Finished modern quilt for lesson

I worked from the paper copy until I finished the circles.  I used a really fine fusible interfacing called Sewers Dream that I ordered from Sawyer Brook.  It is so lightweight it was easy to turn and lay really flat when ironed down on the finished straightline quilting of the light gray sandwiched quilt.
 

I used the Purple Thang to turn the circles-works perfect.

Here is the Sewers Dream.  

I really enjoyed doing the staightline stitching for the quilting for the sandwiched quilt.  I used painters tape which was perfect to attach and detach.  I do wonder how easy this would be if it were a large quilt.

I used a blanket stitch #60 on my new Pfaff  for the circles.

finished wallhanging

Modern Quilt lesson for guild

Examples of some drawings for my lesson on Modern Quilts I am doing in January.  Modern quilts have really brought in alot of younger quilters and have several definitions--improvisational; bold colors with lots of negative space and many times straight line quilting; solids with the new neutral gray.  These are a few of the possibilities.  Honestly, I still probably like the traditional quilts and probably samplers best.  But it is interesting and has revitalized the quilting arena.  The first example has strips of color (well it will have) placed randomly on a snow background and the other will be a gray background with bold colors as the circles.  The circles aren't finished.  I have to sew them on fusible interfacing and turn them yet.  These are just paper copies except for the circles and they are small versions which I will probably keep as is.  The Olsburg Quilt Guild is a small rural group that meets the first Monday of the month.  We take turns giving a lesson on different techniques and usually make a quilt to raffle every year or two.  The drawing for the raffle or chance

is done after the Swedish Supper in December.

Chevrons--clue2

CHEVRONS!!--Clue2.  Doesn't look like alot for 3 hours, but there are alot of steps.  I did use my AccuQuilt for the 2" yellow and neutral squares which saved time.

Stocking ornaments

Regina brought these by this morning for Mary and I to see.  I sent the SSQG the url yesterday, and she whipped up these two ornaments in 15 minutes or less.  Here is the url
http://stumblesandstitches.blogspot.com/2011/11/tutorial-scrappy-stocking-christmas.html

 

 

Pictures from my retirement party

Daryl and Gay

Label - the last word is rare

Gay and Mary

Pizza - my favorite food

Decorations with Orphan blocks

 

Regina, Debbie, Michelle

Barbara with a poem, Cindy, Carrie, and Jody

Retirement - emotions

Getting kind of emotional with today being my reception at work.  Also, realizing I am feeling a little older than usual.  I said goodbye to my fellow quilters; some who have been together with me for over 12 years as the Scholarly Stitchers Quilt Group.  Many have expressed a desire to continue to meet at our lunch time meetings on Tuesdays.  That feels like an accomplishment to leave.  Here are some of the comments we exchanged by email today.

  Gay, you have been an inspiration to us and we will miss you at our weekly meetings, which I hope will continue.

I'm going to try out the stockings as I always give my grandkids new tree decorations each year, so someday when they move out they will have their own set.  Mary

 

Gay--

Before this group, I did hand piecing and made many blocks for family reunion quilts. I had made table runners and wall hangings. And all of this was self-taught.

After I joined the group I saw my handpiecing, appliquing, etc. improve greatly. I even broke down and started using my sewing machine because the group quilts were done by sewing machine and not by hand.

The tips, tricks, and new patterns you brought to this group has broaden my quilting field.

One of the things you brought to this group was paper piecing and now I thoroughly enjoy doing paper piecing because you showed me tricks and told me it was Okay to open the seams when pressing.

I have to tell you. I did the family reunion quilts this year. They wanted 2 wall hangings. I incorporated everything you taught us, even twilling. Even though I was not at the reunion, I was told that it was a mad house when the wall hangings came up for bid. These two wall hangings raised more money for our next year's family reunion than any one quilt and our family has been doing this for 23 years. So my family thanks you for teaching me and encouraging me to do more things that challenged my mind.

I do know one thing. If I had not joined this group, I would probably have stopped dabbling in quilting a long time ago.

Thank you for getting and keeping us together.

