Clemtine Charity Quilt Quilt Along

When it comes to charitable causes, quilters probably have among the biggest hearts! We make quilts for others less fortunate and contribute fabric and notions to people who want to make their own. 

Here is another way to contribute that Fat Quarter Shop has been doing for a couple of years now.

The Clementine Quilt Along benefits the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help advance cures and means of prevention for catastrophic pediatric diseases. Fat Quarter Shop is partnering with Moda Fabrics to match up to $20,000 of donations for this awesome cause. And, on top of that, they will auction the Clementine Quilt Along quilt at the end of the program, and 100% of the auction proceeds will go to the St. Jude campaign.

Read more about the program HERE.

Catching Up with Quilt Market Photos

If you haven't heard already, this picture will probably clue you in that Quilt Market was in St. Louis last week. Michelle is my partner in crime in the Mettler threads booth; in fact, she's the primary person at these events and I'm the tagalong. She knows everything about the cabinets, pricing and all the nitty gritty that dealers need to know to place orders; I help by explaining thread usages, weights and other facts to help them make their choices.

I also get to sew in the booth -- thank you, Cristen Jones of Quilt Sampler in Springfield MO and Tulsa OK -- for loaning me a Brother machine! Oh, and your car to haul it and myself all around both those states! I taught Ruler Play classes in both store locations on this trip, Springfield first, then Quilt Market, then Tulsa.

Even got to see the Mississippi River from my room on the 8th floor of the hotel!

As usual, I focused on the quilting rather than all the fabrics and notions and was happy to see some beautiful samples in the booths:

The Patrick Lose booth was so colorful with all the bright solids; I especially liked the quilting on the chevron quilt in the top photo on the right hand side. Interesting motifs scattered about and a lot of ribbon candy quilting in the stripes.

This was intriguing in the way that the space was divided up with the straight line quilting before the fill stitching was added. Very striking!

Totally straight line quilting; interesting how the quilting was deliberately done off-center in each block.

This was a fun surprise! I had already taken a picture of the quilt and then leaned in to read about it and found that my friend Sam Hunter of Hunter Design Studio had made it! I think if I were to do this circle quilting, I would use the Circles on Quilts rulers that I have from Westalee Designs. It's one of the templates I teach in my Ruler Play 2 class and gives me the best circles I've ever stitched.

I thought the quilting was spectacular on this modern quilt -- lots of negative space as a canvas and Cathy did a great creative job on it. She and I have taught at a couple of conferences at the same time before, but I've never met her -- love love love her work!

This quilt from In the Beginning caught my eye also, an interesting piecing design that drew me in to analyze the construction.

Another example of show quality quilting with a lot of tiny fills.

This cute applique quilt was made by Leonie West, designer of the Westalee rulers. She did her ruler work on the background fabric with applique fabric on top, then trimmed and fused. Is this so adorable or what? I think she told me she'd made it for her granddaughter -- what a great gift for a child's wall!

St. Louis was fun and inspiring and, of course, there were always good meals with friends, good wine to share and great quilts to check out!

Quilts & Art @ Eddie's Sewing Bee!

A few weeks ago I got to teach for three days at Eddie's Quilting Bee in Sunnyvale, California.  It was a WONDERFUL weekend with WONDERFUL people!!  Their shop is incredible and has quilts from Eddie and his mother hung all over the place.  I got a special tour and want to share it with you.

These quilts are AMAZING!!!

Click the image below to play the video!

Eddie's Quilting Bee, Sunnyvale CA

I never had the good fortune to meet Eddie Leone's mom, Diana, but I remember her as being a quiltmaking legend. Eddie partnered with her several years ago and has since expanded her original store, The Quilting Bee, and moved it from Mountain View to Sunnyvale. I hadn't yet taught in the "new" location (putting new in quotes because it's been 9 years! My how time gets away from us!) and was looking forward to seeing it.

