Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop

I fell in love with this quilt on the porch at Little Quilts in Atlanta (Marietta actually). I can't believe I forgot to bring my camera, or I would have had so many neat pictures. I took this one with my phone. The GAQSH includes 11 shops. I only drove up Saturday afternoon and was able to hit four shops. I wish I had done more, and maybe next year I will. I actually did the whole hop the first year they had it, and haven't done another one since. With two kids it was just too much to ask of them to visit all those quilt shops, and it was too much to ask anyone to keep them for me for all those days. Maybe they are old enough now, at 14 and 12, that I can freely hop again. :0)

I hit my favorite shops first. Little Quilts, Red Hen, Tiny Stitches, and then a new one - Stitch 'n Quilt in Mableton. It was a really nice shop and the ladies in there were laughing and having the best time. My kind of shop! Of course, I can never go wrong with my old favorites. Little Quilts has some nice primitive items, needlepunch, wool, rug hooking, plus loads of fabric. Red Hen is just great! Tiny Stitches is too. I guess my all-around favorite is Little Quilts, but it is really hard to choose.

I enjoyed my weekend, but didn't get a bit of sewing done. Oh well, maybe next time!

Julie

Quilt Retreat

Every spring my quilt guild has a retreat. We have been going to the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Georgia. It is such a nice place, and we have so much fun. Last year I made these paper-pieced barking dog blocks. I have since then completed the top, but have not quilted it. I have been stagnant in my quilting life for the last couple of years. However, I am coming out of it. I have been mostly doing some handwork, but have also been venturing down to my sewing studio to work on some maple leaf blocks. I have a gazillion of the blocks, I just need to make them into tops. Yes, tops plural. I have so many of these blocks. I think I can make three tops and one wall-hanging. I am not sure what to do with my barking dog blocks, but I would love to get it finished.

Julie

Cotton Boll Quilt Guild Annual Retreat 2009

The Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Georgia, is fantastic! We thoroughly enjoyed the facilities, food, and environment. The people were very nice, and treated us very well. We have all agreed to go back again next year.
I finally finished the machine quilting on this small Christmas quilt. It is about 40 inches square, and uses a fat quarter pack that I purchased from Tiny Stitches in Atlanta a couple of years ago. I also added some gold fabric that I had on hand to stretch it enough to make it a decent lap size.
Now I only have to add the binding. It will be ready for Christmas 2009!
The pastel quilt above is one that my roommate, Linda, was working on. She bought the kit to make it at a quilt shop in Conyers, Georgia, and got a lot of work done on it. I am not sure if she finished the top or not.
This is another top Linda was working on. It is sort of a random string quilt that she was putting together with scraps. I liked it!!
Pat H. has worked on this stack-n-whack quilt for the last three retreats. She finally finished the top at this retreat. A section is missing because she was sewing it together at the time. She is going to make this one king-sized to fit on her bed! I hope to see the finished product soon. :-)
And here is my Noah's Ark quilt top, finally put together. I worked on these embroidery blocks over Christmas break. I love them. They were a free stitchery BOM from Lynette Anderson. She is very generous to give these away to her blog fans. If you would like to download the patterns while they are still available, they are here. This makes a very tiny quilt. I am going to add a border to it, then it will be ready to quilt. I just love it.
Stay tuned for more retreat photos. Have a great weekend.
Julie

Finally, a quilty post. Well, not all quilty.

Here is the result of my toothbrush rug experiment. I only got it about 8 inches in diameter before I stopped. It is a toothbrush trivet, LOL. The rug started cupping into a bowl shape. I now know how to control the tension so that it won't do this. Not bad for a first try.
This is my favorite project right now. English paper piecing is lots of fun, and the perfect portable project. I am going for a tumbling blocks look. It is challenging to find those medium colors! Contrast is the key.
I completed this needlepunch project while on Spring Break. It is called Scaredy Cat, or is it Fraidy Cat? I don't remember. Anyway, I just love the faces on the little pumpkins. Needlepunch is such a cool thing to do, and most people have never heard of it.
This is a miniature quilt top, still waiting for its borders. It seems so boring compared to the other things I am working on.
I am looking forward to my quilt guild's retreat in a couple of weeks. I hope to get a charity quilt made, as well as some baby quilts. I am way behind in these projects. I don't want to try to do too much, because I know from past experience that I get more talking done than quilting.
Only 13 more student days until school is out for summer break. The kids are getting more and more out of control as the time approaches. I just hope we can avoid any major meltdowns or drama. The last couple of weeks we have to really tighten up, because the kids are stir crazy.
Enjoy your week.
Julie

