What Could Be Better Than Wine and Fabric?

I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday with three friends at Atwater Estate Vineyards in Burdett, NY attending an open house featuring a fashion show of some of the 2010 Hoffman Challenge top entries in the clothing and accessories categories. The event was sponsored by O' Susannah's Quilt Shop of Watkins Glen, NY.

Here's a slideshow of some of the fun....



2010 Hoffman Challenge Fashion Show

Two Down, Four to Go

You may remember that a few weeks ago I signed up for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Quilt-a-Month Challenge (see my first blog post about it here).

This is my contribution for the month of March. I'm not quite sure what I will call it, but it should probably have the words "Provence" or "garden" in it.

If you're interested, you can still sign up for the challenge yourself. It's a very good cause...

Silver Lining

The only good thing about Monday evening's cancelled quilt guild meeting (due to a foot of snow) was that I had a chance to work on some of the projects that were in the mess of my quilting studio (see previous post).

This is "BR7, Cheryl's Crown", an advanced-level triangle for which I used the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method of applique. The software did not provide a paper-piecing pattern and although I could have drafted one myself, this was quicker.

A reminder for those who are using the software to make the triangles...you have to change the size to 5 inches x 8 inches or else you'll have a very squat-looking triangle. Just another frustrating thing about the software!

Time for Spring Cleaning

I currently have at least seven projects going on at one time in my quilting studio...the mess is starting to drive me nuts!

Memories

Several months ago, I donated this fabric to my guild's stash of fabric for charity quilting. It was fabric that I bought at least 15 years ago when my son was in pre-school. I used it as a tablecloth for several of his birthday parties (he preferred dinosaur-themed ones) and then put it away when he grew too old for the parties.

During several of my guild's monthly charity sewing gatherings, I would pull this out and say that it should be used for something, perhaps a backing for a Project Linus quilt, but no one ever took me up on it, so it kept going back into the charity stash. And every time I took it out, it brought back happy memories.

Since it was never used by the charity sewing group, I finally took it as a sign that I was not meant to give this fabric away, so it's now home with me again in the tote filled with other mementos from my son's childhood.

I am still dealing with empty-nest syndrome....

Patchwork Is In

I wish these types of designs had been around when I bought area rugs for my house 13 years ago! Maybe it's time to redecorate...

More Fun

Sorry about all the videos lately, but a friend just sent me this yesterday and I had to share!

Happy Valentine's Day

Last in the Series -- Part 3

Unbelieveable!

Believe it or not, these are made out of wood!

Reason To Celebrate

This is "TR-7, Norway's Fjord", an advanced-level triangle which I initially thought I'd paper piece. The software wasn't any help, so that meant I would have to draft my own pattern. Possible, but time-consuming. So I decided to use the method I explained in a post from mid-2009 and just cut out the dark fabric as one piece and then used the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch method to attach it to the light background. Thanks to some creative stitching, it looks like there are many pieces rather than just one.

This now completes the top row of triangles. Time to move on to the last two of the bottom row.
P.S. Oops, I just realized that I forgot some stitching in a couple of the upper pieces. I need to add that to make the pieces look like they are separated.

My Blue Heaven

My stash got bigger, but I didn't do it...I swear, I didn't buy anything new (it's now been 6 weeks since I bought fabric!).

These 10 lovely fat quarters are thanks to my luck winning a giveaway from Ryan Walsh of I'm Just a Guy Who Quilts sponsored by Wondrous Woven Fabrics. The three on the right are voiles, which feel so, so silky.

Thank you Ryan and Cathy for brightening my day without costing me a penny! (well, except maybe for the electricity to run my laptop while entering the giveaway...)

Continued From Last Week -- Part 2

Scraps No More!

The scraps that I blogged about last week are now part of a quilt that I will be donating to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. I have joined my fellow guild member and blogger Susan and my blogger friend Rene' in the Quilt-a-Month challenge posted on the AAQI website. Be sure to read Rene's post about it. And Susan's, too.

To make this quilt, I just took the scraps left over from my string blocks, arranged them on top of a piece of batting and backing, and then covered the whole thing with some white tulle. I quilted it with lines of various-sized zigzag stitches. The fabrics look a bit washed out in the photo due to the tulle, but that's how it looks in person as well. Perhaps I'll call this piece something like "Remembering Bits and Pieces Through the Fog", but that seems a bit too long.