Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2012

   This my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival, fall 2012.

 
      This quilt was inspired by a woven Indian blanket I saw in a book. Quilts like this really help me to see how my background in weaving effects my quilting. It is strip pieced, and I had such a great time making it, I immediately got on my EQ and designed several other configurations. One is already finished, and I am working on the second. I can't wait to get started on the third. Making these is so much fun. This quilt measures 79" by 96"

     Here is a detail of the same quilt. My dear friend, Regina Carter long arm quilted it.

     Thanks so much to Amy for doing this. I love seeing all of the quilts!

A happy and safe Halloween to everyone, and thanks for stopping by!

Oops!

     Wow! That week went by awfully fast! I can't believe it has been more than a week since my last post.

     I am trying to recover from my show in Eatonton yesterday. I am not much of an early riser; and I am never one to get up before it is light outside if I can help it. I have always told my friends that I adhere to that law of physics that states: A body in motion wants to stay in motion, and a body at rest wants to stay at rest. Once I am up and working on something (particularly quilting related somethings) I don't want to stop, and rarely go to bed before midnight, and often later, if not much later. But then, predictably, it is difficult for me to get out of bed before 9 the next morning. 

     You can imagine how hard it was or such a person to get up at 5:30AM and get to Eatonton by 7, to get my booth set up by 9AM. Many, many thanks to my friend Nancy for meeting me there, and helping, not only with putting up and taking down the booth;  but throughout the day. It made the whole thing so much easier, and it was great to be able to spend some quality time with a friend while the show was going on. Also, she is better at talking about my quilts than I am and was able to say things about them that I never would. 

     Nevertheless, when the day was over, I was pretty used up! It took awhile to drag myself out of the bed this morning!

     Can you stand to see yet another booth shot? I promise, this one will be the last one of the year.

         In preparing for this last show, I tried to add as many pot holder pairs as possible to my collection. I want to put some on my Etsy site, so I will have to continue making those this fall. I will also donate some to the C.A.R.E. auction in Porterdale, which will be held in the lofts in downtown Porterdale on the evening of November 3rd. C.A.R.E. does so much good work, helping elderly, and disadvantaged people in Porterdale.I also need to make some for my quilt guild which will be holding a bazaar at Epiphany Lutheran Church; located at 2375 GA Hwy. 20, in Conyers, on Saturday, December 1st, 9AM-3PM.

     I just had to get a picture of this confused gardenia blossom that bloomed in my yard this week. This bush bloomed in June, I think. What a beautiful straggler!

     My Let's Polka quilt is completely finished and ready for delivery, even washed. Thanks so much to my friend, Sonja, who let me used her big washing machine to get it washed. I was planning to buy one myself this year, but I already HAD to buy a new computer a month ago when mine bit the dust. Where would I be without my friends? Since it is all clean, I don't really want to drape it over my deck and photograph it; so I will just post a photo of the top to remind you of what it looked like. I have one pillow cover completely done, and have progress on the next one. I hope to finish those today.

    
     That's what I am up to. Thanks for stopping by!

More Pot Holders!

     I have been working on the Let's Polka quilt. I am almost done with the binding. I am really pleased with the way the binding color is working with the colors of the blocks. Thee are so many colors in the blocks that I thought almost any color would work; but the binding on the original quilt was purple, and the new color is a mighty big change. My client wanted to minimize purple, and bring out yellows, greens, and blues, so the color on the new binding is Kona Emerald.



     As stated in the title of this post, I have also been working on pot holders. I made 5 sets last night, but I took this photo before I finished the last pair. As I have said before, they are addictive, and I was ready to pack in in and go to bed when I thought of one more set I just had to make.

       Normally I would not be working on these until the Let's Polka group is finished and delivered, but the I am a member of an artist guild that meets at the Southern Heartland Gallery in Covington, and they have a  holiday market of less expensive items for the holiday season. Those items are due to be in to the gallery tomorrow. Why is everything always come due at the same time?

     And, I got my supply lists for A Scarlet Thread finished and sent. It seems slow but there is SOME progress being made. I have 3 half pieced quilts that I am just dieing to get back to! Soon I hope.

      Oh, by the way, did I mention my house is a disaster from working on all of these things at once? A big part of the problem is all of my show stuff still lying about. I have not put it away because I have another show in Eatonton on October 27.

    I am also working on weaving a scrap rug for my weaving boss, so add to the above piles of sorted yarn!

     Tonight is the  "Meet the Makers" party at The Georgia Quilt Show, which I plan to attend. For more information on that go to: www.georgiaquiltshow.com  I am looking forward to seeing my quilt hanging there.

     Other than that, I just don't know how I am going to fill up the empty hours! Hope you are happily busy! Thanks for stopping by!

Back to Normal

     So, I am back home from Blue Ridge. The weather was beautiful, although the leaves were not as far along as I thought they were going to be. It was lovely, sitting in the park, and stitching.

