Lecture and Workshop with Mark Lipinski

My guild - Eastern Long Island Quilters - hosted Mark Lipinski on Friday and Saturday. He had lectured at our guild before and the ladies lobbied to get him back. I have to say, that although I found his talk amusing two years ago, I didn't like his use of the F-word.

Well he has improved with age! Since his visit to our guild two years ago, he started "Quilters Home" magazine. It is one of my favorite quilting magazines. It is fresh and fun. You can get subscriptions now.

His talk was much more fun. This time he was definitely a star of the quilting world. I really enjoy his fresh take on things. He did talk about how he is just not accepted by some members of the quilting community, but I'm glad that there is room for all kinds of quilters. He also toned down his language, which I appreciated.

Not to mention his stunning trunk show. This is one man who can quilt!

I also took his workshop on Saturday. We made three dimensional blocks to surround a Geisha panel. Here is a picture of Mark with the class samples:




I decided to appliqué the oriental Sue pattern that is free on my website Sunbonnetsue.com. I surrounded that with the blocks that we learned to make in the workshop. Although my top isn't done, there are only a few seams left to sew. I consider that a successful workshop. Here is my top:



Here is a picture of me sewing at the class,




It was a great day to sew with friends and learn new techniques! Now I have to get the top finished!

-- Kim

Eastern Long Island Quilt Show

Well I did it! I vended at the weekend's quilt show and lived to tell the tale. When I signed up for a vendor spot months ago, I didn't realize how crazy things would be. I had classes to finish, little league games to attend and work. All this is not to mention the Bridal project.

Here is what my booth looked like:



It was great to see all the people and talk about quilts for two days straight. Now I have to get the books back on the shelves in my web-store at home.

The brides came to the show too, for their first public showing. Here is a close up of them on the wall:



We are sewing the blocks together in July. If you are on Long Island and can help, there will be more posted.

Whew, I'm tired...

Piping Hot Bindings Workshop

My guild, the Eastern Long Island Quilters, hosted Susan Cleveland for a lecture and workshop. Today was the workshop on "piping Hot Binding". Susan showed us the ins and out of making a binding perfect. We applied a thin piping before putting the binding on the quilt.

Susan used a digital projector and digital camera to demonstrate her techniques. We were a large group and it made everything so easy. No more crowding around a sewing machine trying to see over the tall lady! I really enjoyed it.

We put the binding on a small project. I brought a Sunbonnet Sue block to put the binding on. You can see me in this group shot of the class. As usual, I had the only Sunbonnet Sue in the group.

What was great about the workshop was the light-hearted, fun atmosphere that Susan created. She was fun, informative and really knew her stuff. I'm made four great corners on the quilt I binded, something that has never happened for me before!

Here are a couple of the samples she brought. She is very precise and has a great color sense.

It was a good day. Now I have to go dig out some of my UFOs and get the binding on them as well!

Long Island Quilt Shop Hop

This weekend is the first Long Island Quilt shop hop. I signed up for the bus that left "Pieceful Quilting" in Riverhead at 9 am on Saturday. All I had to do was sit back and relax as I went from quilt shop to quilt shop. What's not to like.?

Here was our itinerary:

PIECEFUL QUILTING, RIVERHEAD, NY (631) 727-5909
CLOSE TO HOME, SELDEN, NY (631) 732-3342
112 SEWING SUPPLIES, PATCHOGUE, NY (631) 475-8282
SEW WHATS NEW, ISLIP, NY (631) 277-4215
THE QUILTING BUG, MASSAPEQUA, NY (516) 541-8600
SENTIMENTAL STITCHES, COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY (631) 692-4145

I bought my "Passport" from Angie at Pieceful qulting





I had to get it stamped at every store. They are drawing for prizes on Tuesday, so I'll let you know if I win anything!


Colleen was my "seat mate". She has a wonderful color sense and shared her food with me!







Of course I bought something in every store. First on my list was interfacing and "Fray Check" so I could start work on the bridal fabric quilt. Working with Satin is going to be interesting.

Many fat quarters jumped into my shopping bag as well. With all the wonderful fabric to choose from, who could blame me?















Each store had a pattern to give out and if you combined them you could make the "Shop Hop Quilt". The quilting bug had their sample sewn in beautiful batiks (my favorite), so I took a picture of that one:









What is nice about the quilt is the variety of blocks. There is paper-piecing, applique and real simple stuff. It was fun to see the same quilt done up so differently. Here is what the one at Pieceful quilting looks like:





Completely different (also out of focus - sorry).

So I had a good day.


Kim