Prepping Handwork

 In a few days I will be teaching a two-day class with the Needle Chasers of Iuka, Mississippi, at their annual retreat. These are a great group of women and  I look forward to being with them again, for at least the third time. We will be working on Western Sun. Here is my "wild" version:

Wild Western Sun

And the more traditional fabric selection:

I still have a lot to do to get their substantial kits ready. But what I did first was prep some handwork for me to have for the evenings. This is an important quilt for me and it is taking some time. The circles will be prepped with Karen K Buckley Perfect Circle templates, then machine appliqued in place. I did try Sarah Fielke's aluminum foil technique for circles--I believe I will be faster with Perfect Circles.

First, I marked the circles on the background with a chalk pencil. Then I traced either the cutting line or the finished size line, depending on the size of the circles onto a variety of fabrics. I will decide which fabrics I want for each background and prepare them:

If time permits, I will do some simple embroidery stitches, as I did here on the first section of this "block" I made: 

There are lots of 1/4" bias stems already made--they are machine appliqued first to the background, then the circles will be machine appliqued. I used light green thread, except for the darkest stems. Blanket stitch, #1329 on my Bernina, W 1.0 L 3.0.  Here are two backgrounds ready to get circles: 

I am really tempted to use a decorative thread and some of the many decorative stitches I have on my Bernina 765 SE machine for appliqueing the circles. These great machines come with so many stitches and I only use 2-3. Machine stitching would be so much faster than hand embroidery.

The other project I had to get done was my top for "Aether", which I have named "Sunrise, Sunset". This will be a class offered locally February 4 and 25, 2023, at Southern Charm Quilting. The pattern is by Patty Murphy and is available at the store. I have some good ideas for quilting designs but that will have to wait until later this year:

LOCALS: There is a last minute OPENING for my 4th Joyful Journey Retreat at Red Rooster Retreat Center in Crane Hill, AL. It is March 1-5, 2023. We have a wonderful time and have become a close group. If you are interested, please contact me right away so I can send you all the particulars.

Here are photos from prior years to tempt you. Spend 5 days sewing, laughing, eating, loving time for yourself. Spend NO time cooking, cleaning, or working for someone else. It's all about YOU:

I have written about these events here:

First Retreat 2020

Second Retreat 2021

Third Retreat 2022

Let's quilt.

Barbara 

I LOVE MY JOB!

 In fact, I have always loved my job. First, I was a student. Then I was a United States Marine Officer. And then I was a Tax Professional for 35 years with H&R Block. All of those jobs taught me life lessons and I really loved them all.

For the past 9 years I have been able to expand my quilt career--which first started in 1989. I love teaching all over the country, to groups large and small. And locally. It is fun and the friendships that are built with this kind of job are priceless.

Here is what I am working on right now. In just a few weeks I am teaching AETHER locally so I am really pushing to get the sample done.

Some of the petals laid out on the background. When all 100 petals are done I will make the final decision about who goes where:

I came up with the best way for me to make the petals quickly, for turned edge machine applique. I will teach this method in class: 

A closeup of how the petals will lay--they will be machine appliqued to the background: 

The pattern is called "Aether" by Patty Murphy. The pattern is available locally at Southern Charm Quilting. I named mine "Sunrise, Sunset", since I don't really know how to pronounce Aether:

Aether by Patty Murphy

The other fun thing I had to do this weekend was approve the Scrappy Plus Quilt Kit for the class I am teaching on a Stitchin' Heaven Cruise two months from now. As the cruise was supposed to happen last year, I made the test quilt from a different kit. Here is the one I made at least two years ago, Scrappy Plus:

The other day I received the NEW KIT, the actual one students will get in class. I had to count every piece, verify the size and number of pieces was correct, and be sure the pattern was included. Happy to say, I did that and all is well. They even included the page of Pressing Instructions I wrote for this quilt as there were none in the pattern and good pressing makes for a good quilt.

I love these fabrics--especially the grays and low volume prints, I never seem to have enough of them:

After counting everything I turned the packages over so you can see MORE of the fabrics:

Wouldn't you love to have someone cut all your fabrics for a scrap quilt and label them in cute little baggies? All you have to do is SEW!

I am also happy to report my knees are better. The doctor thought I just rushed back into my power walking too far, too fast, after 5 days off during the super cold weather. He did say my 10 year old replacement will eventually need to be replaced--they don't come with a lifetime guarantee, unless you don't live very long. Since I plan to live many more years, I have that to look forward to. For now, I just have to build back up to my one hour, 5 mile pace.

Let's quilt.

Barbara