HAPPY EASTER TO ALL MY PEEPS

Happy Easter, Happy Spring.  This quilt was made by my great-grandmothers, before I was born.  It's genuine 30's prints.

Each butterfly is hand stitched down and then the blocks stitched together I think on the treadle I now own. It was left as a quilt top (I shudder thinking my kids may inherit tops too!) and my grandmother had it quilted by the Amish. It's a treasure for sure. Only one of the butterflies is gone, but the black buttonhole stitch remains in tact where it was around the fabric.​ 

IT'S WORLDWIDE QUILTING DAY!

For quilters today is a day to celebrate our craft -- all over the world.  I joined in a WWQD swap where we each waited for today to open our gifts.  Mine has been here, hiding in my cabinet for almost a month.  I was good, and waited to open it this morning (I must admit I felt a bit like a kid on Christmas).

 

Marianne made this adorable mug rug for me.  Love it!

 

She also included these fun extras:  rick rack, note cards, FQ, pattern, project bag, and a nice card.

 

Hope you are celebrating today too!

FARMHOUSE QUILT

This is my last post from the quilt show.  Here's an entry using Edyta Sitar's Farmhouse pattern.

 

This quilt is most definitely on my bucket list.  I love how Edyta combines batiks and other fabrics in the same quilt. 

 

 

Notice the blue ribbon?  There were three of Edyta's designs in our show, and all three were sporting ribbons.

 

 

Here's a close up of the lovely quilting.

 

 

I am in a swap group trading strips for this quilt.  Of course you can make whatever you want with the strips, but this is the intent.  This year we are working on a swap for her Spools quilt.

 

 

If you are unfamiliar with Edyta Sitar, or her company Laundry Basket Quilts, do check her out.  She grew up in Poland and currently lives in Albion, Michigan.  Since I'm half Polish, and grew up just down I-94 from Albion, maybe that's part of why I identify with her.  But I thinks it's her lovely quilt designs and use of fabric that calls to me mainly.

MORE PRETTIES FROM MY GUILD'S SHOW

I really like the shadow animals on this twister tree.

Sure enough, modern quilts are growing on me.

 

Love, love this one!  Round and round.

 

Modern paisley.  Love it!

 

New twist on one of my favs, hexies!  Great rendition.

 

Wow!  Here's the hexie back!

 

I was working near the challenge quilts.  This one took 1st place.  The ribbons were so special!  Notice the eyes -- the bottom eyes are human!  The theme was it's a jungle out there.

LAKE COUNTY QUILT GUILD SHOW

 These are some of  my favorite traditional quilts from our show.  I always love hexies, and GFG is such a pretty setting.

Here's a peak at the quilting close up.

 

I think the applique on this one was so nice!

 

 

Ditto here.

 

 

It's hard to believe this beauty is make with all straight stitching.

 

 

Love the new twist on this quilt.  The movement is going in all directions.

This 'Across the Spectrum' quilt caught my eye.  I have the same quilt all pieced, but not quilted yet.

I'll be sharing more in another post. 

LAKE COUNTY QUILT GUILD

I haven't belonged to an in-person quilt guild since I left Saudi Arabia ('94).  That was the Dhahran Oasis Quilters and they were just starting up at that time.  I hear they are going strong now, and there's even a quilt shop in the Dammam-Al Khobar area, giving Al Zamil's competition.

Yesterday I joined the Lake County Quilt Guild.  My friend, Jodi, joined with me, and she used her embroidery machine to stitch our names for our name tags.  We got the kit from the guild, and just needed to stitch it up and add our names any way we chose. The guild pin is attached at the top.

The annual show is this Thursday and Friday, so we jumped right in and volunteered to hostess a two-hour time slot.  We will be the ladies in white gloves, greeting the visitors, discussing the quilts with them, reminding them only to touch with a gloved hand, etc.  The area I'm assigned to includes the children's entries.  Three of them are by five-year-olds.  I can't wait to see what they created and their write-ups too.

For a long time now I have considered my online yahoo quilt groups to be my guilds.  I still do, but now I have an in-person guild too.

SYLVIA'S BRIDAL SAMPLER

A few weeks ago I dug out my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler bin, and started back to working on these blocks.  I've been doing the BOW on the list.  To my surprise, I won this pin for February.  You get one entry for each block you submit every month.

