Distractions

On Monday my quilt guild hosted Lorrie Faith Cranor.  She gave a presentation of her quilts and designs and then on Tuesday led a workshop on her Interleave design.

The weather was awful and I almost didn't go but boy am I glad I did!

Lorrie is a lovely person and excellent teacher.

We were to pick 4 FQ of fabrics that went well together but had good contrast.

Geeze louise, picking fabrics makes me crazy. I must have pulled 20 fabrics out of the stash.  Then after the guild meeting and seeing her quilts in person, I came home and picked different ones!  

 Here are my fabrics prepped and ready to be cut into 1 inch sections!

Of course I forgot my camera, so one of the other ladies taking the class took these and was kind enough to send them to me.

starting to see the design 

after I got home I finished the last few rows

squared it up to 16 inches, made binding and finished it.

Here it is hanging in the dining room. 

This pattern is Helix (Sine Wave)... I have NO IDEA what that is-but I like it in a quilt!

Today I started another one. Same pattern totally different fabrics. I have better contrast with these and like the effect even better.

This is a quilt as you go technique, and after adding each strip I would piece a  hst unit for my Up, Up and Away quilt (from Amanda's book)

 and finally reached 589!

That's just enough to make the quilt (if I've added correctly) woo-hoo!

There's the last one and the jar I've been keeping them in.  

I started making them back in August. It will be fun to lay them out one of these days. one of these days soon I hope.

We spent the weekend at The Mount. 

It was family weekend.

During a break in the activities Paul and I drove the 15 minutes up to Gettysburg.  It was chilly and very overcast.

But we got in a short visit on the East side of Cemetery Hill.

The foliage is beautiful. This is a shot from the car on PA 76 right before going through the Allegheny Mountain tunnel on the way home.

We weren't able to head out until Friday evening as Paul couldn't take the day off and actually had to stay late.  So although that meant we missed the Friday evening activities for family weekend.  

It gave me some extra time at home.

I finished my little (36 x 36) community outreach baby quilt for the guild.  

I also got the quilting done on my two Urban runners.  I loaded them together on one piece of backing fabric. I wanted to take a picture before I cut them apart, but forgot.

I'm going to go make the binding now and hopefully finish them both today.  

Quilter's really are the best-est people!

I had the pleasure of spending a day with one of them. Amanda Jean Nyberg from Crazymomquilts was in Pittsburgh to speak at our guild. 

One of the other guild members showed her around Pittsburgh on Sunday and I continued the fun on Monday.

 I picked her up in the morning and we went to The Strip District.  Amanda got to see a cool area of the 'burgh, me too because although I've lived here all my life, I've never shopped in the strip.

She also got proof of my being directionally challenged--what can I say; I think I only almost turned left instead of right, two or three times.... or was it right instead of left?

We came back to my house and had lunch on the deck and relaxed.  Amanda asked to see my quilts. 

I'd hold one up give a little story and fold it on the couch....

 then on the chair...

Sometimes you just need to sit back, put your feet up and look at some quilts!

  

The day flew!  

We talked about quilts, our kids, quilts, family, blogging oh and quilts.  

Her trunk show was excellent.

We saw and heard the stories behind the quilts; the making of them and how her book came about.  If you get the chance to see her, go! You will not be disappointed.

Today was an all day workshop where we learned her slab technique.

I had to first separate my scraps into colors before I could even begin piecing.

(I see a long overdue fabric re-organization in my future.)

Here are the three I made.

  The pink one and the red one pretty much used all the scraps I had in those colors.  I have tons of blue and greens too, the amount of greens was a surprise to me.
fun, fun!

******
and finally
This is a terrible picture of a stunning quilt.


the 'crapola photographer' (that would be me) strikes again!

It's the raffle quilt for our fall quilt show.  I'll get a better picture in the future.
It is just gorgeous.

I hope I win it.  I have plenty of room.

as long as I don't put that last pile of quilts away.

Urban Chained went from a flimsy to quilted this weekend.

I have the binding made but in my haste to get this quilted I forgot to make a label and attach to the back before I quilted it...so I have to get a label ready and sew it along the edge with the binding.  (that way I only have 3 sides to hand stitch to the back).

I did make a cute pillow cover and quilted it real fast yesterday but alas no picture.

Tonight is my guild meeting.  Our speaker is Amanda Jean from crazymomquilts.  

How fun is that!! 

OK a busy day today so I better get dressed and get it started!

   

Retreat!!

The Quilt guild I belong to had it's annual retreat over the weekend.

I'm always a bit negative about going on retreats.  It seems like such a bother gathering up all my stuff and taking it to a strange place to sew. When I already have an organized routine at home.  

But after getting settled in, I'm happy I did.

Of course:

I packed too much!  

I ate too much.

I laughed too much-no that's not possible! But you know what I mean.

I made some new friends. (Hi Mary Lynne!) and got to know some of the other guild members a little better and attached a few more names to faces. 

And I got a lot done.  

I thought I would get much more done but isn't that how it always is?

The two latest blocks in Jenny's Curve it Up Quilt along were first.

Here's all my blocks so far.

I pieced all 85 of the 90 blocks I need for Urban Candy.  I didn't finish the final five because I didn't have enough of the colored curve pieces cut!  How the heck did that happen!

They are cut now and I will post a picture soon.

They need pressed before I put 'em up on the design wall.

Although I'm not thrilled with the colors, this quilt is not for me and I'm excited to see all the blocks together.

And finally, I pieced 8 of these X blocks.

Four blocks (12 inches each) make an X.  I'm using my strings to make the centers. After all the curved piecing I did, it was very nice to slip back into mindless sewing.

I've finished quilting a huge quilt for Libby and can't wait until she picks it up so I can show a few pictures.  She says she hasn't been on the blog for a while but just in case I want her to see this one in person first.  

Oh and I got a new pattern.

oh my gosh! I can't wait to make this one!!