BIQR 2011

Last week was a beautiful time of year to spend in northern Michigan...Elk Rapids to be exact. Jeannette, Lois and I met Carol and 26 other quilters at Elk Rapids for Gwen Marston's retreat. This year's topic was small studies with the theory being that you can test color choices and design options very quickly using small quilts. Gwen had completed 37 small studies with many different design ideas incorporated in one or another of her quilts.

Here Gwen is shown with a larger quilt based on one of her small studies - you can see the small study 4th from the left on the middle row.

After an introduction to the concept and a few demonstrations of curved piecing techniques, we were off. I have to admit that I struggled with this idea for a few days. It always takes me awhile to integrate new information and this year was more challenging than most. Gwen used solid fabrics almost exclusively. There are a few prints in very small amounts. Well, I brought mostly prints and decided to try the technique with them. Although she cautioned that my composition might end up looking muddy as the prints blurred together, I gave it a shot.

My inspiration was a Van Gogh painting in a children's book, compliments of Carol R. Yes - the two green prints next to each other were somewhat blurred but the other prints showed up nicely. I also did a trapezoidal small study rather than a square one - primarily due to the curved piecing and availability of the sunny fabric used at the top of the quilt.

With that sample completed, I concentrated on other projects, completing two of the quilt kits I had purchased in 2008 and 2009. Yeah!

The last day there was a gorgeous day - bright and sunny, pleasant temperatures and with a slight breeze. I went with our Australian quilters, Ann and Rosie, to Renee's House of Quilting for their annual sale.

Ann and Rosie at the tent behind Renee's, looking for bargains.

After the sale, I walked to town and spent a delightful hour watching boats as they either came home to the marina or left to explore Grand Traverse Bay. Sunny, warm, waves lapping on the shore - what a gorgeous way to spend a lovely afternoon.

As a final wrap up on Saturday, each student had to stand up and introduce their small samples. One overachiever (Carrie - you know who you are!) completed 10! This included attaching the binding and quilting them. There was an interesting collection of small studies with lots of variety. Jeannette is using Gwen's liberated pointer (a stick picked up outside) to point to one of her small studies. You can see my trapezoid and Lois' beautiful study with the graceful curving pieces to the right of my quilt.

The ride home was long and uneventful but very pleasant with Jeannette and Lois keeping things interesting.

Now - back to work.
Cheers!
Margaret



































Here's my result.

Again, Mum's the Word

Again this weekend I took time out from quilting to participate in my P.E.O. chapter's annual fundraiser. P.E.O. is a Philanthropic Educational Organization and Chapter DN has sold mums each fall to raise money for the scholarship programs we support. It involves asking friends if they'd like to add some fall color to their yard by buying mums and then delivering the mums to them.

Things went like clockwork this year. We were able to unload the truck and sort the mums pretty quickly. It's really true that lots of hands make light work. Lots of hands also means lots of talking and catching up with each other - one of my favorite parts of the mum selling and delivering process. I get to catch up not only with members of my chapter but also the friends to whom I've sold mums.

Laura and Jane checking to see what color the mums are before adding them to the grouping in the yard. It helped that all of the mums except the yellow mums had tags this year.

Michael had lots of cool activity books and Colin had really fun boots. The only problem was they complained about being cold! I have to admit, it was cool on the porch.

Once the mums are unloaded, they're grouped so that each sister has her own stash of mums. Friday was also Deb's birthday and we enjoyed hearing about the weekend plans - including a stay at the West Baden Springs hotel. With both of her kids in college, this is a real splurge for her and one I'm sure she'll enjoy.

We also caught up on the latest antics of Julia, who is now keeping Monica awake at odd hours of the night. She's still an adorable little girl - she woke up just as Monica was getting ready to leave so we got to coo at her. Deb even got her to giggle.

As a new P.E.O., Jane has made her mark by selling an enormous load of mums - 76, I think. She managed to get them all in the truck. Hope she got them all delivered.

As always, proceeds from this sale go to support the P.E.O. projects, providing money for women to continue their education in a variety of ways. If you know a young woman who would benefit from some financial assistance, let me know and I can work to see which program would be appropriate for her.

Cheers!

Margaret

September's CSQ Meeting

The UFOs are really pouring in as are other quilting projects. We've seen some wonderful quilts and other sewing projects this year - some of which have languished for years. Just look at the line of quilters holding projects in their arms for the Guild's Show and Tell time. Wonderful!!

Jeannette showing one of her three projects completed since the last guild meeting. I was fortunate enough to quilt two of them, including this lovely quilt. The border fabric is poinsettias and I quilted around all of the poinsettia plants with gold thread for a lovely effect. Time consuming but very pretty.

Sara shows here Reserve Grand Champion quilt of an angel. She did a marvelous job quilting this darling piece and attached some gold cording to the border for a lovely effect. She used glue to attach the cording in spots - claims it worked extremely well.

Carol shows a lovely wall hanging showing Santa and his reindeer. This picture doesn't do either Carol or the wall hanging justice. She did a wonderful job on the machine applique.

Susannah always has such interesting stories to go along with her projects. For a niece's or nephew's first birthday, she provides a set of bibs with fabrics for each month or season, including a special one for the birthday months. Her husband's side of the family has several kids approaching their first birthday so she's been busy! But what a fun idea this is.

Another lovely idea is this quilt shown by Lois. It's a family heirloom and starting with her father (I think), babies have slept under this blanket in a special family crib. The names of each baby are embroidered in the squares on this quilt. There's still an empty square but who knows when the next baby will arrive to fill that spot. This also happens to be my all time favorite quilt pattern - the Irish Chain.

Ruthanna (in blue) had several projects. The Log Cabin pattern is another one that I like and this was a stunning example of a scrappy log cabin that is just gorgeous.

Although technically not a quilted project, Lena completed this dress that may be the oldest project completed to date. She said it was started in 1989. It does have the look of that era, doesn't it? She also had this beautiful Hawaiian applique block. I love the look and have been practicing my applique but am not anywhere near Lena's level of competency. This was a beautiful piece.

There were a total of 31 UFOs shown at this month's meeting as well as several other projects that weren't UFOs. It's always inspiring to attend a meeting and see the variety of projects in the works and completed. So, now to sew!

Cheers!

Margaret

Milroy Amish School Auction

Today was the 50th Annual Milroy Amish School Auction. Auctions are always fun events but this one even more so as they always have a great selection of quilts and quilt tops. I got there in time to briefly look through the quilts. They were piled up and it was difficult to get a good look at all of them before they started auctioning them off. But I was able to see a few that I found interesting.

One of the quilts I bought was a whole cloth - or Plain Quilt as it was labeled. It had been marked and hand quilted beautifully. The picture of the entire quilt doesn't do it justice but you can see the elegant design in this section of the quilt. What a treasure!
I also purchased two quilt tops. I had purchased a black and white Lone Star quilt top a few years ago and quilted it for my grandson. When this Lone Star quilt top came up for sale, I was sucked in. I know how I'd like to quilt this and can't wait to get started.

The other quilt top I purchased was also a Lone Star. What attracted me to this was that it was red, white and black - a color scheme that I love. I've been collecting red, black and white fabrics for awhile now so need to look for a different pattern for the one I make. This has some wild fabrics and that's what I love about this quilt top.

Towards the end of the auction, they had several smaller quilts, table runners and other fun stuff. Look at the fun quilt I got for a song!

I have a special purpose in mind for this small quilt and it makes me smile - certainly worth what I paid for it.

Cheers!

Margaret