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A trip to Arkansas from Ellyn's Place

Well, that was an unplanned and unexpected blog break! I wish I had a fabulous, exciting excuse but I don't. I do have a lot of things to share with you. I'll begin with the most recent fun I had and work backwards!

This week I had the honor of speaking for the Modern Quilt Guild of North West Arkansas. I shared the story of my Through Ellyn's Eyes project with them and the members were very engaged and asked lots of questions. I hope they were also inspired to perhaps begin projects of their own!

My ...

added by Ellyn 1 year, 12 months ago. under friend , lecture , through ellyn's eyes

Quiltcon Review from Ellyn's Place

Quiltcon 2022 is in the books! Phoenix was a blast (ok truth time here, I'm still in Phoenix! Hubby and I stayed a few extra days to enjoy family here, Dallas iced over and many flights were canceled. We'll make it home eventually!)

It was super fun to see my quilt Urban Emergence hanging in the Quiltcon Together winners exhibit! The ladies from Curated Quilts snuck me into the hall a few minutes before the show opened the first day and I stopped dead in my tracks seeing it hanging there. Oh, and they did an interview with ...

added by Ellyn 2 years, 1 month ago. under bee blocks , collaboration , friend , quilt , quiltcon , quilts

so nice to sew with friends! from Ellyn's Place

Anyone else tired of the whole "shelter at home" business? Me too. While I am thankful for the safety of my family and friends, and incredibly aware of the privilege to be able to stay at home, I am also so thankful for vaccines and dropping Covid numbers that allows us to cautiously be with other humans again. While zoom is a wonderful tool, nothing quite matches being with others in person.

This past weekend I was invited to retreat with 10 others who are all fully vaccinated for four days. What a treat!

Along with the whir of sewing ...

added by Ellyn 2 years, 9 months ago. under friend , garment sewing , quilt , retreat , weaving

In Tandem Art from Ellyn's Place

Several months ago, I was listening to an episode of Danielle Krysa's podcast, Art for your Ear (do you listen? I find it very inspiring.) and she talked about an idea she and a friend had called In Tandem Art. I encourage you to read her blog post here to better understand what it is all about. Basically, to participate, you find yourself a pARTner to come along side you, encouraging you and you doing the same for them. The idea intrigued me so much that I couldn't get it out of my head!

That night I was ...

added by Ellyn 2 years, 10 months ago. under bloggers , friend , in tandem art

Sparkle from Ellyn's Place

My friend Jayne (Twiggy and Opal) has released a new quilt pattern today and it's a winner! I was so thankful that she asked me to test it out for her. I had so much fun with it and just love the finished quilt top....

You can (and really should!) purchase a copy of the pattern here.

I had so much fun with the design I decided to see how small I could go with the blocks. The other day I made this two color block...

which led me to pulling out the pantone colors of the year.... Ultimate ...

added by Ellyn 2 years, 11 months ago. under color of the year , friend , pattern testing , quilt

Improv Round Robin from Ellyn's Place

My fantastic Improv small group (we call ourselves the Comedy Club Quilters) has done speedy improv round robins at the retreat center twice before. You can read about those here, and here. It's a fun event we always look forward to. But, like it has done to so many things, the global pandemic caused us to rethink our process this year. In the end, we pulled off our round robin with car swaps, porch drops, and maybe more than one quilt shop meet up (fully masked of course!).

I started out with this fun block, made up of a ...

added by Ellyn 2 years, 11 months ago. under comedy club quilters , friend , improv , mckmqg , quilts

Mod Flower Quilt from Ellyn's Place

Earth day seems like the perfect day to finish up this quilt and share it with you. Even though it is a small quilt (36"x38") it has been in the works for many months. It all began last September, on National Jelly Roll day. My guild, McKinney Modern Quilt Guild, was holding a zoom mystery jelly roll sew along day and because I love to "do all the things" I was eager to be a part of it. Mind you, I am not a jelly roll person (not a precut person at all, truth be told) and being on ...

added by Ellyn 2 years, 12 months ago. under bloggers , friend , handwork , mckmqg , quilt , quilt design , quilting

an outdoor photo shoot from Ellyn's Place

Is anyone else desperately missing their quilting buddies? Our improv small group has been meeting on Zoom since March but it's just not the same. Since the Texas weather is finally cooling down (hooray for fall!) we decided to do an outdoor quilt photo shoot at a nearby park. We met at the park in the morning on a perfect, cool and cloudy day and got some beautiful photos of our quilts.

Five of us met, we all wore masks and social distanced to keep each other safe. There was a pretty gazebo that served as a nice backdrop ...

added by Ellyn 3 years, 6 months ago. under comedy club quilters , friend , improv , quilt show , quilts

Urban Emergence from Ellyn's Place

I am just now beginning to be able to tell a story with my quilts. Until recently, often my story was "I wanted to play with triangles" or "these are the colors in my bedroom". Sometimes my story would come to me after a quilt was finished (or someone else would tell a story from my quilt!) This latest finish definitely has a story to tell!

It started months ago when I decided to ask my Solid Seven beemates to make me small, improv minimalist blocks with the prompts urban and architecture. I requested that they use any medium to ...

added by Ellyn 3 years, 9 months ago. under friend , improv , quilt design , quilting , quilts , the solid seven

100 days of bojagi from Ellyn's Place

It's been 100 days since Quiltcon 2020 in Austin. 100 days since we hugged new and old friends, stood in lines (close together!), ate tacos in crowded restaurants, chatted with vendors with no masks and thought nothing of it. 100 days since I sat in a classroom at the convention center with new and old friends and learned to do Korean Bojagi from Daisy Aschehoug.

Daisy is a warm, kind, bubbly human who currently lives in Norway (yes, she flew across the ocean to teach us, another thing people could do way back in February). She's an awesome ...

added by Ellyn 3 years, 10 months ago. under bojagi , friend , handwork , quiltcon , workshop

Positively Spring from Ellyn's Place

My friend Jayne, from Twiggy and Opal, recently designed a beautiful table runner for Modern by the Yard called Positively Spring. When she posted her second version, made exclusively in Peppered Cottons, I fell instantly in love and knew I needed to make one too!

I have to back this up a bit and tell you a story..... more than a year ago, at Quiltcon 2019 in Nashville, Jayne and I finally got to meet face to face. We had a great time chatting and getting to know each other better. On the final day, Sunday, I was sitting on ...

added by Ellyn 4 years ago. under fabric , friend , patterns , quiltcon , quilting

gifted quilts from Ellyn's Place

There have been lots of happy occasions to gift my quilts lately! In December, friends of ours got married. We gifted them the improv string plus quilt I had begun in Sherri Lynn Wood's workshop in 2018. My pal, Diann, of Happy Quilts quilted it for me.

Then the babies began to arrive! Dear friends welcomed their first grandchild, a girl, in January. Knowing she was coming, I had made my final 2019 fifth Saturday challenge especially for her....

I assure you the quilt is square! Apparently I had my phone at an angle and this is the best ...

added by Ellyn 4 years, 2 months ago. under challenges , friend , mckmqg , quilts , workshop

African Ladies from Ellyn's Place

I wanted to do something special with the African fabrics I had accumulated (both fabrics I bought in Africa and those shared with me by friends. I scoured the internet and kept coming back to beautiful quilt made with this African ladies block....

I searched and searched but could not find a pattern for this, or a tutorial or anything! So, I pulled out my graph paper and drafted it myself. And now I have a finished quilt!

I love this so much. It will always bring me memories of my trip and my dear friends in Africa.

Look at ...

added by Ellyn 4 years, 5 months ago. under africa , friend , quilting , quilts

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