Lover’s Knot

I have been helping a new quilter make a very special quilt for her older sister who is getting married in September.  This ambitious young woman is the daughter of my DH’s best friend, and I am thrilled to be asked to help her.  She has never made a quilt before and wants to make a king sized quilt for the new couple…she’s a woman after my own heart!

She found a version of the lover’s knot pattern to make, which I think is a pretty good beginners pattern; the corner element is a bit of a challenge, but the extra work and patience will really pay off in the end.  I think her sister will be thrilled!  I will be quilting this one, if it can be completed before I start school in the fall, and I am tentatively thinking of a heart pantograph at this point.

I used EQ6 to work up two color schemes of the quilt, and after I did that, I decided I may have to make one for myself!

Which one do you prefer?

Dark	Light

I won!

Last night I went to the Boise basin quilters Guild meeting.   Since I was in school last semester, I wasn't able to go for three months because I always had a deadline to meet.,  So I was really looking forward to going.  We had a small core group of people last night, but that made it nice and cozy and allowed us all to catch up with those who were there.  There never seems to be enough time to talk to everyone I would like to!  I even brought zucchini bread that I had made specifically for the meeting the night before.

The presenters were the owners of Granny’s Attic, teaching cutting and piecing techniques.  When they called for volunteers to assist them, they awarded prizes.  I volunteered on the last segment,  which was a great technique on how to create easy mitered corners,  and I received an original Granny’s Attic pattern called 3-6-9, Lets Design!  Actually, I received a different pattern, but I traded with the other volunteer, as the other pattern was a table runner and I  typically don't use those in my home.  You know, though, I'm always interested in a new pattern!

It would have been easy to roll my eyes and decide that I already knew all of the techniques to make any quilt and that they couldn't show me anything new.  I'm really glad that I didn't take that approach because the mitered corner technique that they showed is very easy and I will be more inclined to use them in my quilts.

Even though I've been in Idaho for almost 5 years, I've never been to McCall.  Most of my friends are horrified when they hear that and I suppose I'll have to rectify that situation this summer; now I know of a great destination to include when I get there.

Sew day!

Yesterday I got to spend the day with our subgroup from the local guild, called Pieceworks!, where we worked on our own projects, showed off projects we have finally finished or are working on now, exchanged gifts, food and stories.  Our potluck was fabulous and everyone enjoyed themselves.  I really looked forward to getting together with that group of ladies.

In getting ready for Sew Day I had cut out a quilt for a new project and I got a really good start on it.  Since DH was watching football playoffs, I was able to continue on it when I got home so I was in hog heaven!  I really want to get this project finished in time for the quilt Guild meeting on the 21st so I'd better get busy!  I already know exactly how I'm going to quilt it, although I don't know the color of thread.  I think is going to go together very quickly and I'm excited to get it finished.  No pictures for now, unfortunately.

I also found out that a friend of mine had her baby a month early and of course the quilt top isn’t finished yet.  At least it’s halfway done, if I can just decide on some other elements to make it shine; I still haven't heard any suggestions from anyone yet so I guess I'm on my own as to how to change it!

The surprise quilt for DH is also progressing nicely and boy is a lot of work!  I don't think I'll be doing a log cabin again for quite a while, although now I have a whole bunch of little tiny strips cut! One thing I may do with them though, is incorporate them into a braided rug project which I have been eyeing.  One of the gals at the event yesterday was doing locker hook rug making, and it looked really fun and I loved her project, but I don't know that my tennis elbow would allow me to really get going on a project.  Besides, I already have enough projects to work on!

Speaking of that, I'd better get moving on this fine Sunday morning.

December has been a really busy month!

My husband and I celebrated his birthday in December by going on a cruise right after finals.  I still have one research paper to finish and I really need to get working on the reading, but I've really just been enjoying our time off.

The cruise stopped in Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico.  On our way back we were able to take advantage of being bumped for a later flight on United airlines in order to allow to Boise State University football players to take their recruiting trip.  It was almost like another vacation!  They put us up in the Westin Hotel and gave us $30 worth of meal vouchers.  We arrived home on Saturday afternoon rather than Friday night; the two free airline tickets made it totally worth the wait!

Once we were back home I loaded my customer quilt and was able to complete it in time for her to pick up for binding and presentation for a Christmas gift.  I must say I'm very pleased with the outcome!