This week's block is M-7, New Mexico.  The block wasn't hard, but was fiddly, and took a while.

I used Marti Michell's Set S.  This really helps when making a 6" block with a 5x5 grid.

The pieces are tiny, as this picture with the quarter shows.

Not too bad, but far from perfect.  I think I'll use the galloping horse rule here and keep it:)

AROUND THE WORLD SWAP

This is a photo of the first 9 blocks (of 20) that I've received back from the Around the World Swap.  I think this is going to make an awesome quilt!

CASE OF THE SECRET GARDEN

I put my Case of the Secret Garden pieces and supplies in an Art Bin with dividers for taking along while I travel.  It's very handy!

CASE OF THE SECRET GARDEN CLUE 3

 

These are the two 'blocks' I'm stitching by hand for clue 3.

And here's my set up for stitching.  Very handy!

BEA'S QUILT ALONG FABRICS

I just pulled 7 fabrics from my 30's stash for Bea's Quilt Along.  I'm not sure what I'll use where but these are the 7 I've selected.  Probably the stripe green will be the border.  Or the center fabric for border, as that is where the others came from.  We shall see, but a quilter reserves the right to change her mind:)  So I'm ready for the first step in March.  Sort of.

BEA'S QUILT ALONG

My friend Bea is hostessing a quilt along.  This one promises to be a skill builder so it's perfect if you are adding to your repertoire of skills.  Hop on over to Bea's blog here to get the details and yardage requirements. 

Bea is so sweet in sharing her skills.  Notice she offers EQ information and help, plus many other great things (including super pictures of her baby, Sonja).

BTW, Bea is not pronounced like a buzzing bee.  It's be a, as in 'be a quilter', hence the name of her blog.

CASE OF THE SECRET GARDEN

 

This week has been filled with doctor appointments, but I have managed to get all the cutting done for the little shapes of the Inklingo mystery.

 

With Inklingo you print the shapes on the wrong side of your fabric (using an ordinary ink jet printer), so you don't need templates.  Then you cut on the cutting lines.  The cut out shapes still have the seam line showing, as well as cross-hairs at the corners, and match points along the way.

Now on to the sewing part of Clue 3. 

You can find a link to Inklingo and also The Case of the Secret Garden (COTSG) mystery in previous posts as well as on my side bar.

WHOO KNOWS?

 

Meet Borachio, the first block in Sindy R.'s new BOM, 'Whoo Knows?'.  Sindy used browns and greens for hers, but I'm going with brights.

The eyes are a fussy cut from an ugly free FQ on a shop hop.  It's really horrible brown flowers printed on off-white.  I think making eyes out of the flowers proves there are no ugly fabrics, it's all in how you use it, LOL!

Block patterns are free for one month, or you can buy the whole quilt pattern now.  Hop over to Fat Cats to check it out.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Happy Valentins Day all.  It's a dark and cloudy day here, so it was hard to get a nice picture of this little Patchabilities wall hanging that I made a few years back.

Case of the Secret Garden

Step 2 for any Inklingo project:  test the colors on your fabric.  You can see this really well on my white, but it's printed the same on all of these little 5 x 5 swatches.  You select the color you'll print on the back of the fabric, cutting lines and stitching lines with hatch marks at corners and match points.  You want the lightest color that you can see. 

This is a little tricky on the prints, because what you can see on the lighter parts doesn't necessarily show up on the dark.  These tests are on the back of the fabric because that's where the marks get printed.

So what was Step 1, you ask.  Select your fabrics of course.  Here's what I'm using in the COTSG, right side out.

The quarter is for the size of the print which was important here, because the pieces are small.  Now on to printing the shapes on my fabrics.

ATW BLOCKS

I finished three more blocks for the Around the World Swap.  Here's the most recent 6 I've done.  So now I have 14 done,  6 to go when their FQs arrive.  I think this pattern, Patience Corners from quilterscahche.com would look super for an entire quilt, in coordinating colors of course.

GOLDEN QUILTER AWARDS - VOTE!

Voting is now open, and I voted for my favorites.  You can too.  Click here to make your choices count and for a chance to win prizes.

BIRD HOUSE MUG RUG

I finished another mug rug this morning, this cute little bird house.  Warning: Mug rugs are VERY addicting!

