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!