***Breaking*** Birds in the Air to Debut at CES Quilt Show in September! ***

I have been keeping a little secret from you all and can't keep it in a moment longer!

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Frances from the Off Kilter Quilt podcast and blog. If you are a fan of Frances, then you surely also know that she is working on her first novel for adults, Birds in the Air.

I am thrilled to announce that Frances has agreed to kick off the book tour for Birds in the Air at the Stars N Stitches Quilt Show on September 24, 2016. Frances will read from the novel, sign and sell books, and show some of her own quilts.

I personally have been listening to Frances's podcast since the beginning but have never met her in person, even though we don't live that far apart. I can't wait to meet her in person and see some of her quilts in real life!

We would love to see you there as well!




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Call for Quilts! Time for Another Quilt Show!

I can hardly believe that it's already time for another quilt show! We have been planning for several months already. I'm excited to see some of the new ideas become reality. Stars N Stitches will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 23-24, 2016 at Lakewood 400 in Cumming, Georgia.

If you have been thinking about putting a quilt in a show but are concerned about the judging or feeling like your quilt isn't good enough for a show, then this is the one for you. Don't get me wrong - we will have some gorgeous quilts on display. For example, if you come to our show you will get to see Elizabeth Frolet's quilt that won a ribbon at Paducah! However, we will also have our share of first quilts, quilts made by kids, and others that will make yours feel right at home.

Our show is juried, but not judged. What does that mean exactly? Well, a judged show has at least one quilt judge who will examine each quilt and critique it, awarding ribbons based on his or her feedback.

A juried show is one where you submit a description and photo of your quilt, and the "jury" (a few quilt show committee volunteers) decide if it fits the theme of the show. Our show's theme is "let's show off some quilts and buy stuff!", so as long as it's actually a quilt, you're probably good. The only time this would be a real issue is if we had too many entries. That has never happened before. Not saying it couldn't happen, but there you have it.

At our show, most of the ribbons are awarded by a vote of the membership at our preview party the night before the show officially opens.

We also have a few "Sponsor's Choice" ribbons, where our top sponsors choose their favorite quilts. Since not all of our sponsors are quilty people, you never know which quilt might win one of these.

Attendees get to vote for the "Viewer's Choice" ribbon that is awarded at the close of the show.

As you can tell, this isn't a high pressure situation.  To find out more about entering your quilt in our show, please visit the Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild website. We'd love you have you join us!



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Going to Guild - Elizabeth Frolet

Last Monday was guild night, and I'm so glad I went! It's been a little hit or miss this year because work has been wearing me out.

Our April guest was Elizabeth Frolet, whose story of learning to quilt and embroider and then combine the two is both astonishing and entertaining. It's hard to believe that someone who is self-taught and claims not to really like crazy quilts has created such amazing, award-winning works of art. And did I mention she pretty much only does hand piecing and quilting?

This quilt was the beginning of the embroidery and "not a crazy quilt" journey. Elizabeth wanted to use thread she inherited from her mother.

This is Elizabeth's Garden - A Tale of a Thousand Threads, the quilt that has won ribbons at Paducah and other shows.

My absolute favorite block from that quilt. Elizabeth didn't repeat an embroidery motif anywhere on the quilt!

I love that Elizabeth included so many things she loves in unique ways, including these silhouettes of her family members.

Just a little ole Baltimore Album quilt. NBD.

As you can imagine, these pictures do not even begin to do these quilts justice. If you ever have the chance to see them up close and to hear Elizabeth speak, do not miss it! Even if you have had the Mondayest Monday that ever Mondayed and the idea of keeping your shoes on for two more hours is more than you can bear.

Totally worth it!




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WIP Wednesday - Remembering How to Sew

Today's WIP Wednesday is fabulously full of fail.

It's like I forgot how to sew.

Last night The Pit Boss had to work late, so I decided to get back to my machine. I'll start with something simple, I thought, just to get back in the groove. Maybe I'll make a block for an upcoming swap, I thought.

So I chose pretty fabrics and pressed and cut out all the pieces. I marked my diagonal lines and started sewing.

At some point I realized that I didn't need a 8 7/8" half square triangle block. so I took them apart. (Yes, I made two before I figured this out. It's so much more efficient when you can make your mistakes assembly line style!) And we know how awesome it is when you have to rip out stitches on a biased edge!

Then I started stitching the pieced half of the blocks. This isn't it either. ~sigh~

Finally I finished both blocks, and they are the right size and the diagonal lines are at 45 degrees! I had a little moment of panic when I couldn't remember if I had reversed the color placement, but a quick check of the pattern shows that this is right after all.

It feels good to be sewing again, but also a little scary at how out of practice I am. I'll just have to spend lots of time getting my groove back in the weeks to come!

What are you working on?



