Quilting Classes in Porterdale

    We have started a series of quilting classes in my home town of Porterdale, this year. 

     So far I have taught a pot holder class in January, a Sonja's Windows class in February, a Let's Polka class in March, and a Trip Around the World class in April. 

     Today, we had what we called a Quilter's Meet up, which was basically a day to come, and sew together, and just work on our own projects. 

I was blown away by all of the finished quilts that were shown at show and tell today, that were started in our classes. 

From Sonja's Windows class-Melanie

Linda

Nancy

Let's Polka:
Melanie

Linda

Trip Around the World:
Melanie

Debbie:

Linda

     I just love how different they all are, and love even more, that they are getting finished. We are having such a great time learning some quilting techniques in Porterdale. Soon, there will be painting lessons with Mayor, Arline Chapman.

One Back from the Quilter, One on it's Way to the Quilter, and a New Beginning

     I always love looking out over the rooftops from my upstairs "sewing nest" in the winter, but it is even more sweet when there is a dusting of snow. A rare and lovely treat here in the south.

     I am so excited. My red Jacob's Ladder quilt came back from the quilters yesterday, and is ready to bind.You can see that I have already made the binding. I have also made the label. I am calling this quilt "Kalina" which I found online on a baby name website, Kalina is a polish name, meaning flower, so I thought that was appropriate for this quilt since I had a rose garden in mind when I chose the colors.






     My Lightning Strikes quilt top is pieced. I just need the backing fabric to get here so I can send it to Regina.

     Last weekend my Tidewater quilt found a new home.

     Since I use this as a sample for my A Maze Zing class, I got right to work, planning a replacement. But I don't want to make the same quilt again, so I am going a totally different direction with the colorway. Below is my plan for my next A Maze Zing quilt. I wanted something kind of masculine this time. This photo does not do the richness of the colors justice. I have tried several times, but it keeps washing out on me. I will be able to get better lighting together when I get started.

     So that is what I am up to lately. Thanks for stopping by!

 

New Year. New Projects

     So What have I been doing with the first part of the year? The main thing I have been doing is not so photogenic I am afraid. I have been spending a lot of time on working and trying to learn how to do new things on the computer. 

     For instance, learning how to watermark and upload drawings for the Jacob's Ladder series I started earlier this week. I ordered some fabric for a quilt back, some sashing,  and a retreat door prize. Can't wait for retreat! I uploaded the new EQ version, and need to spend some time further familiarizing myself with it. There are a couple of things I want to arrange on the blog, social media buttons, etc. I have several patterns that need writing. It's enough to make me wonder if I will ever see my beloved sewing machine again!

     One thing I have been meaning to do for a long time is add photos of work from classes to the Class and My Designs Made by Others boards on my Pintrest site. I am always taking photos in classes I teach, and asking people to send me photos of their finished work, but I fear I am shamefully slow in getting them posted. Often, because I am not proficient at all when it comes to learning how to do these things, and once I learn, it changes! I hope I am not sounding whiny, and that I am not the only one who struggles with these things. The other bloggers make it all look so easy, don't they?

     The bottom line is that if you would like to see some class work, or finished quilts made with my Southern Winter Pattern, Let's Polka, and A Maze Zing patterns, there is plenty of new photos posted. Here are two of my favorites from the Let's Polka class I have been meaning to post for ages.

     This is Angie. She took my Let's Polka class at A Scarlet Thread in McDonough, GA. I thought she was so brave to use all hand dyed effect solids, but look how beautiful her quilt came out! She was so creative in the way she arranged the blocks to make bigger blocks! I see more cool relationships on this quilt every time I look at it.

     Speaking of creative block placement, look what Debbie did with her layout! It is so cool to see others take these blocks and do things I never thought of with them! Debbie took this class with The Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild in Franklin NC.

     When I do get near my sewing machine, I have been working on sewing these blocks together.

     This is the quilt that I bought the back fabric for.

     I couldn't resist playing around and doing some auditioning with a new quilt idea. This is the same block as the above quilt, just with sashing and the colors arranged differently. I wanted to decide which color I wanted to make my inner sashing before I made that online order, so I could get that on the same shipment. I decided on the red on the lower right hand block. I think this is going to be my next "project status" quilt.

     So that is what I have been up to. I hope you are starting out the new year with some fun and exciting projects too. 

     Stay tuned to this space. Tomorrow there will be another Jacob's Ladder Series drawing planned.

Thanks for stopping by!

Whew! It's Been a Busy Summer!