     It was a bit disappointing that I didn't sell a quilt; but I sold several pairs of pot holders. I bet I could have sold even more if I had made more. I have one more outdoor show in Eatonton, GA , in a couple of weeks, so I need to get more done for that. Also, next Saturday I have to turn in my work for the Holiday Market at the Southern Heartland Gallery in Covington, GA, so I will be gathering note card sets, and pot holders for that. I also want to get some of each  posted in my Etsy shop before Thanksgiving.

     Here are some photos of my booth in Blue Ridge.

 

     I met with The Scarlet Thread n McDonough last week, and will be teaching 2 classes there next year. I have to get supply lists ready for that. I will be teaching Aubry in February, 2013. 

     I will also be teaching Let's Polka in March.

     
      Today, I got the Let's Polka quilt and pillows back from Regina, so I getting those put together this week. Do you think I have enough to keep myself occupied for the next little bit?

     I am looking forward to seeing the My Waterlilies quilt hanging in the Georgia Quilt Show this weekend. If you happen to go there, check it out. And if you are interested in long arm quilting, go and visit my good friend, Regina Carter in the Gammill booth. I think she will also be teaching some classes there.

     That's whats going on with me now. Thanks for stopping by!

Pot Holders, Blue Ridge

      I have been getting ready for another show this week. This weekend's show is in Blue Ridge GA.

     It occurred to me that I really didn't explain The details of how I was making the pot holders. I cut squares of batting from trimming quilts as they come back from the quilter. I used spray baste to stick 2 layers of batting to a square of the silver fabric you use for ironing board covers. I'm sure that stuff has a name; I just don' know what it is. I wanted to use 2 layers of batting to provide additional protection from heat. I put 1 scrap of fabric wrong side down, and the next piece right side down, and stitch through all of the layers, using a walking foot. Then press over. repeat until you fill up the space. It is so much fun just playing with scraps; and inexpensive too. I just love getting the quilting and piecing done at the same time! It feels like I am taking a short cut. 

     Here is a photo of the latest batch. They have the binding machine sewn on, but are awaiting the hand stitched side. I got 15 pairs pieced in the last 2 weeks.

     Now I am in my hotel room in Blue Ridge. I drove here this morning, and set up my booth this afternoon. When I finish this post, I will get to hand stitching those bindings. It will also give me something to do while I am in my booth tomorrow. I always think people feel more at ease if you are doing something in your booth, rather than just sitting there watching them look at your work; and it  gives them a chance to see some part of your process, as well as provides an opportunity to strike up a conversation. It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get from these.

     Next week, my Let's Polka quilt and pillows will be coming back from Regina, so it will be time to get those finished and delivered. Let's see if I can get the whole set done by the end of the week!

     Hope you guys are working on some fun projects too! Thanks for stopping by!

All About Bindings

     Where has the time gone? I meant to post about what I did while sewing at my friends house. That was Tuesday, and it's Saturday already, and I don't even know how tat happened! Oh well. 

     Tuesday at Eleanor's house was all about bindings. I now have 2 quilts at the quilter's waiting to be quilted. My Let's Polka king size quilt, and the Trip Around the World variation that is not yet named. So, the first priority was to make bindings for each of them, so that when they came back I would be ready.

     Next, I added bindings to the pot holders I had previously made; so I could carry them with me and hand stitch them down when ever I had time.

      I had a little time left at Eleanor's, so I sewed some strip groups together for another quilt I have "in the pipeline" More about that one in a future post.

     Since then I have been working on making some more pot holders.

 

    I was planning to sew a couple pairs last night while watching Bonnie Hunter's quilt cam; but I ended up cooking while she was on, and didn't get to my sewing until after she was off. In my scrap organizing, I found a bunch of left over strip sets from quilts that were made years ago. They made piecing for the pot holders interesting and quick! It was a lot of fun playing with them.  I now have 9 pairs sewn, so I now have a good group that only need to have bindings applied. I want to have as many sets as possible done for my 2 October shows. The first of which will be on October 13 and 14.  I figure if I just get the bindings machine sewn on them, and get a few hand stitched to begin with, I can hand sew some of them while I sit in my booth, and in the evenings after the show. I hope to get between 10-20 pairs done.  I do have a couple of pairs completely finished; hand stitching and all.

     That's what I have been up to lately, thanks for stopping by!

A Finished Quilt!, Scrap control, and PotHolders for show

     On my September 13th post I showed a picture of a bunch of strips I was sewing together.  This weekend I got that quilt top finished; and the back too! This is a record for me; although it was only a lap quilt. I have been wanting to try this for a long time. I alternated my cross cuts between square, and rectangular.

     While I was sewing this, I used my solid blocks for "leaders and enders".

     I have also been working on sorting my scraps into bins. The categories I am using are: narrow strips(2 1/2" or less), wide strips, large triangles, small triangles, small bits, medium, large, already sewn together. This last is for leftovers from strip piecing.  The reason I am doing this now, after years of procrastination, is because I want to use them to make some pot holders for the 2 art shows I will be participating in later in the month.

     I can tell this is going to be addictive. I finished 2 pairs yesterday, and have already made 3 more pairs today. Let's see how many pairs I can get together this fall.

     It is getting late, and I am going to a friends house to sew tomorrow, and I still have to figure out which project I will bring to work on. Thanks for stopping by!