Bag central

It's been a productive couple of weeks, mostly thanks to my quilt guild retreat last weekend in Rockford.
I made yet another Late Bloomer Sweet Simple Tote for Ashley's birthday (which I gave to her that night, so I don't have a photo. I'll have to have her send one to me).
I love that pattern so much that I've been cranking them out. I love how beautifully it show cases larger print fabrics. I made two chocolate themed, a fantastic black/white/hot pink from the Michael Miller Dress Forms fabric and am in process of a purple glittery bag made from MM's Antiquity collection.

The inside pockets:

The inside w/pockets

 

I also finished 2 king size and one regular pillow case from some of the Moda Chocolat wovens, which are amazing. If you have never had the chance to pet the Moda wovens, I recommend doing so immediately! They are sooooo soft and silky. I just love them. I have a really poofy pillow, and the cases I made fit them so very much better. I can actually get them on and off with out a major wrestling match with my pillows!

I also finished a Terry Atkinson Happy Holidays table centerpiecehttp://www.atkinsondesigns.com/patterns/ which seriously only took me a total of two evenings, start to finish! I used a combo of Anna Griffin's Georgette Christmas, MM Fairy frost and a random paisley that we had at Tammy Tadds.  I quilted it with holly leaves and berries in metallic thread. Since I can't draw, I just blow up the fabric motif on the copier then use my handy dandy non-marking technique to quilt it. It's a sample for the shop as well as a Christmas present for Mom!

I've also spent some time working on the look of the blog, what does everyone think?

Party and retreating

Well, the party at Tammy Tadd Designs was a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of my favorite quilters and eat a piece, yes just one piece, of Sweet Dreams cake.
Terry Atkinson was really nice, and of course the quilts always look better in person. She showed an interesting machine applique technique that didn't use any fusible webbing of any kind. Once you see it, you say "duh! why didn't I think of that?" Jennie pointed out that if we had, then we would be the ones with the quilting books on the mass market.
People often ask me how I work 2 jobs. My response is that while they are vastly different, I really like both of my jobs, but the quilting job is really not work for me. It's fun. What better time can you have then picking out fabrics all day, listening to fun music, and working with fabulous ladies. It's very inspiring. My non-quilting job is very different, but I work with the greatest people and learn a ton every day. Many of my good friends are ones that I met at my non-quilting job. Some of them I've even turned into quilters!
Here are some pictures from the party. How could you not be happy working in a place this bright, cheery and surrounded by colorful fabrics?

This is a pattern that Terry debuted at the party.

This is my favorite part of the store. I love the satisfying thwack that the screen door makes when you go through it. And yes, that is a pink Weber grill!Terry Atkinson (left) and Tammy Tadd (right). The blue and green quilt on the table was also debuted at the party.
Laura goofy posing in front of Terry's quilts. I don't think she realises that I have this picture. We have a great time working together.

"Sweet, Simple Tote" pattern by Late Bloomer Quilts , fabric by Paula Prass for Michael Miller. Made by Me! I have about 3 more of these bags planned.

I have my quilt guild retreat this weekend, and have to decide which projects to bring. I have several ladies trying out my folding grocery bag pattern to see if it's ready to publish. I'm really, really hoping to get that done ASAP! Jennie told me I shouldn't bring my whole quilting room this weekend, but what if I change my mind about what projects to work on, then what am I supposed to do? Go to one of shops nearby and get a new one? Hmmmmm......

quilting over kill

This is what I've been working on lately:

It's the "You go girl" pattern by Tammy Tadd Designs. The fabric is the pink Lakehouse hydrangeas. I thought about cross hatching the fabric, but decided that it didn't do the fabric justice. I instead quilted the white areas around the flowers, thinking that would do it, but that left big areas unquilted. So then I quilted the leaves, but that still left a lot of area unquilted and it didn't highlight the flowers enough. I decided to quilt the flowers, which of course took 2 different colors of pink.

This is the result:

It's gorgeous, if I say so myself, but it took me 10, yes 10 hours to quilt! And I have one more to make, in the blue flowers. The blue will require 3 different blues.
I needed a day or two off from the bags to get my quilting mojo back, so I decided to actually start my Baltimore Halloween. Here's what I've done so far:

I'm pleased with the moon, but not so happy with the body or vest. I may like it better once I get the wings and head on. I chose the needle turn applique method, but I think I'm going to have to do a combo of needle turn and freezer paper so that I get my shapes just right. Here's where my type A quilting personality comes in. It's my first real applique project, so you'd think I'd cut myself some slack, but if I'm going to invest the time and money into this project, I want it to be the best that I can do. I think my stitches are ok, but I'll have to have my friend Debbie and the teacher of the block of the month look at them and see what they think.

And just because I think he's so darn cute:

Robbie figured out how to open the screen and let himself in. Isn't he clever?

Quilting in the woods

We had a lovely time at our fall girl's quilting retreat in November. The trees were lovely and the weather yucky, perfect for staying inside and quilting!

We always have good food too. Everyone signs up with a partner to cook a meal and I must say, the food is always great! This is Dori's french toast casserole. I need the recipe for this one! And look at how she used her scraps from her quilting project as little napkin rings! Isn't that a fun touch? Retreats are always so inspirational. All those creative people getting together, helping each other out! I forgot to take pictures until the end of the weekend, so I didn't get some of the ladies' projects. We made aprons, bags, quilts, it was a fabric frenzy!

I accomplished quite a bit. I finished a Tammy Tadd Designs "Girly Girl" purse made with Ava Rose fabric by Tanya Whelan, accented with a gorgeous Lakehouse stripe. I finished two of my grocery bags for Jennie.

I also got all of the strips pieced together for a quilt that I've been commissioned to make. That was no small feat. It's a 100 block quilt, made of split nine patches, with an extra row of 2.5" blocks at the top and bottom to make it a rectangle. That means 220 half squares, and something like 750 squares! Whew, it didn't seem like that many when I was putting them together! I'll post about it after the holidays, when it's safely in the hands of it's recipient.

Barb made these lovely bags out of charm squares. I don't recall the pattern, but it had a couple of different options in the one pattern. Aren't they cute?

Karen worked on this fabulous "Yellow Brick Road" by Terry Atkinson, set on-point. This my favorite pattern. It's also Jennie and Karen's favorite as well. We've made dozens of them between the three of us. Jennie and I were at the Madison quilt show when we saw it set on-point. We were blown away! How did it never occur to us to set it that way?!?! The fabric is the "Ginko" line by Lonni Rossi, I think. It's a few years old. This quilt is gorgeous!

I had to share DiscoJen's green polyester jogging suit that she was wearing when she was dubbed DiscoJen at our first retreat. It was like 2am and she put on her disco cd and started shaking her booty to "YMCA" thus earning her the name DiscoJen. It will live in infamy.