I have been off the grid a bit since the end of SAHRR! It has been a busy time for me, but not so much for sewing, although there was a little. Easter week is always busy and then there was the New England Quilt Expo in Manchester, NH (I went for 2 nights), followed by a solid weekend of church gatherings. So, it has been a nice break but I am longing to get back to my sewing room.
The New England Quilt Expo
I attended the New England Quilt Expo in Manchester NH last week. It was kind of a last minute decision but totally worth it. I was conflicted about AQS having a show in CT the same week, and we had things on the weekend so I couldn’t go off on an endless quilt journey. There was a class I wanted to take at NEQE and so that sealed the deal.
Now isn’t this owl fabulous? I really couldn’t resist this class and was so glad that I took it. It was taught by Leigh Zipf, a HandiQuilter Educator, and it really helped reinforce some things I had learned before but forgotten.
Here is my sample. There were two things I didn’t finish and that wasn’t too bad. I forgot to put the designs in that last eye section in and didn’t get to the out side quilting. I may finish this up but, I am concerned that the darn machines weren’t doing tie offs the way I would, and so the ends could be a little tricky….but if it is only a wall hanging…it might be okay, right?
I did do some shopping: thread & longarm bobbins from YLI, a refill for my 60 mm blade, 2 yards of fabric, a fun pair of scissors (I wanted one for my travel machine), some foundation pieced pads for scraps, a ruler, and batting from Nine Acres. This batting is new to the market and looks and feels much like Quilter’s Dream, so I thought it was worth a try. This is also a tad bigger than standard batting, which I hope will help as I often use these batts for a couple of quilts. I believe the price point is much better than Quilter’s Dream, and the show special was just too good to pass up. I bought one of 80/20 and one of the cotton.
I was a little out of sorts, physically, so I did not take a photos of quilts. Here are two where the quilting drew my eye in. The Aloha Mystery quilt caught my eye as there are “areas” of quilting on the diagonal. I expect this was done on a larger frame/machine than mine, but still it made me think. I love the use of the one design in the second that helps to set apart the squares. I am often not adventurous in my quilting, but these two quilts made me think of some things I might want to try, based on the class I took.
A little bit of weaving
I also made a woven piece that I don’t have a finished picture of.
It began like this, woven onto a foam core board.
I then backed it on this amish black fabric. It was the best of the choices that I had. I decided to make it a prayer book cover for a dear friend, retiring from active church ministry. I sewed down each of the ribbons with Superior Monopoly and then made the cover. It was not very sophisticated, but it came from the heart. The ribbon was designed by the recipient and is in honor of place and person, orange for his spouse, brown for the earth, red for the sunsets, green for the trees and blue for the water in the beloved Thousand Islands where they summer. Now, truth be told my Bernina 570 did not like the Monopoly thread. It was weird as my 440 always worked with it. I made it work, but it was one of the reasons you see the YLI Invisible thread in my stash from the show.
The SAHRR Winners
The SAHRR hostesses gathered on April 4th to pick the winners. The winners have mostly received their prizes, with a few taking some detours along the shipping route. We are so grateful to all who participated and thoroughly enjoyed the quilt along. We even began planning for next year. Also, many thanks to the great sponsors who provided awesome prizes.
Lyra Quilt Along
The Lyra Quilt Along has begun from Sandra at mmmQuilts! and I am participating again. You can check out the schedule below and follow along. I better get moving!! I have picked out my fabrics – having a difficult time staying away from batiks – and I decided to go patriotic. I am not doing any specific sewing for the 250th anniversary and this being Patriot’s Day – the day the American Revolution began – I decided to go patriotic! I am shocked. I have another collection that is just too small, so here is what I think I will be using.
And here is a rendering in Electric Quilt 8. I may get to have some of those fabrics from my stash that arent enough for the whole quilt but would add some spark. Right now I plan to do this section by section as I sew it, so there will be time to check if some other options exist.
I might vary the reds, a bit, and I did in this rendering but you can barely see it. These aren’t my fabrics, but I think are pretty close to what I picked. Maybe I will pull out that other stash so I can see what might work as they are a couple of cute prints, a red plaid and a blue and white star keeps saying “pick me”. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, here is where we are in Sandra’s QAL. I have linked her original posts to help you out.
April 3 – QAL Kick-off and Fabric requirements
April 10 – Cutting
April 17 – Green star points
April 24 – Square in a Square units
May 1 – Spiky star points
May 8 – Make blocks
May 15 – Make the sashing units and assemble the quilt top
June 15 – Quilt Parade – open for one week; winners announced forthwith
As I just picked my fabrics, I will be cutting today and tomorrow hopefully sewing. That should get me all caught up!
Coming Up on the Blog
Batik Tablerunner
Another Baby Quilt
Lyra QA
What a wonderful post to read. I llove owls! You did perfect. Do you have a small pearl for the eye to stich on? You remind me on my owl projects…. Good to see you use 80/20 batting as well. Than I do all correct. i love this batting. And, drumroll… I am at Sandras QAL as well. Have all fabrics shopped from my stash… if there would be time to find in my stash it would a excellent. Have a good week! Eva
Oh I wish I could’ve been there to trek around the quilt show with you! You have had a crazy busy schedule lately, so I’m glad you were able to sneak in the show. I think you patriotic idea for Lyra is going to look great!
You have been busy indeed since the SAHRR wrapped up! The quilting class looks like it was a lot of fun and I always think its great to come home from a show with a lot of inspiration and new ideas. I hope you have fun starting the next project on your list now that you have more time to be back in the sewing room.
I love that owl, it’s so cute! Glad you got to take and enjoy the class, as well as the quilt expo. That Nine Acres batting sounds wonderful. I just did a search and don’t find any near me, so I might order from one of the “back east” shops I did find it in. The prayer book weave – wow – and from ribbon designed by him – the perfect gift.
I like your patriotic choices for Sandra’s SAL. Hope you enjoy being back in your space!
let us know how the batting works out it the packaging even reminds me of Quilters Dream – I was looking at the paper piece pattern block you show in that one photo of the scrappy mountain that looks interesting what size block does it make.
Fabulous work on your owl wall hanging! Looks done to me! I haven’t heard of 9 Acre Batting. Interesting how they sized up in sizes.
Always interested to try a new batting, especially when the price point is so good AND at a show. Well, I am over the MOON (get it) with your mockup in EQ for the QAL! Gorgeous colour choices. I have red in the one I’m making with the QAL. I love that owl; makes me itch to do some fun intense FMQ. And thank you for joining in (all ten years now right?) and for linking up this post. I hope you’re feeling better now.
The quilt show sounds so fun! I miss not going to them but at the same time my wallet is much happier! Your owl looks amazing, and so do your goodies you got at the show.