Show n tell

I'm making this a wee bit short n sweet this morning. I'm off to a training course for most of the week. It's in town so I'm not away which is good because I've got a wee bit of work to get done in the evenings. It means that my paperwork is going to sit for the week. Too bad because I was starting to feel like I was making headway. Hopefully, nothing piles up while I'm occupied this week.

Ah - so you want to know about the magazine quilt? It has a binding and a sleeve on. I just need to hand sew the sleeve on this morning before I leave. On my way, I hope to stop at the UPS store and have it out of the house. If not, then on my way home I'll drop it off. As I mentioned, it's unusual, but I like it. And it was custom quilted - it's not big. Just shy of 60" square.

Now to do a bit of tidy up in that studio and move onto the next urgent thing. I will get ahead - I know I will. But I have no idea why I wait until the very last minute to do these things. I knew this quilt was due on June 6th. I've known that for SIX months. And I've had all the material for it for SIX months. Oh well - that's just me.

And I finished that book last night. That's why I have to sew the sleeve on this morning - because I had to finish that book. Not quite the ending that I envisioned, but it was a thriller, to say the least. It's called Find you in the Dark by Nathan Ripley.

Now for Show n Tell. I moved half of the pictures to my computer to edit, but I don't have time this morning to put them up. I hope that tomorrow I can get them up. Those are the ones for the class homework. The show and tell today is the non-homework quilts that students brought to show.

I think you've seen this first quilt before. This is Lynne's quilt. Lynne is part of our UFO group. She started off with a pattern and then realized that she didn't like the pattern. So she changed it around. The only thing she kept from the pattern is the outline of the cat. She did an amazing job on this quilt adding a machine embroidery face to the cats and some butterflies to the background of each cat. That was the easy part. She struggled with the quilting. But she persevered and now the quilt is done including the mice that are embroidered as part of the quilting. You can see a detail of the block on this blog post. You have to scroll down to see it.

Lynne's cat and mouse quilt

I believe this next one was Barb's. It's a panel, but she's done a lot of hand embroidery on the panel to make those pansies pop. I really should take close up pictures so you can see some of the detail. It's hard to see from the picture all the work that she had done. And sometimes very hard (we're pressed for time usually) to take a lot of pictures in the class.

Panel embellished with hand embroidery

She wanted to make the panel into a quilt and it's out of proportion. That's one thing that drives me crazy. Panels that measure 24" by 42" are out of proportion for a quilt. So you need to add something to the panel.  Here are a couple of articles that I wrote about panels. One of them is how to trim a panel.  This one is how to use coping strips on a panel. And this one presents several border options for a panel. 

I have several other panel articles that I want to write. Shoot - I've written them, but they appeared in a trade magazine. I guess I should rejig the articles and write for my blog. OK - add that to the list of things to write.

This next quilt is Diane's. Diane has become obsessed (NO - Diane is just super focused) and she made this paper pieced pattern from the new Northcott Stonehenge Celtic Solstice collection. The pattern is Solstice by Tamarinis. It's a very current pattern so you should be able to find it in the local quilt shops.

Solstice pieced by Diane

Speaking of local quilt shops, I'm thrilled to see a Canadian quilt shop in The Spring/Summer issue of Quilt Sampler. The shop is called The Cotton Harvest Quilt Shop in Seaforth, Ontario. I've never been to this shop, but it's Shelly's "go to" shop and she keeps raving about it. I guess I'm going to have to make a trip one day. They sell Cherrywood Fabrics and have hosted the Cherrywood Challenge. 

Canadian shop highlighted in the current issue of Quilt Sampler

Here's one last thing for you to contemplate today. The fall 2019 Creative Festival is October 17 - 19. I heard that Mary Fons is going to be in attendance. Seriously?? I'd love to hear her speak. I'm not sure what she's going to be chatting about, but she does some great lectures on quilt making and yes her mother is Mary Fons of Fons and Porter fame. That would be very interesting. How to get out of booth duty????

AHA --- there's the information.


On that note, I'm out of here to sew that sleeve on. I sure miss those bright lights in Studio B, especially in the early morning and late night (OK - never a late night), but you can't beat working up there in the daytime. I LOVE Studio U and it's the warmest room in the house on these crazy days.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!