My Saturday

There's not much worse (ok, there is, but you know what I mean) than waking up around 3 AM and not being able to get back to sleep. That happened to me early Saturday morning.

I got up and wandered into the studio where I cut the strips for two sets of bird legs. Then I went back to bed. When I woke up a few hours later I went back into the studio to make the two sets of leg panels before I even had breakfast.
 

I met Buffy at Quilted Threads at 11:00 AM. We shopped, then looked at quilts, then had lunch and talked about quilts and all kinds of fun stuff. It was great.

Buffy gave me an Easter Basket!! I was so surprised. I haven't had an Easter basket in gosh knows who many years. The basket is ceramic, so we all know it will live on my dining room table at least one month out of the year!

 

Back at home while my fabric purchases were taking their spin through the washer and dryer, I continued working cleaning the fabric mess in the studio. I cleared the tables in the last couple of weeks and now it's time to tackle the giant mess on the floor. This is what it looked like at the end of February.

This is the studio now, so it's quite a lot better.

Then I made a bird for Saturday. I am really having fun making pink birds.

Thread

 

I do all my piecing with a medium gray thread, but when I attach strips of fabrics together for a border or binding, I like to use matching thread. Sewing the border strips for the Ice Blue quilt showed me vividly that my thread collection had been getting thin, and I needed to go shopping. So on Saturday afternoon I hopped in my car and drove to my favorite quilt shop, Quilted Threads to get more.

Of course, I couldn't NOT buy some fabric as well. I was attracted to the creamish fabric at the top of the left most pile, so I chose more greens. I have an idea of what I might do with them but the idea needs to roll around in my head a bit more.

Back, Back, Back

 I know. Backings are boring. But I like having the decisions about them all done so I don't have them taking up space in my head. William James said "Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."

I went shopping at Quilted Threads on Saturday. If felt so nice to get out and shop at my favorite quilt shop. I bought a variety of WOW fabrics and a few yards of this fabric. 

It's an unconventional choice, but I selected it for the back of the Yellow Ribbons quilt. It might even use it as the binding, but I'll have to see after it is quilted.

I picked this fabric for the back of Aquamarine.

I liked the yellow/green and the blue and I thought it looked good with this quilt that, while predominantly blue, has a lot of green in it.

Yeah, I think this is going to be a fun combination.

Fun With Birds

I had a good class at Quilted Threads on Saturday.

It's always fun when my students smile when they are successful.

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I am no longer surprised when the first bird my students make is made with the colors they are wearing.

This bird is based on the maker's husband. "He's a carpenter."

Birds are fun.



If you would like to make your own birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

Barns on Saturday

I'll be teaching a free-pieced barns class on Saturday, at Quilted Threads, based on Julie Sefton's book Build-a-Barn. You can see pictures and get the book here. The class is full and we are going to have a good day.

This is the barn I made for the Colorado Quilt, and it is based on this barn that my brother built.

One Thing, One Thing.

The Not Paper Pieced quilt is probably going to tie with Too Much Chicken as the busiest quilts I've ever made. I am not sure if that is a good thing.

Last night I moved the cat closer to the big red NO. Now I think the cat looks like the "full stop" he is meant to be.

I added background fabric around the bird and sewed it to the THIS panel.

Then I sewed the scowly lady to the QUILT panel, and then sewed QUILT to the THIS panel. I added the lady at the sewing machine to the IS NOT panel.

I made another NO using the dud T with the wavy green dots. I allso made a silver NO that turned out too small and didn't look right. (Can you say DUD BIN?)

Then I made a half butterfly and placed it near PAPER-, but I'm not sure it will stay there. I'm not sure I like the half butterfly at all.

I moved the gal with the scissors down by the PIECED. She may not stay in the quilt either. Maybe I'll shift her to the backing. I actually like that idea.

I need a lot more NOs, and seeing what I have tells me that I don't need as many as I think and I have to make more greyish subtle ones. But that is for another day.

Today I will be at Quilted Threads teaching my Liberated Letters.



May the Fourth be with you!

Full Stop

Megan, from Sydney Australia is one of my proofreaders. If I miss a comma, a dash or a period (which Megan refers to as a 'full stop,') Megan will point it out. Megan's comments encompass EVERYTHING from spelling to grammar, to gently suggesting an extra line or two of instructions for what she calls "the novices."

I had to insert a lot of "full stops" into the letter tutorial, so that term has been on my mind.

Judy in Michigan wondered if I should have a comma after the first NO in the Not Paper Pieced quilt. So I made one and put it in.

I did not like it.

I did not like a slash shaped comma much either.

Didn't like the "full stop" much either.

Didn't like the dash.

And although I liked the gal holding the scissors, it didn't really sing for me.

THE CAT, however, does it for me! I will have to move him a bit closer, but his scowl gets the point across.

The CAT is the full stop.

As all good cats are, I suppose.

I'm teaching the letters class at Quilted Threads on Saturday, May 4th. If you sign up, you get a digital copy of the tute.


If you would like to make your own free pieced letters, you can get my tutorial at my Etsy shop here. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away.

A Visit to Quilted Threads

I am teaching a letters class at Quilted Threads on  Saturday, May 4. Every student in the class will get a copy of the new letter tutorial. QT needed a letter quilt to hang on display so I brought one of my favorites, Nine x Nine.

