my first Sew In

On Monday I enjoyed my very first Sew In.  It was great...a group of ladies from my guild all met up in a large room and we sewed.  Yep, we sewed.  There was a little bit of food, a lot of extension cords and a LOT of sewing and talking.  I'm so happy to know that every 4th Monday of the month I get to meet up with the same ladies to sew!  Who knew it could be so much fun!!

I worked on Karen's quilt for the Across the Pond and Around the Bend round robin.

I added the row of log cabins on the bottom of the quilt in progress...whoever made the trees in the earlier round had an extra and sent it along with the quilt, so I was happy to add that among the row of houses.

Alexander Henry charm quilt

Alexander Henry charm quilt, a photo by Krousegirl2 on Flickr.

I have been working on this quilt for a long time now. I love Alexander Henry fabrics. I had a crazy idea to use a charm square from every AH print I had for a quilt...when word got out on Flickr, a number of my friends sent some charms to help me out...here is my progress. Im excited to snuggle under this quilt!!

I'm pretty sure I can do three rows of charms if not four!! I have the center sewn together and I think I need to buy a bolt of Alexander Henry Heath in gray!! I love it!!

Take a minute to check out Kelly's post where other quilters are busy using THEIR favorite fabrics!!

Not Your Grandmother's Log cabin class

Not Your Grandmother's Log cabin class, a photo by Krousegirl2 on Flickr.

a long Saturday sewing with Jacquie Gering and a small class of quilters. I love where these blocks are going...now I need to decide what these should become...no need for a wall quilt...more blocks? lots of negative space?

WINNER

Please pardon my lateness in picking a winner of the book giveaway!  A Super Derecho blasted through our city last Friday and left my home without power for five very long, and very hot days!!  I feel like I have been chasing my own tail all week long! Thank goodness it's Friday!

The winner of the book is lucky #5.  Yep, that is you Anna!!  Send me an email and I'll get the book to you asap!  Random Generator was kind enough to pick a winner for me today.

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! 

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.

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!!