Omaha Quilt Guild's Quilt Show.

On Saturday I met up with my sister, Deb, her co-worker - Cathy,  and Jeanine to go to the Omaha Quilt Guild's Quilt Show.  What a wonderful show, as always!   I'm linking you up with Jean's blog as she took some really nice pictures of the quilts.  She has two posts, one here and one here.  I know, I'm being lazy. :-)
But she has all the pictures I would show, so thought you would like to meet another blogger from this area.

I'm leaving on a Retreat Thursday so I've been packing projects, food and whatever else.  We're gong to Red Barn Retreats in Garden City, MN.  It's a small group, just 10 of us, but should be lots of fun!

I'm almost done with the Halloween table runner.

The tabs are pinned on the one side and once those are sewn down, it will be on to the last 5 tabs.  I love working with wool felt.  I've also cut out my wool felt Christmas tree skirt.  It's on the list for Connie's Game through Country Threads.  It's ready for me to sew it when it comes up on the list.  I'm thinking I want to make Christmas socks and a mantel runner to match.  We'll see if I have enough of the cream felted wool.

A Little Catching Up To Do.

We have a little catching up to do!  Tuesday Evening was the Piecemakers Quilt Guild of Western Iowa.   Our speaker was Becky A Wright of Mt Pleasant, IA.  She did an amazing presentation on the Civil War and had some beautiful old quilts.  You should go to her blog and check it out.  And while you're there, become a follower, she loves new friends!

Becky starting her presentation.

With her quilts.

The quilt that started it all!

Her dress took 16 yards of brown fabric to make.  

We also had a workshop the next day to make her pattern "Hardtack and Coffee."  Lots of fun that day too! (Yes, I started yet another quilt!)

Chris is so organized!  

Sandy's pincushion made from a salt cellar.

The gang.

More of the gang.

Even more of the gang.

Gail, Becky, and Becky's friend.

We all had a wonderful time!  If you get a chance to hear Becky, you should go!

Quiltfest

This past Saturday the Bluffs Art Council  sponsored Quiltfest.  It was a mini quilt show with two guest speakers.  I love seeing quilts from local talent!  Here's some of the pictures so you can see for yourself.

Look at those little bitty pieces.  The block measured 3 x 3.  The 4-patch in the block had 1/4 inch squares.

Little bitty pieces in this quilt too!

Just to give you an idea.  Plus these were throw size or bigger quilts!

Center predates the Civil War, the border added later, possibly after the war.

A maze of geese.

Dutchman's puzzle.

Jean giving her talk on sting quilts.  I love to listen to her talk!

Finished!

I finished the table runner yesterday.  I love how it turned out even if I had a few hiccups while making it.

I was having problems with the center blocks and the sashing.  I finally figured it out and it's not exactly the same as the pattern, but I'm fine with what I did.  I picked up this kit at Log Cabin Quilts in Exira, IA while on the All Iowa Shop Hop.  

I have one more project I purchased with the Iowa fabric.  It's larger, a lap/twin size quilt.  I'm going on a Retreat with friends the end of June and I think I will take this with me.  I know, I have lots of UFO's and my PhD's that I should be working on.  I decided that if I buy a kit I need to make it up right away.  And if I don't have time to do that, I shouldn't buy the kit.  So will be working on a PhD project, the golfing dogs and the lap quilt.

I also spent time yesterday pin basting a wall hanging.  I want to machine quilt part of it and then do some perle cotton accents on it. It's a convenience piece by Thimbleberries.  It's the perfect size for my quilt rack in the kitchen and I need a winter quilt for it.

I love summer vacation, I get to be a stay at home quilter!

Backing

I bought a table runner kit at Log Cabin Quilting in Exira, IA. that uses the All Iowa Shop Hop fabric.  I loved how it came out.  As you know, I've been wrapping fabric on comic book boards.  I remembered a fun little farm fabric that I had just wrapped last week and it's now the backing for my table runner.

See the date?  It's from 1992! Time it made it into a project.  I love the little quilt blocks and the baskets with the quilt blocks in the center along with the farm animals.  Hope to get this quilted today and the binding sewn on and I'll be showing you the finished piece soon.

Confessions of a Fabric Addict does "Make A List Monday".  There are a number of blogs out in blog land that follow that same adage, but this is where I first saw it.  I started doing that this summer and I love doing it.  It helps me keep focused for the week.  And it's pretty exciting to cross things off the list.  I'm not ready to put it on the blog, but I am going to practice it the rest of this summer.  Hope to accomplish lots with this "tool".

