On Saturday, I taught the first Tucker University class at Four Pines Quilt Chop in Claremont, NH. Lots of half-square triangle, quarter-square, combination and shaded 4 patch units were made. It was a fun and productive day. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, I forgot to take pictures to share. I hope to do better next month when we make V-blocks and variants. I was able to finish up a UFO this week. This one was a mystery quilt published by The Quilt Pattern Magazine newsletter recipients from July 2016 through May 2017. It was called Nine Patch Row Mystery. I had it quilted by Sharon Walty from Henderson Harbor, NY in August of last year. It took me until this past week to finally get the binding done on it. It is too long for me to get a picture of it hanging. I had to put it on my design wall sideways. Now this quilt will be joining others in my guild's Giraffe Closet. We give those quilts to members of our area that have been victims of a disaster such as fire or other trauma. I know it will find a good home.
I have 7 tops for small quilts that I need to get quilted. There will either be for nursing home residents for their wheelchairs or for children in the pediatric unit at our local hospital. I'm going to try to get a couple finished before the next guild meeting. Until next time, keep on stitching! It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the new year. Today we are half through the month. Fortunately, I have managed a lot of time to sew this month due to the weather we've had here. Today it is another cold day so I should have plenty of time today to sew. One of the projects I have been working on is Timeless With a Twist which is a weekly sampler hosted by Michelle Hiatt of Sew On The Go. Sign up for her newsletter if you'd like to join the fun. The block instructions are very complete and utilize the marvelous tools from Studio 180 Designs. Here are my first 2 blocks. I plan to make several charity quilts from the 48 blocks of this project. The first one will use 12 blocks and will all include the dragonfly fabric with its stained glass look. The other fabrics will be 5 values of the pink and green. So far I have used 3 of the pink and 4 of the greens. I hope that I can bring the rest of the fabrics into the mix. My goals for the month are progressing nicely. I have my table runner finished, the charity quilts bound, class preparations complete and am blogging weekly. I have many other items on my plate. One of those is my guild's BOM for 2018. Be sure to download the first month before March so you don't have to pay for it. Here is the first month's block - New England Star. Well, that's enough for this week. See you next. Take care.
So far, so good, on my 2018 goal of blogging once a week, with Monday being the preferred day. I messed that up last week but I am here to tell you that week 2 is right on track. Last week I told you about One Monthly Goal sponsored by Elm Street Quilts. I was #56 in posting my goal. There are now 169 goals linked up. (You can see them at the One Monthly Goal January link up here.) I am ecstatic to report that I already completed my goal! I love my Bread & Butter Table Runner. You can buy the pattern at your local quilt shop or from my Store. I used William Morris fabrics but the design looks good in any fabric combination. The third goal I listed last week was to get four donation quilts bound. I am half done with that one. Check out my 2 versions of Connecting Threads 2016 Mystery quilt. These 2 quilts will be going to my guild. Like I said at the beginning of this post, so far, so good. I should have my 4 goals completed by the end of the month. I have lots of other items on my to-be-done-before-too-long list so boredom isn't in my future. One of those other items is my version of SueNami from Studio 180 Designs. I don't have this one for sale on my website yet but will add that to my list of things to-do-sooner-rather-than-later. Can you tell that I love paisleys? This pattern was very straightforward to piece using the Rapid Fire Petite Hunter's Star and Wing Clipper I tools.
So you can see that I've been busy this past week but there is always more to do. Take care and see you next week. My friend and fellow CI, Karen Overton, is also known as The Quilt Rambler. She has taken up the One Monthly Goal challenge from Elm Street Quilts and I have decided to follow her lead. (You can read Karen's goals here.) At this point, there are over 50 bloggers that have taken up this challenge. (You can see them at the One Monthly Goal January link up here.) To be included, one must blog one monthly goal. In this post I will describe 4 goals that I have for the month. The one for this challenge is to layer and quilt my version of Bread & Butter Table Runner. Bread & Butter Table Runner is a marvelous pattern from Studio 180 Designs that uses the Tucker Trimmer I. My version uses William Morris 2017 fabric that I bought at Four Pines Quilting in Claremont, NH. My second goal is to prepare and teach my first Tucker University class at Four Pines on January 20th. If you are interested, click here to register online with Four Pines. In this class, I will teach how to use the Tucker Trimmer I for making half square triangles, quarter square triangles, combination units and shaded four patches. All of these can be made in 11 different sizes using the single tool. For the class you need the Tucker Trimmer I, Quilter's Magic Wand, Shaded Four Patch technique sheet and the Tucker Trimmer I design sheet. These items can be purchased at the class if you don't already own them.
