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.

Grunge Plans

Grunge fabrics are some of my favorite fabrics, and I would love to have every single color.  My soon-to-do project plans are to work on a pattern by BasicGrey called Happy Churn Dash Quilt and use my bundled fabric which includes the Grunge fabrics Romance Red and Duchess Pink.  They are way powerful and again so out of my usual quiet, sedate colors of light tans, burgundies, and greens.  But, hey, this grunge combination makes me smile and feel joyful.  However, even though I am anxious to start on this project, I need to start the BOM Deck-Ade-Halls by Fat Quarters Shop this weekend.  We will see, as there are tentative plans to look at cars the weekend, and the garden is calling in case anyone is listening.

Good weekend for piecing

I got almost 8 hours of piecing time this weekend which is highly unusual but so very nice.  As usual I stayed true to my personality and flitted from one thing to another by working on 3 different projects.  My plan was to work on the free Christmas quilt by Fat Quarters Shop.  I have all the Alpine Frost fabric ready to start cutting, but no I don't even open the bin.  So what did I get done?  I got 2 more Bonnie Hunter crumb blocks, a sample of Missouri Star Quilt Company and my first try out of a hexie by Mickey Dupre -- oh, and also a few more Bonnie Hunter Spoolin blocks.  I took pictures, but the hexie has one turned the wrong way.  It isn't sewn together yet, and I might change the arrangement.  All this special time is due in large part to a very sweet husband who takes care of some the house duties like cooking and laundry that I don't get done.

This is the 1st Jellycake quilt I made for my sister, Lynn.  I called this one Breeze.