Whole lotta binding.......

Hello Everyone,

 

My friend Sylvia came to the house yesterday to help us celebrate my sister's birthday.  Sylvia brought three wonderful quilts to show us.  Almost finished quilts!  The first quilt is my Madrigal pattern.  Sylvia took my class, and now she has a finish.

 

Her second finish is from Quilt Sue's Pick Four book.  The quilt is called 3D Noughts and Crosses.  It is a beautiful quilt with wonderful quilting.

Sylvia also made a table topper which is just perfect for the season. Sylvia will be binding for quite some time! 

Your quilts were fabulous Sylvia.  It has been fun watching your quilting progress through the years.  You've become quite the prolific quilter.  You have a good eye for color and I know how much you are enjoy your hobby.  I'm so glad you brought your quilts to share with me.

I'm off to the shop this morning to help Melissa unpack and put all of the product away from the quilt show.  Maybe we should make the shop "self service" today.  The customers can do their own cutting and ring themselves up, while we sit in the classroom and snooze.  Sounds like a good plan to me.

Soon,
Lynn

Sewn Wild Oaks Class is in Session

Hello Everyone,

 

All of this creativity is brought to you by my Sew'n Wild Oaks girls who come to class once or sometimes twice a month to work on their projects.  Fall and Christmas were in the air yesterday.



 

There are going to be several Harvest of Hope quilts finished just in time for Fall this year.

I was shocked yesterday when Irene told me this was her first time appliqueing!  She is doing a fantastic job!  She has been coming to my class for quite a few months now, and she was so proficient that I assumed she's been appliqueing for years.  Some people are just born to applique, and Irene is certainly one of them.

Isabelle is working on the top section of her harvest quilt.  All of her parts and pieces are prepared and now comes the fun part.....the stitching.  I love to work on the stitching.  It's not work to me, it's a very relaxing and comforting feeling to see it come together.

Evelynne has created a wonderful little scarecrow that is so realistic.  Look at his burlap face, feather in his hat and the raffia for straw.  He is just as cute as he can be.  His little jacket is flannel and his cuffs are satin.  Great attention to detail!

Love the bees flying around the sunflower.

Vivian is all finished with her appliqued blocks for Toyland Tree.  She is down to the yo-yo's now and she can start putting her quilt blocks together.

Gail has almost 100 of her little blocks made so far for her For the Love of Baskets.  She's on a roll now!  She bought her border fabric and backing yesterday in anticipation of reaching the finish line.

Susan has the top half of her 3D Noughts and Crosses sewn together now.  The rest of the blocks are made and this will soon be in the finish column.  Susan's quilt is so beautiful, others in the class want to make this design from Quilt Sue's Pick Four book.

You can see how busy my girls have been since our last meeting.  Their work decorates the design walls at In Between Stitches.  It is a feast of eye candy!

Soon,
Lynn

Sew'n Wild Oaks Class is in Session

Hello Everyone,

 

Autumn arrived yesterday in the classroom at In Between Stitches. Suzanne is working on her October Magic quilt. She added a cute little black cat to her design.



 

She has all of the flying geese finished, and the corner pumpkins.  This is going to be finished soon!  Excellent fabric placement and precise work.  Well done!

Susan is adding more and more blocks to her 3-D Noughts and Crosses designed by QuiltSue from her Pick Four book.  Now all of us in the room want to make this quilt!  During class, Susan finished another row and then some.

Barbara's scarecrow isn't going to scare anyone.....he's just so cute and lovable!  The sunflower buttons are precious.

Just one more rusty red solid border and Barbara's quilt will be finished!

 

My sister Gail is a little more than half way through her baskets for For the Love of Baskets. I think she said she has 68 finished.  They are so sweet!

 



Paula is working on her roof......really she is!  All of these little strips are going to keep the rain out of her barn!

Isabelle is ready to start making pumpkins by the bushel basket full.  She is so organized with the way she approaches a project.  In fact, all of my girls are extremely organized.  That's why they get so much accomplished.

Jan is starting her first block for Country Charmer.  Note the precise fussy cutting of her plaids.  All of the attention to detail is going to make one beautiful quilt!

There is so much camaraderie in the classroom.  Everyone is so supportive of each other.  I look forward to seeing all of you and spending time together.  You turn my patterns, and my friend's patterns into masterpieces of quilting art and I can't thank you enough.

Soon,
Lynn

3D Noughts and Crosses Class is in Session

Hello Everyone,

Class yesterday at In Between Stitches was a huge success!  The girls got so much done, Gail and I were amazed.  The women were quilting machines!

