Wonder Weights

Have you ever seen these lil' guys before? My mom used them a few times when she cut out patterns for clothes many years ago. If I remember correctly though she didn't like them very much because they tore the pattern while she cut around them because they are heavy. I refound them this past weekend in my mom's old sewing machine cabinet. Middle daughter wanted to take the cabinet home with her so I cleaned out the drawers and found them. I think they are going to come in handy with my quilting.

 

Here's what I am going to use them for....keeping my quilt steady on my cutting table while I cut. They are heavy enough that I don't have to worry about the quilt falling off the table.

 

Sew days at the cabin

Middle child and I went to the cabin this past week to do some sewing. It's always fun to have a gorgeous lake to look at while you sit at your sewing machine and sew! We took our "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin Quilt" project with us to work on.

Here was where we started on Thursday:

 

It was fun to see each star progress.

 

Love Middle Child's color selections, especially the coral...it just pops the whole quilt.

 

Here she is all tuckered out......we had to go to the lake after naptime so we could relax some more! :)

 

By Saturday afternoon, I was able to get almost the whole quilt finished. Need to add my strips on each side so it will be square and then it will be ready to take to the quilter. Was a fun quilt to make. The book says you can't only make just one. They may be right!

 

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!

Quilt Show

Thought I would post these pics tonight of the small quilt show that was in conjunction with Quilt Wyoming. Several quilts caught my eye for different reasons.

This first quilt was very different. The Bible was printed on pellon or some other sort of interfacing. It also was several pages so it could be turned like a book.

 

Hard to believe that this "painting" is really fabric instead of paint! It was amazing!

 

Here's another one that shows the fabric a bit more.

 

I should have read the tag on this one. Reminded me of a Pam Bono pattern. Maybe it is?

 

This is a Christmas quilt. Can you see the Christmas trees surrounding the star?

 

A way to incorporate doilies onto a quilt.

 

This was a beautiful quilt. Each embroidered block has some black beading sewn on it.

 

A close-up of one of the blocks.

 

Will show more pics from the quilt classes I took in another post. I had a great time!