Monday, August 31, 2015

Speaking of Craftsy....

Yesterday I mentioned three Craftsy classes I have taken or am currently taking.  Today I found out about a new one by Angela Walters on "Machine
Quilting Borders and Background", which as I mentioned is weakness of mine!  And if you go to the link below, she is offering the class for 50% off the regular price - yeah!!









These quilts are currently hanging at the Springville Art Museum.
Moonlight made and quilted by Lisa Chin
http://www.quiltingismytherapy.com/2015/08/31/machine-quilting-borders-and-background-a-new-craftsy-class/?utm_source=Quilting+Is+My+Therapy+Blog+Posts&utm_campaign=352f5adc84-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8d8d1f739d-352f5adc84-92009625&mc_cid=352f5adc84&mc_eid=5733b8c626



Flower of Happiness by Kathleen Baer
quilted by Cathy Payne




Flags made and quilted by Nancy T. Williams
Original Design





Worlds Without End
made and quilted by Sharon Aposhian Wright

Received an Award of Excellence

Made with Dupioni Silk, quilted with silk thread and wool batting.  Stunning!






Little House in the Big Woods
by Linda Williams
quilted by Kim Peterson

Received an Honorable Mention award

The quilting is stunning!




My Town made and quilted by
Ruth Peterson Ewers

I love it!




OK, I am finally going to work on that Telescope carrier today!  Wish me luck!

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Craftsy Classes

I want to mention three Craftsy Classes I have taken recently and found very helpful with machine quilting:
1) Help! How Do I Quilt It? A Machine Quilting Manual - Angela Walters
2) Divide and Conquer, Creative Quilting for Any Space - Lori Kennedy
3) Quilting With Rulers on a Home Machine - Amy Johnson
These classes have been SO helpful and you can enjoy them in the comfort of your own home.  You can find them at:
www.craftsy.com


Here are some more photos from the Springville Art Museum quilt exhibit.  The quilt above is:
La Petite Chef d'Oeure by Helen Williams Butler and quilted by her as well.  As you can see in this photo on the left, this quilt is a miniature!  You can't really tell that from the photo above.  It received a well-deserved Award of Excellence!  She said that La petite chef d'oeure means "my little masterpiece" - a very fitting name.  She also said that after completing this miniature quilt she knows she will never make another one!  Maybe she will change her mind :)



My Grandmother's Garden
by Peg Heermance
quilted by Cheryl Barlow





Well Done Good and Faithful Servant
made and quilted by Donna Schipper Moyer
Received the Show Committee Award

This quilt was made entirely by hand.





My Legacy Quilt
made and quilted by Nancy J. Allen

Received the Best Hand Quilting Award
(It is all hand appliquéd too!)




Melissa Wedding Quilt
by Katherine Porter
quilted by Virgina Gore

A wedding quilt made for her granddaughter who loves color.





Symbols of Nippon
by Jacquelyn Thompson
quilted by Kim Peterson

Received an Award of Excellence



Saturday, August 29, 2015

Sew Like a Rock Star!

Well I learned how to "sew like a rock star" at the Bernina Sewapalooza event!  I made the two projects in the front of the photo, trying out several different presser feet, machine embroidery and appliqué and saw demonstrations of cutwork and paintwork (I think that's what it was called - where you can actually draw and paint with your sewing machine!)  I also received kits to make the other two projects that Michelle made, and made three "take a break projects"!  The event was so well organized and a ton of fun.  A big thank you to Heather and all the folks at Hi Fashion for all of their hard work this weekend!  I learned a lot and am inspired creatively :)

Friday, August 28, 2015

Sewapalooza!


Today (and tomorrow) I attended a Bernina Sewapalooza special event, sponsored by Hi Fashion.  Heather, who works part time at Hi Fashion now and travels for Bernina was the teacher and did an excellent job.  We got to sew all day on the new Bernina 790 machine and I tried things I've never tried before!  My friend Michelle and I shared a machine - it was a fun day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my little projects.  I even tried out a serger today - for the first time :)


Here is Michelle working on her gift card holder, there are three "take a break" projects besides the four main projects.  All the supplies were provided - we just have to show up!


Looking forward to more fun tomorrow!

