HMQS Utah...Here I Come!

Yep! I'm on a plane very early in the morning! Destination: Salt Lake City,Utah.  

I can't think of a better way to use two personal days from teaching than attending a huge quilt show and classes with a friend! We are taking a class by Gina Perkes. 

 OMG! 

Our hands-on, long-arm quilting class with Gina is called Modern Love.

Description: Modern quilts provide a fabulous canvas for showcasing gorgeous quilting designs! Discover new quilting designs which will enhance your modern quilt tops. You will learn the basics of ruler/grid work, new modern fill designs and more. You will also come away with trouble shooting info.  and tips for decorative thread success!  

We're also attending a lecture class by Gina called: How Do I Quilt This?

Description: Gina will take you through the process of determining how to quilt a quilt through a power point presentation. Students will discover how to identify the style and purpose of their quilts or those of their customers, then how to create an appropriate quilting plan. Students will have the opportunity to email pictures to Gina ahead of time to be discussed in class. (I can't wait to get her input on the quilt pictures I sent her!)

Finally, we have one more lecture titled: Curve It Up-A Fresh: Look to Custom Quilting  

This class will certainly come in handy when I go to quilt my Modern Rings:

Description: We'll learn the fun and easy techniques Jenny Pedigo and Helen Robinson of Sew Kind of Wonderful use to add curves to custom quilting. Go beyond fillers and feathers by adding curves to create secondary designs. Learn how to add curves to borders, piecing and open spaces to give your quilting a fresh contemporary look. 

As you can probably tell, I'm a little ( okay...way) excited. So....if you are there and spot me, please do say hi! It would be great to meet in person! And....because probably only a minimal fraction of my followers are even in the remote area of Salt Lake City this week (lol!)....no worries....I plan to share my experience with an upcoming series of Thursday Inspiration posts for the remainder of May, followed by posts documenting my summer implemetation of  lessons learned. Admittably I'm a little over excited that I get to use personal days from work to better myself as a quilter. ( Oh my! Life is good!) Seriously though, when I told my second graders that I would be gone on a "trip" and would see them Monday...it was like seeing the word FREEDOM in bold letters!  Thanks for being patient with me today...I'm a veteran teacher and a novice quilter. It feels good to be learning something new!!!

Tuesday Archives # 61: QAYG

Welcome to the linky party that rejuvenates your old quilting/sewing posts! 

Please click here to read more about this linky party.  

This week's theme is: QAYG: Quilt As You Go

Admittably, I've never tried this method of quilting.  I found myself poking around the internet and found this very informative (and cute!) website/blog. It's called Shiny Happy World and she has an entire series of QAYG video tutorials!  I found myself thinking as I watched some of the vides, that even if you don't use the QAYG method, these are some great FMQ tips! You can click  here to see a list of her entire series of lessons.

Baby Car Seat Canopies

I was able to happy dance one Christmas a few years ago when our oldest daughter requested a sewing machine for Christmas! We bought her a little Singer. Then taught her the basics as she made her first charm pack quilt. Sewing has become her favorite hobby of choice and she has really found her niche creating car seat canopies.   

She really does enjoy making these, thus I asked if can share some on my blog.

They are made from cotten flannel and you can even request to have a minky lining inside.

Quite honestly, you can pretty much personalize your entire order as she enjoys shopping for the fabric as much as we quilters do! 

You can request to have one custom made for a boy (with soft minky inside):

....or one for a girl.

You can request to have the front panel open and tie shut in the front like here:

...or you can request to have a solid front panel with no opening...you just lift and peek at your little one. You can even request to have one made in honor of your favorite sports team: 

Anyhoo, here's a quick link to her facebook page. (Click here)
You can drop her an email with your requests. She ships to anywhere in the US. (Sorry my overseas friends) Tell her I sent ya and receive free shipping on your order through the end of May (2015). (She also makes matching headbands...so cute!)
Such a crafty girl this one is and what a proud momma I am!
Thanks for stopping by...and happy Monday!

May for Me: Hexagon Quilt

No this is not my morning stack of pancakes...but 70 flowers made from two inch EPP hexagons that have been waiting to be put together into a quilt for about, um, two years. 

 Our youngest daughter and I feel in love with this Joel Dewberry Heirloom Fabric Line from Free Spirit. She is making her own set but with a different colored center. Hers continues to be a WIP but here's what mine looked like on the design wall two years ago: 

They have since been moved from wall to basket...forgotten, like so many of our WIP find themselves doing.  So having no hand-sewing project I'm working on and motivated my Marcia's May for Me linky at Crafty Sewing & Quilting, I couldn't think of a better way to sneak in some quiet time for myself than by joining her annual linky. The theme is all about celebrating those few minutes a day you take just for you. My goal is to have these all sewn into rows and ready to baste onto their background fabric by the end of the month.

(Click picture to find out more about Marcia's annual celebration 
and perhaps even join us!)

This is the quilt pattern:

For my own convenience and maybe even yours, 

here's the indiviudal links to the tutorials on the Fat Quarterly website: 

EPP Tutorial

 Flower Assembly

Sewing the Rows

The Background

Appliqueing

Removing Papers

Stems Part 1

Stems Part 2 and Leaves

Flower Pot Tablerunner

These wool flowers have been so much fun to stitch over the past few weeks.

I used Genziana Wool thread to sew the floors onto the cotton using a small whipstitch.

I then used #8 Valdani Perle Cotton for all the decorative stitches and
always love using buttons for an additional layer.

I kept the quilting simple and as many of you previously commented, sometimes simple is just what a project needs...especially when they are of a "primitive" style like this one. This tablerunner was inspired by a Potted Flowers pattern I saw in my Kim Schaefer Flowering Quilts book. Yet, instead of appliqued flowers, I choose to make mine from wool. So fun!

This tablerunner measures 20" x 40".

I love that this entire tablerunner was made from leftover fabrics. And...I have to admit, when I layed this out on our coffee table last night, it fit the decor of our house perfectly, but mom, you can expect some Happy Mail next week as this one is on it's way to you..."just because"! Wishing everyone a great Friday! 

(I'm up early as today our local FFA high school kids have their Spring Flower pots for sale and I want to be first in line. Perfect way to start May don't ya think!?)