This week’s challenge has been to try to complete a couple of baby quilts using some of the with the example blocks I  started in conjunction with  my quilt class.   I'm rather stumped as I can't figure out why these don't look quite right, it's really just so bland!  It's also not finished yet as it's only 30" x 30" so I have lots of options; any suggestions?

I have the week off and have been taking advantage of the time by starting a new log cabin quilt project while watching the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl with the University of Idaho vs. Bowling Green…and the Vandals won 43-42!!

I'm also cutting out a new project in preparation for a sewing retreat day in January,  as the log cabin project requires lots of pressing and isn't really a good retreat project.  I  have another one of my customer’s quilts to do and need to  finish quilting the American heroes quilt I started in August.   After that, I know the pattern and thread I'll use on the second American Heroes quilt and I'm still stumped on how to quilt the third one.   Oh, wait, I only have four days left before have to go back to work!

I guess you can see now why I haven't been posting much!  I've even been able to keep up with the Stashbusters Yahoo group postings this week and thanks to a posting there even found another enticing project: http://blocksnswaps.blogspot.com/2009/10/milky-way-quilt-block.html

That makes the third project that I’d like to do this next year, in addition to everything else that I have in my UFO list; I’d better get busy!

Merry Christmas!

While I have been trying to put together a blog of the recent past adventures, Christmas has snuck up on me!

May you all be able to spend quality time with your sewing machines!

And, simply….Merry Christmas!! 

Not quite caught up…

I haven’t posted in awhile because I’m just finishing up the semester, and I’ve been working on getting my final done.  There’s still a 7 page  research paper due that the teacher has been gracious enough to give me an extension on.  For today, I’ll be sending in the final and taking a break!  Interesting to me that even though I never thought I’d post a blog, I’ve missed it;  there simply has been no time.  I’ve been sick the last couple weeks, too, which doesn’t help a bit.

I haven't exactly completed the quilt class that we started for my school project in that the blocks aren't all done and we haven't covered all of the material, but we certainly have had fun and learned a lot!  We'll be continuing the class after the holidays and I'm really looking forward to seeing what my students come up with.  I did however get the school project turned in and have had some good comments from a teacher.

 Oh, and I had a great business idea come my way….making Boise State University Bronco quilts! I’m not sure if you remember that I made my mom a University of Montana Grizzly quilt? Well, I had started a Bronco quilt before that, just hadn’t finished it because I wanted to create a pantograph design of my own, as I couldn’t find anything out there that I liked. That hadn’t come to fruition and I found a football design so I used that instead and started showing people. They LOVE IT! Now, I don’t think I’m being modest, it’s nice and all, but really, there are much nicer quilts out there….

Anyway, I’ve started the process to get a crafter’s license from the school so I can officially start selling them. I already have an order for 2 quilts, which are roughly 75” x 54” and I’m charging $200 each. They have a fleece back with the Bronco logos all over.  Another customer wants a king sized quilt, but I haven’t worked out a price with him yet. I bought a bunch of blue and orange fabric on Thursday on my way home from work, they had a 50% off sale and I’m going to buy the fleece from my wholesale vendor.

We got a birthday coming up next week to celebrate, and then I’m quilting a customer quilt on Sunday.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out; I'll let you know!

Sampler Quilt – Class #1 Progress

Saturday was the first day of teaching my Sampler Class.  It was a never ending comedy of errors, definitely a learning experience!

I found that because I had concentrated on providing samples and activities for later in this series of classes that I started to think that I needed different samples to assist with the main presentation.  I started to work on those samples at 9 AM with the goal of being at the facility at 1 PM.  What I failed to remember is that I had planned to use the sampler quilt that I had previously made for this part of the presentation.  It was only later, during the class presentation that I realized my completed quilt would have worked perfectly and that I had stressed out for nothing.

We had some great conversation about color, color value, the grain of fabric and how to cut it, and definitions of fat quarters and what they are used for (lots of variations in your quilt!)

We started with the Roman Block:

Then, because it used the same strips as the Roman block, we progressed to the Log Cabin:

And, having practiced matching points and cutting, we moved to the 9 Patch:

 

These are not my usual colors, but they fit my living room, so I thought I’d give it a try.  Next weekend we are going to work on half square triangles.  Woohoo!