Days upon Days–Bringing on the Strings!

One of the great things about Mountain Quilt Fest -

Evening workshops for the working folks -

Or those who just want to take TWO workshops in one day because they can’t get enough!

You can take a short half-day three our workshop for a  perfect evening of “needle through fabric” time –and my Basket-Weave Strings workshop is the perfect way to get your feet wet with some very simple string piecing basics – but I know you won’t stop there.  Because once you start stringing, there is no stopping!

The piles started out small, controlled and fairly organized -

It didn’t take long until the baskets and boxes were fluffed and over-flowing as we dug!

Not enough variety in your own bringings?  Well, we had 36 of your newest bestest friends in class – arrange a swap or two, sister!

We were also focusing on working with not only value – but what constitutes a “neutral” by my definition.  Anything with a white, cream, beige, tannish background that reads “lighter than medium” (Or a brown paper bag!) can play in the LIGHT areas – but try to keep the colors to the colored side. 

Reds and neutrals -

Blues and neutrals -

Great for a Quilt of Valor!

WONDERFUL!

Strips don’t have to be STRAIGHT, in fact it is much more interesting if they tilt and lean.  Wedge shaped strips add a lot of interest.

I loved the stories going around the room of just where this or that fabric came from and the memories associate with it.  Comments of “Hey, I used to have that fabric – about 30 years ago!” were heard and laughed about.

“How come that fabric looks as new as it did the day it came off the bolt?  And when I look in the mirror – I don’t??”  LOL!

“That fabric?  It’s still too ugly – cut it smaller!  3/4’’ is good.  If there is only 1/4’’ showing I think it’s doable.”

3 hours can fly by in the blink of an eye-

But we packed them full with as much quilty fun as we could!

We got a mighty good start, don’t you think?

If you’d like to give this a try, you’ll find the free pattern/tutorial for Basket-Weave Strings under the free patterns tab at the top of the blog.  Get stringing!

It’s a short little video as class was only 3 hours, but there are some really fun photos in the video below.  Click to play:

From here on things shift a day - because Shift Happens!

Yesterday’s Sand Castles quilt photos will be posted tomorrow – Today there are also 2 half-day workshops up on deck: Moth in the Window & Box Kite which will be posted in their own turn – in the mean time I’m packing up my hotel room this morning as I’ll be hitting the road and pointing Moby the Van toward Virginia as soon as class is over at 4pm.

I’m spending the rest of the weekend at the Cabin as nothing can be mailed out until Monday.  Tuesday I fly to Louisiana for the Gulf States Quilting Association event.

I really need to have a talk with my office manager on this kind of crazy scheduling! LOL!

Last night’s great escape for dinner with the Crazees!

Thank you so much for the invite – it was a blast!

Okay Levi – show me how you can really fit your mouth around that pimento cheese burger!

Deep fried deviled eggs, anyone?

It’s a southern thing – and surprisingly yummy!

Quiltville Quote of the Day

When I can't control the big things, I focus on the little things that make me happy!

Sand Castles quilt from my book String Frenzy.  Do you have your copy yet?

Confessions of a tired quilter – this was supposed to be on a close-up of Basket-Weave Strings, but running on sheer exhaustion, I put the quote on the wrong quilt. 

Oh, well!  

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!