Been a while but...

I was away over the weekend at a quilting retreat hosted by my quilt guild getting some additional inspiration.  Sewing machines were going from early in the morning to late into the night.  Doesn't that happen at most quilting retreats?  As always, I had packed enough UFOs and WIPs to keep me busy for at least a week.  Of the ones that I was able to work on, I finished a quilt that is going to Japan.  Just need to finish the binding.

Finished the binding on another donation quilt,

quickly put together a child's quilt that I made from a pattern called "BQ" from Maple Island Quilts even though I changed the setting slightly.

tested some fancy stitches that I'm going to use on another project (here is a glimpse)

and for the first time did some free motion machine quilting. 



   

I definitely need practice there, so I have joined a FMQ Challenge.  You can check that out here. 

Now it's off to get the binding on this one done and work on the "games" challenge for the fiber arts group that I recently joined.  More on this later.  In the meantime you can check out the group at Tangled Textiles or just click on the tag on the right.

Where do you find...

inspiration when presented with a challenge?  Let's check out some of the magazines that I have been browsing through.

But nothing jumped out at me so I went to my studio bookshelf and thought I might find something that would get the ideas flowing.

That was the first shelf and then I went on to the second shelf

 

Aahh!  These look like they might stir the imagination. 

Looks like I have some reading to do.  Then some playing to come up with a way to meet a "games" challenge.  Hmmm things are starting to percolate...

Quilts ready to go to Japan

It's been a while, but then when an idea strikes I have to go with it.  You know "strike while the iron is hot"  and my iron was working overtime on this one.  I've been busy sewing some more quilts to send off to Japan.  I was using scraps of various different sizes to make what some call "Mile A Minutes."  Mostly likely called that because you are sewing ..... you guess it.....a mile a minute.  It starts off like this....

Sorry for the brightness, but you can see the odd shapes and there are three patches in the one on the right. 

After some sewing they look like this...

and eventually the piece is large enough to trim to a 9.5 inch size like this...

With a bit of sashing and cornerstones added you end up with this....

Here is a close up 

This is now ready for some machine quilting and then off to Japan along with these.

 Konnections with Kansas which is complete and ready to go.

And this one that consists of blocks made as samples in a workshop presented by a friend and me to demonstrate the use of a specialty ruler.

My hope is that these will bring comfort to one of the many in Japan that are currently living in stadiums and gymnasiums.  If you wish to donate a quilt for Japan, just click here or on the badge to the right for more information.