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Baby Stuff


Less than six weeks until I am a grandma!  I am very excited! I bought this really light weight gauze fabric to make swaddle blankets.  I just squared up the fabric, hemmed the edges and washed and dried them.  They are so soft!  Not that I know anything about swaddling, we really didn't do it like they do now 30 years ago when I was having kids!  Ah well, Grandma's can learn too :)



My friend Michelle gave me instructions on how to make nursing cover-ups so I made two of those yesterday.  They have boning in the neck part so the mother can peek in and see what the baby is doing - let some air flow in too!


They roll up into a nice little bundle so they're easy to grab and carry in the diaper bag.

And I finally finished the Sophia quilt from Bonnie Blue - the kit I bought years ago in Houston!  I will save this for the next granddaughter (Megan picked the other two.)  I REALLY had fun quilting this on the Bernina Q20.  I used the Bernina Stitch Regulator 1 and 2 and the manual mode in different places on the quilt.  It's so nice to have options!  I used Superior Magnifico thread in both the top and the bobbin.  I learned in Lori Kennedy's Craftsy class recently that it's a good idea to use cotton in the bobbin though because it locks the threads together better than two more slippery threads.  I am happy with the way the quilting on this turned out though!


My first Ruler work!  I'm definitely going to try more of that!



I'm not sure how well three dimensional flowers will do on a baby quilt, but they sure look cute!

Now I'm headed upstairs to make a carrying case for a telescope - yikes!  I'm a little nervous about this one....

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

More Quilts from Springville



Here are a few more quilts from the Springville Art Museum exhibit!


Baskets, Baskets and More Baskets
by Pat B. Fuller
quilted by Janae Tanner


Radient Star by Barbara Walsh
quilted by Virginia Gore

Received an Award of Excellence



Lorna's Loyal Union
made and quilted by Lorna Hortman

This quilt contains 121 sampler blocks and is hand quilted!




My Two Color Quilt
by Gloria Jean Hartley
quilted by Carole Lifferth

This quilt only has green and cream colored fabric - any other color you see is thread!




Winter Wolf by Carol Ford
quilted by Virginia Gore

Received an Award of Excellence



Santa Fe Memories
by Marilyn Alice Fashbaugh
quilted by Holly Casey


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

The Route of the Hiawatha Bike Trail


A couple of weeks ago, my husband, my Dad and I went up to Idaho (and Montana) and rode The Route of the Hiawatha Bike Trail.  It was SO much fun and a very beautiful ride.

The trail opens at 8:30 AM and we were pretty much the first ones to set out, although there were several others not far behind us.  It was a little foggy as we got started.  You start out in Montana and end up in Idaho.


The 15 mile long trail is an old railroad route with ten train tunnels and 7 sky high trestle bridges.  The first tunnel is over a mile and a half long and never gets above 42 degrees.  You need lights on your bike and Mike got us head lamps as well, which I really liked because then everywhere I looked I could see!


I wore my headlamp the whole time because I wanted to be prepared for every tunnel!  Some tunnels were short and you could "see the light at the end of the tunnel" even when you entered, but many were long and we were in complete darkness as we rode along! I kept hoping there were no bats - didn't see any!


Here is the entrance to one of the tunnels.


The scenery was gorgeous!


My Dad on one of the trestle bridges.


Mike on one of the bridges with another of the bridges in the distance behind him - you can see how high they are.

I wondered if we would see any wildlife and we did - a LOT of chipmunks!


The trail is dirt but you can see it's pretty flat.



Still rocking the headlamp, even though everyone else has ditched theirs by now :)




At the end of the trail, we met up with the shuttle bus which shuttled us back to the first tunnel, then we had to ride back through that mile and a half tunnel to get back to the car.  It seemed longer the second time for some reason - maybe because we were going up hill!

Horrible picture of me,  but they've taken out seats in the back of an old school bus to hang bikes.  Frankly, the bus ride was the scariest part of the whole trip!  I  guess it wasn't that bad, but if I do it again I won't be sitting in the front, or on the right side....


But if I hadn't been sitting in the front, on the right side, I would have missed seeing the moose!


This picture should have been first.  The night before the ride we stayed in the little town of Wallace, Idaho and ate a great breakfast there before heading out to the trail head in Montana.

It was a ton of fun - we all enjoyed it!  Thanks to Mike for planning the trip and if you want to check out this trail yourself you can read more about it at:
http://www.ridethehiawatha.com