Quilt Show coming to Lewes Delaware

You are INVITED !!!  

Come visit the lovely resort town of Lewes, Delaware and come to the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild Show – July 21 and July 22, 2017 at Cape Henlopen High School.     There are over 300 quilts registered and more than 15 Vendors!!!

“Peach Blossom – Quilts in the Orchard”

Quilt Show

July 21 – 22, 2017 10AM-5PM

Admission:  $8 per day; $14 for 2 day pass

Venue – Cape Henlopen High School, Lewes, DE

 MAP TO Cape Henlopen High School

Show Judges:

Sandra L. Dorrbecker (NQACJ-NQACT)  and

Elizabeth Pauley Teletski

Featuring Guest Lecturers & Workshop Teachers:

Laurie Simpson, of Minick and Simpson   

and 

Terry Kramzar

Laurie Simpson–  an internationally renowned guest lecturer, will be speaking Saturday and leading a workshop Friday. Laurie, fondly known as the quilting half of Minick and Simpson, is a lifelong needle artist.  She designs fabric for Moda Fabrics, in addition to writing and teaching.

Terry Kramzar –  a prominent art quilter is an award winning fabric artist from Kennett Square, PA.  Her work is featured in private and corporate collections in the US and Europe.  Her quilts can be seen in numerous publications; she was recently featured in QuiltLife Magazine.  An intrepid explorer, Terry has traveled to Africa, China, Zanzibar, India and all over Europe.  She is giving Friday’s talk, and Saturday’s workshop.

Plenty of Free Parking – Judged Quilt Displays, Challenge Quilts, Lectures, Workshops, Demonstrations Merchant Mart, Raffle Baskets, Second Time Around Shop, Food Service on-site, and Community Service Projects.  

More details on the guild website – https://www.oceanwavesquiltguild.org/quilt-show

(By the way – My Pet Mosaic project – MITTENS – will be at the show……………

 and Addison’s quilt will be there as well)

And……….if you are a regular reader, you KNOW that I have been working for an entire year, prepping fabric to sell at the show, along with vintage sewing machine attachments, notions, vintage quilts, quilt racks, embroidery, cross stitch, candlewicking items and much much more! (BARGAINS GALORE)  We will a “Fill a bag with scraps” deal and “Fill a bag with TIES” too.   You won’t believe the BIG pieces of fabric in the playpen for you to dig into !  From 2″ to nearly fat quarter sized pieces and LOTS of Neckties too.  Don’t forget to look for me at the Second Time Around booth when you come to the show!! Tell me you are a reader of this blog! 

So, plan on a visit to the Delaware Beaches and come to the quilt show!  There are lots of hotels between Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, and Dewey Beach, Fenwick, Bethany Beach, Delaware and Ocean City Maryland.  If summer includes a visit to the Mid-Atlantic, this is a show not to miss.  When you look at the website, you will see some photo’s of the beautiful quilts from the 2015 show!  

This is an “unauthorized shameless promotion of the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild show”.  Feel free to SHARE this post on your blog, or Facebook!  

Mystery is close to being solved!

Greetings — I’ve been away from the blog for almost a month!  I disappeared but now I am back!!  A round of bronchitis has kept me low for a few weeks, and I am just getting back into the swing of things.  I was totally out of commission for 2 weeks, not venturing to the garage and up the stairs to the sewing room.  Finally last weekend I had enough energy to make the trek.  Off and on all week I have worked on trimming up flying geese (216 of them), and building “string blocks” for the borders of my Talkin’ Turkey Quilt (Pattern by Bonnie Hunter – String Fling book).  Now, the geese are trimmed, and 108 of them sewn into one of 3 rounds of borders.  The string blocks are made, and cut and sewn back together with the papers removed. Those will make the 2nd border.  I have over 400″ of a string block border made.  They wait patiently for me to get the quilt off the design wall and sew them on. The last border will be another 108 of the geese.  I have them ready to stitch, but I have other priorities currently.

