My First One Block Wonder

Every year my guild has a retreat. This year, I won't be able to attend, but since it's being taught by one of our members, I was given the sample quilt to quilt (does that makes sense?) Anyway, Donna will be teaching the One Block Wonder and this is the sample that she made. I used Dream Puff batting and tried to isolate a few of the more unique designs that the piecing created to give it sort of a trapunto effect. It worked in person...not sure about the photo.

I also tried to give the blocks definition. Funny thing was, when I had the quilt on the frame, I had a hard time seeing the blocks. They had no dimension. Luckily, when the quilt was off the frame and I stood back to look, the individual blocks took shape nicely.

The quilt itself was so busy that I did an allover swirl in the border and the main body, just adding some interest with the continuous curve in the sashing.

Happy 4th!!

I Spy....

Okay, admit it.  Isn't this the best kids "I Spy" quilt you've seen? Marei put out a call to all her quilty friends to send her blocks that could be added to her granddaughter's "I Spy" quilt and then she designed this.

I love the fact that the blocks aren't all uniform and that the designs are so fun! Her granddaughter will be busy for hours with this one!



Bet you can't guess who sent her the Mythical Horse piece ...........

And look at the back! Remember the 1600 Quilt? Marei did her own version using the fabrics that she owned that were in the quilt to make her strips with. I thought it might be difficult to quilt with, but my Millennium had no issues at all! 

Finally, my very own iPhone!!

I've been coveting the iPhone for quite some time. However, I had to wait for Verizon to be able to sell them and then I had to wait for my contract to be up.  I think I showed great restraint, after all, my contract was up on June 28 and I waited until today--a full THREE DAYS--before ordering.  And I was pleasantly surprised with my new contract price. I was expecting over $100 a month, instead, it will be around $85. Much better!!

Okay, so no great photo of an I-phone to add here, but how about this one? Do you think Cash was trying to tell us something with his head in the bag of puppy chow???

Got me some learnin'

I tried to post this the day before I "got the learnin'," but Blogger was down (can you imagine??). Anyway, I went to Reno on Thursday last to the Quilt/Sew Expo held at the Grand Sierra. It's a great venue if you don't actually want to be in a casino; if you enter through the back doors, you never have to go upstairs!

I went to take a class I'd taken before from Pam Clark. She's an excellent teacher and offers a great class on background designs. I seem to get in a rut with my designs and just needed something to make the juices flow again.  I took several classes from Pam and many other instructors at Innovations only a few weeks after purchasing my longarm. I went a little crazy that year and took so many classes, I'm not sure I retained anything!

While I didn't learn a lot of new things, I did come away with some ideas and the class sample...not bad, eh??

Stay tuned for new and exciting backgrounds on my quilts...