Lowell Quilt Festival

Today we went to the actual show at the Lowell Quilt Festival.  We spent some time shopping the vendors (and my sister, the non-sewer, even sat in front of a machine) and then went to see all of the wonderful quilts being showcased.  Here's a sampling of some of the quilts, in no particular order.  

More pictures to come in my next post...

Fire and Ice Class Yesterday

Yesterday was the Fire and Ice class with Carol Doak at the Lowell Quilt Festival.  I took the class with my aunt, KK, and co-worker, Lynn.  We all really enjoyed it.  Even though KK and I had paper pieced before, it was fun taking the class because we learned some tips of the trade from Carol to improve our accuracy and speed.  

Here's my work-in-progress block.  It's coming together.  

This is Carol posing with the quilt she made using her 300 block book (I don't remember the exact name off the top of my head and I'm too lazy to double check right now.)  She jokingly referred to it as her "Dear Carol" quilt since it contains ever block in the 300 block book.  

Here's Carol showing the class how to attach several squares together to form your block perfectly, or as we said in class yesterday... "puuuur-fect" 

And here it is... a photo of my finished block.  I love it!!!  I probably should have taken a photo of it on point since that's how it's going to be in the quilt, but you get the idea.  Just tilt your head a little if you really want to get a feel for it on point.  ;o)  I absolutely love the colors here. I can't wait to see how it comes out. 

In this photo, you can see the colors in the little dots in the background fabric.  You can really see how the colors used in the quilt really go well with the colors in the background.  

Here's KK holding her finished block.  It's made of batiks and I think it's going to come out awesome!!!

And here's a close-up of KK's finished block.  

Set 5 of the Blooming 9 Patch

Here's set 5 of the blooming nine patch blocks.  Just one more to go...

And here are all 5 of the sets of 9 patches.  

I have to cut the strips for the next 9 patch still.  I probably won't get to that until next week.  I have to add a sleeve to a quilt I made a while ago for a show that a friend asked me to submit a quilt to.  

I'm also taking a class on Saturday with Carol Doak at the Lowell Quilt Festival, so I need to do a bit of prep for that.  I'm so excited for the class. I haven't taken a class in over a year, maybe two, so it will be nice to learn some new tips.  Even though I've already taken a paper piecing class before, I always seem to learn something in classes I take because someone always seems to have tips and tricks to share.  It's one of my favorite aspects of taking classes.  

I hope to report back with pictures from the festival itself as well after.  I have a bunch of stuff that I'm looking to get from the vendors... thread for the machine quilting of several quilts, backings for 3 quilts, fabric from the Santorini and Kiwi lines, maybe a few charm packs, batiks, and neutral fabrics to add to my stash.  This is one time that I will probably add a bunch of fabrics to my stash at one time.  Yay!!!

Set 4 of the Blooming 9 Patches

I finished grouping 4 of the blooming nine patches.  I'm really liking how this is all coming together.  It's nice when you're working on a project and you continue to love the fabrics and color choices.  Sometimes the fabrics and colors look great when folded neatly next to each other, but once you start piecing them, they just don't have that same pizzaz.  

Here are the four sets next to each other.  I started to put them up on the design wall, but it was getting so full.  I need to finish a few other projects and get them off the wall so that I can begin to lay this one out.  

Sets 5 and 6 left to go and then I can start cutting the solid squares and laying the entire thing out.  I can't wait!  In my mind I'm 5 steps ahead of myself.  I'm already thinking, "hmm, what would this look like if I extended the last fabric as a border?" "How should I quilt this?"  (If you've seen any close ups of the quilting on blooming nine patch quilts, feel free to pass those along for ideas since I'm already mentally on step 1000 in my mind.)

More later... Happy Quilting!

Binding's on!!!

I managed to sew the binding onto the front of the Happy Hour Quilt. Now I just need to hand sew it to the back. This one is going to my mom once it's complete.

I still need a name for this quilt though. Any suggestions? Here's a link to a picture of the whole quilt.