WQI Meeting in Madison

Yesterday I went to Madison, WI to the WQI Meeting. WQI is our state quilt guild. It is a great group of women & men. We had two lecturers Louisa Smith and Mary Stori. Both were awesome.

Louisa Smith talked about her One Patch Plus book. What an interesting concept! She has three steps to this process. One is Color - she starts with a color/quilt source. Two is the design - the quilt top and three is the theme which is embellishing for her. She uses four different types of design. They are not your normal shapes...they are kites, curved kites, curved diamond and half clam shells.

Mary Stori talked about Penny Rugs. I learned a lot about them and how to make them but unfortunately I am allergic to wool so not something I will be making but I can use some of the concepts.

I showed two of my mom's quilts at the show and tell. One was the quilt I gave her at Christmas and the other is a block of the month I finished, had quilted at Patched Works (it is so great the way it turned out!) and hand stitched the binding finishing the binding late Friday night.

I also went to Mill House Quilts in Waunakee. I had never been there but it is a great store. I really liked it and ended up buying some Christmas fabric! I can't wait to decide what to do with it.

Happy Stitching!

Happy 4th of July

Yesterday I had seven of my friends come over and sew with me at my house and I had such a good time. I decided to cook for them so I made Chicken Salad, a pasta salad and taffy apple salad. Some people brought candy, others brought snacks and yet others brought dessert...you get the picture - lots of food and quilting.

I started off by making this really cute wall hanging for my Mom's cubicle at work. I should say the piece was all put together...I bought it at Scrapfest so all I had to do was put a backing and batting with it and quilt it. Wow - she will love it for work.

I also put the binding on my Mom's birthday quilt - queen size and now it's time to hand sew the binding down. I also made up two backings for two other quilts so they should be ready to go. I'm just trying to get it all done and quilted right now. So much to quilt, so little time.

Happy 4th of July!

WQI Meeting

I went to the Winter meeting of WQI (Wisconsin Quilters Inc.) and they had Nancy Prince speak about thread painting in the morning and then Maxine Rosenthal and Joy Pelzmann speak about one block wonders in the afternoon.

I found Nancy Prince's very inspirational! Her work is beautiful and I found myself purchasing her thread painting book so I could learn more about it! I have done thread painting before but I learned more about it that was helpful. I started to read the book today at lunch and well I have learned more already. Maxine and Joy were very entertaining. They brought quite a few quilts and it was interesting how they cut the fabric up and put it together in a Kaleidoscope or cube shape.

They also had a UFO Challenge and they showed pieces that were completed that had been started at a previous WQI meeting where they took a workshop. Some of the items were stunning.

January Accomplishments

Wow I didn't get a lot done but I did get 2589 points for Waun-a-Quilt!

Rocky Mountain High - Pieced blocks, added a border and pieced a back
Folded Wreath - Cut binding and hand bound
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - Added borders
Winter Quilt - Pieced backing and quilted
Pink Ginko Leaf Quilt - Pieced backing and quilted

So it doesn't look too impressive but at least I was able to keep track of it this month! Thanks Waun-a-Quilt! Hopefully February will be better...I did start the Pie crust topping for my pin and top stitched it! I also pieced my binding and ironed it yesterday!

Thread Painted Iris

I took this class quite a while ago and had told my Mom that when I finished it she could have it. She is pretty excited about it! I think she even knows where she will put them. I don't know where the left over fabric is to bind the quilt so I think I am going to try to find more or if worse comes to worse I may use black fabric so it will look like a frame.

This quilt was quite fun to make and I really enjoyed thread painting. I would like to try thread painting again. I do have another of these pictures so that I could thread paint a second one and I could then finish it for myself....so in theory this sounds like a good idea but in practice I wonder if it will ever happen! I would love to have one of these for myself but again it's a really nice theory! I have so many other projects out there. Once I finish this one I will have completed about six on my list.

Once I finish quilting some of the other quilts I could bind them while watching TV! Now there is something I really need to do...one of these days I will hopefully get a couple of these done!

Tonight I might work on ironing the pieces for a pie pincushion! I will be making a blueberry pie pincushion. Soon people will think I have a pincushion collection. My friend Sherry made me a cupcake pincushion, another friend Wendy made me two pincushions...one is a tea cup and the other is on a pedestal. I also made some chick pin cushions with Jen at an Open Sew at my friend Wendy's church where there was an open sew day. Once I finish my pie one I will have to round them all up and take a picture of them.

You Better Not Pout...Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

Friday night I went to an Open Sew Night at PW (my local quilt store). I worked on this wall hanging...You Better Not Pout...Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. I love this quilt and can't wait to finally quilt it. Again I'm not sure how I am going to quilt it. I might just quilt around the appliques and around the various borders. I had to cut down the main portion, cut the borders, and sewed them on.

