Exciting Big News...

Okay, okay...it's really little news, but may grow into something big :o)

For quite a while now I've been mulling over joining a quilt guild. Here, where I live, in the heart of Civil War country, modern quilting is really not the vogue. There are several traditional guilds in the area with lovely quilters which I am not opposed to joining. However, most of them meet on weekdays during the hours when I'm at school (I'm a teacher) so that makes involvement with them pretty much impossible. There is a modern quilt guild that meets about an hour+ from where I live (big Shout Out to the NOVA Modern Quilt Guild!) who is just now officially joining The Modern Quilt Guild...Exciting! But, distance can become an issue. 

I've so enjoyed getting involved in the online quilting community and finding my little niche through flickr, instagram, and do. Good Stitches.  But, I would love to get to know some quilters in my own community and enjoy some face-to-face camaraderie. So...here's where the exciting news comes in! 

Yesterday I was talking to my friend, Kelley, owner of The Scrappy Apple quilt shop and we discussed trying to begin a guild for local modern quilters! We are aiming for an inaugural meeting the third Thursday in February. I'll keep you posted!!

Now, since no blog post should be without picture, I'll include my latest picture of the Faith Circle Row Quilt for do. Good Stitches. 

I just finished free motion quilting it in a meander stitch. I am happy to say I actually enjoyed free motion quilting this quilt! Hooray!! It's taken several quilts for me to reach this comfort level and I'm so happy to get to this point in my skills! Next up is some hand stitching around the word "hope" with yellow #8 perle cotton. After that just the binding is left.

Happy stitching!

Basting Tools

Progress on the Faith Circle Row Quilt has reached the point of pin basting. Wow so many pins are used in the process of basting a quilt!



It can be pretty hard on fingers to close all of these pins as they are put into the quilt sandwich. I was wishing I had one of the tools people use to close pins. I've tried using a spoon in the past, but was not totally sold on that method. As I was thinking about this I tried to come up with something I might already have on hand to help close the pins. I got to thinking about the sharpener for my kitchen knives, but it was too large in diameter. Then, I thought of the awl-type tool I have for use with beads. it worked great! 



This is actually called a Bead Reamer and is used to enlarge and round out the opening in beads. However...it is also perfect for closing basting pins!


The texture of the tool really makes it easy to use with the pins! It really helped to make quicker work of basting this quilt!

Do you pin baste, and if so, how do you close the pins?

Setting Goals

With a new year comes the promise of fresh starts...and hopefully, for me, several finishes! I've decided to jump on board with the wonderful group of quilters participating in A Lovely Year of Finishes as it fits right into what I've set before myself to accomplish. When I look around my sewing room I don't want to see so many unfinished projects...and so much fabric just sitting there. I just don't think these things lend themselves to being a good steward of the things I've been blessed with. 

A Lovely Year of Finishes encourages a goal be set to finish at least one project each month. At this point in time I have enough unfinished projects that I don't need to begin anything new in order to come up with 12 finishes for the year. My January goal is to complete the September Faith Circle quilt for do. Good Stitches. (I wrote about this row quilt in my previous post.) 

Often, by the time it comes to the quilt back am ready to just be finished with the quilt and begin something new. While I do love a scrappy back I challenged myself to come up with a design that would allow me to use fabric I already had in my stash. I started by doing a search in the flickr Quilt Backs group to find some inspiration. I found several pictures where the quilter had created a plaid design with fabric and I really liked the look. Next I got out my sketch notebook and worked out a plan:



Working out the measurements is not a strong area for me and I was a bit nervous I would get the back finished only to discover I'd made a mistake. I'm happy to report that I got all of the dimensions correct and now have a completed quilt back made entirely of stash fabric!
I'm so excited to have actually planned out and completed my own quilt back! Whenever people talk to me about things that I've made I am quick to point out that most of the time I am just following a pattern and it is the designer of that pattern who is truly the talented one. I'd love to be a designer one day...maybe with this quilt back I can now say I am :o)

I'd love to hear about something you've designed!

Rows of Faith

September was my month to design the quilt layout for the Faith Circle of do. Good Stitches. I've learned over the past year that it is an interesting process to work on a quilt with a community of people. You absolutely have to go into the process with grace in your heart, and look at the final product as a quilt of beauty, not a quilt of perfection. 

Lessons I've learned:

• it's best to select a block design that does not require points to match up when blocks are joined together
• everyone has their own definition of a 1/4" seam
• asking for a white background means you will get mostly white, but an off-white is sure to show up someplace (the reverse is true if you specify off-white)
•  there will always be someone who is struggling to get blocks mailed off on time (and sometimes that someone is me!)

