Blogs to check out on line

If you have not checked out the following blogs I recommend that you visit them.

First up is:

Fresh Cut Quilts Pattern Co.: The Cutting Edge-- A Review--and Giveaway!

These rulers are the newest things and from what I hear they are great. I am hoping to win one from this giveaway and plan to order myself a couple to give as gifts to quilting friends. Please let me know if you have tried them and what you think.
Pat Sloan is awesome and if you have not checked out her blog go to:

http://patsloan.typepad.com/

I love her quiltmashup.com chat also.

I also recommend you check out the Aurifil Blog Hop and enter win prizes, as well as getting free patterns for 9 blocks.

Have fun surfing in blog land. I am off to quilt.

Designing a Quilt

I took a quilt drafting class last weekend and I really enjoyed it.  I learned how to look at a picture and draw the pattern so that I could then make it using fabric.  I learned how to tell if a pattern or block is a 3 by 3 or 5 by 5 type of block, simply by looking at the picture. It was so simple once the teacher put it into words and pointed things out on the page, or the block.

The teacher, Diana Bradley, is a local quilt shop owner. Her shop, The Quilt Zone, is new but I love the industrial loft layout of the shop and the individual tables she has for classes.  But I digress. She made it sound so easy to take a picture of a quilt and transfer it to fabric.  

We covered how to determine if what the leg and hypotenuse of a triangle or square is simply by knowing the layout of the block. If the block is a 12-inch block and is a 3 by 3, then the leg of the corner square is 4 inches. She gave us the magic numbers for finding the hypotenuse or diagonal of a square to figure out flying geese and half square triangles, as well as some tips on cutting and sewing with bias edges.  We drew some blocks and looked at others dividing them and determining the legs and hypotenuse of squares, half square triangles, and triangles, and flying geese for different size blocks.

We also discussed adding seam allowances and the different secrets to triangles when cutting them. One very important thing to remember is to add your seam allowances after you draw your pattern, before you cut it from fabric.   

At first my head was spinning trying to follow her, but as we went along the picture cleared and it all made sense. At the end of class I told her to let me know if she did an advanced class, because I was hooked and ready to learn more.

I also learned that large sheets of graph paper are very expensive.

I am planning a new quilt as I type looking at the lines in my head and seeing how two different blocks might form an additional pattern.  I will let you know what I come up with and how it translates to fabric.

Quilting Friends, Classes, and Shopping

I had a wonderful weekend with my quilting friends. Friday night we meet at the quilt store for our monthly quilting group.  There are four of us who go together, Sally, Jan, Lisa, and I, but the class is actually about 16 ladies who all get together. We pay a small fee to meet there and bring what ever we are working on to sew. There is a teacher who is there to answer questions or help when needed.
This month I brought a Yellow Brick Road I am working on for advice on an inner border.  The quilt is a gift, but I cannot say whom it is for, as I do not want to spoil the surprise. I love all the suggestions and help that everyone gives. I had a fun time.

The four of us had already signed up for another session of this class which started Friday night, and three of us have also signed up for the Piecework by Hand class, which meets once a month and is hopefully going to get me moving on my applique projects. I have several in various stages and need to get them done.  Sally, Jan, and I are also doing a marathon in February to get more things done and Sally and I are doing another in March. Sally and I are taking a tote bag class in February, so now I need to find a jelly roll or Bali pop, or go through my stash and cut strips to prep for it.

On Saturday one of my friends picked me up and we made the rounds of the three quilt stores here in town.  We went to Quilt Tree where we each purchased quilt kits that we wanted as it was class sale day and they were discounted 20%. We had already signed up for classes the day sign ups opened, which was a good thing because the classes we wanted were all full by the class sale day. I also bought some new quilting gloves.  Sally bought her two kits and a machine needles.
 
