Faith, Folklore, and Friends

We have finished with this year's quilting class, and everyone has a quilt top made with their own hands.  Hopefully, they are also taking a lot of information and inspiration with them. Here are the students and their quilt tops: Pam Osborn wants to use her skills to make quilts for her granddaughter.  She is a fan of quilting books and the Internet sites about quilting. She does excellent work. Valerie Sherer's quilt top turned out great, with her using all the bright greens and yellows.  In addition to working full time, she and her family moved during our weeks of classes, but she never missed a meeting. Emma Sherer is fourteen and has amazing talents in many areas.  She added a lot to our class, and I'm so glad she was able to attend.  She wrapped herself in her quilt top as soon as it was finished. Denise Davis is  multi-talented, and a hard worker.  She would work all day, then come to our class, then go to cho...

I love it when the quilts start coming together.  These new quilters have spent weeks working on blocks, but now, the blocks are coming together and look like real quilts!  Last night was fun as we worked on putting blocks together with sashing. We are already excited about next week. After enough blocks for four quilts have been made from my huge scrap bin, it is still more than half full.  Luckily, fabric scraps have no expiration date. This class was made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Thank you!

Our quilting class met last night after being off last week for spring break.  We were ready to sew! After working for eight weeks making scrap squares, we started putting them together last night.  I love the look on their faces when the blocks start coming together, and their scrap squares start looking like a real quilt. Some will be ready to sash their blocks next week. This class is made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Thanks!

Yesterday, we had warm, sunny weather, and everyone was feeling fine when we started working last night.  It was the last time we will all be working on blocks--some are about ready to start putting the blocks together.   Next week is spring break in our area, and because several of us work in education, we are not meeting next week.   These photos are of pillows that are made from scraps with embroidery in the centers. They are so easy to make. These purses were also made with scraps, with some embellishment.  The purse on the right is green on one side and blue on the other (see photo at the top of this blog). These purses will be donated for auction for Relay for Life in May. Let me repeat: Never throw away scraps of fabric! This class is made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Thanks!

We had some precipitation last night at class time, but thankfully, it was all liquid, and everyone was able to come to class. We had a good night of sewing. Our scrap pile in the middle of the table doesn't seem to be getting any smaller. There are so many things that can be made with scraps; never throw any scraps away! Pictured is a sampling of  scrap quilts, showing some different ways that scraps can be used. This class is made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Thanks!

It seems like every time the quilting class meets, we talk about the weather forecast and what may happen before the end of the week. The last time we had icy weather, an important meeting for Parsley and Rosemary was cancelled.  They were unable to come to quilting class because that meeting was rescheduled for last night,  Sage and Thyme made a lot of blocks; I made a few. We talked about ways to make string quilts other than sewing them on paper like we are doing now.  One way is similar to a crazy quilt.  You start by finding a cute fabric, then cut the figures with five sides.  I do this without a pattern; I want the sizes to vary. Think about the houses we drew in second grade and you pretty well have the pattern.  Sew a piece of fabric on one of the five sides; press, and trim. Keep going around the center piece until all the sides have been covered. Start around the center again. Continue sewing around the center unt...

Our class did not meet last week.  We are all smart ladies, and when there is freezing rain, snow, and sleet falling and the wind is bitter, we go home after work and stay there, usually with some warm jammies on.  Being stuck inside last week turned out to be very productive for me.  I finished a crib quilt and a full size quilt top that I had been working on for a while. Last night, everyone came, and we sewed and pressed and trimmed happily for two hours.  We also talked about the next winter storm on the radar.  We are winter weary and will be thankful when spring gets here.  Spring always comes, but it is easy to forget that after last week's roller-coaster weather. Remember this scrap windmill quilt top I showed you a few weeks ago?  I finished another one this week using the same blocks and the same pattern.  I changed the fabric to a solid red.  Can you see a big difference?  In the meantime, our stacks of blocks...

We had a good night of making quilt blocks this week. Parsley wasn't able to come because of a meeting, but Sage, Rosemary,  Thyme, and I had a very productive and fun night. Every week we talk about different ways to use scrap blocks in quilts.  This quilt was planned around some fabulous batik fabric I found.  There is a batik scrap sewn across the middle of the block, with black and white scraps on both sides.  Then it is sashed with the same fabric, and it makes a good -looking quilt. It is backed with black and white polka-dot fabric. Cutting fabric into strings is a good way to use up some really ugly fabric.  I had some 3 Stooges fabric in black and white (what was I thinking?) that had been laying on the shelf a long time.  I cut it up to use in this quilt, and I think it looks just fine.  If you look closely, you might be able to see their heads. I don't throw any fabric away, not even the very ugly. This class is made poss...

 It was a cold, cold night, but we all came ready to sew some blocks!  It is such a pleasant sound to me, four sewing machines humming at the same time. The quilt above was made using 9 1/2 inch blocks, shown below.  One day last winter, I retreated to my sewing cave and made 84 of these blocks.  I used 42 of them in the quilt above. Has anyone noticed how much chicken fabric is in my blocks? I paired 24 of the remaining blocks with this blue and red fabric and made windmill blocks.  When you look at the quilt top, which windmill do you see first?  Is it the blue/red fabric, or the pieced block? It really doesn't matter, because both are pretty.  The blue/red windmills sorta jump out at me. We have completed three weeks and have lots of blocks made, but it seems to me this scrap pile hasn't changed any.  Actually, it seems a little bigger but we know that can't be possible.  Ah, so many potential quilts just layin...

  There was a lot of sewing done in the class last night, and all the students are doing a great job.  They seem to be having fun, too. We talked about different ways that 6 1/2" string blocks can be used in quilts. This one was made by fussy-cutting 6 1/2" blocks from Campbell kids fabric and putting them together with the string blocks.  It is a cute and colorful quilt. It is in the stack I'm saving for my as-of-yet-unborn-great-grandchildren. Last week, Thyme put her sewing machine on the back seat of her car as she was leaving the class. She had to slam on her brakes in traffic, and the machine tumbled off the seat, and pushed her thread holder down into the sewing machine.  She was not able to fix it, so she borrowed a sewing machine from a friend for tonight's class.  I have never heard of this happening, and I'm hoping she will be able to get it fixed. In the meantime, she produced several beautiful blocks on her friend's machine. T...

I am privileged to teach another quilt class this winter.  During this one, we will make a string quilt using 6 1/2" paper squares.  I have four students, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, and they are already hard at work on the first night.  We don't worry about being neat when we are paper piecing. We are going to sew the squares together to make a quilt like this or maybe like this. Trust me, these strings sewn together are going to turn into something beautiful, useful, and lasting.  I know it is going to be fun.  We are all so excited to get started! There probably won't be any dining on the dining table for the next twelve weeks, but we are totally okay with that. This class is made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  Thanks!