Courthouse Steps Update

                                                           After a long search, I finally decided on a border fabric.  Thanks to my recent trip to Morgan City, LA and a visit to their LQS "The Quilt Cupboard", I found this beautiful stripe.  A stripe or border fabric had been my first instinct, but I didn't have anything like that in my stash, and hadn't found the right piece.  After adding a small brown inner border I was ready to quilt.

                                                            I decided not to do an overall and not to hand quilt.  That leaves me in a very uncomfortable place, way out of my comfort zone - custom quilting.  I'm still not very good at this, despite having recently read several great books on the topic of customizing your machine quilting.

I made the decision to quilt it on point but now I'm seriously re-thinking that.  My question is do the feathers look to big?  I still kind of like the idea of feathers, but not sure of the size.  Thoughts??

 

I like the way the center part looks.  The math didn't come out exactly perfect, but I'm okay with that.

 

                                                           I'm really happy with the way the corners turned out and the colors in the border.  It's brown, cream and a very soft, browned pink.

Perfection!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I need to decide whether to keep going in this direction, or rip out and start again. 

 

Happy Saturday - it's a beautiful day in Pensacola.

 

-Karen

P.S. Please excuse the spacing - blogger isn't cooperating for me today :).



Fun Weekend in Louisiana

I got home Sunday from a wonderful long weekend in Morgan City, LA.  On Friday I taught a workshop based on this pattern - printed in 1986.  I made 3 of these quilts back in the late '80's and early '90's.  It's a pattern called "Momoe's Star".

It's a cross between Grandmother's Flower Garden and Cathedral Windows.

I met some new friends - always the best part :).

My students came well prepared (and were happy not to have to drag their machines to this workshop).  We learned two basic skill builders - hand applique and hand quilting. 

They were hard at work...

and they all went home with several finished blocks.

This project is totally hand done, portable a great quilt as you go project.   Thanks for lunch Sheryl, it was a wonderful day.

 

 

On Saturday, I was the guest speaker for the quarterly meeting for GSQA.  My lecture/trunk show is called "Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken". 

A new friend, Carole, took some pictures during the program.

The quilts tell the story of my journey.

See how much my hand is helping??? :)

This last one is a little blurry, but I'm explaining some of the finer points in my Going Home quilt.

 

What a wonderful time.  Thank you Sew Happy Quilters Guild for making me feel so welcome.

Have a great day,

Karen

Hand Quilting

I have finally started some hand quilting projects again, I'm a happy camper.  There is nothing like it :).  Here's my Civil War wallhanging, just really getting started.

Even though outlining applique is not my favorite part, it's still fun.

 

Then I got sidetracked.  I have just received our Guild's opportunity quilt back from the quilter's.  It is exactly what I had hoped for.  My friend Sheree did a wonderful job.

I am now starting the hand quilting part.  My job is to quilt the green sashing borders. The center medallion and the vine border will also be hand quilted.  I'm beyond excited about the way it's turned out.

Here's a close up of some of the borders.

There are 5 green sashing borders.  I've got one down (the smallest one) but having so much fun re-visiting all these great Edyta Sitar fabrics.

Today I'm leaving to head west.  I have been asked to teach a workshop for the Sew Happy Quilters Guild in Morgan City, LA on Friday and to present a lecture and trunk show for the GSQA quarterly meeting on Sat.  That's Gulf States Quilting Association (FL,AL,MS,LA) for those of you wondering.  I'm very excited, all packed and ready to go.  I've got my camera, so I'll share when I get back.

Have a great day,

Karen

Road Trip to Mrytle Beach

I know we all do it.  When we're getting ready to go on a trip, we have to make sure we have and hand project ready in case we need it :).  Well, we went to visit our children over Easter/Spring Break a few weeks ago.  In case you're wondering, Mrytle Beach, SC is 711 miles from Pensacola, FL.  It's a long way!  But I took this sweet project along for the ride.

I've been working on it for a few months.  I had all the applique pieces prepped, so it was fun.  And so, after 1400 miles, it's all done!

Remember when I was working on these paper pieced Civil War flying geese?  These are all parts of a wallhanging that I won as a giveaway from Kathie. 

Well.... drumroll please, the top is done!! Yay.  I'm ready for the quilting.

It is such a pretty piece.  I didn't substitute any of the fabrics, this is one time I followed all the directions LOL!  So glad I did - it looks wonderful. 

Then is was on to MB and time to be with these sweet people :).

After church we tried to take some Easter pictures on the beach - as you can tell, we pretty much got blown away!

But something is better than nothing.

This is my son's current assignment with CFA (remember he was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa).  They've been in this condo since Jan. 1st, but while we were there we helped them move into a 2 BR apartment.  So glad we had a chance to enjoy this view.

There was plenty of time to play on the beach.  The water was about 55 degrees, so no swimming for us.

Here's my little super hero......

and here are my precious girls :). 

I am blessed.  Have a great weekend,

Karen

Cindy Needham Workshops

I am not going to do justice to the 2 days I spent with Cindy Needham, but I'll try.  She is amazing!!  Her teaching style is very approachable and she spends a lot of one on one time with each student.  I had a blast.  Now if I can translate that into improved skills LOL!

I took the Linen Ladies workshop and she allowed us to take pictures of the pieces she brought.

The are all so intricate and beautiful.

She embellishes with lots (I mean hundreds) of beads.

This is her Nun quilt - story on her blog here.  Be careful, you can get lost wandering around her blog looking at her beautiful thing.

Each piece had it's own beauty.

This was my favorite piece.  Each little square is 3".

I wish my pictures could capture the incredible beauty.  It's hard to believe these used to be regular linens.

 

This is going to be my first project.  It's a linen napkin - about 16" square.  Cindy had tons of stencils for us to use.

This is a linen tablecloth - card table size.  I used an iron on stablilizer as it's very flimsy.

It's hard to see the pattern, but I'm hoping by the time I finish the napkin, I'll feel confident enough to tackle this.

Doesn't this look just like me??  Very "modern guildish".  NOT.  But it's some yardage I got from a friend.  I think it's probably from the 60's or 70's. 

I actually think it will be a fun piece to experiment with.

The second day I took a machine quilting workshop.  I'm not a newbie, but I thought I would learn something.  The most fun part was playing with the "thread bar".  Cindy brought tons of different types of threads for us to experiment with and see how it looks on our machine.

This was something she offered at the workshop.  I didn't buy it the first day, but after I got home I decided to splurge.

Here's a picture of my machine as it is normally.  You can see the light directly over the needle area, and the dark shadow over the throat space.

Here's the same thing with the LED light turned on.  I am so excited!  I think it's going to make a big difference in my ability to see what I'm stitching.

You can order off the website I'm sure.  I highly recommend it if you've got a little mad money lying around.  If Cindy comes to your town, go.  She is wonderful.

Happy stitching,

Karen