I know you are just across the bridge from me and don't be surprised if I send an email to "The Shire" to see if you will be home so that I can pop over to see all the projects you are working on.

And who knows, I might even see you at "The Range" some weekend.

Best Wishes and have many wonderful and happy sewing days.

Cindy

on behalf of

 

 

There is little I can say that would better express the wonderful sentiments that the others have said. You have given such a gift to each of us, and we can honestly say that none of us would be where we are with our quilting passion (it's no longer a "hobby") if it weren't for you. Not only have you helped us individually, but the ripple effect has been so appreciated by those who get our quilts or other projects as gifts. Those folks may not know you, but a little of you is present in every project.

It is indeed hard to fathom that we have been doing this for 12 years. We so appreciate your expertise, enthusiasm, and devotion to quilting and to our group.

I like the QFF name. Maybe we can figure out a way to keep this group going that will be convenient for you to be a part of. I think those of us left here will forever keep our Tuesday group meeting as a way to really keep in touch even though we work in different areas the rest of the week.

Alice

---

Gay—

Learning to quilt was a longtime desire and learning to quilt with you has been such a joy and a pleasure. Your enthusiasm is contagious—others might consider this a bad thing since my sewing corner is now a sewing room and I’m considering another stash reorganization… ;-)

Thanks so much and I hope we can together.

R

 

Ahhh! You are making me cry. I am such a baby and Daryl is so patient. I can think of crying and I start. Most of you are old enough to remember Love Story. I had heard the reviews on it and went to the movie determined not to make a fool of myself--and, I held it in until the very end and then I let it out with temendous gusto and sobbed my heart out, loudly!  Gay

---

 

There are no words adequate to thank you for ALL you have done, donated, shared, taught, and inspired. I think none of us would be accomplishing what we are or at the level we are at without having had your patient and kind teaching. We are *forever* in your debt. And I refuse to say 'goodbye'!!!!!

 Barbara

---

 

It has been a pleasure working with all of you through the years--some for about 12 years. We accomplished so much and many of you have become quite talented on your own. We talked about meeting here in town at various places to get together once a month on Fridays. I suggest something like the 1st Friday of the month, so it gets fixed in the mind. That probably leaves January out with the holiday, but we could begin in February if any of you are interested. As this is kind of a new group and we might think about starting an Etsy site--at least I have been thinking this, we should have a new name. Some names that crossed my name were PFFs or maybe QFFs--Piecing Friend's Forever or Quilting Friend's Forever. Any ideas? I know most of you will be working on Friday afternoons, but you could stop by after work for awhile and catch up with what we are working on. If the weather is bad, I probably will stay home and not tempt the weather, but I could come over late afternoon and stay until around 7 when it is decent. Any thoughts?

Here is a cute project that is quick and so cute.

http://stumblesandstitches.blogspot.com/2011/11/tutorial-scrappy-stocking-christmas.html

Hope you all keep meeting. Keep in touch. It appears I can keep my gyou@ksu.eduemail, so I am just a message away and will check to see what you all are talking about. I also am on FB and most of you are Friends, so I will post my quilt pictures. I also have a blog that I hope to keep current--Quilter's Haven http://bluebirdoftheshire.blogspot.com/.

Gay

Playing with the 201

Got to sew on this lovely old 201 Singer sewing machine yesterday for a bit. My dear husband oiled her up and refurbished this old sewing machine cabinet with a chair. The motor is as smooth as silk. and the stitch is beautiful. The threading is quite different from modern machines, so you really have to look

 

 

online for the manual. I have had this machine for quite awhile--just haven't used it for several years. I should give her a name; any suggestions? She was born in 1947; same as me.  I got a few more Celtic Solstice units finished which totals to a mere 23 completed.  This is my last week before retirement, so I will have time to enjoy keeping up with the clues this year.

I think I will name her Opal; my Featherweight is Olive--my Mother's middle name.

