Lilla Show n Tell

It's that time of year - it's time for the final reveals of our ongoing projects. There were three of them this past week! Wow-what a lot of eye candy!

I'm going to start with Lilla. The final class was this past Thursday.

This is the pattern that we used for the class.

Lilla by Lotta Jansdotter and Cheryl Arkinson

Essentially, there are 25 blocks in the quilt. Each block finishes at 9" and the cover quilt is made using four of each block. Yes - that makes a big quilt - 90" by 90". Everyone did their own thing which I strongly encourage.

Kathy has been busy with life and she still has the last four sets of blocks to make and then she'll assemble all the blocks into a quilt. She promised to send me a picture when it's done and I'm going to hold her to that! The colorway that she chose is amazing. That yellow/green just makes things pop and her background fabric with the black and the yellow/green - well it's perfect. I don't believe those two fabrics are from the same designer.

Kathy's blocks

Rita's life also got in the way. This lady is into everything! She's very creative and a fabulous knitter. Here's just a reminder of the colorway that she used. She's using black/white/grey with a pop of yellow. This one is also going to look spectacular. Rita wants her quilt to be BIG, so she'll be making all the blocks - I believe she has 4 sets of blocks to finish. She might even be adding an additional border with all the leftovers. I can't wait to see it!

A sampling of Rita's blocks

More of Rita's blocks

And more of Rita's block

I realize that I transferred our October show n tell photos to the cloud and I don't know how to access them. I can see them, but not as files. Oh well - something else to learn. Doesn't matter - we're seeing the finished quilts so that missed show n tell isn't a big deal. By the way, I did write out a list of blog posts that I need to write and I'm going to try my best to be on top of things next year. This year was better, but I still missed a few things.

Genny is making TWO quilts. I'm not sure how big each of them is, but she's completed both tops. One was on her long arm and the other is waiting to be quilted. So I'm waiting for pictures of those two as well.

Here's just a sampling of her blocks for one of the quilts. I had to go a long way back to find this picture.

Genny's blocks

I had two ladies who started the class and unfortunately they didn't stick with it for long. So just to refresh our memory, here are Stacey's blocks.

Stacey's blocks

These blocks belong to Eleanor.

Eleanor's blocks

Hopefully, they make something from the few blocks they did make. It's a shame to let them go to waste. If they need help? I hope they call or get in touch with the store.

This is Cathy's quilt, ready to be quilted. She made fewer blocks but she's still going to get a nice lap-sized quilt.

Cathy's quilt

Cathy deserves a medal because she used a directional print for her background and wanted ALL the pieces going in the same orientation. That takes a lot of patience and I think it took a wee bit of the pleasure out of piecing the blocks.

Cathy's meticulous piecing to keep the directional print in the proper orientation

So here's some advice about directional prints. If you need to have the directional prints going in the same direction, never choose them for a background of anything! You'll drive yourself crazy. Or just decide that having the direction going any which way is fine. And this is perfectly acceptable. If you are not comfortable with this process, give it a try - piece some blocks with directional prints and just use it as a print and don't worry about the direction of the motif. That takes some getting used to, but once you get over that - it's OK. And of course, this all depends on what you're making. Pillowcases? I want the directional print going in the right orientation. A print like this one? I probably wouldn't have worried about it. However, we are each different in our approach.

Gisele has her quilt top together!!!!  It looks awesome. And totally different from the picture on the pattern because she made the background dark. I love the little pops of color and prints. What you can't see from this picture is that four of those blocks have two squirrels on them! And they are all in the same orientation which was easy to do since it was only four blocks to worry about.

Giselle's quilt top

Here's a close up of part of her quilt.

A detail of Gisele's quilt

This is the first of my two quilt tops.

One of my quilt tops

One of them is quilted, but not trimmed as I'm still on the fence about whether to do additional quilting lines in the opposite direction. The other one is not sewn together yet.

Quilted with wavy lines

But I've saved the best for last. Sara brought in a COMPLETED quilt. Quilted and bound. Way to go Sara!!!! She made a smaller quilt than the pattern and used four NON-MODERN fabrics for the blocks. It just goes to show that you can make a modern quilt without using modern fabrics. She also didn't follow the pattern exactly - let's just say that some of the blocks were a wee bit of a challenge, so she modified some or made them up! The challenge came from the instructions and that was a wee bit frustrating!

Sara's completed quilt

The best part - the quilt is done!! The backing was pieced from two large pieces of fabric leftover from the front. I didn't get a picture of that. And then with some of the smaller bits, she made this runner. It was quilted with straight lines (like the big quilt), but the lines were much closer together and it looks awesome. I love the texture of dense quilting. The table runner is also bound and finished!

Sara's table runner - DONE

We had a couple of other items for show n tell. Kathy was at a retreat and this is one of the things that she made. It's a gorgeous table runner. I forgot to ask whose pattern it was.

Kathy's table runner

Here's a close up of the block.

Detail of the table runner block

Giselle is always making cool garments and I keep forgetting to take pictures of them. This time, she had made a very smart jacket using the black/white/gray buffalo plaid. It was gorgeous. NEXT time, I'll get a picture.

I'd like to congratulate everyone in the class. I think they did an amazing job. Some of them are still fairly new and each of them took on a personal challenge to put together such a large quilt. They each did a super job and they should be extremely proud of their accomplishment!!!


So what's next???  I'll be listing all my upcoming classes in one place shortly, but here's a peek at what we're doing for next year. This is an on-going class to be held at Oh Look Fabric in Milton. The classes are once a month and last one hour long - it's a lecture-style class including monthly show n tell. This is a medallion quilt (starts in the center and works outward). Lots of opportunities to change up the blocks, the colors and a whole lot more. The class starts in January and ends in November. No classes in July and August. Check out the website and sign up for the class.   The dates are listed on the website.

Aviatrix Medallion

And I have to show you this cute little card holder that I got from one of my students yesterday. Notice the doggie fabric! It's adorable and this is absolutely perfect for my walks when I don't want to carry my wallet, but just need a credit card and a library card (you can't forget the library card - EVER!).

A mini card-holder

Here's the inside of the cardholder. It's adorable. Thanks so much, Barb! I'll be using that a lot. I've already got it tucked in my reuseable errand bag.

The inside of the cardholder

That was amazing! I love this time of year when we get to see the finished projects. I'll have more for you tomorrow.

Today is sit n sew day and we have a full house. But everything in the sewing area of Studio B is nice and neat and waiting for the guests to arrive. I'm going to need a few days to get things back in order. What I need are two solid sewing days to tidy up some loose bits that have been messing the studio up. But that's for later this week.

I'm happy to report that there's not a whole lot on my calendar in the next five weeks! A couple of sewing days, a couple of community project days, a couple of day road trips, and a couple of small classes left to teach. That means I'll be able to hit the sewing/embroidery/long arm machines with a vengeance. I can hardly wait!

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!