A Dot Party Party!

Last Saturday I spent the afternoon at The Village Quilter taking Julie's Dot Party class.

Such a fun afternoon and I got the whole quilt top finished!!  These blocks are addicting (as you'll see).

There were six of us in the class and I had a bad case of fabric envy.  Not that I didn't like my own fabrics - I think the Kumari Garden and blue quilter's linen looks great, but everyone else's looked great too.  This quilt looks good in anything!  There was a beautiful batik version and someone was using Pick a  Bunch.  Julie may have helped convince me I needed to do a Pick a Bunch version and Village Quilter just happened to have layer cakes of P-a-B and the Kona Snow solids just ready and waiting for me (so, yeah, I needed a lot of convincing - LOL). 

The class was great - the other ladies were lovely and Julie is always fun.  And, I love the atmosphere in The Village Quilter (I really wished I lived closer - maybe it's a good thing I don't - LOL!)  And, I figured out the trick to that ruler...

It was my left-handedness that was messing me up!  I realized I had to cut *backwards*, i.e., going from right to left - the way you'd naturally do it if you are right handed but just a tad awkward if you're left handed.  But it didn't take long to get the hang of it and my cuts came out perfectly!

Besides Kumari Garden and Pick a Bunch, there's at least one more Dot Party in the works.  This just came in...

Ann Kelle's Spring Urban Zoologie - I've been waiting for this for months!!  I am just enjoying looking at it.  I'm pairing it with the pink quilter's linen.  Some little girl is going to be very happy. o:)

A Night with Jay McCarroll

I want to report on our night with Jay McCarroll at our last Philly Modern Quilt Guild meeting.  What a fun night and what a nice guy Jay is! 

Jay brought his new fabric line, Habitat, and showed off some quilts and other items made from the line.  He talked about his background, his time on Project Runway and his design process for each of the fabrics in his new line.  It was fascinating to me to hear not only what inspired each piece, but how he physically did them.   Learning about the fabrics really brought the line "alive" for me and I have a greater appreciation for each of the pieces.  There's a  great interview with Jay (part one  part two) at True Up where he goes into some of the detail.  Jay was really funny too and was kind enough to take photos with all who wanted one.

Besides a few quilts made with his new line, Jay also showed these pillows made with each of the three colorways.  I love these pillows...

He also showed these chairs he recovered with his fabrics.  Are they cool or what?!

You know what, my photos stink.  Go to Andrew's blog to see some great photos of the night (Andrew's our designated guild photog - for a reason).

Jay also kicked off a new Modern Quilt Guild challenge at our meeting.  All participants were given a bag with each fabric in the line in one colorway plus two solids (you didn't know what you were getting, but I got the colorway I wanted - YAY!)  We have to make a 12" block to submit and Jay will pick three winners.  More blocks will be made in all the Modern Guilds and they ultimately will be made into quilts for charity.  I'm looking forward to helping put the charity quilts together.  I finished my block last night and sent it off.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  These were the fabrics I had to use.  In fact, I liked it so much, I'm thinking of snagging some more of this line to make a whole quilt!

 

[okay, why did I even show this - it looks like black and white.  The top fabric is an olive tone and the bottom is a light blue]

As soon as the contest is over, I'll show you my block.  Working with this line was fun, fun, fun!

How Fast Was That!

Started Sunday, 6/19/2011.  Top Finished Monday, 6/20/2011.

Seriously, I started this last Sunday evening and finished up Monday night after work.  I'm keeping this pattern in mind when I need something super quick!

I got the heads' up that a new little one is expected in our extended family so I thought I'd get a jump and start on a baby quilt.  I pulled out this fabric that I bought about six months ago and thought it would be perfect for this pattern and it came out really cute.

I love the "alphabet" fabric...

I don't yet know if my cousin is expecting a boy or a girl.  I know this would be fine for a girl, not sure about a boy with that floral center.  What do you think????

A Graduation Gift

We are invited to a friend's daughter's high school graduation party today.  It's our only one this year and, of course, I'm giving her a quilt.  This young lady chose to make a quilt for her senior project and I was so proud of her!  I think she got bitten by the bug a bit after making  that first one, because I hear she wants to make quilts for some of her neices and nephews!

As soon as we got the invitation to the party, I knew I had the perfect quilt for her.  I had the fabric for this one laying around for about a year (so that makes it a free gift, right????).  I used Heather Mulder Peterson's pattern from her Livin' Large book called "From the Heart".

I used Heather's Cottage Charm line for the front and a print from her Rebel Roses line for the back (I love that fabric!)

[oops, don't mind my foot - at least I'm manicured!]

