More Show & Share from Oregon!

As I go back through my photos of last week’s trip to Oregon – I found that I still have MORE show and share photos for you!

This is Brenda!  How many of you remember earlier this year when I was teaching in Alpharetta, Georgia, and there was a lucky gal who’s hubby flew her down from Oregon as an anniversary gift to come take some workshops?

YES!  This is the same Brenda!  And I knew I knew her – but I couldn’t place from where.  What a happy reunion!

I'm now on HER stomping grounds.  How fun!

Here she is showing her very scrappy and very wonderful Strip Twist quilt.  Seriously, this is one of the easiest quilts ever to make.  The pattern is up under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog.  I designed this long before Jelly Rolls were invented as a charity quilt workshop for my guild, trying to find a way to make all of the *ahem* lovely donated fabrics work together.  This is another one where the more you throw in, the better it works.  Check it out!

We had a Twin Sized Cathedral Stars in the house!

Another free one from the free patterns tab!

Orca Bay was in the house!!  So pretty!

Orca Bay is found in String Fling.

((I am seriously wanting to do some more quilts with string piecing in them! SO FUN!))

Lazy Sunday was in the house!

Isn’t her border fabric perfect??

Another great Easy Street!

Another great Strip Twist!

Pink & brown baskets!  Lovely!

A lovely version of Easy Street!

With the pink and yellow in this one, I’d call it Pink Lemonade!

FABULOUS!!

Would you believe this is Carolina Christmas?

Carolina Christmas was an earlier mystery and is now found in Scraps & Shirttails II!

Another great Easy Street, just waiting for borders!

I so love seeing them, each and every one!

A variation of Split 9-patch!

AWESOME!

Close up on this one….

This would be another way to do our Split 9 patch Leader & Ender Challenge!  In this variation the center square is a solid square, instead of a half-square triangle.  LESS triangles to make! LOL!  This way each block only requires two half-square triangle units instead of three.  Don’t you love this layout?  WOW!  Check out the free patterns tab for Split 9-patch instructions for this year’s leader & ender challenge.

Very fun scrappy bricks with black!

Square in a square!  I love the colors in this one ---

A bright and happy Bricks & Stepping Stones!

((Check out the free patterns tab at the top of the blog for this one!))

I am sew inspired and ready to get going this morning.  If I am coming to your area, please bring show & tell to class!  I love sharing at the end of lunch to get our juices flowing before getting back to our machines.

Sadie and I have already had our morning walk.  This was the view from the deck this morning:

The morning sun is shining down on the most perfect day!

On the way back from our walk, Sadie saw what I didn’t ----and her bark sent 3 large deer bounding out of our yard and off into the trees.  All I saw was 3 white tails, and long legs from behind.

I so love it here!

Have a great friday, everyone – time to get a shower and go sew my brains out

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Carolyn & Lisa, Mother and Daughter!

Meet Carolyn on the left and her daughter, Lisa on the right!

A couple of years ago they came to another workshop week in another town and we had such a great time, I was so happy to see them make the trek to Champaign, IL for another round of quilt quilt quilt til you wilt wilt wilt!

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Show & Share, Texas Style!

I’ve spent the afternoon running around with Dianna, eatting lunch at a fabulous Mediterranean  place in Fort Worth called Terra. 

If you get a chance to go – GO!

And then we hit the antique malls – oh boy!  Are there photos to share with you tomorrow!

We just checked me into my hotel for the night – and then we’ll run to dinner and go set up for the guild meeting – so I have about 45 minutes to catch my breath, change my clothes and send off a blog post.

You KNOW how much I love show and share during lunch time at my workshops – it fills the time and inspires us all!

So while I’m *resting*  I’m uploading some photos for you to enjoy.

This is Sherry’s Mai Tais in Paradise!  She was with us on the August Caribbean cruise a couple of years ago, and I love how her quilt turned out!  This quilt was featured in a past issue of Quiltmaker Magazine, and I have plans for including it in a future book where it fits the theme of the book – so down the pipeline a ways.  Didn’t Sherry do a great job? I love her green border!

She also brought her Sister’s Choice quilt top, started in a previous workshop!  Notice the bonus triangles used as pinwheels in the top and bottom borders.  SO CUTE!

Sisters choice is a free pattern found under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog – this quilt is made completely from 2-1/2” strips and 2-1/2” squares!

Sherry also joined us for a previous mystery – this is Orange Crush!  She switched some colors around and I love the effect.  You will find the directions for Orange Crush also under the free patterns tab, scroll down to where the previous mysteries are still listed.

Allison’s Easy Street!

I love the border print she found for this quilt..it ties everything together so well!  She did such a great job on this one.

And look at the back:

Anything not used up in the front – went HERE!

If you missed last year’s Easy Street mystery and are wanting the pattern – stay tuned.  It’s being featured in my next book due out SOON!

Split 9-Patch Leader & Ender Challenge!

Allison has been going to town on her Split 9-Patch Leader & Ender challenge!  She’s been assembling rows and adding them to the “mother ship” as each row is completed.  I love her Barn Raising layout!  As for mine? It’s still a pile of blocks.  I’m feeling rather shamed!

Close up!  Whooowhooo! *wolf whistle*

She said she did NOT fussy cut this hunky guy – but – I’m not sure if I believe her!

The directions for the Split  9-Patch leader & ender challenge block are also under the free patterns tab.

Saska’s Star Struck!

