More to Share

I always take a lot of photos when I attend a big quilt show.  I am always looking for ideas, although honestly I will likely never make a quilt like the ones I see.  They are so lovely to look at, but I don't have the talent or patience or need for such an elaborate quilt.  That makes going to the shows all the more enjoyable -- kind of like going to an art museum.

Here are more of the wonderful works I saw in Daytona.

 I believe this won Best of Show.

 Edge detail.  Loads of beading on the entire quilt.

 The beading was done like cutwork.  The black behind the beads is the curtain fabric, not the quilt.

 Lots of machine embroidery, too.

 I love Dresdens.  I might try to make something like this.

The background is covered with gold polka dots.  The top half are spaced far apart.  Closer to the bottom they are nearly on top of each other.  I believe they are all hand painted. 

I love every one of Janet Stone's ABC quilts.

Caryl Bryer Fallert has an unmistakable style.

 So many tiny hexies.

 A second quilt by the same quilter.  Lots of detailed drawing by machine.

Still a few more to come.

A Winter Away

I enjoyed life in Florida this winter.  It was definitely warmer than Wisconsin.  We visited the local parks, did some sightseeing, and spent time with our friends.  This was our third winter in Florida and for the first time, I brought my sewing machine and lots of supplies and fabric!

In January, I was able to join in a Bonnie Hunter workshop that was hosted by the Racing Fingers guild of Ormond Beach.  They were very welcoming and Bonnie was a very enthusiastic teacher.  It all went so fast, I could hardly believe it was over at the end of the day.  I had dinner with a couple of guild members and returned in the evening for Bonnie's trunk show in the evening.  It was so fun to see so many of her quilts in person.  Thank you, Bonnie and the Racing Fingers Guild for such a fun day.  We worked on making Bonnie's Talking Turkey design.  I managed to complete 12 of the blocks after the class.  I plan to use them in a quilt for a returning soldier.

In February, AQS held its 3rd annual show in Daytona.  I enjoy this show so much as it improves every year and provides lots of inspiration.  Most of the quilts seem far beyond my skill range, but they are fun to see and I love to try and figure out how they were made.  I have lots of photos to share.

It's nice to be back home, but we had snow last night on top of the 8 inches that fell the day before we came home.  As my husband keeps saying, "Why do we live here?"

 A whole cloth quilt.  It appears the entire thing is done free hand embroidered or quilted with black thread.

Cherrywood Fabrics sponsored a challenge themed Vincent Van Gogh.  This quilt was done by Kim Frisk, a friend from my local guild.

 Laurie Ceesay created this little quilt also in the Cherrywood challenge.  Laurie taught at our guild a few years ago.  She specializes in faces and hair.  She is a hairdresser by day.

More photos next time.

So Cute!!

I finished piecing this top together this morning.  It is so darned cute!!  The next step is to embroider the white stripes between the rows.  The pattern says to add the batting, but not the backing and embroider through that.  This will be a new experience for me.

I love the little touches of pink and limey green that add some zip to the color scheme.  This is a pattern from Jen Daly Quilts.  

I think my shopping and wrapping and mailing packages are at an end for this year.  Christmas cards and letters are next.  My list seems to get shorter each year as more people lose interest in sending cards and distance and time seem to drift us apart.

Our daughter is in Saudi Arabia this year and we will spend a day with our son and daughter-in-law to exchange gifts after Christmas.  We also plan to visit friends in my hometown in Indiana after Christmas.  Looking forward to some new traditions and time with loved ones.

Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas Sewing

Somewhere along the line, I found a nice blog called JenDalyQuilts.  Jen has some very sweet designs and has offered a mystery quilt-along the last 3 Christmases.  Her latest one just started this past week.  The good news is they are relatively simple, small and easy to fit into a busy holiday schedule.  I am making last year's mystery quilt right now, although it is not such a mystery to me as I have seen the finished quilt and I Love It.  Here are some of the pieces I have finished.

 A Little Forest

 Some fun ornaments

 Some pretty packages to put under the tree

And lovely pinwheels!

I have one more bunch of blocks to make this weekend and then it is time to assemble.  Much of this is done with paper piecing and goes very quickly.  Jen has  provided all the cutting instructions and made the pieces that are paper pieced slightly oversized so there are no mistakes and the whole thing goes together easily.  I am loving it.  It is fun to work with Christmas fabrics once a year.  

