Laura’s Quilts

My older daughter (That’s Sis, if you read my other blog)  caught the quilting bug! She does beautiful work, and seems to be better at focusing,  i.e. finishing one project up before she starts another, than I am! Here are a couple of little things she made me. She’s also made scads of baby quilts, several full sized ones, zipper pouches, sewing kits, and table runners!

Here’s her gorgeous Ricky Tims convergence quilt!

And a quick and easy Missouri Star herringbone table runner.

Easy Strip-Pieced Log Cabin Table Runner Class

I read about strip piecing log cabin blocks and was amazed. I had a French General jelly roll and decided to try it. Easy! I taught a class at Hall to Wall in Warren too, and we all learned lots. I also made placemats from an Ambleside jelly roll.   Y

Carthage Quilt Show

I was in Carthage last spring to judge at a UIL choir contest. What a pleasant surprise to find their quilt show happening! 

St. Mary’s Quilt Show

Plantersville, Texas has been famous for the Texas Renaissance Festival a long time, but now they have a new claim to fame: the St. Mary’s Quilt Show! It debuted this year and promises to be a spectacular event every year. (It was April 24-25, 2015; not sure if they’ll keep the same weekend every year.)

French General Table Topper

After I made the shop sample for The Vintage Owl, the owner told me to pick out some fabric for a trade- I got this gorgeous Moda French General layer cake and jelly roll! I searched Pinterest and all over the Intraweb, and decided to make a giant half-square triangle star. I did free motion wavy-line quilting and bound it using a faux piping trick I learned from Ricky Tims. I’ve taught a class on it too– it works up super quickly and easily! PS you can also make a small table topper using charm squares, or cut your own size!

I used layer cake squares and a jelly roll strip on the back just to make it more interesting.

And here’s a small one I made from charm squares. The blue floral print was from the Grandmother stash from the 80s! Looks like it was made specially for this fabric. 

Here are projects from my classes. I always love seeing how different each one turns out!

 

Sweethearts Wall Hanging

I needed a small project to make for our Guild’s silent auction, so I decided to make the same project for our 2 family reunion auctions too. I used my Bella Solids layer cake to make a 3×4 grid, and Fleurologie for the hearts. I believe I used steam-a-seam fusible then used a 1×1 zigzag and monofilament to appliqué. Then bordered and bound, and embroidered for accent. Oh except now it’s called big-stitch quilting!

Simplicity Class Sample

When I met Jim and Dorrie at Hall to Wall in Warren, I asked about classes. They didn’t have them because Dorrie was still several months away from retiring and they couldn’t squeeze them in. I quickly volunteered and teaching classes has been so much fun! This Simplicity 3- Yard quilt pattern was my first one.

i made up the sample, and realized (after the border, as you can see) that I’d put in one of the 4-patches backwards! I ripped it out though, and fixed it. The class was loads of fun!

AdornIt Shop Sample

 

 

We have a new quilt shop in the works in my home town of Silsbee, Texas! It’s called the Vintage Owl and it is going in one of our historic buildings downtown. I met the owner and told her I’d love to help keep her in business! I made this sample for her from a kit she’d gotten from AdornIt, and I just love it! I had just begun getting a bit more serious about my accuracy, so the half-square triangle border was quite a challenge! I really like the layout: the center part is just a plain piece that works as a canvas for the “pictures” of the owls. You could use anything  the same way.

 

 

 

Plan Bee– Charity Quilts

My friend Laurie, my stepmom Mama G, and I joined our local quilt guild after taking a class from longtime member Dot Collins in July 2014. I made name tags for us! It’s the Golden Triangle Quilt Guild and it has good programs; I’ve learned a lot!

In learning about “quilt culture,” we found out that within guilds are many bees, small we groups where people actually sew and do projects. Some are highly organized, with officers, minimum project and fabric swap participation requirements, and others are more loosely organized. We decided to form one (we’ve since added our friend Michelle; I need to make a tag for her!) that is VERY loose… As in bring what you’re working on loose. It’s good to have a day set aside where sewing and visiting with friends is THE priority of the day.

We pondered a name for our bee for a long time and finally decided on Plan Bee, because it seems that nothing we do turns out like we expected it to! It’s never ugly– just different. As Dot told us, there are no mistakes, only creative opportunities! Sometimes we get to Plan C, D, E, and F!

The Community Service group in our guild puts together  kits from donated fabric that we can check out to sew, and sometimes people piece a quilt and it just needs quilting. We donate to Veterans’ organizations and our local Boys’ Haven, a temporary housing facility for boys taken from their homes. Our goal is to give every boy a quilt they can take home with them when they return. Michelle pieced these:

Laurie has a new Longarm quilter and she has quilted 2 and pieced and quilted 1 but we didn’t get pictures!

I made 2 with these fabrics from the Grandmother stash. I practiced my free motion quilting and could see it improving! I didn’t mark anything but I did use the squares as landmarks. I made my diet mitered border… You would know I’d do that with a stipe! But I was happy with the way they turned out, and hopefully some little boys have quilts they will use and love.

I quilted these 2:

and pieced this one from kits I picked up from  the community service group at Guild.

So, our Plan Bee count as of July 2015 is

pieced tops: 4

quilted: 4

complete quilts: 3

Ricky Tims Super Seminar– San Antonio, Texas

In January, my quilting buddy Laurie and I were fortunate enough to have our sweet husbands take us to San Antonio to attend a Ricky Tims Super Quilt Seminar.

I didn’t really know what to expect, but a review I read said if you get the chance, RUN don’t walk! And now that I’ve been, I would say the same thing!

He taught how to make his famous Convergence quilts:

 

Kaleidoscope quilts

symphony quilts

And he gave lots of general instructions, like how to set in right angles and circles, as well as embellish with thread! It was amazing. Search YouTube, and join TheQuiltShow.com to learn lots more from Ricky and his cohost Alex Anderson!