Jan is making a smaller version of the quilt by cutting the block size down.  The vivid colors she selected created a very striking design.

 

When you make this quilt you have to be organized.  Jan has all of her blocks made for 1/4 of the quilt and they are labelled and stacked in neat little piles.

 

Susan selected four gorgeous, rich batiks to create a more subtle, yet very stunning pattern.

Darlene made ALL of her blocks for the entire quilt in beautiful, Spring-like colors. Very shabby chic and elegant.

Annette finished ALL of her blocks for her quilt too!  She also started sewing them together.  It was amazing how fast the girls were sewing, AND they can banter with each other the whole time.  Multi-tasking is the name of the game.

Shelly is making a wonderful, masculine quilt for her son.  He is going to enjoy wrapping himself up in his mother's love.

Lorraine also started stitching her blocks together for the first 1/4 of the quilt.  Her fabrics were so beautiful and really showcased the texture in the fabrics.

 

Donna and Allie were making the quilt together.  Allie is brand new to quilting and Donna is helping her along her quilting journey.  It is so nice to have a friend to sew with.  Allie came to the quilt shop with Donna and saw Gail's version of the quilt. She instantly knew that was the quilt she wanted to make.  I think she has excellent taste in quilts!

 

Table number one came prepared with treats.  Chocolate and salty pretzels....what more could a girl want?

Here's a peek at half of the classroom with the blocks decorating the walls.

All I can say is what a fun day we all had!  Most of this group was new to me, and they were absolutely delightful!  They were so productive, so much fun, and they were good sports and great quilters. 

The Sister Act is going to take our show on the road for a repeat performance of 3D Noughts and Crosses.  Thank you Quilt Sue for designing such a great pattern.  I have a feeling the girls will be making more of your designs from your Pick Four book.

Soon,
Lynn & Gail

3-D Noughts and Crosses Continued

Hello Everyone,

 

Not a great deal to report from Sew'n Wild Oaks today, but I do have a few pictures of my sister's quilt to show you my machine quilting progress.

 

The pattern is going to be the same all the way down the length of the quilt.  One thing that's particularly nice for me is that I can cross-hatch the borders while I'm working my way across and down the quilt.  When I get to the end, I won't have to turn it and quilt the other borders.  I'm not vertically challenged when it comes to cross-hatching.  But I am vertically challenged when it comes to feathers.

This one is going to take me awhile since I'm pretty slow with the ruler work.  I can't just skip my way across the quilt making feathers.  This is much more precise.....and the circles.....let me tell you about the circles.  I quilt all of my lines first, then I go back and make the circles.  The straight lines help keep the hopping foot from hopping all over the place!  I'm just free-motioning the circles and so far so good.  I'm quilting 9 circles in each band.....except for one that has 10 circles.  Gail will never notice :-)

Soon,
Lynn

Pitchforks Optional

Hello Everyone.

 

You've seen this quilt before, 3-D Noughts and Crosses designed by my good buddy from across the pond, Quilt Sue.  My sister Gail took Sue's class at Quilting in the Garden in September and this is her quilt top from Pick Four by Sue Abrey.  

 

This beauty is finally on my quilting machine.  It has been patiently waiting its turn to be quilted.  (Actually I needed the time to figure out how I was going to quilt it.)  The border lent itself to crosshatching which lined up perfectly with the angles of the quilt.

I have to throw in some feathers......I can't help myself!  There will be more later on in the quilt too.

I've always wanted to try some of the more modern quilting.  My sister can't get mad at me for experimenting on her quilt.....can she????  I've been afraid of the little circles, but they aren't so bad after all!  I keep humming,  "Allemande left with the old left hand, a right to your corner, right and left grand," while I'm quilting my little circle....after circle.....after circle....and promenade my way over to the next strip.

The lighter blue batik is also going to have straight lines and circles quilted in them.  I'm quilting with dark blue thread all the way across the quilt, then I'll come back and quilt in a lighter thread color. 

I have to say, this is the most precise quilt I have ever, EVER quilted in my entire machine quilting career!  From now on, I'm going to have Gail make all of my backings and cut all of my battings.  Maybe I should have her make all of my quilts while she's at it!  What do you think Gail?  Deal?  Do I need to remind you about that time you chased me with a pitchfork when we were little?  It's a good thing I could run fast!

Gail and I are going to be team teaching this quilt on March 1st at In Between Stitches.  It's going to be a hoot! Pitchforks optional. 

Soon,
Lynn