What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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I gave myself a birthday-month treat on Saturday.  A guild in the next county had openings for a workshop with Jane Sassaman.  (Thank you, Ann, for your encouragement!) My calendar was open and V was available to take care of Stevens. 

Jane used her Moths and Moons pattern to teach us her applique technique ...

Our favorite plant/produce shop is open for the season.  Susan always comes out to say hi to Stevens.  One of her customers made a stack of "hug blankets" to give away to other customers who might need a hug so she presented this one to him.

I got geraniums for the front stoop -- and, hooray -- FIVE healthy rhubarb plants that Susan started from seed.  I'll plant them tomorrow. 

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The egret was quite close--guarding a nest, perhaps?  Upper: sand cherry  (a bush). Lower: crabapple (obviously a tree); mullein.

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At the guild meeting last week I signed up for the upcoming round robin.  It will begin next month so I have to figure out my starter block (an orphan ...

It's the Second Round of the Stay-at-Home Round Robin

and

Wendy is the host this week.

It's a stay-at-home round-robin.

Quilting Gail has all the info HERE.

Here we are, more than halfway through August and I've barely finished my 8th quilt this year! Just not getting as much done this year. You'll probably have a hard time believing this, but I have went almost two weeks now without any hand quilting. Can you sense how itchy my fingers are getting? It was totally worthwhile as we got to see a lot of family, but wowsers. It's always so lovely to come back home!

Glory Be is finished!

A Round Robin quilt is the sweetest of group projects. It is passed among friends, each adding blocks or borders of their own.

And when it is finished, that quilt represents the talent and creativity of everyone involved. (I get all tingly and sentimental just thinking about it!) 

For this month’s Triple Play tutorial, Jenny and the girls stitched up one big Round Robin quilt. They named it Sparkling Stars, and it sure is a beauty! 

Jenny built the center with 9-patches and half-square triangle lemoyne stars, Misty added pretty sawtooth star blocks and quarter-square triangles, and Natalie finished ...

 Not much happened in the sewing room this week.  Major dental work on Tuesday followed by cataract surgery on both eyes on Thursday meant I spent lots of time lying on the couch and not much time sewing/knitting.  The good news...my tooth no longer hurts and I can see much better!  I am supposed to be limiting my screen time so this will be a shorter post than usual.  Hopefully, I will be back in the sewing room this week. 

I made one block this week for a travelling quilt project that I am doing with 5 other ...

It melted right away on the driveway and sidewalks so at least we did not have to shovel it!  By Friday, it had all melted and we were in our spring jackets again ...

So here we are for week 3 of this project and I thought it might be a good idea to talk a little more about the tricky blocks. It turns out that there are 3.

Of course the first one is the jellybean block. I opted to take it apart and give it another chance.

Please know, I am not judging the person who sewed this block. I am simply doing what I can to turn these blocks into a quilt. Block trades are tricky. You may get back blocks that ...

The last stitches went into Tribes this morning.

This quilt was a round robin from 2007 that sat in the UFO bin way too long. Everyone made a strip, and I couldn’t figure out how to make them all work together. The design wall was the key to figuring it out. I ended up slightly trimming two strips and adding length to two others. The most I changed any of them was adding a couple inches to my own strip. I also added the lime green on the sides.

Thanks to Beth, Denise, Gail and Sharon for contributing to ...

No change in the numbers.

I’m sewing the facing on Tribes, with a goal of squeezing one more finish in the year.

I subscribed to Craftsy when they offered the too-cheap-to-pass-up price, somewhere under $3 for a year’s subscription. I’m watching Free-Motion Quilting with Lines, Curves & Loops with Debby Brown. I used a few of the designs covered in that class when quilting Tribes.

I need to get another project ready to quilt so I can continue practicing the different quilting designs. It doesn’t do much good to watch the class if I don’t use ...

November was a fast month. Not sure how going to work and the grocery store and nowhere else eats up the days so quickly, but there you have it.

I finished the zigzag quilt in November and decided on a UFO to finish.

The Short List categories are UFO, garment, original design, stitchery, framing, charity and other. I’ve used some form of this system for 6 years to keep me focused. I change the categories as my goals and interests change.

If I have nothing in process in a category I will leave it off the list. The list ...

The round robin has become a completed top. In my mind this was harder than the reality of doing it.

The design wall made all the difference. It think Alex Anderson says visual decisions should be made visually, and she’s right. Once I could see all the pieces on the wall, the quilt made sense.

Time to move on to layering and quilting. We have a long holiday weekend here in the States. I expect to make good progress.

On that note, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating it. Although many of us will break tradition and not spend time ...