Aviatrix Medallion - show and tell

Things are under control! Barely!

Last night we had our Zoom presentation for the Aviatrix Medallion class. This is the one that was to be hosted at Oh Look Fabric in Milton. We were lucky enough to have ONE in-person class, but since then, the classes have been held on Zoom.

I have to say that I kind of like the Zoom delivery method. Why? Well, one of the ladies was on her way to the cottage, and she (as a passenger) was able to participate in the call. Now, how cool is that? And 15 minutes before the call started, I was leaving the patio at the local restaurant! Oh yes -- I could get to love the Zoom thing. If someone wants to see a tool and I have it? It's a breeze to get the tool and show it.

We're almost done the Aviatrix Medallion quilt. We've got one more border to go after the one assigned this month. I offered a break to allow everyone to get caught up? Oh no - they want to go ahead! I love the group!

Here are their quilts so far.

In case you have no idea which quilt we're talking about, it's this one by Elizabeth Hartman.

We have a good mix of people who are following the pattern to the letter and others who are making it their own. Gisele has definitely stepped away from the pattern with this colorway. I never would have chosen that yellow as the background fabric (for the skinny borders), but it's so perfect for the coloring. Those pops of black, with the grey and purple, make the quilt sing!

Gisele's quilt

Cathy is also mixing up her colors. It's so exciting to see these quilts side by side so you can see how the value of a particular fabric can make one area more dominant in one quilt, than in another. Look at the border with the plus blocks. In Gisele's quilt, the plus blocks are relatively dominant, yet in Cathy's, they are more subdued. Both are right!!! This is the beauty of these classes because you'd never see that if you just followed the pattern or you just made one. And seriously? Why would you make two quilts? What a great learning opportunity.

Cathy's quilt

This belongs to Maria, who went crazy this month. She's been busy with work and hadn't started. She got all this done in one month!! It's not quite altogether, but it's looking awesome, and she's following the coloring of the pattern, more or less. She even undertook that complicated star in the center, while Gisele and Cathy went for the simplified version. Great job, Maria!!!

Maria's quilt

While Rita is following the pattern, she's gone crazy with her coloring! I love how she started to deconstruct the blocks in the plus row! And yet, it still looks balanced. This is an impressive example of how you can take a regular quilt pattern and totally make it your own.

Rita's quilt

Dana was working on the plus blocks and had this to show us last night. She is also following the pattern more or less. Love the bright colors in the blocks.

Dana's plus blocks

This is the rest of Dana's quilt. She's also following the pattern more or less and went for the complicated center!!! 

Dana's quilt top

Corrie wasn't able to join us last night, but here's what her quilt looks from the previous picture I received.

Corrie's quilt

Deb was also not able to join us last night, but this is her quilt to date.

Deb's quilt

There is one more person that I need to track down. The group has done very well considering that when they signed up for this class, they were signing up for an IN-PERSON class, not something on Zoom. That's a bit of a challenge, but they've all done amazingly well.

Before I show you my quilt, I want to show you one of the blocks that I made for the assignment for this month. Remember when I was running around trying to find a cream that would work with the existing cream that I had but had run out of? So this block contains the two creams that I started with but only had scraps left, AND it contains one of the new cream fabrics that I purchased. You can barely tell that there are three different creams in the block. I used all the scraps of the two existing creams, so there is literally NOTHING left of those two. That's the beauty of mixing and matching and using more than one fabric. You have NO leftovers.

Three different creams have been used in this block

That matching process is NOT something that could have been accomplished with on-line shopping - just saying!!!! I had to stop at two different stores before I found something that worked. Imagine if I did that shopping on-line? I'd now be sitting here with a bunch of cream fabrics that I can't use. There is something to be said for in-person shopping. So as quilt shops close and go strictly on-line, we still need bricks and mortar stores.

Sure, if I were purchasing a kit or an entire collection, or a bundle, then - on-line - go for it. But when I want to match something? I need to see it in person.

And now, here's my version of the quilt. I have the 5th border on the quilt. There remains one more to go.

My version of the quilt

I still have to sew the last three borders on the quilt - two skinny ones (cream) and the blocks. There just hasn't been time to get that thin border on that I wasn't able to last time, and now I've got two more borders to sew on. That should take a couple of hours.

I hope to take a day this coming week and get all the on-going class up to date. This one needs borders, one of the others needs one new block made, and well, there are little things that need to be done to get fully caught up. I'm determined to have all these quilts done by the end of the year! Maybe even quilted!!!!

Can you tell me why some people are so rude? I watched the Facebook Live presentation on the Husqvarna Viking sewing machine feet. I love Soni -- maybe it's because she said, "I like to learn something new every day!!"  OH MY GOD - just like me! And in fact, I did learn something yesterday, which I need to checkout. At some point, the live video started to freeze - buffering issues, bandwidth issues? Not sure. But there was one lady who was so flipping rude. Her written comments made me cringe. It wasn't enough to say it once, but she went on and on! Why? We all knew there was an issue that Soni had no control over. Say it once and move on. Or stop watching the live presentation and view the taped version when that comes out.

I swear some people get up in the morning and think about how they can be rude that day. And like a dog with a bone, they just won't let an issue go. Just get over it!!!

What did I learn? I learned that there's a stitch on the Husqvarna Viking sewing machines for basting in a zipper. Because of the freezing, I didn't quite get the gist of it, but I know where to look. If you have the JoyOS Advisor app on your phone, you'll find the information there. So you don't have the JoyOS Advisor app?? Go to the Google store or the Apple Store and download it. It's called JoyOS Advisor. Then go to Sewing, Zippers, and then Centered Zipper. Read through the tutorial, and you'll find the stitch for basting a zipper in place. I've got to try that!!!!

See - you never know when or where you'll learn something for the day!!! Thanks, Soni, for that information - I knew I would learn something by watching!

I don't know about you, but our neighborhood used to be overrun by squirrels. Now we seem to be overrun with chipmunks. And they are worse than squirrels. They are noisy, and they are very cheeky.

We came home last night to find one sitting on the deck happily munching some sunflower seeds that he had plucked from the birdfeeder. The dogs were in the house, and he knew it. But Murphy almost got him when I let her out! Hopefully, he has learned a lesson. Don't touch it!

The chipmunk's dining table

In case you're wondering, I did go for a walk, but it was in the afternoon, not in the evening. I have to say that it was nice to get out for an afternoon walk. The temperature was pleasant. I was looking for the latest Quiltmaker magazine, but it hasn't hit our newsstands yet.

Two more Zoom classes this morning. I'm madly downloading pictures as I receive them for the homework! All is set - I have a bit more sewing to do and a few more photos to load. Then I'm all set for 10:00 AM.

Hre's another advantage of Zoom classes. I can post the homework the morning after the class because all the homework pictures are already edited!! I just need to get the written assignments done, hopefully by the end of the weekend - just so they are off my plate. I have a lot of catching up stuff to do which I hope to get done this week. It would be nice to start the following week with everything caught up! That includes quilting a quilt and writing the pattern for it!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!