Getting Ready

The first Joyful Journey Retreat will be March 11-15, 2020. We are excited about it and it was so much fun to stuff the Gift Bags:

There is a grand prize one lucky person will win, not seen in these photos.

There are 20 of us and we look forward to a great time at Red Rooster Retreat center, Crane Hill, AL. I thought of each of them as we packed these bags. I look forward to making new friends of the few I don't yet know.

My latest leader/ender project is now done, a Double Four Patch from Civil War reproduction fabrics:

I am working on another one of these from bright, modern fabrics and using a different alternate block.  It will be interesting to see how different the quilts look with only minor changes in layout and color.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Scrappy Plus Quilt All Done

Ta-da! All done:

Scrappy Plus Quilt designed by Jenn Nevitt

Twenty blocks, each 15" square, so this quilt is 60" x 75" as is. It would be simple to add colorful borders to enlarge it. A fun collection of colorful fabrics and many neutral grays, light, medium and dark of each:

Fifty-two pieces per block = 1040 pieces total.

I will be teaching this quilt on a "Scrappy Happy" Quilt Cruise, through Stitchin Heaven quilt shop. The cruise is April 18-25, 2021, Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas ship, round trip Ft. Lauderdale. Ports include St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee--sure to be a great time.

Sign-ups will begin very soon--I will  have a BIG anouncement when that happens. Only 90 students can go and these cruises sell out quickly. I hope you will join us.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Keeping Busy

I have a lot to do in this six week period without travel so I am keeping hard at it to get things done.

First, is the quilt I will be teaching on a cruise April 18-25, 2021 through Stitchin Heaven. The theme of the cruise is "Scrap Happy" and two of us will be teaching scrappy projects to 90 students. Much more information and registration information is coming in the next couple weeks--stay tuned.

SCRAPPY PLUS is the quilt I have been asked to teach so first I am making the sample from fabrics the shop sent to me:

As I always do when testing a pattern, I take lots of notes and think how I can improve the instructions and what tools students may find helpful with the projects.

For this one, the first thing I needed was ziploc bags and sticky notes--to keep everything organized.

The block is 15" square and you can't make a block until you have made some of all the parts so that meant there was much cutting of fabric before I could begin sewing. The "Sail and Sew" kit students can choose to buy if they want to will have all the pieces pre-cut for them, so they will be able to sew blocks from the start. Students who prefer to use their own fabric are told to come with everything cut to maximize their class time.

The Scrappy Plus block:

There were no pressing directions--I love good pressing directions so I am preparing those instructions for students. How seams "nest" with one another is important to me so it makes sense to provide my suggestions for that step.

Once all the parts were cut and half square triangles made of the four colors, I found it took me an hour to assemble a block. Twenty blocks so twenty hours.

Since I like to use leader/enders when piecing blocks, I started a new one from the big bucket of four-patches I have on hand. That adds just a bit to the time making the Scrappy Plus block but it creates a  "free" quilt.

See the Double Four-Patch from Civil War reproductions growing in the lower right:

I still have 5 blocks to go to complete the top then I can move on to a few other "must dos", like tax returns, and handouts for an upcoming big project.

This weekend we have our adorable and energetic grandkids spending the night so no more sewing for me. We love seeing them come and we love seeing them leave... Not really, but there's a reason to have little kids when you're young.

Stella is 4.5 and very smart, always eager to get into everything I'm doing or play with my IPad. Sam is not quite 18 months and so cute, funny, and happy. Both kids are terrific, a tribute to the excellent job our son and daughter-in-law are doing with their "raisin''. Isn't it a joy to see your kids as parents? The future is in good hands.

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Design Wall Explosion

While I am usually working on at least two projects at a time, it is not often I have so many on my design wall at the same time:

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler
Patriotic Pineapples
Afternoon Delight in Red, White and Blue
Scrappy Plus--the cruise quilt I have to get done this week
$795--started many years ago and on the "plan to finish this year" list.

My extra Lifetime block is even up there--so I can find it when needed for lecture. It only got made when I mis-counted how many I had done and made one extra. Makes a good visual at lectures.

Lots of travel jobs on tap this year so these next two months when I am mostly home will be a time of high production. 

