trunk show

Traveled this past weekend. Presented trunk show and did a class for the Panhandle Guild. What a fun day that was. I so enjoy going out there as there are so many talented quilters in the group. the show and tell was wonderful. Hope they thought the trunk show was Ok too and that the class learned to do the ironworks technique. Had a minor glitch when some of the fusible web was to narrow, but thats life. It all worked out in the end. some beautiful pieces were started and lots were ready to layer and quilt by the end of the day.
Stayed with a friend (wonderful quilter and member of the guild) and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at her home. She lives on a hill with a beautiful view of the valley. The birds were singing while the sun came up. So peaceful. Thanks Jan
Saw several other of the members that I know from previous state guild meetings and met others who I hope I will see again in July at State meeting.
Sorry no photo's as I forgot my camera. Oh well.
Hope to have some photos to post soon, so don't give up on me.

Aprils challenge

Yeah my April chooseday challenge piece is done. The word was "bird", so finally found a use for the chicken wire fabric background fabric. That has been in my stash for "years". ha.
Mays word is "signs" so will have to do some thinking on that one.
The Take it Further challenge for May is pretty challenging so may go with the color theme this month. Will see how that goes.
Have been pulling quilts for my trunk show and class next week. I think I have about 50 pieces pulled, so should be a good trunk show. Maybe I should take pictures and post them before I put them away again.

change

finally something to put up here. Finished my "change" for April. Made a small 4 x 6 to add to a personal progressive I am doing with a friend. Kill two birds with one block sort of deal. The "change" is the three stages of a butterfly. cleaver or what? grin

windy day

Small quilt made for the CPQG mini quilt auction that will be next Monday night. Hope someone likes all the little character buttons I put on it.
Its been a very windy day here. Gusts of wind to 50 mph. yikes. Wasn't fun driving in it this morning,but at least coming home it was with the wind.

Hancock retreat quilt

Finished the star top from the Hancock retreat. I changed the placement of some of the colors in the strips and changed fabrics for the stars. I used two different golds and alternated the center colors on the stars. I like the effect, even DH said he liked it a lot. So suspect I will finish it and he will be the proud owner of the quilt. Now to decide what to do with the quilting.
The new Take it Further challenge came out, the subject is change. Now what to do with that? The moderator mentioned "circle" and I thought life is a circle, so may think up something using circles. The color scheme for this time is kind of neat too, so may have to play with that a bit also. should be a fun challenge though.

progressive center

Finished this little 6" block for the center of a progressive that I am doing with my friend from Las Vegas. Their guild is doing a personal progressive, where each person works their own quilt. Each month new directions will come out as to the next step. Should be fun. I decided to go really small as I don't need another large project right now. Machine appliqué with invisible thread. Can't wait to see what the next step will be.

A photo of the crazy 9 patch class we did at quilt club on Tuesday. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Used leftover black/white plus some green squares to start.
To do this you cut 9 squares of fabric, all different if possible, Stack them and cut through vertically at an angle through all the layers. Keep the edge of the cut at least 1 1/2 inches from any edge. Take the top piece from the smallest section and put it on the bottom of the pile. Sew them all together. Keeping them in order, press the seam open and restack in the exact order you sewed them in the first time. Make a second vertical cut through all the piles, move two of the pieces from the smallest section, to the bottom of the stack. Sew again. Press, restack, cut across horizontally, move 3 layers to the bottom of the smallest section. Sew them all together, keep them in order. Press, make the 4th cut horizontally, this time move 6 pieces of the smaller section to the bottom of the stack. Sew again. Press then square up all the blocks to your smallest block. Repeat this with 3 more stacks of 9 fabrics. This will give you 36 blocks, This is set 6 x 6 blocks with a 3" border around. Really good way to use up fabrics. I started with a 9 1/2" square to start and ended up with 8" blocks. You can use any size starting square. One in the class used 18" squares to start, one did 12 1/2" squares to start. So you can figure about 1 1/2" to 2" smaller square in the finished block that the square you started with. If you want larger quilt, keep making stacks of 9 until you have enough to make a quilt the size you want.Have fun with this.