I’m still prepping donated sewing items and fabrics for selling at the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild quilt show in July.  So far we are approaching 40 boxes of fabrics ready to go!  I have such great helpers trimming, pressing folding, pricing!  I was able to work one day this week finally, and will go full force the week after next.  Check out the info for the quilt show here – Ocean Waves Quilt Guild Quilt Show.  Dates – July 21 & 22, 2017, Cape Henlopen High School – Lewes DE.  About 300 quilts and LOTS of vendors!  Come to the beach, and stop by the show! Visit me at the Second Time Around booth where I will have 7 tables of wonderful fabrics & notions, and 2 tables of books and magazines to sell.  Bargains all around at my booth.

Yesterday was….the 3rd Friday of the month!  You KNOW I love the 3rd Friday, because Carole releases the next step in the Scrap Dance Two Step Mystery Quilt.  If you are unfamiliar, check out her blog – From My Carolina Home  . She writes clear, easy to follow instructions, and includes a PDF file you can take to the sewing room with directions and photos.  I didn’t get a chance to sew yesterday (LIFE happens); but I got a chance this afternoon, and after dinner.  I have 12 blocks together for Part 6 of the Scrap Dance Two Step.  Check out this fun group of blocks in Part 6 –

PART 6 – JUNE

When you put these blocks from part 6 with the blocks from part 5 below, (which I wrote about LAST month ~ I Love the 3rd Friday……. ), you can really see some scrappy fun. Many of the same fabrics are scattered in Part 5 & Part 6 blocks.  If you read Carole’s instructions for Part 6 you will note that Carole cautioned us that NEXT month we will be cutting more scrap fabric and more background fabrics….so stay tuned!  From my standpoint, all scraps have been used with the exception of the neutrals.  I am struggling to avoid setting these blocks in any type of layout.  I will wait on Carole & July’s instructions.

Part 5 – May

The solution is becoming more apparent, but it is not solved yet…..maybe in July!

These are BIG blocks, and I am doing the “Twin size”.   Usually I go “BIG” but I have several BIG quilts waiting for borders & quilting, so I decided to sew along with the mystery, but in a size that is less time consuming.  I like getting the steps of the mystery knocked out in a day or two and then I can “get back to other projects”.

Do you enjoy working on a mystery quilt?  Carole’s projects are fun.  If you want to peak at the fabrics other people are using for this mystery – check out the group FLICKR page!  Scrap Dance Mystery Two Step GROUP photo’s .

Happy Stitching!

PS – linking up with OH SCRAP! – Quilting is More fun than housework – check it out!

PPS – did you know that the word SEW is found in the word HOUSEWORK ???

 

 

Small projects

I took a break from long term projects and did something “small”.   I decided Friday afternoon to make another Chubby Charmer Bag.

There is, of course, a story to go along.  All month I have been sorting through, pricing and boxing up “Second Time Around” items in preparation for our quilt show in July. Check out the website for details on the show –  https://www.oceanwavesquiltguild.org/quilt-show   (If you are in the mid-Atlantic area in July, plan on coming – over 220 quilts are registered, and LOTS of vendors!)

My co-chair and I have been ruthless in “re-homing” things that we just can’t figure out a way to sell or that don’t stand up to the quality of product we want to sell.  So, among the box of things to go to a donation drop-off was a bundle of upholstery samples.  I didn’t want to give away my box, so I was tossing things from the box into a bag in my trunk.  As one hand put those upholstery samples in the bag, my other hand reached in and took them back out.  The fabric was kind of fun, great textures and weight.

I gave the “book of samples” to my hubby to cut off the rivets holding the book together. With the aid of his air tools and cutting blade and 10 minutes of high velocity spinning of the cutting wheel, he had the rivet head cut. Dang, those rivets got HOT in the process.  After they cooled a little, we pulled the book apart and I had a great little stack of fabric.  I got out my 60 mm rotary cutter and ruler and proceeded to cut them into 5″ squares.  Each piece in this small book of fabric had a label on one end and holes for the rivets and pins to pass through on the other end.  5″ squares was the perfect size.  Of course, this kind of fabric likes to ravel, and I had to handle them very carefully.

