Quilt Guild Trunk Show

Last Tuesday was our weekly quilt guild meeting and Joan Ford came from Syracuse, NY for a trunk show!

Both the white sample and the black sample on the sales table were gorgeous. I have this pattern and it's probably top on my ST list of patterns to make.

Joan started the Scrap Therapy system back when I lived in Miami. We had a cutting class at my local store and then worked on some of the patterns. I even got to raid a friends huge stash for a cutting party before I moved back north.

Even the sashing is made from squares.

Millie was trying to hide - Gotcha!!!

I've been trimming scraps into 5", 3.5" and 2" squares (and into Bonnie strip sizes) ever since but I have yet to make another ST project...I've been using the squares for all kinds of other things :) This trunk show was just the bump I needed - I've cleaned up my cutting table by cutting almost all the scraps laying around into strips and squares. Now I just need to pick a pattern to start with...

I forget what Joan called these blocks but they look like the granny squares that are all the rage lately.

The large red HST are pieced!
Joan is on the left.

As some of you might be familiar with, Joan cuts all her scraps into 2/3.5/5" squares because the math works. Sew two 2" squares together and what do you get? A 3.5" square! Sew two 3.5" squares together and what do you get? A 5" square!

Sadly, both of my photos of this runner are blurry. All of these HST were made with special paper and 5" squares. If her credit card machine was working I would have gotten some of the papers.

It's a little hard to imagine sewing squares together when I am sew much better at sewing strips and subcutting but her patterns are gorgeous. Joan has taken her patterns and written a book that uses her 7 steps of dealing with scraps, creating a system and then using them.

Closeup of the pieced HST.

She also wrote a second book based on the same theory but it's titled something like scraps plus one. Take the scrap squares and add one other fabric. Some of the designs needed pieces bigger than were in her system so she pieced them together. Brilliant!!

Another scraps plus one quilt.
The One was actually the striped fabric which eventually lead to changing out the border fabric.

Scraps plus white. The 9 patches all finish at 2" to match her 2" blocks!

I also received a great gift from my secret sis but forgot to take a picture - I'll be sure to share it Thursday. I hope my sis enjoyed her gift!

Quilt Guild report...

Yesterday everyone I saw was talking about the horrible weather  - how cold it was (30F really only feels that cold cuz it was 80F the day before) and all the snow we were going to get. Supposedly between 1 and 4". I thought that would be the perfect Wordless Wednesday photo. Well here ya go:

How is it the weather peeps can always be so "off" and still keep their jobs?
I suppose I best give you something more interesting to look at than my tiny tiger lilies...

Last night was Quilt Guild. We had a trunk show based on Deb Tucker's tools. Gorgeous quilts! I took pictures of several hunter star quilts. If I ever get my blue and green batik HS done, I'll try one of her other layouts - they were all about fabric placement.

Ten new fabrics for my stash!

I had completely forgotten that there was going to be a sale on someones stash fabrics. Most were FQs but some were just pieces. Can you believe I got the whole pile for just $3??!! Pretty close to the amount of fabric I got at the quilt show for just a fraction of the cost. If I hadn't run out of time I could have picked out more. Hopefully they will bring the bins to next months meeting too!

Everything looks better upside down!

I also received another fab gift from my secret sister! The chick topped porcelain cupcake is actually a candy dish and it came stocked with choco!! The plates are adorable and I can't wait for this coming weekend to use them with the napkins I forget to tell you about from last month's gift. I already had the Easter cactus - it was the only yellow one at the store so I grabbed that one up pretty fast - I've been looking for one for eons. The black & white goofball you've met before but he seems to approve. Thank you SS!!!!!

