I have looked high and low

and in every hiding spot I can think of for my wonderful 9patches that I made in the summer. I think little dust bunnies stole them. So I am making another 30. I will find the ones I made earlier and put them in the quilt so.. this one will go on the shelf till I do.. watch I will find the 30 I made earlier and then won't be able to find these ones...
I have my row robins done from a Yahoo group that is full of fibre arts ideas and teachings. I have the group listed on the side as well Learning FA. These Rounds are now going to Norway...my last parcel has not arrived yet but they said to continue sending. When I sent them
Ike was in full swing.. I wonder if it had anything to do with the mail.
The first row Robin I did the middle row...pattern is called broken dishes and I fussy cut a kettle to go with her cups and saucers.
The second round robin started with Noah's ark, then the flying geese and then you can see Noah and his animals.. I did the "sea of waves" pattern.. so that all elements are covered. The Earth, Air, Sea..wonder what the next person will think of??
Carol Doak has started another BOM and it geared toward scenic blocks these are paperpieced. I crazy pieced the tree and have one of my kitties waiting for me to come home on my yellow brick road. I am digging again just in my scrap barrel to make these precious 7" blocks. You can join this yahoo group..the link is on the side and have fun making these free blocks.
There is an album too.. you can see what about 50 others have done with this block.. amazing!!

Swaps continued...

this little guy is a swap that I am doing with girls in a group called http://badgirlsguild.com they are doing a swap with 20 of the patterns from http://www.fatcatpatterns.com everyone will donat a dollar for the use of her patterns.
He is called Eggbert.. now I have not machine appliqued before and so I am trying a new process. I am more the hand appliquer.. but I like it.. I had found meters of the Chicken wire fabric and that was great for the background. I love his wings and tail they are little trees but are perfect to look like feathers.

these are the nine patches that were in their envelopes earlier now they are in their respective piles and are waiting to be mailed... I am going to do that on Sunday.. this was fun to do it was a great way to meet some lovely ladies their wonderfull little notes of thanks and great fq's that they sent in thanks and help pay postage. Our postage is different in Canada to US and so they are not able to prepost the envelopes.
Well it is Friday and I am so happy one more week and I start a new old job.. I am going back to my old job but am very happy.. it is 2weeks days and 2 weeks nights... I love working nights and can't wait to start!!
Have a great weekend.

Irresistable!!

I finally started these wonderful little blocks and had to post them.. if you go to the side and click on the little ark it will take you to Lynette's site where she has all these patterns posted for free!

I love what she has called her map on how each of these blocks of the month are to lay out.. she calls it her "mud map" how cute is that.

If you go to her site as well you will also see others that have done this little BOM and see the variances that others have done with their blocks.

They are very quick to put together and it is a new stitch I had to learn.. I am hoping with practice that I will get better.

this was the first one I did and I just loved doing those itty bitty cotton tails

so do take a visit by clicking on the ark on the right you will not be disappointed! There is still time to catch up and I know there are about 3 more she has to post.. I am wondering if the box in the middle will be the Ark itself... or just click on the title... and it brings you to her home page. Great Quilt pics and she has the cutest animal pics that her puppy and kitty pose for...

Creative Sewing Festival-well toot my horn!!

What a fantastic time!! I was invited by York Heritage Quilt Guild http://www.yhqg.org/to Teach One Block Wonder at the Creative Festival and it was really worth it!! The class was sold out which ment there were 20 brave students to try something different.

My friend Monica on the right with her OBW (a class I had taught earlier at another store) called me weeks in advance and asked me if I needed help. I am so glad I took her up on her generous offer. Monica had to take a day off of work and when I was told I was not paid to do this class it was to represent the guild she still was willing to participate. The pics you see are what she done while I was instructing.

Monica was the best assistant that anyone could have. I don't know how to thank her but if you all have any ideas please let me know she really deserves so much. What a wonderful friend!! Thank you, Thank you she knew where to be and what to do it was a magical day with great help from a guardian quilter.

Back to the show you can see to the right the view we had from the class room we could se the whole festival going on. I did not get a chance to visit due to teaching all day and then working a night that night. We had.. I my opinion the best class. I had called in advance to speak to the coordinator and asked about what was avaliable for class set up and gave her the basics what was required.

When I walked into the HUGE class room I was so totally impressed. There were 20 Husqavarna Sewing machines set up with the 1/4in foot that I requested and also a representitve that was there to make sure that everyone knew how to wind their bobin/to thread their machine/ and how to operate. The students were totally impressed what these machines can do especially some of us that have only straight stitch and zigzag.

Marilyn (the rep) was very very helpful and super nice anything requested she pulled it out of her sleeve...and was there for great support. Cutting boards and rotary cutters were avaliable, nice long tables for us to prepare properly for our OBW's, numerous irons and boards.

You can see below this fabulous fabric that one of the students brought.. this would be perfect for a OBW.. I sure hope you get the incentive to try one.

Here I am counting the repeats on this luscious sunflower fabric.. it was the same fabric I had used on one of my OBW.

Below showing students how to piece accurately so that all the pieces would go together smoothly even when you started sewing row by row. Aren't they so attentive??

Here I am starting to place what blocks they were able to get together on a porable design wall. The students did really well on getting the amount of blocks pieced so that they can start to see some results. They were very helpful and giving advise on where the blocks should be placed which told me they had the right idea and were well on their own on how to put together.

Monica and I commented at the end on our way home that we could not have had better students in our class and really thank them for their enthusiasm and willing to learn and step out of the box to create their own OBW... they each took my email and promised to email their final results.. I so cannot wait and hope to share them with you as they are completed.

