Are you in a guild?

Are you a member of a local quilt guild?  Do you pay dues and attend monthly meetings? Do you make friends and share talents, joys, sorrows, concerns, friendships?

I am a member of my local guild and enjoy the monthly meetings and the speakers and friendships. But you know, I am also member of an international guild, one with no dues, unlimited membership and chock full of talents and wonderful people, meets daily all day long - this is the guild of bloggers. An amazing group of guilters that share so freely of their time, talent and lives.  I just want to say thank you to all the wonderful people that read my blog and the bloggers that share with me and have taught me new techniques and inspired me to try new things.

I have worked really hard this weekend to have my Klosje wall hanging near finished so that I could show you what I am doing. You know, I would never have discovered these fun blocks if it were not for blogging and I am having the best time making them.  This is where my wall hanging is now - pretty much ready for quilting. The yoyo flowers are just pinned on as is the binding on one side to show the color.  The Welcome is done in Faux Applique - another technique I found through blogging.  I am still debating on whether to handquilt or machine quilt.  One thing for sure, I now plan to make a full size quilt in this pattern - these little blocks are fun to make!

I also finished up the Chicks block on the Monday Mystery. I think this is the cutest one so far.

Is anyone else out there playing along on this project?  

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  My husband was out of town, and my good friend, Darlene,came up to keep me company on Friday - Saturday.  Cheryl joined us on Friday for a trip to Mary Jo's and of course we did some shopping as well as lunch at Olive Garden.  Darlene left on Saturday and I spent the remainder of Saturday and Sunday just hanging out at the house, except for a couple visits with my Dad, and enjoying some quiet time with my sewing and reading.

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

18681

Klosje fun

This week I have been working on my klosje project, and have really worked at figuring out the best way to make these blocks.  Mine were getting that wonky look, and that is not something I wanted. So I reprinted patterns, made at least 10 attempts and I think I finally have it working for me.  Here is what I have completed so far: (these are just on my design wall)

Two things I figured out: 

1 - In making the 3 1/2" squares, I cut a little extra on the outside edge to allow for squaring up the block.

2 - In making the klosje in a circle, I machine sew two strips together and then cut out the piece that has the spool and background fabric on it.  Before this, my circles looked more like saw blades!

Once I came up with those two steps, the rest all went together great and I have had so much fun working on these.  I need to make 14 more of the 3 1/2" square and I will be ready to sew the blocks together.

I also worked on the Monday Mystery Stitchery project (http://beetreedesigns.blogspot.com/ ) and here is my version of the second design in the series.  Each section is a flower petal and I am not sure what this will become.  I decided to do each petal in a differnet color, and not sure yet what I am going to outline them in - but leaning towards red.  Hmmm...can you tell I like to use lots of colors?

Hope you have all had a good weekend.  Tomorrow, hubby and I will be celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary.  Nothing major planned, as we have had a busy weekend and will probably just go out to eat. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

18509

And the winner is..........

Judy of kjquilts (The Quiet Quilter) !!!!
 Congratulations Judy, and I will be watching your blog to see a Cathedral Window in the making.

As I wrote down the names of all you lovely ladies that entered my drawing, I so wanted to give each and every one of you a kit, but that is just not practical at this point.  Many of you are followers and your comments always encourage me so much.  Thank you for stopping by, leaving comments and I hope you will continue to share in my quilting life.

Teresa
18509

Giveaway !

Heyyyyyyyyyyy -  I am having a giveaway - see my prior post.  I have had over 48 hits to that post and only 3 left comments.  Is the Cathedral Window scaring you off?  Its ok if only three are interested, but just wanted to make sure you all read down that far in the post in case you would like to win the kit.  I did have a link to a great blog and maybe you all just skipped on over there and did not finish reading my post.  My pattern is called You Can Do It Cathedral Window and I think you will find with my technique, you will be successful in making a great CW sample and maybe venturing forth to make a full size quilt. :)

Teresa
18321

A little fun makes for big stress relief.

These last few weeks have been very hectic in my world - mostly self enduced stress, but stress none the less.  Today I taught a Cathedral Window quilt class and had so much fun  working with a group of great ladies.  Came home, and my children and husband had worked hard redoing my flower beds, not quite finished, but I will have a picture to share soon. Then tonight, I started to pick up a project that I commited to, and  thought - what the heck - I am going to just work on something for the fun of it.

