Showing posts with label Happiness Is Quilting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happiness Is Quilting. Show all posts

Monday, April 11, 2016

Busy Days! And a book review!

Hello Hello! Time has been filled to the max since the new year has begun. In January I had a speaking and workshop engagement in Nebraska City, NE and met some awsome quilters. Very nice ladies and we had a great time at the workshop!

We made a quick trip to Florida to visit some family and let the Boys in my life golf a bit. The ladies had a good time shopping and my aunt planned a day with a friend in the area so we could tour her Studio. She sells jewelry on Etsy and her Studio is to Die for! Here's a few pictures of her super cute, super organized room. Every nook is organized and neat and tidy. Wish some of that would have rubbed off on me!

You can see her unique jewelry in her Etsy shop. Charming! Thanks to Aunt Jane for planning this fun day for us! And thanks to Dee for having us over for the day.

The first show was the Dallas Quilters Guild Show. Let me tell you this is a fun show! If you ever need a road trip I think it's a safe bet that this would be a great show to attend. Beautiful quilts of all styles to see and lots of unique vendors selling their goodies. Here's a quick pic of the booth. We were worn out by the time this picture was taken, but you can get a good idea of what the booth looks like! Thanks to my husband and oldest daughter for their help!

We sold out of several key products and had back to back shows so desperately needed to replenish. Guess where we went to find more "stuff" to sell!

Good thing The Moda Warehouse is in the Dallas area. It was great fun to pop in (1st time!) and pick up some supplies. (Yes, that's our tacky little trailer in the door reflection... Hey, it works!) Now back to the shopping experience! The entry is stunning with antique quilts hanging all around.

 

This is only part of the facility...filled with fabrics and so many other goodies! As you can see I did find some goodies and what fun it was to see how a fabric company warehouse looks. Fun fun!

I felt just like those ladies in the drawing above as I left with the goods! Good thing we had that trailer shown in the door above! Haha!

The two days after the show I taught the basics for The Gardens Of A King at Happiness Is Quilting in McKinney, TX. A wonderful shop! And Wonderful class attendees who were excited to learn a new technique and have a good time. Here we are below discussing some fabric options for the quilt. (If you are new to the blog and don't know, I have a web store where you can purchase the pattern and other supplies if interested - Traditional Primitives.com) The ladies attending the workshop wished it was a week long class and we decided to start a FB page dedicated to it for those who own the pattern or have taken a workshop from me and want to have some company while stitching on it. I'll be available to answer questions and you can feel free to post photos of your blocks and meet others working on the quilt. The group is called Stitch Along with Missie - Gardens Of A King. As interest arises I will be adding other groups for other quilts for ladies to stitch along together via FB. If you are making one of my quilts and want me to start a group dedicated to that specific quilt, let me know and I'll set it up. We'll do our best to grow the groups and make it fun! I realize not everyone does FB but you should know by now I'm always eager to help if you contact me by email. Each of my patterns has my email address on the back cover so feel free to join the FB group listed above or email me with questions!

After the workshop at Happiness Is Quilting, we headed for a very quick visit with my folks on our way to the next show in Ballwin, MO near St. Louis. Another great show from the Bit's and Pieces Quilt Guild. This is a biannual show and there were some stunning quilts on display! Here's a few highlights...

It was great fun to be at this small but spectacular show. One nice lady was told by her friend who took my workshop in TX that she needed to come see me at this show. She drove a few hours from Illinois to come visit! As she walked in the door to the show, she happened to win a door prize. Guess who's booth it was from?! Mine! It was so great to meet Linda who had a very lucky day!

I've recently read a pretty good book about machine quilting called

The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting: Long-arm and Sit-down - Learn When, Where, Why, and How to Finish Your Quilts Paperback – written by Angela Walters and Christa Watson.

This book has so much great basic information. If you would like to try quilting by machine and think maybe someday you'd like to know more about a Longarm, this is the book for you! Great examples and info! Check out more details here! These ladies have covered all the details we need to know when quilting!

I'll fill you in on more adventures in the near future! Have a wonderful quilty day!

Take care,

Missie

 

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Back Home!

The trip to Garland was wonderful! The Garland Guild has a great thing going with a full room of quilt loving women chatting, laughing and enjoying the fellowship that comes with a guild. If you are a resident of North Dallas, be sure to check out this guild. They really have a good time together. The workshops went well at the two stores I visited, Sew Let's Quilt It and Happiness Is Quilting. Such sweet ladies all around!

