

Here he is on his first birthday. He's still as cute as he was way back then.

Back from retreat

I just spent 4 great days at the beach with my quilting friends. The weather was fantastic and the walks on the beach were a joy. This is the best time of year here in Charleston.

Our sewing room was an explosion of fabric (and snacks!). These photos show the view from my corner of the room. Those black strap things you see several of the women wearing are designed to ease back pain. You can learn about them by clicking here.

(click photos for larger view)





There were six people working on the same pattern - a Monterrey Medallion. Each picked out her own color combination so the quilts all have a different feel. There is a lot of piecing involved in the pattern so each quilt is still in process.

Here's Sheila's on the design wall.



Virginia used brighter colors for hers.


Karen used the same white fabric as the entire background in hers.


Frances loves blue and it's obvious in her quilt.


Betsy used a soft color palette like Sheila did.


I somehow missed getting a photo of Joanne's. She used a soft pink and brown color palette. You might be able to see some of the fabric she used as she is ironing it.




It's a group project getting each quilt up on the design wall!



Not everyone was working on the Monterrey Medallions.

Janice and Cindy were each working on a red and white quilt. This is Janice's.



Cindy's never made it to the design wall. Perhaps this is why?


Evelyn was working on hand quilting her horse quilt. It has been a long lasting project for her but she refuses to start anything new until she finishes this.



Maureen worked on this cute Scotty Dog quilt.


The other Janice did this great paper pieced project.


I didn't get photos of Marcie's work but she was doing some blocks of the month from way back in 2005.


I also didn't get photos of my projects. One didn't get far enough for photos and the other main project I worked on is TOP SECRET so photos can't be posted.

As always we had a great time and are already planning our next retreat!