I arranged the pieces to make ready for sewing.  There are no duplicate fabrics, but some very similar to each other, either in texture or style.

I used fusible fleece on the back of the squares and quilted each panel. In the photo above only the panel on the left is quilted.

The pattern calls for fusible fleece on the back side of the lining too, but I didn’t have enough on hand so I used Pellon Craft fuse on the lining and on the pockets.  I dug through my stash looking for a piece of fabric large enough to make the lining and pockets.  I found a tan with flowers scattered over it.  I didn’t want flowers on the handles, so I found another complementary fabric for it.  This second photo shows a bit of the lining.  I think the choices of fabrics all worked well together. I love the textures of the fabrics that make up the outside of the bag.

A small project gives me a chance to get something FINISHED! These bags will hold a quilt for show and tell!  Or lots of goodies when traveling, shopping, etc.

So, now I have made 2 of these bags.  The blue one was done with charm squares as the pattern intended, and was made exactly to the directions of the pattern by Peggy Sturges. (Pattern ps024 Chubby Charmer – Quilts Illustrated)  (Note; pattern is available on Amazon, just type Chubby Charmer in the search box).

Meanwhile, many long term, big projects await my attention.  Sashing the blocks for my Talkin’ Turkey project is going well.  I have 5 rows sashed, 2 rows sewn together, and one lonely row awaits sashing. That is my project for this rainy afternoon.

Note – Talkin’ Turkey is a pattern by Bonnie Hunter, and can be found in her book “String Fling”. Check out her website/blog – www.quiltville.blogspot.com for more info.

What are you working on?

Edit – almost forgot a couple of things —  Talkin’ Turkey is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.  I am, however, using the Square in a Square ruler (by Jodi Barrows) & OPTION 3 for the flying Geese. I have another 200+ to make for the borders and I like the tool. (PERFECT FLYING GEESE EASILY with the Square in a Square ruler.) http://squareinasquare.com/

Linking up today with “OH SCRAP – http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/  ” .   Follow the link here or use the button on the side of my page.

I love the 3rd Friday!

I look forward to the 3rd Friday of the month.  I “book” time in my calendar especially for the release of the “next step” in the Scrap Dance Mystery Two Step quilt by Carole – From My Carolina Home  .  Carole writes such great instructions, and today was the day for Step 5 of our mystery.  I love the way she breaks down the instructions into “Two Steps” !  It’s not to late to sew along!  Check out the blog post from today-use the button on my page or the link above.

I am making the twin size, (I think….) and this afternoon before dinner, and after dinner I got all 12 blocks constructed.  Of course, in the photo they are randomly placed, and this is not the final arrangement as there are 2 more months to go on the mystery!

This is a pure SCRAP project, and I pulled from my “already cut” items in my Scrap Storage System!  (I am an avid follower of Bonnie Hunter and have been cutting the scraps for a couple of years and storing them in containers waiting for the “right” projects.)

Speaking of Bonnie Hunter, I played a bit with my Talkin’ Turkey quilt that I started in her class in Dover DE last September.  I have started the sashing of the blocks, and have 2 rows sashed.  The first row is stitched together, and I still have some joining of blocks on the 2nd row. I like the way the sashing puts a little 9 patch between the blocks.  More to follow on that project.

There are 30 blocks total to sash and join.  I have all the sashing made, but need to spend some time attaching it to the blocks etc.

