Quilting Gallery - Beginner’s Quilt-Along

A summertime Beginner's Quilt Along has started over on www.quiltinggallery.com This quilt along is lead by Pat Sloan and is specifically made for beginners. The site has great directions for each block along with prizes each week and a photo gallery so you can see other peoples work. The quilt along is set up so that you will have all blocks completed by the end of August so that the quilt will be ready to gift at Christmastime. 


I have only completed the first two blocks but here are the photos so far. New blocks are posted each Thursday so that you have plenty of weekend time to get the blocks done and enter the contests.

Block 1

Block 2

If you have not checked out the Quilting Gallery before -  now is the time! They are a great resource not only for learning but also for finding blogs from people in your state or just in your local area. They have many resources on the site that I am sure I haven't tapped yet but I can tell you that quilting really is their passion. 


Have a great rest of the week!


Angela

 

MN Quilt Show 2012 Recap

A great time was had by all at the MN Quilt Show in Rochester, MN. 

My mom(L) and I got on a bus with my quilting guild at 6am and we were off to the big city. Once we arrived, the show sent someone out to our bus to hand out programs, give directions, stamp our hands and in general welcome us to the show - what a lovely idea!

Once inside the show I think that we sat down a total of 20 minutes in order to eat and other than that we were up and walking from 10am to 3:45pm. Our bus was scheduled to leave the show at 4pm but since everyone was tired and already back on the bus we were able to get out of town at 3:55pm. 

The show was held in multiple large exhibit halls and really flowed well from one to the other. My favorite part of the show, other than the shopping, was a special exhibit of the 'Cow Parade'. Due to copyright issues i do not want to post pictures of these so please visit
Mary Lou Weidman's Blog to see what all the fuss is about. These quilts are hilarious and so fun!! 

So I as said, the shopping was my other favorite part of the show so here is my haul. 

Several different cat fabrics --- of course

                         One more fat quarter for my fruits and veggies collection, some movie theater snack fat quarters                            and then a baby themed charm pack

a package of 5 1-yard cuts and 2 packages of 6 solid fat quarters

3 quilt patterns, 1 bag pattern and a wall hanging pattern with a printed fat quarter included.

The 2013 MN Quilt Guild Show is scheduled to be in Duluth, MN June 13th through June 15th. Duluth is a wonderful town so I hope that I am able to make it up there to do both some sightseeing and go to the show. 


The main thing that I saw missing from this show was seating. Many quilter's are older and would like to sit down and have a view of quilts while they are resting for a few moments. The show also should be more accessible to those using walkers or wheelchairs. I saw several people that were unable to fully get into booths because the space to get into was too narrow. I will be writing the guild letting them know how much I enjoyed the show as well as stating the few areas where they could improve. 


I am starting a new project tonight so be on the lookout this weekend for pictures! 


Happy quilting!


Angela



PS - We watched the movie 'We Bought a Zoo' on the bus ride home - how cute! It did however have me reaching for tissues more than once. I would highly recommend this for a family movie night.

Box O' Goodies: Part 2

And now for more from the box o' goodies! Look at all that work already done for me - gotta love it! This concludes the opening of the box o' goodies. And now its time to get to work on finishing up some of these awesome pieces!

Brainstorming - ahoy!

Angela

Box O' Goodies: Part 1

Here is a closer look at some of the goodies that I received in the mail earlier this week. I'm not sure exactly with to call them all...so for now we'll just leave them alone and bask in their awesomeness.

More to come!

 Angela

MN Quilt Show and a Box O' Goodies

The Minnesota Quilt Show is finally here!! I am so excited to head out of town Saturday and see some great quilts. My mom(L) and I are going to be taking a bus trip so we don't need to worry about driving - love it! She has never been to a quilt show before and I've never been to one this big so hopefully we survive! 

On a separate note from the quilt show, I received some awesome box of goodies in the mail today. My mom(C) and her mother are quite the sewists/quilters and have amassed some collections. While cleaning out sewing rooms they were thinking of me and put together a nice big box of happy. I could not open this box fast enough. It is PACKED with antique blocks made from 30's and 40's fabrics to dresden plates to English paper pieced hexagons to numerous blocks of the same fashion that seem more than enough to make a quilt. I have went through all of the bags but I'll give you a more detailed report once I have some ideas of what to do with them. Enjoy the sneak peak!

Box of happy

Wall hangings from my grandma and aunt(S)

All together now!

 I will see you all back here after the quilt show! I can't wait to give my feet, wallet and camera a workout!

Angela

Weekend Update

Here are the full size pictures of what I was working on this weekend. 

This winter-cat scene is a wall hanging made from a kit. The hanging is rather small since the panel was only 10.5"x16.5". I am currently working on quilting the piece and I'm putting my new walking foot guide to work. I'm not sure how much quilting I actually want on the cats and the gifts so I think I will go with a clear thread on those. 

Pattern: Winterberry singles WH-158

www.whimsicalquilts.com
 

This wonderfully outrageous cat quilt is based around some awesome fabric that I found last summer.I knew that I didn't want to cut up the fabric and this was just the ticket. I'm not sure what kind of quilting I will go with on this but since I don't have a backing for it yet I'm got time :)

Pattern: Too Cute to Cut from Quilts and More Magazine, Winter 2010

Happy Quilting!!

