You Can Machine Quilt! - Class #5

We have finished learning all of the quilting motifs for this set of classes and now the students are going to apply what they have learned to one of their unfinished projects. Today we are going to discuss how to mark, layer and baste a quilt and then as a group we will discuss how each of the students should quilt their individual projects - I can't wait to see what they bring to work on!

A bat, an eskimo and Batman

After much deliberation, hard work (on my behalf) and tears (both Carson and me) we finally accomplished the hard task of deciding on and making halloween cotumes for the boys. This year Carson was a bat (although at first he said he wanted to be a cat - hence the tears) and Aidan was an eskimo (costume rescued from the cat costume fiasco). Pugsley even got in the act and dressed up as Batman. They got way too much candy - but Mike and I helped to eat it!

Getting ready for Halloween

Here are some pictures of the boys getting our pumpkin ready for Halloween. Aidan surpised me - usually he hates getting his hands dirty! Pugsley sat uder the table and waited for pumpkin seeds to be dropped on the floor - he seemed to just love them, but really, he'd eat anything (that wasn't dog food).

You Can Machine Quilt! - Class #4

Our machine quilting class at Taylor Sewing Centre is going very well! We have the final two sets of new motifs to practice today, flowers, stars and suns, and also the nested designs. Next class the students will bring a small unfinished quilt top to class to get suggestions from their classmates on how to machine quilt it. Hopefully they are all starting to feel more confident of their machine quilting abilities. I know I can see the improvement!

Countdown to the Country Home Christmas Studio Tour

Only three weeks to go until I set up shop on the Country Home Christmas Studio Tour. I have got lots of wallhangings that I am going to sell, and a selection of punchneedle pieces that I have sewn into quilts or mounted in frames. I'm quite surprised by the number of pieces that I have accumulated in my studio - and this is only a fraction of the total number of wallhangings etc. that I have made! I have been busy working on some smaller pieces to sell as well, some Christmas ornaments and table runners - I hope I'll have enough! Here is one of the pieces that will be for sale "Country Kitchen".

Another Quilt Finished

Last week I finished quilting a beautiful quilt made by our guild president Jane Guthrie. This quilt is to be a wedding present for one of Jane's nieces and I'm sure that she is going to LOVE it. For the quilting design, I copied a flower motif from the border fabric and used it as an all-over design. Funny thing that I noticed while doing this quilt - I don't own even one piece of oriental/Japanese fabric and this is now the third quilt that I have done for other people that were made using this type of fabric - maybe I'm missing the boat!!!

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More Wool pictures

Here are the rest of the samples we made at Loretta's last week. These ones were made with spot dying techniques and they turned out just YUMMY!!! We each bought lengths of the undyed wool to experiment with - now we just need to order in the dyes and buy some measuring spoons.

Dying Wool - SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Last Tuesday, Nellie and I took a road trip to Loretta Moore's house to have a wool dying workshop. It was WONDERFUL!!! We learned so much from Loretta and had so much fun! We are definitely hooked and can't wait to experiment on our own. Loretta's house is set on a beautiful lot overlooking a lake, and is so beautiful. She and her husband had the house built and are just finishing the painting and finishing touches. With Loretta's hooked rugs as focal points this house is absolutely TO DIE FOR!!! But the road in is a bit scary - not a good idea to read directions while going up an down and around - my tummy didn't like it at all. Here are some of our finished products.

You Can Machine Quilt! - Class #3 (again)

My class is moving along so quickly, that I decided to give them the motifs for class #4 in the third class instead. next class they will do motifs #5 and #6. This way for the 5th and 6th classes we will be able to work on quilting some of their own projects!.