2012 BOM

Another year has come and gone along with another Block of the Month from our Local Quilt Shop.
2012 applique quilt was Snowmen.  We had the choice of making that, the 12" blocks or both.  I opted to make just the Snowmen quilt this time.

This is the finish quilt from the quilt shop, Valley Fabric.  I'm not sure if it is an original or not.  Many years we do make a quilt from a local, talented designer.  This is Warm Winter Wishes.


This is the Beige/Black quilt that the shop made as a sample as to how you can finish your quilt.  I love this setting.  My daughter and daughter-in-law made these blocks.  You also had the option of making it in blue fabric which was quite stunning.

Another way of setting your blocks to finish your quilt.

My quilt in progress.  

As you can tell, I put my quilt together a bit differently than the original.  

 

Thank YOU!!! and BOM

First off....I have to say "Thank you" to those of you that read my blog and then voted for my Welcome Fall quilt!  I won!!!  Thank you thank you thank you!!!!  It is just not something that I would usually do (enter a contest), so thank you for supporting me!

Now on to the request I just received....my daughter and I, along with half of the quilters in this valley, are busy working on the LQS's BOM this year.

We are almost there!  I can hardly wait to be able to put all my blocks together!  Here are several of our past month's blocks.

Here's a pic of the almost finished quilt from the designer, Geralyn Powers.  She is amazing!!!  The empty spaces are where the last few blocks will go. 

I'm excited to get mine finished....hopefully that will be in just a few short weeks!

"Just Around the Corner"

Last week our LQS had a trunk show with quilts from "Just Around the Corner" by Kari Carr. You can find the book at Amazon here.

This is the quilt on the cover. Beautiful!

A close up of the quilt with the scalloped edging and easy mitered border.

Pretty tabletop quilt ready for Christmas.

This was a small sampler quilt in a picture frame.

Batik table runner.

Notice the different fabric scallops on the pillow? Not hard! Really!

I fell in love with this purse!

The technique did not seem hard. For the mitered edge, you take your ruler and draw a triangle at the end of your fabric (2 pieces of fabric, rst). Sew on that line then cut excess away.

Turn your fabric out and there you have your mitered edge. The book explains the scallops...I didn't get any pictures of how to do it, but it was not hard.

The lil' contest is still on over at the Quilting Gallery---till tomorrow.  Did you vote yesterday for my quilt? If you did, THANK YOU!!!! If you didn't, there is still time! I would love to have your vote for my "Welcome Fall" quilt! You can go here to see the quilts and then vote for your favorite....hopefully you like mine just a little bit more than the rest! :) Thanks!!!!

Oh My Gosh! Mary Lou's in the House!

If you haven't heard of Mary Lou Weidman, please check her out! She has a blog and a website plus an active yahoo group. She was the reason I decided to attend Quilt Wyoming this year. Usually when you attend the State Quilt Retreat you have to make at least 3 selections of classes you want to attend and number them in order of preference. I told my daughter that we would only put down 1 class each day and if we didn't get in, we just wouldn't attend this year. I was lucky that each class I wanted to take were on different days. While I was picking up my missionary son from Tennessee, my daughter called to tell me that we had gotten in both classes. I was estactic! My next thought was those poor ladies that were having to fill the classes....how dare us 2 only choose 2 classes.....oh well. I'm glad it worked out like it did for us.

The class was called Flower Power and was based upon the book of the same name and this quilt.

 

Don't you love the funkiness of it?! I do! Love the bright colors and the craziness of the flowers! Mary Lou uses a "hoochie" method to making her blocks. It's basically where you start out with a certain size of fabric and then keep adding to it to make whatever shape you want to make. Reminds me a teeny tiny bit of a Buggy Barn pattern. You have to think outside the box for these kinds of quilts but once your head can wrap around the fact that nothing is ever a mistake, you enjoy the concept.

 

 

Here is our design wall with several of the student's blocks on it. My block is the center red flower. Daughter's is the blue bird. She caught on quick enough to make the bird on her own without a pattern.

 

Here are some of Mary Lou's blocks. If you study them, you can see the concept a bit better of how to make each block. She says that she will keep adding if she has to so they all fit into a quilt by using her "hoochie" method.

 

How to make the flower pots and also the large flowers. We cut a 12" block of fabric and then cut it off center then using the hoochie method, turned it into a flower. So fun!

 

Look at all the crazy fabrics being used to make these flowers. I have got to get out of my comfort zone and expand my way of looking at fabric now.

 

In this picture, you can see how the different fabrics are added onto the blocks.

 

Loved LOVED this fabric! It's Kaffe Fassett. The girl who was working with it had already taken Mary Lou's "Hoochy Mama" class in Jackson a few months ago. That class teaches you how to make your regular quilt blocks become wonky. She took this class on Saturday and learned how to make wonky flowers and bugs so now will put them all together. It's going to be a spectacular quilt with the oranges in that fabric.

 

Mary Lou uses lots of buttons on her quilts so I had to get some pics of them.

 

 

Here's our class. What a fun bunch of women! They were all talkers and funny. Did you know that we can all quit dieting because once you hit 70 you automatically become skinny?! Yup. That's what one lady told us. She said you just don't see that many fat women in their 70's so she was happy that she would have the body she wanted in about 10 years. Daughter is going to remember that one for a very long time! LOL!

 

And here's a pic of me, daughter and Mary Lou together. Thanks Mary Lou for a very special class! We had a fun time and are eager to finish more blocks to get them into quilts!

 

Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin class

Here are some of the quilts that are in the book, Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin book by Sara Nephew with Marci Baker. I bought this book awhile ago along with the 60 degree ruler and they had been sitting on a shelf ever since. When I saw this was going to be a class offered at Quilt Wyoming, I quickly talked my daughter into taking it with me. I haven't quite got her into just sewing on her own yet but I can still twist her arm to take some classes with me and then she ends up with quilts she has made whether she likes it or not.

 

 

This is not a log cabin quilt but the instructor had made it. It is beautiful! She said that she puts it on her bed with 11 pillows so it fits nicely. Daughter asked me later why you would ever want to make your bed if you had to always put 11 pillows on it. I counted up how many I have on my bed and it is 7 and I told her I make my bed every day so to each his own, I guess.

 

This was the quilt that our instructor, Bobbie Crosby made for the book. She writes the patterns and instructions for the books that come from Clearview Triangle. Their next book is going to also incorporate their 60 degree ruler but it will have patterns for Tumbling Blocks. I am excited to get my hands on it after taking this class on Log Cabins.

 

Here is the quilt that my daughter and I were following. I let her picked which pattern in the book we would do since I was the one that coerced her into taking the class with me. She loved the bright colors.

 

This is my center section of the quilt I am making. I am using my stash of Fanciful. I am loving it so far!

 

This is my daughter's. I love the pop of color from her chimney piece!

 

My darling daughter sewing up a storm. Notice her earbuds....she told me that she needed some music to sew to since it wasn't provided in the classroom. Silly girl!

 

Here is a picture of the class.

 

What other ladies were working on in the class. We could pick any pattern in the book to make so it made the class very interesting to see what other ladies had picked to make and what their fabric selections were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This class was fun. In the book there is a sentence that says that once you made one of the patterns in the book that you wouldn't be able to stop and would have to make more. I am tending to agree. Just wish my list wasn't so long of all the other quilts I want to make along with those in this book!

Next up....my class with Mary Lou Weidman!