A Quilter’s Birthday Party

I got invited to a birthday party.  It was for one of my quilting friends, Cathy, for a very special birthday.  Her husband, Jim, arranged for all of us to attend a jewelry making class.  

It was held at The Studio at Rush Creek in Maple Grove, MN.  According to their website, it’s an art studio and coffee bar . . . . created to be a comfortable place where anyone, including beginners and hobbyists, can come in to experiment with different arts and crafts.  It’s a great space with friendly help.  

We got a brief introduction to dichroic glass and then had two hours to experiment and make pendants.  I think there were more options, but that’s all I concentrated on. 

 

 

Basically, you just cut colored dichroic glass and layer it into artistic designs.  Then you carefully place it into a kiln.  That’s the tricky part, since the pieces tend to slide around during the trip.  

 

There was a huge pile of scrap glass to choose from and a few other things to add like glass noodles, which is just like it sounds.  Thin pieces of glass that look like spaghetti.  

 

In the two hours, I was able to make 25 pieces.  Some of them were pure experiments. Just layered some scraps to see what surprises I could come up with.  (I’ll pick them up after they’ve been fired.)

After, we gathered on the soft seating for gifts and chatting.  Cake and ice cream too.

 

 

It was lots of fun.  Thanks Jim!  . . . . and happy birthday Cathy!

Block of the Month Give Away

In my continuing effort to clean and organize my sewing space, I’ve decided to give some things away.  To start, I have some blocks from a block of the month program called Quilted Treasure’s Flowers.

Six of the blocks are sewn together.  Size is 12″ finished.  Background color is white.  

 

I have four more packets of unfinished blocks.  Can’t guarantee that everything needed is there, but it looks likely to me.  

 

 

I can’t find any of the finishing info.  So this would be a creative endeavor for someone.

Here’s the deal.  I will give these away to someone:

     who will finish the blocks and sew them into a project reasonably soon.

     who will send me a photo of the finished project to post on my blog.

If you’re interested post a comment about what you might do with these treasured blocks.  Be sure to include your email address. I’ll randomly choose a winner next week.

Good luck,

Jan

Maple Grove Quilter’s Show

I headed over to Maple Grove Saturday to take a look at the Maple Grove Quilter’s Show.  

There were many wonderful quilts.  I’m posting my favorites for you.  Cllick on the labels to enlarge them and read the name of quilters.

The first is Stars and Kittens in My Mother’s Garden:

 

Flower Garden:  I especially liked the large pieces that showed off the fantastic floral prints.  The black is a perfect frame.

 

Sampler:  UFO quilt project, pattern from Keepsake Quilting.

 

Miniature Tumbling Blocks:

 

Folk Art Vine:

 

Tulips in the Park:  Love the black background, and there’s polka dots in every block!

 

I bought a chance to win this quilt, planned a wonderful spot to display it and everything, but never got a phone call.  Darn.  Hope the winner is loving it.

Quilting with a Conscience

I went to Quilted Treasures this weekend for the Block of the Month like I always do on the third Saturday of the month.  This month, however, we were to have a guest speaker.  The topic was bargello – not an exciting topic to me.  The speaker was Maggie Ball.  She was going to be teaching a class later in the day.

The bargello technique she showed us had a unique spin.  (I liked it. Who would’ve guessed?)  She worked with bargello blocks instead of strips.  By varying the placement of the blocks and the number of colors in each, a myriad of quilts is possible.  We had great show and tell.  Wish I had photos of those for you.  

 

 

We saw the cover quilt which was even more stunning in person.  Lots of others with interesting borders.   Now that I’ve seen the quilts, I definitely want to try to make one sometime.  Isn’t that how it often is with quilt books or patterns?  The photo may not do the quilt justice, so it doesn’t get noticed until someone shows off a fantastic sample.

Even more interesting to me was Maggie’s story.  A woman from Mongolia sent emails to various quilt teachers in the US.  She was asking for someone to teach the women there how to quilt so they could earn money and become more self-sufficient.  Most others turned her down for one or another reasons, but Maggie asked for more info and ended up helping.  She designed a quilting motif that was symbolic of Mongolia, one found on the door of the urts.  She then traveled to Mongolia to teach the women to quilt.  They began by making bags and aprons and then moved on to quilts.  They are now beginning to incorporate applique into their quilting.

