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! 

Wisconsin Public TV Quilt Expo pt. 1

A friend and I drove to Madison on Friday, to attend the WPT Quilt Expo.  I've only been to it once before, many years ago.

Our real reason to attend was to meet up with Anne, and transfer a treadle and another machine, as part of a pony express (treadle machine ride).  I'd picked both of these machines at the Michigan TOGA back in July.  Anne will be taking them to their finale destination.

me and Anne at the quilt show

Sorry I never got pictures of either of the machines, but I did enjoy having them in my home for 2 months. 

There were lots of interesting quilts at the show.  I took so many pictures that I'll break this into 2 different posts. 

The first quilts we saw were some from the Bake-Off competition.  These were some that I really liked.

love the lace hanky at the bottom

have you ever seen a cupcake tree?  I want one of these in my yard

Sorry, I didn't get maker info.  The expo was really crowded, and, it got more crowded as we moved in towards all the other quilts.  It was really hard just to get some photos.

my son saw this picture and loved the quilt, there were a couple of these

There were a couple of Egyptian themed quilts at the show. 

I really liked how they set the blocks on this one.

All the tiny places and things in this one.

I saw the pattern for this one in one of the vendor booths.

It was a fun day.  We checked out the vendors booths, and even met some new people.  I met one lady, from the Chicago suburbs that might come to the Lyon's Farm Fall Festival the end of this month, and check out my booth of vintage sewing machines.  If you live in this area, I'd love to see you there, too. 

Quilts of Valor sew-in

I haven't been to a Quilts of Valor sew-in this year.  Something has been going on every month, that has kept me away (new grandbaby, trips, house guests, ill, etc).  Marilyn and I finally got to this month's sew-in.  We both turned in completed quilt tops.  There were quite a few quilt tops turned in yesterday. 

Marilyn's top

my top

another one of Donna's lovely string tops

sorry for the blurry photo

this is NOT a panel, it is pieced and appliqued in the center

I worked on the third of my 3 Sapphire Stars quilts.  I completed Clue #5 (except for trimming the blocks) and the Surprise Clue.  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of my finished clues. 

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. 

Slow Stitching Sunday

I'm slow stitching today.  This is my Be Attitudes quilt, that I've been (very) slowly working on for almost 3 years now.  I won this set of blocks from another quilter.  All that was needed was to do the applique on them.  I decided that I wanted to hand stitch them, not machine stitch these blocks. 

I started these blocks with December, and I'm working backwards on them.  This is the 7th block (June) that I'm working on now.

7th block

I had to take some stitching out earlier today.  I started stitching around his arm in dark olive green, but, it wasn't showing up, so, I ripped it out.  The photo below shows the green thread that I had been using.

red shows up, the green above didn't show up

What's an 'Oops!' now and then. 

Speaking of 'Oops!', I mailed the pink Churn Dash baby quilt off on Friday morning.  The mother went into labor on Thursday evening.  Well.....I got a call from the daddy not long after I'd mailed the package.  'Oops!'.  The doctor was wrong!  Instead of a baby girl, it was a baby BOY!  The baby shower was for a girl, all pinks and grays.  Baby Weston is healthy, so, that is all that matters.

I was at the thrift store when I got the call.  The thrift store was having a 40% off sale, so, I quickly headed to the baby clothes, and picked up lots of BOY things.  They will get there the day after the pink baby quilt ;).

Well, after chatting with the new mother, I have some ideas for a new, baby boy quilt. 

I'm thinking that this might be incorporated in the new quilt

I'll be off to the quilt store tomorrow, to see what fabrics I can find to go with the picture above, and to the copy store to get that blown up. 

Other than a bit of sewing at the quilt shop on Tuesday, I haven't sewn at all this week.  Things kept happening, that kept me out of my sewing room.  I'm enjoying my 'slow stitching' today.  I think it was just what I needed.