Thursday Mashup

As the Everlasting Queen of UFOs and the Last Minute, I'm finally working on the "lunch bag challenge" that is due for our Guild meeting this month. Of course it didn't dawn on me until this week that the meeting is a week early for our annual Christmas party. Ackckckckck. I have to have something to show by next Tuesday. And this couldn't come at a busier time... tonight is Historical Society pot luck, tomorrow night is Hexie Club cookie exchange, Saturday night is Holiday Lights, Sunday is Town Clerk party at my house and I still need to decorate, Tuesday is fire meeting and the Guild party, Wednesday is Board Meeting that I need to bake something for. I won't even mention cookie and candy days next weekend - ok so I mentioned them. Can I collapse in a heap now? Or do I need to wait?

Each lunchbag was supposed to have 3 to 5 FQs and we could add anything else to it. Mine came with 3 but I need to get another WOW FQ so I can make the red blocks. I have 2 choices at this point - finish what I have (12 blocks) and make a table runner or get another set of RWB to make 12 more blocks for more of a topper or picnic quilt. Heck, 24 blocks would even match my RWB bed quilt as a bed runner and would be smaller/easier to wash off the cat hair than the full quilt. LOL. Of course it might cover the half-nekked firemen and that would be a tragedy.

I've made a bit more progress on my Celtic Solstice mystery blocks, using them as leader/enders this week. Of course, this morning I just wanted to get all the right sides done since another clue will be posted tomorrow so I just sewed and sewed until I ran out of blue. Uh, hello? I guess I can't count. I'll do the left sides and see how far off that side is before I cut more...

So remember yesterday when I showed you my tower of audiobooks waiting to be listened to? Well today I have a question! Several years ago I challenged myself to read books that the titles and the authors followed the alphabet. Not in order mind you, just A thru Z by the end of the year. I'm thinking I would like to do another challenge next year and I am looking for suggestions.

I already read lots of series and yes I am OCD enough to track them in a binder and with Shelfari. I also use Shelfari to track how many books I read a year. The site has you set an annual reading goal and this year it was to read 71 books which is how many I read last year - I've finished the 70th book this morning so I am pretty confident I can meet that goal. I would like to find something challenging yet possible given the number of audiobooks I go thru a year. TIA for all your suggestions.

PS - it's already 63F today! The snow is mostly melted already and everything is a sopping mess. Don't worry, another cold front is coming this weekend...you know, in time for the party at my house...

Guild Secret Sister

My monthly quilt guild meeting was this past Tuesday. Our speaker wasn't able to make it so my quilting friend Kelly, taught us how to do Zentangle, which is essentially structured doodling. I wasn't prepared to take photos but maybe I can share our samples another day. She had a great sample of Zentangle done in hexie shapes. You know I want to replicate that is some fashion!

I am most interested in Zentangle because of the quilting aspects. In fact, some of the quilting on my recent "Walkabout" quilt was Zentangle-ish - altho I found out I did it backwards. Who knew there was a right and wrong way to swirl?! I checked all my blog pictures on the quilt and none of them show the quilting well because I used black thread on a black and orange quilt. Silly me.

Anyway...on to Secret Sister gifts! The first thing I noticed was the gift bag was from a store in Old Forge, a town in the Adirondack Mts. It's probably one of the few stores I have not yet been to, given how many trips to the ADK I make every summer :)

This cute stuffed cat was my gift. Isn't he just adorable??!! He's got a fluffy tuft on his head and he's holding a bat. If only my Secret Sis knew I had a thing against bats - they used to get in to the house when I first moved in. This guy, however, is stuffed and fluffy so we are ok :)

I also received these great charm squares. I am debating to save these for a birthday project or not. Our hexie club gives each birthday girl basted hexies in her fav color and I am planning to use mine to make a pillow similar to this one from Pinterest. I could always use more purples!

On fabric dyeing

I'm afraid I forgot to take the pictures I planned to share today of a pending project...pictures on the camera are slim pickings so please don't hold it against me :)

Last week was our monthly Guild meeting and our program was on dyeing fabric. The speaker gave a very short program on her history with the process of dyeing and then for anyone who wanted to participate, we were allowed to use her supplies! We had been forwarned to bring PFD fabric and the $10 fee as well as wearing old clothes. I would be happy to do this every year cuz there is no way I could stock the supplies to do a little fabric at a time for just ten bucks.