This is made of all recylced shirts – and was sent off to University with her son who has used it and loved it and washed it and used it some more, and it is just so soft and snuggly!  She also used all recycled shirt backs as the backing…a fabulous GUY QUILT!

It’s under the free patterns tab, y’all!  Have you made one yet?  This is the same quilt that I taught yesterday in Joshua with the Fort Worth guild.  Check out their photos HERE.

Red Spider Web!

((You look so serious, Saska!! LOL!))

This quilt has the most scrumptious black flannel inner border – you just have to pet it.  It’s a great contrast to the red homespun plaid used as the outer border to tie in the red from the quilt center.  What a great fun collection of scraps!  Free patterns tab, everyone!

I love Saska’s Orca Bay!

She passed on the pieced border and floated the quilt with a beautiful field of blue.  This one is also waiting for quilting.

The pattern for Orca Bay is found in my book String Fling.  Signed copies can be ordered  HERE.

Saska’s Lego Quilt in progress!

Tonya over at Lazy Gal Quilting showed the construction of a quilt inspired by an antique quilt that originated in the Netherlands.  This is Saska’s take on it –because her boys told her that legos don’t spin around, they only go ONE direction like a brick wall.  I love the variety of fabrics in here – it was great to look at it up close!

Virginia Bound!

This is where I’m going to run into trouble remembering names!  She took this class from me last year in McKinney – and here is her top all done!  This is Virginia Bound from Scraps & Shirttails.  Her colors were AWESOME!

Signed copies of Scraps & Shirttails can be ordered HERE.

Another sweet gal with her Strip Twist!

This was from a class I taught in Abilene just a couple months ago!  And it is quilted and bound and oh so beautiful!  I love that border fabric, don’t you?

Strip Twist is found under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog above.

Story Time Stars!

Love the fussy-cut Novelty prints in the centers!

This is a freebie from the free patterns tab as well ---I just love the black and white checkered sashing too

Another Virginia Bound!  NICE!!  This one is all recycled shirts!

And another gorgeous  Sister’s Choice top – isn’t that yellow pretty?

This was such a great display of show and tell – I think everyone was inspired to keep on piecing up the scraps!

It’s time to throw my shoes on, run a comb through my hair and head out again.  Guild meeting with the Parker County Quilt Guild tonight in Weatherford – tomorrow morning early – I’m off to DFW and headed basck home!

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A Whole Lotta Springfield Show & Share!

Is there anything more inspiring than a room full of completed quilts?  Th e colors, the layouts, the variety!

Oh, it just gets my juices flowing!

During our two days of workshops and a lecture with the Ozark Piecemakers in Springfield I was treated again and again and again to wonderful completions and even projects in progress, all from the hands and hearts of these very talented quilters!

Shown here is Nancy’s Virginia Bound from Scraps & Shirttails, a yummy concoction of recycled fabrics all brought together into a quilt that demands to be snuggled and petted!  It just sparkles, Nancy!

I think the black inner binding is so striking and is the perfect “stopper” to be closely followed by the outer cream border.  SO GREAT!

And there is more, so much more!

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More than ONE Way to Trim a Triangle!

Yesterday while doing a bit of clean-up in the studio – yes, I’m one of those who has piles grow on every available horizontal surface before I get kicked into gear to set it all right again ---that’s the way my creativity works –I came across a zip lock baggie chock full of bonus triangle cut-offs that had been gifted to me at some point.

These are fairly large – and I measured the.  A bit less than 3-1/2” on the straight grain edges, so I am confident that they were snip-offs from something like snowball blocks or large flying geese ---or something of the sort.
The triangles were matched with one print against one solid white.

The size is large enough ---I’m working on building a stash of triangles that finish at 2” so I can quickly use them in my Leader & Ender Split 9 Patch Challenge blocks.

But it’s going to involve some sliver trimming – and you know how I HATE sliver trimming!

Still.  Whatever is the best use of the fabric is what I usually lean towards and I began to sew them in pairs….saving the trimming for later.

And I made some choices.  This is one pair that is just not enough contrast to me. 

I thought I could use these examples to show you what doesn’t work for me, and what does.  To me this is two neutrals sewn together.  The ground of both fabrics is white…so I split pairs that were like this so I could match them to other things more colorful.  Even though the one fabric does have color in the print..mostly what we see is the background of the fabric.

Here’s another one…even though this print has flowers and blue stripes..the background is still far too light for me.

Ahhhh!  Much better!

Even though that light print has a huge pink and red flower..to me it is still a neutral-grounded fabric.  And I’d prefer to use it on the light side instead of on the dark side.  I hope this helps you with fabric selection in the future!

Let’s trim!  ONE SIDE ONLY!

Did you know you can use your Easy Angle ruler for quickly sliver trimming down triangles?  ONE cut and done? 

Place the seam line along the seam line of your triangle as shown.  Have the line corresponding to the size you need at the top of your unit…I’m going to trim one side only…like this:

Now gently press!

A trimmed 2-1/2” unit that will finish at 2” – with ONE sliver cut!

I tackled that entire baggie ---you can see the “too light” pile to the back left of the photo…I simply scrounged around for some other more colorful triangles I could match them to.  They are all sewn and waiting to play in my Split 9-Patch blocks!

I’m off for my physical this morning.  And a mammogram this afternoon.  It’s GET IT DONE day. 

If you haven’t had yours….it’s time to take care of yourself.  Get it scheduled, get it done – then we can quilt with a clear conscience!

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