Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Quilt Market - Arriving is an adventure.

Posted by Strlady at 11:47 AM 0 comments
Did I mention how much blogging on the go is a failure? Tried to post this on Friday night and that was a bust after I had typed out a great post and then hit "New Post" instead of "Publish" from my Blogsy app... I had some words to say but I think I'll save your ears.


This was on the day I arrived at Market (Friday Night Sample Spree) with my sisters (Brenda on the left, Jessica in the center and Me on the right). I was just happy to have arrived.

 I typically drive to Houston since it's a great ride and it removes any TSA restrictions on what I take and, especially, what I bring back. But this year I could not take the full day off on Friday and would have had to leave early on Sunday (I hate driving at night), so my sisters convinced me to fly... Not doing that again! LOL!


Flight was delayed 40 minutes, the pilot we had must have been a retired New York City cabbie (based on the smoothness of his landing) and then the shuttle bus driver took us on a tour of the Houston International Airport before deciding it was time to start the 25 minute ride to the hotel... My sister Jessica, who flew with me, commented that I kept looking at my watch. What I was thinking was, I would have already been at the hotel if I drove...

Caught up with friends, spent more than I should and fell prostrated on my knees in front of a booth... overall, the arrival was just the start of a memorable Market.

More to come.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Off to Market!

Posted by Strlady at 5:00 AM 0 comments



Headed off to Quilt Market this weekend.

Hopefully will come back with great pictures and fun things to chat about!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

A few days with Kim Diehl (pt 3)

Posted by Strlady at 5:00 AM 3 comments
If you have been following along, I have been chatting about my invisible machine applique class with Kim Diehl last week.

On the second day of class I greeted Kim with an evil eye and proclaimed her not my friend. I was tired and felt a bit defeated because the leaves from the night before looked horrid (my points were not really points). She had a good laugh on my behalf.

I was to leave it all behind me and start with a fresh attitude on this beauty.


Again, the pictures don't do this quilt justice..


Kim has a fantastic eye for color


And she incorporates the patchwork into her quilts like very few can do.


Lovely, Lovely, Lovely...

After breakfast and a pep talk from Kim, I cracked open the book (pattern is Gathering Gardens from her new book Simple Charms) and saw that the patern called for 60 berries!!! 60! I let out a squeak in class that incorporated everyone's feeling on the subject. At the end of the next two days we were making berry puns left and right...


We did some pre-sewing at home for this one. 


Funny thing is, that even though there were so many berries. There were not as many leaves. 
And the color really gave you something more to think about besides the little darn circles.


By the end of the second day, I had the basic structure of this one in place. 


Enough laid out that I could actually start the sewing process.


Kim showed us how to see the layers in the piece and build up the applique. 


Can you see the stitches? I think I'm getting it! 


I had soo much fun. The others in the class were a great group of gals. They could laugh and tease as experts. Kim was such a good teacher, she squeezed in some tips on quilting using Big Stitch method as well as her unique wool applique method. I say unique because I had never seen it before. She gave us a run down of her thought process when choosing colors and, above all, that hands on help that allowed us all to walk away thinking we know what we are doing. So worth the wait!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A few days with Kim Diehl (pt 2)

Posted by Strlady at 5:00 AM 4 comments
Continuing with my tale of the class I took with Kim Diehl...

Monday was the first day of the class on invisible machine applique. Through the week we would be working on two projects. The first project could be made either as a large lap quilt or a small wall hanging.


This is the larger version. This picture does not do the quilt justice.


The colors are fantastic!


And the quilting just makes it pop!


This is the smaller wallhanging.

The idea was to get the basics down with this one before moving 
onto the two day project on Tuesday.


After a session where the basic concept was demo'd for us, we got to sniping the freezer paper.
Lots and lots of leaves and berries were cut. So many that my fingers were cramping.

Kim explains her method in all her books but seeing her demo it makes things just click. The idea is to use the freezer paper like most methods do but instead of ironing the shiny side to the wrong side of your fabric you tack the template in place (wrong side of the fabric) with a bit of glue from a glue stick. This will leave the shiny side facing up. You then can go in without further glue or starch and iron the seams of your piece onto that freezer paper. The seams then stick without further assistance.


Did I mention there were alot of pieces to cut and glue and iron?


This is how far I got on my project...


But I didn't feel too bad... We were all in the same boat... (This one is by Janet)


Except for some overachievers!! 
This one belongs to Barbara who was the event mgr. I thought it was a bit drool worthy.

My day ended at midnight and I STILL had not finished my leaves. I was grumbling rather loudly the next day. LOL!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

A few days with Kim Diehl (pt 1)

Posted by Strlady at 5:00 AM 6 comments
I had been anticipating last week for months. Last May, while trolling Kim's website for her teaching schedule I found that she would be dropping into Kerrville, Texas in October. To say I immediately emailed Creations Quilt shop is an understatement.

I have not had tons of success with invisible machine applique and I really needed some help. Who better to teach you the tricks and trade than someone who's work you admire the most. That would be Kim Diehl (pronounce Deal - as in "Let's make a Deal" - I always wondered about the pronunciation of that!).


Taking a class with Kim is like hanging around a sewing machine with a buddy. I cannot tell you what a class act she is. Funny and relaxed and low stress... she repeated things to anyone that had problems "getting it" and would look over your shoulder if you were not sure you were "doing it right". But I'm really getting ahead of myself.