 

Patty at Sew Let's Quilt It gave me a demo of her computerized quilting machine. Wow! Are those nice! It was very cool to see how it works and how they get each block measured and quilted. She has some beautiful samples hanging in her store and has custom quilted them using her fancy machine. I was a bit jealous! The workshop for the Zebra Wallhanging was great. So fun to see students squeal with delight as they sew those first two blocks together and they discover the process really is worry free!

Happiness Is Quilting had me for two days and I so enjoyed watching them work and interact with customers. The store is beautiful with lots of samples and a little bit of something for everyone from modern to reproduction, Dutch florals, Punchneedle, machines And just about any notion you could want!

 

Darling pink walls with beautiful samples!

One of my hostesses for an evening showed me her lovely seeing studio! Oh, to have a place as beautiful as this room would be so wonderful...maybe some day....

First of all...it was Clean and Organized, secondly it was a perfect size, and lastly it was decorated perfectly with many of her favorite things! This is just one corner of this great space.

And here' s a nice close up of some of her lovely trinkets!

Now that I'm home, I'm doing my best to get my room organized. No space for many trinkets and pretties, but at least I do have my own space to be creative in and that I'm grateful for.

Once I got my sewing room a bit cleaned up, I had to mess it up again with a little wool. Can't stay clean for long, I must admit! Since about half way through making "George"...the Gardens Of A King, I wanted to try it in wool. Well...it worked just great! Below you can see my first block with wool appliqué on cottons...went together in an afternoon full of visiting and stitching! Very quick and easy!

I also did a little rug punching...so relaxing and rewarding because it's so quick to do! I'm in search of a new background color. This one isn't quite right....uh oh! Another reason to buy wool! Recently, I made a purchase of a new blade for my rusty old cutter. It should cut like butter the next time I need to cut strips. Should be exciting!! ( Why is it so exciting to cut wool strips? Am I crazy?!? LOL!).

Have a wonderful week!

Take care,

Missie

 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Gardens Of A King is 100% Done!

The quilting on this quilt really had me stumped! I've been pondering how to quilt it for quite a while. You remember back in October I had quilted the center and wasn't happy with the thick batting, so before I added the borders, I unquilted it! That was lots of work, but needed to be done.

 

To an advanced quilter, this quilt has great "negative space" to fill, but to a beginner custom quilter, I just couldn't see anything but simple shapes. In the coming months I will be teaching a BOM on this quilt and plan to make another. Maybe by the time I quilt it, I will be an improved negative space quilter!

You can see the quilting's not perfect, but I am happy with it and will improve on the next quilt I get quilted.

See that striped fabric under the outer sharks tooth border? That is a scrap of fabric used to help me while quilting. My foot tends to catch on lofty battings so I lay strips of scrap fabric just under the edge of the quilt edge and baste them in place as I baste the edges of the quilt before quilting the center. After the quilting is finished, I cut off this strip of fabric as I trim the outer edge. Any leftovers that have been sewn in stay there and become part of the batting inside the binding. I do my best to keep this extra fabric 1/4" inside the edge so it does not extend into the body of the quilt and show through light fabric.

When folks see my quilting machine, they often ask what kind I have. This is a Bailey Home Quilter 17" mid arm. It's mounted on a Hinterburg frame...nothing fancy at all, but efficient for what I need and it makes a beautiful stitch.
Last night was my trunk show for the Garland, TX guild. These ladies have such an active group!! One activity I was impressed with is that those interested can participate in a BOM exchange. Each month they get block instructions for the blocks that will be brought the following month. When they bring the finished block their name goes in the hat for a drawing to win the blocks. They had enough blocks for 3 drawings of 17 blocks each last night! How wonderful is that!!! They had several other programs and this guild has lots of participation in their activities!! They laughed and chatted and had good food. Wish I lived closer and could visit and stitch with them more often!!
Today I'm teaching the Wild Zebra cutaway appliqué technique to create a difficult looking quilt with ease. The class is at Sew Let's Quilt It in Dallas.
Tomorrow Punchneedle Mini Quilt and Friday Wool Appliqué at Happiness is Quilting in McKinney.
If you are nearby and want to join in, call the stores listed above and join in the fun!
Saturday is the English Paper Piecing workshop where I will teach all sorts of English Paper Piecing tips and techniques, including my favorite way to baste for English Paper Piecing using starch.
Thanks to the Garland Guild for inviting me to join you this week!
Take care,
Missie