Tag: Sew Day

Sew Day turned out better than I expected. I threw a bunch of different projects into my large Chubby Charmers and went to Sew Day. Everything I brought would at least be a start to something.

First, I got out the Old Town instructions and worked out what I needed to do for the border. I am glad I did! I thought there was a Sawtooth border and I was in for hours of pressing and trimming HSTs. Nope. There is no Sawtooth border. It is all squares and I have pretty much made all the pieces. Yay!

After that the real work got started.

I decided that for the July Organizer swap, I am going to make a pencil roll. I also decided that I would use the fabric I bought at Family Threads for the pencil roll. In addition, I will use more of that same fat quarter pack for the Morning Flower Patch quilt. Cyndi showed me her version and it caught my eye, so I decided to look up the pattern and make one. I was able to cut the 2.5 inch colored squares for that quilt along with the strips I need for the pencil roll. It took me awhile, but that accomplishment got me off to a great start.

Mary was working on her Tara Faughnan project and really got a lot done. I took a picture from the last Sew Day, but never posted it. The colors she used are very Southwest feeling.

This will be a quilt for her daughter’s birthday. I really like the strong diagonal motifs.

 

After finishing the cutting of the Family Threads fat quarter pack, I started cutting scraps. I know I have done this at the January, February and  March Sew Days, but I still have not finished cutting up my scraps. This time I made really GREAT progress. I took my Desktop Cube and the adjoining zipper bag of scraps and came home with only the Desktop Cube full of scraps! I feel like I accomplished something.

Of course, it was over too soon.

A few fun things came up at Sew Day.

First, I had one entry into my post Y seams demo contest. SueG made an effort to try out Y Seams. She was the only one, so she won the fabulous prize, which was a small gift certificate to The Granary.

She chose a great pattern. I love the split hexies.

You should have seen the back! Those little seam intersections looked gorgeous. Check out my tutorial, if you want to try Y Seams for yourself.

I made some good progress on cutting up scraps. I didn’t cut all of my scraps, sadly, but more of them are organized into shapes I can use. People were kind of amazed at what I was doing, which was weird. I thought everyone processed their scraps.

I also saw a project Christine made from a Sue Spargo pattern. I love Sue Spargo‘s patterns, but have never made anything. Her patterns look so cheerful.

I love the little vase and the striped binding. Really I love the whole thing. Looking at Christine’s version makes me see this as eminently doable.

The inside is also great, but has the issue of not being able to see what is inside the pockets. Still, this is a gorgeous project.

The event was fun and I am glad I got to go.

One of our guild members hosted a special sew day at her house last week. I was deputized to get there early as the hostess ended up having an appointment that day. I got there super early as traffic wasn’t bad, so I had time to stop at the GF bakery near SueS’ house. Sadly, they didn’t have many breakfast items. They had a lot of cupcakes! I bought a blueberry muffin, which was very tasty.

I set up a lot of the chairs, and other things we needed while waiting for SueS to return. The tables ended up being too heavy for me to manage alone, so I set them up when Carrie arrived to help.

The workspace was good. SueS has a very open plan kitchen, so we were able to set up a cutting station on her kitchen island. A few of us worked on the kitchen table.

Tim, Sue and I worked there. Sue worked quite a bit on EQ8 as she is working on a project. She also worked on a Mariner’s Compass quilt that she wanted to finish up. It was all foundation paper pieced on a special printed interfacing. I didn’t hear the brand, but I did hear a discussion of the Midi and Mondo bags. It was similar to this QuiltSmart pattern/kit**, but is actually from a company called EZ Piecing. The pattern is called Ruby’s Star.  SueS made it her own with an added border from the same company.

Tim was working on something with strips. It is called the Dreamlines Project. I missed getting a photo, but it looked very cool.

I started with sewing a pet bed together. I also worked on some Cotton Candy pouches and a block for the Wrap the World in Quilts Sunflower block Ukraine project organized for the guild by Lee Ann.

I decided making this block would be a good use of my time at Sew Day. I went searching for block ideas and found a similar one to this one. I made it because I love Sawtooth Stars and I thought I could make it quickly.

In general, I like the block. I am not 100% happy with my sewing of the block, however. EQ did not print out the instructions for the center and I cut it too large. I ended up cutting off more of the yellow corners than I wanted when I trimmed the center. It isn’t terrible and will work for the project. I may make another one just to make myself feel better. You can make a similar block using my pattern. It works with scraps, except maybe for the center.

The living room gang were laughing up a storm the whole time.

Julie talked about her work on her blog the other day. I love the shapes she is making.

Maria picked up work on a quilt from a Libs Elliot class. I didn’t see what Joelle was working on before she left. I’m sure it was great.

