Quilting, Sewing and Lazy Summer Days

It's been a good 2 months since we got back from the trip.  Several nice thunderstorms and plenty of rain.  The grass is nice and green, and the flowers are blooming.  And I'm getting back into a sewing/quilting groove.  I'm not sure I would call it a groove since I'm still disorganized and distractible, but I have made some progress.

This is Elise's quilt that I've been threatening her with for 2 years. 

We're down to the setting triangles and are kind of stuck.  The picture on the directions has a medium blue, but we're not sure.  We tried a dark green, and it was awful.  We're now going to try several neutrals.  I have to catch her on a day when she's not overwhelmed with papers or classes. 

This is the way it looks with the blue.

And the green.  I don't think so!

I have to say how proud we are of her, for being determined and working hard to get her Master's degree against a lot of odds. She deserves more than the promise of a quilt. I'll finish it this summer for her.

Today's project was a new set of rice hand warmers for my father-in-law to go with his Father's Day gift. And another set for Mama. They both have trouble with their hands being cold or numb, and this seems to do the trick. Hope they'll like the colors.



I got to go to the Alabama Quilt Symposium 2012 last week with Sherry.  Out of either kindness or a desire to get rid of me for a few days, Mike set it up with Sherry on the phone and told me I was going.  For whatever reason, it was the best.  Sherry was going for a 3-day class with Elly Sienkiewicz that she had been looking forward to.  The things she teaches are wayyy beyond what I'm capable of, but I could see her excitement every day after learning these new techniques from a wonderful teacher.  Maybe I'll be there one day. 

I was mainly along for the ride (hanging out in the hotel room for 2 days and sewing without interruption), but I did take a class on Saturday from Pat Sloan. It was beginning machine applique, and it was a fun class. I learned a lot.

Here are 3 of Pat's quilts she had on display.

 My new machine made her debut and did quite well, all shiny and ready to applique. 

 This is the wallhanging we were given the pattern for and used our newly learned techniques to start.  I got to the point of tracing my designs and cutting them out of the HeatNBond.  Well I did learn which thread to use and what foot and setting on the machine and which colors I was going with.

 

These is a not-so-clear picture of Pat showing us her seasonal banners.  She's a funny lady, and I had a great time in the class. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days, and we had a lot of fun preparing our lunches and trying to eat healthy.  We had a light lunch and then went out at night and got a nice meal - steak one night and seafood the next.  Sherry taught me the ins and outs of making a grilled cheese sandwich with an iron and aluminum foil, and we enjoyed late night conversation over our low-fat pudding cups.  It wasn't the Red Rooster for sure, but then we didn't gain 45 pounds like we did up there!

Sherry has added a bunch of quilts she's quilted to her blog, beautiful work.  I'm hoping she'll send me some pictures of her applique work and other quilting to step up the quality of this blog!

These are the batiks I chose to do my wallhanging from. 

I love this one for the border.

It's slow going, but I'm gradually getting the hang of it. 

Time for a cup of coffee and 4 hours of work.  In a weak moment, I promised to work an extra 4 hours today and 4 hours tomorrow, so I'd better get started.