My third goal is to bind four quilts that I will be donating to my guild's Giraffe Closet. I will be posting pictures as I get each one of them finished so you can admire my handiwork. (Big grin!) My 4th and final goal is actually one for the entire year. I will be trying to blog once every week. I would like to post every Monday but any day within a week will work for me. Hopefully, you'll hear from me again next Monday. Until then, take care! I am so not good at blogging daily.
My goal for 2018 is to blog weekly. I have a lot going on in 2018 so it should be a fun adventure for us. For the last couple of days I have been trying to move a couple of BOM projects forward. My guild, Cheshire Quilter's Guild, BOM is called Starstruck and will have 20 different star blocks. I am creating YouTube videos showing the piecing for each block. There is only 1 block in the first installment. The video is done and ready for its premiere. The second video is shot but I haven't transferred to my computer for editing yet. My plan is to stay a month ahead so I need to get busy with shooting and editing the third one also. It si important to note that the videos are not stand-alone. You will need to download the instructional pdf each month. The instructional pdfs will be free for 2 months. After that you can download them for $2. I've included a sneak peek of Starstruck below. The second BOM is a collaborative project with another Studio 180 Designs Certified Instructor. We are still working out the details but I think you will be pleased with the result. Like the guild BOM, this project will offer alternative settings and plenty of blocks for practicing your piecing using the various Studio 180 Designs tools. Another item keeping me busy on the computer is a pattern that will be in the July 2018 issue of The Quilt Pattern Magazine. No quilty news today. We went to see the new Jumanji movie today. It was a lot of fun. I haven't been to a movie in probably 5 years - at least over 4 years. The last time was before we moved to New Hampshire. Now it is time to relax and recover so take care all.
Santa brought me lots of wonderful quilty gifts. First, in my stocking wer a t-shirt, 2 stainless steel cups and a photo frame. I particularly like the Fabricaholic one! Under the tree were a number of other neat items like another t-shirt, some shoes and socks (Carol - eat your heart out!) and an awesome apron. My sister custom-made the apron. There is room to put my tools in the pockets on the front. Plus the pin cushion attaches by Velcro so I can remove it if I need to. This apron will come in handy as I teach Tucker University next year. I'll be styling in my new socks and shoes too. Well, take care - I've got presents to play with! Sorry for the day off. Yesterday turned out to be hectic. Today I went to the mall and bought a couple of last gifts. One of them was 70% off - score! Today I wanted to share a couple of pictures of Hunter's Lodge. This hunter's star quilt is made using the large Rapid Fire Hunter's Star tool from Studio 180 Designs. I will be teaching a class at New England Fabrics for this pattern some time early next year. The date hasn't been scheduled yet so I'll post when it is arranged. Here is a closer pictures so you can admire the fabrics I used. My version looks nothing like the original. I like to mix up the fabric choices to show the possibilities offered by a pattern. Just imagine the possibilities with your fabric choices! Take care.
Change of plans - due to the expected weather we went to my sister's house early. It is a 5 hour drive and I am bushed. Here is a snow picture. This is what we expect on Friday and then rain and ice on Saturday. So we finished up the laundry we needed, packed the car and off we went.
Take care - hope your family travels safely - see you tomorrow! Well, I've learned something over the last almost 3 weeks. I'm never going to be an every day blogger. I'm going to keep going with the 31 day challenge but will work on posting weekly once the new year is here. Today's post is a continuation of a story I started on the 15th. I introduced you to our new pet. This porcupine has visited every night for over a week now. Porcupines are a nocturnal rodent. They eat plants and tree bark. Our porcupine has a taste for bird seed. We finally named him - Quillliam Penn. If we discover somehow that Quilliam is a female, we'll modify it to Quilla. Quilliam was almost named Quilliam Shake-a-spear but we decided on Quilliam Penn instead. Last night Quilliam learned a new trick. He climbed up the 5 steps to our deck to reach the bird seed that we put there. Quilliam doesn't mind flash photography so I'm sharing a nice portrait of him. As I am typing this post, Quilliam is again on the deck. Obviously, he wasn't traumatized last night. Until next time, take care.
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