Wednesday, October 28, 2015

MAQ: Tessellating Windmill Pillow Class

I went to the Mid-Appalachian Quilters July 2015 event and took the Tessellating Windmill Pillow Class to learn how make the design - and how to put a zipper in!

First we arranged the charms we had brought to class so the different colors would be distributed.  
Here is how I put my blocks - now I can see two places where the colors were too similar and I wish I had done differently...

The instructor, Heather, had taught this design many times, so her in-class tips were helpful... But as you can see, there were many pieces to keep track of!

The zipper directions were posted on the Moda website for a different pillow design that is also really cute...

The template made this design rather easy to do, buy oh it was easy to mix the pieces up.  I've thought this design was so interesting and I'm glad I made it, but determined after the class that I didn't enjoy making it at all.

I gave my template to one of the ladies I sit next to at the once a month sewing session that I attend.  Just wasn't fun for me to have to keep track of the pieces and so disappointing to see that the colors were not ordered as well as they could have been.  Perhaps if I had picked different fabrics, or just was a faster sewer this would have been something to make again...












Sunday, October 25, 2015

Thinking of Kitchen

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/55682234?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u1959&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery0

The open shelves might be nice as it preserves the window light and in our case would be view too!

Having the appliances on the wall opens the center.  Having moveable island makes it flexible space?  Not sure how to get at the hanging items though...

Friday, October 23, 2015

Cultural Fusion: Hour Glass - and basting in a pinch!

* New (to me) way to baste!
Last summer I was able to attend two workshops taught by  (The Root Connection Blog).  What a wonderful way to spend two days!  Sujata was a delight, I have made a new friend.

I've finally pulled out my machine and sewed the Cultural Fusion Hour Glass blocks together, added some borders and basted the result. The block was fun to make.  I thought I had picked a good number of blue and green fabrics, but while cutting I starting doubting myself and added some more yellowish material and mixed myself up on how I was doing it too.  So some of my blocks are not following the guidelines but the results are still striking.

I'm making this quilt for a local charity.  They organized a sewing session last weekend that I attended. The ladies there picked the fabric for the borders and gave me the batting, a thick polyester something I've not used before.  If I had thought ahead I would have made more hour glass blocks for the frame, but I just have borders now.  The other ladies were also using that batting, so I could see how lovely the stitching shows on the quilts.

We meet once a month to sew from 9 to 4 - all day.  The location (a church) has a person who sets up the sewing tables including (higher) cutting tables and ironing boards.  We just have to contribute one quilt a year and spend one day each year only working on their projects.  Oh and we each bring a salad to share for lunch with the others.  Last weekend I made a grape salad, more like a dessert - it was well received.

Grape Dessert Salad - (Because it's near Halloween my husband named it eye ball salad topped with crumbled bones.)
1.  Clean and put in a dish - about 4 lbs of assorted grapes (mine were frozen as they were over bought for a party we held a few weeks ago)
2.  Cream together: 8 oz sour cream, 8 oz cream cheese, and about 1/4 c sugar.  Add to the grapes and mix
3.  Right before serving top with some brown sugar and nuts.

The ladies are very nice, I feel very lucky to be included in the group.

I still haven't quilted my tumbler quilt, it has all my pinmoors as it's basted and waiting for me to finish - but I wanted to get this hour glass charity quilt at least started during the day long session.  * I taped the backing down so it was taut on the table and then just put the batting and top of that on the table.  I used regular straight pins to baste! When I finished I took the tape that had been used on the backing and put little pieces on the sharp tips of the pins.  It worked!  I was able to stitch the seams and then remove the pins without sticking myself once!  So now I just need to decide on how to add a FMQing design and finish the binding!

I'm looking forward to making more quilts from Sujata's book, Cultural Fusion.  Several folks are making rail fences following her guidelines, I'll be joining in!  The results are posted on this website - http://culturalfusionquilts.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Winner: Received: Machine Quilting with Style (from Martingale)



I followed most of the blogs postings about Christa Watson's book: Machine Quilting with Style, and was so happy to learn that I won the ebook version from Martingale.

This is my first quilting ebook, it will be nice to have access without having to find an actual book on a shelf.


The projects are really attractive.  I'm really going to make many of these!  I'm looking forward to participating in Christa Watson's quilt along for the facets design - January 2016.  Grab a book so you can sew along too!

So thank you again to Martingale for picking me to receive the eBook version of Christa's first book!
MQWS_facets
Facets Quilt from Machine Quilting with Style