     Goodness me! I feel so very fortunate. I have had such a fun and busy summer that I don't even know where to start!

     This past month I have been working on a custom quilt order that I got through Etsy. My client wanted the pattern of this quilt:

Galapagos

     With the palette from this quilt:

Sand and Sea Glass

 
      It sounded easy, but when I went to buy fabrics, I realized that there are places for 17 fabrics in the Galapagos quilt and, I don't know how many colors in the Sand and Sea Glass quilt, so it was a bit of a challenge to get all of the colors represented.

     This is the gradation that I ended up with----> 








     So, now the quilt top is pieced and ready to go to Regina to be quilted.

     I have this quilt hanging in landscape orientation, because that is how it will hang on the wall of her new home.

     In addition to that I had a wonderful time at my booth at The Yellow River Jam, which is a festival that happens every October in my lovely town of Porterdale. It involves kayak paddling on the river in the morning, followed by an afternoon of live music, food, and artists booths in the park beside the river. So Much fun! My dear friends Mary Beth and Eleanor joined me for the weekend with Mary Beth's pottery,  and we had so much fun!

     In September, I went to spend some time with Baltimore Heritage Quilters Guild. I did a trunk show there, plus I taught an A Maze Zing class. It is so much fun to see all of the color variations they came up with! 

       I had such a lovely time with this group of ladies!


     BTW: I will freely admit that I am not the most tech savvy blogger around. When it comes to technology, it seems like I am always struggling and bungling. I just started an Instagram account. I am excited about this because it means that in future I can post class photos to that account directly from my phone on the same day as the class, instead of waiting until I get around to uploading photos to my computer. Maybe now it will not take me a month and a half or more to post photos from my classes. Hope springs eternal anyway! Now, if only I can get my Instagram account to add my posts to my Quilt Designs by Candace page, instead of my personal Candace Hassen page.... one day.....


     So that is what I have been up to lately, I hope your summer has been fun filled and productive. Thanks for stopping by! Linking to Oh Scrap! and Main Crush Monday
     
 

Hitting the Ground Running for the First Weeks of 2017

They go by so fast! Here is what I have been up to since the first of the year.

I have been working on finishing the 3 quilts I got back from Regina, late last year, adding bindings, labels, and sleeves. That is pretty pleasant and relaxing when you are tired, and brain dead. Especially after you get the machine sewing part done. I should have some finished quilt pictures done before too much longer. 

I am also getting ready to go on a quilt retreat with some of my very favorite people in the world. Hooray! Hooray!

Quilts I want to work on at retreat:

 

It is time for this quilt to get done, especially since it only has 16 rows left before it is there. I am really looking forward to seeing it finished, but I work on it less than others because it is less portable than the next quilts I will tell you about.  

 I have started another quilt in my Jacob's Ladder series. Or as I like to call them: "Quilts comprised entirely of HST and four patches". Now THAT is portable. During the holidays, I cut out my pieces, and paired them with a mate. I have been sewing the units together in the evenings, when I am tired. Then, when I go to visit friends, I carry a box of the units, with a small, portable ironing board, and iron, and sit and press, as we chat. I already have all of the HST done. When I get the four patch strips pressed, I will have to cut them into 2 units, then sew the center seam to make a four patch.

 

Here is my Drawing.

The colors of this quilt make me think of a rose garden. I want to make as many HST and four patches as possible before retreat, and start building the blocks at retreat, where I know I will have large blocks of sewing time.     

By the way, here is a curious question. Do you notice that my text is centered in this portion of the post? It is not because I think that it is artistic. I have been trying everything I can think of for the last 15 minutes to get it to justify to the left. I have pushed the text down from the quilt photo above. I have gone up to the icon and clicked the left justify button at least 50 times by now. I even justified the quilt photo to the left, hoping the text would follow along. No dice!!! If anyone knows what this is about, I would love to know! For some reason this blog post is just not a left justifying frame of mind.Go figure!

I have also been trying to sew together some strip sets for the remake of this quilt.

 Okay, so the photos will justify to the left, but the text will not, maybe later?

Keep calm and carry on.

What else have I been doing the last couple weeks? Working on my technological skills. Can't you tell? I did successfully add a tab to the top of this blog that shows my speaking and teaching schedule for the year so far. I also added the rest of my quilts, classes, and patterns to my stand alone website:quiltdesignsbycandace.com

As with so many things lately, it took a day and a half to figure out how to do it, and then another half day to actually do it, but I did it.Yippee! That is one thing I can check off my New Year's goals list. 

