On the wall

This week has not been nearly as productive as the last. For the last two nights, I've cut out fabric to make checkbook covers and wallets. Now, I just need to get down to business and get them sewed together, but I'm here and my favorite sewing machine (Pfaff 7530) is there. (For those of you that don't know, I live in one town and work in another.) So tonight I'm tracing out shapes to make a raw edge applique wall hanging (more on that later) based on a pattern I bought recently from Don't Look Now. Since I don't have anything to current to share, here's a picture of a vintage linen that I quilted and have hanging in my studio.

A productive week

As some of you know, I spent the week in Bodega Bay, doing nothing but quilting. Woo hoo! It's amazing how much you can get accomplished when you have large blocks of uninterrupted time to devote. I fixed my bird quilt, I pieced a bali's quilt for an upcoming wedding gift, pieced a backing for my Bunny Hill BOM using a few blocks that I messed up on, and made some super cute wallets and checkbook covers.

Hanging Quilts the Rachel Way

Today I was lucky enough to teach a quilt class to a great group of gals. By the end of the day, everyone was well on their way to mastering background fills. I mentioned to the class, and want to share with you, a great idea on hanging quilts by Rachel at p.s. i quilt. Clicking here will take you to her post that includes step-by-step instructions for her method. Also, for those of you interested in Carla's class called Quilt Whisperer, click here. Carla's class, which will be held on March 13 at High Sierra Quilters in Cameron Park, is all about how to choose the best quilting design to enhance your quilts, and she also discusses which batting to choose, thread selection, and tips for achieving perfect tension. Finally, for those of you that are interesting in quilting leaves into your projects, check out Just Leaf It by Kim Stotsenberg. Kim's book gives step-by-step instructions on how to make a sampler of leaf designs for borders, blocks and setting triangles. To order, email Kim at thatsewnsew@yahoo.com. I'm including a pic of a little something I made using Kim's instructions.

Easy Scallops

A friend asked me how I made the scallops on my Bunny Hill Designs quilt (see pic below) so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share with you my new toy, I mean tool. I purchased EZ Quilting's Easy Scallop, by Darlene Zimmerman after I saw a demo of it at the Pacific International Quilt Festival. It is incredibly easy. It comes in two sizes and allows you to make scallops from 4" to 12." First, you measure the length of your border, decide on the number of scallops you want, and divide the border length by that number. This gives you scallop size and you simply set the tool to the scallop size and you're ready to mark your scallops. For the scalloped inner border, I cut a piece of freezer paper to the length of my top and bottom borders, and another the length of my side borders. Next, I marked the scallops onto the freezer paper and cut out them out. Then, I used the freezer paper and starch technique to finish the edges of the scallops. Finally, I put the yellow scallops on top of the darker border and appliqued it in place and then cut away the darker fabric from the back. Super simple. I hope this was helpful.

Finished Quilt in 2010 - #1

Wow, I can hardly believe that it is already Jan 11th. Here's a brief overview of what I've been up to. For New Year's Eve, my DH joined me in Sacramento and we had a wonderful night out, dining at Morton's and enjoying a bit of the bubbly. New Year's Day was spent at the IMAX theater, where we saw Avatar on the BIG screen. Fabulous! The following day we drove to Reno to celebrate our wedding anniversary and spent the night at the Sienna, Reno's only boutique hotel right on the Truckee River. January 5th, was our 24th wedding anniversary, and it was the 2nd anniversary that we've spent apart. Both times, I was working out of town. Good thing we celebrated over the weekend! I finally made it home over the weekend, the first since Christmas weekend. In addition to catching up with the bookkeeping and bill paying at my DH's office, I was faced with a house that still looked like Christmas. I spent the remainder of the weekend putting things back in order.

On the quilt front, I'll be teaching a Beyond Stippling free-motion quilting class at my local quilt shop this Saturday. Then, next week I'll be going on a 4-day quilt retreat and I have high hopes to complete a number of UFO's.

As it is, I feel quite accomplished to report that I've finished finished my first quilt for 2010. I finally finished Out the Window, by Material Obsession. I need to add some small beads for the eyes and then I'll be hanging it up in my office at work.

The birds on my other bird quilt are no longer "walking on water." That's right, I set them free and am much happier for it. I had big plans on getting them repieced this week and pulled out and brought Kaffe fabrics with me to my studio, but left the birds at home. Oh well, what do you do?

I'll leave you with a few pics of Out the Window, birds set free, and my cat, Lucky. When I sort the laundry on my bed, she always tries to get in the middle of the warm clothes. This time she jumped right into the laundry basket and believe me, she did not want to move!

Happy New Year!