Friday's Accomplishments

 This is all I got done after working almost all day; there are a total of 240 orange units with the blue backgrounds and 240 units of the neutrals with the blue backgrounds.  I think I better pick up speed, and this is only the first clue.  Most of you must think I am nuts to think this is fun.  Well it was a start and tomorrow I have some other things to do, so I won't have much time to play.  I tried 2 methods--one with the tri rec tools at the top which I had cut out earlier and the bottom is paperpieced.  I was not as pleased with the rec tools, as I thought the 1/4 inch at the points was skimpy, but  the paperpieced were perfect.  I will try the Inklingo when I am retired after this next week. I did get a little better with the rec tools, but I had to trim anyway.  I added Bonnie's motto to remind myself to have fun and enjoy the process--even if my back hurts.

1st clue for Celtic Solstice

It is so exciting to get started on Celtic Solstice. The first clue was out early this morning. I have all my fabrics to start out with washed but I need to iron--not my fav thing to do. So I started in the middle of the chaos anyway. I am farther along in cutting 3 1/2 strips than this picture but it's slow going. I can't wait to start sewing, and I think I will try all the methods for the tri rec pieces to see which gives the best end result for me. The first 3 colors for this clue are royal blues to navy, rust to orange, and neutrals.  I have many more fabrics if I need to go on a safari with my stash.

Two finished tops

Charms and Deck-Ade-Halls finished and ready for Gina at Oodles of Doodles.

I added the top and bottom border to D-A-H after this picture.

Catching up a little

I have completed all the blocks for Deck-Ade-Halls and hope to find some time to review the finishing video and get the whole thing pieced together this weekend.  Wishful thinking probably.  Oh well, we shall see.  Here are all the blocks if I got all my pictures together.  Besides finishing this quilt I have been working on a couple of other quilts.  I am doing a charm quilt with around 250 5" charms using Starflakes and Glitter by Free Spirit.  I am close to a finish on the charm top, which may mean I will have to finish it before I put the Deck-Ade-Halls together.  I need a clone.  I ordered a Honeysweet jelly roll by Fig Tree to do the Rolling Stone Fig Tree pattern from Craftsy plus I ordered Fig Tree cream fabric from MSQC for the background.  I really want to start on this next, but we will see where my whims lead me next.

I think I got them all.

Charms - I have added more charms since this picture.

I also made these cards for our department co-workers lunches for Sept.

Ornament block for Deck-Ade-Halls

This was a nice weekend for many reasons.  I got a fair amount of time to sew the next block of Deck-Ade-Halls (ornaments), got some outside work done on the yard and picked peaches.  Plus, we took a long drive to Marysville and ate at The Wagon Wheel--hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, green beans and a roll.  I also started The Secret Garden with Belle fabrics by Amy Butler.  It is a disappearing nine patch.

Featherweight

I decided to get my Featherweight out today as my working machine for the weekend.  It has been a long while since I have sewn with it, but with a little manual help and my DH it hums like a dream.  It is surprising how you forget the little threading details like threading from right to left and how tricky the bobbin is.  Anyway, I am about sew the ornaments block from Deck-Ade-Hall.  I have a quarter of and inch foot for the Featherweight which is really accurate, I think.

Merry Merry Snowmen

Patience----
I am so excited, because I got the whole BOM of 10 blocks for the Merry Merry Snowmen from UPS last night.  I have been wanting this quilt with the red and tan fabrics ever since it I first saw it on the Bunny Hill site.  Most of their patterns are just gorgeous, and make you feel like a kid again.  I don't think I will start on it until next year, as I just have too many projects in different stages right now and this one will definitely be time consuming.  Still, I can hardly wait to begin--I just have to leave it be for now.  It is stored in it's own bin, so I can look at it longingly whenever I get the urge to look at the pattern and beautiful fabric.

11/9/01 Teaching the basics

I sent this to Carol Elmore, who eventually did a hand piecing project with Lemoyne Star block.