Stash

I have a stash of kits. Kits I have bought that were prepackage and kits that I have packaged myself with a pattern and fabric from the stash.  This little kit was one I bought a few years ago at Prairie Star Quilts.  A Halloween table runner out of felted wool.   I love doing hand sewing, it's so relaxing to me.

How about you?  Do you like hand sewing?

Productive

I feel like I've been productive so far this month.  I put my bin of cat fabric on comic book boards on Sunday.  I pulled a little fabric and made a couple of pillowcases.  Quilts From The Bluffs puts each of the quilts we make for Children's Square in a pillowcase.

 I also bought a kit at Adel Quilting & Dry Goods quilt shop and made it up this morning.  Really fast!  Used a little square of Iowa fabric from the All Iowa Shop Hop.

I guess I need to start working on one of my PhD projects.  I thinking the golfing dog quilt is calling my name.  Stay tune for more on that quilt!

Another Fun Weekend

It was another fun weekend!  On Friday I did some more of the All Iowa Shop Hop.  We headed out around 8:00 am but we decided we should have left earlier.  My companions were Jean and Dianne.

Dianne and Jean at Block Party Studios, Nevada, Iowa

We started at Quilting Connection in Ames and worked our way back home. All in all, we stopped at 7 shops that day.  Thanks Dianne and Jean for a fun, wonderful day!

At Quilters Cupboard in Ankeny, Iowa

I love this idea!  I have a white picket fence around my garden.  I'm thinking my fence will need a couple of quilt blocks. Maybe on the 2 gates.  

One of each color!

Found more of these wonderful little thimbles.  They are a soft plastic and I really like using them.  I had a couple of them, but I lost one on our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago.  So I  bought a few of them so if I lose another one, I'm good!  I have 3 shops left to visit in the SW Iowa section of the hop.  I'm hoping I can add them this next week.  

Saturday was quilt day and I missed most of it.  We are having car problems so I dropped in at quilt day, and was home again, as my husband needed the car.  I took in the little blue and white quilt I had finished earlier in the week.  Brought home 6 quilts that need binding.  I'll show you those as I finish them.

No Sewing Was Done Today.

No sewing was done today.  But I did play with fabric.  I spent some time wrapping fabric on comic book boards.  I love how it looks when I'm done.  Plus I can see all the fabric that's in the bin.

I showed this picture before, it's of my browns and tans.  I finished the purples and the dog fabric bin.  I know, I have a whole bin of dog fabric.  And I have another bin of cat fabric.  I think it's time to start using those dog and cat fabrics up.  They'll make great quilts for charity.  Especially the quilts we give to Children's Square.

UFO Number 4

UFO # 4 is done!  I know, hard to believe.  But it was a little one, a market bag.  This is the pattern:

I made the medium size bag.

It shows up yellow on the picture, but it's really a chartreuse with brown and blue birds.  I used a cotton canvas type fabric and it doesn't roll into the nice, little, easy to carry, bag that's shown on the pattern.  I think I'll try this pattern again only use a regular weight cotton. 

Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend.  Saturday we met with the 4-Her's to finish the Quilts Of Valor quilts.  All they needed to do was hand sew the label to the back.

After that, I did a little of the All Iowa Shop Hop.  Found a few things plus I had pre-ordered the Iowa fabric and I was able to pick that up at Cut Up & Quilt.  They are such a great quilt shop!  

Sunday I quilted this little quilt and put the binding on it. 

Front

Back

I wanted you to see the back.  A friend at Quilts From The Bluffs told me about the curve stitch on my Bernina and I decided to use it.  I really like the way it worked.  I'll be using this stitch again. 

And the big news, the number for Connie's Game is 4, which is my Bag Along,  It's pattern and fabric for making a market bag that rolls up and you can keep it in your purse.  Shouldn't take me too long to make this.  And then I have to get going on my PhD for quilt guild. 

And -  the garden keeps calling me in the morning.  Trying to catch up on all the weeding. Plus my husband and I are redoing my butterfly garden.   

Background

I thought I'd give a little background to why B & H's wedding album pillow took me so long (like 11 years) to finish.  At first I thought I'd just make it in rows like the H-I block.  An example is this is a quilt I'm working on for the Quilt Ministry, Quilts From The Bluffs.

But as I was cleaning out some old magazines, just after the wedding, I found this lay out....

This is how I wanted to set this quilt/pillow together!  Notice the use of templates.  Plus this block was bigger than the one I used.  I needed to use math to figure out the setting triangles...so into the closet it went.   Update to now, blogland is wonderful!  You can find any chart you need, in order to figure out your quilting problems and without the use of templates!!!  Someone has done the math for you!  You could call it cheating, but I call it convenience.