Dear Jane Quilt

My Dear Jane top was
done in June and the hand quilting is now underway and about 50% done. Sore quilting fingers and other fall and Christmas projects have slowed progress but I'll be back on track after the holidays.

Eye Candy

The Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild had a special visitor earlier this week. Bonnie McCaffery was our featured speaker on Monday and workshop teacher on Tuesday. Here are some of the wonderful quilts that she brought with her to show... They were even better, of course, in person. Thank you, Bonnie, for visiting and sharing! (and thank you to the guild members who have lovely hands...)

Come Join the Fun!

If you are a member of the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild, you are welcome to join the Laurel Janes at a mini-retreat at the lake house on Friday and Saturday, November 13th and 14th. We will start at 9:00 and finish up each day in the late afternoon. You don't have to be working on a Dear Jane project in order to join the party. Come see what the Laurel Janes are working on and bring your own sewing/quilting/stitching projects to work on. Come for an hour or come for all day.

Bring a dish to pass and a contribution of $10 for one day or $15 for both to help pay for the utilities in the lake house. For more info, call Nancy S. or Dori S. or Moddy M. Check your roster or newsletter for their contact info.

Hope to see you there!

Applique class at the Lake House

I had a wonderful day sharing my knowledge of applique with 14 great gals at the Lake House. I forgot that I had my camera until it was just about over but we still had some die hearts that stuck it out to the end. What a wonderful place to stitch, great light and plenty of room to spread out... thanks to Moddy for opening her home to us quilters. I got to know three new gals that belong to our guild but hadn't met them and they were delightful. Take a class or get involved in a committee as you never know when you will meet that special friend.

Mary Jane

Monsters for Linus

I have a piece of fabric that was supposed to sew up into a fabric book. It has cute monster jokes on it, so I bought 2 panels for my grandkids. However, the jokes were for 6-8 year olds, who don't need cloth books, so I never made the books. This week one of the panels turned into a cute Linus quilt top. Probably won't get quilted until 2010, but at least it's off the shelf!

Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight

Ever since I saw my first "Storm at Sea" quilt, I just knew I had to make one for my dad, who's been an avid sailor all his life. It's done in the traditional Storm at Sea setting, but I manipulated the colors to resemble a sunset over the water - hence the name "Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight". It will make the perfect Christmas gift for Dad this year!
The most exciting part was trying to find the "perfect" fabric to use for the sun's reflection in the water. I finally found a light periwinkle/blue fabric that looked like it had gold dust lightly brushed across it, and that gave exactly the effect I wanted. It faintly suggests the sunlight dancing off the water.

I used John Flynn's acrylic templates to cut all the pieces, and quilted it on my domestic machine using John's "dot-to-dot" design that he uses on his Storm at Sea quilts. I'm sharing it with you all because so many of you have been a part of the planning of this quilt (and Susan insisted that I post it on this blog), but you have to promise to keep it a secret! After all, Christmas is still 2 months away and I wouldn't want Dad to find out about it early! Thanks to all who offered their opinions and support!

Circle Stitcher

I've gotten a couple of questions about the circle stitcher I used in my Quilter's Crossroads post last week. I learned about it from Libby Lehman at the Ricky Tims Super Seminar I attended with Nancy C last summer.

For my Janome machine, which has a bobbin that is flat under the needle, the circle stitcher takes the place of the bobbin cover to attach to the machine. From that bobbin cover, an arm extends to the left about 6 inches, is adjustable in length, and ends with a sharply pointed thingy like a tack on the teacher's chair.

You layer your circle inset (with stabilizer) under the quilt top into which you want to insert it. You then center the circle and its top fabric on the tack, after setting its length to the radius of the circle you want to stitch. Using a straight stitch, you stitch the circle and assist the fabric to spin around the tack. This would be hard with a big piece of quilt top, I think. Next you carefully cut out the top layer of fabric inside the circle, very close to the stitching. Then you use a decorative stitch to enhance your inset circle.

Of course, you could just stitch circles without insets, using interesting threads and varying your circle size. Maybe I should try that next!

The attachment cost about $40 at Mickey's.

Quilt Show Season Continues

If you're up for a road trip with quilting friends, the Kenan Quilt Guild of Lockport, NY will be having their show on Nov 6, 7, and 8 from 10AM until 5PM in Lockport's Kenan Arena (click on the link for more details -- scroll down the page to the info about the quilt show). Vendors, demos, food court, door prizes, boutique, 300 items on display. $5 admission.

There are several quilt shops on the way...

(clip art courtesy of The Sewing Box)

Quilter's Crossroads

Last summer we spent two days in my driveway mixing fabric dyes and pouring them on various pieces of fabric including our undies and socks. I dyed one half yard piece in rainbow stripes from red through to purple. When it was dry I cut the two halfs of the rainbow apart and then into strips with I converged ala Ricky Tims. Then I used my new circle stitcher to insert circles from the back with decorative stitching. This was fun to make-- a good practice piece! Pardon my toe!

Raffle Quilt WIP

This lovely Christmas quilt (approx 72" x 72") was recently made by several Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild members using fabric that had been donated for charity projects. As soon as the binding is finished (cheery Christmas red), it will go to the Northern Tier Children's Home Thrift Shop in Whitneyville, PA for a fundraiser. If you're in the area, you should be able to get raffle tickets there soon. Don't miss it!

Dear Jane is Done

My Dear Jane quilt is finished, hand quilted and even have a sleeve sewn on the back... on to other things in my brain. After looking at the photo I would have set the blocks differently, they run together too much but done is done! It was a nice experience to sew along with the other Laurel Janes and see how different fabrics interpret the original quilt. Tonight is the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild Meeting so I am prepared for Show & Tell.

Another Quilt Show!

If you're in the area this upcoming weekend, check out this quilt show put on by the Tiadaghton Quilt Guild in Williamsport, PA.

Don't let the snowy forecast scare you away!

Great Grandson's Baby Quilt

We are expecting a great grandson in NC on Dec. 15th and a shower is being given on Oct. 25th. I can't be there but at least I got his quilt done and it will be in the mail this week. The pattern is from Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts, Fall 2009. Of course I had to hand quilt it but it would have been much faster to machine quilt.

Quilters' Eye Candy

Several weeks ago, the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild gathered at a "Sew-La-Tea" event for local quilters. One of the highlights of the afternoon was the display of quilts (both completed and in progress) by members of the guild's Laurel Janes. The members of this group have been meeting for the last 16 months or so to make their own versions of Jane Stickle's famous 1863 quilt. Here are some that were shown -- (apologies for the bad photos -- the lighting was not the best) --

This is Nancy S. with her completed center made with 30s reproduction fabrics. She is now working on the outer triangles.

Rita made 40 blocks (hand-pieced) and set them on point with some cream-colored squares. She is now in the process of hand-quilting.

Betty M. made two small wallhangings. This is her first one.

And this is her second one (she was inspired by the Empire Quilters' 2009 raffle quilt).

Dori made 25 blocks and decided to make a small wallhanging. She is now in the process of adding some applique in the border. When she finishes with this, she plans to pick fabrics that she likes better and will work on a second quilt.

The batik blocks above Dori on the design wall were made by Anya. She has 20 more of the center blocks to finish and then plans to add the outer triangles.

Perhaps we can encourage some other members of the Laurel Janes to show photos of their work on this blog soon...