Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy's hosting her semi-annual online quilt festival again. I've participated in the past but since I've gone to Quilt Market a few times in recent years I was too busy to join in the fun. I like this kind of show - where you don't have to ship or haul your quilts anywhere. There's prizes too, though they don't interest me! Not quite as good as a real show of course but still fun. The rules state the quilt must be completed in the last year. At least that is what I am going  with.

 I pieced Grape Salad a while ago, put it in my last book but didn't quilt it till this spring.

This one's in the original design category.  I could probably put near all mine in that category. I've combined two kinda traditional blocks but adapted them to my Thirtysomething technique. I love two block quilt designs.

Quilted on my longarm. I don't like heavy quilting, gorgeous as it is. I think the quilts are softer with less quilting. That's my excuse for not doing it anyway.

You are invited to browse my blog more of course. And likewise, I will browse yours.Thanks for visiting.

Shoo-Fly So Far

Have you tried the Shoo-Fly block from layer cakes yet? I've only made 16 so far. I am happy with how it is going, I've just been busy with Festival to do anymore. I hope to make more Wed. night. I'm liking them, but now I have another idea.What else is new?
 
I am mostly unpacked from Festival. I had a perfect time. Mark really impressed me. What? Wait  a minute. Did I say that? Yep, he was great to have along. He's even ready to do a few more shows - and during hunting season! It was wonderful for so many of you to come by my booth and say hi. It was especially sweet if you bought my new book to complete your collection of Gayle Bong books. Thank you. Mark and I agreed the worst thing about the trip was all the traffic. We are quite used to a forest of trees not a jungle of cars! We never got lost, though we took a few wrong turns. It doesn't help that IL never seems to have road signs where I want them. Silly me. I never thought to use the gps on the phone. But then, I hear they aren't all that accurate.

After cleaning up everything from Festival I was inspired to dig out all the fabric for comfort quilts cause I want to take it over to Studio 3. What a mess! I've done an initial sorting, but it looks like it may be a while before I take it over there. I have many potential kits bagged up that I would like to finalize before I move them. On the table are all of our "pre-cuts" that "we" cut. Under the table are only some of our orphan blocks. And the piles on the floor?  Who knows.   The small cardboard box has bigger scraps waiting for a destination. The green tub has strips for string quilts and log cabins. The shelves in the closet are still loaded with  40 more kits waiting to be finalized. UGH! There sure is some ugly fabric out there. I'd love a sneak peek into the homes and closets of the designers of those uglies. I love the organizing and planning. I will dabble with sorting the mess while it rains this week. And probably pull some weeds.
It's Monday. That means it's time for heading over to Judy's for Design Wall Monday.

Quilting Related

I'm in the mood to do some piecing. It's been a while since I put in more than a few hours making a quilt. I have been busy with quilting though, just not doing much sewing.  Yesterday afternoon Patricia came over from Quilter's Rule to take a video  of me showing what  my Thirtysomething Block Book is about for youtube. That won't be uploaded till the editing is done...

Patricia  Simons is one busy lady and I am grateful that she took the time out to come over and help me out. Besides vending all over the country with the company and doing some teaching besides, she's been busy getting ready for the Machine Quilting Today show in Oconomowoc next month.

 I used these blue and orange pieces in my demo. Yummy. Now what do I make with a single little  star?

Yes I am looking forward to the Machine Quilting Show too, but first I'm all excited about vending at Quilt Festival at Rosemont (Chicago). I took a small booth since I don't have a shop, so besides my books, I decided I have room for a rack of quilt tops I can do without. So if you are interested in a Gayle Bong quilt top, stop by and browse my tops. I thought 20 were enough, so I stopped pulling out more. Yes, most of them are a bit older, but beautiful just the same. I've had lots of luck selling tops at shows in the past, so I am hoping I will be lucky again.


