Mystery Quilt Trip

The Tewksbury Piecemakers sponsors a mystery quilt trip twice a year. Although it was raining buckets yesterday, we went on our little trip! Only a few people know where we're actually going. We meet the bus in the morning and know we'll be home late afternoon. We usually go to a few stores and have lunch. This time was a little different and loads of fun!

Our first stop is The Button Box Quilt Shop in Wellesley, MA.

This is Linda and Marlene. We're sitting in the back room enjoying some coffee and goodies.

I'm having a little coffee here. It's still on the early side! Shopping was so fun at this shop.

They had some gorgeous fabrics. The store was set up by color which made finding a particular color or shade so easy! We could have stayed here all day! I did buy a few things!!

This is a table runner quilt kit and pattern by Ann Lauer. I had seen it in the Connecting Threads catalog but they were out of it by the time I ordered. I was very happy to by the kit as well! I've never tried bargello before so this should be fun!

I couldn't resist this book! It had some great designs. It's hard to find patterns and inspiration sometimes so I grabbed it!

Our next stop was at Wellesley College, They have some great green houses and exotic plants. I'm not into plants but I went in anyways. This is the only thing that caught my eye.

It was a rosemary plant!! I didn't stay too long. It was hot and humid.

We got back to the bus and ended up in Newtonville, MA at a place called The Paint Bar. We were told we'd be eating lunch here also. There were cold cuts, chips, cookies and cupcakes. I had a diet coke but you could actually get wine or even a mimosa! We found out we'd be painting here. We were all a little surprised. I have no artistic ability. I can't paint a picture to save my life but everyone was a good sport about it and we all gave it a try.

This is the picture we were all going to paint. I had no idea if I could do it. However, we had a guide! Our instructor guided us at every step of the way. Here is our group working hard.

Here is the finished product! Mine is in the middle.

Not too bad!

By the time we got to the bus, it was around 4:30. It seemed like it would be too late to make our last stop. However, the shop was called and they stayed open for us! We went to Fabric Corner in Arlington, MA. My phone was almost dead so I didn't take any pictures at the store. I did buy a few things.

I bought some backing fabric. It was a great price, 30% off! I also bought some charm squares which I plan on giving to a friend.

I was totally exhausted when I got home last night. We did get a little Make and Take project for the bus ride which I never made. I made it while watching TV.

Just a little tissue cover.

It was a long day but so much fun!

Two more finishes!!

I finally picked out fabric for the borders and finished the mystery quilt! I added a 2 inch lighter purple fabric. It's hard to see but there are some shiny little dots speckled over the fabric. The larger border is 6 inches wide and also has a bit of sparkle to it. It's purple but sort of changes over to a dark pink every so often. I plan on binding with a plain black fabric. Of course, it has to be quilted first!

This is the shawl I've been working on from Vogue Knitting. The yarn is sort of silvery purple. My mom came over the other day and really liked it so I ended up giving it to her! I love knitting these shawls but not sure if I would wear them very often. I was happy that my mom was actually planning on using it.

I have to keep myself from starting any new project. I have to machine quilt a few quilt tops first. I just have to keep reminding myself! It's so easy to start a new project!

Blogger's BOM #9 May

This month's Blogger's BOM was featured by Cathy over at Cabbage Quilts. It is a jewel box block which something I'm familiar with since the mystery quilt I've been working on is also made up of jewel box blocks! This one was a bit different. It's very small! The block is only 8 1/2 inches square. I really like how it came out and I think the colors are very close to jewel tones! It was fun to work on.

Here are all the blocks so far. I really love all the Kaffe Fassett fabrics together. I'm excited to see how this quilt top will come out. I think there are 5 blocks left to make. I'll keep posting every month!

This was a very busy weekend for me and my family. My daughter graduated from college with a degree in English Literature. I was so emotional! Happy and sad at the same time! The graduation was lovely and only took about 3 hours. We expected it to take much longer since there were 2900 graduates. My daughter is spending one more year at the same school. She's working on a master's degree in education so she can teach high school English. She actually started classes last week! She's back to doing homework but at least her bachelor's is all done.

 That's my son and daughter right after the ceremony! We were all starving and couldn't wait to go eat somewhere!

 

May Free Motion Quilting Challenge

 

This month's Free Motion Quilting Challenge was taught to us by Leah Day. Her tutorial was just wonderful! I really enjoy her blog and method of teaching. The top sample was made by sewing a large meander and then sewing a smaller meander over it. Leah called it a foundational design. This stitch is Double Stippling. The sample below is started the same way but railroad tracks are sewn over the foundation. She calls this one Railroad Tracks. Very appropriate!

I realize I don't quilt as large as Leah. She filled the entire area with stitching. She did mention that everyone's sample would be different. Also, what works for some quilters doesn't necessarily work for everyone. I felt uncomfortable making huge stipples. Maybe I should practice getting over that! I enjoyed her lesson and felt I learned a lot. 

If anyone is interested, go to SewCalGal and check out the great tutorials we've had so far. It's a really nice way of learning and practicing free motion quilting.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2012

I think Prairie compass is the quilt I'm most proud of making. It was a Block of the Month offered by Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. It was designed by Nancy Rink. I started this rather late and never actually kept up with each month's directions. I hand appliqued and machine pieced it. The Mariner's Compass was done using paper piecing. I decided to hand quilt the entire thing. You can't see it in this picture but I hand quilted 1/4 inch parallel lines throughout the entire body of the quilt. I used a stencil and hand quilted feathers throughout the borders. It took me close to 5 years to complete this quilt from start to finish.

Here's a close up of the hand quilting. I was so used to watching TV while hand quilting that it actually took me awhile to get used to not having it around anymore! My cat would sit under it whenever I took it out and have a nice warm nap. I bet he misses it too!

Frustration!!

This is the finished mystery quilt top without borders. It looks okay but it was simply awful to sew the rows together. There were 17 seams to match up per row. (Yup, I counted them!) The seams were not ironed so they would be going in opposite directions for easy sewing. You had to finger press to one side as you went along each row. So frustrating! I'm sort of surprised it came out looking this good. If you look real close, some of the seams just don't line up. I did the best I could. It calls for 6 inch borders but I'm thinking of framing it with a 2 inch dark border and then adding the 6 inch border. Any opinions??

New Twister

I started a new Twister quilt! I am using the Lil' Twister. The fabric is Kate Spain's Good Fortune collection. Since I wanted a larger quilt, I am alternating a very pale blue solid in between each block of the Good Fortune. I wasn't sure how large it was going to be so I still have to buy border fabric. I could have used the same pale blue but I want the solid blocks to look just as "twisted" as the featured fabric. Using a border made from a different fabric should frame them and not let the light blue blocks look as though they fade into the border. At least, that's the effect I'm striving for! We'll see what happens.

This is the latest block I've machine quilted. It's pretty hard to see in this picture. I quilted hearts in the 4 corners as well as the 4 set in triangles. I also sewed a little meandering loop around each heart.

I sort of quilted 4 overlapping leaves in the center. I don't like that clump of thread in the middle but I'm not sure what else to do.

I have 4 blocks done but 8 to go! So slow but I remind myself I'm learning!!