June Workshop & Guild

The June guild day at my local guild included an all-day workshop… taught by yours truly!

I had 10 students after a few dropped out or didn’t show that day.   I was pleased how well everyone did and how far they progressed on their quilt tops.

I just took a few photos while they worked. Then after the program, those that had stayed, showed their pieces as a group.  I love this!

The program was great!  Here are a few photos.  (I was sitting in the back… hard to get good ones.)

A lot of the backs of her quilts were just as stunning as the fronts!  Very fun to see her work.

Read Full Post »

4Ps NY Style

I taught a workshop at guild on Monday titled, 4Ps NY Style.   Which translates to Paper Piecing without Picking Paper and we made New York Beauty blocks.    🙂

I left at 9 a.m. and the church where we meet is just 10 mins from me.   Class was from 10 – 4.

It is really nice that each one could have their own table to work at or they could share with their buddy.   We have a big open room to work in and I had my machine and demos in the front.   I did 3 different teaching times at my table and then helped them individually as needed.   (i.e. often  🙂  )

(one didn’t bring her machine but used mine most of the day)

Ann is always happy!!   🙂

 

a few blocks by the students

I was actually pleased and I hope it was a good thing that most kept working until 4 – 4:30.    At 5:30 we had a potluck for those from class as well as a few others that came to join us before the meeting.

The meeting starts at 7 but this year we’ve had “warm-ups” from 6:30 – 7 that are short demos on various projects.  We have 2 of these going at the same time and everyone can pop in as they arrive to  learn a new trick or see a new tool in action.

After the program at 7, we have a break for visiting & refreshments.   Then the business meeting and we end with show & tell.   At the beginning of show & tell,  we like to have the workshop participants show what they worked on.

Not everyone from class had stayed this long but here are 15 (out of 18) of them.   I took my MIL’s table runner (she was pleased to share it with everyone for the day) and my October LaPetite’ wallhanging.

I got home at 9:20 p.m.   Tired!!!

Read Full Post »

Poole Workshop

After all that on Sunday and K was on her way, I made a pan of Spinach Lasagna and packed up my sewing stuff for an all-day workshop on Monday.

I headed out at 7:45 Monday morning, for the neighboring guild.   They had a great facility for their workshop and I was excited to take the class with Joanie Zeier Poole.  I’ve admired her work for years as she does her own machine quilting on her home sewing machine like I do.  I have 2 of her books and took one along to be signed.

However because of the activities of Sunday (namely the family gathering), I missed her heirloom quilting class and took the invisible machine appliqué class on Monday.

Our goal —

Working —

My progress —

I don’t mind that I didn’t get very far with stitching.  We were taught how to prepare our appliqué pieces and worked on that in the morning.  We shared a potluck lunch together.  Then Joanie helped each one of us with our machines to get our stitch just right and we made stitch samplers for reference.   She had brought a long a lot of her appliqué pieces (which I wish I had photos to share!!) and it was great to hear her methods and thoughts going into each piece.

Afterwards, she had out some of her quilts to show.  Only 2 of us were new to the class on Monday as the other 6 students had taken her Sunday quilting class.  But the other lady seemed to have left early so I basically had a private showing!  🙂

It is hard to convey to her how much I LOVE her work!!  I supposed I talked like a crazed dork.  

This piece is done on a silk-cotton blend.  She digitized the embroidered center and the corner pieces and then used that same design in the quilting for the border.  Stunning!

Monday evening she was the speaker for the guild’s program so  I stayed in the town for the rest of the day.  (workshop was done at 3:30)   I helped the program chair move Joanie’s stuff to the program site and we set up everything for the evening.  Joanie stayed there to review her program and enjoy some quiet while Sue, Barb, & I went to Culver’s for supper.

I was surprised that about 10 other guild members then stopped at Culver’s to join for a group supper before the program.  Fun idea!

The quilt behind Joanie in the above picture is one I saw displayed at the Expo in Madison several years ago.  It is gorgeous in real life. I had to lighten this picture a bit since the room was dark and I took this without my flash so as not to interrupt her so much.