Stay tuned.

Let's quilt,

Barbara

Road 2 CA 2020--A Great Trip

I recently had the pleasure of teaching four classes again at Road 2 CA, a large quilt show in Ontario, CA, which celebrated their 25th anniversary this show.

The distinctive atrium of the Ontario Convention Center makes a great place for a display of a CA guild's quilts--a new guild is featured each year:

 The convention center is one mile from the Ontario airport and my hotel was directly across the street from the Convention Center so it was an easy walk each morning to class:

Palm trees--I don't see those where I live

Winter where I live is not harsh but we often get below freezing at night. So it is a treat for me to see roses and tropicals in bloom in January:

After arriving very late Monday night, I had Tuesday to recover, unpack, prepare my clothes for the week and find my classroom.

A special treat was meeting up with an old Marine Corps buddy I had not seen since the early 80's--we sat in the hotel lobby, sharing photos, and catching up. After a nice dinner he had a two hour drive home and I needed to turn in early as the two hour time change was apparent. I wish I had thought to get a photo of us.

Wednesday my first class was "The Village"--with paper-pieced houses and easy stars. The class was full with about 25 students and we had fun:

My Sample Quilt

Student Work

That evening there was a lovely Faculty reception where we got to chat with some of the other teachers, then I attended Preview--the quilts were on display, no vendors, and only students were able to attend.

The big winners had not yet heard of their good fortune so I took photos of several, posted on Facebook, and got hearty "thanks!" from several--with the time difference, several had delayed going to bed, hoping to hear Show results:

Best of Show:

Best Hand Quilting:

Best Domestic Machine Quilting:

Outstanding Wall Quilt:

One other big award was the Marie White Masterpiece Award. It went to Janet Stone for her quilt "Crazy Four Ewe". I did not photograph or post this one because I saw that Janet had already received the happy news. But I thought you would like to see it:

See all the winners with good photos and excellent descriptions: Road2CA 2020 WINNERS LIST

It was cool in the morning,  about 50, no where near the 20's at home. I enjoyed seeing sunrise on the mountains as I crossed the street:

Thursday was another class, Antique Rose Stars by Machine:

Once again, the students were great and did very well:

Discussing my sample

Friday, it was on to Southern Super Star:

My sample quilt

Students morning work

A Disney quilt--great use of Disney fabrics

Student's work in the afternoon

I had such a special treat at lunch! Catherine Butterworth of Australia was in the building--I learned that on Instagram. I asked her to come by the classroom  if she got a moment and was thrilled when she came at lunch--we spent an hour talking, sharing photos, and catching up. I had emailed her 9 years ago about one of her quilts I was inspired by. She continues to win big awards and make great quilts. Once I was a "fan girl"--now we are "soul sisters":

Here she is standing in front of her 1st Place quilt in this show, with another woman also named C Butterworth:

Follow her on Instagram:  ccbutterworth--you will see why she inspires me.

Saturday brought the last of my four classes, "Smitten".  I will be teaching it here at home February 15, 2020--don't miss it if you're local:

My Sample Quilt

 Despite the accumulated fatigue many students were feeling by the end of the week, they did great:

Student work

Student work

I went on the show floor only once more, to quickly visit my favorite antique quilt dealer, Cindy Rennels and her wonderful husband, Ronnie. I also went to see the booth "Brie Kriebel", run by Paulina. All the customers in her booth were wearing her garments, including me, and we were all buying more--I bought two. Check her out: Brie Kriebel Clothing  NOTE: sizes run small.

We snapped a photo when we realized we had a friend in common, Shelly Heesacker, the TV producer who works wonders for "The Quilt Show". We posted it on Facebook to surprise Shelly:

By Saturday night it was time to pack my bags and prepare for the cross-country trip home on Sunday. Goodbye, Palm Trees, for a while:

I had a super time and my classes were well received by the more than 100 students I had the pleasure of instructing. I plan to apply for 2022--this show has their teachers skip a year in between teaching assignments.

Lastly, this student, Missey, I believe. wore a great T-shirt I just had to share. My blog is called "My Joyful Journey" and this pretty much sums up what I get from my quilting journey:

Hope to see  you in class, let's quilt!

Barbara