Friday, February 20, 2015
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Caroline the Butterfly
This new Butterfly pattern, "Caroline" is now available.
This Crab pattern, "Jimmy" has been very popular. We have had many requests to do this same technique with different objects. Somehow we got busy with other things and that idea got put on a back burner.
Then, a teacher that my daughter, Faith, is very close with got pregnant with her first child. Faith wanted us to make her a quilt. When they found out it was a girl they decided to do the nursery in purple with butterflies. Immediately my daughter knew what she wanted to make.
Faith came up with the butterfly outline and chose all of the fabric. I enlarged the pattern on the computer. Faith traced the pattern onto the fabric. I stitched the outline.
Faith cut and glued the fabric onto the butterfly. I quilted it and put the binding on. It truly was a joint effort.
The teacher was holding out on the baby's name until her birth. She did let Faith in on a little secret that "Faith" was one of the top two names. Faith ended up being the baby's middle name. The baby's name is Caroline Faith. Therefore the name of this pattern.
While Faith was making her gift I was making one for a shop sample.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Madison, Maryland
This past week the Seven Sisters Quilters from Trappe, Maryland went on our first annual quilt retreat. We wanted a house close to home for various reasons. Some spent part of the week, one went home daily to tend to the cats, and one went home daily to tend to a husband. The retreat house was 28 minutes from the shop. Since the house was so close to home my daughter also spent the week. She just had to leave 25 minutes earlier each morning to go to school. (Tuesday school was cancelled because of ice.)
This was the view from the dining table. The first night had the best sunset!
View of the house from the dock.
On Sunday the weather was unseasonably warm.
It was a great day to go out for a walk. The sand was so warm with the sun beating on it.
We think this large track was from a Great Blue Heron. We saw one hanging around all week.
My daughter having a little fun.
That is me.
By the end of the week it was unseasonably cold!
Due to the wind and the tide there was beautiful ice cover!
This is a close up of the grass.
We are dressed a little differently from the beginning of the week.
GREAT FUN!
Retreat 2015
This past week the Seven Sisters Quilters went on their First Annual Winter Retreat. It was so great to have an entire week. It was relaxing and at the same time I got a lot of sewing done.
The first thing I did was to put on a binding. First project done in no time.
My next project was to start my challenge quilt. The Bayside Quilters are having a color challenge this year. The color I got was orange. I am almost done. I just need to do some quilting in the solid orange area. I will go into further detail in an upcoming post.
This is the back of my orange quilt.
For the past year I have been working on Tula Pink's 100 Block City Sampler. I had decided before I began that I would be done in a year. I only got 40 of the 100 blocks done so my quilt only has 40 blocks. At retreat I sewed together 20 blocks that were previously cut out and I put the top together.
This is the back of my Tula Pink City Sampler Quilt.
I went to see Tula Pink in September. When she talked about her City Sampler she explained that it was her take on the Dear Jane Quilt. In 2004 I was in a Dear Jane Bee and made some of the blocks. I never did anything with them. I thought the back of my City Sampler would be the perfect place for them. I finished up these blocks and got the back put together.
I started this quilt in a class at Bayside last Spring. The class was taught by Terry Kramzar.
I was not happy with the white flower on the light purple background. There was not enough contrast, so I stitched around the white with a darker purple thread. I am not exactly thrilled with this quilt, but at least it is done.
I made this for a shop sample to highlight some of our new fabric.
This is my Alaska Quilt. In 2013 I went on an Alaskan Cruise. Of course I had to find a Quilt Shop everywhere we stopped. All of this fabric and pattern was purchased in Alaska. I am so glad to get this done.
I made this Tunic with fabric from the Florence line by Denyse Schmidt. I am very disappointed that this is a bit snug. I might need to make another one a little bigger.
I made this Three Yard Quilt for a shop sample using Gramercy by Art Gallery Fabrics.
We all had a great time at retreat. I will post more about it later.