April Schnibbles - Summer Day

The April Schnibbles was Summer Day.  Well, maybe mine should be called Summer "hour", it's not a full day .  I was thinking of stopping here and making this a table mat, but now I'm thinking I might go further with this - cut down the sashing a smidge and make a full quilt. 

I used the lovely stack of  "Buttercream & Figs" from Fig Tree fabrics that I won from Kelly at Charming Chatter late last year - and I have a whole lot left, so I can keep going.  It's up on my design wall now for inspiration.

Check out the Parade of Schnibbles on Sinta and Sherri's blogs starting May 1st to see lots of other Summer Days!

This weekend, I also finished up an I Spy charity quilt for the Philly Modern Quilt Guild.  I love the way this came out...

I quilted an allover meander in my new gray Filtec Glide thread that I got at MQX.  I give this thread a big thumbs up!  The tension was perfect and not one break!  And, there's just a little bit of sheen to the thread, which looks really nice.

I also did the binding completely by machine.  A first for me.  It turned out pretty good.  I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.  The charity we're giving these quilts to suggested machine binding since the quilts get washed every day.

And look at this cool backing fabric I picked out of our guild's "stash" bin - I love it!

This was a fun quilt to put together and it felt good knowing it's going to a great cause!

MQX Recap Part 2- What I Bought

As I mentioned in the first re-cap post, I didn't think there were as many vendors at MQX this year than there were when I went before. But it could have been it just seemed that way as the convention center is enormous! But, that didn't stop me from finding lots of great things to buy!  Mostly thread.  And, most of it is boring because I mostly stocked up on staples.

My first stop at MQX is always Superior Threads' booth.  There is always a "deal" and it's worth it to stock up.  I thought I'd try out Superior's new Omni thread.  Superior's site says it's "an economical, strong, poly-wrapped poly core machine quilting thread."  At 6,000 yards on a spool, it's a boat-load of thread for a great price.  I thought I'd just get white and gray to try it out.  I use a lot of both to quilt.

I also got some more of my favorite variegated King Tut - Date Palm (the greenish one) and Sahara Shadows (the goldish one) and thought I'd try the pink for something new.

This was our "favor" at the banquet - everyone got a cone at their place....Superior's new Magnifico thread.  I got a lovely green.  Superior's site says it is a "high-sheen, smooth, and strong new line of high tenacity, high sheen (trilobal), lint-free polyester"

I also stopped by the Aurifil booth.  I love to use Aurifil 50 wt for piecing.  I know this looks really boring, but I got ginormous cones of white, cream and gray 50wt.  I'll have piecing thread for a least a year!

I couldn't just buy threads, and these green and black FQs caught my eye...

And these fun cocktail prints are destined for an apron...

See the "sugar" on the rim?

And I finally jumped on the Aneela Hoey bandwagon and bought some Little Apples...

Besides thread, the other thing I thought I buy a lot of were pantographs, but I only wound up buying this one from MeadowLyon Designs called Cloudy Skies...

All in all, not a bad haul!

MQX Recap - Part I

The week since I got back from MQX has been a little crazy, but I wanted to do a little recap of the experience.  After a very long train ride, I was so excited to see this....

My first view of the show floor (this is when your tummy gets all tingly - what treasures are lurking for me to find..)

I didn't think there were as many vendors as the last time I went to MQX, but there were enough that I found plenty to buy!

The view from my hotel room - downtown Providence...

The Edith Ann chair in my hotel room (I know, I'm dating myself here - does anyone get the reference???)  I should have put something on it for scale.  The chair was enormous (but very comfortable!)  Two people could have sat side-by-side on it with room to spare!

I took four classes while I was there.  One was a pantograph class from Judy Lyon from MeadowLyon Designs, who is so sweet and I could have listened to her talk all day.  I also took two classes from rock star quilter  Karen McTavish.  The first was "How Do I Quilt That?"  It was fun - kind of a show and tell class.  Students brought in a quilt top and Karen gave her thoughts on how she would quilt it.  Lots of good ideas!

I also took Karen's 4 hour "Mastering the Art of McTavishing" certification class.  Yes, folks, I am now certified to teach "McTavishing" and I have a paper that says so - LOL!  I think I'll practice a bit first o:)  This class was hands-on.  Karen is very funny, very kind and very generous with her knowledge. 

At the last minute, on a whim, I decided to see if I could get into one of Angela Walters' classes.  Score!!!  There was room in her "Quilting Efficient" class.  Angela is even sweeter than she looks and getting to see her amazing quilting up close (I helped her fold her quilts after class - no brown-nosing going on there!!)   I can't wait until her book comes out - I have it on my Amazon "wish-list"  We also ran into each other at the bar before the banquet that night - girl after my own heart.  I really needed a cocktail after that long day of classes!

