I had a fabulous  weekend..... I went to my local guild's quilt show with a dear friend, then we went home and had dinner with our hubbies at my house.
We had snail and crab in mushroom caps, two salads and  cheese and spinach cannelloni with hot garlic bread.  A purchased cake and homemade ice cream for dessert.
I had prepped everything the night before except the cannelloni...I made those a couple of days before and froze them.  All I had to do was drink my wine, assemble the mushroom caps and pop everything into the oven. 
It was a great meal to top off a great day at the show!
And of course the show was fabulous.
One thing that is happening in the quilting world...not very many people are quilting by hand anymore...some people quilt their own by machine but a lot a people have their quilts Long Arm quilted .
Man o man! are there ever a lot of talented quilters out there!!!!
I was blown away at the beauty of so many of our works.
I am sorry I only have a few pictures....like many times before...the battery in my camera died....I thought ...okay I have my phone...it died too!  Oh crap!
But I did get some pics!
http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a59304d4445784f44513d0d0a&blogview=true
Click on the link, let it load...DON"T CLICK on the big green button...that is an advertisement and enjoy the smilebox I made for you.

I also bought some fat quarters...2 bundles of deliciousness!  hehehe!  and a ruler for making sewn bindings.    I was going to order one on-line but I waited for the quilt show and one of the merchants at the show had some....so of course I bought one!

Wow!
That was fast!
I have been working on my s'mores quilt, a workshop at one of my local quiltshops.
The blocks are small....just four inches.
It took me almost 2 weeks to sew all the blocks,  I had them all sewn for the next session at the workshop, but not all of them trimmed.
Did I say, the pattern asked for scant 1/4 inch seams?
I hate scant seams!
I worked on my sashing, getting most of it cut and ready to sew.
But, it seemed like I was sewing blocks for an eternity.
At the workshop we started sewing the sashing on and then the rows together.
We were told it would go quickly now!
We started with the longest row, then the next smaller.
When I got home I decided to start at the shortest row, sewing both rows at one time and it seemed like I was done in a flash!
YUP! DONE!

needs setting triangles

Well... except for the setting triangles and the corner triangles.
This quilt is set on point......
I sewed 2 halves at a time and stopped at the centre.  I think it would be easier, (less bulk under the machine to work on half at a time, sewing in the side triangles.
Well, really, I think it would have been easier to do them at the end of each row, but we didn't.
So, I made the corner triangles....huh! easy! Done, and sewn on!
I was hoping to be able to cut down leftover squares and use them, but they are too small.
So
 I started making the side triangles. and HOLY CRAP! They are done too!
The instructions had us making flying geese, adding three triangles to that and before I knew it ....they are all done !!

 Now I just have to set them in, sew that last middle seam, trim and square and ready to quilt!
But first I am going to have a break, go to my guild's quilt show and have dinner with a friend

It's seems like it is an endless winter this year.  We have had so many ice storms this spring!  I am so tired of the cold!
We will have one or two nice days, then boom!  A cold snap!
The sky is dark and dreary most days, with just a peek or two of the sun.....just enough to get us hungry for warm weather!
MissT, my cat, wants to go out...I let her out and she wants right back in.  She loves to lie in the sun, soaking up it's warmth...not much so far!
Usually my front garden is a mass of purple.  I have grape hyacinth taking over the whole garden.  Every year now I pull them out, but they self seed and multiply by bulbs.  Not a lot of flowers  yet!

Well, at least the cold keeping me out of the garden and in my sewing room.  (Although, I really, really need to vacuum, MissT is shedding like crazy.)
I have been going to my workshop and working on a "s'mores" quilt.
It's taking a long time, the blocks are only 4".   I have most of them done, some need trimming yet, but I have started sewing the rows together.
I still have to cut and sew 28 side blocks and 4 corner blocks.  I think I will do that first before I do anything else.

I almost forgot about my blog today.
I usually have it done in advance, but this has been a busy (for me) week.
Last night was guild night and walkabout.
We had some great demos. 

One was 'tube quilting" , sewing tubes together, then cutting triangles...hmmm, quick and interesting...
Then another demo of quilting items NOT from the quilt stores...like a large "drywall T-square" for squaring up large quilts and other items from the hardware store.
And a demo of "Tickertape" quilts....an interesting way to use up scraps and make ANY quilted item...

 stitchedincolor.com/2011/03/all-about-ticker-tape.html
Here is a link to another blog...she writes about it.
I think I may have to try it...placemats maybe...

Then...my fav...sewn mitred binding. Well, the light bulb went off for me!
I've tried to do this myself a very long time ago and had a hard time with it..not knowing how to do it, what to do....and at that time, no Internet to find out!
But this is the mitre that quilt show judges want to see. 
And I really think it might be easier that the other way to mitre the corner.
The demonstrator sent me some links, I watched videos and I think I can do it!
http://www.tangledthreadsbydebbie.com/
Here is a link to one site with a video on how to do it and of course they are selling a ruler for it.  I don't think you need a special ruler.
So, I think I may make some placemats with the ticker tape method and then bind them and use this method for mitred corners.

I was sitting in the family room with the grand daughters.  They were watching TV and I was browsing the net and I came across some videos for a quilt show in Grand Rapids MI.
The show was called "Stitch Like an Egyptian"...the video is from last year and it looks like the shows have been  in the UK, and a few in the states.
The American Quilters Society is having a show of The Tent makers Of Cairo later this month (April) in Puducah.
I was amazed at the quilts they  featured. 
The exquisite work,
The detail in these quilts.  AMAZING! and they are made in a few months!
They are made by men called tent makers, because this beautiful work was hung on the inside walls of tents.  When the sun shone through the fabric, it was like stained glass.
They do this the same way they have for centuries.
They are made of a layer of canvas, topped with the backing, then appliqued on top of that.  Everything is needle turned!

