A New Quilter!

My daughter Michelle came to spend Labor Day weekend with us and she had some projects in mind that she wanted to work on while she was here.  One project she finished, but has to remain a secret until Christmas time, but the other project is a quilt that she wanted to make!  I think she was inspired by my millefiori quilt because she wanted to make a quilt with many different fabrics and colors.  She chose the Turning Twenty Again pattern which is a great one for beginners.  Although she has made a quilt before (a rag quilt in high school), she hasn't sewn for quite some time.

I think she enjoyed the process!  She had fun picking out the fabric from her cowboy fabric stash and from my millefiori stash. She got eight blocks (out of 25) done while she was here.  Looking good so far!

I'm excited to see it when she finishes it!!

We set up a work station for her at our kitchen table so I dug out this iron that I bought awhile back but hadn't used yet.  I think, if I remember correctly, that it was recommended by Karen Kay Buckley in a class I took from her.  There is no place to add water so it's not a steam iron, but boy does it work GREAT!  It gets hot and it presses flat, without steam, which is nice!  No spitting or dripping or stopping to add more water!  It's called a Continental Electric Dry Iron.  I bought it on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=continental+electric+dry+iron&sprefix=continental+elec%2Caps%2C259&crid=17E1TA46HFD28

This new issue of American Quilter magazine is packed full of fun stuff.

1. I really liked the Interview with Tula Pink.  A couple of quotes I liked:
"Artists never reach their full potential if they work with other people's opinions in the mix.  The one thing that every truly successful designer/artist/creative has in common is an absolute commitment to their own personal vision."
"My advice is to sew like a beginner.  They are the best!  They have no fear.  Beginners haven't learned to be afraid of bias or curves or complicated techniques, so they just jump right into the deep end."
"My studio is a sacred place for me.  It is tidy, almost all of the time.  I can't work in a mess.  I keep my studio white: white floors, white walls, white ceiling.  The only color comes from what I am working on. It's a blank slate so that everything falls away except for what I need to see at that moment." She said the rest of her home is pretty dense with pattern and color but her studio serves a different purpose.  Great article and fun pictures!
2. There is an article by Cindy Needham (who visited Grand Junction last year) on Making Lexie Quilts.  Using hexagons and English Paper Piecing with her vintage linens.  Very interesting!
3. Lessons from a young quilter by Kimberly Einmo is also a great article.  She talks about how as quilters we often feel compelled to point out all of our mistakes on our quilt, especially when someone pays us a compliment.  She met a young quilter last year who wrote about his quilt "My quilt is awesome.  My quilt is so awesome it glows!"  She encourages us to be more like that :)
4.  Some great machine quilting border designs from Lori Kennedy.
Great magazine!  Go check it out and have a great day!