Lisa T's World

Murfreesboro Quilting Retreat

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:15:00 +0000

Since Betty and I did not get to go to the Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild Retreat this January at beautiful Unicoi State Park with all the girls, thanks to a really low air fare, Betty and I had our own little retreat in lovely Murfreesboro, TN. The scenery and the company was not up to the event we missed, but we had a great time together and got quite a lot accomplished. And made plans for the next mini-retreat!! But, Betty brought the cold weather from Michigan with her and TN had the coldest weather of the winter!!

I made a bunch of cute tissue holders to give to special folks on Valentine's Day

and started my challenge piece for the 2012 Bulloch Hall Quilt Show in March. But we really focused on a couple projects Betty had brought and it has really warmed up my sewing engines!!!!

Betty has had this little Easter piece from Buggy Barns in her head for a while. The bunnies will have little dark eyes, pink noses (maybe heart buttons, maybe heart beads) and buttons on their bowties. The chocolate bunny in the middle is sitting backward from all the other bunnies, so she will add a fuzzy white tail. I hope she adds some glitter in there, too, but that is me and not her!!! Maybe she is going to add some little Easter Egg buttons to the baskets in the corner. Of course, the baskets are from TwoStarDesign.com And we cut out the eggs on the die-cut machine, too. All the scattered eggs are stuffed and she will add them after the piece is quilted - just tack them to the surface. They have glitter-y rick rack and fancy trim. How delightful!!! She promised to send a pic of the finished piece!!! I think the eyes and buttons and such will just set it all off! The chocolate bunny in the middle is just inspired, Betty!! This is just so cute.

And then we started with the 2 inch squares! Man, you talk about using up thread. Every time we turned around, we were replacing the bobbin. We kinda tag-teamed this guy. Betty started off all "you just have to have every point perfect' so she was on the machine and I manned the iron. Of course, after awhile, her standards kinda lowered and I got to sew some! lol Borders are just pinned on the design wall, so we better get a finished pic of this one, too!!!

And really, her points are pretty darned good!!! I'll have to give her that one!!!

This piece is so cute. I may have caught the 2 inch square bug though. There were a couple really cute pieces in the book. And, I have completely lost my mind if I go 1 inch squares??? Yeah, you don't have to answer that one. . . And really, I have the 2 inch die so all those 2 inch squares are awful easy to cut out. . . . . Maybe I will just downsize the number of blocks. This one might look really cute with 5 hearts and 4 blue dots. Yeah, that would make way more sense than going 1 inch block. Thank you for talking me out of it!!!

Way to go, Betty! We are getting very good at mini-retreats!! Let's plan on July for a whole week at the lake. . .

Ryan and Michael have their quilt!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:06:00 +0000

Last Saturday night, Ryan arranged a little surprise gathering at a relatives house to present the quilt to Michael. Michael knew something was up but had no idea what it was. We all were out on the deck waiting for their arrival. Ryan had the most beautiful 'love note' to read to Micheal (we all cried) and then he got to open up the quilt. What a wonderful group project completely made with love!!!

Melinda Overstreet took some great pictures (check out her pictures here) and Danielle recorded Ryan reading his 'love note' to Micheal (go here to see the video). It takes a bit to load and you need QuickTime but it is worth it !!!

They looked so good under their new quilt, I just had to jump in!!!

This was a pretty cool project for all of us to work on. Thanks to everyone who helped me figure out what to do, donated fabric, helped me pick out fabrics, cut stuff, ironed stuff, tore off the paper pattern FROM EACH AND EVERY PIECE, and lovingly longarm quilted it and made the beautiful label for this great piece. Give your selves a pat on the back and a hug until I see you again to do it in person. Bravo, team, bravo!!!