I do hope that you are able to take a fabric and buy the book One Block Wonder/or Encore part 2. I would love to see your wonderful masterpiece.

Happy Piecing...

"It is not a race"

Click on the Title "it is not a race" and you will see her wonderful slide show
I promised that it would be a spectacular site to see and I will say that the Group and I were not disappointed!! Karen's exhibition of stunning quilts was well worth every second of our lifetime!! Her work is done by hand those wonderful hexagon's.. yes pieced by hand!! Karen's first words were.. it is not a race and I can see why with all these intricate quilts. Some she made for challenges like the seasonal trees and the fishes.. the embroderie you see on these quilts are all done by hand...so I can see that she is not racing to finish these but really enjoys the process of making them.
The group and I thoroughly thank Karen for giving us a view into her quilting world and look forward to the next time she can stand and give us a wonderful show... oh yes she works full time to and does have a family.

Swaps are so much fun!!

I am currently organizing a wonderful 9patch swap and there are 30 members that participated. Well I have all the parcels and for Thanksgiving weekend I have the joy of giving thanks to all those that participated.
Quilters are such giving and wonderful friends and I am so happy that I am a quilter they are the bestest friends you can ever have.
We are all cyber friends from all over the world and what better way than to have a keepsake by enjoying one of their blocks in your quilt.
Mom and I will be seperating these this weekend and putting them in their respective envelopes then mailing them off.
We lost one member due to a sudden death and we all are donating a nine patch to make a quilt for her dear husband and daughter. MerryBee (MB) was a wonderful contributor to our site and we will miss her dearly. Merry Bee's daughter (MBG-Merry Bee's Girl) has been wonderful in filling in MB's quilting chair and has sent me MB's Bulls Eye swap blocks I will mix these in the quilt and have it for them for Christmas.
As you can see my basket is full and the cat in the hat is estatic to have these blocks so close at hand to play with. Mail has been fun the last couple of weeks and I will surely miss getting these packages. Once I have them laid out and ready for mailing I will post another pic...
I think it would be great to also have a "blogger" swap.. can you just imagine!!

I am in 2 other swaps as well.. one is with Sindy's Chicken patterns on another site http://badgirlsguild.com/ The girls on this site picked patterns from http://www.fatcatpatterns.com . We well send a donation to the creator for the use of her pattern. I will be doing Eggbert. There are 20 ladies involved and it is so cool can't wait these have to be done and sent by end of Oct.

I am also in a Xmas square swap on another group http://comingtogethertoquilt.com/ this is a new group but with some old members and new members. I am trying to get as many people as possible for the squares so that the coordinator will have lots of work to do!! I want her to know how much fun it is to get all these parcels. This is her first time coordinating a swap.. what fun!! All you need to do is cut 2 6 1/2in squares for each member that signs up for the swap.. how easy is that.. no piecing, just accurate cutting.

So if any of you come up with some great idea's or links to some nine patch ideas please pass them this way... the more ideas the better. Remember quilters love to share
Now to go play.. I think the house is starting to get up!!

Preview.. Karen Howes

These are just a preview of Karen's wonderfull quilts she pieces and quilts these wonderful pieces of work by hand... by hand!! Imagine... her mother is just as talented and I am fortunate enough to have 2 miniature quilts one by each lady... I call them my generational minis.. enjoy examining these beauties.. I am going to see them live... what a wonderful world I live in!!

Quilter at work.. beware

Look at this mess!! I have been busy with creating this Reaching for the Star's quilt and I have fabric pulled from every where!! there are piles everywhere!! and I still keep pulling more out!!

I must say it will be worth it in the long run those pieces are coming together and I can't wait to see the end result!! Okay I have to dive back into this disaster and get back to work

Tonight is quilt guild night, so I will have to step away for a little bit but one of most favorite quilters is a guest speaker Karen Howes she does alot of hand piecing and she has given me permission to post some of her quilts so I will take some pics and show you tomorrow

Do you remember...??

when I spoke of the signature quilts I was doing in the summer. I have one back from the machine quilter. I asked for the anchor with some rope as the design and she was able to design the motif. The anchor was part of the symbol for the year.. the colors were what they wore. I now have to put the binding on.

I put it on the clothes line to get a full view.. it is large but will fit a queen nicely... the close up is so that you can see some of the siggies and also the design.. where did I get this pattern you ask?? from the May Fon's and Porter mag.. remember it came in the week before the deadline and then it was sew, sew, sew... I was so lucky to find the little square block fabric it just tied all the other colors together.. as you all know pictures really don't do a quilt justice.


next is the "Reaching for the stars quilt! I have the large star all pieced and ready for assembly and have 4 of the corner stars ready for assembly... here is an example of a couple of them. I have the corner and filler blocks in between to do yet... so as you can see I have been a busy quilter. My design board looks pretty cool right now with these stars all over the place... they are alot quicker to put together than the large one that is for sure!!

Now all the little eight pointed stars that I have to make to fill each of the corners of the blocks and then 2 more star blocks for the half pieced blocks.. almost done!!


I am very lucky that I did a sample block.. not sure if it is an error on the pattern or my cutting... but for the little eight pointed blocks the background I have to cut 1/2 smaller than is requested in the pattern for the square and the triangle.... quilters golden rule make a sample block... I repeat... make a sample block...

Normally I don't but for such a big quilt I sure didn't want to waste any fabric!! I found this great background fabric that has stars in it!! I thought that was perfect!