I list these things not because I'm being critical...really it's quite the opposite. I list them because I believe that in the end none of these things really matter, and they provide a reason for us to extend grace to one another. In the Faith Circle we make our quilts for Restore Innocence and the girls helped by this organization don't care about any of the things listed above. What matters to them is finding hope and believing that people really do care about them. 

Here is the completed top for the Faith Circle September quilt. I still have to square off the side on the right before it is ready to quilt. 

Have you learned any lessons from working on projects with other people? If so, I'd love to hear about them :o)

All's Quiet in the Shadows...

...really, it's not. All is entirely too busy in the Shadows of the Blue Ridge resulting in my blog being pretty much silent. Before I catch up on what's been happening here let me share a couple of Fall photographs:




We are so fortunate to have a Civil War preservation park directly beyond our back yard so we enjoy beautiful views of the woods all year around. I really have no favorite season as they each have beauty of their own. 

Okay, now that we are all calm and peaceful from the beautiful views on to the descriptions of stress what's been going on over this way:

At the end of the summer I was all prepared to dive right in and begin on the fabulous Penny Sampler class taught by the talented Rachel Houser {StitchedinColor.com}. For about the first 4-5 weeks I was able to keep up with the pace of the class. Here is my sampler quilt so far:

The super idea of using the black line drawing and pasting pictures of each block on top comes from Nicolette {DutchComfort}...she's brilliant! Anyway, by now I should be finished with almost all of the blocks and starting to stitch them together. I hope to make some good progress on these blocks this weekend.

One thing that has been taking up so much of my time is these mean, green hunting socks:




I am so happy to say they are almost finished!! I've been kind of making the pattern for these up as I go along...maybe they are a kind of Frankenstein of socks, if you please. I've used little bits of instructions from several different sources and had to redo portions of them a few times to get them just right. They kind of have a funny story behind them. Last year during Christmas I was teasing one of my brother's-in-law that I was going to make him a pair of homemade crochet socks. Mostly I was doing this because I knew he would never take me up on the offer. Well, my other brother-in-law overheard me and said that he would wear a pair of crochet hunting socks if I could make him some. I could never say no. He chose green camo for the color. Wow was it hard to find yarn in right shades. This yarn is Ivy Malagrigo Sock Yarn. It's the first time I've used their sock weight and I have to say...I can't wait to make a pair for myself...not in green, though!

All of the other busyness is not so fun as sewing on sampler quilts, or crocheting socks. Mostly it comes from the school year starting back up again and attending way too many meetings. Hopefully things are now coming to a more manageable pace. 

Happy Fall to you! Here's to cozy mugs of hot chocolate and snuggling under quilts :o)

The art of teaching

Teaching someone to perform a tactile skill is an interesting undertaking. You often don't realize how much is involved...such as learning how to hold fabric as you sew two pieces together...how to thread a needle and not unthread it again every time a stitch is taken...just exactly how is a knot made...and the list goes on. 

I teach in a public middle school (grades 6, 7 & 8 so students are usually between the ages of 11 and 14 years old.) Along with two other teachers I advise and teach an after school Handworks Club. Our goal is to teach a love of making things by hand to our young students. Last year was our first year and we had no idea what to expect. Most of our students had little to no experience doing handwork projects. 

Class sample made by me.

One of our main projects was hand stitching and quilting 9-patch doll quilts. These little quilts only measure out at 12" square, but it took almost five months for our group of girls to make them. Wow! We learned that there is a lot involved with teaching someone to sew. Maybe making a quilt, even a doll quilt, was a bit much for our beginning sewers.



This year we are working on simpler projects. The first one is a tapestry bookmark. The purpose of this project is learning how to hold fabric (or felt in this case), tie a knot at the beginning and end of a seam, and do the running stitch. The great thing about this bookmark is that it does not matter how big or small the stitches end up as variety adds to the visual interest. 



Our next project will be decorating needle books. Again we are working with felt because it is so easy to hold. I went ahead and used my sewing machine to attach a page inside each book and the girls will practice stitching to decorate the front and back cover. Then, they will put the needle book to use holding their class needles.

Pattern and tutorial for this little owl can befound here: pinkyhiggs.blogspot.com/2012/04/free-owl-pattern.html

After the needle books we will move on to this sweet little folded owl. It is such an easy pattern with just three seams. The girls will have a lot of fun choosing cute fabrics to make their owls. We have been blessed with fabric donations from members of a local quilt guild and the local quilt shop, The Scrappy Apple. 

It should be a fun hand sewing unit!