Lots more to do to get ready for the holiday, but we are enjoying the season so much.  Our first snowfall of the winter happened last night.  So we may just have a white Christmas.

Quilt Retreat and other stuff

Our local shops recently had a shop hop.  I only hopped to one shop to buy fabric for an upcoming quilt retreat.  The shop gave out a free pattern for an apple potholder.  I couldn't wait to make one and   even woke up in the middle of the night thinking blue and yellow.  So the next morning I got busy and made this fun little apple.  Cute Christmas presents, I think.

It is paper pieced and oh, so easy.

This past weekend I spent 2 ½ days with 63 of our guild members at a resort about 15 - 20 miles from my house.  We sew our own projects and also have a donation project we work on.  This time we made pillowcases for the pediatrics ward at one of the local hospitals.  We managed to complete 197 plus many more that were donated by members who were not at the guild.  I used some Cat in the Hat fabric and some Mario Brothers.  This is the only scrap I had left and I forgot to take a picture of the finished cases.  Oh well.  I got 5 done and was happy to move onto my next project.

I also  made a Soldier Quilt.  We make these for a group in Plymouth, WI that distributes them to returning service members once they have completed their service to the armed forces.  I saw a photo on Pinterest of a quilt similar to this.  I constructed the center like a jelly roll race quilt.  This was my first time to try it and it was really fun.  I cut 2 ½" strips instead of using a jelly roll, because I needed only 17 stripes.  I think it turned out great and got lots of positive remarks.

Close up of this cute fabric.  I thought when I pulled it out of my stash that it said things like America the Beautiful, etc.  I was a little surprised when I actually saw the words.  I hope it is well received.

The organizers of the retreat always like to make up some little fun gifts for everyone who attends.  This time it was a coin purse and a holder for a rotary cutter.  Both cute and needed.  

 
There are also door prizes on Saturday night that are donated from the local quilt shops.  I received this charm pack of Kansas Troubles fabric -- always a favorite.  The shop owner was sitting at my table for dinner when the gifts were handed out.  It was so nice to be able to give her a big thank you immediately as she has always done so much for our guild.

I am getting ready now for a great opportunity in January.  We leave for Florida after Christmas and this year I am taking my sewing machine for the first time.  Why?  Because Bonnie Hunter is coming to a quilt guild near me and I am all signed up for her class.  I am so excited and have already been organizing in my head all the things I need to take with me.  We will be making the Talkin' Turkey quilt which I think I will do in RW&B to donate.  Right now I am making a million 1 ½" blocks and strips to finish a Bonnie quilt I started last year.  I want to take at least the finished top with me for show & tell.

Lots going on in my corner of the world right now.  How about you?

More Banner Work

I spent quite a bit of time working on church banners in the last week or so.  We changed over to fall decor at church last Wednesday night.  That gave me a week to get busy and get the banners completed.  One of our ladies made the banners last year.  They have a fall leaf design on one side..

and solid fabric on the reverse. 

  

She asked me to do something to the plain side.  So I made ginormous leaves - one for each banner.I started by printing off simple leaf shapes from the Internet.  I like using coloring book designs for easy applique and they are free.  Then I copied the shapes onto transparencies, enlarged them with an overhead projector at church and traced them onto large pieces of paper.  These were my patterns. 

I decided to make the leaves as stiff as I could so they would hang well.  So I traced the patterns onto Tear Away stabilizer which was the stiffest interfacing I could find.  From there I stitched veins onto the fabric

 and glued the edges of the fabric over the stabilizer so I could applique them to the banners.  The process was pretty simple, but I did all the applique by hand, so that I could sew only onto one side of the banner and not have the stitches show on the backside.  That was the time consuming part.  I managed to come up with 5 different designs and fabrics and got them done in the week's time.

They are now hanging in the church and look pretty good.

I made one sunflower to have something a little different.  

I crosshatched a portion of the center and then dabbed on gold paint so it didn't look like a giant brown spot staring at you.

I also finished my mystery quilt from Kathleen Tracy's blog.  It finished at 30 x 30, so I am thinking I will hang it on the guest room wall.