I spent two lovely days with the Chattahoochee Evening Stars quilt guild. They are as lively as their name suggests! At the lecture last night, these ladies from my class showed the progress they had made on the class block from the day before…
The whole class did excellent work and had a good time. I love seeing quilters smile :-).
I spent 5 wonderful days with 23 wonderful women at Empty Spools. Some knew each other before they got to class, but everyone was a friend by the time the class was over. If you ever get a chance to come to an Empty Spools seminar, I’m pretty sure you’d love it!
We all headed home last Wednesday; I got home late Thursday. I meant to upload these photos then, but this was a very busy Easter weekend. (I hope your weekend was as nice as mine was.) Enjoy the slideshow!
Quilter’s Newsletter has written a review of my book, The Quilter’s Practical Guide To Color. I am honored and grinning from ear to ear!
And Sue (who posts as the Crochet Addict in the UK) wrote a glowing review of our book, Piecing the Piece O’ Cake Way. Click here to read it. If you’ve been wondering whether you can the Piecing book or not, this review might help you decide.
If you get my newsletter you will have seen the Hexy Bird block I’m working on now. I still have to add a pupil to the eye, stitch the blue hexies into flowers, and stitch the yellow and orange hexies together to make the larger hex that surrounds the bird—and then applique them to the block—but you can see where it’s going. I think this will be the center of a terrific baby quilt!
Below is Linda’s Hexy Bird, which is also very cute. Isn’t it surprising to see how different a block can look in a different colorway?!
It may be a while before I have borders around my block, but when I get it together, I’ll share the photo. Click to see the Hexy Bird ePattern if you missed it when I showed it before.
My mom began this quilt in May of 2012. The finished quilt went on her wall a couple of weeks ago…
Mom chose some fabric from my stash and then I brought more fabric. I offered to give her ‘help’ but she was very happy do make this on her own. She did it her way and it’s perfect!
The top was finished in time for it to hang on her wall last year, un-embellished. I quilted it this summer and she spent the following weeks adding embellishments. Can you tell that my mom really likes sequins :-)?
None of this was easy for her. She struggled with her glasses, arthritis and neuropathy in her fingers. Threading the needle and dealing with the little sequins and beads was a challenge—but she did it! Click the arrows on the slideshow, below, to see more of the blocks.
Have I said that I’m proud of my mom for sticking with this? I am! It has a folk art vibe that just can’t be beat. Way to go, Mom!
Susan sent me photos of her lovely Backyard Birds quilt. Isn’t it lovely! Way to go, Susan.
She said:
I have sewn for years but as I work full time I have never had the opportunity to develop my patchwork skills beyond a simple sampler quilt. I am undergoing medical treatment since July and I am using my time off work and getting treatment to patchwork, learning new techniques and work on creating some wonderful quilts.
I quilted the blocks separately. I attended a quilt group at Coles Sewing Centre, Nottingham England, and my lovely teacher Gilli Theokritoff helped me through the tricky bits!! I had never done free motion quilting before and Gilli pointed me in the direction of youtube and watching Leah Day. I started off just drawing, then practising on practice blocks and can say after a lot of effort I now have a work of art on my wall. When I read Linda’s intro in the booklet and the comment re getting through cold winter and difficult times I really wanted to agree I cant wait for the spring when all the treatment is over and the song birds return.
I like this choice of background fabric. I don’t know that I would have chosen it, but it’s very pretty. Susan also included a photo of her detailed documentation patch. I’m impressed!
Susan added:
I am getting on well with my treatment looking forward to the spring when I get back into work, with some wonderful skills learnt, new friends made and several quilts sewn.
And this…
Breast cancer, 1 in 10 women my age get it…Luckily I had a routine screening in May and something was picked up,
My advice to you all is if you have any concerns, LUMPS bumps whatever as soon as you can go to your doctor. If you get the opportunity to have screening Take it. I am so lucky routine screening found it, and it’s treatable. Don’t be frightened to say I am worried about this. Do something about it. With love, Susan
I agree with Susan on this point. I’m a big believer in treating your body like a used car—one that you want to drive forever. If something isn’t working, get it looked at.
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