There are two classrooms on the upper floor, easily accessible by stairs or elevator, and I was delighted to discover artwork by Diana adorning the walls. 

I hadn't realized she was a painter as well as a quilter, so this was a wonderful surprise!

And it goes on and on! Students are arriving, so more later....this is a great story!

Whoa! Remember these Pins??

We received this funny email and photo from Paula Lidyoff in response to our Pins Post from a few weeks ago.   FUNNY!!!

Considering your recent post about sewing over pins, I thought you'd appreciate this picture from one of my quilting buddies.  Can you believe it?  True - she using those huge pins we all USED TO use.  I have been using the kind you like for a long time - Alex taught me how at Asilomar when I took her 'stars' class.  Once you get used to using those wonderful fine pins, everything else feels like an enormous railroad spike.  Not every quilt shop carries them, so when I see them, I'll oftentimes just get a fresh pack.  After all, they do bend, etc. a little more often than the railroad spikes (hahaha).  Anyway, get a good laugh with this.

Her caption read: 

"Just stitched through the head of a yellow pin! Omg. Needle didn't break .... but I need a pair of pliers to disconnect things. Another first! Haha."

Thanks for the laugh Paula!!!

 

Who remembers these pins!!?!?!  Do you still use them???

Meeting Kim at Cindy Needham’s Retreat!

Getting to go to Cindy’s retreats are a balm to my soul; a time to get together with other like minded sewing maniacs with Cindy’s advice along the way, seeing what other people are working on and getting some progress made on my own quilts.  This time I brought somebody else’s to work on, but more on that later.  I think the recipient may be on Facebook now and then and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.  I brought one quilting project and two piecing projects.  I got to a stopping point on everything and left a little earlier than planned – I broke my own retreat rule, which is ALWAYS BRING ONE MORE PROJECT THAN YOU THINK YOU WILL HAVE TIME FOR! 

For piecing projects, I’ll bring cutting to be done and sewing up to block placement.  I can never make up my mind fast enough to be able to put things up on a design wall and get them all sewn together by the end of the retreat, so spend my piecing time making what I call components.  Then when I get home I can lay them out, mess around with them until I get them where I want them (black and white filter on my phone camera is priceless for this step!) and then sew it together.

The retreats generally have a mix of people that I’ve met before and new ones, most of them intermediate or advanced level quilters, but this time I was charmed by Kim Cameron-Smith.  Kim is a first time quilter who purchased a Start Quilting book by Alex Anderson, talked to her quilter mom about going to the retreat and jumped in head first! 

I took a picture of Kim, Cindy and that very first quilt which, you’ll notice, she even got bound during the retreat!  I sent that picture to Alex who commented back, “This makes my heart super happy!”  I forwarded Alex’s response to Kim and she emailed back to me:

Hello Paula,

Thank you so much for lovely email! Attached is a photo of my 6 year old daughter Lydia with the quilt. She has been carrying it around ever since I gave it to her.

Thank you for forwarding me Alex's reply. I'm still loving her book! I've cut my fabric for my second quilt already. That book and the accompanying DVD are so clear and easy to understand. Definitely got me off to a good start.

I'm planning on another retreat and I've joined my local quilter's guild. I'm officially obsessed. Hope to see you at another of Cindy's retreats!

Kim

And here’s a picture of Lydia with the quilt!

I think another quilter is on board – don’t you?  And it’s so cool that she has something new to do with her Mom!

Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop!!!

Thanks to Marian Pena of Seams to Be Sew for hosting this Blog Hop!!   I am so excited to be a part of Quilt Qwazy Queens!

If this is your first visit here… WELCOME!  If you’re a follower of mine already, take time to visit each blog on the hop each day… there are creative ideas, fun stories, and fantastic giveaways at each stop!!

So... I am absolutely a Qwazy Quilting Queen!  Here's my story...