I've been enjoying a beautiful June here in Wisconsin.  I am outside more than I should be. That means laundry and bills are piling up. but I love it. Gee, I guess I could hang wash outside and pay bills out on the deck. Hmmm. Nah, I'd really rather weed the garden!  I guess I will get back to my Shoo-Fly quilt when it rains again or maybe some night if I can't sleep.

A Moody Quilter

I'm in the mood for some blogging. As you can see it has been a long time. And if you guessed I am here cause it is raining, you guessed right. I've spent many hours outside in the last 2 months. The prairie I planted 2 years ago is showing some promise. As gardens go, they tend to be slow starters so you want to stay ahead of the weeds. I've also spent lots of time in the woods. It's unbelievable how many wildflowers there are blooming. And how many more there would be if the critters wouldn't eat the blooms! I suspect it is the deer eating the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Wild Geranium, Shooting Stars and Solomon's Seal, including the leaves. In spite of that, there are enough flowers for me to enjoy as I go about getting my exercise.

I've had the same blocks on my wall for too long, so I decided to start another quilt. You are welcome to join me as I make these ShooFly blocks. Not sure what I am going to do with them, as usual, but the process results in positive and negative blocks and you can set them like this. Likely I will do something else with them. Call it a Quilt-Along or a Shoo-Fly Mystery if you want. I will give cutting and sewing details as I go.

These are my sample blocks and will go to the orphanage for a comfort quilt at church. I will be making my quilt with these luscious Bali Batiks. So this is my MATERIALS LIST to start with.

One pack of 40 Crackers that are 10" square.
Add another 40 squares of light colored fabrics.

I chose 5 different lights from my stash and from each I cut 2 strips 10" and cut 4 squares from each. Any combination of light fabrics can be used. And you don't need to use 40 squares of darks and 40 lights, either. I may not use all the prints in this pack. I rarely do. The blocks finish 7 1/2". 81 blocks set 9 x 9 = a 67.5" square quilt. That little bit of math is just to give an idea of the possibilities. Hmmmm. Maybe I will make 2 different quilts with all those blocks. Or maybe I will be making more blocks. What are your first thoughts???

One more thing I've been busy with. I am taking a booth with my new book at Quilt Festival in Chicago in 2 weeks.  Look for me in booth 2011 if you go. Then be sure to say "HI". And if you're still wondering what the heck Thirtysomething is all about, check out my updated website - particularly the "tool" page. I hope to be adding a youtube video sometime after Festival. Yikes, I hope I find some time to sew.

Always a great time

Welcome to all, especially the festival goers that are visiting my blog for the first time. I hope you agree, festival was great. Always great classes, great shopping and fun meeting lots of great quilters. The quilts as usual were phenomenal. The exhibit quilts by my estimate were 95% art quilts. To see everyday quilts you had to check the quilts in the vendor's booths. The convention center seemed especially spread out this time, but then I learned that the show in Houston covers 11 football fields. The Cincinnati show probably covers less than half of that. So I got my exercise, too.

Here's a shot of my fabric acquisitions over the last month. Most of it anyways. And to think I only bought one duplicate, on purpose. 57 different pieces. Yes, most are just halves or quarters.

Mark said the strangest thing this morning.  He said "You didn't show me the fabric you bought yet." HUH!
 I never showed him in the past. Why would he start asking now? He knew I bought more than usual - just to make up for not shopping at the 3rd show in Lancaster when my sister was sick. He practically suggested it. But to ask to see it????

I had a great time. I highly recommend it to ANYbody. 

A pleasant valley Sunday or Monday

Just another pleasant day down here in the valley known where I live as Skunks Misery. It's spring. I've heard the robins all week and I finally saw one this morning. The red-wing blackbirds are back to the marsh across the street and the geese have been heading north for 2 weeks. That's my definition of spring anyways.

I forgot. Last week between trips to the hospital for my neighbor I made this little top. The little ones sure go together quickly.  No wonder they are so popular. I have a spot on my sewing room wall that needs a few little quilts. This is number 2. The Whig's Rose was number 1. We have been in this house 18 years and they finally got to the top of the list. I have space for 4 and I haven't planned the next 2 yet.