I have edited my guild program. I had to move some things around since I added some new quilts. 

I have written 3 Youtube video scripts, and spent some time watching Youtube videos about how to make Youtube videos. I confess, I am a bit nervous about getting the editing right, not to mention, having to see myself on camera.  I don't even like to hear myself on tape!

I have started writing the first of several patterns that need to get written. I have sworn that I an going to learn to use InDesign, or something similar, so I can use the computer to draw the figures, instead of doing that by hand. At the rate things are going, that should be exciting.

So that is what I have been working on. I Hope the first few weeks of 2017 have been good to you, and you are accomplishing what you want to get done. Maybe by next post I will be able to justify to the left again! Check back and find out.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

                                    

                                     

Moving Right Along

Lately, I have been working on three different quilts. I have been working on the quilt I wrote about in the last post. I have been doing a row or two on it everyday. You need to have your thinking cap on when you work on this quilt though, because you have to figure out which fabrics to use, and where to use them to continue the pattern. Even though I have the next section planned, I still need to get the fabrics in the correct order, and cut to the correct size.

A this point, I will stop adding to the center panel, and start a new panel, so I won't have to have the whole quilt in my lap for every seam.

In the mean time, I have been using this kaleidoscope quilt as leaders and enders.

I am also sewing together random dark strip sets for the Lightning strikes remake.

These work well when I am going to a friends house to sew. I have all of the strips sets pinned together in groups, and put in a box. It also works well when I need something to sew that doesn't require any thinking.

I got a big rug to weave yesterday, so there will be a bit less sewing in the next month. Hopefully, I can get a bit done in the evenings, especially, since I have these 3 projects all laid out.

That is what I have been up to lately. Hope you are getting to do something you enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Most Recent Finish

I almost forgot, I finished a quilt just a couple of weeks ago.  It is called Sand and Sea Glass. 

I wanted to make a quilt that used the "Sonja's Windows " block with colors arranged randomly as opposed to in color families to form HST like I did in my Lake Country Bungalow quilt.

I wanted the blocks to be butted up against each other with no sashing in between them.

And as the name Sand and Sea Glass would suggest, I wanted the colors to remind you of the beach. So here is my new quilt.

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

A Fun Day Sewing With a Friend

I had a very pleasant day today sewing at the home of a friend. Eleanor made some beautiful pillows for her living room. 

I love how she put this decorative accent strip on the back. She came up with the idea because she didn't have enough black fabric for the back. What a happy accident/innovation!

Here they are on her sofa and chair in her living room.

Last year I made this quilt to give as a gift. Now that I have given it, I miss having it in my trunk show, and I miss having it as a class sample, so, I am remaking it. I worked on making strip sets for it today.

 I sewed 8 strip sets together today. These are really fun, since I have my strip sets already grouped together, it takes virtually no concentration. But it is fun to play with arranging the fabrics in each strip sets.

That is what I did today. I hope you had a fun day today. Thanks for stopping by!
 

The Blogger's Quilt Festival

     It is time once again for The Blogger's Quilt Festival, over at Amy's Creative Side. 

     I am entering a quilt that I finished just a couple of months ago, called Lightning Strikes. I made this quilt as a gift for my best friend from high school's son, for his graduation from college.

     It measures 72" by 96". I hope it will come in handy for him, since after graduation he moved to Chicago! He does not see some colors very well, so I organized the design into lights and darks. All of the strips for this top came right out of my scrap bin, so I am entering this quilt to the scrappy quilts category.

     I am not the greatest at machine quilting. I am trying to force myself to learn, but really, I usually just send my quilts out to be quilted by my very excellent long arm quilting friend, Regina Carter. I joked though, that to get a professionally quilted quilt from me, you have to get married. Graduating just gets you one that I quilted myself. I quilted it on my domestic machine. It was about as big, or a little bigger than I can comfortably handle on a regular sewing machine. Here is a close up of my quilting, such as it is. Anyway, it was quilted with love, and won't be any less warm for some imperfect quilting. 

      Don't forget to check out The Bloggers Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. There are always lots of beautiful quilt to see, and you can vote for your favorite in many different categories.     http://amyscreativeside.com/2015/10/23/bqf-scrappy-quilts-category/

         Thanks for stopping by!

Busy Summer, and Design Wall Monday

     It sure has been a fast paced, busy summer! Quilt shows, classes, rugs to weave, seems like I have been chasing deadlines all summer long. I am way behind on things I have to share with you all.