My husband Dan knew I was going to love quilting before I did!  He and I went to a quilt show with a good friend of mine and her husband in March 1990.  While I was looking at the quilts with Mary, Dan and Steve were wandering around and talking to the vendors.  When I left the quilt viewing area, Dan handed me a big bag with an Omnigrid 6”x24” ruler, a 45mm rotary cutter and a huge green self-healing mat.  He said, “You were in there so long I know you’re going to love this!”  I had an old Sears Kenmore machine that I probably got when I was in my late teens, rarely used but carted around from house to house as I progressed through my adult life.

Three weeks after Dan gave me the goods, I locked my keys in the trunk of my car, decided to spend a day at home, and made my first quilt from fabrics leftover from drapes and an open package of low loft polyester batting that was probably purchased to pad a cornice.  I spent the day piecing, quilting and binding a lap size quilt.  It is worn and faded from many years of use and sunshine from being draped over a sofa in a south facing window (who knew?), but it is my first quilt and I will love it always!

The whole day I spent making that quilt I was thinking to myself how much fun sewing was and that I really should spend more time doing it.  So I made a few more quilts, decided that I really loved it, bought a grown up machine and made a few more.  Did a little teaching, then decided to leave my day job and go into machine quilting for others full time on my domestic machine.  My life totally changed due to that small series of circumstances leading to the making of that very first quilt.

I count my blessings daily that I get to do this for a living!  Even pinch myself occasionally to make sure I am really awake and on that plane to the next quilt store or sewing machine shop that has invited a group of people for me to teach my particular take on machine quilting on domestic machines.  I am also truly grateful for my husband, who understands that I just need to get out there and travel and meet new students and see old friends.  He treats me like I truly am the Queen!

So to continue with the Queen theme – it sounded terribly British to me, so I thought what could be more British than English paper piecing?  I just happened to receive a Quilty Box on that very topic in January and thought 

MAYBE ONE OF YOU WOULD LIKE TO WIN IT???  

Simply sign up for our newsletter at our website and you'll be entered to win!!  

We'll announce the winner next week via email and social media!!  

And now for the lineup of blogs on this fabulous blog hop.  I know some of these dates have passed but you should still visit the blogs... they are wonderful!

 

March 18
Life In The Scrapatch
Sew Incredibly Crazy
In The Boon Docks
Quilting Affection
Words In Stitches

March 21
QuiltShop Gal
TeaTime Creations
Ravelly
Meadowbrook
Bumbleberry Cottage

March 22
Feather Your Nest
Grandmama's Stories
Pamela Quilts
Vroomans Quilts
My Quilty Musings

March 23
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Ridge Top Quilts
Quilt Art
Patchwork Breeze

March 24
Marjorie's Busy Corner
Just Because Quilts
Moose Stash

Kwilt Kracy
Batts In The Attic  (You are here!)
All Things Sewn

After You leave your comments at the above blogs
Stop In To Enter Only At
Seams to Be Sew

March 25
Just Let Me Quilt
Sew Many Yarns
Quilting Queen Online
Jane's Quilting

After You leave your comments at the above blogs
Stop In To Enter Only At
Seams to Be Sew

As a gift to everyone,the Fat Quarter Shop is offering  a 10% discount during the hop.

 (This is not good for gift certificates however.)

Use this code at checkout to receive 10% off your purchase:

seamstobe316

And finally… how to enter the giveaway.  And a BIG THANK YOU to Marian Pena of Seams to Be Sew for putting this together and to Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this blog hop and donating the giveaway!  

 To enter, simply click on the Rafflecopter below!

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

International Spring Cleaning Month - CLEAN OUT THOSE SCRAPS PEOPLE!!

I just learned that March is “International Spring Cleaning Month” – what are you doing to celebrate?  One of my friends who quilts all the time and rarely cooks told me she was planning to dust her kitchen!  Me?  I’m cleaning out my stash….I do this about every three or four years, going through all the fabrics, touching them, petting them, daydreaming about the wonderful quilts I could make if I had more time.  Some of my fabric pieces are fairly small and could probably qualify as scraps, but I just can’t bear to toss them. 