My Fairy Quilt GodMother is done!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:14:00 +0000

Paper Panche had a contest to create your very own, one-of-a-kind Fairy Quilt Godmother. They had a list of questions you answered and then you got the pattern made just for you. A bunch of us girls made 'em. Of course, I'm bringin' up the tail end of the pack but she is done. Thank you Betty for taunting me into "get 'er done"

mode! I didn't paper piece the intricate locket that came with the pattern, so she sports a Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild pin as a locket. I am so smart! That little idea saved me like 2 hours!!!!

Maple Sugar

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:02:00 +0000

A few years ago, Betty and I took a road trip to Keepsake Quilters and I bought this kit. Never have gotten around to making it and she said instead of me trying to sell in on ebay, she would take it and make it. Well, the clever girl instead, cut it out and brought the kit along on her latest trip to see me. So, with the kit all cut out, we just tag teamed the sewing and before we knew it, we had a really beautiful top.

Betty has found the backing and is going to have her longarmer quilt it. What a beautiful piece. I am so glad she 'made' me sew it. Of course, when you are sewing with your buddy, it is a lot better than sewing alone. And the project goes together a lot quicker, too!!! Thank you, Betty!!!

Look what Betty did!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:41:00 +0000

Betty whipped up 2 tumbler block charity quilts for the Murfreesboro Sewing Ladies and we dropped them off when she was in town. These are just so cute! I love this block. Ole RJ just had to get in the picture to show off all the weight she has lost. Way to go, RJ. Why is the answer always 'diet and exercise"? Can't it just be 'chocolate and the couch" just once?
And Betty, quite accomplished quilter that she is becoming, made these tops by using the pieces as 'spiders' while sewing other projects. A 'spider' is a random piece of fabric run thru the sewing machine before and after any piecing that is not chain pieced. So, Bonnie Hunter www.quiltville.com has taken the spider to a whole new level. She always has a box of fabric pre-cut and ready to go when she needs a 'spider'. Before you know it, you have lots of blocks made.
Rj is taking a bunch of tumbler blocks to the Project Linus Blanket Day for the 4Hers to work on.

The Double Wedding Ring is back from Zoe!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:37:00 +0000

Yippee, look what came in the mail!!! I was so excited when I got home and saw this big box waiting for me!!! Well, for Ryan and Michael really but it is mine for a little while.

And look how pretty it is packed in it's little box!

Zoe really knows how to do it up right! It's like an early Christmas! And it is all fold so pretty and all tied up with a bow! Zoe, girl, you rock.

So, what does her little note say??? Well, as usual, she is telling me what to do! She says, "Draw your lines - and sew ALL around edges BEFORE you trim to square up otherwise it will spread or seem to grow. I left pins in to help (at the top and bottom)." Thanks for the heads up. You know me well! I would have stuck my little fingers for sure. She used a pattern called "Manchester Cavier" by Anne Bright. How perfect. But I will be a bit of a tease right now! You all can't see the pattern til I apply the binding and then we will have the big reveal!!!

Quilt Label arrives from Australia!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 03:30:00 +0000

Auntie Joan (from 'Down Under') has completed the label for Ryan and Micheal's double wedding ring quilt. And it is fabulous. Auntie Joan sent some pictures of the label in progress. This is pretty cool machine she's got!! I am very impressed. Ole talented Auntie Joan designed this label and choose the colors especially for the quilt. Wow! This is way cool! Who'd a thought this whole project would turn our this incredible. You go, Joan!! We bow to your creativity and talent!

Auntie Joan has it all planned out on the fancy machine and we are off!

We have got to find out just how long this took for the machine to stitch out. This machine is way cool.

Look at the wedding rings! They are outlined in a heavier gold stitching and just fabulous! The stitching in an arch over the rings and ribbon is just inspired.

Now for a classy saying. . .

. . . and who all had a hand in this project. Ya know, I'm sure the machine does this, but aren't the lines all straight and everything all centered and aligned. Yeah, it's the machine and not Joan. . . lol

And for the big finish -- this wonderful label is surrounded by fabric from Auntie Joan's own Australian stash. You go, Joan. This is just amazing! You are the embroidery goddess!

