End of September Already!

September was one of those months that just zoomed by with activity and fun around our household.

I didn't even notice the inactivity on my blog until my mom mentioned something about it.

I geuss between getting back into teaching, a major home construction project going on, taking a weekend to our see our grandguy, followed by my parents final visit before they head back to Arizona until next summer, I haven't been very creative.  But, I loved that last week as they visited, evenings were filled with way too long of "happy hours" enriched with good food and conversation. (EVERY NIGHT!)  So much fun!!!! Good memories made!! (hmmmm this would be a great story quilt!)

Seriously, Mom and I's favorite outing is to our local Mexican Restaurant where they serve a glass of wine like THIS for only $2.50!! (And this wasn't even during Happy Hour!)

We also toured the quilt show at our local Garden Nursery.

The show was much smaller than last year, but never-the-less, they were proud to see my quilts

...hung among so with many inspirational others.

It's unanimous that we had a wonderful visit. We miss you guys already!

And today (which is usually my sew day) I distracted myself from the duldrums of missing everyone by taking Jackson out to the country for his Fall grooming. I had good company in the form of two former students whom I happen to teach with their moms. (Yes, we do have another jack russell. Our little girl Cami who is totally blind. The girls love to baby Cami and took great care of her as Jackson got groomed and enjoyed his playday. She is not near the personality or energy level of  you know who!)

Anyhoo, I know as the days begin to get shorter and cooler, my sewing mojo will rev up again. I look forward to sharing the many creative ideas that always seem to keep developing in my head.

But until then, I'll look forward to seeing ya on Tuesday where you are invited to share your Twister Quilts this week. As always, thank so much for stopping by!

Everytime you link and share here at Tuesday Archives you will be entered you into a monthly drawing for a $15.00 Gift Certificate to: (pretty cool huh!)

Winners will be announced the first Tuesday of every month! Thanks for stopping by!

HMQS Inspiration: FMQ

Why hello friends. Today is the final post in my HMQS Inspiration Series. 

I was completely inspired by Helen and Jenny who developed the Curve-It Up rulers and blog at Sew Kind of Wondeful.  After taking their two hour lecture class, I left with a "can do" attitiude!

They taught us to look at the negative space and not just fill it in, but to echo your peicing:

They taught about point to point quilting and 

to use repeated patterns as fillers. 

They also recommended just quilting one block at a time. 

I really liked their teaching style. Jenny would demonstate the techniques on the longarm, projected onto a big screen as Helen sketched the same elements on a large poster paper. It was so easy to follow along and learn. Boy, if ya ever get a chance to take one of their classes, I can't imagine anyone walking away disappointed. Our blog buddy Barb even won the class sample! (Hop over to see how she has already applied our lessons. Her quilting on this Christmas Quilt is beautiful!)

I know this little sampler pattern that came free with the cutting ruler is one of the first sewing/quilting projects on my summer to do list! It will be the perfect sewing machine mat.

My class lessons made my tour of the quilts much for educational. I found myself looking at others creative work with a new eye for negative space.  Here's a few of my favorites:

And who wouldn't want this one hanging in their sewing room!

I hoped you enjoyed my little series of inspiration as much as I enjoyed writing them. It was helpful for me to "process" all that was seen and learned in just a few days here on the ol' blog. Please do stay tuned as in June I'll have time to start applying my lessons learned to my own quilting. I can't wait! .

HMQS Inspiration: Flowers

Hi again! Well today's HMQS Inspiration post is all about flowers!

Perfect post for Spring don't ya think. So here we go...

What caught my eye about this quilt was the combination of traditional EPP hexagon flowers with the wonky blocks...but I like it!

When I saw this one I thought: "Oh my I have a pile of these that still need to be sewn into rows!" But oh aren't they wonderful when all sewn together like this!
Hmmm....I need to get going on this WIP of mine.

The variety of patterns here against the scrappy, neutral backing with those prairie points as the inner border totally inspired me!

And I love the idea of using large ric-rak to add dimension to a flower:

Another blooming tree:

And I couldn't resist this story quilt from an obvious coffee lover:

Don't ya just love how BIG minky flowers can add so much to a simple charms square quilt:

FInally, I think we'd all love to have a pincushion as cute as this:

I think all the inspiration from a quilt show is wonderful.

