Beginner Quilt Class

       Last night was the second night of the Beginner 2 Block Quilt Class at Midlands Tech.   The ladies had all their strips cut from the first class.  Then they pieced strip sets and subcut them to make nine patch blocks.  Here are their first blocks. 

A Mix of Activities

      Where has the week gone?  I have been busy with all kinds of things.  Last Thursday was the first meeting of my Beginner 2 Block Quilt Class at Midlands Tech.  I have 3 students and hope to have some photos to share this coming Thursday.  Working around some sewing I managed to get some garden/yard work done.   As usual for the 4^th week of the month Quilt Mavens Bee met Monday evening hosted by Bonney. Tuesday morning was Comfort Quilt Sew Day for guild.  I sewed mostly on the strip rows from Kathy. 

       Wednesday was church comfort quilt sew day. Beverley brought her finished quilt for the VA Hospice Unit. 

 I helped some others with their projects and sewed some on my own string project.  When I arrived home there were at least 6 butterflies enjoying my lantana bush by the front walk.

      I spent one afternoon this week making 4 quilted postcards.  I used only scraps from my box of fabric that already has fusible web on it.  On one I used organza ribbon around the edge and satin ribbon on the other 3. 

Comfort Quilt Piecing

     I have been working on a UFO from Kathy Houser.  I was using it for my leaders and enders. Now it is past that stage.  I had rows pinned on my design wall but my design wall is not large enough for all the rows.  So I spread them out on my kitchen “design floor” to see them all at once.  I’m glad I did because I noticed there were 2 rows that had the same fabric adjacent so I switched a couple. 

 

I have 18 rows that will finish at 57 by 72” and there is still a pile of pieces left, probably enough for another adult quilt.

 

     At our September general meeting we had a silent auction of hand made, baked and grown items as our guild fundraiser.  I was the lucky winner of an adorable stepstool made by Carol’s husband Dean.  I think my oldest granddaughter will be excited to use it. 

More from the Show

Here are some more photos of winners from the quilt show. 
This quilt won first place for small bed applique quilts and also for machine quilting. 

My sister's quilt placed second for the small bed applique quilts.  It is raw edge applique and the blocks were gathered in a group swap.

Irene's quilts also won first and second in small appliqued wall hanging.

 The daffodils are 3D.

Irene also won first place for a bowl which I did not take a picture of and second place for this small thread painting. 

Weekend Quilt Show

    I spent the weekend helping at my sister’s quilt guild show in West Jefferson, NC.  It was a great show and interesting seeing a little about how they put it on and the work involved.  The Best of Show was a large bed appliquéd quilt.  It was appliquéd with hand blanket stitch and long arm machine quilted with at least 2 bright colors of thread.

 

This quilt won first place in large bed pieced.

This quilt won second place in large bed pieced.

I entered 3 quilts. In pieced lap / crib quilts my 3D quilt won first place.

In pieced wall hangings this paper-pieced quilt won first place.

My watercolor quilt with 3D sunflowers won second place.

   In the next few days I will share photos I took of quilts in other categories including sister Irene's ribbons. 

Using Crumbs for the Monthly Challenge

     WOW !  The GCQ monthly challenge for September is to use the “fortune” from a fortune cookie to create a quilt block or project.   At the August meeting Lynne passed out fortune cookies for us to pick one.  The one I picked was perfect for me.  It said, “Treat yourself to a special time this coming weekend”, so today I did. 

    Many of my guild members know how I enjoy using crumbs or small scraps of fabric.  I went through my crumb pile and pulled out several triangles that were trimmed from a past project.  I did cut triangles from a neutral to create half-square triangle units then pinwheels.  The pinwheels would only finish at 8 ½” so I decided to add scrappy strips as a frame so they would square up to 12 ½ “ and finish at 12”.  This is what I made.  

 

     Plus, I decided to play some more with the crumbs left from trimming the triangles.  I pulled out a few more strings and did not stop until I had pieced 8 more triangles.  

Top Finally Complete

Early this evening I thought I was finally finished with my version of the Day Bee mystery quilt.  I took a photo and was preparing to upload it for a post WHEN … I noticed a problem.   Can you see what I did wrong?  

Here I marked the 2  blocks that were rotated.  I could not leave it that way.  

It only took me about an hour to rip them out

… and resew them correctly oriented.  NOW  the top is finished.  

Working on Binding and Machine Appliqué

    The King size floral pinwheel quilt is back from the long-arm quilter.  Yesterday I did the part where I sewed the binding by machine.  Now I have the hand sewing part to blind stitch 412” on the back.   It is too long to do at one sitting – part each day while I watch (listen) to TV will be fine.

     I am adding an appliqué border to my Day Bee Mystery quilt.  I had all the components ready a couple of days ago.  Today I cut the panels and started the machine appliqué.  I used iron-on tear away embroidery stabilizer.  One panel is now stitched down - three more to go.