I hope not!! No excuses but I have been a little pre-occupied recently. It’s time to catch up with my adventures so here goes…
I had decided I needed a BIG bowl when we had our last It’s a Wrap class at PHF. Here it is in all its glory on the dining room table.
Sideways shot,
and from the side.
It is now in use with my current knitting project. It is large enough for a couple of magazines, yarn, needles and all the other stuff that keeps finding its way into the family room when I am not looking that needs corralling into place before we have civilized company…
Jane Sassaman came to speak to us at Riverwalk Quilters Guild in July. We had had to switch from our usual meeting date because of a church activity, so, with our programs chairs out of town, I got to play hostess. It was a pleasure! Jane was just as gracious as the last time she came to visit us. She is so inspiring with her mix of natural talent, gained knowledge and hard work, a real blend of art and craftsmanship. Jane spoke about how she designs her fabric lines and had lots of quilts to show us.
Here is Jane with our very own Carolyn Finzer who is modeling one of Jane’s original creations.
With lots of visitors and a couple of new members it was just a lovely meeting. A good time really was had by all!
Moving on…
It was time for a Quilter and Child class at Pieceful Hearts. Here are the young students with their finished quilt tops, constructed using an Alex Anderson pattern from Super Simple Quilts #3.
They did a super job. Pinning the long seams before stitching makes all the difference!
I came home and finished my top with a simple pillowcase finish and a little machine quilting. I then pulled out another top I had made from the same book and got that one finished too. Here they are together, enjoying the fresh air on the deck!
Here is a close up of the straight line quilting on the second quilt. My big machine was back at the shop (oops) so it was all done on a Bernina 215 which is not so big…
I have plans to add some hand sewing to the first quilt. It has Quilters Dream Select batting in it so it is very thin, just right for some big stitch quilting?
July 26th turned out to be very good day! Cheryl and I launched the Naperville Modern Quilt Guild, generously hosted by Gentler Times Stitching on Route 59 in Naperville. We had 27 in attendance which necessitated much hunting for chairs and shuffling around. We discussed our aims and objectives, chose our first project (individual name tags) and then embarked on Show and Tell.
I brought my Courtyard Garden quilt (now with binding).
Faith brought her little quilt she had been teaching at Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild. I want to get to some of those improvised blocks very soon.
We had an excellent evening. We plan on meeting the fourth Thursday of each month at 6.00 pm. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next!
Seeing these pictures convinced me that my camera needed replacing but my number one shopping partner was on her way… so I waited 3 days! With very little encouragement from my sister Bridget, I am now the proud owner of a new Sony Cyber-Shot complete with 18.2 mega pixels and a 10x optical zoom so now no excuses are allowed…
After a monster shopping day Monday we set off for some culture on Tuesday. Where better to go than Millennium park in Chicago?
A photo-op for the out of town guests,
Followed by art and a leisurely lunch at the Art Institute, always good for a quick snap…
.
You can have enough culture (?) and we had just one day left so we set to work and here is Bridget wearing a very stylish Partly Cloudy Poncho from Indygo Junction…
Hood down,
and hood up…
All ready for the rainy streets of London?
Shopping done, culture enjoyed, sewing finished it was time for Bridget and Karen to make a quick get away…
More good times!
But life goes on and I needed to get to my new class samples.
In no particular order we have Merry Santa Placemat and Napkin by Country Appliques.
Some placemats for a Quilter and Child class constructed on a Craf-tex double-sided fusible interfacing craft pack.
A Big Stitch Quilting and Embellishment sample sewn on a piece of Jane Sassaman’s Early Bird line from Free Spirit,
with a close-up of some of those perle cotton stitches.
You can just see the pink seed beads I added to the circles for a little bling!
And last, but certainly not least, we have a Modern Mixx Medley, an up-date take on the traditional sampler, with linear blocks from the book Graphic Mixx by Atkinson Designs. The quilt was a little creased from being folded up in a basket for too long…
and a close-up so you can once again appreciate the straight line quilting, completed on that trusty little Bernina.
No post would be complete without the wonderful grandchildren. It seems that the easiest way to get pictures these days is when they are eating so here is Ruby, wearing a rather grubby bib, wondering when the next mouthful is coming.
And Benjamin showing a rather cavalier disregard for eating utensils… at least grandma had remembered to buy a banana for this visit!!
Last time I was writing we had just had the wedding showers. That was July! Now we are half way through August and the wedding is next Friday. Can we do it? Yes we can!! Or, at least the team can and John seems to think it’s going to be “pretty sweet” (a direct quote). So, I have my outfit, all I need to do is show up and enjoy the day!