Things I learned from this trip...

1.  Take the wheelie luggage. Don't try to be cool and take the overnight bag that's way too heavy, especially where you are walking from the train station to the hotel and back - a half-mile walk.

2.  Stay at the hotel that's connected to the convention center and not the one you have to walk 3 blocks to the convention center from (no matter how nice it is).

3.  Don't think you're going to watch all of the Netflix movies you've saved up to watch on the train ride.  Amtrak doesn't allow you to hog bandwidth so you can't stream anything.  In fact it's so slow, you can barely read your email.

4.  Don't put your key card in your purse next to your cell phone.  You won't be able to get into your room.

5.  Something that was further confirmed for me this trip - you will never be alone when you are surrounded by quilters!  I go to a lot of things like this by myself and I am never lonely.  At my morning class, I sat next to a woman who happened to live about 10 minutes from me, she introduced me to another friend who lives close by who invited me to sit with her and her friends (well, maybe I invited myself) at the banquet that night.  New friends!

Next post - the spoils (or how much thread can I haul home!!)

Swoon Block Six

Pretty in pink, that's my Swoon block 6! I love this pink & white dot...

I also was able to fussy cut the center again - love it!

 I also dipped my toe in the Flea Market Fancy waters this past week....



This quilt is a secret for now, but I only needed two 1-1/2" strips from each piece.  So, I get to play with FMF, but still have lots left over for other things. 

I'm auto-posting this, so if all went well, I'm at MQX right now having a ball.  Full report when I get back!

Pez!

(I asked my husband if he had a Pez dispenser laying around.  Apparently, he has a whole box of them.  Why, I ask.  Just why????)

No, no, no. Wrong Pez!

I mean these Pez...

I think I mentioned in an earlier post how I couldn't resist this little pack of Pez charms while checking out at Sew Smart...this is what it turned into...

Cute!  It's little - 44" x 47", but it will make a great crib quilt.  I pulled coordinating solids from my stash to alternate HSTs with the pez prints. It was quick and easy to make.
I'm quilting it with the Popcorn pantograph...

I really wanted Red Multi Pez for the backing

but instead settled for this little random dot print to back it with that I found at the new LQS - The Round Bobbin.

I'm binding it a Kona solid red.  (Still wish I had some of that Red Multi Pez though....)

I'm off early tomorrow to take the train up to MQX in Providence, RI.  Yay!  I'm more than a little excited  (eeeep!)

Echo

Here is the story of my Echo quilt.

I listen to lots of quilting podcasts on my commute to and from work everyday.  One of my favorites is Katie's Quilting Corner.  Katie used to talk a lot about the Missouri Star Quilt Company (oh, goodness, I hope it was Katie!)  I had never heard of MSQC before and I didn't go check them out for a long time.  Katie would also talk about their "Daily Deals".  I finally caved and went to their site.  The first deal I saw was a  layer cake of Lotta Jansdotter's Echo line for a ridiculously low price.  I quickly took advantage of that deal.  (I don't check out the deals very much any more, it is way too dangerous!!  But, they are awesome deals.)

My lovely layer cake of Echo came and there were only 24 layers, so there was only half the fabric of your standard layer cake.  So, what to do, what to do.  Also there is a lot of white in this line, so I had to be careful of what to use as a "neutral" or background. 

I came up with a triangle quilt ...I will tell you that, unfortunately, the layers were not nicely cut at 10", most all of them were off a bit, but since I was cutting triangles, it didn't matter.  Whew!

I broke open my Tri Recs tools that I've had for forever to make the triangles and the half triangles for the sides. 

And black Kona cotton for the alternating triangles...

Perfect!

This went together quickly.  I wasn't planning on doing borders, but it was a little small and I had no more Echo.

 

So, I got some yardage of the gold fabric and bought this print for the back and binding....

I did a small inner border of the Kona black and a 6" border of the gold.

And now it's big enough.  And I love it.   (But, maybe I should have mitered those borders.)

And that's the story of my Echo quilt! 

Swoon - Blocks 4 and 5

Luckily, my bloggy friend Karin of Cascade Quilts keeps up with my postings better than I do and she informed that when I stated I finished four Swoon blocks, I had only posted three.  I could have sworn I had posted number four, but alas, Karin was right and I completed skipped it.   So here it is in all it's glory...

In the meantime, I finished block five too!  TA DA!

[how do you like that fancy fussy cutting of the center block!]

This color combo is quite a departure from the first four.  I think it will give the quilt some pop!

Now, I feel like I'm in the homestretch.  I should finished up block six tonight and then only three more to go!