I'm Going To Spool... Are You Coming??

I'm going to Spool for a two day quilting event sponsored by Mettler threads!  October 9 & 10 I'll be in Chattanooga,TN and you'd better sign up soon, seating is limited and there is an amazing take home gift from the wonderful people at Mettler for all who attend!  Check out all the details HERE!

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Maddy in Love!

Introducing Maddy, age 15, to the Brother Isodore was fun! Watching her make a sleeveless dress with a lined princess-seamed bodice and a pleated skirt with a waist seam from a Vogue pattern between lunch and dinner was even more fun!  Not to mention being pretty mind boggling; I don't claim to have sewing skills, so to watch an expert in action was eye opening.

Think we may have a budding fashion designer in the making!

"Aha" moments made easy!

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Star of the Show -- Cozy Quilt Designs

This Christmas beauty has been hanging around (literally, over the bannister) just waiting for borders. So even though we were super busy this week, managed to find the time to get them on. Did the miters this morning between last night's company leaving and this week's arriving.

This will be the holiday quilt for the guest room bed.

I started sewing the scraps, extra strips and other assorted leftovers into the back when I was at Sierra Stars in Truckee last month. So next step is to finish that, then I'll finish the cutting for the "Long May She Wave" quilt top!

Said It Was Going to Be a Cozy Quilt Summer!

As I've said before, I've been buying patterns, fabric and 2-1/2" strips from both Bolts in the Bathtub and directly from Cozy Quilts, so I went through the sewing room to see what was there. Above are the empty shipping boxes from Cozy....

Here is one from Cozy and one from Bolts. That's Dawna's quilt on the chair with a bag full of fabric to make it and another kit.

Here's what came out of all those boxes!

Let's get a little closer

I liked "Glory" so much that I already had the kit including the pattern and recently purchased the pattern again! Don't think I need two -- want to win one?

Love the fabrics in this one...

Couldn't get the border fabric in the other pic -- isn't it festive?

This one is in Christmas fabrics!

Don't have a color picture of this pattern, so it will be fun to see how it develops.

Love these colors!

Next step is going back through them and picking what to do next....Wishing for cooler weather, so maybe there's one in autumn-y colors?

If you would like to win my second copy of "Glory", just leave a comment and we'll do a drawing on August 15! It looks pretty easy and doesn't need any special rulers. Good luck!

My Annual Cindy Needham Fix – Love Her!”

I met Cindy about four years ago when she taught a two day class, including a thread bar lecture, at the Ridgecrest CA quilt guild.  I then signed up for her four day design retreat and the following year took her Linen Ladies retreat. Since then I’ve been to a couple more; it just seems that the time totally dedicated to nothing but quilting plus Cindy’s input has made me a better quilter. I treasure this time!

This was the first time I had been to the Mercy Retreat Center in Auburn CA and I was very happy here. Had a big table with excellent lighting and lots of work tables set up with cutting mats. There were also cordless irons – in other words, you could piece, applique, baste, mark and/or quilt and have plenty of space for any and all of it. I took a couple of pictures of the room, but since there were so many windows, they tended to come out dark.

We had a show and tell on the last day. It went so fast that I didn’t get names, but here’s what people were working on:

I love this! She was making it for her 12 year old niece; we could all see lots of quilting possibilities for those light diamond areas (of course, I’m voting for feathers), but then we were thinking – all that work an it will be taken care of by a 12 year old?

Loved the stars!

And an itty bitty pincushion that you could wear on your finger! How cute and how fortuitous that she had a nice manicure!

A ruched flower made from ombre fabric which is what made this so pretty. I have a closeup of the flower, too, but I liked this one because of the cute shoe!

Closeup of the flower – the ombre fabric totally makes this. It shades from bright yellow all the way through burnt orange to almost a brown.

The piecing was beautiful but the quilting was even better!!

Look at the dragonfly….

A classroom shot – lots of room for everybody to lay out all their stuff – and, wow, do we bring stuff!

This is the project that Cindy was working on when she got a spare moment or two. A beautiful piece of linen with lots and lots and lots of quilting.

This is what I worked on at the retreat. I had started this in the Linen Ladies workshop I took from Cindy two years ago. I got all of the feathers done during that retreat and then brought it back last year to work on some of the background quilting. Now all I have to do is hand stitch down the doily that inspired it all.

The quilt is constructed of two pieces of Radiance (50% silk/50% cotton blend fabric from Robert Kaufman), the rose color on the front and a pale pink on the back. I interfaced the Radiance with Bosal, an iron-on woven interfacing that Cindy recommends to make the Radiance less slippery and more manageable while quilting. Batting is one layer of Quilter’s Dream Cotton topped by a layer of Quilter’s Dream Wool. I wanted the cotton for stability and the wool for loft.

After I get the doily sewn on, I intend to do more hand stitching (gasp!!) to attach tiny pearls to the doily. That will nail the whole thing down and add some pretty. Only problem is, I can’t find the pearls I bought for the project. I know where they SHOULD be, but…..

This is the back – I wanted some quilting interest on the back in the space reserved on the front for the doily, so I used one of Cindy’s Ultimate Stencils (you can buy these on her website, www.cindyneedham.com) to design the center medallion.

I’m really pleased with everything I got done and am already thinking about what I might work on next year!

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