The piecing is finished...

A few random photos of my spring flowers in my neglected yard....could it be I'd rather quilt than yard work? Anyway, it has been a long hard winter and up North, we are so tired of snow and sleet and it is so refreshing to have some evidence of spring.

The piecing and embroidery are complete on "Over the River and Through the Woods". I just need to piece my back. I have leftover blocks and flying geese that I thought I would work in the back as well as all the scraps from the top. Yahoo......

Spring break at the Hampton--that is quilt retreat at the Hampton Inn

Saturday, I got to attend a quilt retreat sponsored by Red Rooster Quilts and Treasures at the Hampton Inn. What fun it was to associate with people who all loved fabric and sewing. The company was fabulous, the food divine and the classes were really fun. I came home with a lot of loot and some additional knowledge. I took the sewing kit class. Some new things I learned: How to begin and end the buttonhole stitch--I can stitch the stitch, but have always had trouble with the beginning and the end. The buttons were all hand dyed by the teacher, Mariann Golich. She uses the liquid Rit dye and it gives the buttons an antique look. I also learned how to make a twisted cord. Fun technique!!

Here is the front of the sewing kit. It uses prarie cloth and wool on the outside.
When you open it up, there is a pocket under the far left flap. The red heart is to hold the pins and needles. The center heart holds your small scissors. The long pocket on the right under the flap can hold other sewing treasures, for example, floss. Fun project. It is finished and I rate it 10/10.

We had a fabulous trunk show by Leslie Bergeson. She has been making quilts since the 80's and had a lovely trunk show.

Sorry about the pictures, I had to take them from a sideways angle, but you get the idea. This quilter is after my own heart. She has done a few Kim Diehl quilts, which has to be one of my favorite designers.

Oops, you get to see this beauty twice....

Love this tumbler quilt....gotta make one of these...there was also a hexagon quilt which my picture wasn't the greatest. Gotta make one of them too!!

This little beauty is all appliqued. It was a real stunner.

This quilt is from all her left over blocks from other quilts. It has this warm folksy folk art feel to it. Love it!!



Hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed the trunk show!!

Off to the quilters...

The quilt is all set and ready to get quilted. I wanted to do a mitered border, but the print did not yield 4 identical cuts only 3, so I did 2 and 2. It is what is afterall. One quilt down....many more to go!! I apologize for the bad lighting and the picture quality. I have very limited space to take a picture and it was early in the morning.

I just finished the last 2 blocks of this quilt. Time to let the setting begin. This quilt is set on point with sashing and cornerstones and finally borders. Stay tuned for the final result before we take it to the quilter on Friday.

I have now completed a total of 16 blocks. Two more to go and then I'll begin the setting. Stay tuned for more posts on this beauty.

Here are two more blocks to add to the collection. The 16 patch block was really fun to sew.

This block is part of the four cornerstones. There will be 4 blocks the same to bring it all together.

Here are the next three blocks that I have completed. They were really fun to put together, but I think my favorite is the Oriental Star.

This block is by far the hardest as it has "Y" seams and it is all bias. Thank heavens for a wonderful quilter who will make my sewing look great. So far I have a total of 5 blocks done. I'm on real time restraints to get this done, so I'm hoping the piecing will be done this week!!

Brittany's quilt

Follow along with me as I create 15 different stars (the 15th one is repeated 3 times for the cornerstones) for Brittany's wedding quilt. I get to mix and match these gorgeous fabrics from Marcus Brothers on this Civil War collection.

Here's just a bit of the quilt I just finished for the store. It is really lovely. The fabrics are too gorgeous. I've done a few quilts with this pattern but they were all sewn with different techniques. This one was by far the easiest.