 While I was there I chose this Kaffee Fassett fabric for the back of the Whirlygig quilt. As I was waiting for it to be cut another customer walked by and looked at it, then at me. "Wow. That is REALLY bright," she said.

 I didn't say anything. I thought it was freaking perfect.

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings," she continued.

"Trust me," I told her, "you are NOT hurting my feelings."



I've got an eye exam later today, and I'm sure they'll dilate my pupils so I won't be able to read or sew or do anything remotely interesting later. I guess I'll clean the house. (snicker). Yeah, we'll see!



PS, the letter tutorial won't be ready before May 1st. Believe you me, I'll let you know when it's ready.

A Very Bird-y Weekend

Remember these two birds? I made them last year as part of my Happy Holidays quilt.

This is the finished quilt, but you can't see the quilting particularly well.

Here is the finished quilt hanging in my house.

I'll be teaching my Liberated Birds class tomorrow at Quilted Threads in Henniker NH. It's a fun class.

Then I'll be decorating the rest of the house for the Christmas season.

Binding Tute & Class

You'd think binding a quilt would be easy, but nope! There are a myriad of things that can go wrong.

I'm writing a tutorial about binding a quilt. It will include everything I know about how to do it so it lies flat, is even and the stitching is invisible. I've talked about how I do it on this blog so many times that I can summarize it in 81 words. The tutorial is 41 pages long and counting, so clearly there is more to it that that!. I'll show you how every single thing I do sets me up for success. I know lots of little tips that can make the task easier.

How do I know this?

At this writing I have bound over 310 quilts. That means I have made 310 invisible joins and mitered 1,240 corners. I'm kind of an expert.

The binding tute isn't ready yet. It needs another two weeks of writing and then it will run the gauntlet of my four editors, Julie, Allison, Megan and Mary. They will beat me up and I will fight back, object, and eventually give in. Or not. But each one of them brings a terrific skill to the process and have helped me make my tutorials clear and concise. That process typically takes a month. So look for the finished tutorial round about the middle of December. Don't worry. You'll hear about it here first.

And here's the exciting news. I'll be teaching a Binding class at Quilted Threads sometime in 2019.


I thought you'd like a little taste, so here's a binding hint. When you are mitering a corner, (as in the photo above,) use a small, flat, thin object, like the tip of a seam ripper to hold down one side of the binding while you fold the other side over to make a  mitered corner. It helps reduce the bulkiness that can happen there.

Scrap Slabs Class at Quilted Threads

I love small classes. Students get so much personal attention.  These are the ladies from yesterday's Scrap Slab Triangles class at Quilted Threads.

The biggest benefit of a class is the ability for the students to see what can happen when they start arranging a large number of the blocks on a design wall. It's all we do for the last hour of the day, and it is usually the most powerful, as the ladies see the tremendous possibilities of this simple block.

The Scrap Slabs class always inspires ME too! I particularly love this layout and already have ideas in my head to make a quilt using this arrangement.

The fall foliage is really looking good, in spite of the rain. I had to pull over and take a photo on the ride to Henniker yesterday.

I shopped for some greens and reds and golds to finish the tree quilt.

If you would like to make a scrap slab triangle quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

A Little Retail Therapy

I finally got the studio cleaned up enough to work in it again.

I added extra fabric all around the gigantic slashed squares block I made for the backing of the pink slashed squares quilt (because long arm quilters need it...)

and then I put the quilt over it so you can see it really is big enough.

Then I did the calculations for the backing of the other two Slashed Squares quilts and determined I needed four yards of fabric for the back of each of them.  Hmm. I don't have four yards of anything that could work.

Think, Lynne, think.

So I looked at the clock, gathered the flimsies and drove myself to Quilted Threads where I chose

this big print for the back of

this Slashed Squares quilt and

this one for the mini Slashed Squares quilt, Jigsaw Puzzle.

Woo Hoo!  That's done!

Scrap Slab Wrap Up

We had a lot of fun on Saturday making scrap slabs at Quilted Threads.

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A big advantage of a class is being able to put a lot of blocks up on the design wall and play with them to see what kinds of things happen.

Surprising things can happen.

We all liked this when it was up on the wall, then the students made one change, and we all liked it better!

This prompted a discussion about the importance of the placement of the black on white side triangles and whether to sew them to the colored triangle shapes before working out an arrangement, and how we all develop rules about what can and can't go next to each other (too many blocks with the same print, etc.)

It was a great class and we all had a good time.

My travel kit worked out great, and I knew there was a reason the suitcase I used was my least favorite suitcase. I think I will go suitcase shopping for something that fits and works a bit better. (And yes, I will bring the current one to make sure everything fits.)


If you would like to make a scrap slab triangle quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

Barns!

Here's one of the barns from the class at Quilted Threads on Saturday.

The class was very small, only four students, but it was great. I was able to give each student a lot of personal attention, and helped choose fabrics with a couple. We had a lot of in deep conversations about "What if I..." and "How should I do this..."

We talked a lot about Julie's quilt, and spent a lot of time looking at all the wonderful details. I had a grand time as well.