My Protege . . . .

Last fall I got myself a Protege.

She wanted to learn how to make a quilt, 

and I was happy to oblige! 

We started with some 5" blocks I already had cut up.

We talked about colors and value.

Design and balance.

She caught on very quickly!

Her favorite subject is math, although she LOVES to read as well.

Math!  Yeah, quilting is tons of math and geometry!

So we met on Sundays for a couple of hours most weeks.

She learned the importance of a 1/4" seam

and how it makes your design line up correctly.

There were only a couple of jack the ripper moments.

(I bought her her own seam ripper, every girl needs one!)

After a few weeks the borders went on and Tada!

A quilt top was born.

Next up basting on the floor.

I let her do this, her back is much younger than mine!

She stitched in the ditch . . . 

And stitched in the ditch some more . . 

Then onto marking the borders with tailors chalk

for some straight line quilting.

One afternoon we had some time to kill between steps,

and I decided it would be fun to fool around with my chevron quilt.

My Protege helped me figure out a much design.

A better shot of the finished top.

She is awesome!  My protege, I mean!  ;)

We practiced sewing on binding on a small block.

Practiced those corners.

Then she was ready to sew her binding on!

I swear she picked this binding herself! 

(Haha, maybe she saw one of my other quilts.)

Binding sewn on,

now to hand sew on the back.

This was a longer process than I thought it would be.

But she stuck in there!

Even had Mocha sitting on her lap one day.

Mocha looks pretty comfy huh?

And now today . . . 

FINI!

A finished quilt. 

Quite an accomplishment.

I'm so proud of my protege.

She is smart, fun, determined and delightful.

Now I think we will take a turn at making some bags.

Hehe . . . . 

Thanks My Protege for all the fun!

Sweat Shop Sewing Monday

Yesterday Gidget, Mocha and the kid came over for a day of sewing.

We haven't done this in a while.  

Need to get back in the swing of sewing with these girls,

we always have so much fun together.  

Don't always produce a lot, but . . . . 

We giggle a lot!

Mocha likes to sit in your lap while you try to sew.

It's all about Mocha!  Hehe.  She is the sweetest.

The kid was quilting a large quilt, so I let her use my Juki.

Gidget had about ten different projects she had started

and couldn't figure out what to finish.  Bags, draft dodgers, scarves.

See, WIP and UFO's are not just for quilters!!

The kid's scrappy trip around the world is so beautiful!

I forgot to take a full shot of it.  I need to do that!

We had two cutting tables, three sewing machines and an 

ironing board station.  All in my tiny little penthouse!

I made this cute little bag.

I'm very proud of myself, I just eyeballed Gidget's little bag

and wung it.  I think I may have caught the bag bug now!

They are cute, fast and fun!

I also worked on HSTs.  I had a bunch of solid squares,

so I have been sewing them up and now I must trim them all.

Hummmm.  Think they may become a quilted bag!  Hehe.

 The kid got her binding sewn on.  

(And her laundry done.)

Now she can hand sew it at her house.

Gidget put binding on a little quilted mat she made too.

and Mocha?

Well Mocha guarded the door.

Fiercely.

Mocha is a great guard dog.

Hehe.

Hope you all have a great week!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2014

Can't believe it's that time again!

Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival is here!

Thank you Amy for all your hard work in hosting this fun event.

Welcome to new visitors to my blog.  

I hope you like what you see. Poke around and look at my stuff!

For this festival I am showing a quilt that I just finished.

Star Fever.

65" x65"

machined pieced and quilted by me!

I started this quilt this summer at Quilting by the Lake.

Under the direction of the fabulous Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

This quilt is inspired by a quilt in her 15 Minutes of Play book.

But I super-sized it and modified the block layout.

Victoria let me borrow her giant diamond template to get started.

(I'm still hoping she will produce and sell these!)

This is the first rendition.

Then my teacher, the grasshopper, said,

"Turn it around let's see how it looks the other way."

She is always right.

Hehe.  Like it both ways.

The class helped me pick out the setting fabrics.

Loved it.

BUT . . . could find enough of it to finish.

So it languished on my design wall all summer.

Sassy V in her QBL apron for the auction.

She is a great teacher!  Take her class if you get a chance.

Now back to the star . . . 

I kept flipping it back and forth

trying to decide which way I liked it best.

 

In the end, I went with the original design.

I like the two different purples and oranges in the center,

gives it a bit of pop.

I did echo channel quilting about 3/4" apart, but VERY organic.

a pieced back . . . 

a label . . . 

a rolled end . . . 

ready to go.

This quilt is being donated to the Greenwich Breast Cancer Alliance

for their silent auction on November 6th.

I made them one last year and was happy to be asked again this year.

Kinda hoping this is a new tradition for me too!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are enjoying all the eye candy 

at the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Thanks again to Amy for putting it all together.

Cloud9 Cirrus Solids Challenge

Our NYC Metro Mod Quilt Guild

is participating in a Cloud9 solids challenge!

I handed out 42 packs of fabric with instructions at our last meeting.

I can't wait to see them all together and start playing with them!

They are due at our next meeting on November 1st.

This and that . . . .

I haven't been home for a whole weekend in ages!

What a luxury to sleep in and linger in bed . . .

My favorite thing to do.

Once I hauled myself out and had my coffee and breaky,

I looked around and surveyed what needed to be done.

My sewing corner, a mess, needed to be cleaned up and organized.

It went quicker than I thought.

I am having my first private sewing lesson tomorrow with a lovely 

girl who wants to learn how to quilt!

I am over the moon!  So I want everything to be clean and easy for her.

I also got this lovely card and note from Kandy.

I joined the IG #quiltypenpal group and this is my first connection.

So fun!  Now what will I send to her?

Then it was off to Christie's to drop off my featherweight for service.

That's all I intended to do . . . . 

Then I saw this . . . . 

Kate Spain and Jennifer Paginelli side by side.

And a bit of Denyse Schmidt too.

A very cute little bath tub full of fabric

Christie and Garen egging me on!

I had no chance.  Hehe.

I bought a lot.  They said it was okay.  Enablers! 

So on this rainy day, I came home and worked on this,

my Pat Sloan Globetrotter.

A bit of chevrons . . . 

And a new project . . . 

Dresden flowers for a friendship garden quilt.

My friends are sending me their flowers.

I can't wait to build my garden!