Glynis taught us to dampen the fabric (I used unbleached muslin I had on hand) or just not dry it after a trip thru the washer, to place it in a gallon sized bag, add the dye (about 1 or 2 teaspoons to 1 cup water) and the soda ash (about 1/2 cup). The bag can be swooshed around for a more even dye or it can be left alone or you can even leave the fabric dry, twist it into a knot and then dump the dye on it. The air is then let out of the bags and they are left to sit for at least 24 hours. The fabric is then "sandwich washed" - first cold water, then hot soapy water and then cold water again. I did the first wash in the sink so I could make sure the water was running clear for each color. The next 2 washes were done in the washer. Yes, I did wash them all together with a couple color catcher sheets. The red was the hardest to get the water to run clear and the color catchers showed that.

Anyways...here are my dyed fabrics. I think it's somewhere between 2 and 3 yards. Some of the colors are not as vibrant as the original dye but they are all still yummy colors!

Yipper - those are new undies on the left - when some of the guild memebers found out what I was doing they asked me to model them at the next meeting.  :^)

Orca Bay & Selvages

Just some silly pictures of a little progress today...

I finally warmed up the iron and pressed the Orca Bay pairs. Tonight is guild meeting (we are dying fabrics!!!!) so I probably won't get back to these until tomorrow night.

I also pulled out some selvages to work on. My guild is having a bunch of mini lessons next month and this is one they asked for so I figured I better get some "steps" done for the tutorial. These are 7" strips that I started sewing into pairs putting any kind of fabric together, especially when you don't expect them together. Next I'll sew 2 pairs together and then just keep adding pairs or individual selvages until it's about 7" square. Then they will be trimmed to 6.5". Easy peasy.

I also want to make a doll quilt top with another selvage design I have saved at home before quild meeting just to share another use. We shall see how that goes...

Did you comment on the 2 linky parties from 8/17/12 yet? Please do as there are giveaways!

Shopping Spree Contest

Tuesday was guild meeting and we met at the local KidStart facility (associated with ARC, Hilltop Industries and several other programs) for a computer related program and tour. Someone had donated a lot of their stash and some of the guild members thought it should be sold as a fundraiser for KidStart. KidStart thought they would only make $200 but we wowed them with over $900!

I didn't think to take any pictures of the sale but apparently when I got there at 5:30, a lot of good stuff was already gone. No problem, cuz I still found plenty! I'm generally on a no-buy but at these prices, who could resist?

There were 2 huge bins of scraps, which were basically anything less than FQ size down to selvages. It was $1 per quart sized bag and you could really stuff them full and have someone help else zip them closed. :)
 

There was a table of kits and other stuff which didn't interest me but then there was the table of yardage at just $3/yard.
 

There was also another table of FQs at just $1.25 each with quantity discount prices.

So this is the money shot - my haul.
BTW - I think just about every "yardage" piece and even some of the scraps had selvages = bonus!!!

I'll send a FQ to whoever guesses how much I spent, without going over.
Another FQ goes to whoever guesses closest to how many yards of fabric I purchased (yardage + FQ).

Winners will be posted on 6/28/12 and I'll take guesses up until I am ready to post the winners.
Good Luck!!!

One Word Wednesday

Tumblers!!!!

Back to the drawing board

The hexie flower is the store sample I am working on. The LQS has kits to make what you see but there was no sample after our demo day was over. I'm going to look for some lavendar or something at the Dollar General to make it in to a sachet.

The fan is something I was playing with to make a nametag. Can you believe that I have been in my quilt guild for 2 years and haven't made a name tag yet?! I usually remember the night before meeting. Thankfully there are no fines for lack of nametag. I was trying to emulate a photo I saw online for this sample and it didn't quite work so this will probably become another sachet. Back to the name tag drawing board...

