A Very Productive Weekend

Okay, so you know how you go to quilt retreat with your quilting buddies and you forget something?  Well, I remembered by projects, thread, all parts to the sewing machine, but forgot my camera.  So I do not have any pictures taken at the retreat but I did take some pictures when I got home of all the projects I got to work on.  The picture above is all the blocks so far for the Sally Post Floral Sampler that Gay at Sentimental Stitches is posting each week.

 We had a group demonstration of the twister quilt technique.  This little quilt started out with 20 five inch squares sewn together in a 4 X  5 grid with a 3 inch border, then you cut it all apart with the aid of the twister ruler and sew them back together and get one of these. 

I also got this small quilt sewn, it is called pixie sticks because the 2 inch block are made of eight one quarter inch strips.  Loved the reproduction fabrics in this little quilt. 

I also got a little hand applique completed and another block finished for the red and white quilt.

The week before retreat I got the Heaven and Nature Sings (McKenna Ryan pattern) quilt top completed, it is all layered and ready to start quilting. 

So I feel like I have gotten a lot of things done lately.  I am all unpacked from retreat, but packing up my hand applique things for an upcoming trip to Texas that will include a visit to the International Quilt Festival and a class with Elly Seinkiewicz.  This is not a very good picture of the class project

but you can check out her teaching schedule here and see a better picture of the beautiful peahen we will be working on in this class.  I am so excited to be taking  this class, and just soak up all of her knowledge about Baltimore Album quilts. 

Happy Stitching All,
Cheri

October Free Motion Quilt Challenge

I have been learning so much participating in SewCalGals Free Motion Quilt Challenge this year.  I can not believe it is almost over. This month's instructor is Teri Lucas.  She had a fun little practice piece to work on.  The idea was to start with your name and then she had some tips for cross hatching and other background fillers. Loved the nautilus sea shell.  

 One of her very helpful tips for practicing was to print out a copy of one of her pictures of machine quilting in the tutorial and tracing over the designs with a pencil to build muscle memory for eventually quilting on the machine.  She encouraged you to change colors and thread types with each different background fill you stitched.

This was another good tutorial, every month there have been useful tips and ideas.

 Happy Stitching All,
Cheri