Designing Monday

I seem to have lost my excitement for blogging, although I certainly still find time to read plenty of them.  I always enjoy finding out what others are making and look for inspiration to get me to the sewing machine.  I think my blogging is definitely a function of the amount that I sew.  No sew = no blog.

I did get this little quilt finished last week.  I always struggle with the quilting of every piece.  So I basically followed the designer's lead.  I looked at her finished piece on the pattern and tried to emulate it.  I started this piece in a class from Gail Garber in October.

 Gail had a box of ceramic buttons that a friend of hers made.  Gail carries the box with her and sells these fun buttons for her friend.  They are such a fun accent.

 I used a variegated thread to quilt the borders.

 I think the little house needs something over the door.  Maybe a  tiny wreath.  I have a circle attachment for my machine, but I don't know if it will go that small - 1" dia.  

The objective of the class was to learn how to piece flying geese and other objects like the tree in a curved shape and how to sew them to the background.  Mine turned out pretty well, but sewing that curve over the point of the tree was a little tricky.

Welcome to my little house!!

Hop over to Judy's blog  to see more beautiful designs.

Progress Made

I found some time to finish piecing this top together today.  I like how it turned out.  There were a few errors in the pattern which didn't help matters, but I made it thru.  Looking forward to getting it quilted and on the wall.

A Fun Class

I had the chance to take a fun class last week through our guild.  The teacher was Gail Garber.  I didn't know who she was, but I have seen her work and was glad I got the chance to meet her and learn some new skills.  The quilt I recognized immediately has been used in Bernina print ads for the last several years.  Here is a link if you are interested.  I am sure you will recognize it too.  You can see her other work at the link too.

Anyway, we learned how to do curved paper piecing and join it to other curved pieces.  We started by making this tree.

Then we spent the afternoon learning to draft other curved pieces using a flexible curve.  Here is a sampler quilt that Gail made that shows lots of possibilities.

We purchased a pattern for the class and since then I have made two more parts.  One is a strip of flying geese and the second a house.  Maybe by next week I will have it all put together.

This was definitely a class I enjoyed and I hope I can take these skills forward and make my own creation using some curved piecing.

My other sewing the last couple of weeks was making 3 more pillowcases for the children's center near our church.

I love these little dogs in the snow in their sweaters!

Hop over to Judy's blog to see more works in progress.