Baby Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:35:00 +0000

Just whipped up the cutest little baby quilt for my newphew, Kevin, to give to a brand new baby of a co-worker. It is so cute. He knows the baby will be a little girl and he knows that she will be delivered by C-section tomorrow morning. Think I'll overnight this quilt. . . .

Here's a closeup of the wonderful butterfly inspiration fabric. I sorted thru all my stash but what do you know, I don't have any cute stuff for a sweet little girl. The closest thing to baby pink I had was glow-in-the dark highlighter pink. Yeah, not gonna work. Dan and I ran to Joann's (the only place open around here on a Sunday) and found this great bundle of the solids. Dan had seen some butterfly fabric he took a shine to and then as we were walking to the cutting counter, saw this butterfly print. Wow! The colors are perfect and enough on the 'bright' side to make me happy. Saw this pattern in the latest Fons and Porter and just went with it! Kinda looks like woven ribbons.

Welcome to the world baby girl! August 22, 2011 is a great to come into this world. xoxox

Newest victims - ah, I mean students in Quilting 101

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:59:00 +0000

Ah, yes, two new students have been added to the list of Quilting 101 victims. these two were pretty much fun, fun, fun. Both of them seemed not be taken aback by my lack of organization and style. Good for them!!!

Blair already has plans for a really cool quilt she has designed and has the fabric already purchased. She just needed a bit of jump start to brush up her skills. Desire and drive are the first steps to design. She is well on the road. When we played around with fabric arrangement, of course she choose the path less traveled. I love that in a woman!! Nice job, Blair.

Ginny has s flair for fabric selection! I just love the medium print she choose. We talked about how much more fabric she could use up if she fussy cut that cool fabric to have a different element in the center of each block. That's the foundation of quilting - use up as much fabric as possible, isn't it??? Very nice job, Ginny. Keep up the good work!

On the road again. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:51:00 +0000

Ahhhhh, look at little Matthew ready to deliver the quilt to Aunt Zoe in Atlanta. Doesn't he look sweet? Let's leave it at that! He was not talking sweet. He was being quite snarky about the big bad football player delivering a quilt to the longarmer for his mommie. . . Oh, he still looks cute in the photo.

Auntie Zoe will begin to quilt the quilt for Ryan and Michael. We will not elaborate on just how talented Auntie Zoe is with the long arm. Her head is already big enough, but suffice it to say, this is gonna by one fantastic quilting job. You go, Zoe. We expect pictures to share of you and Clementine doing the deed!!! lol

The pieces become blocks and the blocks become a quilt top!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:18:00 +0000

After all of Betty and Louise's hard work pressing, trimming and peeling of tissue paper, it is finally time to sew something together. We started by laying out a corner on the living room floor.

And then we completed the outside border, block by block.

And then the fun part - Uncle Dan started to fill the inside with the completed blocks. Dan and Matt had to make sure that no two of the same fabrics touched, that colors flowed and tones matched... yeah, a Braves game was on at their attention may not have always been on color placement but they were persistent and didn't cuss at me too much!

TAA DAA!!!! Well, at least it is all on the floor in the way it is gonna be sewen. Now to the Throneberry production line of quilt making. Dan picked up two blocks to be sewen togehter, handed them to Matt who handed them to me. I thru the finished blocks on the sofa, Uncle Dan picked them up and tried to remember where they went and then handed more to Matt. It took about half the quilt before we really got in a grove! But, at this point, all the rows are together.

the next step is to sew the rows together into one big quilt top, make the backing, get it off to Aunt Zoe to longarm quilt, sew the binding one and handstitch all around the edge. And then it will be time for the surprise! Yeehaw!!!

And the last of the fabric donations for the Double Wedding Ring!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:31:00 +0000

This bunch of fabric just made it into Ryan and Micheal's quilt at the extreme last moment! Good timing kids! And it is so cool!

