I can't believe another week is beginning already! Wow! It is said often, but only because it's true: Time Flies!!!
So last week I presented a guild program to The Western North Carolina Quilter's Guild. Georgia Bonesteel is a member of that guild, and SHE WAS THERE YA'LL!!! YIKES!!! She was so kind and gracious, but I must admit, it freaked me out a bit (or more than a bit) to speak in front of her! Now I am kicking myself because I didn't even think about how cool it would have been to get a picture with her until now.😦
While I was there I stayed with Linda Lou, who took me to a fabulous Caribbean restaurant that was sooo delicious, and then to a beautiful waterfall, and some other natural sites. I just love the North Carolina mountains! And it was such a treat, not only because it was so beautiful, but also, because it has been so hot in my neck of the woods.
When I got home, I had just 1 day to regroup and get my self ready for our local fall music festival, The Yellow River Jam. This is such a fun event! The idea is to get there in the morning for a kayak trip down the river, then come off the river and spend the afternoon and evening eating, drinking, looking at artist booths, and listening to some fabulous live music. A dear friend of mine, who is a potter, sets up next to me and we have a wonderful time. I look forward to it every year! Here is a photo of my booth.
So now I have a relatively quite week ahead of me. I will use it to get some weaving done, and get ready for my next 2 adventures. On Oct 3, I will speak at the Georgia Friendship Quilters Guild in Smyrna, GA, which is nearly local for me, then come home an again have one day to repack before I leave to set up a booth at The John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival, in Brasstown, NC. So if you live near there, come and say Hi!
I have some room available in my 2019 schedule. I would love to come and speak, and/or teach at a quilt guild near you.
This Sunday, after the YRJ, I made 4 new sets of potholders. The fabrics on the top are what I plan to use to bind them. The ribbon is what I will use to make hanging loops.
Then, I ran out of blanks, so I had to make some more.
When I am making potholders, I like to make a bunch of "blanks" first. I cut the backs from ironing board cover, that I buy at JoAnn's. I cut it about 1/2" larger than I want the potholders to be. Not sure it is necessary to use ironing board cover, but it seems that was on the backs of potholders my mother had when I was growing up, and it keeps me from having to use my quilting fabric. I cut 2 layers of batting, and spray baste the batting to the ironing board cover. I cut the batting from scraps of batting I save from quilts. Then I just flip and sew pieces onto the potholder, until its covered.
Trim, and bind. I add a loop of grosgrain ribbon for hanging.
So that is what I have been up to this week. I will link to:Oh Scrap!
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Design Wall Monday
Check them out to see what other folks are up too.
Thanks for stopping by!
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:
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| Galapagos | |
With the palette from this quilt:
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| Sand and Sea Glass |
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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
In a couple of weeks we will have The Yellow River Jam here in our sweet little village of Porterdale. It is the second annual event. In the morning, there will be a paddling event on the Yellow River, which runs through the center of town, followed by a day of live music. Their tagline is boats, bands, and brews. This year they are adding some artist booths, so I will have a booth there displaying my quilts, and a few other small items.
To that end, I have been putting together some chicken pincushions, made from hand dyed, hand woven wool fabrics, and some potholders.
Yesterday, I was supposed to have a tennis match, but instead we all had a rainy day! I was really happy to see the rain we really needed it, and we got 1.2"! Yeah! I keep track of the rain for a newsletter I write for our town, and I hadn't had a rain entry since August 22!
So, anyway, I got a whole day of "found time". I spent a lot of that time weaving, then I started making some potholders. This, BTW is a great use of scraps. I especially love working with "sewn together" scraps. These are orphan blocks that can be cut up and used, or leftovers from strip sets, and the like. I use the "sewn together" scraps in conjunction with my smaller than 1 1/2" strip bin, and my 1 3/4" to 2" strip bin. Sometimes I add in from my small triangles, medium bits, small bits, or dig through my large pieces (but smaller than FQs) to find pieces to cut up and use to tie a set of potholders together visually.
I have been working on potholders for a week, or so now, and already had pieced these, but was still working on sewing the binding down. The pair in the upper left hand corner is completely finished.
Yesterday, I pieced these. This morning I chose what I will bind them with, and pinned them with that fabric, to the design wall.
I had already cut a bunch of squares for pincushions, and pinned them together with their beaks, and combs. I like to use red rick rack for the combs. I had a whole stack of the put together.
This week I added the tails. I have hand sewn on beads for eyes.
Now, I just have to stuff them, and sew up their little tummies.
So that is what I have been up to this week. Thanks for stopping by!
