Wisconsin Public TV Quilt Expo pt. 2

There were lots of great quilts at this expo.  The details were great. 

I loved all the flying geese in this one. 

This guy was just too cute!

This next one was part of a guild challenge. 

I love how they set off the star in the middle.

This one was 3D in the middle.

The circles on this one are done with special stitches from their sewing machine.

This quilt was showing how quilting got it's start.  I took an up close photo of it, showing a bolt of fabric, and a spool of thread.  The boat at the very bottom of the quilt is full of bolts of fabric.  Lots of great sewing details in this quilt.

up close, showing some of the sewing theme details

The bottom edge of this next quilt is quite unique.

I didn't buy much from the vendors.  I only bought one piece of fabric (that I've been looking for for 2 years now).  I did get a pattern and some pattern books.  The only thing I bought that I got a photo of was my newest t-shirt.

front of my new t-shirt

Saturday was the guild sew-in day.  One of our members taught a class on how to make a jelly roll rug. No, I didn't take the class.  I have way too many projects I'm working on that need to be finished. 

Laura teaching the class

Laura was doing a great job teaching the ladies.  They will finish at the next sew-in, in October. 

While most of the ladies were working on their rugs, I was busy putting together the sashing and blocks on the Sapphire Star quilt.

The walls in the gym where we have our sew-in's are carpeted.  They make great design walls.  I got all the sashing put together, and stitched the sashing and blocks together.

I still have the borders to go on this one.  This first one will be a wedding present.  I'll finish the other 2 of these as I get a chance.  I'm really liking how they look.  I sent a photo of the blocks and sashing on the design wall, to Kevin.  He was teaching a class.  He'll see how far I've gotten when he reads this blog post.  What a fun pattern! 

Productive Weekend

I've been stitching away for the last several days.  I started and finished a quilt top.  This quilt top is for the big sister to the baby that was born a little over a week ago (was supposed to be a girl, but, turned out to be a boy).  I'd ordered the turquoise camouflage fabric online, since it is very hard to find.  I purchased the coordinating fabric at a local quilt store.

This quilt top was made on my purple Featherweight, EXCEPT for the blanket stitching on the letters.  I only have one machine that can do the blanket stitch, so, I pulled out the modern Janome. 

stitching around the edges of the letters

Yes, I know, I decorated the Janome.  With such lovely vintage sewing machines, with lovely decals, my poor Janome was boring to look at.  It's much happier now that it has some decals, too.  Here is one of the letters, stitched down.

stitched down letter

I tried something different with this quilt top.  Last month at my large quilt guild, the speaker, Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs, showed us how she makes curved blocks without using curves.  She just folds the fabric, then places it on top of the other piece of fabric.  Well, I decided I wanted to use part of her method.  Annette folds her folded fabrics back, then stitches down the curves, but, I didn't want to do that.  I just wanted to have the layers.  So, instead of making half square triangles for this quilt, I folded another square, and stitched it to the first square, making it look like a half square triangle, but, making a 'pocket'. 

folded 'pocket' half square triangles

Here is the completed quilt top.

completed quilt top

I will say, with all the folded fabrics in this quilt top, it makes the top much heavier than I thought it would be.  I still like it.  I even know how I'm going to quilt this, so that most of the 'pocket' will stay open.

Well, I'd made a baby quilt for Mady's little sister (here), but, since the sister turned out to be a brother, I needed a new baby quilt.  The new mom thought a deer would be good.  I'd found a deer head online, and took it to the copy shop to be blown up.  The copy shop made it much larger than I asked them to, but, it works out well.  A friend found the deer hooves after I'd already been to the copy shop, so, I blew up that pattern on my printer at home.  Again, I had to use the Janome to stitch the edges of the fusible applique.  I haven't done anything other than machine quilt on the Janome in quite a while.

deer head and hooves

I knew it needed a border, so, here is the finished quilt top.  I have camo minky for the back of the quilt.

completed baby quilt top

I've been needing to work on the Sapphire Stars quilts, from Kevin's Mystery last summer.  I'm making 3 of these quilts (2 scrappy, and 1 just using 'fixed' colors).  Two of these tops will be for Quilts of Valor, but, one of the scrappy tops is going to be a (late) wedding present.  I need to have it finished early October, so that I can take it to the Family Reunion and present it to the happy couple.  I finished the 24 large quilt blocks this afternoon (12 for each scrappy quilt top).  These blocks are 18.5" square.

24 quilt blocks

I also stitched a scrappy backing for a Quilt of Valor.  I've had the top made for some time, but, hadn't made a backing for it.  I even have the binding strips cut out.  I'll take pictures tomorrow at the Quilts of Valor sew-in. 