Russ, Joanna, Grant and Grace Lauer sent this nifty swatch.

Julie, Darrell, Malary and Logan sent the blue swirl, Cole added the baseball fabric, and Peanut sent the dog print stuff. LOL And this way cool cat angel fabric came from Emmalyn.

Ray and Far added the green flowers; Joe, Jane and Joey sent the white with pink and green and blue; Ryan just had to add the kisses and the Santas.

Ruth Toms sent this great selection of prairie prints.

Bradley, Donna Jo and Thomas Glass added this harlequin; Donald and Joyce Propes sent the black dot; Amy, William and Jonathan sent the cool stripes.

Joe, Jane and Joby Keys added the cream; Kory, Amber and Jacob Judd sent the Mardi Gra inspired print; Jodi Sullivan sent in the bright yellow flowers and Gaye Flener added this red fuzzy and brown fabric.

Cool Canadian fabrics came from Karima Merali.

We are getting some movement!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 22:21:00 +0000

Now we are getting somewhere with this quilt top thanks to Betty and Louise's hard work. It is going from pieces to blocks and Betty and Louise's visit made progress by leaps and bounds!! I was sewing, they were pressing and cutting - we had a real assembly line! And I would not be so far along without their help! What sweet girls to spend their short 'vacation' working on this quilt and buying what was on the grocery list! True friends really know what you need when you need it! xoxox

And they started ripping the tissue paper off the backs of the pieces so I could start sewing together blocks to see if this whole experiment was going to work or not!

And work is does!!! This is a picture of nine blocks up on the design wall. This is gonna be cool! Ryan and Michael should just love it. What fun it will be to find the different fabrics from all the people that love them. This is lookin' way better than even I imagined!

Japanese Blocks

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 20:23:00 +0000

When the Japanese girls came to visit Holly and go to the Paducah Quilt show, we just had to send something home with them! And since we are messing around with our new www.twostardesign.com business, we decided to make a seasonal display for them so they would remember us the whole year thru. Holly selected fabics and designed the series and I did the grunt work on the machine. It was just too much fun! Each set is similar but none are exactly alike. I was able to meet the group at the Cracker Barrel resturant on their way back to Atlanta and be in on the presentation. Since I have a 'real job' it has cut into my goings a bit too much!! But Holly made sure I was there to see their faces and get hugs from all.

Each set has a block for Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. We stamped the Japanese symbol for these seasons on each block as appropriate. I used alcohol ink and stamped that right on the fabric. Each block is about 12 1/2" x 12 1/2". The pieces are raw edge machine quilted. I used the 'quilt-la-que' technique. I raw edge machine stitched around each die-cut fused shape thru the background the batting and the back. So when I was done doing the raw edge applique, all I had to do was bind. Simple, easy and fast! That's the way to do it!!! Holly gave each of the girls a cute wire hanger so they could display them on the wall of their house.

Happy Fourth of July!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Look what Betty did! She and Louise came to visit over the weekend and Betty brought us all three a cute Fourth of July banner. We each had to apply the binding and add the hot glue crystals to the fireworks. We did a bit of embroidery work on 'em, too. These pics don't show the crystal very well but the fireworks are littered with them. What a cool project for us to work on together. Betty had done all the grunt work for us! She cut out the pieces, fused them and then did her best machine applique yet. She is becoming quite the artist!!! Her stiches are just great!!! She had a good teacher! lol I took a picture of mine in my little wire hanger on the sofa table. Actually was inspired to bring out the 4th of July decorations for their visit. We all supervised Matt as he hung the bunting on the front porch, too! Thank you, Betty!

Quilting 101

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:35:00 +0000

Just had a great evening with Jackie and Janna teaching a Quilting 101 class at JoAnn Fabrics. This Mother and Daughter team made their first quilt squares. I don't really think they were beginners - they were both just too good at this!

