Great Quilt Classes

Have you ever taken a really great quilt class? My favorite class was for what we now affectionately refer to as the Jimmy Buffet quilt.

The picture is of the 2nd of these quilts that I made. This one was for my nephew and his wife and presented to them at their Bahama wedding this past June. You can barely see it in the pic but there is a tiny wedding dress on a clothesline between the palm trees.

This was a class taught by Mary at the LQS a few years ago. It was a great class because I love the quilt, it was how I learned to paper piece (a testament to Mary's teaching abilities as this was probably not the ideal quilt to LEARN to paper piece on!), I not only finished it (rare for me for a class quilt) but made 2 more as well, and since then Mary and I have become very good friends (she is part of the posse)! Mary posted about this quilt on her blog today also (which is what spurred me to post about it) so hop on over to her blog and take a look!

Have a pieceful day!

It's a Boy

My best friend Sue is a grandma! Her first grandson made us wait till a week after his due date but was born on his great-grandma's birthday making his arrival all the more special! I stopped at Sue's last night on my way home from my Dear Jane group to give her this pillow I made for her - it's been ready since the beginning of January and I've been dying to give it to her but was waiting for the actual birth. The stitchery is a pattern from Bare Roots. The pillow I kind of made up my own pattern for. The fabric comes from fabric Sue used in the baby quilt she made for the baby shower.

Funny story about the pillow: when the posse went to Quilt Fest NJ last weekend, at one point Sue called me over to a vendor booth she was shopping in and said "look at this pattern, isn't it the most adorable thing?" well, I looked down - and it was the pattern for this pillow! I thought I kept a pretty good poker face but she told me last night that my facial expression made her suspect that I had already made it or was making it for her! She didn't say but I'm sure when I (and the others we were with because they all recognized it too) didn't encourage her to buy it (because that's what friend's DO at a quilt show, isn't it - pushe you over the edge when your on the fence about buying something?), that must have clinched it. Good thing I don't play poker, huh?

One quilty note about the pillow - this was the first time I used my new ruffle foot for my machine. I bought it back in November at a quilt retreat when one of the posse was sewing with one and we all ooh'd and ah'd - and of course what were we to do but run to the local machine store (which happens to be 5 minutes from the retreat site) and all buy one for ourselves! I loved the way the foot did a ruffle and I think I will be making more quilted or stitched pillows for baby and christmas gifts this year.

Have a pieceful day!

Opening Day!

This is what DH thinks of when he hears "opening day"...

This is what me and the Quilting Posse think of...
The first quilt show of the year!!!!

Yesterday the posse (that's what Mary's husband calls it - if I wrote what MY husband calls it I'd undoubtedly offend someone - so we'll stick with posse) headed out to The Quiltfest of NJ.

Six of us set out bright and early (the 7th was ill and couldn't go - we missed you Ann!). We had a scare on Friday night when they were predicting 4-8 inches of snow into Saturday morning but when we woke on Saturday the snow had stopped and there was only a couple of inches - and the roads were clear.

As always, the quilts were awesome and the vendors did not disappoint either. We all did our part to stimulate the economy. (I'll post pics of some of my new goodies later or tomorrow).

After the show we headed to a great Chinese restaurant and had a great dinner - there was a huge lazy susan in the middle and we put our plates on it and spun them around so everyone could try each other's dishes.
A day spent with good friends at a quilt show and then out for a great dinner - what could be better after a long winter!