Free Water Color Class

Last fall, I enrolled in two free online classes…..the first was digital photography and the second was using Photoshop.  They were both completely free and were wonderful courses that provided tons of useful information.

The company that presented them (Creative  Techs Training) has decided to branch out a bit this spring and is starting a 5 week Watercolor class.   The class will be broadcast each Friday afternoon at 2pm (Eastern US Time) . 

I hope that these will be as fun and informative as the first two classes that I took!!

If you are interested, click here for the class  information.

See you at school!!!!!

Engage the Calikulus

My husband and I are great fans of “The Big Bang Theory”, a sitcom about 4 super smart nerds and one “normal” girl.

Have a quick watch and see if you can figure out what Sheldon is doing? (Sorry you have to watch the ad first)

I knew IMMEDIATELY as it is a technique that I have used for many years.  When I am stuck on something quilt related, I will leave the room and then quickly move into the room, throw on the light and take a fast glancing look at the  piece on the far wall.    It is amazing how many times I can immediately see which of the fabrics are out of place or which fabrics I should use for borders.

Anyway…..does this make me a geek….I certainly hope so!!!!  And I hope that it works for you too!!!

Happy Valentines Day

 

Well, it is almost too late to post this, but I do want to wish all of you a Happy Valentines Day and to share my February decorating.

This quilt is another one that my Mother made about 15 years ago.  It has her typical beautiful hand quilting!!

And, yes, that fresh faced couple in the photo are my husband (Michael) and myself, almost 33 years ago!!  My how time flies when you are having fun!!!

Terra Cotta Flowers

I have finished the second of the rust-dyed pieces.  My plan was to take it to our guild meeting this evening, but am fighting a cold so it will have to wait until another time.

I am giving this to my friend Anita and she will display it at the Pensacola Quilt Show in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully it will help to advertise the rust dyes that she will be selling in her vendor booth…..and it might even sell too…who knows.

Tomorrow I am off to the North Georgia Mountains to teach a one day Machine Quilting Class at the Misty Mountain Quilter’s Guild retreat.  I taught last year as well and am truly looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful quilters again.

Hope you are having a great quilting week!!!!!

Valentine Post Card

On Saturday, I spent a few minutes making a Valentine’s post card for one of my cousins.  She ALWAYS makes wonderful hand-made cards and sends them for every holiday, so I wanted to make something special for her.

Having never made a post card before, I did it by instinct rather than following directions.

The first step was to fuse two pieces of felt together and fuse a solid piece of fabric to the top.  

After picking fabrics from my scrap squares…….

I ironed wonder under hearts to them and cut them out.

 

After fusing them in place, I had a wonderful time playing with threads and quilting…..

The final step was a piece of fabric on the back, an address, stamp and off to the mailbox…

I hope that it arrives in good form and is a wonderful surprise!!!

More Charity Quilts

On Wednesday I attended the guild charity bee again and we enjoyed seeing two quilts that are finished and ready to be handed off to their respective charity organizations…..

Here is the one that was shown last week, but now it has been quilted and bound…..

The next quilt is one that we started last autumn but has just now been quilted.  Once again we asked the guild members to provide pieces and the charity bee put the top together.  We ended up making lots of changes to the pattern to make it look better, with the corners being a royal pain.  After each round, I would take the top back to the group and we would decide what to do next.   In the long run it turned out to be a bright and fun quilt. 

The group was squaring up the quilt at the meeting and then Nancy (our binding saint) will finish off with the binding.

Lake Oconee Quilters

Yesterday I attended (actually I joined) the February meeting of the Lake Oconee Quilters Guild.  They are a fun bunch of women and the meeting was wonderful. 

It began with show and tell……

…….and yes, those are toilet rolls.   Apparently the bee had a fun day!!!

…..isn’t this a beautiful quilt.  The only one that I ever made with brown and blue looked really dull, but this one absolutely shines!!!

 

 

 

 

….this was the block of the month.  The ladies did a wonderful job of picking fabric for these butterflies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The speaker for the morning was Anita Heady (check her blog out here), speaking about “Stretching the String”.  She has made some wonderful samples of quilts made from strings.  Here are a few…..

 

 

…isn’t this a wonderful use of string blocks for a border….

 

 

 

 

Finally, isn’t this a beautiful stained glass window at the church…….