Quilting is a group sport.

I started this post 3 months ago and just got it finished. Pretty sad.
One of my projects over summer was a quilt challenge for the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. We were to prepare a block and provide fat quarters of what we used in the block and then our blocks would be swapped with others.
I received the wonky house w/the number 5 in it's door, along with a Rural Jardin, white w/red polka dots, red w/white polka dots, some more numbers, and the newspaper Authentic print.

I must admit that I was totally confounded as to how to combine 1700's French reproduction fabric, newspaper print and red polka dots, but then that's the challenge part! Things like this really help you get the creativity flowing.
I started by slapping a Heather Ross gnome and mushrooms on it, but then didn't know where to go from there. I knew I wanted a garden and a tree, but that was it.

I worked on it at my lock in at Tammy Tadd's, and Dee, Michelle and Jennie all helped w/what else to put on it.  The clothes line was totally their idea. I thought the upper part needed something. I had quilted in a sun, but it wasn't very apparent. My friend Dori suggested a yoyo sun. That's my very first non-yoyo maker yoyo, which is why there's a button in the middle of it. If you don't like it, embellish it!

This is another of those Hemingway's cats things. Then the tree was too bare, so I found a piece of fabric I had w/a bird. Then the left was a little bare, so I added a Fairy Frost tire swing. The little quilt is 3d. I even quilted it. Someone asked me what the #5 was about, and I said I didn't really know, but then it occurred to me Harry Potter lived at #5 Privet Drive, so I decided to name it that.  However, I was mistaken, he lived at #4 Privet Drive, so I guess the gnome lives next to Harry Potter. Or would that be across the street?
I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.
I've also finished an Irish Chain quilt with the Anna Griffin Georgette Christmas line. I must say, this fabric challenges me. It's very subtle, and kind of mushy. I started w/the 'Peace' Irish Chain pattern by Late Bloomer Quilts. I got the blocks together and thought is was blah, w/a capital B.

Then I was brainstorming with my friends Ann and Bobbie at the store one day, and came up w/wool ornaments in the solid blocks.

Better, but not quite there yet. I took it to my quilt guild meeting and we decided it need a flange! Seriously, how did I not think of that? A flange makes everything better!

Then I took it to my guild retreat and it was still missing something. Then Carol said it, "How about another flange between the outer and middle border?" Eureka!!! A quilt designed by at least 10 people!

Then I quilted the snot out of it with metallic thread. I did the bows and ribbons on the ornament (Dori's idea) in silver, but you couldn't see them, so I requilted them in blue metallic. I used my no marking technique to quilt the designs in the ornaments. I used silver lame and fusible web for the tops of the ornaments. Tammy suggested 3D organza ribbons. I may do that after the holidays.

One Christmas quilt done! By the way, that teal flange is the Gees Bend fabric. Heed my warning, if you use that fabric, pretreat and prewash it! It runs like the dickens. I have a couple of spots to fix where it bled in my middle border. Boy was I not happy!

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?

Honesty is the best policy

Last weekend the hubby, my dear friend Liz and I went out to Free Spirit Siberian Husky rescue to volunteer. We must have walked about 10 miles and around 20 dogs between the 3 of us and Liz and I scrubbed out several dog pens. As a side note, while there were many dogs I totally wanted to bring home, Cat (listed in the mixed medley) was totally my favorite. She was sooo sweet and walked so very nicely. When I called her name she would come running back to me, curly tail wagging, just so pleased to be loved. And that wrinkled head is just the cutest. Her friend Wesley was also a total sweetheart. Most people pass up the mixes because they want a purebred, but I'll tell you, mixed breed dogs are just phenomenal pets.

We passed the Dairy Queen sign on the way into town and it just completely cracked us up. How many jobs have we all had that this sign should have been posted in the job description? Do you think that knowing this information up front would help?

Everyone has had at least one totally crappy job w/poor compensation in their life time. Most people have had several. I guess it's those jobs that make me appreciate my current and past jobs with fabulous bosses and co-workers.

I went to the Country Living Women Entrepreneur's event at Navy Pier today. Last year's event was amazing and so inspirational. I actually met Heather Bailey!! And she couldn't possibly be any sweeter. They also featured Anna Griffin and the ladies of Country Threads. I realized that it was the Country Threads ladies that made me fall in love with quilting. Their "Frankie" pattern was my first quilt ever, and it totally hooked me. They were very nice and engaging women. I also met another big designer for Moda whose fabrics I love, but shall remain nameless since she was so ridiculously rude to me, even after I had told her that I read her blog and love her fabrics. Apparently I wasn't anybody to be bothered with as I wasn't a "big-name". I guess being a customer didn't really matter to her.

This year's wasn't as good as last year, but it was still definitely worth the price of admission. I met up with Janet, who I sat with last year. Most of the women you meet at these kinds of things are really great and Janet is sure one of them. I also met two new ladies this year, Karen from Long Island who sells the most amazing handmade cards, and Mary from Illinois who makes things out of salvaged architectural items. I know that Karen sells on Etsy, so I'll have to find her link and post it. The cards were truly stunning.

Two speakers in particular were stand-outs, Rosanna Bowles and Mary Liz Curtain. Rosanna's story was fantastic and her dishware is to die for! She also donated a ton of it to give away for raffle prizes. Extremely generous. Her packaging is phenomenal!
Mary Liz talked about trade shows and the like. In addition to owning a fabulous store in Michigan that's in an old roller skating rink, she's also a speaker. And boy is she fantastic! She's absolutely hysterical and imparts an amazing amount of information. I really need to make a trip up north to see the store. It looks fantastic.

