Saturday, March 29, 2014

Quilting Class part 2

    Yesterday evening I taught a couple of great students part 2 of a quilting class. Last week they added machine applique to the top and pinned the sandwich with backing and batting.  After I did short demos this week, the ladies tried some quilting with the walking foot and some free-motion.  Last they added binding and finished their placemats.
Sara also spent the week hand sewing many more hexie flowers so she is ready to make a small quilt.



   Earlier in the day I added borders to my second jelly roll quilt top.  

   I don't think I will be making any more.  There are so many more interesting patterns and techniques I want to try and I can say now that I have made 2 Jelly Roll Race quilt tops. 



Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Shandon Quilt Group Day

   Today 6 of us met for our SQG sew day.  



Most of us were working on Jelly Roll Race quilt tops in various stages ( just not racing). 
Here is one of Bonney’s tops complete with pieced border.

Here is Joan’s in progress.

Here is Beverley’s.  She plans to add a blue outer border and probably an applique yellow flower.


Martha sandwiched her lone star and started the quilting and Gail was sewing on her Jelly Roll top.  It was a very productive day with enjoyable fellowship.  I could not ask for more.

    It was very chilly this morning but beautiful the rest of the day.  Late in the afternoon I went over to help a friend prune his fig tree.  Back home I worked some on the Easter dress and then relaxed.  

 A Full Day! Hope yours was also. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Not Enough Time

     Last night I taught a couple of sweet ladies at JoAnn Fabrics.  We worked on an English Paper Pieced flower that was machine appliquéd to the background for a placemat.  They had enough time to hand stitch the hexie flower, appliqué it down and pin their quilt sandwich.  Then we were out of time so Friday evening we will quilt and add binding.  The project teaches many skills.  There just was not enough time for all that was to be done.
Here is Betty. 



Here is Sara. 


 When they finish, they will have a lovely placemat similar to mine. 


    The rest of the day I worked on an Easter dress for my granddaughter and started quilting on a twin size quilt made of orphan and scrap blocks.  You may remember this blue and white quilt top. 


I will use this quilt for more free-motion quilting practice.  I am planning a different design to be quilted in each block.  For some blocks it is easier to decide how to quilt.  I struggle with others.  I use a dry erase marker and a piece of plexiglass to try out designs and practice before I actually stitch the quilt.

Here are a couple. 



Thursday, March 20, 2014

Jelly Roll Top Like Spring

    Yesterday my guild held a Jelly Roll Race after the regular meeting.  I was one of the slowest and actually finished piecing the center after arriving back home.   The fastest was complete in about 45 minutes. This morning I sewed on a 1 1/2" breaker border and a 4" outer border so my jelly roll top finishes at 58" by 70".
It looks very springlike.  The quilts will be donated to several charities that we make quilts for.

    In the afternoon I worked out in my yard for a couple of hours enjoying our beautiful spring weather.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Rag Quilting and Another Finish

     At GCQ general meeting Tuesday we had Sharon Cooper-Murray, “The Gullah Lady”, for our program.  She is a great storyteller.  She is on a mission to preserve rag quilting and started the Community Rag Quilters Preservation Initiative on Wadmalaw and Johns Island, SC.  

After her presentation we were each encouraged to participate in the making of a rag quilt by using a large nail to insert a strip of fabric through burlap and tie a double knot. 


Following are a few of her art pieces made using the rag quilting technique on burlap. 




      For show and tell I showed my stacks quilt without the binding.  I followed Tula Pink’s directions for the 18” blocks.  Today it has binding and is completely finished. 


To try something different that I had seen from Jacquie Gering, I quilted it using my walking foot and the serpentine stitch on my sewing machine.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Another Finished

   Today I finished another child's comfort quilt for GCQ.  It started with 3 orphan blocks and the leftover fabric from a couple of projects.  I decided they would work together.

I quilted with varigated purple thread.  In the main part of the quilt I practiced quilting Leah Day's Echo Shortcut design in a large format trying to have about a 1 1/2" space at the widest part of the echo. In the border I used a Dove soap sliver to make sections and used my chalk pencil to sketch out hearts which I stitched in free-motion.  

Now onto a UFO but which one? 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Sew Day for SQG and a Finish

       We had a good sew day for my church quilt group although we missed a couple of members. Gail finished sewing her borders onto her Lone Star. 

  
After I helped her sandwich it, we worked on jellyroll quilts.  Here Gail is choosing 40 - 2 ½” strips. 


Beverley is sewing her strips all together in one long-----string. 


Bonney is working on the next phase of sewing.


Here all her strips are sewn into a top about 48 by 62”.  She plans to add a border to make it larger. 


It was time to pack up and I had not finished sewing the first 800 inch seam.   After returning home, I went back to work on sewing mine ( with a few distractions ) and a couple of hours later it is finished.   I may also add a border but that will wait until our next sew day.



Greater Columbia Quilters plan to sew jellyroll quilt tops next Tuesday after the general meeting.  For that event my 40 strips are all ready sewn together in one long strip so I will see how long it takes but I don’t plan to race.  Missouri Star Quilts has a couple of jellyroll quilt Youtube videos and there are also others on the web. 
 
Yesterday I finished quilting and binding the scrappy lizard comfort quilt for GCQ.









Monday, March 10, 2014

Time for Some Quilting and Teaching New Quilters

      My day started with some free-motion quilting on a comfort quilt for GCQ.  I am using the quilt to try out new free-motion designs and practice.  The quilt top is made up of  multiples of 4 different pieced blocks so I quilted different designs for each.  I did a loopy border for a couple.  I found it difficult to keep them about the same length and thickness. 


I did a feather ring in a couple.


For this block I tried some half feathers and stitched-in-the-ditch free-motion.
On the border I quilted S curves. 

I think they look good without all being exactly the same.
The easiest and not-new design was leaves.



    This evening I taught Quilting 101 at JoAnn Fabrics to 3 new quilters.  Here are their first blocks and hopefully more will follow. 

                             Susan


                               Sara


                            Betty



Great job, ladies !

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Cardinal UFO

      About 4 years ago I took a thread painting workshop from Jody Raines.  I thread painted a cardinal and wanted to use it in a wall-hanging. (The cardinal has been my only independent thread painted object.)  I finally decided I wanted to use the cardinal in something smaller and made a mug rug size ( 6” by 9” ) quilt. 

I am satisfied that I finally used my thread painted product and no longer have that UFO sitting around.


    I am planning to visit granddaughters this weekend and like to make things for them.  I found directions for using t-shirts or single knit fabric to make a child’s tiered skirt. You can find a tutorial here. If Mattie enjoys this one, I could easily make more. 

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Crossroads Top

     Recently my leader / ender project was analogous Crossroads blocks.  After I had finished piecing 12 – 12” finish blocks, I laid them out and decided they needed something else – maybe a large appliquéd flower. 

I was looking through a stack of quilt magazines I plan to share and found a lovely day lily pattern in the Oct./Nov. 2007 issue #82 of Quilt by Janet Rice-Bredin.  I am sorry she no longer seems to keep up her blog or website. 


I enlarged the day lily and raw edge machine appliquéd one flower.  I used hand embroidery for the stamen.  


I also added a simple border and the small top will wait in line ready to be quilted. 

It is a lovely springlike day here.  I'm ready.  Enjoy!