Eleanor Burns' Egg Money Quilts

Carolyn sent me home from Quincy with this gorgeous Egg Money Quilt, an Eleanor Burn's design. This first picture, while it does give you the overall look of the quilt, just doesn't do it justice. The colors are so much more vibrant.

I absolutely fell in love with the red background fabric and loved how vibrant it looked with the pieced blocks. I decided to quilt a different background in each of the blocks to give them all a little individual interest. I figured this was only fitting, since this wasn't a quilt where every block was the same size. (Clicking on the pictures will make them bigger for viewing.)

Lots of feathers in different styles in many of the backgrounds. I also did some straight line work, some line dancing, a paisley fill and McTavishing (sort of).  This last pic shows the piano keys in the border. I thought the quilt would benefit from a simple border design with all the craziness going on inside!!

Game Over

A few months back at one of my new guild's meetings, I heard about an older woman who had just passed away. She had apparently been a longtime member of the Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt Club. It was announced at the meeting that her family had allowed our guild to put her sewing supplies and fabric into a yard sale for guild members only.

I went to the sale last Wednesday. It was amazing! I couldn't believe that all this stuff belonged to one woman. I guess she was quite prolific! There were tables with fabric, notions, kits, and books. Plus, boxes and boxes of scraps packaged by weight. Very much like being in a candy store.

I only bought four things, totaling $30. I got a huge Creative Grids ruler ($12), a pattern with cutting rulers ($6), a book with CD by Karen McTavish ($10) and a cute little jar with buttons ($2).  This was my haul:

I'm not saying this to be disrespectful, but you know that old saying? The one that goes, "She who dies with the most fabric wins"?  Well, all I can say is, GAME OVER!! I wish I would have known Kitty. Anyone with this much stash had to be a wonderful person!!

Dory

Nose to the Grindstone

Since I've been home, I've been quilting almost daily.

This quilt belongs to Nancy and is the first one I've ever done with Minkee backing. I was concerned about how it would stitch out, but when I was done with it, I loved the look and feel. Minkee makes the quilt so soft!!! Nancy said this quilt was a challenge for her as she didn't use bright batiks...no, seriously, that's what she said!!

Below are a couple of close-ups. I wanted to  make the path continuous, so I did loops (sort of "l's" all the way down. A lot of continuous curve and some fun play with the individual blocks made up the front.

The back...this is almost true to color. It was more of a lime green, and the most beautiful, bright lime green I've ever seen. These pictures are worth clicking on for a closer view.

More quilts coming up!

Dory

Asilomar - Part Three

Okay, so finally...Cindy's and my projects.

First the few pics I have of Cindy's. She's always way more organized and comes to class with an idea of what she wants to do. Me??  Organized??? No....I decide the first night of class usually.  Cindy's maiden name is Starr, so she loves stars--are you surprised? Me neither.  She opted for something pointy and star-like for her Storm at Sea quilt.

She started here with colors that will go well with her family room:

As class went on, she got to this point. Its going to be so incredible when its done! (Sorry for the photo quality; I took these pics with my iPhone.)

Then I started mine with just a small drawing from an idea in Wendy's book and came up with the players.  And the best part about the cutting? Many of the pieces are "cut about" whatever size; only a few are "cut exactly." That's the beauty of using her Trimplates.  Click here to see a video of Wendy demonstrating the Trimplates. You sew and then square...fast and easy!!

From my original center drawing and playing with my fabrics, I got this... 

Then it was back to the drawing board to try to figure out where to go. Luckily, Wendy had brought her computer and printer and was able to print out larger design sheets for us to color...I mean design.

And from my drawing, came this.  Funny thing was that I absolutely did not like it, until I put it on point. When it was square and staring at me, it was so boring. When I turned it 45 degrees, I fell in love (don't tell Dennis!)  Now I have to figure out how to end it or let it keep growing.

Part Four will be up when this quilt is finished...or when the top is done anyway. My goal is to have it ready to take to Asilomar with me next year.

Dory

A Short Break...

from our regularly scheduled program.

How was your 4th of July? While I didn't do anything terribly patriotic, I did full take advantage of a "day off." We started the morning watching the end of the Federer tennis match at Wimbledon while drinking our coffee. Then we loaded up the bikes and went for a ride on the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Rather than heading in the normal direction, we headed East. We started just to the west of the segment that covers Fir Road to Blyn, and road almost all the way to Blyn. It was a fun ride and more strenuous than heading west, many more hills to conquer and it was a beautiful day with brilliant sunshine. We finished our ride with breakfast at the local 101 Diner, a fave of ours.

A little later in the afternoon, we headed out again...this time on the motorcycle. We went exploring to places we hadn't been before. This shot was taken from the Marilyn Nelson County Park. (There was a huge container ship going through the Strait when I took this; you can't even see it in the photo!)

From there we headed around by the bay and admired the gorgeous homes and bay views, ending up at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. We didn't take the five mile walk to the Lighthouse then, but we plan to in the near future.

We returned home late afternoon and were just lounging on the couch thinking of all the things we should be doing when the phone rang. Friends invited us over for a crab bake on the bay. A quick shower and we were on our way to the Sunset Marine Resort, good friends and good food.

All in all, a very successful 4th of July. Hope yours was splendid!!

Dory

Asilomar - Part Two

Okay, so I've told you that our class was taught by Wendy Mathson (pronounced 'mat-son'), but did I tell you how wonderful she was? This was her first year teaching at Empty Spools and she was like a kid in a candy store. She was so excited to be there and so concerned about doing everything right. 


Each night, after dinner at Empty Spools, there is a meeting where the instructors show their stuff. This is to get you interested in other classes and to show you what's out there. Wendy had prepared a slide show of her quilts, but after seeing the first night's slide show, we convinced her to bag that and, in its place, show her quilts and share the stories of them that she'd shared with us. She was so nervous, but she did it and both her and her quilts were very well received.


As far as our class was concerned, take a look at the projects that were well on their way to being completed by Day 4 of the class:


This one is a present for a grand daughter...

This one will go on a CA King bed when its finished...

This one is in Wendy's book, made by another instructor. I had planned to make this one, but didn't buy the fabric for it. The ladies who did make it had modified their templates so that the finished block size is half the block size of normal (does that make sense?) 

This one was also made with the modified templates. 

This one was going to be the traditional Storm at Sea with just the darker blues. Wendy suggested adding some pop with the bright blues (excellent suggestion) and also suggested the pinwheel-style blocks to add some interest. This one was so much prettier in person!

Another traditional one, scrappy this time...

Karen's is actually sewn together, except the outside border. Can you say "over achiever"?

This is the same as the quilt on the cover. Wendy has a great story about that quilt, but its hers to share and not mine. If you have the good fortune of taking a class from her, make sure she tells you. Its pretty funny!

Another like the cover quilt, except for the colors...

This one belongs to Ella Jean...she took the "Storm at Sea" block to heart! She will be appliqueing the sailboat onto the quilt to replicate a real storm at sea that she was in.

There were a few other tops that I didn't get pictures of.  Yolanda had a beautiful Mariner's Compass center in hers. Hopefully she'll send me a picture and I'll include it here on a later post.

More to come (mine and Cindy's) in Part 3!

Dory