A whirlwind of quilty things...

Seems like I've been running from one project or class to the next lately. In the middle of all this I am trying to finish up a handful of t-shirt quilts before Christmas and keep up on my Farmers Wife Sampler duties for upcoming classes.

Here's what I've been up to:
On Oct. 14 I attended the Karen Witt (Reproduction Quilts) trunk show in Oblong. It was great, and I glad I made it. She had a great sampler quilt I purchased a pattern for and I love how she used the backing fabric for the binding by rolling it over to the front of the quilt and hand sewing it in place. I know this is an old method, and I would love to learn how to do it because it left such a clean and soft edge.

on Oct. 16 I took my machine to Lori's in Paris to get some tips on machine quilting. I was using too heavy a thread in the bobbin and my tension was way of. Now I have lots of troubleshooting tips to try: lighter thread in bobbin, if you use heavier thread in bobbin use the speciality bobbin case, move your tension...etc.

Oct. 17 was the wool applique class in Oblong with Karen Witt. The project I chose was the pumpkin table runner. I have just a bit of experience with wool applique and it has been all self-taught. So, it was good to get some tips from someone in the know. I've been working on really small wool appliques for a wall hanging quilt and this was a nice break to use larger pieces!

This past Tuesday night was also the first meeting of the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle at Main Street Quilt Co. It was THE BEST class I have ever been to. I enjoyed myself immensely. We'll be working on small quilt projects, learning how to how to hand piece, etc. We made yo-yos while we worked last night 'cause we'll need more than 60 for a project that will come at the end of the series. Making those are kind of addictive...like making hexagons.

While I'd love to be working on our first project for that class right now, I need to finish up two Harley t-shirt quilts. My blocks are cut to 15" squares and I need to finish my sashing and cornerstones before I sew them together.

This weekend I am totally free and will continue working on the FWSQ blocks for our November class and hopefully work on the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle project.

For those who are using Arnold's Attic for their FWSQ, here is another posting on Barbara Brackman's blog about the fabric. More interesting information, just click here to go there!

Whew. That's enough for now.
-Sarah

Reproduction Quilts Trunk show, quilt discussion

Last night I went to an awesome trunk show/lecture by Karen Witt of Reproduction Quilts. She had some great samples to show and equally awesome stories to go along with them.

Here are some bad photos of  some great pieces. (Who forgets to take their camera to a trunk show! ME!)

She is teaching three classes this weekend (Oct. 15-17) in Oblong: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday I am taking her wool applique class and I simply CANNOT WAIT...especially since she showed us the pieces we will be making last night and I discovered we are using Primitive Gatherings wool and patterns.

 - Sarah

What I've been doing...

is not what I should have been doing!

Instead of going over the next blocks for Farmer's Wife, I decided I needed to try making a block I found in a magazine. I first read about it on the Quiltmaker Blog here. I was curious, and when I saw the magazine with the block directions I knew I had to buy it.

I'm all about making blocks efficiently. I tried this method out using two Halloween fabrics. I didn't necessarily like the scrappy look of this quilt with more contemporary fabrics.

Here's what I got. Two 8" squares of fabric will make one block at 9". With minimal piecing.



Really, I couldn't have worked on FWSQ blocks if I wanted to due to computer problems. But, those are being fixed as I type and I'll be working on blocks tomorrow night. Going to try something different this time and finish piecing some of the blocks in class. Maybe we'll even do a rotary cutting refresher to make sure we all make the best use of our beautiful fabrics. Whew! that's a lot to do in 2 hours.

If you are interested in learning about the block above and technique, let Kate know. She does have the book in the shop - Rotary Cutting Revolution. If you're thinking...uggg...a whole quilt with black and orange...don't worry. This will probably only amount to a lap quilt. I have the perfect striped border/binding fabric just waiting for it too! The fabric is Minick & Simpson's Halloween Night.

-Sarah

Arnold's Attic fabric line

Since we're using Arnold's Attic as one of our fabric lines for the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt, some of you might be interested in learning more about the line.
Visit Barbara Brackman's blog here, and specifically these posts.
Document & Reproduction
Arnold Update

Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt class

Well, it's time to dust off the old Beeswax blog and get busy on the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt class. I am leading three sessions of students creating this quilt at Main Street Quilt Company in Shelbyville, Ill.

This beautiful queen-sized quilt features 111 6 1/2" (unfinished) blocks. Our fabric choices are Miniatures by Windham and Arnold's Attic by Barbara Brackman for Moda. We'll be meeting once a month for 18 months. We're going to need all the help and support we can get. Soooo - I've decided to keep my blog up-to-date with photos of our blocks and other encouragement.

I know my Friday night class is already busy working on their first six blocks! This Saturday I'll be meeting the ladies in the other two sessions and getting to know them. I've been looking forward to this class since I purchased the book about a year ago. I knew then that I would be doing this quilt in pinks and browns. Indeed, I am focusing my efforts on the Miniatures fabric.

You can visit the Farmer's Wife Blog kept by book author Laurie Hird here. She's already busy completing and promoting a new quilt book.

Below are the first blocks, in Miniatures fabric and in Arnold's Attic.