I had to take the Talkin’ Turkey “off the wall” earlier in the week to lay out a quilt during my quilt bee with the Material Girls.  Our guild is making a quilt top for the outgoing president, and we all did a string block and signed the blocks.  The president of the guild is in my Material Girls bee, so we had to “keep her from looking” while we worked on the quilt.  I put her to work on “Second Time Around” fabrics, ironing and trimming and folding and pricing donations for the quilt show. She and a few other other ladies did an AMAZING amount of work while the rest of us focused on the president’s quilt top assembly.  Of course, since we were at my house, I had to flit from person to person, making sure my “Second Time Around” helpers were on task and answering questions.  I did manage to sew 3 rows of the President’s quilt, so I can safely say I wasn’t goofing off the whole time.  I tasked one member of our bee to take a wide assortment of 4.5″ squares, and to “bundle” them into groups of compatible colors.  She was amazing and got 99% of them into bundles that we will sell at the quilt show.  (I just knew she was the right woman for the job, and she was committed to NOT leaving the job unfinished!)

I’ve had 3 days this week of working on 2nd Time Around in preparation for our quilt show in July. Today I tackled all those “non fabric” items that have been donated.  I ended up with 3 shoe boxes sorted & filled with various rick rac, hem tape and packaged binding.  Any of the packages that were already opened went into a box for donation to a charity our guild supports in Tanzania, Africa,  Sifa Threads .  I am boxing up notions, thread, zippers, seam rippers, and LOTS of rick race & prepackaged binding.  A member of our bee & guild will have her son take a suitcase full of sewing supplies to Tanzania when he returns later in the year. We are inspired by the Sifa Threads mission to teach young women to sew and at completion of the course, they earn a sewing machine of their own to take home. Hopefully they will find a way to earn a living for their families through the training and equipment provided.

Last week I was able to work on quilting my Pet Mosaic quilt – “MITTENS”.  I was inspired at a sit & sew the end of April to get it layered up and quilted.  I ordered a wide backing from Marshall Dry Goods . com and it arrived early in the week. I did a lot of “thread painting” on his (Mittens) ears, and general quilting of his fur.  I still have a lot to do, but on Monday, I turned in my entry for the quilt show.  He is coming along nicely, and I think if I have just “one more day” to work on the quilting, I will be able to knock it out.

I am working on my Janome 8900 doing free motion quilting, trying to capture the way the fur on this cat grows. (The squares in the quilt are 2″ to give you an idea of the scale).

I hope you are working on something fun, and have fun things to look forward to as well.  I find it so important in my well being to only do those things that bring me joy.  Not always possible, but I am striving to do away with the things that stress me (like those stinkin’ wisdom teeth)  and focus on the fun.

Happy Scrappy Quilting!

This and That and a little bit more

I just realised that my blog has gone silent, while I have been busy with This and That and a little bit more!

I better catch up~!~    April was a busy time and I feel happy that I managed to “finish” a few things!  I finished my 5″ charm square bag! (Thanks to Pam not letting me go home with it unfinished!). Pictures and details here – Chubby Charmer bag .

I finished a project at the Queen Bee’s gathering – a pop up container that is “just right” for taking along with your sewing supplies.  We had LOTS of finishers at the bee!

I finished the binding on 4 Senior quilts for graduates at church. I had a 3 day “sit & sew”, and made the bindings ahead of time.  Love the walking foot for applying bindings.

(Note the binding containment -Binding is  rolled on a thread spool and threaded up and over the thread stand arm)

The accu-feed “ditch foot” on the walking foot really helps me stay in the ditch when I top stitch the binding. It is a little blade that travels right along the seam.  I slow the machine down just a little, and adjust the needle until it is perfectly in the ditch. I color match the thread to the piping/flange color.

I just love how easy it is to attach Susie’s Magic Binding, all done by machine!  That little flange pops!  For directions – go to 52Quilts in 52 Weeks — 

Earlier in April, I finished some Easter cards too.  I went with a butterfly theme on these cards.  I have a “few” stamps, but nothing else really was suitable for SPRING and EASTER.

I can see more stamps in my future!  I had a good time making these little cards.