I made a smilebox of pics I found on the net.

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a59794d7a49324e54593d0d0a&blogview=true

Click on the link...let the smilebox load ...(DON'T click on the thing that says PDF download...that's an advert..)
You can also see videos on YOUTUBE.  Just put Tentmakers of Cairo in the youtube search bar.  You can also see more pics on Pinterest, just do the same...Tentmakers of Cairo in the search bar, and a Facebook page!

The TV is all set up.
The DVD recorder is all set up.
It only took me ALL afternoon....
I hooked it up then decided I really should move the receiver and recorder to another shelf above the TV.
I had to snake the cables through a different hole in the cabinet and hook it all again.
Not easy to do when the TV cabinet is HUGE and I have to use a bent hanger to grab the wires.  My arms are too short and the cabinet is impossible to move!
We always said if we sold this house that would be part of the deal!  We weren't moving it!
Well, it would have to be dismantled to leave the lower level and when we put it down there, we used glue on some of the joints!

I don't know if the satellite receiver is defective or the cable is defective...but some hook ups don't work...like the HDMI cable ....but I finally got it all set up.  I can watch TV if I want and I can record my sewing programs...you know...Sewing with Nancy....
I have been watching her since she first came on the air.

Now I just have to keep after the mister to go through his stuff, move it out so that I can move stuff around.  I need to get rid of things myself. 

Hmmmm
I went down to the TV to watch and WHAT?????  Black screen???
I know it worked...I checked it!
So, I checked the programs to record ....oh crap!  The time is wrong on the recorder...still standard time!  I fixed it and maybe next week I will have the shows recorded!

We have started clearing out the lower level.
Well, the mister has....I've been down there bugging him.  Suggesting this can go..this is old and out of date, it can go.
He keeps kicking me out!  lol!
Hopefully he won't return the favour...hahaha!
I haven't yet decided on how I will arrange the room, but I am keeping some of his shelves and bookcases.
After we has the lower level redone, we used the bookshelves as a temporary wall, backed by old cheap china cabinets.  It looked like a wall...defined the space for his office, but still left the room as one LARGE area.  I knew then that I didn't want the lower level broken up into small spaces.  And now I have that whole space!
But first I have to re-hook up my TV down there. 
We bought a new one (read BIGGER) at Christmas and put this one down there.
The satellite installer hooked it all up, plus my DVD recorder.  Said it was all done.
Guess what?!  The recorder isn't hooked up to satellite...duhhh!  the reason I have a DVD RECORDER is to record!
So now I have to pull it all apart to set it up, I can't re-arrange anything until that is done.  I won't have access to the wires and cables after we re-arrange it all.

I have been having issues with my sewing machine.
The tension is off.
  Sometimes just by a little ...
sometimes a whole lot.
  I cleaned it and cleaned it.
  Didn't help.
I took her in for a spa....hehehe..( well, I would pay as much for a spa day!)
Then I pulled out the thread on some of the squares I was working on and resewed the seams on another machine.
I have all the blocks pressed now and must square them up.
That's gonna hurt!  133 blocks to trim.  Don't want to do that all in one shot...hard on my wrist. 
Trim then sew on another round of triangles ...then trim them.
I gotta get going on these blocks, I go back next week for the remainder of the workshop.
I also need to find out what I need for the sashing.

While I was at the sewing store I invested in a new blade sharpener.  I just bought a new blade for my large cutter, and it's out to the garbage already. Too bad I didn't wait to see if I could sharpen it.  I did try it on another cutter I have,  I'll see if it helps.  It was the cost of 3 to 4 large (60MM) blades.  I think it might pay for itself...at least I hope so

Happy April Fools.....

and Easter Monday

I went to the workshop.
And, I had a lot of fun...
Yes, yes I did.
 And I learnt some stuff too.....
and I shared some ideas that others thought were great.
I had all my fabric cut, well a good deal of it cut.
I brought some more in case I ran out or wanted to cut some more.

I listened while the others were shown how to cut many layers of fabric.
One lady asked how did we cut before? 
SCISSORS!
 cardboard and paper templates!

There are rules now on how to cut fabric (Yeah! Rules!!!)

I learnt by the seat of my pants, friends and TV programs...there were no rules when rotary cutters first came out!
I used cut with the fabric  using the lines on my board.
I found out .... THOSE LINES AREN'T CORRECT.....and it took me a long time to figure that out!
Amazingly, one large queen, (Road to St Louis) that I made for my son was only out 1/4 inch!
BUT!.....
The correct way is much better! I relearned with friends, TV programs and books.   There are actually books published on how to rotary cut.
Our guild libraries carry them.
  
So I was able to jump right in and sew....
which I did....
and someone pressed for me...
and I kept on sewing...and sewing
with a foot I HAVE NEVER USED BEFORE!

BIG,

  big mistake!

and not being able to see very well..................................
my seam allowance was 3/8" instead of 1/4"...

crap.

I thought......
okay...
if I stay at the same seam allowance all through the block I will be okay.

Uh..

NO!

I kept on...
My block was smaller.............
needed even less than 1/4 inch to 1/8" JUST to keep my points.
And as I work further into finishing I will have to adjust the last rows and borders in size....

okay...okay...what to do? what to do?

I actually made up 4....yes, yes... only 4 blocks.  4 tiny little  4 inch blocks...
 I had slowed right down...
Why?
I am going to redo my work and do it right with 1/4 inch s/a .....
I don't know if I will repurpose the stuff I have sewn already or take it apart....
BUT,
and I have another part to that workshop!
I am going back with my work (hopefully) perfect! and ready to continue!
I now how the number of blocks I need half done....gotta get sewing to have them completed for the middle of April.