My Son Graduated!

My Son Graduated!

Quilt Market

I haven't had a chance to post since I've been back from Pittsburgh. In mid-May, the quilt industry held a big show called "Quilt Market". All the fabric manufacturers come and show their latest fabrics. The pattern and book publishers are there as well.

The trend I noticed was rick-rack. Boy, that vintage trim is back! It has gotten bigger and seemed to decorate every booth.

Here is a picture of the convention center in Pittsburgh decked out will all the vendors:

And that's only the half of it! I photographed this from a walkway that was in the center. There are just as many vendors in the other direction. Whew.

I ordered two new lines of Sunbonnet Sue fabric. One features the 1970s inspired Holly Hobbie

The other features Sunbonnet Sue from the 1930. Here is a preview of that one:

I can't wait for them to come into stock. I'll post more later!

Kim

Zen and the Art of Recycling

My guild is doing a "green" quilt show this year. We were challenged to make a quilt from recycled material. I used the grocery bags that I get at my local supermarkets. One store uses white and the other beige, so that set the color scheme for my quilt. I cut the bags and quilted them onto the background. This quilt crunches.

On top of the "grocery bag" background, I attached little mini-quilts. Each quilt is embellished with some sort of recycled item. I have a rose made from an old sweater, the 3 key off an old typewriter, cut up soda cans, old buttons, a beer bottle top and an pin made from an old quilt.

It was a lot of fun to make. I hope I showed that recycled items are beautiful! If you want to go to the quilt show and see all the other recycled quilts, here the link to the show information: ELIQG.com.

National Quilting Day

My Guild (Eastern Long Island Quilters) celebrated National Quilting day this Saturday. I had to work, but didn't want to miss out on the fun. They put together cuddle quilts for the local nursing homes. Even though I couldn't sew with them, I made one on my own. I started it Saturday night and just put the last stitches in the binding.

The fabrics are donated. There were some older, out of style fabrics, but I think it turned out great!

I used my walking foot for the first time. I used my new Janome and it quilted great! I never could get the walking foot to quilt on my old singer.

So now the quilt is off to the guild meeting to be collected with the other quilts made on National Quilting day. I hope the quilt gets cuddled!

Sunbonnet Sue in Heaven

I'm finishing up some UFOs and I found three of these blocks and another one unfinished. I did these back in the 1990s (last century). I decided to finish them up.

I'd like to think that Sunbonnet Sue up in heaven has taken off her bonnet and she's dancing in the clouds. As for finishing the project, I'm not sure how to set them. They are small (8" square) and there are only 4.

I may combine them with some patchwork for a wall hanging.

Sunbonnet Sue Love TV Swap...

The ladies of my sunbonnet sue group are at it again. This time we are swapping Sunbonnet Sue images that remind us of TV shows. The deadline is now and I'm procrastinating, but I did get two sets of blocks done.

My TV shows were Project Runway and I love Lucy. I guess I did a show from this century and last century.

Here is the picture that I got my inspirations from:

And here is the block I sewed. I know it isn't a traditional Sunbonnet Sue. She's wearing the wrong kind of hat! I did let Lucy's mouth show because she is so expressive.

It was fun to do and I can't wait to see the blocks that the others did. I didn't get the project runway blocks scanned, but I'll make sure to share all the swapped blocks once I get the scans.


Kim

Recycled Christmas Ornaments

Each year our town asks the Girl Scouts to make ornaments for the tree that is in the public park. It is always a challenge. The ornaments need to be weather-proof, cheap and easy to make.

This year I decided to use old CDs and strips of fabric. I tore the fabric into 1" wide x 22" or so strips. For each ornament it took 2 CDs, 1 strip of fabric and a little glue. I put one end of the strip between the two CDs and started wrapping it around, finishing up where I started. I tucked the end between the two CDs and put in a little glue. The CD were placed with the printed side in and the shiny side out.

The girls in the troop were pros! They made these so quickly. They look beautiful hanging in the village park.



In fact, they are pretty enough to steal! Of the 25 ornaments that the girls made, there are 8 left. It has been windy, so maybe the wind took some as well.

It was a fun project, and a great way to recyle. The ornament have held up well to the weather.