Here is a close-up I got in the afternoon —

I’m excited about the MORE ideas swimming in my head.  Hopefully, they’ll get to come out sooner rather than later.   Joanie teaches at a shop about 2 hours from here so I’m considering a 2-day to take some of her quilting classes there.

Read Full Post »

Prairie Lilies at Guild

I finished my to-do list much sooner today than I expected.  Yeah!!  And not without some blood, sweat, & tears!    😉

(I thought I’d put a 1 1/2″ flange on mom’s pillow but there wasn’t enough fabric.  She’ll have to do with a smaller one.   Beggars can’t be choosers, right?  🙂 But the book is done and will be in the mail tomorrow! )

So back to Monday….

Quilt Guild had an all day workshop – 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. by Linda Halpin.   I left here about 8:10 so I could get moved in and settled before 9.  I had my sewing machine in its cart, a suitcase of fabric stash (as per the class supply list), a large tote of odds & ends for class, my big cutting mat, my big pressing surface, a 13 x 9″ pan of noodle-less lasagna, a 13 x 9″ pan of sugar-free raspberry cheesecake, my lunch, a snack, a water bottle, my hot cocoa, and a pillow for my chair.  WHEW!

After I got moved in to the church basement, I helped set up tables.  There were 20 of us for the class and then a table for Linda to use — made for 21 tables out of the back dungeon!   We were exhausted before the class started!

When I packed on Sunday, I bemoaned packing MY stash as my stash is old.  Back in the 80’s & 90’s, I shopped and it got put in the stash.  These last few years, I only buy what I need for the current project (and some of those aren’t done yet!) so there isn’t much that goes in the stash.  I thought I’d learn what I needed to learn and at least have fun.

Linda's example quilt

The first part of the workshop, Linda showed us how she builds her modified scrap quilt with her stash.  It was STUNNING to watch her!  (She doesn’t make a scrap quilt by just pulling something out of the brown bag and sewing it.  This is more planned and more pleasing. )   She went to 3 tables and using that person’s stash taught us how to find our fabrics for the project.  We were in awe!!

She gave us 10 minutes to choose 4 background fabrics, 2 greens for leaves & stems, and 4 lily fabrics each out of 2 different colors (I used blue & rust).    Then she went around to all our tables, and we students followed to watch, as she helped with sorting what we had started.  Knowing her help was coming, I had probably 8 or 10 in each pile that only needed 4.    But that was OK, I was at least sorted to the right departments.   She quickly talked through my choices and why or why not each fabric would work.  It was so fun to watch this and it all made sense!

(I should have taken a picture of this before & after sorting…. go ahead throw something at me….)

Next she told us how to cut our fabrics.  Not ALL of them for a whole quilt, but just enough to get started.  Our handouts had the total cutting and the “get started” cutting amounts.  Smart!

We had our pieces cut to make 2 lilies by the time for our lunch break.

Nancy & Pat were my table mates.

Then she gave us our sewing instructions.   All the pages in the hand-outs had very detailed illustrations and instructions for sewing.  It could have been easy to sew the wrong diagonal line but when we followed her diagrams it was all so slick.

We were also to have a flannel piece for a design wall so we could arrange our blocks and put the fabrics in various arrangements until we found the way we liked it.   I had my 4 blocks done by 2 or so.

My first 4 blocks; the stems & leaves are added after the blocks are sewn together. I won't put both blue and both rust blocks together.

Then Linda went over  the instructions that are included in our packet for the bonus quilt we get. When we sewed our flying geese units, she had us sew another seam so all our cut-offs are already sewn into tiny half-square triangles!    🙂

Linda had packets for us of finishing tools & templates for the leaves & stems.  Did you know that cable ties make great bias pressing bars?  LOL!!  Cheap & plastic so they don’t get hot!

She gave instruction on hand appliqué and I was pleased to know she does it the same way I do!!   🙂   🙂   So I didn’t stay there and practice that part.

appliqué instruction | the small bonus quilt is on the table

Bunny W was working behind me on these batik lilies.

