Last April, when I was teaching in Paducah, I had the great good fortune to meet Jan Krentz (we shared a van ride, 2 hours each way, from the Nashville airport to Paducah, and ran into each other in the teachers’ boxes room…where all the shipped stuff resided).  She gave so many wonderful tips and tidbits on being a traveling teacher, that when she mentioned she was coming to Maine to teach, I decided then and there to sign up for her class.  If I want to do the best by my students, learning from one of the best in the industry is a good thing.

Maine’s Pine Tree Quilt Guild had scheduled Jan for two classes and one lecture.  I picked the one on Friday, when the kids were in school, besides it was closest to me in Augusta (and hour west of Camden).  It happened to be a Hunter’s Star workshop.  My education in good teaching began even before the class began:  Jan had set up her projector and laptop to run a short “slideshow” loop telling students what supplies they needed to have out and how best to set up for the morning.  Great idea! Here’s a picture of Jan

I particularly liked the little table she has, which means you don’t have to stoop to see the screen…it’s at lectern height.  The whole table packs down into a 3 pound unit about the size of a large laptop.  Cool.

The class was a diverse lot… I knew only one person, Dot.  Here we are gathered around one person’s machine…. cool tip:  when you’ve done a ton of chain piecing, turn your machine sideways (or scooch around the end) to where the thread cutter is, then cut the chain apart lickety split on the thread cutter.  KEWL.

There were lots of great combinations of fabrics–some awesome Hoffman oriental prints:

A dynamic combo based around a Jane Sassaman print:

A wonderfully scrappy version:

My tablemate Mari’s selections to make a quilt for her “tween” granddaughter (not quite a teen, older than a little girl):

Of course, did I take a picture of my first mock-ups?  Nope.  I’ll do a second post with more on mine….

The tip of the day for me, and probably old hat for those of you who do more piecing than I do, was to (a) mark your rulers on the BOTTOM so as to avoid distortion from having your markings above the quilt (the thickness of the lucite in the rulers).  And even better…cut stacks of blue painters tape (about 4-6 layers), cut into narrow strips.  Stick these to the BOTTOM of your ruler at the appointed spot, and the ruler snugs up against your stack of fabrics to be rotary cut.  This ruler is one of Jan’s (she was out of stock but it was SO good I’ll have to add one to my collection…somehow hers was easier to use than the 45 degree diamonds that I currently have).  In this case, you cut your strips the width of your diamond, make the first 45 degree cut, then snug the blue painters tape up and zoom-zoom-zoom you can quickly and very accurately cut a bazillion diamonds.

Jan also used the projector during class to show variations on the theme of Hunter’s Star quilts, and I particularly liked this one:

That’s it for now!

Last year, my local quilting group, the Coastal Quilters, did their first ever challenge, inspired by the 5 Artists, 5 Ways project the Frayed Edges did (you can see it here and here).  Last year’s challenge, Ropes and Buoys, was so successful, we all decided to do it again.  Program chair Barb Melchiskey and co. decided on a Grab Bag challenge.

Here’s a teaser:

The rules:

• Put some stuff into a brown lunch bag.
• Turn in.
• Collect a different bag.
• Make something from it.
• Finished size 10 x 10 inches.
• Must use some of EVERYthing in the bag, with a recognizable bit of the largest item.

Initially, folks were then going to return the finished quilt to the person who donated the bag.  So, having done this and realizing that I get possessive, I opted out.   Then Leigh Smith (not a relative) asked if I would like to do a swap, as she had not been at the meeting.  Then Mathea wanted to join, so we did a 3-way swap.

In her defense, Mathea didn’t know the rules when she filled her clear baggie.  When she dropped it off at my house (I was the swapper person for  our on-the-side group), I took one look and KNEW I couldn’t do that to Leigh (a beginning quilter).  Here is what Mathea put in the bag:

SHRIEK!   At best, any 3 fabrics went together.   I cried.  I swore.  I said I wouldn’t do it.  Then I really started looking at it.  I tried to use the kimono fabric as the focus, but it wasn’t working.  So the next dominant piece was the red…. but parts were cut off, so I fussy cut down the long center.

I also happened to be having a rare DVD-fest, watching The Tudors (rented from the local video store…we don’t get Showtime…it’s gonna be a LONG year until it is available on DVD!).  Anyway, the influence is clear, especially when you get to the finished piece.  Here is fused stage:

Then after the quilting, including lots of sating stitching and blanket stitching:

This is what the back looked like… I painted the embroidery floss black, and pressed it dry using the white cloth.  Then used the white INSIDE the piece while I quilted.