I found this the perfect project on a wonderful blog http://beetreedesigns.blogspot.com/ called Monday Mystery and tonight, I just kicked back and relaxed and did this.  Not because it was a commitment that I had to get done, not because it was a project that I needed to finish, not because I "had" to, just because I wanted to, and it was fun.  So, if you would like to join in the fun, just hop on over to Cyndi's site and go for it. She has only published the first stitchery so you are not that far behind.  (While there, sign up for her great giveaway too!) I don't know what it is going to be, it is a mystery after all, but then, the end product is not important - its the fun getting there.

I wanted to have a giveaway too.  So if you would like to win one of my "You Can Do It" Cathedral Window patterns and kits, just leave me a comment here.  I will draw a name on Sunday, May 23 - in celebration of my birthday (21st) and my anniversary (24th).  So come on...help me celebrate..leave a comment!  And if by chance you already have a kit, I have a back up gift for you, but that is a mystery. 

The kit is a sample kit to make a 16" square - just to learn the technique.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa    
18274

Happy Birthday to me!

Its a little early, but hubby got me a this tonight for my birthday (May 21)!

I have been admiring this machine for several years now, and am thrilled to finally own one.  I think I need a day off from work tomorrow!

Teresa

18090

A lesson learned.....

Have you ever used this product?   My quilt club was at my house on Saturday and we were working on the project for my daughter's class.  We are sewing together quilt blocks colored by the chidren as well as some picture blocks. The picture blocks, we printed on this product.

It was an absolute nightmare trying to get the paper off the back of the fabric.  We read and re-read the instruction, and all the directions say is to slowly peel the paper off the fabric.  We peeled and peeled and peeled - slow, slower, slower than a lazy snail slow.  So, we just decide to get off what we could and leave the remainder on.  As I was ironing the blocks, guess what!!!  The paper almost slides off when you heat it up.  All we had to do was iron the paper, and then lift it right off.  Who knew?????  I wonder if Printed Treasures knows this? They sure don't tell you in the instructions.

BTW - other than the paper peeling nightmare, the product  printed great!

I did manage to finish one of my Be Attitude blocks this week.  This is the 11th block, Be Grateful and I have one more to do - Be Joyful.  Whoopeeeee, will I be joyful when I finish that one. 

Hope you all have had a great Mother's Day.  Mine was very nice - but I miss my Mom. This was my first Mother's Day without her being right here to hug and talk with.  Love you Mom, and miss you very much.

Happy Stitchin,
Teresa
18056

Klosje - Wall Hanging

This is what I came up with so far on my quilt design. This is an EQ drawing, and the klosje is 3" square.   The background is unbleached muslin. I may add a wider border to it, and I am debating on sashing.  The border I am showing is to represent the binding and is only 1/2".  This top is 19" square.

So, what do you think?


For great tutorials on how to do the klosje with the curved sides, check out Rose Marie's blog Applique n' Patch Quilting:  
Making the templates: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2010/04/klosjes-templates.html

Doing the Paper Piecing: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2010/03/klosjes.html

Thank you for your thoughts,
Teresa
17982

Klosjes - my attempt

I have lost sleep over these cute little blocks.  Stay up late working on it, get up early, and I think I finally got it.  I have redesigned my blocks too many times to count in EQ6 and tried various size blocks.  I like the circle setting (see http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2010/05/klosjes-saturday.html for where this idea came from - she has a great tutorial on how to make your pattern), and that has added an additional challenge, but here are the two I finished.  The one on the right with the blue background is my first one. It was totally off center, and fortunately I had cut the background big enough that I kind of centered the back around the block.  The circle is a 6" circle ( somewhat) and the klosje is 5 inches.  On the block on the left side, I set the circle to be 5" and the klosje is 3".  I also enlarged the center square to make it look a little more like a spool. Both blocks measure 6 1/2" unfinished.  So which do you like the best?

Here are some of my mom's blue bird dishes.  They now reside on my dining room wall and make me happy everytime I see them...they are blue birds, afterall, and my mom loved them, and I loved my mom.  I miss her so much.

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

17973