Gay,
How about on Dec. 6 & 7 I do the hand stuff and then on Nov. 16th I'll come as either a consultant or I could talk about something you think of in the meantime. Maybe after you've done a week or so of class you could give me an idea of what they might need to learn or need more work on. I'll just wait to hear from you next week. Carol

11/09/01
Anything you would want to demonstrate would be fine. Here is my basic plan for the class. I will try and demonstrate as many aspects of quilting that they will encounter. My first block is the Martha Washington block. As this is rather simple (squares and triangles), we will discuss the problems of triangles and some of the different methods of doing them. Also I will talk about scant quarter of an inch, and basic sewing of the block. Each step will depend on their understanding of the concepts. If they are having difficulties, I will put more depth into it. If this goes well, I plan to go to applique and talk about 3 methods of accomplishing this. I have given most of them a straw needle for practice. I will probably use a Sunbonnet Sue for this block. Again, advancement will be determined by understanding. Next I plan to go to paperpiecing. For this I will talk about the machine settings, removable tape, 1/4 and 1/8" rulers, silk pins, and show how to do it. After this I don't have any specifics, so if you want to do a day of some process, great! Most of them have picked 12 blocks from the 7 or so Donna Wilder books that I have. They could mix and match different types to get a feel for different things. They will work on these on there own, since everyone has different work speeds. I think what I want to accomplish with these classes is just basics.

11-8-2001 Original list of blocks

Message from Julie:
Here is the list in alpha order so far...this is just for us to see who wants to do the same thing and for Gay to be able to classify patterns by difficulty. Gay has the books at her desk if you would like to select your 12. Just email me with your selections and I will update the list.

Amish Star
Barn
Basket
Birds in Flight
Bowtie
Crazy Quilt
Crowns
Dahlia
Dresden Plate
Drunkard's Path
English Garden Pillow
Grandmother's
Hex Sign
Martha Washington's Star
Milky Way
Nine Patch Flowers
Oak Leaf
Pineapple
Rose of Sharon
Stained Glass
Sue
Traditional Rose
Tulips
Whig Rose
Wreath

All the blocks came from 7 Donna Wilder books I had ordered from PBS.  Donna was a great teacher with easy to follow methods of instruction.  We didn't make all of these blocks, but many of them.

These are some mentioned.

11/14/01 Scholarly Stitchers log

Most of the 6 1/2 centers for Martha are finished or in the works.  The outside ring of Martha is cut with the Companion Angle and the Scrapmaster rulers.  The larger background angle is cut with the Companion at the 3 1/2" mark.  The stars that are formed by sewing the long side of the smaller triangle to the larger triangle are cut from the Scrapmaster at 3 7/8".  You will need four larger triangles and 8 smaller triangles.  Alice has the preliminaries for the Crown.  For those who are also working on the Crown, this is the recap.  I am making mine out of 2 colors, the book has three.  The four corner 4 patches are made from 2 2 1/2" strips sewn together with a quarter of an inch (1 background strip and another fabric--you will need two sets if using 3 colors each using the background fabric).  The triangles are made from 4 4 1/2" squares, sew all the way around one background fabric and the triangle fabric that will form part of the crown (right sides together).  We will finish these tomorrow.  The Crown block is a 9 patch, so each part of the nine sections of 4 patches and 4 triangles has to be 4 1/2" to compete a 12 1/2" block (the 9 comes with the 4 1/2 square in the center).  Try and get as much done as possible, so we can get these two blocks in a pile waiting for the end result.
.

Deck-Ade-Halls 2nd Star units

The colors in these were really nice; the red and blue really stand out from the white.  Plus this was much faster than the gingerbread men even though the pieces were smaller and more intricate.  Instead of drawing the lines and sewing on the drawn lines, I used the card method I came across recently (I can't remember where).  You sew along a piece of card stock or card from a magazine from corner to corner.  This is so much more accurate for me than the line.  Sometimes I still have to unsew if the fabric doesn't cover the corner like I want it to.

Beginning the tale of the Scholarly Stitchers

I didn't plan to start a library quilt group; it just happened.  Much of the beginning for the Scholarly Stitchers started out with no pictures but lots of email messages back and forth between the beginning novice quilters and myself.  This was the first message sent out to the entire library. This email was dated November 07, 2001 from my then supervisor, Julie Rashid.

Special Opportunity for Would-be Quilter!

