Sue Daley's New English Paper Piecing book

Sue has penned a book on English paper piecing, the easy way.  Instead of basting all the pieces with needle and thread, she has developed silk finish paper pieces that the fabric can be glued to.  Then when the pieces are joined together, the fabric is easy to separate from the paper for removal.

I received an advanced copy of the book at market.  I used some sample swatches I had received from Blackbird designs and a glue stick I begged from the United Notions booth, to start this pillow while still in Houston.  I stitched the pieces together on the plane, appliqued them to a background when I got home, and here is the result.  Sue uses some great shapes that I hadn't used before.

This is the table runner that is featured in the book along with the pillow.

This is the book.  It will be released in December.  Katja has ordered several copies.  Sonja is busily stitching the cover quilt into what will be another stunning sample.

Beginner Quilters

For several years I have been teaching a beginner quilting class at Katja's.  Tuesday night was the last class for the latest group of beginners.  And what a talented group they are.

Alba's quilt was fully quilted, and ready to use.  Just a little binding left to stitch down.

Elizabeth had used striped and polka dots.  The stripes were a bit of a challenge to make sure they were all going the same direction.  Elizabeth handled this no problem at all!

Melanie was trying real hard to hide behind her quilt.  I caught her peeking to see if I was done.

As you can tell by the smirk on her face, Shelly was proud of her quilt.

Sheila was getting to know her new sewing machine by trying out different feet to quilt her quilt.  She has to play with all her toys, after all, what is the use of having them if you don't get to play.

What a great group of women.  I enjoyed my evenings with them.  This however was my last evening beginner class.  I have passed the torch on to Nicole who is much younger and more able to handle the evening shift.  Good luck Nicole, I know you will do great.

Linda's Antique Quilt

This antique quilt top was picked up by Linda in Yuma at an Antique store.  What a find. Linda wasn't sure of the age, but was thinking the fabrics looked like they came from the 1950s.  The star blocks were all hand pieced, with a machine used for the sashing.  If you know the name of the block, can you please let me know.

Now from the old to the new.  Linda had joined with a group of wonderful ladies to work on "One Block Wonders."  Here are a couple of the quilts as works in progress.

The first has it's blocks placed ready for stitching together.  The second is still waiting for a couple of blocks to be finished before the rearranging begins.
Thanks to the entire group for the invite over, the visit and of course, the carrot cake.

Zig Zag Quilting

I just finished quilting this quilt for my friend Linda.  Her daughter had fallen in love with this quilt and fabric when she saw it at Katja's, so Linda is making it for her for Christmas.

I decided that a quilt that had Zig Zags, need to be quilted with zig zags.  This is the result.

I used Signature Petal Pink in the coloured part of the quilt, and then used white to loopy meander the background.  This zig zag was something I hadn't quilted before, so it was fun to try it out.

Sweet Surprise!

Yesterday I received a sweet surprise!

A wonderful friend dropped by with a little box of goodies.  Inside was a beautiful mug rug, a cheerful  christmas mug and two bags of cookies.  I had a terrible day at work, oh so cold. This sweet treat brightened my day so much.  I sat down with a cup of tea and my goodies and thought about all the great friends I have.  Thanks Barbara!!!!!!

Wanda's Quilt

If you are up for it, I have a picture of another retirement quilt.  A year and a half ago I had made this quilt for a sample for the shop, and then gave it to my Mom when all the bird panels had sold.  I love working with panels as they give me a great opportunity to play with the quilting.  Anyways, I had it at work stitching the binding on, and Wanda saw it.  She fell in love with it.

As soon as Terry dropped Wanda off on her route, she phoned me and asked if I would pick up the fabric so we could make Wanda the quilt.  Terry did all the piecing, and I quilted it.  The picture shows Terry on the left, Wanda and me.  Terry was tearing up and Wanda and I were trying not to do the same, without much success.  Wanda was so much fun to work with and we will both miss having her at work to keep life interesting.  Happy retirement Wanda!

Mark's Fly Fishing Quilt

Recently a good friend of mine was retiring, and his wonderful wife asked that instead of gifts, we all give him fly fishing flies.  I dug into my large stash and came out with some fly fishing fabric, and decided that would just have to do.

Now Mark and his dogs can snuggle and dream of fishing.

As you can see, there are a lot of fishing flies on the quilt, so I did play by the rules even if I did stretch them a little.  I'm sure Dawn will forgive me.

I hope Mark enjoys many years of retirement.  I can hardly wait for next spring when we can all get out to the lakes together.

Many sweet dreams under your quilt!

Sylvia's Quilt using the Accucutter

Recently I quilted a quilt for my friend Sylvia.  She had used her Accucutter to cut the shapes for the rough edge applique.  Sylvia and I have worked together before, so she knew that she didn't have to sew the applique down before bringing me the quilt.  She place a dot of glue behind the pieces, then pinned them in place with all the pins laying horizontal, so that the quilt would be easy to roll on my Longarm.

I quilted about an eighth of an in around on all of the applique.

I used the same thread that I was using for the background.  There were way to many pieces to change thread colour for each one.  The tread blends nicely and once the edges fray with washing, you won't be able to see it.

Once the quilting is done around the applique, it pops right up.

Between the two of us, I think the quilt looks great.  Working with Sylvia is always a delight!

I couldn't resist putting in this picture of Blanche with the two youngest grandchildren.  Blanche will put up with whatever the kids dish out.  When she is getting tired or hurt, she gives us this look.  Save me.  Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.  Either way, she always loves her babies!

More from Market

The quilt show at Market is stunning.  I wondered around the show for about 3 hours, not nearly enough time to give it justice.  The beauty of going through the show at market is that no one else is there.  Everyone is buying at the vendors booths, with no time to see the show.  What a shame.  Above is a sampling of some of the quilts.

Of course I visited one of my favourite booths, the Blackbird Design ladies.

This was the view from our room as the sun set over Houston.  After a busy weekend Katja and I said goodbye to another great market, and headed home.

Back from Market

Wow, quilt market was sooooo much fun!  Katja and I arrived Thursday about midnight.  We were up early and off to the School House Series of lectures Friday.  Each lecture is about 20 minutes, with about 15 different lectures happening at the same time.  The tough part was deciding which lecture I just had to go see.

I'm not usually luck, but I did win a prize at the lecture for the book "Out of the box with Easy Blocks."  I won a jar of purple fabric.  This is quite funny, because I probably have more purple in my stash, than any other colour.  The cow quilts from the book are so cute, I think I might just have to make one soon.   

After the School House Series, came Sample Spree.  Many of the companies set up tables of their product to sell to us, at wholesale prices.  The lineup was about 100 women when I arrive, 2 1/2 hours before the doors open.  The lineup was fun in itself.  It gave me time to chat to several women around me.  When the doors open, about 1000 women poured in and jostled for position.  The Moda booth is always insane, so I went there last and was lucky enough to be able to get a fat eight packet of fabric by Blackbird Designs.  I bought a few other packets but managed to stay well within what I had budgeted.

Saturday morning I took a 1 1/2 hour class from Suzanne McNeill.  Suzanne has a new book out called Zen-sational Stitches for Quilting.  The quilts above are all in her book.

This is what I was working on in class.  It is a small muslin bag that is not quite finished yet.  When it is, I'll post a picture.

I have more pics, and will post them as soon as I get a chance.