It's going to be a busy, quilty week for me.  I have Quilts of Valor on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Quilt Show on Friday, and a guild sew-in on Saturday. 

Saturday's Stitching

My large quilt guild, Pride of the Prairie, had a sew-in on Saturday.  It's fun to go to the sew-in's.  There are still lots of people on vacation, so, the turn out was smaller than usual, but, the raffle quilt committee was there, working on kits for the next raffle quilt. 

raffle quilt committee, cutting fabrics for kits

some of the cut fabrics, waiting to go into kits

Those little fabric pieces (and many more that were cut later) will be turned into paper pieced pineapple blocks.  There will also be flying geese.  This is going to be a fun, bright quilt.

I forgot to get pictures of Linda and her project, but, I did get pictures of my project for the day. 

Remember Kevin's Mystery quilt, Sapphire Stars?  Well, I'm way behind on that quilt.  Actually, I'm making 3 of these quilts, 2 scrappy, and one 'controlled' (only 7 different fabrics). 

I stitched all of the Surprise Clue for both of the scrappy versions.  I don't have the fabrics cut for the controlled version, for this clue.

2 sets of scrappy 'Surprise Clue' units

With those done, I started on Clue #5, with the scrappy versions (once again, the controlled version isn't cut out yet).

stitching on Clue #5

This is where I got by the end of the sew-in. 

Clue #5, partly done

I did a bit more stitching last night. 

Clue #5, a bit further along

Yes, I know, I ironed my pieces the wrong way.  I noticed this after I'd already ironed the units.  With 192 units ironed the wrong way, I wasn't going to go back and fix them.  They will work. 

2 of these 3 quilts will be for Quilts of Valor, but one of the scrappy versions will be for a (late) wedding present, and I need to get it finished before October. 

I hope you have a great Sunday.  There won't be any 'Slow Stitching Sunday' for me, since I'll be trimming these units, for the next step in Clue #5.  Gotta get these done! 

A Stitching Week

After quilt camp last weekend, I had several 'sewing' get together's this week.

On Wednesday, Marilyn and I went to Sewing, Etc, to stitch with the owner, Kelly.  First, I stitched the 'missing' sides onto the blocks from Clue #3, in Kevin's mystery.  This is 2 sets of scrappy blocks, finished.

2 finished sets of blocks

When those were done, I pulled out a jelly roll, that I'd won from Henry Glass fabrics, last March.  Wow, I'd forgotten that it was a full year ago when I won these. 

I'd seen a picture of a quilt, ages ago, and had drawn up the pattern to use with these strips.  No clue where I saw the quilt, or what the pattern name was, sorry.  Usually, I try to save the link to where I see something.  Sometimes I'm given a photo of a quilt, with no info included.  I think that was the case with this one. Here is the baby size pattern. 

graph paper pattern I drew up from a photo

A couple in our church had a baby last week, so, it was time to get this quilt made. I cut the strips out, and stitched them up.

all the strip sets, stitched

By the time these strip sets were stitched, it was time to drive to Ottawa, for the Camp Tuckabatchee quilter's group.  Mary was teaching us how to make a tote bag.  My tote bag didn't get finished Wednesday night, due to a stupid mistake on my part.  I was trying to rush (first mistake) and talking too much (second mistake), so, I stitched the lining to the wrong side of the outside of the bag.  Oh well.  I just put the messed up bag away, and 'frog stitched' (rip it, rip it) later in the week.

Saturday, my large quilt guild, Pride of the Prairie had a sew-in.  The first thing I worked on was finishing the tote bag. 

finished tote bag

lots of room in the tote bag

When the tote bag was done, I pulled out the pieces I'd cut for the baby quilt (the box blocks) and stitched them.

all the box blocks stitched

Well, silly me forgot to bring the sewn strip pieces, so, that project got put up.  I'll have to finish sewing all the parts together this week.

Since I couldn't finish the baby quilt top, I pulled out a bag of blocks that I'd bought at a thrift store last year.  The bag had 79 finished 9 inch flannel blocks, a couple of blocks that just need to be stitched, and some extra scraps of the fabrics.  The whole bag cost me a whopping $4. 

I laid out 77 of the blocks, and started stitching the rows together.

77 blocks laid out

My little quilt guild is trying to make 14 quilts for the boys and girls at the Naperville 360 group homes.  We'd made quilts for all the boys back in 2016, but, when the boys leave the home, they take all of their bedding with them, including the quilts.  We started making quilts for the girls this year, then found out that all the boys who we'd made quilts for have moved out, so, none of the new boys have quilts now.  We need twin size quilts for each bed (with lots of  hang over, since they will be the bedspreads for the boys and the girls). 