Looks like it will be a busy week:

• WOB block for Sarah is HARD!  EPPing a myriad of tiny shapes.  OR, make alternate block.
• Second clue for COTSG (inklingo - see previous post)
• Borachio, first block in Fat Cats new BOM, Whoo Knows?
• Keep up with ATW Swap blocks (2 more FQs have arrived)
• Step one of Contess BOM, IF missing fabric 7 arrives

 

 

 

Hints: 

• The Inklingo mystery is perfect for beginners at printing on fabric with an ordinary ink jet printer.  This week is all about the printing, step by step, taking the mystery out.  http://www.lindafranz.com/blog/the-case-of-the-secret-garden-clue-2/
 
• Sindy's Fat Cats link http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/
 
• Women of the Bible link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenoftheBibleQuilt/

 Hope you find time to keep busy stitching too.



CASE OF THE SECRET GARDEN

 

Linda and Monkey are up to mischief!  They have created an Inklingo mystery, The Case of the Secret Garden, and it's for gals just like me.

Me?  Why me?  Because I love how Inklingo prints cutting and piecing lines right on your fabric.  Because it's so easy to stitch that way.  Because you don't need to make templates for tough pieces.  Well, that sounds like it would be for anyone.  Why me?

Because I have sewn Inklingo blocks (hexies) that someone else sent me, loved it, ordered it (hey, some of the shapes are free), and shelved it.  Printing on fabric seemed confusing.  It must be hard.  Well, probably not hard, as everyone else seems to do it.  There's even a Yahoo group for Inlingo users, and they are nice -- no dumb questions except the ones you don't ask.  Linda is nice, and answers questions, and she has Monkey to boot.  So why don't I use it?

I don't know.  But, The Case Of The Secret Garden promises to get folks like me going.  All the mystery will be taken out.  It's a small project, no big commitment.  It only takes four fabrics (from stash in my case).  New clues will be posted, and there will be support from others making the same thing at the same time.  Baby steps.

So with encouragement from my online friend Cyn (we must meet one day!), I'm in.  By the way, it is not just for beginner users of Inklingo.  It's for everyone.  This is a new shape in the every-growing collection.

I ordered the one set I needed and didn't have last night.  Sure enough, easy peasey, downloaded on my computer.  It even came with free stuff too!  Why not?  I downloaded the first clue.  Easy.  I'm ready for more.  Bring it on, Monkey!

 

If you are confused as to what Inklingo is, what the mystery is about, or any of this post, just click on the links in the post.  I'll have a link to the mystery on my sidebar too.

 

OWLS MUG RUG

I had fun this week playing with this mug rug.  It was fun to pull the different fabrics and also to play around with the rarely used stitches on my machine.  Only the French knot eyes are by hand, and stitching the back to front binding down.

GIVE AWAY

 

Brynwood Needle Works is having a Valentin Give Away.  Click here or on my side bar to find out about it.

NAOMI, HOMECOMING

 

This week, in the Women of the Bible group, we are studying Naomi.  Her quilt block is called Homecoming.

Naomi left her homeland with her husband and two young sons,, looking to get away from famine.  Her husband and sons all died in this foreign land, but not before the sons took foreign wives.  Left alone, with strange daughter's-in-law, in a strange land, with famine there too, Naomi decides to return to her homeland.  But one of the dauther's-in-law decides to go with her, as we will learn next week.

Homecoming is a block with curved piecing and set in seams.  You could applique the melon on the center by hand, but I used curved piecing by machine.  The set-in seams might have been easier to get accurate by hand, but I did those by machine too.

I chose fabrics that remind me of farms and farming, because famine played a big role in Naomi's story.  It's very hard for us today to imagine a land where there really wasn't enough food.

A GIVE AWAY

But more importantly, an opportunity to help build clean water wells in Africa.  But yes, there is a give away iinvolved.  Hop on over to Learning to be Me's blog to learn more.

AROUND THE WORLD SWAP

I've received four blocks back from the Around the World Swap.  These are blocks representing the makers, using my fabric plus theirs.  I love how they've each selected different colors to go with mine.  The yellow looking one, bottom right, is actually is light lime'ish green.

The top left is from an architecht/engineer, representing her skills, top right is Carol's star from Carol, bottom left is Dutchman's puzzle from a Dutch gal, and the other is a shooting star from Colorado.  Fun!

These are 4 out of 20 I'll be receiving.  Already have setting plans spinning through my head:)