They learned how to straighten up the fabric and to use rotary cutters SAFELY.

And they were both naturals with the sewing machine.

Perfect 1/4" seams were made by all and the blocks turned out really cute - almost as cute as Jackie and Janna!!!

MORE Wedding Ring Fabrics!

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:56:00 +0000

Ok, so I thought we were done. Ha ha. I should have know we would have late comers to the party!

Auntie Ali sent these in. She has been making the cutest kids bibbs and the like and just had to share these fun prints! I LOVE HER COLORS!!

And Melinda sent along these olive green sleeves. They came a note from Melinda that said she would explain where they came from later! That's a story I will need to hear for sure. This red fuzzy stuff is a delight from Kathy & Ed and we even have someone give the shorts off their bottom to add to the mix. I am not looking very deeply for a meaning here...

Auntie Jan T thought of the boys in Paducah while at the big quilt show. She said this was the weirdest fabric she could find a Hancock's of Paducah. I'm not sure if that is a comment about Hancock's or about Jan T but the little spiders are way too cute!! Glad she sent a big piece cause that fabric is gonna show up in some future projects!

And then a wonderful friend of Ryan's sent 9 yards of this great stripe for the backing. Think I'll use a bit on the front, too.

And when Betty got home from visiting me and arranging the paper pieces, she sent these fabrics to me. What a cool bunch of stuff. This quilt is going to be so cool!

More Wedding Quilt Fabrics

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 03:41:00 +0000

Auntie Zoe cleaned out her stash and sent along a great selection of neutrals. She has the best stuff !

And then I hit Bear Threads in Cumming, Ga and rounded out the group. I think we have enough! I love being on a mission! Betty did give me the evil eye every time I added another bolt to the cut pile. She finally put her little hand on my arm and said, "There are no more neutrals left in the store. STOP!" So I did. Uncle Dan cut them all up into nice little 5" x 5" squares for me! What a sweetie!

And Uncle Dan attacked all the prints, too. Besides all the ones we have already seen, Auntie Jan T and Auntie Holly sent a few selections. . . I'm not sure if they were real excited about this quilt or just wanted to thin the herd a bit, but what does it matter? Uncle Dan carefully cut 5" x 5" pieces of EACH AND EVERY fabric so we would have a nice blend and not leave anything out!

And then Auntie Betty came all the way from Michigan to sort out the paper pieces for me! She separated each kind into it's group and clipped them all together and hung them on the design wall.
She is very cool!

Finally, we are ready to sew something! All the hunting a gathering is done!

Double Wedding Ring Fabric Explosion

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:16:00 +0000

Well, kids, this is how the fabric started to arrive! It is like Christmas!

Auntie Jessica thought the boys needed some of her fabric from the Bear Claw baby quilt.

Auntie Diane sent some cute stuff. Love, love, love the construction equipment.

Auntie JoAnn sent this group. Hope it ends up in the qilt? Are you kidding? Bright flowers and hearts and glitter? Please, you don't have to beg for this to be included. And, just remember, since I have very few filters, EVERYTHING is gonna make it into this puppy!

And Auntie Patsy sent candy and jello and bears! Oh, my! Leave it to Patsy to have GREAT stash!

Auntie Diane sent the farm. Mushrooms and eggs and Olivia the Pig!

Auntie Wendy starts off by apologizing for not having a lot to send. . . pa-lease!!! Look at this stuff - coral reefs, bees, dolphins, babies in scuba masks! What a delightful collection!

Auntie Tina send this huge piece of fabric with the cool car. I haven't figured out just how to showcase this beauty, but it will be in the quilt!

Auntie Lisa W sent a tremendous selection of her incredible batiks! Lots of these got rubbed and handled and ahhhed over even before they made it to the cutting table.

Auntie Janet has been hiding tennis shoes, coke bottles and sushi from us! Thanks for sharing! These are just way cool!

