Edyta Sitar's Dresden Plates

I took a 6 hour workshop from Edyta Sitar through my guild, Genesee Star Quilters, a couple weeks ago and left that next morning to go on vacation with my family. It was a wonderful workshop and I would encourage anyone who has the chance to take one her classes to do so. She was a good speaker who made time for everyone and her directions were very thorough and clear. I made 4 of these plates during the workshop with the pattern and fabric provided by her. During the vacation, I decided to make a bigger quilt putting the plates on point and had to augment the fabric selection with a trip to a Norfolk Virginia quilt shop. (A fun vacation experience for me, but not so much for H.) Needless to say, though her fabric choices were both batiks and traditional prints, I have decided to go with batiks for my background and centers. They are actually quite different greens, but in this photo the colors are very close. Now I have 29 plates completed and basted to the background. Here they are lying on my bed as I decide how to do the sashing and border. Because the fabric in the plates is already folded and I did yo-yo centers, assembling the blocks will be easy. It's a nice evening to applique.

And P.S. I ate my first 2010 red cherry tomato from the deck this evening. YEAH!

socks, C's quilt, and scrap pages

My new socks, aren't they the coolest thing ever? I finally have a pair of handmade socks. I was at weaving last fall and my friend P had on handmade socks and we got to talking about knitting. She has been making socks for a long time, in fact, long enough so that her, her husband, children, and granddaughter only wear handmade socks. I said that I couldn't buy handmade socks because my feet were too big and she said that she would make me a pair. I bought the yarn in Jan and picked them up tonight. They are warm and very comfortable and fit perfectly. Thank you P.

This is C and her quilt top. She picked out the colors and pattern, and sewed it together herself. When we get a chance to rent the long arm quilter, she is going to quilt it too. It will be uniquely hers. (Very uniquely hers cause those aren't my colors...) We are still discussing whether this is her quilt #2 and whether she has to go to the back of the line for the next one after I finish the wedding quilt. After the wedding quilt, all the kids will have one apiece that I have made and since C's was the first one, she thinks she should be next in line....for a second one. I'm thinking I'm going to do a few extras first...you never know who will need a quilt.

Now that K has graduated, go Dr. K!, I can show the pictures that I took of our scrapbook pages. Her mom and E decided that she needed a scrapbook page from everyone who wished her well on her new adventure of being a doctor. I thought it was a great idea. Her dad's and my page is with the 3 postcard style pictures. Balance is her dad's wish, and Serenity and Family are my wishes (and they don't always go together as she will probably find out...). The picture of her and dad was taken at her coat ceremony a couple years ago. The little skeleton was part of a set of halloween earrings that I bought because I wanted this charm, and the pictures were copied onto fabric using the printer. I also made the ribbon using the printer. I learned alot making these pages. C also made a very cool page and D helped by selecting their photo. I had a small bag that I had saved from somewhere with this hawaiian scene on it and C used the images from the bag and alot of fabric to create the waves. She started out using paper, but it turned out that I had a many more colors of fabric than paper, imagine that?

the appendix quilt (aka star light)

I'm starting to get it together. This is the liberated stars/spiky border/funky letters quilt top. The star bright goes on the right side. The quilt top isn't blotchy, I strung a rope between the trees in the woods and took the picture, so you are seeing filtered sunlight. I need to make lots more spiky pieces for the border, but the rest of it is done, it just needs to be connected.

I will probably always think of this as the appendix quilt, but the label will say Star Bright.

Springtime Triple Irish Chain

This is a photo of the Triple Irish Chain quilt that I completed this summer. I call it Springtime, because the yellow and blue look very spring-y. I learned a lot of lessons with this quilt. I found that if I knew what I was doing in advance, I could leave the quilt/fabric shop with enough fabric for an entire quilt without going to 6 stores to find what I needed (and buying way too much fabric). I need to work on the 1/4" seam allowance. As you can see, the diamonds in the border do not line up properly. I did not measure the quilt top accurately before I took it to the machine quilter and I had to take her a second piece of batting and backing because the ones I had given to her were not large enough. I did find once again, that Eleanor Burns patterns are very easy to follow. I did 2 log cabin quilts last year when I started quilting, and found that book very user friendly also. This quilt measures about 95" X 105". I'm not sure what I am doing with it yet, but it was fun to make and for now, is very pretty on the spare bed.

I started appliqueing the rick-rack handles on my baskets last night and have decided that many of them are too plain. I am considering using the bright flowered printed fabrics for yo-yo flowers on a few of the single color baskets. It will make it busier, but it's already pretty busy and if it gets too bad, I will use a single color sash or border to unify things a bit. We will see.