To anyone interested, Gay has offered to share her vast quilting experience with me.  We have decided to do a series of lunch "tutorials" starting next week.  (Why the rush?? I am leaving for Pakistan on December 16th and wanted to have some skills in place to work on a full-size quilting project with my husband's relatives while I am there...thus the urgency.)  If anyone would like to participate, please let us know asap.  Come up to my desk if you would like a visual of what we are planning.
Julie :-)

This is the November 13, 2001 email I sent to 7 people who had decided they would like to learn different quilting techniques.

We didn't get quite as far along as I had planned, but we have started.  That, of course, is the biggest hurdle.  We talked about getting fusible paper, fusible interfacing, a 12" ruler (all our blocks will measure out to this size), a micron 01 or 05 permanent marker, and removable scotch tape for soon-to-come classes.  It was decided to move the classes to the Preservation Lab, since we can store things out of Marty's way and not have to take everything home each evening.  Someone offered to bring a small ironing board for pressing.  We used my Magic triangle ruler and cut out 4 4" squares (2 of one fabric/2 of a second fabric), All the Magic triangle does is mark a diagonal line from one corner to another.  Then a 1/4" line is marked on each side of this line.  Two different squares were put right sides together using this marking technique (it is easier to mark on the wrong side of the lighter fabric), sewed on the two outer lines and cut down the center line.  This makes one square with two fabrics (our triangles).  The finished size for the square is 3 1/2" squared up.  Remember to square up this 1/2 and 1/2 square with a diagonal line on your ruler (the diagonal ruler will be right on the center triangle).  You will have 4 of these 1/2 and 1/2 squares to form a pinwheel of 6 1/2".  This will complete the center of the Martha Washington Star block.  Since we cannot eat in the Preservation lab, let's meet at 12:00 and stop at 12:45.  Tomorrow we will complete the Martha Washington Star block, and I will bring a completed Crown block, Alice.  If you are doing this block, you will need to cut 2 different 2 1/2" strips and sew these together.  We will make the corner four patch with this.  Also, if you cut 4 4 1/2" squares (2 of one color/2 of another), these will form the triangles of the block.  When you are sewing remember to always sew a scant quarter of an inch.  For beginners, it is probably good to draw that sewing line with a pencil and ruler on the wrong side of the fabric.  The best thing to do, if you plan to make quilting a lifetime habit, is to buy a quarter of an inch foot for your machine.  I couldn't live without mine.

Gay

T-shirt Quilt and the Scholarly Stitchers

This is a near closing event for a journey into my quilting with the Scholarly Quilters Group.  We have had such a great time over the years, but with retirement in December, it will shortly end for me.  We have at least one more project.  I will post some of our successes and accomplishments here between current projects I am working on alone.

This was a t-shirt quilt The Scholarly Stitchers from the libraries made for Weigel Library.  Weigel Library is a branch library for the architecture school at Kansas State University.  You probably cannot see that the sashings are architectural etchings.  The architecture t-shirts were saved by a retired Weigel librarian and our group designed and constructed the quilt around the t-shirts.  The quilting was done by a professional longarmer.  In the group from left to right--Alice, Regina, Connie, Gay, Barbara, Mary.  Cindy is the only one missing this year.  Our group started in 2001 with some of the same faces throughout the many years.  We have gotten smaller but much more talented, I think.

Block 1 Deck-Ade-Halls

It has been such a nice cool end of July--almost too good to be true for this time of the year; however, it was wonderful piecing weather.  The first block of the Deck-Ade-Halls went together fairly easily.  I did make one mistake and put the white in the button part of the stomach and had to take that out after I had that sewn onto the head and arms.  That was not fun but not too difficult to fix.  The most time consuming part of the whole thing was cutting out all the pieces and putting labels on everything.  It would have been almost impossible to keep all the pieces straight without clear labels.  Anyway, my gingerbread men turned out darn cute.  I really wanted to start on the next block of stars, but I had to stop.  We had picked up a few more 1/2 price Roma tomatoes and some bell peppers, and they needed to be planted before it started raining again.