Hubby and I spent last Saturday morning in class together.  We attended a class at a local quilt store on how to maintain the Singer Featherweight sewing machines.  I am not “mechanical” minded, and I told the hubby he had to come along so he could remember everything I forgot.  We oiled all kinds of places, cleaned out the gook from other places, and greased the motor and the gears.  I found a whole lot of thread wrapped up behind the bobbin case and managed to pick it all out with the help of tweezers.  My sweet hubby was helpful to 2 ladies who wanted to install LED lights in their machines.  He now knows how to remove the light assembly, and the instructor, George, showed him where all the screws are hiding.  Interestingly enough, George told us that when we take our Featherweights to classes etc, to GUARD our bobbin cases! I can’t imagine anyone I know would steal my bobbin case, but I will be watchful.

Bessie is now “well oiled” and no longer skipping stitches.  She is looking pretty good for being born in 1948.  She has a new LED light, (purchased on Ebay –Featherweight LED Lightbulb ) and a new  Featherweight belt, and she hums along nicely.  Bessie is all ready for another sit & sew or quilt bee gathering.

All in all, not a bad month of finishing!  As I look forward in May, I have grand hopes of finishing my Pet Mosaic project.  I was inspired at the sit & sew and have ordered the backing fabric. I would love to put the quilt in our guild show in July, so I better get busy and get it layered and basted so I can start quilting!  Deadline for entries is a week from Monday, so we shall see what happens. I have an “open calendar” for a few days.  I gave myself 10 days for “recovery” from oral surgery, and it is day 3; and I am chomping at the bit to get out of the house and out to the sewing room!

Do you have any May projects started???

 

Part 4 of Scrap Dance Mystery 2 Step

Say that 3 times – Part 4 of Scrap Dance Mystery 2 Step….Big title for a fun project.  I love a mystery, so I am having FUN with this little  project.  Little for me, as I decided to do a “twin size”.  Lately everything I have made has been double or king!

I am enjoying each month an hour or two of sewing something totally different than anything else I am working on.  Carole has great directions. If you are interested in playing catch up – check out the instructions on her blog here – Scrap Dance 2 Step – April info  . Carole releases the directions once a month and I “schedule” some time on my calendar so I can play along.  Carole has a great blog.  She writes about a lot of things besides quilting at From My Carolina Home on WordPress.

The directions for April have me using the hourglass (quarter square triangle) blocks and join them with a scrappy square –

Of course there are 2 Steps, joining “bar units” and scrappy squares –

Now, I am second guessing my scrappy square choices……………I’m not sure I love them like I should…..but I am going to leave things alone and wait and see what happens next month.

(Note – my extra ironing board right now has 600 or more 4.5″ scrappy squares stacked up on it……waiting to be bundled up for the quilt show….so it must be scrap fabric envy!)

Overall, I am happy to say that all the fabric used for this project except the background neutral came from my “scrap box” and my scrap storage system.  I like scrappy quilts and I like the way each of Carole’s patterns have turned out; so I just need to practice a little patience today!  My units for this step are complete, and filed away in big zip locks and on the tray on the shelf to wait for the next part of the Scrap Dance  Two Step in May!

 Don’t tell anybody I spent time with the vacuum this weekend !  I thought when we bought that cute little Dyson Animal Stick Vac last week that the HUBBY would be the only one using it.  Honestly I would rather be quilting too, but the windows & doors have been open and the pollen has been coming in the house, and the darn cats refuse to operate the vacuum or the swiffer or even the dusting cloths.  It is “almost” time to set up our free standing a/c units, and the one for our bedroom needed a good cleaning before the season starts….(because we didn’t do it at the end of the season last year).  Hubby helped me get the entire cover off so we could get the vacuum in on the coils. We have 5 of these units, between the house & the garage sewing room,  and the filters are easy to remove and wash; but there are “intakes” that get covered in dust, lint, cat hair etc that you can’t easily get to, in order to clean.  It was like major surgery yesterday. And of course, all this took time away from any progress in the sewing room until evening!  Hubby agrees that the other 4 need to come apart, one at a time for thorough cleaning.