Angela 

Sneak Peak Sunday

This weekend I got to work on a few things that had been waiting in my closet. The Santa cat panel was from Sander's Sew and Vac/The Fabric Bin in Aberdeen, SD and was a Christmas gift from my parents in 2011. The blue cat fabric was purchased from Quilted Treasures in Rogers, MN sometime last summer.

More to come on both of these tomorrow!

 

 

Have a great week!

Angela

Craftsy BOM Update

 I finally got on board and finished my May blocks. Truth be told I finished the June blocks first and then went back to the May blocks...oops! And as long as I'm being honest I haven't completed the April block yet either. The April blocks are all English paper piecing and I'm not a fan. As I tell people - I have a machine for a reason :)

With the addition of these four blocks, i am now up to ten completed blocks for this BOM. The total number of blocks will be 20. Yes, I know 20 blocks and 12 months doesn't add up. The reason for this is that we are actually doing two blocks each month for ten months. In the 11th and 12th month of the year we will be working on sashing and borders along with other methods necessary to finish the quilt. 

I have also updated my Craftsy BOM page to show the new blocks so you can see the whole collection. 

Modern Frame Log Cabin

Wonky 5-Sided Log Cabin

Greek Cross Block

Octagon Block

Have a great rest of the week!

Angela 

Free Craftsy Classes

Happy Sunday all!

I just wanted to give you all a heads up on some free classes that Craftsy is offering up. If you are unsure if video learning is for you I highly suggest signing up for one of the free classes and giving it a try. Once you sign up for a class you can sign in and watch videos 24/7 and you can watch each video as many times as you want. Videos are also able to be viewed on numerous different kinds of mobile devices. 

Sewing Machine 911

Craftsy Block of the Month

 The classes offered on Craftsy are different than something that you get on youtube because you are able to interact with the instructor directly through message boards. You are also able to easily pause and rewind videos without having to wait for the video to buffer again. Another handy feature is that you can make notes at certain times in the video so you can remind yourself of when the instructor showed a particular method.

Prices on classes to vary from time to time. I highly suggest joining the site without signing up for a class first. By signing up you with then receive e-mail updates about classes when they have discounted pricing. I am currently signed up for 5 classes on the site and only paid for 2 so the e-mails are definitely worth it. If you don't want to deal with e-mails just check the site regularly :)

I have read several reviews about Craftsy classes from other bloggers but I have to say that I really enjoy learning in this fashion. It may just be that I am still a new quilter and need all the information that the instructor has to say or maybe I just like the technology. I do know that one of my favorite parts is that when I take a class in person I am so focused on trying to remember everything that I may not do everything in class. With online classes I am able to watch a video again and again without having to worry that I didn't write it down correctly. 

 ***Just a quick reminder that the Shop Hop around southeastern South Dakota is going on all week so don't forget to stop by your favorite shops! 

Happy Quilting!

Angela

Stash busting!

I completed the apron that will go with the coffee table runner that I made earlier. Once again I am using my favorite apron pattern. For those interested in the pattern the main reason that I love it is because you cut your fabric based on yardage NOT from a tissue paper template like you do with some other patterns. It makes things go together so much nicer. The only thing that you cut from a template is the cute little pocket. Using directional fabric was a challenge for me in the beginning but the pattern spells out exactly how to cut your fabric in that instance so it went really well :)

Four Corners Apron - Vanilla House

 While I was working on the apron I got a bit distracted by the mess of my fabric stash. I have looked at a lot of ideas on what to do with your scraps but I thought that the best thing for me would be to make my own jelly roll pieces(2.5 inch pieces x whatever fabric length). From there I thought I would piece them all together and have my own jelly roll race. The Missouri Star Quilt Company has an awesome YouTube video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEJLnaZQOU&feature=plcp


Here is what I started with straight out of my stash bag...all of the fabrics here are from the first sampler quilt that I made at Heirloom Creations.

BIG MESS

All pressed and looking good.

All fabrics cut into 2.5 inches by whatever length

Completed "jelly roll" quilt top!

I had planned on using the tan/cream fabric as a backing but my quilt top is now too big! I guess I will just use it as a border for now and see how that goes. The top is currently at about 30"x48" or so. I will give an update on the exact size once I add the border but I was very surprised at how much fabric I had!


I did more stash busting with my leftover Lorax pieces. These pieces ended up being 1.5 inches I believe. I had some leftover green fabric from my Kermit bag and was able to make a liner and handles from that. Isn't it just too cute! I am loving making my own "jelly roll" pieces and actually using them.

I finished up my long weekend by making my blocks for the Sioux Falls Quilters Guild block exchange. This is the second exchange that we have done this year.The Guild encourages everyone to participate so that we get lots and lots of blocks. The Guild provides the background fabric and then quilters add in their own personality by choosing the additional fabrics. This is something that we are doing quarterly so once the quarter is up they will count out all of the blocks and give them away to lucky guild members. I think at the last drawing there were 6-8 winners and everyone got 22 blocks. That is a lot of finished blocks for only having to make two!

Last thing for today is just a picture of the fabric that I had leftover from my 5 Yard Quilt - Coffee Cats. Maybe someday these scraps can become something interesting as well! I did find that the cat fabric and the blue fabric had the largest amount left. I think that the cat fabric had so much left so that you could fussy cut your pieces if you wanted to.

Whew!! What a weekend!


Have a great week!


Angela