Susan's blocks ready to sew together.

A lot of people quit at that point.  I wanted to choose fabrics for a few more blocks so that I was ready to jump back into this at home.  Linda agreed with the 6 or 8 pink fabrics I had chosen so I cut out enough for several more flowers, not just 2.

After packing up all our stuff, we hung out until our potluck at 5:30.  Several other members came to join us for the potluck.  It was such fun!! We were all tired but still stayed for the program and meeting.  I’ll fill you in on that later.    🙂

Read Full Post »

Quilt Guild Workshops

Monday was quilt guild and besides the meeting in the evening we had 2 workshops as well.  Before I tell you about the meeting, here is my review of the workshops.

I was there by 9:45 a.m. to open the church, it was posted for 10 but you know how those guild ladies are… early!  🙂

I had packed SO much for the 12 hours I’d be gone!!  Thankfully, there is a drive going right up to a door.  Then 15 feet inside the door is an elevator to the basement! Just wonderful for quilt guild.

Bunny was unloading while I was unloading, so I put some of her things on the elevator with mine.  I saved room for my feet!

Class started at 10:30 and I had a sheet for sign-in and to pay for the workshops.   We had about 11 and 2 teachers; not the 23 she told me would be there.  (She counted each page but that was counting each one twice since nearly all of us signed up for both workshops.)

First we started on our fabric covered boxes because they needed time to dry before the final assembly.

(Here near the front of the table closest to you you can see Susan’s box pieces drying with the clothes pins. )

Thankfully we got that done by noon as we were quite hungry by then!  😉  We had only worked shy of 2 hours but breakfast was long before that… for those of us that did that healthy start to our day!

In the afternoon, we worked on our woven baskets.  These hold a large glad leftover container so using them for food or crumbly items would be fine.  🙂

To keep the handle stiff, we inserted that strapping that sometimes comes around a box that is shipped to you.  Or you can asked at Menards for the pile on the floor when they are unpacking!

My handle needs some fiddling as  it is droopy.  I think the strapping was cut too short or the handle cut too long!  🙂

I found this idea for the top of my box in a magazine by Somerset Studios.  Love their stuff!

We finished the workshops 4:00 – 4:30 and packed up all our equipment.  Some took walks outside as well.  We had a group potluck at 5:30 and some that weren’t there for the workshops joined us for supper.

Next post will be about our program!

Read Full Post »

Saturday’s Soap Demo

My Saturday went really well!  I’m pretty recovered today with a long to-do list that I’m working on.

The set-up for this day was super! They had a main session, then a time to choose one of 3 workshops, lunch provided (the part I had was yummy!), then 2 more workshop slots. The vendors were in tables around the outer edge of the room where the main session & lunch were held. 

We were able to sit in on the main session and that was an interesting discussion on local foods.  How to sell, how to buy.  

The first workshop they could choose included Roger who owns the grist mill in a neighboring ‘mill’ town.  We know them from church and had been to their open house a few years ago.   It was great to hear him talk about grinding wheat & corn on his mill since I’ve done a lot of reading on grinding grains and like to grind corn & wheat with my Whisper Mill.  

Roger did his talk from his display table near us so it was easy to listen in.  🙂   He had built the coolest mini model of his mill!  Amazing and with moving parts!

I was the first afternoon workshop. I only had an hour whereas the other demos I’ve done, I’ve had either 1 1/2 hrs or 2 hrs.  So I cut out the actual measuring of oils. I was at an hour and still waiting for a trace and to pour in the mold. They were all saying to keep going, it wouldn’t take them 15 mins to walk upstairs, etc.  

I finished.   And didn’t muff up my double swirl… .which I usually don’t do in public!  

The class had an extra fee but the organizer had it higher than I had suggested.  The fee covered that they got to choose a bar of soap, a wrapped & pretty ready to sell bar. It was on their registration but they were oh-so-excited!

THEN I had some ends they could choose from as well. (to make up the extra fee)  Someone asked this OR that and I said, ‘no both!’    And when there were still ends left in the box, I said to get a few more. They were over the top thrilled! 

