August's Summary

August has been a busy month for me. My husband and I took a trip for our 30th anniversary to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Penninsula via the cruise. It was spectacular. I took many photos thinking I would incorporate some into quilting projects. I don't know what those will be yet, but I will let the creative juices simmer for a few months. 

AQS Show Grand Rapids, MI I attended the AQS Show in Grand Rapids, MI, on August 14 -16. I took two classes with Bill Kerr which were spectacular! The first was "Rediscovering Your Stash." He has us looking at our fabric collections now in a new light. I am so pumped to use his methods of combining fabrics in new ways that my previous idea of shedding some of my untouched fabrics from a few (cough, cough) years back may not happen. 

We all brought fabrics to class and chose one to bring to the circle. Bill paired two fabrics and those two people had to work through the stashes they brought to come up with a palette.  The first photo below shows the palette my partner and I developed. Bill is pointing to the fabric I brought to the circle. My partner's contribution was the fabric in the bottom left corner. The next 3 photos show how my partner and I combined the palette to each make a sampler quilt. 

Bill Kerr discusses our choices. 

My peices cut for sewing.

My quilt sample.

My partner's sampler.

Samples from all the participants as we discuss them.

The second class he taught was "The Role of Color in Your Quilts." I have tried to learn about color in the past: color wheels, etc. but never could understand how to work with it in quilts. Finally, I get it! The way Bill taught really helped me see how to use, choose and work with colors in quilts. He is a wonderful teacher, very interactive, gets the students discussing, talking, doing!

"Thirty-Nine & Holding"  was the class I took with Klaudeen Hansen. She taught us her "fudge factor" piecing and the blocks we made were quite easy to make. Sharing fabric with others so we all had a great variety was fun. 

HEXIESI followed the Hexie Queen blog hop during August.  In fact, out of necessity, I began sewing hexies about a week ago. I had a bout of vertigo and could not use my sewing machine or bend my head down to rotary cut fabric. I got out a small box of fabrics, scissors, needle, thread and the new Fiskars Hexagon cutter I bought on my way home from the quilt show. (Thank goodness they were all in one place so I could get to them without much discomfort.)  I was able to work with them while sitting on the couch. I am not sure what this is going to become, but here is what I made so far:

CLUB EQ CHALLENGE

I designed a quilt for the Club EQ Challenge for August. This is the link if you'd like to see it: Stars All Around Quilt. I actually think I will try making it. (Can't believe I am saying this after making two-colored blocks similar to these for my daughter's queen-sized bed 3 years ago and having a doozy of a time sewing them.) But I do like the quilt, so I have to give it a go. 










Quilting: Cheaper than Therapy
I saw the quote above on the Quiltmaker website. I think they have some very cute quotes. And as of today, I am using my my machine again! Sewing makes me happy. 

I am working on a star block exchange through Beaquilter's blog.  I have 6 of the 12 blocks completed. They are paper pieced. After making a few of them, I discovered something that made it easier to align and match the intersecting strips in the 8 pieces. I will blog about that tomorrow. Here is a photo of the 6 I have done. Each of the 6 participants gave their color preferences, so we are working with a number of colors.