A couple of times each year my guild sponsors a Quilters’ Day Out for the members.  The chairperson selects a block/pattern/technique which is presented at the event or members can choose to work on a project of their own.  Our second QDO of the year was held yesterday.  We had a great time as you will see from the pictures.  I chose a block that lent itself to many different layout orientations.  It is always so interesting to see the color palettes and fabrics that the individual quilters choose to work with.  I loved all of them!

My QDO sample will be donated to our guild charity project – Hope Lodge as soon as I get the binding finished.

Every year my guild holds two or three “Quilters’ Day Out” Saturdays.  The member in charge of this chooses a project – we may do a swap, quilt for our charity, try a new technique, what we always have is FUN!  This year I took on heading up this activity.  Our first time we did a Faux Log Cabin ala Billie Lauder.  This time I found a neat block that lends itself to many different quilts depending on how you set/turn the block.  Here is my first rendition.  When I am done with it I’m going to send it to my sister Carla for her new front porch furniture – it’s the perfect colors.  I’m also going to do another sample before our September meeting – this time completely scrappy and with the blocks turned for a new setting.

As always the pictures can be clicked on for a larger view.

The TTT gang had a Special Saturday in the studio.  We were privileged to host Judy Heyward for a class.  Judy is a member of our guild and an award winning quilter.  We saw her Sunflower on her blog and loved it and I contacted Judy to see if she had developed a pattern for it yet and if she was interested in teaching it to us.   She said yes to both and we did a happy dance!  So Saturday ten of us convened for an all day class in my studio.  Quarters were a bit cramped but we all managed to play well together and had a great time.  One very good thing was that Jolene was able to come in from NC and join us.  After class ended at 4:30 Jolene and I worked until after midnight and got our flowers all fused down and the borders added.  I will stitch all the pieces down when I quilt the tops.

I didn’t get pics of everyone – and as you can see, Callie Cat was the star of the day as usual. 

I just visited Judy’s blog and she has some pics of the class there, too.  Click on Carolina Musings to go there.

Judy Heyward, quilt artist extraordinaire,  whose quilt Swamp Hibiscus (see picture in previous post) won Best of Show in our Celebration of Quilts 2008 last week, has put up a website in addition to her blog, Carolina Musings.  You can see it here:  http://www.judithheyward.com/index.html.  If your guild is looking for a wonderful trunk show and a great teacher be sure to check out Judy’s site.

I taught a class today at People, Places and Quilts.  An easy big block pattern called Between Friends from Party Time by the same gal who did Yellow Brick Road – T. Atkinson.  I had three students in the class and one was a very nice thirteen year old young man.  He is very tall and lanky and so sweet and polite.  His mom took the class, too.  He has some sewing experience and did pretty well with rotary cutting and caught on to seam pressing.  He is making a QUEEN size quilt for  his new  bed!!  He got everything cut and had over half of his blocks sewn – although not all of them squared up yet. 

And he signed up for two more classes while he was there!!  He told his mom not to tell anyone at school what he was doing so I brought in “Mr. Ed” who works at the shop, services the sewing machines, quilts, teaches classes, is a member of our guild, and is a retired Marine master sergeant.  We proclaimed very loudly that “real men quilt!!”

What a great day!! 

I’m waiting for some pics to share of the beach retreat before I post about that – but I do want to share with everyone a great blog by a fellow quild member and award-winning (Paducah, NQA, Houston, Asheville, Jacksonville, Vermont and many more) quilter and artist, Judy Heyward.  Her blog is titled Carolina Musings.  Take a look and enjoy.