Bonnie Hunter Workshop

What a fantastic two days it was! The workshop was on October 15th. I took a personal day at work in order to attend. It was definitely worth it. Bonnie is like an old friend - she is so sweet and personable. You really do feel like you already know someone when you have been reading their blog and interacting with them through other Internet venues.

We chose the Starstruck workshop and here is Bonnie's quilt. It was so interesting to see other people's color and fabric choices.

You may recognize the names Linda and Emily from Columbus, Georgia. They are on Stashbusters and they came to the workshop also. It was really fun to get to know them a little better.

Here is a Quiltville member, Anne D. She was the coordinator for the workshop and we are so grateful to her for making sure that everything ran perfectly. Here she is hard at work on her own version of Starstruck.Sarah - a member of the Quilt Mavericks blogring - came to the workshop too. It was fun to meet new people - especially people who previously only existed on the computer. LOL.Thursday night we had our regular guiild meeting, but the program was Bonnie's lecture and trunk show. I took lots of pictures but am only showing a few here. I just loved this quilt of Bonnie's but I can't remember the name of it.

These crumb quilts are my absolute favorites. I just love the wonkiness and fun of them. And the fact that they are made from what many folks would have thrown away.
Here is Bonnie with her own Carolina Crossroads. This was the first of her online Quiltville mystery quilts and I jumped right on board with it.
Here is my version of Carolina Crossroads. I pieced the top and gave it to my mom for her birthday. She had it machine quilted by Cindy Wall of Cinnamon Dreams. You may remember my recent post in memory of Cindy. She has since passed away and we all miss her.
Here is my version of Orange Crush - another of Bonnie's online mystery quilts.

Last but certainly not least, this is Cindy's Old Tobacco Road. She had just finished it the morning that she died. She was going to photograph it and put it on the Quiltville site that afternoon but she died before that could happen so I am going to do it for her. Cindy used some of her Laurel Burch fabric stash on this one and it is very bright and colorful.

By the way, Cindy's elderly dogs were left behind when she died. They still do not have a home and are living at the veterinarian's kennel. We are all hoping to find them a good home. Do you know of anyone who would like to adopt one or both of them? They are so friendly and sweet and it would break Cindy's heart to know that they are homeless.

Here they are, all dressed up for Halloween. Just look at those sweet faces!!

Julie

Obligatory Quilt Photos

It is August and school is back in full-swing now. It has been cooler for the last couple of days which has been such a relief. Our students are starting to come out of their shells, or, as we say, the honeymoon period is over! Sixth graders are such a challenge sometimes. They are cute, however, and I love to work with them. The interesting thing is that this year my daughter, Joy, is in the sixth grade. She is actually in my sixth period class! So far that is working out pretty well.
The top two pictures are of a Sunbonnet Sue quilt I made using a Little Quilts pattern. It was supposed to be redwork but I decided to use fusible applique. It was one of my very first quilt projects. You can see that the machine quilting is not the best but I love it anyway. It was so much fun to pick out the fabrics for Sue's clothing each month.
Here is little Cabalito in swaddling clothes. Joy was treating him like a baby and insisted that I take a picture. He is such a cutie and so tolerant of the kids. I think that is somewhat unusual for a Chihuahua. The photo below is for Candace. Here is the mother plant of the hen that I told you would get so big. Mine is in a falling-apart pot - but it is one of those 12 inch diameter pots so you can see how big it is. Actually it doesn't look that big in this photo! Oh well. The Secret Santa Christmas Swap information came for me yesterday. I am so excited and am already planning what to put into the package. The Stitchers Angel Swap should start one day next week and I can't wait to find out who my swap partner is. This will be so much fun!!!
Julie