Did you see my newsletter? CLICK HERE .. there is show and tell AND a behind the scenes of my trip to Moda!
HelenMarie was on my last quilt cruise, and she finished her project! SO LOVE It!! On this cruise we had the BEST room for stitching by hand. At the TOP of the ship with loads of light! SO FUN!
Mary has been BUSY with my beginners book AND my Beyond the Basics book! here is what she said about her quilts...
I took two classes at my local shop, Serendipity Quilt Shop, Dagsboro DE www.serendipityquiltshop.com We used two of your books! As a result of those classes, I have lots of UFO's......and as life goes on, I "plan" on finishing them soon. Our classes met once a week for 3 hours, and we did a new pattern each week. In our class for your pattern Crossroads, we made just "1" block. I decided that since one block was not big "enough" I added an additional border.
I loved my fabric for the 9 patch...it was yummy!
My version of your "get to the point" is still in the works, I have been machine quilting on it....and need to dig it out and "FINISH".
My version of Turkey Tracks was another situation where we only did ONE block....so again, haven't figured out yet quite how to finish it.
I did actually finish a couple (3) of your patterns!
I was so happy with my FLY AWAY table runner, I gave it as a gift to my friends who have a B&B - in Addison PA .http://www.hartzellhouse.com (Not - they have a lovely cottage that would make for a great quilt retreat location)
Your pattern for a table runner - Friendship Star made a good Christmas gift for my youngest daughter.
The Rail Quilt was a great baby gift for a military friend in Japan. When I chose the Japanese Dogwood blossoms for the class project, I knew who would get the quilt.
WOW.. Mary what a fantastic group of workshop you had! thank you SO MUCH For sharing your work with us! She used my books "I can't Believe I'm Quilting" http://patsloan.biz/icantbelieveimquilting.aspx
Being
a quilter is challenging. It is our hobby, we quilt for fun,
relaxation, to express ourselves, to make beautiful things, and to be part of the community of quilters. Sometimes it is darn difficult
to squeeze in all the goodness we want to!
But
what does that mean you don't have enough 'time”? Let's look at
this a bit deeper...Not
having enough time means various things... like
My
day job gets in the way
I
just need MORE time so I can quilt
It
is hard to balance my family time and get in enough quilting time
When
I do find time to quilt, the interruptions are endless
The
housework/chores of life suck up my free time
I
have no time even though I am retired (what the hey? You people
with day jobs... retirement is NOT the solution...i have others for
you..wink!)
When
time is finally 'available' I'm too tired from “insert your
favorite flavor” (work, family, chores, friends, grandkids,
husband interruptions, retirement....) to go quilt.
{some of my 400+ quilts}
First you must know that I am a teeny
tiny bit obsessed with “time”. I like think about time, research
it, talk about it.. and manage it. Yes... crazy... but it's the way
I'm wired. I'm wired to think about TIME
We
all know that we are each given the same 24 hours in a day. No
exceptions.
But
some people seem to do/get/accomplish MORE with their 24 hours than
others do. Why is that and how do WE get some of that EXTRA time for
ourselves.
{Tubs of my Green Fabric waiting to be used}
Let
me throw out a few ideas, and YOU give me yours. Let's get a road map
going of what we can do to capture more QUILTING time in our 24
hours.
First
you need to really look at how you spend your time. This is not easy
but must be done to find out where your current 24 hours are used. I
suggest for a week, yes a whole 7 days, you track where you spend
your time and for how long. Such as
get
ready for work
prepare
stuff for family
at
work
stops
at grocery store, make dinner,
family
evening time
watch
my favorite TV show, do Internet, throw in laundry, clean the
bathrooms, read a book
Once
you know where time is spent during a regular week, it lets you make
decisions.
Select
3 times during the week where you COULD have quilted. Maybe you
watched 4 hours of TV one night.. it was GREAT right? no.. not so
great? Would those 4 hours have been more fun quilting?
Or
you watched the kids play/pick up toys/fight... FUN? Some of it
yes... Could you have been cutting out patchwork while you watched?
Doing some hand sewing while you are with the kids? Maybe have your
machine where they play so you can be part of it, but still sew?
And
let's talk about chores. Are you getting family to do their share..
touchy subject eh? Well it frees up time for you if you LET THEM
vacuum, do laundry, grocery shop, mow the lawn. It may not be done
like YOU would do it, but having time to quilt is worth it...
delegate
{The Quilt on my bed the day I wrote this}
My biggest time issue for getting in
more quilting is that my Business and my Hobby are the same. And
since I'm a tiny 2 person company, I spend a lot of time NOT quilting
.. just talking about it. Ha! So I have very definate goals to get in
more sewing time …. starting NOW
Are you ready to Pinky Swear you are
going to track where your time is spent? Good, I'm counting on you!
I'd love to hear your time 'woes' and
'successes'.
Do you have a fantastic tip for fitting in quilting
while you watch the kids, yours, the neighbors, the grand babies? (A quilter on FB straps the grandbaby to her front to longarm!)
For part 1 I think this gives you a lot
to work on.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments BELOW.
When I designed BrambleBerry friends each block represents a season. But not in such a traditional way. I have loads of flowers, a few critters and some other season things.
When you make a block you do the sashing with it. My June block is a white picket fence with cabbages roses and a wonderful big butterfly!
I have loads of butterflies at my home because of my coneflowers and my butterfly bush.
Here is the whole quilt so you can see where the block goes!
How about a close up of the quilting that Joann Hoffman did for me, beautiful right?
She did a lot of dense quilting, and then left unquilted areas so that they have definition.
My favorite part of this block is the hoops on the pink part of the butterfly wings, and her emerald eyes!
How are you doing? Sew Alongs are a way to keep you MOVING.. even if you just trace shapes one day, the fuse or pick fabric another... keep it moving day after day ...
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