Pop Up Quilt Show

If anyone is near Plymouth, NH today, 5/25, or Saturday, May 26, stop by the Pease Public Library and see the quilt show. It's open 10am to 5pm both days. Susan, Anita and I from the Fiber Divas put this together for the library. Marilyn also has some quilts in it along with some other local quilters. My daughter, Kara, also has one of hers in the show.  There is a nice variety of traditional and art quilts. I took some pictures this morning. the ones here show the Fiber Divas quilts since I don't have permission to put up the others quilts on my blog.

I will have to tell more about these pictures later as I have to get ready for work but wanted to get them up.

Getting There

My sewing room is coming along. Gary and Alex have the walls up, the outlets in and hooked up, the light fixture up and Gary has started mudding the walls. Wish they would dry faster! Soon I will be able to paint. Can't wait.

I know it will all be worth it but I'm really missing my sewing room. I want to finish some projects and have some ideas for some new ones and I can't start them. I can't even find all the boxes with my fabrics in them. Oh, well. It will all be worth it!!!! Did I already say that? I have to keep reminding myself.

New Walls Started

Here is what my sewing room looks like right now. Needless to say, I'm not getting any work done. But the thought of having actual outlets to plug everything into is exciting. We even have leftover paint from when the house was built, so I will be able to paint the walls a nice light green color. It's the same green we have in the kitchen. Can't wait!!!

This is the view from the bottom of the stairs looking toward my sewing room. It was really interesting trying to pack everything up and move it all to another part of the basement and leave Gary space enough to build the walls. Guess when I move stuff back, I'll have to go through everything and get rid of some stuff.

Fiber Divas Challenge

Here is the start of my quilt for the Fiber Divas Challenge. I mentioned the challenge in an earlier post. We received a piece of fabric from everyone and had to make a quilt using those fabrics. Look here to see the fabrics.

I'm finding that I am having lots of fun exploring these circle quilts that I've been making. I don't think I posted an updated picture of the purple, orange and green circle quilt I started last November. I'll have to get a picture of it. I have the top completed. Just need to back it and quilt it. That one was all machine stitched. This challenge top is all fused. I'm trying to decide if I like the black yarn between the blue and the green squares or if I just want to leave it plain.

Oops gotta go! I have to leave for work soon and still need to get dresses and make my lunch!

After looking at this picture on my blog, I noticed that the lower left "green" square doesn't look so green. Didn't show up as much on my design wall. Since it is already fused together, I guess I will try painting the square with some dynaflow to see it it will add just a touch more green to make it blend in better. I proabably won't have time until next week when I'm on vacation. This weekend I will be straight out at work since it is Easter Weekend and people are rushing in to get all the goodies for Easter dinner!

Finished Landscape

I have finally finished the landscape I started in Sue Benner's class. I really like the way it turned out. I had fun making it. What makes this piece extra special is that the inspiration for it came from the landscape around Bennington College while I was there taking the workshop.




This circle piece is a piece I was just playing around with to practice free motion quilting. Still need a lot more Practice!!!! I also used a satin stitch around the edge to finish it. I'm still not happy with the way the edges came out when I use this method. This piece was all fused. I used a lot of silks and polyester clothing in it. That is one thing I like about Sue's work, how she combines recycled clothing with her own hand dyed fabrics. For the sashing, I used a small blue ribbon that I had.

Better get to bed now. I have to get up at 3:45 to get to work at 5 tomorrow morning! I hate these early mornings! Oh, well, someone has to get up to make the donuts and other breakfasty stuff.

Table is Done

Don't have any new quilts or progress to show. Gary did finish my sewing table so my sewing machine is now level with the table and has no gaps around it. YAAAA!!!!

I did get a lot of cleaning done down in my sewing area especially since I had to vacuum up saw dust.

Tuesday, the Fiber Divas met here at my house we had a great time. Unfortunately Susan and Anita were not able to make it. There is a nasty stomach bug making the rounds up here. Marilyn and I talked about the workshop in VT we went to and showed off the quilts we made.

For our challenge this year, we each brought a yard of fabric which we divided into sixths so everyone received a piece. Here is what we have so far. Susan still needs to bring hers.

The challenge is to make a quilt using a part of each of the fabrics. We can make it any size, use any technique, dye, paint, etc.

That's about it here for now.

Still Waiting

I'm still waiting to be able to use my sewing machine. I would really like to start quilting the quilts from Sue Benners class. Instead, I've been fooling around with this piece that I started before I went to VT. I've been wondering what would happen if I did some surface design and fusing to the background piece before I put the cheesecloth over it. Lots of possibilities. I can't really get my paints out right now so, I fused down the black circles and the lighter leaves. I still don't know what I'm going to do to the top. The leaves on top now were just thrown on. The 3 bigger leaves I fused out of different fabric scraps from the class.



This background, I fused from scraps from the class also. Just need to figure out what to do with it.
One of the things I really liked about Sue's work was her use of recycled clothes. Now when I see someone in a really great blouse, I keep thinking, that would look great in a quilt! Will have to keep my eyes open for some at the second hand store in town.