     Up first, 2 weeks ago I went to a lovely wedding in Charleston, South Carolina. Susan, the mother of the beautiful bride was someone I have been friends with since we were in high school. Needless to say, I have know her for her whole life. 

     So, you know a wedding quilt was in order. I have been working on it for months and months, but was reluctant to blog about it much, because I didn't want to take a chance on spoiling the surprise. I did show it in a couple of blog posts in unit form, I think. It was made entirely out of HST, and 4 patches.This made it a wonderful quilt for working on away from home, and to use for leaders and enders, (a la Bonnie Hunter), at least until I had the blocks made. Then I had to get it on the design wall, and keep my thinking cap on to get the layout right.  Even then my seam ripper still got a work out.

      Susan said her daughter was planning to do her bedroom in blues and browns. I named this quilt: Long Live Love, to reflect my wishes for the bride and groom to have a  long happy life together.

b

      As it happens, the brides brother graduated from college this year as well. He got a quilt too. He is planning to start his working life in Chicago, so he will REALLY need an extra quilt. But, wedding quilts get professionally long arm quilted by my fabulous long arm quilting friend, Regina Carter. Graduation quilts get quilted by me on the regular sewing machine. Not my strong suit, don't look too close, but I keep trying. These lap quilts though are a bit large for me to quilt comfortably. I know others do it. My hat's off to them.

     The name of this quilt is: Lightening Strikes.

     I think I have shown this quilt in progress at Design Wall Monday, before. Well, I actually finished it!

     So that is one thing, of many I have been up to lately. I hope you had a productive, or at least enjoyable summer.

     There are lots of other interesting projects to see at Design Wall Monday, at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2015/09/07/design-wall-september-7-2015/
Take a look, and see if you get some inspiration!

     Thanks for stopping by! 

Still, Quilting, and Four Patches

     So, this is what I have been up to lately.

Still quilting this quilt-maybe 25% done.

     I will be teaching how to make this quilt at our next quilting retreat. Maybe, I will come away from that with lots of new colorways to share. I just love seeing other peoples color combinations.

     Still working on 4 patches for the wedding quilt. The other day, I had the pleasure of sitting out on the porch in pleasant temperatures, and cutting my 4 patch strips.

     I had hoped to post photos of my booth from the art show I was in this past weekend, but that did not go as planned. 

      I was disappointed to see that the weather forecast was quite rainy, and possibly stormy, but was told that the show would go on, rain or shine, so I dutifully got there Friday afternoon to set up my booth. I have spent many a show under my tent, watching the rain come down. Sometimes, that is just how it goes. Once you have committed to being in one of those shows, they don't like you to bail on them because the weather is poor. But, when I was set up, and ready to leave, I couldn't turn the key in my ignition! I had to get my friend, Iva to come and get me.

      The next day more friends, Eleanor, and Danny came to help me get my booth, and car.  They had planned to come and see the show, and visit with me. They brought me there, then planned to put my quilts in their car after the show. When we got there, we were told that the show was cancelled! Ugh!  Then, the rain stopped,and, gradually, the weather cleared, but it was too late. It was all cancelled already. I was too distracted through all of this to remember to take pictures.

     I was so grateful to all of my friends that were so helpful to me when I was stranded in Madison GA, which is 28 miles away! Now, my car is fixed, and all is well, but, I am really rethinking one day outdoor shows. It is like putting all of your eggs in one basket. If you have bad weather that one day you are out of luck. Twice in the last 5 months I have been in outdoor shows where the weather was beautiful the day before, and the day after, but was terrible the day of the show. Actually, in this case it was just the forecast that was so bad, and it had been a rainy morning. Oh well, that's show biz!

     That is what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!

Finally-2 Finishes

     Finally, I got 2 quilts completely finished. Binding, sleeve, photos and all! It's about time, about time, wouldn't you say? These quilts have been quilted for months. Then all of the hand work was done for what seemed like quite awhile, but the weather wouldn't let me get outside and photograph them. First there was pollen, then there was rain, more rain, and yet more rain. But at last...

Painted Desert

Lake Country Bungalow

     Also, I started quilting this quilt.

     Yesterday, I got my finally got my grass cut, and a few things planted. What a relief that was after-I forget how many-maybe 8 or 9 rainy days in a row. I was afraid I was going to need a machete. But I am not complaining. I would just love to share some with those that have not been getting rain at all. Feast or famine, right?

     Today, I am off to sew with a good friend I haven't seen in weeks. Hope you have a pleasant day planned.

     Thanks for stopping by!