I was lucky to squeeze building these units in on Saturday night after I made binding for 2 quilts.  I did manage to get the binding made for 2 more quilts, and got 3 of the quilts trimmed and ready to attach the binding after dinner on Sunday night.  One more quilt on the table ready to trim, and then it will be time to get busy sewing the binding on those 4 quilts.

I am saving the binding attachment for my 3 day “sit & sew camp” later this week.  The good thing about “going to a sit & sew camp” is I won’t see the dust bunnies rolling down my hallway, or the laundry piling up all week!  Out of sight…..golly I need a housekeeper to follow around and pick up threads that I drop!

Since Downton Abbey is off the air, do you suppose the staff is looking for a new position?  I could give a few of them room and board!  I suppose they would require a paycheck beyond my meager means, so I guess I will have to continue “scheduling” the domestic chores…..My sister-in-law, Carolyn, who writes the great blog – One Block Wonder Woman reminded me that BALANCE is the key; and her formula is 2.5 mins housework, 2 hours in the garden and 8-10 hour s for quilting!  My schedule is Monday laundry – Tuesday toilets-Quilting the rest the week.  (I keep forgetting about those floors…..which is why I bought the hubby that cute Dyson….)

My projects are stacking up.  How about in your sewing room?  Do you have “more than one” going at a time?  How do you keep it all straight?

Note – linking up this post to Oh Scrap !!  Check out the button on the sidebar on this blog or use the link in this paragraph!  (I love the full name of that blog by the way, because I believe it!)

Binding containment

I knew it was going to be one of those weeks, but golly, I need a day of rest!  I had 3 mornings where ladies came to work on Second Time Around fabrics; and while they helped press, trim, measure, fold and price fabrics, I was able to sort through the stuff that was “not fabric”.  I sorted out thread spools; separating the old wooden spools from the modern plastic. I tossed the really yucky old thread, set aside other threads to be donated, sorted boxes of embellishments, lace; rickrack and seam binding. I feel like I made some headway, but come Friday afternoon, I could not see any empty flat surface in my sewing space.  I gathered up the boxes I was sorting into, and stacked them all up, and now I can see my cutting table, and my big work table again!  I needed my “space” to work on Senior Quilts.

Two days this week I worked on our Senior Quilt project at church, and we managed to get 5 quilts tied.  We use crochet cotton, and tie at the intersections of the 8.5″ squares.

I brought home 4 to bind, and I have a 3 day sit & sew camp this week, so that should go fairly easy!  Now that the work table is cleared off, I hope to get them trimmed this afternoon. 

I have made the binding for 2 of the quilts; and of course, I use my favorite method, Susie’s Magic Binding  .  I love this binding as it is all stitched on by machine, which is great on quilts that will get heavy use.  Making it does take the “extra step” but it goes quickly. 

 I was inspired to “change methods” for storing the binding by a Facebook post I read today.  Usually I roll it onto a cardboard tube, then stand that tube on my thread rack on the back of my machine. These quilts take about 320″ of binding.

 I read all kinds of methods, and tripped over one I which inspired me.  Anne Sidell – Confessions of a Serial Quilter posted about a method she uses – How to Tame your Binding  – on her blog.  I modified because I discovered her method and my machine were not compatible.  My adaptation was to use the empty “cone” from Superior Thread to store the binding.  The cone will fit on my thread rack, and I will run the binding up and over the thread stand guide of the machine.  (I will post a photo when I am at that step)

I’ve got 2 spools loaded with binding for 2 senior quilts.  This afternoon, I will layout the other 2 quilts, select the fabrics for the binding and get it made, and “wound” on the spools.  I think I will store each spool with the quilt in a ziplock bag to keep the fraying on the edges done until I can get it attached this week.  I KNEW there was a reason I didn’t throw those empty cones away.  Note, I tried to roll the binding on neatly, but it got to be too thick of a spool, so I “layered” it up and down the spindle as I wrapped.  Hard to make it look as pretty as the ones that Anne Sidell did using her method.  

How do you “wrangle” your binding???