From there we headed over to the newest store in town for class sign ups, The Quilt Zone. We signed up for the February mystery, which is called Black Tie, along with another friend, Lisa. Sally and I also signed up for what is called Get'er Done. It is a work session where you bring in those projects you need to get done, or want ideas on so you can get them done. I also signed up to take Basic Drafting for Quilters.  I want to try my hand at drafting a quilt.  I have several designed on paper, but I have to translate them to fabric and to do that I need to learn how to draft a pattern.  I am looking forward to this class.  While we were there I bought the backing for the Yellow Brick Road, and some Aurifil thread, an awl, a book on drafting quilts, and one of the Buggy Barn quilt books.  I love the buggy barn quilt patterns, but I give them my look with bright colors and wild prints. This book has the tractors on the cover.

Once we were done there, we said goodbye to Lisa and headed over to Seams Like Home. None of the classes interested us, but with fabric on sale we had to look around and I found a wonderful fabric to use for applique backgrounds, so bought the 2 7/8 yards that was left on the bolt at 20% off.  I also bought some of the stuff you can use in potholders to keep from burning your hands, Insulbrite. (Thank you hm for giving me the name.) I cannot think of the name of the stuff at the moment, and a couple yards of cute Christmas fabric at 40% off. Sally also bought some Christmas fabric.

From there we stopped to grab a bite to eat before heading home.  It was a fun day with one of my favorite people.

When I got home I started reorganizing my sewing room, but that is another story, for another day.

2010

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This last year was a tough one for me personally, but I did accomplish some of my quilting goals. I finished several tops and succeeded in getting several quilts quilted, either by a long-arm quilter or doing them myself. I have several that I need to finish the binding on, but they are quilted and out of topville which is a step in the right direction.
My rainbow quilt is ready for binding, though I had to go and re-buy the fabric to bind it, as I cannot find the piece I had saved from the inner border anywhere. I know it will turn up and since I love purple, it will get used in another quilt.

I finished and sent on its way the quilt for my son that I started about 20 years ago. My other son's guitar quilt is at the quilters waiting to be quilted. She even found a guitar motif to quilt it with. I am anxious to see it. I still have some embellishments to finish when I get it back.
I finished my Christmas place mats and a matching wall hanging and quilted a second Christmas wall hanging as a gift. I finished a few small wall hangings and got others ready to quilt. I know there are a few other projects in there that I finished this year as well.
I have several wall hangings sandwiched and ready to quilt in 2011, and am still working on finishing up other UFQs (Unfinished quilts), and have a few gifts started to finish up early in 2011, but over all even with my health issues I feel that 2010 was a productive quilting year for me. I can look back on it and say that I accomplished things with pride.

The 18 year UFQ

I started a quilt back in 1992 that I never finished until this last Thursday. It was for my oldest and by the time it was done I hated it. It was made of cotton and cotton blend fabrics, and was pieced willy nilly.
For some reason I chose to zigzag every seam on the top. It did not look decorative, and I have no idea why I did it. I also chose to use thick polyester batting, what a pain to quilt. It was one of the first actual quilted quilts for a bed that I had every made. I always tied large quilts at that time. Most of the quilts I made at that time were baby quilts. I did an awful job of machine quilting it, and am embarrassed to even claim it today. I used double fold bias tape for the binding and only sewed one edge to the quilt. In fact I actually serged the edge. I had to fold over the bias tape three times to bind the quilt. The corners were very thick due to the serged edges. It was a pain to bind.
Over the years there were several times I thought about throwing the whole thing out, but for some reason I never did. Several months ago my oldest asked about the quilt and if I was ever going to finish it. I avoided it for the last few months, but decided that if he wanted it I would finish it for him for Christmas and so I finished it.
He was very excited to get the quilt yesterday when we met for lunch. He said he slept with it last night. He also said he planned to put it on the back of his couch. Now that I do not want to see.
He has a quilt that is much more well made that he received for his 16th birthday that I would much rather he place on the back of his couch.
But at least I can say that it is done, even if it took me over 18 years to finish it.