Next week my inspiration post will be all about FMQ!

Until then, here's wishing that your days are full of Spring flowers.

HMQS Inspiration: Quilting Applique

Before I even begin, let me apologize for the poor picture quality. I took all these quickly during the convention using my cell phone. So it's easy to say the first lesson I learned was bring my camera! LOL!! So with that said, this Thursday Inspiration post will focus on:

Applique Lessons Learned:

I love to applique and have two wallhangings that have been "pinned" to the walls where I want them to hang...unquilted. Two years ago I dove into teaching myself the art of long-arm quilting. Feeling like I now know my machine and have the art of pantographs established, one of the lessons I wanted to learn while attending the HMQS was: How in the heck do I quilt my applique quilts? In my How Do I Quilt This lecture class with Gina Parris-Perkes, here are a few tips she had for answering this question:

Lesson #1: Outline all your applique. Not echo, but outline.,,,almost like a stitch in the ditch around all your applique shapes. Oh and stitch s l o w l y. Gina created a wonderful ruler for this. It's called: Control Freak! (I love that she names all her rulers.) I ordered mine as soon as I got home. Click here for a shortcut to her shop. I got to try this ruler and with a little practice, I know it will make this step of outlining my applique spaces soooo much easier!

Lesson #2: The larger pieces of applique will need additional quilting inside the shapes to maintain density balance. See the leaves below.

Lesson #3: Use elements in the quilt to enhance your negative space/background. (Note how she repeated the leaves and added motion in her quilting in the first picture above.) Also, look at the design elements in the quilt itself and repeat these in your quilting. I think someone in our class called this "shadow quilting"...but never the less...it's pretty cool.

As I walked through the convention quilt show, it was easier to know what I was looking for as I studied the quilts done by others. These quilts below are wonderful examples of enhancing the theme of your quilt by continuing the design elements in the quilt with your background quilting. For example, this first quilt extending the applique design into the quilting using colored blue and pink thread:

 Here's a look at the entire quilt:

This next quilt is an example of repeating design elements from
your fabric as seen with the flowers in the quilting:

This next one is an example of enhancing your theme through your quilting. Look at the quilted hummingbird visiting the pink flower! I love this design element! (The quilter also used a glitter thread for the hummingbird....a very nice touch!)

I also like the idea of keeping the quilting simple. I like how clean this look is and learned that not every applique background needs to be densly quilted.

 Here are some borders that also caught my eye:

Finally, lesson #4: Audition your quilt first by printing a grey scale picture of it. This helps you identify the many elements in your quilt. Busy pieces will only need S.I.D. while negative spaces can be used to enhance your quilt. Below is an example of Gina's "audition".

So with all that learned, here are two applique quilts that I have on the horizon to quilt:

2013 Garden Party

And....

2012 Whimsical Flower Garden

With Gina's input and encouragement I'm ready to print some grey scale versions. I'm so much more confident and find myself ready to have a little bit of quilting fun! I hope what I shared has helped and /or reinforced what you already know. Please do share any other tips you too may have on quilting an applique quilt and as always, thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday Archives #62: Quilt Shows

Welcome to the linky party that rejuvenates your old quilting/sewing posts! 

Please click here to read more about this linky party.  

This week's theme is: Quilt Shows

I always find myself experiencing an array of emotions whenever I visit a quilt show. As I toured the quilts on dispaly at HMQS this past weekend in Utah, some quilts really "inspired" me and I found myself actually squinting up close asking myself: "How did they do that?"

An Angela Walters quilt from the HMQS. She used a "paint" technique here.

Others cause me to stand back, just lost in awe as I admire their beauty and craftsmanship.

Darn! The picture was a little blurry....never the less, WOW!

Others just make me smile, wishing I had thought of that!

(This was my Viewer's Choice)

And though Jackson would never sit in a basket long enough to take a picture, 

let alone go for a ride...some quilts I just find myself loving!  

 I also find myself  reaffirmed that I'm doing okay at this hobby of ours. I myself, don't set out to make "show quilts", yet I am inspired by the range of skill this hobby allows and love the idea that we can only continue to grow and develop in our own confidence and style as quilters. Do you ever feel like that? How about you?Does a quilt show ignite an array of emotions in you too?