And Auntie Jan J had the farm, the fruit and the spools of thread. She even sent along a guitar and sheet music!

Ok, I have to admit it - I lost who sent this collection. Somebody fess up so I can label it correctly!!! the dogs in 'Uncle Sam' hats is just darling!

Ryan & Micheal's Peeps

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:55:00 +0000

Ok, Ryan and Micheal - you wanted family to make ya a wedding quilt- you got family!!!! They are just a tad dysfunctional and quite opinionated but as the saying goes "You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family!"

We are out to prove that sometimes family is not made of the people who share your DNA but people who share your dreams and well being. So in that vein - Here are some of your new Aunties!!!

This is Auntie Jan T. She has a wry sense of humor, a deceptively sophisticated appearance (She buys x-rated fabric at the Houston Quilt Show and will dress up in costume at the drop of a hat!) and is one of the coolest people I have ever known. You'll like Auntie Jan T. And she already has sent a wedding card for you two. She's awful thoughtful, too!

This is Auntie Lynda. She is a long arm quilter and quilt teacher. She also is a district representative for some really nice wool quilt batting. Once, I took a class at her studio from Sharon Schamber. That means nothing to you, but will impress all my quilty friends!

Auntie Wendy is quite the character. She has been working on our guild's quilt show for the last couple years. She and her husband have revolutionized the way we are hanging the quilts on the walls of Bulloch Hall, Roswell, GA. That fact alone, gives her pending sainthood status. she also does really cool art-sy fart-sy quilty pieces. Very cool.

Auntie Patsy is a real piece of work. She is a great woman and quite the accomplished quilter and doll maker. Lately she has been making these really amazing cloth and bead 'vessels'. She is a whiz with a needle and beads and fibers. How she has the patience to pick up the little beads with the needle and sew them on the fabric pieces. She is a much better woman than I will ever be! She really is not bad with the rotary cutter and the sewing machine either!!

Auntie Lisa W is a real sweetie. She is kinda new to our quilt guild and everytime she brings in a new project, we kinda just shake our heads and whisper 'over achiever' under our breaths. She likes really bright colors and loves batiks. She is my kinda girl!!

Auntie Jan J is the bargello queen. She taught a recent workshop for our guild and we are all now hooked. It may take me a lifetime to actually finish my bargello top, but I sure have enjoyed petting all the pretty fabric. She has made several of these beasts and each one is prettier than the last one!!! She helped all the students in the bargello workshop select their fabrics. You can see her great color sense if you click on Bargello Project in this blog.

You still need to meet Auntie Zoe, Auntie Diane B., Aunite Marie, Auntie JoAnn, Auntie Betty, Auntie Diane R. and Auntie Jessica. And there are all kinds of folks who want to add their '2 cents worth' in fabric. You have family comin' out your ears!!!

Quilting 202 - Cottage Rose 3 of 4

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:28:00 +0000

Quilting is supposed to make you happy. If it doesn't, find another way to fill your time!!!

I am so exctied to see the progress the girls have made on their tops! They are both such over-achievers! I never thought they would keep up with the pace we are going in this class. Shows how much I know!

Janet has warmed my heart! If this girl doesn't look happy, then no one does!! Look at the smile! I love it!!! And she got a cute new haircut to boot!

She got the top together and decided that the patchwork design made her happy and when she put on the appliqued medallions - it made her sad. So, of course, the executive decision was to leave those puppies off the quilt!! What I like about this top is the diagonal lines the green and the stripe create. Very cool. I like the green inner border surrounding the whole thing, too.

She has her piano key border under way and it is gonna be just stunning! This will get cut into a 6 inch outer border and have mitered corners.

Linda's top turned out pretty cool, too. The dark brown and the strip give it such movement.

Linda did applique the medallions in the center of her four patches. I think, since this was a more sutble print and all the same pattern, it did not confuse the design like Janet found it did on her top.

