Monday, June 25, 2012

Book Review

I remember in grade school I loved doing book reviews.  I read the book, every single word, then was well prepared to be asked questions by my teacher...that was, until I reached 7th grade.  My teacher was tough.  An excellent English teacher, but tough.  He would always throw in a crazy question...for example, I remember making my way thru the whole book review, and the very last question...."What is the last sentence in the book".  What?  And he never asked that kind of question twice, so you could never prepare for it!!

But, I have a different type of book review today.  Annie's has sent me three books (over the course of this very busy month) and asked me to review them for you.    So let's do it.

 Quilts for Kids is just that...some very simple designs that would be great for a kid or charity quilt.  I have been siting here and envisioning what some of these patterns would look like in more modern fabrics!  There is a brick path pattern, that would be great with all solids I think...but the one that appeals to me most is a large, simple quilt called Around The Block (the pic is below in yellow/green/blue) what a great project to use up stash, right?
 Nine Path Panache is a BIG book folks...over 40 projects.  My favorite is this star below.  The directions are very easy to understand and the diagrams help every step of the way.

 And lastly, there is the Pillow Pizzazz book.  The projects are in the second picture below.  You know what I love about pillows?  They really give you a chance to try a new technique...whether in piecing or quilting, but without the huge commitment of a quilt.  This book has included some nice challenges for that...

So, I promised a giveaway.  Leave a comment below and tell me which book you would most like and why. Random Generator will pick a winner this weekend and the winner gets the book they like best! 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

sewing weekend

This weekend was the Appleseed Quilters guild's bi-annual quilt show, and it marks the first time I have ever entered a quilt show! I had two quilts judged...



The small quilt I made in Gwen Marston's class last year was well received and got some nice remarks. 

But my scraps in neutrals was ripped to shreds!!  The judge actually commented that I needed to pay more attention to intersection points matching.  WHAT?  Didn't the fact that EVERY SINGLE intersection was off...way off,  show that I meant for them to be different?  I got a lot of great feedback from some fellow guild members though, and I love the quilt, so I'm fine with a traditional judge not understanding my work.  Better yet...I got nice remarks from our featured quilter, Jacquie Gering!

Jacquie's class and trunk show were awesome...as you can imagine.  She is so inspiring.

No more time tonight to unpack Jacquie's class, but Ill tell you about it in the next post, and I have a book giveaway....

until then.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Round Robin

So...I think this might be the 3rd post in a row entitled Round Robin...bear with me, I haven't had much time for sewing other than my bee obligations....and please remind me...NOW is the time to stop raising my hand for swaps and bees.  OK?

thanks.

Ok...so here is the reason I think I keep signing up for bees and swaps etc....they push me in different directions.  I have never done a project with hexagons before...but when Christy said she was looking for additions with a 1930's feel...I thought of hexagons...and all the vintage fabric I have squirreled away in shoe boxes etc.

And after seeing this close up, it's probably very obvious I've never done hexagons or the appliqueing them on business...but this floral print is probably my favorite print used in this project.  And the dots of the background fabric match perfect.  I sure hope Christy likes what I've added to her quilt.

I think this ends my obligation to the A Dozen Quilters round robin...and I'm looking forward to getting my quilt back any day now!!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

round robin

I have not had much sewing time since school let out...but I'm slowly plugging away on a round robin project for Christy (no blog) as part of A Dozen Quilters.

She asked for fabrics with a 30's vintage feel and anything goes.

Well, Christy does some amazing piece work...(the center block is hers...) Hollie has worked the next 'round'.

I thought I would dig out some vintage fabric and look for blues, reds and pinks.  I decided on hexagons, even though I have NEVER worked with them before!  I feel like - nothing says 1930's like a hexagon - but maybe that is just me??  I'm tentatively planning this:





What do you think? Am I headed in the right direction?  Am I even using fabric from the 30's???