 

 

In collaboration with quilters from England, Maggie hosted a Mongolian booth at the 2007 Festival of Quilts in UK  where she raised $82,000 for a capital campaign, and in September 2008 purchased a new Center for the woman in the heart of Ulaanbaatar!  It has a retail area with a shop front, a large classroom, a bathroom and kitchen/office and is in an excellent location

Visit the Dragonfly Quilts website to read more about this quilting outreach.  Also, take a look at some pictures from Mongolia.  More pictures.  Even more pictures.  And finally pictures of the quilting center.

If you’d like to make a purchase or donation click here. It sure seems like a very worthwhile project to me. Quilters have such big hearts, I’m sure there are many of you out there who’d like to help.  

I never expected the block of the month meeting to transport me halfway around the world, but it sure was a fun trip.

Jan

Found Treasure

There are definite advantages to cleaning up your sewing space . . . more working space, calm and peace, and room for creativity.  But one I hadn’t thought about before was finding treasure.  In my decluttering process, I’m finding things that I put away and promptly forgot about.  Or maybe couldn’t find because I put it away “too good.”

Here’s some of my recent found treasures. 

A whole stack of polka dot fabric:

 

Some pantograph patterns I purchased in anticipation of getting a long arm:

 

 

A small quilt that I made with my daughter and never finished:

 

A stack of fats:

 

 

My studio redo continues.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Jan

Clothesline Club Show

The Four Season’s Quilt Shop is having another show.  This time it’s cute little 30’s quilts.  Click on the link to their newsletter and then on Clothesline Club to see the quilts.

Four Season’s Newsletter

Jan

Give-away

Check out this site for a chance to win 30 fat quarters in honor of the blogger’s daughter’s birthday.  Go to the site and scroll down to the post. Deadline is April 20 at midnight.

There’s also a post on other online giveaways.

http://www.pigtalesandquilts.com/

Good luck.

Jan

WISQ April 2009

Tonight I headed up to Shirley’s house in Anoka for our April WISQ meeting.  Our group was a little smaller than usual since some members were traveling, but we still a fun time and great show and tell.

Cathy has been knitting up a storm using up Karen’s leftover yarn.  She’s making what she’s calling “black toed socks.”  

 

She also made a quilt with lots of quilting quotes.  

Cindy made a library bag for her granddaughter.

Deb brought an Easter runner with the cutest backing.  Who could resist all those little  bunnies?

Karen finished the latest Glad mystery top, Log Cabin Shuffle.  It’s in gorgeous brights, just right for her 5 year old grandson.

Mary Beth finished last fall’s Glad mystery.  It’s called Friends Forever.  Look at all those great right-handed friendship stars.  

Shirley invited her friend Suzanne to be a guest.  She brought some beautiful quilts to share.

This one is her “Grand Marais” quilt.

Another is for a friend in Santa Fe.  

Shirley had the most show and tell of all.  She brought a fabulous quilt that she made from blocks originally made by her grandmother.  It was the first quilt she ever brought to the group back in the old days when she didn’t even sew.  It  looks fabulous.  

Look how far Shirley’s come.  Here’s the rest of her beautiful stuff.

We’re continuing to sew blocks for our 2009 – 2010 charity quilts.  We collected another 100 and some tonight, no thanks to me I regret to say. Most were done by Cathy, some by Shirley I think.  Karen reported we have enough for 13 tops so far, not counting these new ones.  

Lots of fabulous prizes and brownies with ice cream finished off the evening.

Some Virtual Show and Tell

The Glad Mystery I’ve been chatting about is now up on the Glad Blog. They say the pattern will be available around June 1. This is definitely one you’ll want.  Kits will also be available in the fabric used for the samples. 

For some virtual show and tell, click on the Smilebox on the bottom of the post.  It includes the show and tell for all of the groups who did this mystery.  Make yourself a cup of coffee or tea, put your feet up and get ready to be inspired.

Jan

New Fabric Lust

I walked into my local quilt shop to pick up a pattern where I was greeted by a gorgeous new line of fabric.  It’s called Aviary and was designed by 3 Sisters for Moda.  It is truly pastel, which doesn’t usually call to me, but this was absolutely beautiful.   

It required a great deal of will power to leave with buying any of this fabric. I had to keep my hands in my pockets, because I knew if I touched it it would be all over!

I couldn’t quit thinking about it so I headed to the Moda website to take another look at it.  I found what they call a Swatch Page, which they say is “great for a shopping list to print and take into your favorite quilt or specialty store.”  A fun part of it is you can see the whole line.

aviary-fabric

Here’s a free pattern also provided by Moda.  Don’t really love it, but take a look and see for yourself.

aviary-free-pattern

If you have a passion for pastel, you have to see this line.

Anyone want to take bets on how long I’ll hold out before buying some of this?

Jan

PS Don’t tell my husband.