I just did some quick freehand quilting - a large meander on most of the quilt, some loops in a flower motif in the quarter-square triangles and swirly loops in the applique portion.  Lazy way out I know, but I was in a hurry - LOL!  Besides, it looks pretty good.

I hope she likes it!!

Jay McCarroll speaking at PMQG!

If you're in the Philadelphia area on Tuesday evening, 6/21, and you'd like to come see Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll, he's presenting at our Philly Modern Quilt Guild meeting that night! 

Jay has a new fabric line with FreeSpirit called Habitat, which he'll be showing and will talk about his design process.  Also at our meeting, he's launching a nationwide Modern Quilt Guild Challenge sponsored by FreeSpirit focused on his new fabric.  How exciting for PMQG!!

You can see the gallery of each fabric here.


Details:
Date: Tuesday, 6/21/2011
Time: 7:00pm - prompt!
Location: Huntingdon Valley, PA
Cost: Free for paid members; $5.00 for non-members
For exact location and to sign up email phillymodernquiltguild@gmail.com.

Catching Up...

I wanted to catch up on posting about some recent finishes and some more winnings!

Here is my finished, quilted and bound Brocante Schibbles.  Pom Pom de Paris for the top...

Quilted with the Not Quite Paisley pantograph from Willow Leaf Studio.  This was a great panto for this quilt, but boy is it dense!  I was really glad I chose to use it on something small - LOL!

And, not only do I get this cute little quilt out of the deal, but I won this for entering it in Sinta and Sherri's April Le Petite!

I also won a Lapel Stick from Jo from Jo's Country Junction!  I've been wanting to try the Lapel Stick for a while now.  I heard about it a year or so ago on someone's blog and was all ready to order.  But at the time the only place you could get it was Canada.  Shipping was like $15.00 - waaaaaay more than the 3 sticks I was ordering.  I was bummed.  So I was thrilled when I won this (thanks Jo!).  Lapel Stick is labeled as a temporary non-staining adhesive - you can use it for collars or lapels (duh!) that stick up, temporary hems, etc.  And, of course, applique!!  So I tried it out on the table runner I just made (last post).  I used it to temporarily secure the bias strips so I could sew them down.  Worked great and didn't gum up the needle at all!  I'll be using this to prep my clamshells too (that is if I ever make anymore when I get back to that project) . 



This totally floored me when I got this envelope in the mail.  The return address said "Moda" and it was squishy.  Moda - sending something to me????  Whatever could it be?  I was giddy with excitement.  They sent me this cute little 2.5" charm pack of Lilac Hill as a thank you for the Just One Star blocks I had sent.  I had completely forgotten about those and certainly wasn't expecting anything in return.   Wow!  Thanks Moda!  I put the thank you note on my sewing room bulletin board and the little charm pack with it's bigger twin on my shelf.   

Last month at our Philly Modern Quilt Guild meeting, we revealed our Kona Solids Charm Challenges.  I used the Lil Twister ruler for the first time.  Our challenge was that we couldn't use any additional solids, just prints.  I promise that white is NOT a solid, but a tone-on-tone dot (it still felt like cheating though - LOL!).  Once I finished cutting out the Lil Twister blocks, I was left with what resembled swiss cheese.  After some careful trimming, I was able to use the leftovers on the border.  I really liked using the ruler and the blocks went together easily.  I'd like to try the larger one next.  What would that be, the "Big Twister"????  I was really intrigued to see what my fellow guild members would do with this challenge and I was not disappointed!  The creativity in this group astounds me.  You can go here to see the rest of the Challenge quilts.

We're having a really exciting guest at our next meeting, so I'll be sure to report!

A Happy (?) Accident

I have a couple of beautiful tablecloths that I use on my dining room table.  One for winter, one for summer.  They are huge and I need to do careful folding to make them the right size to fit my table without the extension leaves (which is usually how we have it).  I am very careful to put another cloth over the table when we have Sunday dinner so I don't have to wash the good ones all the time.  Well, on Memorial Day I didn't.  Just left my pretty "summer cloth" on and figured since we weren't having anything too messy, it would be fine.

No sooner did we sit down and my husband promptly knocked over his full, very tall, glass of Orange smoothie.  Thanks, hon!  What a mess.

So, off came the cloth and the pads and into the laundry room it all went.  So, I was looking at the bare wood of the table and had a thought.  I've got all these Schnibbles that I've made over the past year (six at last count I think) and don't really have too many places to put them.  I pulled out my new Brocante Schnibble and decided to give it a try on the table.  Looks pretty nice!

I just may leave it there for awhile (at least until my klutzy husband sits down to eat at the table again - LOL!)