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Blank Slate

We have been on a home improvement kick the last few months, so not much going on in my sewing room, but that is about to change! Now that both boys are off to college, Gracie convinced us to play musical bedrooms. She moved into Deuce's room - which has been largely undisturbed in over two years as he prefers the queen sized bed in the guest room when he does come home - and took over the much larger Jack and Jill bathroom that the boys used to share. My Middle Child (MMC) will move to Gracie's old room so the two of them aren't sharing a bathroom when he is home this summer, and his old room will become...wait for it...my new sewing studio!!

We have painted and changed out the twenty year old tub hardware and light fixtures and builder's grade ceiling fans. We have cleaned carpets and given away childhood furniture and emptied closets. The people at Lowe's know us by name.

Finally I have an empty room and, of course, I'm frozen; unsure of where to start. One decision I'm putting off  need to make is what I'd like to use for a sewing table. My current space and money saving setup is okay, but not ideal. Unfortunately there aren't any big shows coming up close to me soon where I might get to see some in person (or take advantage of show discounts).

If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them. I hope to share pictures along the way and start sewing soon in my new dream space!




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WIP Wednesday - Stalled

I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

I'm stalled.

On Black Friday, Mom and Gracie and I visited Tiny Stitches in Marietta to shop the sale and spend some of the awesome gift certificates I had received. I fell in love with some gorgeous flannels, and decided to whip up a quilt for my father-in-law. I made him a quilt for his 60th birthday, but it's a wall hanging. He is frequently cold, so I wanted to make him something cozy.

These navy and gold and white flannels were perfect. I knew I could piece a quick Disappearing Nine Patch in no time flat and, hopefully, have Lene quilt it for me in time for Christmas.

And then I stalled. This happens so often and is the reason for my many UFOs. (We won't go into how many. Ahem.) The top is finished and, though maybe a little muddier palette than I originally imagined, looks great. The flannels are so soft and warm. Lene had time in her schedule. So what stopped me?

Piecing the back.

Now that the top is done, I've done some calculations and realized I don't have enough fabric for the back. I don't know if the fabric shrunk that much when I pre-washed it or if my 6:30 AM Black Friday brain did bad math, but there's just not enough.

I have some extra squares of the other flannels that I could piece in, but I'm completely stuck trying to wrap my brain around the best way to do it.

I'll bet that for each of my UFOs I could name one stumbling block that brought work completely to a halt on a perfectly good quilt. I just need to sit down and sketch it out so that this one isn't added to the pile!

What causes you to stall? How do you get over it?

***Edited to add: I had this entire post written and set to automatically post when I read this AWESOME solution by Diane Knott over at Butterfly Threads last night. It's like she read my mind. Thank you Diane!!



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Royal Squares or Christmas Wishes

I'm so happy to be blogging again and hope not to disappear on you again. More on that later, but first I wanted to show you my latest finished quilt!

I started it on retreat back in August when none of the projects I had brought with me were going well. I found this antique jelly roll of Legacy by Howard Marcus that I had picked up at Sweet Home Quilt Shop back in 2009.

A quick search found this perfect pattern for free over on Craftsy - it's called Royal Squares by Emily McClendon. I didn't have a suitable background fabric with me and contemplated a run to the fabric store, but one of my retreat mates generously offered me two yards of this fantastic white-on-white dandelion print that she had just picked up. I was able to get almost all of the blocks together on retreat before I ran out of white - it turns out the the two yards was almost certainly only one and a half. A search for more ensued, and luckily we were able to find enough for me to finish the quilt and replace the two yards from my friend's stash.

Several people asked what the quilt would be for, and I honestly didn't know. It occurred to me that the quilt might make a nice Christmas gift for My Middle Child's girlfriend. They've been dating for over two years now, and we absolutely love her.

When searching for the back I stumbled across another dandelion print in Minky that was perfect. I wouldn't have to piece the back, and the quilt would be so cozy. I decided not to add batting, and to quilt it in this gorgeous, pale blue thread from Aurifil called Mint Ice (2800). I just did a random meander with some loops and hearts thrown in. It's not my best quilting ever, but it sinks into the Minky so beautifully and crinkled up exactly how I was hoping.

I wasn't sure how to bind the quilt. When I made Gracie's Minky quilt, I used satin blanket binding which, quite frankly, was a huge pain. While searching for possible solutions I ran across this tutorial by Pam of Hip to Be a Square Podcast way back from her episode 4! I still had a few questions after reading the tutorial, so I re-listened to the episode. It was so fun to hear Pam and Zapper again! But Pam's method worked perfectly, even though I wanted a much more narrow binding than she used.

Although it wasn't finished by Christmas, it is done while the kids are still home for Christmas break. I'm calling that a win. I am calling the quilt "Christmas Wishes" and hope that all of this sweet girl's wishes come true.




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