KVQG Program - It's All in the Sashing by Barb Eikmeier

    We had a wonderful program at KVQG yesterday. Barb Eikmeier gave a presentation on the many different ways one can use sashing to put blocks together. It's such a simple thing, but with all the variety Barb showed us the possibilities are endless. Very inspiring! I'll never look at sashing the same old way again.
    One of the main sashing and cornerstone block methods she talked about implemented a special cutting ruler from Marti Michell. Check it out here. Barb's quilts using this technique were stunning.
Later,
D
    
    

Road Trip to Wichita

My son AJ and I are on the road today. He wanted a little vacation and there is a Star Wars exhibit in Wichita, so we headed down south. I got to stop at 2 quilt shops yesterday - Charlotte's Sew Natural in Newton and Material Girls in Wichita.  Both shops had a great selection of fabrics and wonderfully nice staff, especially Charlotte in Newton. 

 Material Girls has a strikingly beautiful and colorful quilt that will be featured along with the shop in the upcoming issue of Quilt Sampler magazine. They are taking orders now for the kit. It has mostly Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I am considering getting the pattern if its sold separately. It drew me in as soon as I walked in the shop. 


  I tried to resist impulsive buying and generally I did pretty well. I ended up adding a couple of books by Kim Schaefer and a couple of patterns to my library.  
     Since I am still collecting 30s reproductions and Black and Whites, I got a few FQ of each. 
   The largest purchase was 6 yards of Ingrid by Wrenly fabrics to use as a backing for Bird's Eye View. 

I may get to stop into one more shop today, and then it's home.

Curious on the road,
Denise

Making Minkee Monsters at Mea Bernina

    Well, the weekend is almost over - our garage sale was a great success and I am beat! More about it all later - I still have stash!
    Last Friday while at work at Mea Bernina I got to make Minkee Monsters. They are adorable little monsters made from super soft minkee fabric. We have the coolest program that enables you to embroider the cute monster features and then even lets you sew it up around the edge. How cool is that! 
    Working on an Bernina Artista 640, I made a monster in about 2 hours - that included some stops and starts. I am sorta getting into this embroidery business. That could be dangerous!
   I'm putting my tired self to bed!
Good night,
D

The Camaraderie of Quilters

Our small quilting group met this morning as we usually do twice a month in between larger guild meetings. There are 8 of us in the group and recently about 5 of us show up at any one time - especially during the summer when people are traveling.
    We bring cutting or handwork to do and everyone brings their new books, magazines or patterns to show. We are all trying to pare down on magazines so we bring a stack of those to share and trade - each of us ripping out the pages that appeal to us. Spontaneous comments like "Oh look at this one!" can be heard as we thumb through the magazines. Today I brought scraps to cut into usable squares (1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 5 - see Joan Ford's Scrap Therapy system) to work on.
    We learn from each other, share patterns and fabric, support each other, laugh and commiserate together. We are already tossing around ideas for the boutique for next year's quilt show. I think it would be great to go together on a quilting retreat. Hmmmm . . . I may just have to start planning this. 
    I belong to the guild. But I really FEEL like I belong because of the wonderful women in my small group. Thank you Ladies!
To quilting friends!
D

There's No Place Like Home!

     Home again! Usually when I get home from a trip I want to jump right into my studio - usually to start something new. This time I am being disciplined! We are having a yard sale next weekend to get ready to put the house on the market and move to a smaller place. So I am going through closets and cupboards to identify stuff I no longer need, love or that won't fit into an as yet unknown smaller house. This includes my yarn as well as my fabric stash that lives in a back closet. I'll be lucky to have this much room in the new place.

Project and Fabric Stash 

    I'm about half way though the yarn and hope to finish that today. My kids are helping me by pushing me a bit. It is exhausting for me to make all these decisions.
    Tonight - finish putting the binding on Amy's chocolate quilt so I can photograph it and show you tomorrow.
Til then,
D

Near Vicksburg Mississippi

I had a few moments to run over toward Vicksburg Mississippi to check out another quilt shop - Stitch-N-Frame. This is a shop with lots and lots of fabric - tons of variety - pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
I added to my 30s fabric for GMFG, Black & White, and a CQL FQ.

My guilty purchase was getting 10 1/2 yard cuts of Jovial Christmas fabric for some placemats. So pretty - I love the colors and they will be perfect in our kitchen.


Tonight cooking and Olympics while working on GMFG.


Keep cool and curious!
D