I'm a day late on my stash busting report. We were out of town this weekend -- off to Clovis to visit family. In addition to family in Clovis is my favorite quilt shop, Quilter's Paradise. I just can't go in there an not buy something. I picked up a few fat quarters and a roll of fat eighths for my Dear Jane quilt, a purse pattern, and a larger piece of fabric of a print that I just liked. So unfortunately, I bought a little over 3 yards of fabric this week. But it just can't be avoided when I go to Clovis. I think I was pretty good considering!
And here's a few of the evening students working and chatting. Left to right is Karina, Susan, Joan and also Cece from the afternoon class.
Have you all heard about the Moda Bake Shop website? As you probably know, Moda Fabrics sells their fabrics is precise pre-cut sizes/shapes in addition to yardage. They name these pre-cuts after sweet treats, such as Jelly Rolls (2 1/2" strips), Layer Cakes (10" squares), and Turnovers (pre-cut triangles). Moda Bake Shop is a website they created to promote these pre-cuts and they have tons of patterns and tutorials all done by fellow quilters and sewers. The tutorials are for quilts as well as clothing, accessories, and all sorts of other fabric crafts. Go check out the site -- you'll probably end up spending much more time there than you anticipate, like I did!!
Here's a picture of the ceremony. We were concerned because there was no sound amplification allowed, and we thought maybe people wouldn't be able to hear Lance speaking, but he had everyone sit as close as possible (why do people always sit towards the back first?), and it turned out just fine.
Last Saturday (the day before the wedding), my friend Lori had invited the ladies from class to go up to her house to sew. She has a wonderful house with lots of light and room to sew. We sewed and ate and chatted for hours. I had a great time. I did all the cutting on a quilt for the next class session and was able to make all of the blocks. Yesterday I was able to put all of the blocks together, and I picked up some fabric for the borders. I really wanted to put those borders on today, but wasn't able to get to it. I think I'll count the stash out for the body of the quilt, and I'll count out the borders next week (provided I get them on the quilt by then).
Here's another top that Irene finished. I had presented this project last year, but some of the newer students hadn't seen it, so I brought it back as a bonus project and a few people made it. This one looks great - the medium color in each block is a ladybug print and she pulled all of the colors from that fabric. She is thinking of appliqueing some small ladybugs in the border. Can't wait to see how that turns out!
There were lots of great projects completed this time around but unfortuately I didn't get pictures of all of them. I need to remember to bring my camera to all of the classes and not just the last one!!
One more block on my Dear Jane quilt done this week -- M12. This was a pretty easy block. I could have pieced it in the normal fashion, but I went ahead and foundation pieced it so that I would be sure that everything would fit on the first shot. It looks like a little blip in the middle seam line, but that's just a pressing issue.
I finally worked out the color chart for my Dear Jane quilt. Because I will not be making the blocks in any particular order, I needed to know what color each block will be before I start. For some reason this has really been a road block for me. People have been asking me how the quilt is going and it was getting pretty embarrassing to say that I hadn't even started yet. But now I'm all set and have the first few patterns printed as well. There is a wonderful blog called "That Quilt" that gives incredible instructions on how to make each block, with step by step instructions and pictures too. She features two blocks a week. If I had been following along, I'd have half the quilt done already!
On the stashbusting front, still no busts. I have so many things from stash that are partially finished, but I can't count them out until the tops are done. So, same old story from me -- nothing out, nothing in. At least I'm not going backwards in these "non-productive" weeks. For now, anyway.
We celebrated Mother's Day this weekend because last weekend was too busy for us. Today my Mom, sister and I had a wonderful sewing day and we all got very far on our respective projects. A fun time was had by all. We had a tasty lunch including mimosa's. Yum! Above, my mom is working away on a challenge project, while my sister Cindy is doing the hand work on the binding of a small wall hanging she finished today -- the finished product is shown below. Nice job!!
Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Sister and all the other mothers out there! I was finally able to get some good sewing time this weekend. Yay me! It is a secret project, but I can say that I was able to bust out my 30's repro stash.
