Saturday, April 19, 2014

Prep for the next retreat

After work each day I have been making blocks for the next retreat sample quilt. I have 22 made and 8 more to go! The quilt will be really cute finished, so I can only blog for a minute before getting back to the sewing machine for today's addition of blocks. I was gifted a blues jelly roll, so I used 17 of them with 13 strips from my stash blues to do the blocks. Some white Kona for background, and I was in business!
Also today, we were treated to a talk and demonstration by Pat Knoechel (Eleanor Burns' sister) She showed us the latest of the Quilt In A Day patterns and tools, as well as a huge trunk show of quilts! Fun and wonderful. After that, a quick lunch with friends at Panera, a pit stop at the grocery store, and now, I am ready to get busy sewing.
Mr Wazoo is into week three of the beard growing. I have a photo of that, too.
The other pic is of a gizmo a quilting friend gave me for cutting the threads between units when chain piecing. Her husband made it from wood, two tiny brass screws, and a single edge razor blade. It works great and I have used it every time I'm making blocks. I think he's onto something here.
Back to the studio for me! Stay tuned for the quilt top finish...hopefully tomorrow.

pretty blues all sewn up!

the whole stack of 22

My nifty thread cutter

the last of the strip sets ready to cut and sew

Fuzzy Wuzzy

Monday, April 14, 2014

Winter in April and a personal finish

It was a nice weekend to work on a delightful McKenna Ryan quilt my customer trusted me with. Santa, ice skating bears, snowy scenes and all sorts of fun. I was so stoked when I finished it, I decided to finish one of my UFOs that has been on my sewing table for a couple of months, lacking a border. The fabrics were from a pack of Guatemalan fat quarters I bought at a show years ago. They were just my colors, but buggers to cut and sew! I'd say 'squidgy' would describe how they act. Anyhoo, I plunged ahead and made this quilt, using the leftover pieces to make a small border. It's all quilted, but in my haste, I got a 4 inch pleat in the backing. Go figure... I'm leaving it in. Once I add binding (in the cheddar color) it will be a nice soft cuddle quilt for the living room.
I'm off to Sarasota on a fabric finding mission tomorrow. Stay tuned!

The customer quilt. I wish I could get the whole thing in a good picture...

bears and snowbear!

Hard to see, but the borders are quilted

The Christmas star

She pieced the back, too!

My squidgy quilt

Guatemalan fabrics and Kaffe Fassett stripes and shott cottons

I love this Kaffe  Fasett on the back, too!