This is all I worked on ... I was having fun being social. Prior to going to PW I went to dinner with two of my friends...Sherry and Sue. We went to Baker's Square. I had my favorite .... Chicken Stir Fry Pita. February 23 was National Pie Day.

The Two Projects I Worked on at PW New Year's Eve

Here are the pictures I promised...

...the first one is Folded Fabric Wreath. I took it back in 2002 and had part of it completed. I decided to bind it in the teal color and it is now ready to be put on the wall or be used as a table topper. I started this one in a friend's class and it turned out so nice. It is a "winter" wall hanging. I am planning on hanging it in my bathroom next Christmas as we are having our family over.

The second one was a class called Rocky Mountain High which I took at a local technical college again in 2002. I only had to finish the piecing that goes in the border and then piece the border and sew it on. I now have to quilt it and I really don't know how to quilt it...any ideas? I am so happy that I am getting a lot of my UFO's either pieced and/or quilted. When I looked at what I had I came up with 60 quilts. There could be more in my storage shed but these are the ones that I have here. Hopefully I will get some more done on Friday when I go to my local quilt store for an Open Sew evening. Wish me luck on getting some of those UFO's done...I'll need it!

Mom's Christmas Quilt

This is my Mom's Christmas present. She loves it. In fact she used it again tonight. This quilt has gotten so much use since I gave it to her.

I took her to a local quilt store and she saw it there (it was the one that Jen had made as the store sample). Anyways she said how much she loved it and I had to look away before I gave the surprise away-I already had purchased the quilt kit and pattern for Let it Snow. I gave my Mom a quilt years ago and she loved it. She really loves quilts but she is not a quilter. She appreciates all the work that goes into it a quilt!

She did not have any idea that I was working on this quilt at Jen's house. Jen quilted it beautifully so that I could surprise her on Christmas Eve when we open gifts. I was over at Jen's on the pretense that I was finishing my brother's quilt. I was but I also had to get her quilt done.

I have to say I love batiks~my Mom loves them too. Blue is her favorite color so this was the perfect quilt for her. My Dad kept the secret for at least two months. I showed him the pattern and fabric and he said she would love it. Well she did! As a side note, Emma loved it as well! She laid on it the first morning I had it home and I opened it up to show my Dad.

My Brother's Christmas Present

My brother has been teasing me for years about wanting a quilt. Well for Christmas, I decided that it was about time he got a quilt. I have been quilting for over 8 years and I only made him and his wife a wedding quilt which was a signature quilt. That is a show quilt and not one that they use. His wife received a quilt when she stood up for me. I made all my bridesmaids quilts. I knew I wanted to do a Northwoods theme quilt for my brother. I had started one in flannel and knew that this would be the perfect quilt for my brother.

I gave him his quilt on Christmas Day and he said look a bear, look a moose, look a fish, look a canoe and I said look there's paddles for when you are up the creek. My brother said to his wife that he was going to put it on their bed but it is way too small. I made it so he could use it while watching TV. My brother is 6 foot tall or more so he needs a tall quilt!

As I was leaving he said to me that he wasn't sure if he would use it as the front and back are flannel and it would be awfully hot. I ignored him as only a sister can do and wished him a Merry Christmas. His wife e-mailed that he used it the next day! He loves it. I am so glad. Jen did the quilting on the quilt so that I could finish my Mom's super secret Christmas Quilt. I will put a picture of it on my blog soon...but if you want to see it you can go to Jen's blog where she has a picture.

Happy New Year

Wow it has been forever since I last posted but since them I have been quite busy quilting and will be sharing a lot of my projects. I started a UFO Challenge with my quilt guild and there were 60 projects that I own that need to "get done". I have already finished about 5 of them. The one I am the most excited about was my tree skirt. Jen quilted it for me but I finally got it put together, bound and it was under the Christmas tree! I do not have a picture of it but will take one and post it eventually. I am in the process of having my laptop worked on and then I will set it up so I can download my pictures to my laptop. What a new concept! I should have been doing that all along but now that I have had this hard drive fail I will be learning new things again.

I have the ability to go wireless once it comes back so that will be fun. I have to work on the quilt room that I share with my Mom...it's her computer space so we are making room and I still can't see the top of my cutting station. I also need to get my sewing machine set up so I can sew whenever I want.

I challenged myself to try to post once a week so that is my New Year's resolution. I am hoping to keep this one! I think having the laptop up and working will really help.

New Year's Eve I went to my local quilt store and had a great time. I met Jen, Cindy and Linda as well as some other friends there and we sewed the night away. It was great fun and I was productive. I swear that every time I am sewing with Jen I am extremely productive. I picked the binding for a wall hanging, cut it, pieced it, pressed it and sewed it on. Since then I have hand sewn the binding on. I also pieced some blocks for a pieced border and put them together and put the borders on. Both projects turned out really nicely. Again soon there will be pictures of them on my blog!