Tapestry 2.0

Here are the contents of another one of my ArtBins.

I purchased the Traditions Tapestry kit. I've already made one kit into Tapestry and made the other kit into a different quilt.

I decided to take some artistic license with the pattern this time around.

Instead doing the nine-patches in the pattern, I'm going to do split rails. The first picture is my first block. I'm liking it!

I also decided to make it king size, so I will be making 19 extra blocks.

The layout from EQ7 illustrates the layout I'll be using. The direction of the split rails will alternate to add a little more interest.

I had enough of the dark fabrics to make the extra blocks, but needed to buy more of the two sashing fabrics.

I'm excited to experiment. We'll see how it turns out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Unfortunately, Steve and I are not together for the holiday. Steve is spending the day with his family up north and I'm with Cheri spending time with her family.

I wanted to send Steve off prepared with food for a potluck dinner.

I made last year's Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce. It ended up more tart that Steve remembered but still very yummy.

Steve's family has very traditional tastes, so he wanted to keep the cheesecake flavor simple. We went with Strawberry Cheesecake.

We changed the baking a little. We wrapped the pan with tin foil and put the cheesecake in a bath. This left the cheesecake perfectly flat and without cracks.

We also baked the cheesecake for an extra half hour.

There is extra strawberry sauce for serving, so I think that will be even more delicious.

Steve will have to let you know how it tasted, since I don't think there will be any left to bring home.

My Design

I've been getting lessons on EQ7 from Dee. Thanks for the tutorials, Dee!

Plus I've been playing around myself trying different stuff out on my own.

Cheri and I started talking about nine patch blocks and designing two block quilts, which was the inspiration to try my hand at designing.

This is the first one I came up with. Initially it colorized as a two color quilt in red and white.

Last night I was working with Mary and we started playing with fabrics. I was trying to come up with enough fabrics for a Glads quilt.

It wasn't happening, so Mary suggested that I get the fabrics that were working.

Of course, I have to do whatever the Glad ladies tell me to do.

I played around with the scanner today and scanned in all the fabrics I bought and recolorized the layout.

I'm super excited to work on a design that is all my own and to be working with such great fabrics. Now I just need to come up with a name.

I'm thinking this might be the start to a whole new chapter of my quilting career.

Broken Needle

I finished the sample of Candice for the shop, but not before I broke a couple of needles.

I have to admit that I'm hard on my machine, but there are a couple of seams that have a few too many layers. So be careful!

The finished product looks so good. The pattern was great and easy to follow.

The only thing I would change is add an extra 1/2" to the sleeve for the Bag-E-Bottom, so cut it at 5"x12 1/2".

This picture is to illustrate what the "fat" pocket looks like. It just leaves a little extra room in the pocket.

I love the fabrics I chose. They are from Kate Spain's Terrain line. They are just fun and bright.

The bag will be at the shop tomorrow, along with me getting more needles. Stop by and see it!

Sample Maker

I've finished my Mystery Weekend quilts. I love the pattern a lot.

I love it even more that I was able to get the quilts done so quickly.

In January, I will actually post pictures.

In the mean time, Nancy and Susan came back from market with the Candice pattern from Lazy Girls Designs.

Since I'm the resident sample maker of purses, I picked out two sets of fabrics to make the pattern out of.

The innovation in this pattern is that the inner pockets are made so that they aren't flat and can hold thicker items like glasses and taller pockets for E-readers.

As always the pattern is wonderful. Good directions with lots of illustrations.

The sad part is when I get done with the purses, I can't take them out for a test drive before they go on display at Glad Creations.

Maybe I'll take a spin around with the bags in the front room with the shades drawn before I take it in.

My Good Turn

It is nice every now and then to give back using quilting the means.

South Minneapolis Quilters will be having a booth at Mount Olivet's Holiday Bazaar and Art Fair tomorrow. Some of the proceeds will go to the church and the rest will be donated to charities.

We were challenged to do things we'd never done before. Well, I have quilted before, but it felt like I was doing it for the first time.

If you click on the picture of the table runner, you probably will be able to see my quilting. Doesn't quilting in the ditch feel like coloring within the lines did at age 5?

I found it very challenging to quilt a straight line. Although with each leaf, I got better and better.

I was also able to do an old stand by for another donation, wine totes. I found that if I bought two half yards, I could get 3 wine totes.

They go together so easily and really dress up a bottle of wine. The pattern is in Let's Do Lunch by Terry Atkinson.

I love the Winter Solstice line from Jason Yenter. It definitely put me in the holiday spirit.

I hope my runners and totes put the fair goers in
a spending mood.