Of course, we had plenty of food. 😉 I made a lemon pound cake. Carrie made some of her excellent chocolate chip cookies. There were chips and banana bread and all sorts of things. Even some fruit!

It was a great day and I really wish I could spend every day sewing with friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

 

We had an extended Sew Day again over the weekend. I took Friday off to work on the Oxbow Tote. There was supposed to be a ‘workshop’, but those of us working on the project just worked at our own pace.

Everyone else was working on things I would have rather worked on. I really should have brought some piecing and just done that.

Cyndi has been finishing up projects lately. She brought the pieces of this medallion top and was able to get all the rest of the borders on.

I have to say that I couldn’t see where this was going before all the borders were sewn on, but finished the design is really good. It all comes together. Even the heavy red part in the center works within the whole design.

MaryC helped Gerre work on a quilt for a friend’s daughter who graduated. The pattern is Chain Link from Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter. I have seen this quilt before, but never up close or in process and I was interested to see that it is a good use of a charm pack (or 2?). The two of them working together made good progress.

I think it must have been pre-cut weekend. ;0

Maria was doing some blocks with a jelly roll, which she arranged in a fun and interesting way. On point the design is so fun and cheerful.

Maria is always thinking outside the box and making interesting quilts. She brings something new every week and I am so impressed with what she comes up with. I kind of want to make these blocks and do something similar.

All in all, despite my bad mood, it was a fun two days.

Well, Sew Day was fun. It was a Super Sew Day, which was great. Because the guild couldn’t afford the extra cost some of us met and slipped Mary C the money towards the cost. It was an intimate little crowd and we had a good time. The next day was regular Sew Day, so lots of people showed up, which was fun, too.

I have to say I was exhausted when I arrived home on Saturday night. Between the rain and wind, various errands, the art show and Super Sew Day, I was done even though I had fun and was excited.

Lots was going on at Sew Day. I only took a picture of one of Maria’s projects, but she was working on finishing quilts she started a long time ago.

This quilt, as you can see, is a medallion quilt using Carrie Bloomston fabrics. By the time we were done on Saturday, she had added a pink border with an arrow motif that looked great. I forgot to ask her if this was a pattern or if she was making it up as she went along. Regardless, it is a fun quilt that uses simple blocks to great effect.

Amy is the Energizer Bunny of the guild. She brings one quilt to various Sew Days and retreats and keeps working on it until she is finished. She has a busy job and doesn’t have a lot of time to sew at home.

I love how this quilt does not scream Christmas, but definitely has ‘is it Christmas or winter’? vibe about it. I love the use of V&Co’s ombre fabrics. The trees are wonderful. I especially like the blue ones.

Roz was working on my QST 16 donation quilt. I was so happy to see it getting a binding. This is the first one I made and it is so close to getting out into the world even as I contemplate and work on blocks for number three.

I am always thrilled to see how many people work on donation quilts. I know I often say that, but it really does make me happy. They are really a group effort.

I was thrilled that Friend Julie was able to make it both days. Since the weather was bad (rain on and off, and wind), it is always a crapshoot whether she will be able to get off the mountain. She was working on her Gypsy Wife quilt, which looks great. Jen Kingwell is calling the Gypsy Wife something else now, but Julie is calling hers Bohemian Wife. She is using a lot of bright prints and I can’t wait to see it finished.

Chris doesn’t often make it to Sew Day, but she was there both days and she was on fire, working on her blue Kaffe stained glass quilt.

I am not always a fan of stained glass quilts, because the black ‘lead’ lines ruin the design. Chris used blue and it looks much better than black would have. The Kaffe Collective, including my man, Phil’s, fabrics look really great. You can’t really fussy cut these types of quilts, but the large motifs really stand out and look great.

In addition to cutting out a number of projects, including the Hildegarde and finishing the Sweetbay cutting, I worked on La Pass and started to cut out another Piebald.

This is a really hard section, because I am trying to fill in the top where I refused cut off the giant and beautiful rosette. Now I have to add about a yard of border to that side.

I had to do taxes and vote on Sunday, so I didn’t get to follow-up on any of these projects, but I will soon.

 

Part of Super Sew Day was the meeting. We couldn’t meet at our regular location so we met at the church where we have Sew Day and combined it with an extra Friday to make a Super Sew Day.

We used one of the design walls as a screen, which made me smile.

Claire showed off some Community quilts she made using random assortments of orphan blocks. She was trying to get people to take some of the packets of orphan blocks she had put together.

She chose well for the blue and gold quilt!

A couple of my 16 patch donation blocks were in this predominantly orange quilt.

Claire used other leftovers to put the quilt together.

I thought the whole presentation was a good idea and the examples were well done.