Peteetneet Quilt Show

I woke up late, still exhausted, and feeling chilled, again. What is up? The antibiotics?

I finally got ready for the day and headed out around noon, telling my boys the rules for quilt shows as we drove. 

Walk, Hands to self, No Hiding, Stay with Mom. The Peteetneet building is only 2 miles away. I didn't get a lot of time to enjoy the quilts because of needing to keep track of my boys.  At least they followed some of the rules I gave them. They did enjoy the quilts in their own way, I guess.

My favorites:

--beautiful paper-pieces stars with Patriotic quotes in alternating squares, with Patriotic colors, made to honor a young man in our community that just died in the war in Afghanistan and just came home to be buried last week. Another quilt was made for his family right next to that one, with his picture in between.

--a beautiful Fireworks quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelly. I don't know who made it, but it was gorgeous in sunset oranges, soft pinks and whites, and bed-sized.

And I have to say, it felt good to see my own work up on a wall in a show. And it was gratifying that my little boys recognized the ones I made!

Pardon the fuzzy pictures and poor lighting--the building is very old, and I guess the volunteer hostess doesn't know how to focus an iPhone camera even after I showed her.  :-)

After the park, lunch at the park, and a chocolate milk run to the store, we got the mail. Hot and windy day. My package from Intrepid Thread came!  Julie had some great sales for Father's Day, and I couldn't resist. And she shipped them so quickly!

She always sends a cute charm square or two...I feel like it's my birthday in the mail because she wraps my fabric up in tissue paper and a pretty fabric bow and card!

I took the picture and realized my order was all blue this time. LOL. More of my favorite Cuzco, and blue puzzles from Pieces of Hope Autism. The blue puzzles print will be pieced with red puzzles print for the back of the Swoon quilt.

What a great day, but I'm bushed and time to lay under the fan and chill with the boys in front of a movie for the rest of the afternoon.

Week in review and Diamond Daze

Update: I'm entering the Diamond Daze quilt in Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side, in the Baby Quilt category.

http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2013

Lots of fun, but not a lot of quilting action this past week because I've been getting sick (pretty sure it's another sinus infection) and yet managed to get some hours at work. When I work swings and graves, it is hard to get a lot of quilting progress done, because I'm working during children's sleeping times, which are my most productive project times and "me" time.

1--Got the borders onto my Starburst. (www.happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com )  I didn't like how they looked. I should not have strip-pieced the borders, but should have put each border on one at a time. I have picked out the corners and I will redo them.

2--Binding for the fire truck quilts is almost ready....I just need to press the strip in half and roll it onto the Binding Buddy.

3--So very excited! My latest obsession is Cuzco by Kate Spain for Moda, and I finally was able to order my favorite prints in fat quarters from www.IntrepidThread.com . Really want to do a Starburst with them. I picked up the mail on my way home from my graveyard shift this morning, to find my Cuzco! So gorgeous!

4--I knew my coworker was coming in this morning, so I could surprise her with her baby quilt: the yellow and gray quilt! Presenting quilty gifts is almost as much fun as the process of making them. She loved it and so did the nurses and techs looking on. Her baby girl is such a cutie and I'm proud to have put a quilt together for her.

This is "Diamond Daze" by Quiltmaker's "Quilts from 100 Blocks Volume 2" Fall 2012. My coworker wanted the yellow and gray color palette, and I fell in love with the palette and the fabrics I found. I used some yellow and gray from my small stash, and found this gorgeous yellow/gray paisley at Joann Fabric. This is my first quilt with mitered corners on borders. I had to tweak them before I quilted them because a few of the corners weren't laying flat with all the layers. The most difficult part of the whole pattern was cutting the large squares, and then having a ruler and an arm reach long enough to cut the squares in half diagonally. And yes, I quilted the whole thing on my little Bernina 1090, with the walking foot, and darning foot for the free-motion borders.

I watched the free Craftsy class "Creative Quilt Backs" to piece my backing...the quilt was 48x48 which is more than a standard WOF. I wanted something a bit more than adding a strip of self-backing vertically. I split the backing fabric vertically off-center. I pieced a four-patch strip using scraps from my top fabrics, then sewed it to both sides. I learned from the class that if you are working with multiple strips, match centers and pin outward. That way, you won't get as jagged ends if you're working with strips of different lengths. You have less waste and more usable fabric at the centers of the quilt, where you need it. Very cool advice, and it worked great.

So even though I don't consider myself a modern quilter, I found I could still learn some tricks. There's no right way to do things; you learn all you can and apply knowledge and techniques that work for you, that you're comfortable with, and apply in a particular project.

And yes, I hand-embroidered the label !