Whew!  It has been a very busy week for me since my last posting.  I have quilted three quilts (and don’t have a picture yet of any of them – drat!).  My buddy Jolene drove down from Syvla, NC to spend a long weekend with me in the studio!  We had a grand time as we always do.  The picture is a top she had been working on and completed this weekend – it is a Pat Sloan pattern from one of the quilting magazines – I forget which one.  On Sunday I surprised her with a birthday party.  It is always difficult for me to keep a secret but this time I DID!  Jolene stayed until mid-morning on Monday.  Monday evening I had my beginner quilting class at People, Places and Quilts.  It was our third meeting and the ladies all went home with beautiful, completely finished table runners.  Tonight they start on a rail fence table topper.  I have eight in this class and I was worried that that was too many but they are a wonderful class.  Tuesday was a TTT day, with Joanne, Sheila, Maureen, and Janice in attendance in the studio for sewing and fun.  Today is a haircut and then work on the class notebooks for the shop, meet the shop owner for a early dinner/discussion of the website, and then on to my class at the shop.  And tomorrow Frances is joining me in the studio for a sewing day.  Isn’t retirement grand??? 

The heavy rains we have been having over the past few weeks have confirmed my suspicion that we need a new roof on the house.  So Friday we are going roof shopping.  I’m interested in the new steel ones – I’m leaning towards either dark green or brown in color. 

Garden report – the tomatoes have slowed down but the peppers are coming on strong so I’ve been making big batchs of stuffed peppers and freezing them for quick meals this winter. 

I taught a class today at PPQ (People, Places, and Quilts).  The pattern was Do the Twist.  I only had three in the class – a lot of teachers won’t teach unless there are at least 4 students – but I don’t mind a small class – it’s so much easier – everyone has plenty of room and the students get lots of teacher attention.  By 1:30 everyone had made at least one block – most of them had two completed – these are BIG blocks – finish at 17″ – and then they could spend the rest of the day cutting strips and strip-piecing.  The rotary cutting fairy (me) visited the classroom and helped everyone with their cutting.  One student was just making a lap size and she left with all of her strip-piecing completed.  The other two were going for queen size so they still have a lot of “stripping” to do – but all of their strips are cut for them.

 Came home and heated up some leftovers for dinner and then lay down on the couch with my book – woke up two hours later. 

I always try to show my students something that will make their measuring or piecing easier and they all left feeling they had learned something new.  I also do “how to clean your machine” every time.  And one student seemed to be very inexperienced with her machine so we went over settings, etc.

DH has been umpiring a baseball tournament all day and will be doing the same all day tomorrow.  I’ve got a gigantic (almost king sized) Trip Around the World loaded on the long arm so I guess I’ll be quilting most of tomorrow. 

Well, here I am!  A blogger.  Oh my.

I’m currently trying to keep about 10 balls juggled.  The biggest ball is moving my quilting studio from my house to a smaller house on the back of our property.  My dear MIL has been living in the smaller house for the past 6 years but she had to go to an assisted living facility at the end of January due to Alzheimer’s.  She is doing very well there and we are pleased to have found such a wonderful place for her. 

I had been playing around with the idea of building a studio for some time but once MIL was moved I realized her little house would be the perfect spot.   Moving has been slowly ongoing since the end of February – we wanted to be sure she was happy at her new place before we made any big changes.  I’m trying to sort and organize and get rid of things I’m not going to use as I make the move.  I’m trying to put everything where it will be happy and stay as it gets to the new studio.  Most of all I’m trying to figure out why I have so much fabric and thread!! 

I’m juggling trying to keep up with my longarm quilting – I’ve got a big backlog of quilts for customers (and I don’t even advertize – this is just word of mouth) plus a closet full of unquilted quilt tops of my own that I really want to get quilted.  I’m juggling my responsibilities as guild president of Cobblestone Quilters Guild (www.charlestonquiltguild.com) and retreat chairperson for Quilters of South Carolina (www.quiltersofsc.org).  I teach quilting at our local quilt shop, People, Places, and Quilts  (www.ppquilts.com) and I’m also studying to become a certified quilt judge through the National Quilting Association (www.nqa.org).  Thank heavens I’m retired and have a lot of time!!