And the most exciting thing today was that I met Amy Barickman of Indygo Junction! We talked for a while about publishing and patterns and what not. She has a book she's been working on about a women's cooperative from I think she said the 1930's and 40's where they taught women to sew and make a living. I'm really looking forward to reading it when it comes out. Again, another super nice woman in the quilting industry. I must say that most people in quilting are really, really nice. It's a bonus when thing thing you are most passionate about is filled with helpful, generous, genuinely nice people.

Another by product of the day is that I think I've decided on what fabrics I'm going to use for my Mark Lipinski mystery class in July. I've been completely tortured trying to figure out what I want to do. There are so many options! To commit to just one is nearly beyond me. Mary Liz Curtain was wearing this absolutely fabulous green duster length coat with a brown shirt and pants underneath. It was a totally cool outfit. One of the choices I had been pondering were the brown and green batiks from Hoffman that I have in my stash. That coat sealed the deal for me!

Retreating

Our quilting guild retreat was great. I believe a good time was had by all. I swear we made PittyPat cry because she was laughing so hard a few times. It’s funny how many people have told me that they get so much inspiration at these retreats that going to their 9-5 job is really getting in the way of their quilting. I didn't get as much finished as I would have liked, but I got things figured out that had been boggling my mind for sometime, so I can start them now. Sometimes it takes a village to create a quilt! Or perhaps it was belting out Copacabana with Barry Manilow that got the creativity flowing. Who can tell?

I usually have Christmas dinner at my house, and my sister has Thanksgiving. This year however, she is going to be in Australia for Thanksgiving, so I will have dinner. I don't have any Thanksgiving stuff though, so I decided to make my table cloth for it at the retreat when I'd have long tables to cut and press it. I put it on the table last night and realized that it's a tad bit narrow.

I'll have to force myself to adopt DiscoJen's motto of "oh well, it's done!" There's no way I could have made it any wider. It's already 116" long! Do you know how much more material it would take to match the pattern on the fabric, which is the Dorothy line by Anna Griffin for Windham Fabrics, by the way. It kills me to use such a beautiful fabric as a table cloth, but better to use it then to let it sit around collecting dust, right? I have to make the napkins next. I’m going to try out a couple of binding feet to make those. Debbie and Sophie got them at the Rosemont quilt show. It will be interesting to compare what they each can do.

I also got the majority of this quilt top sewn together:

It’s the Let it Snow line of batik fabrics and pattern from Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. Pictures do not do this fabric justice. I bought the kit at the Madison quilt show and have been unable to resist putting it together immediately! It is absolutely FREAKING STUNNING! I had the blocks laid out on the floor to sew together and Pittypat came over to exclaim over their beauty. She said that it reminded her of the Caribbean! Jennie and I looked at each other in bewilderment. We weren't quite sure how snowflakes remind one of the Caribbean! PittyPat said that the color looked like a pool to her and that she wanted to swim in it. I think I should name it "PittyPat's Pool". I'm going to try to quilt it in metallic thread. I've never used metallic thread to quilt before, so it should be fun to play with. I just have to sew the last two rows together and put the border on it. Only one border! I don't know if I can accept that.

I have to share what Robin, Sharon, Karen and Linda made at the retreat. They all did the same pattern, Mexican Stars by South Wind Quilts. They were all totally different, and all gorgeous!

What you can't see in my photos is that the triangle parts fold back on themselves forming a cathedral window curving effect. It's really wonderful. Isn't it fun to see how different a pattern can look in different fabrics? That's why classes are good. You get to see how all of the different fabric choices turn out.

This is what the hubby did while I was away:

It was a lot of work, but worth it! It's amazing how different the kitchen looks with back splash tiles! I just love it. I sit and stare at it quite often. Every time he does tile work he says "I'm never doing this again. I'll write a check for it next time!" Then he gets the quote and says that he'll do it instead. He does beautiful work, even if he hates doing it. See the cutting board up on top of the cabinets all the way over on the right? My friend Bill made that for me for Christmas last year. It's really lovely. So lovely, in fact, that I'm not allowed to use it. The other metal things are my bundt pans. I kind of have a bundt pan collection. And darn that Williams Sonoma for coming up with new ones all the time!

The hubby also got us a new Husky while I was away. He was apparently very busy while I was gone. He left me a voicemail saying to call him back because he has an important announcement. I thought he was going to tell me the tile was done. Imagine my surprise when he told me that we were getting a dog I hadn't even met! She's from Free Spirit Siberian Rescue. They took her photo down already, so you can't see her. Her name is Josie. Donna, DiscoJen and I don't really like that name though, so we think we will call her.....Mojojo!!! The hubby even took Robbie along w/the other two to meet her. Robbie was happy with him all weekend after that! It's amazing how he loves the hubby while we are in the car or going for walks, and when he has meat, but otherwise is all nervous nelly around him. The hubby works hard to get Robbie to like him, but Robbie just prefers me.

It's funny what the men do when the women are away at quilting retreats. PittyPat's husband got a new tv last fall while we were away, and mine got a dog this year! I can only guess what will greet us next time we dare go away for 3 days!