We started the class with a trunk show on Sunday night.


She talked about how she got into quilting and how unconventional she has always been.


She then brought out a truckload of quilts so that we could drool over them. 
This is one of my favorites just because it's on the cover of the APQ that my daughter was in.


Unfortunately the lighting in the room was sooo poor that many of the quilts photographed very dark or if I tried to play with the manual setting on the camera, they would blur. So disappointed in that.


Still, I got a few that held up.


I love this one too. I think a few quilt shops have been running this one as a BOM.

After the lecture we were able to go up and give the quilts a thorough rub down..


This one is in her latest book Simple Charms.


And this one will be in the next book (expect it some time in 2013/2014)

The night was a real treat! Many quilters that could not get into the class traveled a good distance just for the trunk show. I think it would have been well worth it.

Monday, October 22, 2012

BOM Rehab...

Posted by Strlady at 5:00 AM 3 comments
I have been watching Sinta's BOM rehab all summer. Every time I see the posting, I think about the only BOM program I have ever bought.

I recently joined a new "friendship" group. There are just three of us for now but we are all part of the Dallas Quilt Guild but live a bit away from Dallas. Meeting in a smaller group allows us to get to know each other more on a one on one basis. We've only met twice but it's a nice relaxed setting.

Last time we got together I brought my little featherweight sewing machine and a few blocks from that old block of the month I started a few years ago. I was not very thrilled with it at the time but it was a portable project that already had the fabric cut.


This one was the 6.5" block I completed during my sew-in.


I was so excited that it came together so nicely, 
I had to come home and make another one!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Blogging on the go?

Posted by Strlady at 6:51 AM 1 comments
I wish blogging on the go was easier. I carry my iPad everywhere and, I must admit that blogging on the go is not easy with the current apps out there. I just picked up Blogsy and would think it very nice if my photos where not housed on Smugmug. I love my photo storage provider but adding pictures on the go is a pain.
 
With that said... I have been test driving the app..
 
I was at a retreat this past week. Taking a machine appliqué class with Kim Diehl. I cannot tell you how much fun it was, but more than fun, it was enlighting. I'll be posting details this week... Hopefully from a real computer. LOL!
 
For my Bloggy friends that post on the go... What do you use to make it easier?
 

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Simply Charming Quilts

Posted by Strlady at 10:13 AM 3 comments
Last spring I had the pleasure of meeting Tara Lynn Darr at Spring Quilt Market. She is so darn nice! Isn't it great when you admire someone's work and they turn out to be nice on top of being talented! I love her work and she was promoting her new book Simply Charming back then. Of course I had to have it and was looking forward to making all of the little quilts in it, but alas, I think I mentioned yesterday how I am not a huge fan of small quilts. Until recently that is. After I finished my Dot, I still had an itch to use more of my scraps and I had even more of an itch to practice my quilting!

Off I went to look for this book:


I knew it had a slew of small quilts that I loved and they were all made with Charm Squares.;
PERFECT!
I made this one in about 2 hours max (including the cutting).


So, so, easy and perfect. I used my Holiday scraps from when I made Cindy Lou Who.

See all that space for quilting practice!

Go and check out all the other projects in Tara's book.
I'm so happy I had it tucked away.

I'll do a show and tell when I'm finished quilting it.

Monday, October 1, 2012

A Speck that is not much of a speck?

Posted by Strlady at 10:18 AM 7 comments
Learning point # 573: Read all instructions before doing anything... I think I have a male gene somewhere in my composition.

Have you seen the new Bites that Miss Rosie's Quilt Company has put out? They are sooo cute and perfect for a day of sewing. I have never been too fond of small quilts but they have proven to be outstanding for my need of immediate gratification! Annnnddddd they are WONDERFUL to get rid of scraps!

September's Schnibble for Sinta and Sherri's Another Year of Schnibbles was Speck.
I was excited to participate and super excited that I had so many scraps from when I made Beth that this little quilt was going to be "free", since I didn't have to buy a "speck" of fabric for it!! LOL!


I created my 2.5" squares and started piecing immediately.


When I had my little pile of blocks ready to put together, I noticed things were a bit off..
I was so into the piecing that I didn't realize that I failed to read all instructions before proceeding. I was suppose to trim my initial squares by 1/4" so my units were a bit bigger than the pattern called for... I shrugged and moved forward. What the heck!

Mary over at Quilt Hollow mentioned that she would have liked to interchange her blocks and use both the X design and the O design. She eventually made one Speck of each. I decided to borrow her idea and make mine a mix of both versions.


I just made sure I changed the measurements of the sashing to match my larger blocks.


Easy peasy.


What I loved about this small quilt was that I got the chance to practice my quilting.

I typically make large quilts and because I have no sense of balance to eyeball it,
I must mark my quilts if I were to actually quilt them.


Since marking a large quilt is such a pain and getting the quilt under the sewing machine arm is always a struggle, I focus on the part of quiltmaking I really enjoy, which is the piecing.


But, it's always nice to have the knowledge so that when a small quilt like this comes along you can do the quilting yourself and practice the skills.
This one wrapped up a bit bigger than expected but just as lovely. Thelma said it was more of a DOT, than a Speck, so that is what I called her!

BTW: Hate the new Blogger.
 
 

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