These blocks will be for one of these boys.  I got all 11 rows stitched, but, I still need to sew the rows together.  I will still need some flannel for the borders, since this isn't large enough yet.  I have enough extra circle blocks to use in the corners.  I hope I can find matching flannel to go with these blocks.

Not a bad stitching week.  I'm still trying to get back in the groove of things, after being out of town for so many weeks.  I'm trying to catch up on housework, and do some deep cleaning, too.  It all takes time.  At least I'm finally feeling better, after being sick for so long. 

I have another craft day next Saturday.  Hopefully I'll be sewing the binding onto that baby quilt by then. 

Quilt Camp Weekend

This has been a weird sewing year for me.  I've been gone for 33 out of 42 days.  I was only supposed to be gone for 15 of those days.  First, we extended our trip to Alaska by a week (couldn't miss the birth of our first grandchild).  The only stitching I got done for those 3 weeks was on the airplane, and a tiny bit in Alaska, for my daughter in law. 

Three days after we got back, I was setting up my booth for the Pride of the Prairie Quilt Show.  I only had time to stitch 3 sets of exchange blocks at the quilt show.  The day after the quilt show, I got really sick, and just did nothing for several days. 

Life happens, whether you are sick or well.  A few days after I got sick, I was traveling to Texas for a funeral.  Another 11 days gone from home.  When I finally got home, I saw the doctor.  I've had a sinus infection since January, and it had turned nasty after the quilt show.  Needless to say, feeling like I did, I still didn't get anything done for another week or more. 

Well, this weekend was the Camp Tuckabatchee quilt weekend.  I finally got myself moving, and went to camp on Friday afternoon.  Yipee!  My first stitching in a month.

I set up my hand crank as soon as I arrived.  I'm the hostess for 2 different Treadle On block exchanges, and my blocks were not all done.  I really needed to finish stitching those exchange blocks.  I finished the last 2 sets of Spring Basic 4 patch blocks, and also the last 2 sets of Chocolate 9 patch blocks, for the exchanges. 

Spring Basic 4 patch blocks

Spring Basic 4 patch blocks

Chocolate 9 patch blocks

Chocolate 9 patch blocks

All I need to do is sign my blocks.  I can do that later this week. 

On Saturday morning, I set up 'Betty Sue' my purple Featherweight.  Last June, Kevin started a Sapphire Star Mystery Quilt along, and I'd kept up for the first clue, but, things got in the way, and I hadn't worked on those quilts since.  Yes QUILTS.  As usual, I started more than one quilt.  I started THREE quilts.  Two of those quilts are scrappy, as Kevin suggested, but, I also decided that I'd try one quilt as a 'controlled' color quilt.  Just 7 fabrics, one for each 'color' that Kevin had chosen, instead of scrappy. 

Since the Sapphire Star Mystery ended October 1st, I had all the clues printed off.  I'd cut out several clues at the last quilt camp weekend.  I needed to finish cutting all the clues (I'm still short 2 clues for the 'controlled' quilt).  Now to get more stitching done.

Back in September, I'd sewn some of Clue #2 while having a booth at the Lyon's Farm Fall Festival. I'd only gotten half of Clue #2 stitched.  Lots of sewing left to do on that Clue#2 (times 3).

2 sets of scrappy Clue #2 finished

Clue #2 'controlled' is also finished

I cut out the pieces for Clue #3, for the controlled quilt.  They went together nicely.

Clue #3 'controlled' blocks are finished

Then I pulled out the pieces that I'd cut last fall, for the 2 scrappy Clue #3's, and started stitching them together.  Oops!  Somehow I got all the background pieces cut, but, only half of the dark blue side pieces cut out. 

Oops!  Missing half of the side pieces for these 2 sets of Clue #3

I didn't have any of the scrappy fabric with me at quilt camp, so, I'll have to cut out the rest of those missing side pieces this week.  I had thought that I had all the scrappy Clues cut out.  Oh well.  All those fabrics are still in a basket, until I finish all three quilt tops. 

It felt sew good to start sewing again.  I'm meeting up with friends, and going to sew at Sewing, Etc. on Wednesday.  I'm hoping to get more Clues sewn then.  Two of these quilts will be for Quilts of Valor, but, one will be a wedding present, and I need to have it finished before October.  Lots of deadlines coming up, and, with being gone so much, I'm WAY behind.