This is my busy season. Now and Fall.  I have to get ready for classes coming up, especially Quilt Festival in Cincinnati in April. Also I am off to Pennsylvania on Wed. for the quilt shows in Lancaster. One by AQS and the other by Quilter's Rule. I'm really looking forward to those, cause I am not working.  It's going to be great. Or at least it better be. I need the break.

Tomorrow is comfort quilting at church. Any photos from that will have to wait till I get back from Lancaster.
Look for the next step in our mystery on Thursday as usual.  I understand I should be able to schedule the post to appear as desired. Like magic. Aren't computers fun?

My Festival Report

Hi everyone,
Quilt Festival was great. Imagine that. It was nice to have such a big show close to home. I have been to Fall Festival in Houston several times - usually to teach. So, I have seen some of the quilts in the exhibits before, but that is fine with me. And all the vendors adds to the excitement. Chicagoland guilds have hired me frequently over the years, so it is not surprising that I ran into old acquaintances. That was fun.

The 19th Century Divas is always my favorite exhibit at Festival. I think this is an online group. Could be wrong. If anyone knows anymore, do tell, please.

DH messed up my plans to not buy any fabric. Before I left he told me he expected I would buy some. So I did. (Oh, and he says he never thought I was obsessed with buying fabric! Seriously.) Apparently there was a big Longarm show this weekend out east somewhere. So I was disappointed there weren't more longarm supplies there. But I did manage to find a few things.

And I did get all the thread I wanted. So guess what I was doing tonight. I put a quilt on the frame this afternoon. I quilted this quilt about 10 years ago, but I never quilted the border. So I am doing it now cause I want to take the quilt off the stack and hang it on a wall. Maybe I'll get a picture of that later.
Today's picture is of my flower garden from last year. Spring has finally sprung so I have been busy in the garden rather than behind the camera. I sure don't know how I find the time to take care of them. This is about half of them.
Sew long for now. I have to get the quilt ready to do the side borders.

Mixed Feelings

Hello everyone,
Okay, I am so new to this, I don't know where to start. I want to thank everyone for welcoming me to blogland and their nice comments. I'd like to respond to each of you, but I am pinched for time tonight. Boy, can I lie. Really, I don't know how to do it yet except for here. I intend to visit each of your blogs though.

Thank you Wanda for spreading the word. And was it Carol that wondered about my departure from the quilting world for other business? (That was 9 years ago already.) My retirement lasted 2 years. I think I was feeling a bit burned out after self-publishing 3 books and then all the teaching and promoting and shows.... But quilting kept calling me back.

Since then Martingale & Co. published my book Save the Scraps and just recently, Twin Peaks. Isn't it interesting all the twists and turns in life. I am really glad I did those 3 books myself, but am sure glad I am not doing them alone anymore. As we go through different phases of life our priorities change. I could not devote the time to it now. I am happy with Martingale's part in my books and hope to continue with them for a while.

I did get a chance to get back to my other retreat project. Not sure I like it enough to make it much larger. Maybe it needs a pieced border. I will leave this on the design wall a while and think about it.

Tomorrow I am off to Quilt Festival at Rosemont. I hope they have vendors there with longarm supplies. I think I have enough fabric for a while. I need to think about thread for finishing some of my tops. Doesn't that sound like fun? And of course, I have to buy a souvenir book. No, they don't have a show book to buy. I just use it as an excuse to buy another quilt book. Anything that appeals to me. Luv books. I will put my theory on control over fabric shopping to the test, too. It doesn't help that my dh doesn't care.

The comfort quilt I showed on my first blog is almost done. I haven't been able to quilt as usual this week cause dh is off and he always cramps my style. However, he was a real gem this afternoon and helped me in the garden with some huge clumps of perennials. It was finally a nice spring day.

that's all for now, sew long