Janet did such nice work on ALL 70 APPLIQUE blocks. Bless her heart. She is a better woman than I am. I don't think I would have had the endurance to applique them all and certainly not in one week! More power to her!!! You go, Linda!! She did such a good job on the corners. Nice work!!

And she has her piano key border started and this is a hint of what the finished top will look like.

HOMEWORK:

OK you overachievers - here we go!!

* Finish sewing your piano key outer border. Press all the seams one way. Cut the outer border into 6 inch strips.

* Measure your top and cut the outer borders much longer than needed to have room for the miters.

* Sew a border on the left and on the right and then on the top and on the bottom. Make sure to STOP 1/4" from the edge of the top.

* Construct a back large enough for your quilt. (We talked about this in class so this really isn't as bad as it sounds.)

Next time we will work on finishing the miters and sandwiching the layers together. I will bring in practice blocks for machine quilting. We are going to put on a binding, too! Isn't that fun??? Nothing like cramming a gallon into a quart jar! 4 sessions is just not long enough for this project. Maybe if there was two weeks in between classes, it might be a tad better, but we are flying here, girls!!!

Toothbrush Rugs at John C. Campbell

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:50:00 +0000

I had the honor of going to a toothbrush rug class at John C. Campbell Folk School. I loved being in the mountains even if it only was a weekend. The ever-amazing RJ (Chicago cop/weaver/goat midwife/blacksmith/quilter/egg raiser/log cabin building supervisor) taught the class. I'm hoping I can be RJ when I grow up!!!

RJ learned this technique/stitch from a wonderful 95 year old woman in Florida years ago. She has taught this class 38 times at John C Campbell and always has a full class!!!

We didn't get a lot of rug made. We did start about 5 so we could get the hard part out of the way and make sure we could start rugs on our own and understand how to make the different shapes. We used 1 to 2 inch strips of cut fabric (depending on the weight of the fabric as to how wide to cut the strip-the thinner the fabric-the wider the strip). RJ recommends old sheets for lots of fabric on the cheap and cutting them about 1 1/4 inch wide. The girls were all pretty prolific and everyone was so happy to learn this cool technique!!!

These cool rugs can be round, oval, triangular, square or even hexagons!!!!! She is such the overachiever!!!

Louise wins for the prettiest fabric!!! Her batiks just made us so pretty!!! Everyone drooled over them!!!

Quilting 202 - Cottage Rose 2 of 4

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Why are we playing around with hearts and leaves??? Today we explored machine applique and I couldn't let the girls start out on their quilt tops!! So, we played with our machines and made a stitch chart. A stitch chart is two pieces of muslin with fusi-boo in the middle that I put a sample of stitches that I like so I will be able to remember what I did. Can anyone say short attention span? I stitch a row and then write down the particulars of that stitch. My Pfaff 7570 gives me a stitch number and then length and width. If I have something visual, it takes a lot of the thinkin' and rememberin' out of it and that makes me happy.

Linda used all kinds of stitches to go around these Two Star Design parts. Funny how you think that one will be just perfect and then in real life it looks all yukky!!! Overachieving Linda bought a new machine on Thursday and is exploring what all it will do. Nice little machine with some really cool features.

Janet is such an overachiever, too! I love that in a quilter!!!! She took to the idea of playing with the shapes like she was born to it. I think we share a colorforms history! Man, I always was so happy when I could get the kids to play with their colorforms!

Both girls got ALL of their homework done!! Might be a first!!! Janet is ready to applique her medallions in the middle of the four patches she created. Linda still needs to prepare her medallions but has all her four patches done.

We also took a field trip to the JoAnn thread department. I have brought both girls over to the dark side and they love verigated thread!!! Tee Hee! I knew they would like it as much as I do. We unraveled spools and pooled the thread on our fabric to get a real good look. You can never tell what the thread will look like on the spool!!! It has got to be laying all over the fabric!!!