UFO Thursday

I have made no progress on this month's #1 UFO for Judy's Challenge but I did finish a different UFO.

I purchased this fabric and the Cherrywood dyed fabric pack about 3 years ago at the last quilt show I attended in Miami. I knew it would be a good project for the chilly north - can never have enough sweatshirts up here. The problem was deciding on a pattern. I've picked up several over the years but just never got to it. I had spent so much on the fabric, I wanted the perfect pattern. When I finally found the one it turns out I had already owned it. Who knew?

At last month's guild meeting our speaker brought patterns to sell. I was looking at a sweatshirt pattern and Noel was looking at it also. We decided to get together at my house and make them together. A little motivation never hurts anyone. The plan was to get them done in time for guild meeting and I did so with hours to spare. Ok, so the cuffs aren't done but it was good enuf for who it's for and maybe I will leave them as is. We shall see.

I think the hardest part, after picking a pattern, was taking the fool sweatshirt apart. All the seams have to come apart and all the threads have to be picked out. These are serged seams so there are about 3 levels of seams to take apart. Ick. I think it was Linda who said to trace the sweatshirt parts and buy the sweatshirt material at JoAnn's to save taking another one apart. Brilliant!!

I quilted the sweatshirt with fantasy feathers, thanks to a DVD from Patsy Thompson, using a blue-gray King Tut variegated thread. As I posted yesterday, despite being washed several times, the sweatshirt stained my machine. I haven't had a chance to try to clean it yet but I am open to any suggestions.

I think I would like to make another sweatshirt but maybe with less quilting so it's not quite so stiff.






Cali was the Quality Control Officer on duty:

Chocolate Garden

This IS quilt related - can you guess how before you get to the end of this post???

Last night, after dinner at the Hole in the Wall, my friend Jacquie, co-owner extraordinaire, showed me pictures of their latest honey harvest and asked if it had been me who told her of my wish for a chocolate garden. It was!

I think the wish started when the spring catalogs had plants that were either chocolate colored or flavored. Then I found the Chocolate Flower Farm which further cemented my wish. Since I can't decide where to plant my chocolate flower garden yet, I've just begun collecting plants that I can later move to the new bed. Most chocolate plants seem to be brown or dark maroon in color but some are black or dark purple. There are chocolate annuals, perrenials and vegetables (oh wait, I think they are fruit since they have seeds).

My most obvious and official start to the chocolate gardent, is this Chocolate Mint. It has the traditional 4-sided stem like mint altho it's a chocolate color. The green leaf tastes minty with something else but not really a chocolate taste. Hey, it's the name that's important, huh?!

LEFT: This sedum also fits the color bill altho it seems to grow a little wilder and spindlier than my green sedum that is in the back left of this picture.
RIGHT: I have this coral bells (I think it's called licorice). It started the summer a much darker color (dark chocolate?) that has now faded to this lighter (milky chocolate?) color.

Then, there is this cactus. Or is it a succulant? From the top it looks like a hens-n-chick but from the side you can see it's on a stem. I bought the smallest (translate to cheapest) this nursery had but the largest specimen they had available was on a 6-8 inch stem and the "flower" was maybe 10 inches across. I am not sure if I want this plant inside or outside yet but I couldn't pass up such an interesting plant.

 This morning I picked 3 Black Beauty peppers from my garden. They start out green but turn this dark eggplanty purple color. Can't wait to see what color they are inside.

These are off topic but look - my hens-n-chicks had a rooster! I actually have 4 different plants that did this so maybe it's the hot weather we've been having.

Does anyone else have chocolate flowers they can suggest? I'm talking everyday plants that fill the color or name or speciality plants that fit.  TIA.

So... did you guess the quilt relation to this post? My quilt guild's annual "picnic" was held at the Hole in the Wall with a very yummy menu, quilt mystery to solve and our usual show-n-tell.