Teddy Pruitt lecture

A few weeks ago quilter, quilt historian, and appraiser Teddy Pruitt spoke at my local guild.

If you ever get a chance to hear her lecture take it!  She has great stories and wonderful quilts.

Antique String quilt...

For this lecture "From Sublime to ridiculous" Teddy showed antique or vintage quilts ant then a quilt she made that was either inspired by it or used a similar block shape within the quilts.

Teddy quilt...

A quilter who sat at my table told me "I don't usually like antique quilt talks but this one was good."  I was glad to hear that...and will sit elsewhere next lecture!

Busy Weekend

Estate sales and quilting made for a busy weekend!

I was looking for a spinning wheel for my niece and saw a couple listed at a local estate sale.  In the end I didn't get either of them.  One was way too large and the other I wasn't sure was working properly.

I did get some fun little things for me...silver spoons with delft shoes on the bottom (yes, I have a thing for Delft...started with a tea set my cousin gave me when I was 5 years old!), a fun container for sewing stuff in my sewing room,

and a cute little children's handkerchief.

I have no idea how old it is but the colors are great!  So all that fun for less than $10!

Then I went to my guild's "Mystery at the Masters" quilting day.  Now I'm not usually a mystery person (except for Bonnie Hunter's mysteries!) but I thought it would be a fun day.

It was a full workshop with over 40 quilters in the room!  We used a mystery pattern from Debbie Caffrey called O sole Mio.  I got as far as step 9...pretty good.

Except by 3:00 in the afternoon I was fried!  I ended up spending Sunday frog-stitching (ripping out stitches) from the blocks in step 9 and am resewing today.  My left arm had gone numb and the seams from step 9 had gone all cattywampus leaving me with wobbly edges and about 1/4 inch difference!  Not acceptable!

As I press the redone blocks I also realized why I don't do 3 fabric quilts...I get fabric-bored.  Since it was a mystery and didn't have scrappy suggestions I went with the pattern.  I'm sure it will be a pretty quilt but I don't enjoy the process as much.

On the Watson front...still no fence!  We had heavy, heavy rain this morning so I doubt they will be working on it today.  He is doing a better job of accepting it though...lots of walks and treats seem to be helping!

Guild meeting

A few times a year my guild has a meeting where both the morning and the evening groups get together.  It is fun to see everyone in one place and or course it leads to some great show and tell!

Hexagon quilt made using the circle and fold method...

a 60th birthday quilt!

a quilt made from baby onesies....

a finished quilt from a Pat Sloan workshop we had last year!

a thank-you gift to our president showing Mt. Ranier, WA....

and food...

lots of food...

we also recognized our outgoing officers...

Polish pottery and fabric...what a great combo!

We also had another fund-raising weekend for our 2016 donation quilt, Raindrops for Rainbows.  This project raises funds for a camp for children with cancer.

This quilt has done really well!

and one of our local sewing and vac shops provided us with some needed water for the hot weekend!  Thanks Branum's!

Pat Wys Workshop

Last week my guild had a workshop and trunk show with Pat Wys, Silver Thimble Quilt Company.

She wrote two book on using Neutrals.  Now I'm usually a brights or reproduction fabric fan (I know two polar opposites) but I really liked Pat's quilts.  Definitely something I'll try - most likely when I have to make a "guy" quilt!

Pat demonstrated several different techniques during the day while folks sewed on the quilt pattern they selected.  So we had lots of different colorways (ya, purple can be a neutral to some folks!)

It was fun to see the different quilts coming together.

The trunk show was wonderful...she and her husband brought lots of quilts!

I loved her Christmas book...ya, she brought lots of patterns and books!  And it is never to early to start stitching for the holidays...my Grandmother started on New Years Day!

So I bought some neutrals at the Hancock's going out of business sale and added a couple from the stash that I will use on a quilt soon....

Happy Valentine's Day

My guild had a Valentine theme to our monthly meeting.

Lots of really creative folks.  The challenge was to make a bag/box for folks to put your valentines into...the winner was this very fun cardboard "sewing machine."

There were lot of fun entries!

And as always show and tell was interesting...from tiny sunbonnet sue's  (yes those are all appliqued and then hand-quilted!)

to Modern quilted projects...

an original quilt made from infant "one-sies"...another item to recycle!  This is called "You are my Sunshine."

to a quilt-top started at a Victoria Finley workshop several years ago...

to a very quiet and well behaved guild quilt dog! (dressed for the occasion!)

There was food too...lots of food.  This is the south after all!

Guild presentation

What was I thinking?!  I volunteered to do a presentation at my guild on "things you still have time to make before Christmas."

Almost all were freebie patterns/idea from either facebook or blogs.  I stayed away from bags or tablerunners since we have done those "to death!"  Plus they always take longer to make than the pattern claims...sort of like the chocolate chip cookie package recipe that says it will make 4 dozen cookies...in what universe!!

Anyway...I digress...so here are a few of the things I showed along with some tips I learned while making them...

First, this super easy pin cuff.  Since I know a lot of you also collect shirts and cut them up a-la-Bonnie you may also feel a bit guilty about tossing the cuffs.  Well, attache a bit of wool and a bit of magnet and you have a pin cuff!  (decorative stitching is optional!)The longest part of this project is waiting for the glue under the magnet to dry!


Next I showed a few of the mug heat cuffs...you can use a shirt cuff for this too.  A men's extra large is perfect for a Dunkin Donut's medium cup!

Wrapping a bit of felted tartan with a safety pin around the office white mug helps keep tabs on your mug - a mug kilt if you may!

More using of recycled shirts...a sewing machine cover.

This one I gave to my friend Tari and she nicely loaned it back for the meeting!  My "cheater" on this was using some of the pre-quilted fabric for the inside which was quick and gave it a lot of body.  Since I had a big box of 2-1/2 inch squares this only took a day to make.

Most of you may have seen this leaf potholder around the internet.  I unfortunately gave the pattern away last night so I don't have the pattern designers name.

 I used a layer of Insul-Bright and a layer of cotton batting.  I do that now when ever I make a potholder or table-runner.  (warning Insul-bright cannot be used in a microwave.)  Again this was a quick project since I have lots of strips around the sewing room and even enough left-over binding for a whole tree of these!

Also showed a pillow made using a vintage quilt block with some new embroidery and hand quilting.

This was a great take-along project. Think I did most of this in the doctor's waiting room!

I did show one bag...this one is made from a pair of men's chinos.

Some in-process name tags...

And then I made a casserole carrier...not a really quick project but can be done in a day.

It just takes a 20-inch quilted square with two short straps and one long one.

Well, back to binding quilts for the show!

Today was a pretty emotional day.

Ninety quilts were delivered to vets at the VA Hospital here in Augusta.  These were vets in long term care.  Most seemed to be from the Korea/Vietnam ere through there were a few WWII vets hanging on and unfortunately a few from more recent conflicts.

The guild put together these quilts in 4-1/2 months.  That is a lot of fast stitching!

RJ from a local machine and vacuum shop quilted this top that I had made with other quilters.  It was his first time quilting so I think it was extra special for him to present the quilt!

There were many watery-eye moments.  Regulations did not allow for photos to be taken on the care floors...just take my word that there were lots of smiles!