HOMEWORK:
• Applique all the center medallions to the center of the four patches. There are 70 of them! Whoa!!!
• Sew all the four patches together to form the main body of the top. Yeah, there's 70 of them, too!!!
• Measure both sides and the middle and attach inner border to left and right and top and bottom
• Sew strip sets together to form the border material.

I love giving a lot of homework to these girls! They actually do it and that tickles me but really we are getting a lot of the work out of the way so we can really explore the techniques. You go girls!!!! Gold stars await the winner!!! lol

Qulting 202-Cottage Rose, 1 of 4

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:47:00 +0000

Today we had our first Quilting 202 class and are making the Cottage Rose Pattern from JoAnn Fabrics. Two intrepid quilters are along for the ride and their quilts are gonna be stunning.
Janice is using the fabrics that corporate suggests. I took her most of the class to cut out the 70 5" x 5" center medallions for the top. Each medallion will be machine appliqued on a four-patch block. Sure is gonna be pretty!!!

Linda is using some of the recommended fabrics and some others that caught her eye. She is going to have all her medallions out of the same fabric instead of two different ones.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
• Finish cutting out all fabric pieces.
• Sew pairs together, cut 4 1/4" sections and then make the four patches.
Next week we will be working on machine stitching the appliques to the four-patch blocks.
Bring a sample of some of the stitches that your machine might make to attach the applique blocks. Try the zigzag, the blanket and the straight stitch. We will play around with stitches and decide on the one you will use in our next class. Good luck, girls. You have a lot of work this week!!!

Taa Dah !

noreply@blogger.com (Lisa T) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:51:00 +0000

Put a fork in it folks! It's done!

Well, kinda. . . .

Jessica didn't seem to have any problems with the machine quilting! Her stitch lines could have been straighter and she had a couple booboos at corners, but I got to tell ya - She is phenomenal!!!! I did do the stitching in the very middle of the quilt, because you just have to mess with all that bulk in the throat of the machine. Now, Jessica did a far amount of that. But she did not cuss ONE TIME! It was amazing!!! Apparently she is a much better woman than I am!!!!

She was able to line the presser foot up with the edges of the border and off she went. The small borders were much easier for her than the large ones though. The edges were closer and she could feel and 'see' the middle easier.

I did the outer border the other night. Before she came over, I layered the back, batting and top together and used my FAVORITE batting "Fusi-Boo". Fusi-Boo (made by Fairfield) is so easy to use and makes machine quilting almost ok. I laid the back on my bed, smoothed out the batting on top and laid the top on all of that. Smoothed everything out and then hit it with the iron. I love doing this on the bed because the whole quilt is accessible. Fusi-Boo is heat activated, so I place the steaming iron in a grid pattern all over the top. Once I have it pretty much adhered everywhere, I move to the ironing board and really sock the heat and steam to every inch. NO pinning, no moving of the layers, no puckers on the back and most important - no crying!!!!

Look at that smile! Pippin is even happy!!! I did the last border, did the machine quilting in the middle and because I is have MAJOR control issues, I made Jessica let me do the binding. I applied the binding and then machine stitched it down from the front of the quilt. This is gonna be a quilt that gets used and loved and washed alot- it needs to be tough!!!! But, besides that - this is all Jessica's work! How cool is that. She is gonna be the talk of the baby shower!!!

These quilting lines are just not this bad at all!!! Now, the needle down feature on my machine helped alot but Jessica is really good at making the machine take ONE MORE stitch!!! She has got great machine foot pedal control!!! I think she is a natural.

I found some great fabric for the back in my stash - thank you Hancock's of Paducah!!!! The colors were perfect and the sentiment is right on target!!!

Jessica is going to get a label machine embroidered and put it in braille, too. That way, EVERYONE can enjoy her label. And, if the baby turns out to have sight issues, we are going to go back and put some fur on the bear and schales on the fish. So, do you really ever finish a quilt????