So it might be time to get a new Craftsy class about using up these scraps – there’s one from Pepper Cory called “Scrap Quilting: waste not, want not” – that sounds just perfect!  Pepper has written many many books over the years; I’ve always enjoyed her teaching style and her sense of humor, so here’s an opportunity to get her off the pages of the book and onto my iPad screen.

The first time I met Pepper was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done/said!  We were both teaching at an AQS show in Knoxville TN several years ago when we were seated near each other at breakfast in the hotel.  After some conversation among the group, she introduced herself to me – “I don’t think we’ve met – I’m Pepper Cory!”  My brain immediately flashed to the large stack of quilting books next to my reading chair and I said, “Oh! I have your picture in my living room!”  Pepper gave me a rather odd look and so I explained about the stack of books…..it was awkward and embarrassing and so totally me!

So if you'd like to check out her class "Scrap Quilting: waste not, want not" click HERE.  You'll LOVE it!  (And it's on a super sale right now!!)

Happy Cleaning!!!!!!! 

Paula

Wandering Stitches, Orlando FL

For the last three Quilt Markets, Mettler has been running a promotion for the stores who carry Mettler thread. They enter a drawing and the winner gets me! We agree on dates and then I go to the store and teach my two day Fluff & Stuff class and Mettler covers my fee, travel expenses, door prizes and thread gifts for every student. The store usually provides lunches, more door prizes -- in other words, this is a whole lot of fun for the people who get to go!

Wandering Stitches won the fall Quilt Market promotion and I went there last week. The store is located in an industrial complex just a few miles north of the Orlando airport and is owned by Lisa and Steve Mullins. Lisa started as a longarm quilter and there are four longarm machines in the store, which is huge! There are 6500 square feet of fabric and machines -- Wandering Stitches is also a BERNINA dealer and I got to do one of my free motion demos on the new sit down longarm, the Q-20! Fun!!!

Ooops! Got a little distracted there -- polka dots!! Pre-cuts!!

There are a kazillion samples on the walls and I took a lot of quilt pictures. The one on the right is from a book that they had sold out of -- does anyone know what book this is in? I love the modern vibe (which reminds me that I still need to post my QuiltCon pics) and, yes, I know I could figure out the design but I definitely believe in paying for another person's vision and hard work. So if you recognize the quilt and know the book name, could you please leave a comment?

Quilt samples for upcoming classes. There are two classrooms here; I was in the larger of the two and everyone had plenty of room to spread out. While I was teaching in one classroom, there were BERNINA serger classes going on in the other. A lot going on in this store!

This little wall quilt intrigued me because it was using the decorative stitches on the machine to create the striped fabric. I know my machine has probably 500+ stitches and I use 3 -- well, maybe 4 as I like a couple of different stitches for applique.....

Could not resist taking pictures of some of the Mettler thread fixtures in the store. First of all, I've never seen so much Mettler thread in one place outside of a trade show! They have everything! Secondly, when Lisa ordered the fixtures she asked if they could make them in black rather than the normal white wood that they come in. I love the way the black fixtures make the thread colors pop!
As for the bottom photo, this is the fixture that I have been drooling over -- all the 50 wt. colors in one place and displayed so conveniently. I do have a fixture, but it's older and showing signs of wear; I really have to start saving my quarters and $1s and $5s and get this puppy!

This is my class on the second day, taking a quick break to thank Mettler for this event!
If you are in the Orlando area, Wandering Stitches is definitely worth a side trip. It is so close to the airport that even if you have about a 2-3 hour layover, you could Uber on over there! Store is located at 5818 Hoffner Avenue, Suite 905 in Orlando (phone: 407-658-4044). When you enter the complex, you turn left and then proceed to a T, then turn right. So it's toward the back of the complex on the left hand side. And -- yes -- a box is following me home....

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