Plus they really liked the teaching too.  They asked great questions and got up to look in my soap pot several times. Best class ever! (not counting my one-on-one.  )

They asked if my lotion recipes were in the packet.  I almost asked if I had “stupid” stamped on my forehead.  So they said they are campaigning for a lotion class next year.  I guess I didn’t make it clear MY recipe for soap wasn’t in their packet either. You know what would happen if it was… 

There were 4 of us there as vendors. Two of us led a workshop, too. I had super sales!! I knew there weren’t many registered AND they were having a silent auction, too. Where was all this money to come from? 

They were ALL over it!  I had over $230 in sales. JP helps at my table and actually did nearly all of it this time. I was there to help bag a few things and answer some Qs but he did it.  I’ll give him some commission from it. 

I didn’t see the final auction price, but was asked to donate something as my pay for having the vendor spot. I had a gm lotion and coordinating soap in a clear bag w/ nice bow. Value was $14.50 and the first bid I saw was $17.  It was money for the Master Gardner program. 

A great day and some new contacts I hope as well. 

I had my camera and was too busy to remember to take pictures of our table or my class.  😦  

I was interested in one of the silent auction items: a large violet plant.  When I looked before lunch the bid was only $2.   However, after lunch I never made it back to see and honestly, I wasn’t there to spend money.  😉  

But I did the happy dance as we were all cleaning up because…. they had collected the extra desserts for give away and then put 2 little violet plants there.  Hmm… me & my big mouth said if they needed a home, I’d take one.  The person was quite pleased with my interest, said I could have 2, and quickly delivered them to my table.  🙂  I am anxious to see their colors.  🙂  

I must continue on… a busy week here!

Read Full Post »

Bonnie Hunter Workshop

Wednesday’s workshop was so much fun!!  Bonnie is a great leader/teacher and just a great new friend to be around.  Her website is a treasure-trove of patterns and great information!  Also a great way to organize your scraps so they are easier to use.  

Those taking the class:

My camera battery was dying so the class organizer sent me her picture.  :blush:  I closed my eyes!  Ack!!  How embrassing!  

First some pictures from class:  

 

The class was held in a very nice building on a camp facility about 1/2 hr away.  We each had plenty of room to work and then lunch was served in another building.  (I packed my own food.  You don’t want to know the sugar & carb level of that lunch!)

I was thrilled to have finished 18 blocks.  Bonnie has a great system of sorting scraps and then her patterns utilize them.   I am basically making this quilt without buying anything new!  I already had it!  😉  We used her Pineapple Blossoms pattern.  I used the size listed (2″ strips) on the pattern.  A few made it the bigger alternate size and one was using just 1 1/2″ strips.  Very cute little like that!!

Here are my blocks.

I’ll add a black sashing strip and pink cornerstone when the blocks are finished so they won’t be this close together.   I have a wide variety of pinks from hot pink to light pink so I’ll scatter them throughout the quilt.  I’m making 36 blocks and with sashings and borders it will be about a queen sized quilt.   

I felt like I didn’t have much variety in my black strips so was happy when my neighbors were willing to trade black strips with me!  (About 5 others there are also in the quilt guild I belong to so at least I knew a few people there!)

You can see I’m doing a planned scrap look with the blacks & pinks.  Others in the class had planned and some just all scrappy or one neutral for the centers planned.  

Today is a day for soapmaking so I haven’t gotten back to these blocks.   Hopefully this weekend I’ll get to sew.   I’d like to get this top done sooner rather than later.   I think I’ll work at sewing in lieu of watching the news for awhile.  

Next I’ll post some more pictures from the Monday lecture.

Wednesday on the home front, Phil was busy combining (about 1/2 way done with harvest at this point), JP did his school, and K had a great day in Machine Knitwear.   I left lunch in the crock for the men… however after hearing JP’s report of lunch, it dawned on me I had forgotten to add the 2 c of water in the morning when I got it out of the frig for cooking.  oops!!  :-p

Read Full Post »