After quilting I beaded, then added a false back.  The beading makes me think of the costumes in the Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn episodes I was watching, so I named it something like “Quilting with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.”  Nothing like short and pithy.  Ahem.  Here’s the false back showing the assorted fabrics (and when I get them added, the various embellishing items),

and, drum roll, the front:

Finally, another detail shot of the center, where I “hid” all sorts of little difficult to use bits.  Hope you like it… I sure do!:

About five or six years ago, I purchased this fleece pullover on sale at Hannah Anderson.  Once it arrived, Joshua wouldn’t wear it, despite the fact that I’d asked him about the colors before ordering.   So it sat until Eli fit into it.  Same response.  It was worn *maybe* twice.  Eli has now long since outgrown the sleeves.  So as I was getting too-small stuff ready for the rag bag or (if not too delapidated) for Salvation Army, I decided this top was just too nice to let go.

1. So I opened up the sleeves and removed them from the body.
2. I opened up the side seams.
3. I cut a slice up the center of the front.
4. Test fit with the sleeves inserted as side gussets.
5. Cut one sleeve in half, trim to two rectangles.
6. Sew new blue gusset into the sides to make the top large enough to go around my body.
7. I found THE perfect batik in my stash, and used that to finish the armhole openings and the front.
8. Once it was stitched, I decided it doesn’t need a closure.

Here’s me at the last Frayed Edges in it.and yes, it matches my glasses! And I also happen to have lime green pants (summer weight) and turquoise Ts:

This is how I spliced half a sleeve up the sides to make room for a mom-body (sigh):

And here’s a picture of the vest (on the same floor)

It was a good day!   Eli came in early to snag Pigwidgeon (the pug) who had snuck out of Eli’s room and come into ours, and when I said hello, his first words were Happy Mother’s Day.  When I asked what he wanted for breakfast, he said “whatever you want, it’s mother’s day!”  What a sweetie!  Since it was a bit late, we decided on Blueberry pancakes.  YUM!

Paul and Eli had gone to the store and suprised me with a balloon this year, and the flowers…two!  A beautiful soft pink, lovely-scented lily (in the back) and a bouquet with my favorite yellow (I think Eli likes the spider mums, too)

and some of the coolest roses I’ve ever seen:

Then we went to the early show (less expensive) of the new Star Trek movie, which is AWESOME!  I’m not a rabid trekkie, though I did enjoy the original show (which was hoakie even back then).  But this new/re-do, which tells how Spock, Kirk, Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, Bones and Scotty all met, is as awesome in its own way as Casino Royale (which is probably the best Bond movie of all time).  Anyway, it was a wonderful day.  Thank you to all three of my boys… I love you all!

Well, I forgot my camera!  So despite the fact that we celebrated Kate’s birthday, I’m afraid I’ll be short on pictures.  We met at Kathy’s house; Hannah was a bit under the weather and couldn’t make it, but Kate, Kathy and I had a wonderful time celebrating nonetheless.  I do have pictures of the gift I made for Kate.  I’ve submitted a sibling project to a magazine for consideration, but I think it will be OK to blog about this variation on the theme:  an accordion book/frame/memory project. 

Kate likes hands so much she picked them for her first theme for our round robin book-pages swap, and hearts for the second round.  So I updated quilting’s traditional heart-in-hand motif for the end pages of this small keepsake book.  The hearts are actually pockets for photos…the opening is sized to fit the wallet sized school photos.  I’m guessing her two kids will be in here, and if they are, she can also use a fabric pen to write their names in the heart in the hand.

Here’s the back side of the book:

Each pocket contains a “memories” card.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to add who their friends are, favorite songs, colors, clothes, sports/activities, books, movies, things to do with the family….   and I gave them two each of the cards (when kids goof sometimes they get really upset, so they got one for practice, one for real!).  The heart tag is the cut-out from the window-frame on the other side.

If the magazine doesn’t want to publish this, I may just turn it into a little pattern for sale, with all sorts of ideas and variations on the theme:  different ways to join the pages, different page shapes, different frame styles, using the pages as door banners (think of a photo frame page on the top, then a page for each letter in a child’s name, linked vertically to hang on their bedroom door).  Could be fun!