Workshop results

I am pleased to report that the workshop was a success!! Turns out that most of the other participants knew each other already, but they couldn't have been any more welcoming to me. They made me feel like one of the group. It was great:)

We pulled names from a tin to determine whose quilt we would work on for each round. Then a technique was pulled from another tin. Our first round was 'flying geese'. It didn't matter how or where, but there had to be a goose in there somewhere! Everyone was very creative and we all had different geese. This was the round I did...
The next round was 'triangles'. Once again, it didn't matter where or how, but there had to be a triangle somewhere. I got the teacher's quilt, and thought it needed an inner border and some trees....
The third round was do whatever you want. I just did some scrappy strips and filled it in best I could - after 6 hours, fabric was running low at this point!

The teacher was Beth Helfter of EvaPaige Quilt Designs. She was so lovely and friendly - such a great teacher! She made everyone feel like nothing was wrong, the mistakes weren't dreadful, and it was OK to not be perfect! There were NO quilt police in our class, uh uh, no way :)

My quilt turned out completely different than I had ever imagined. For some reason I thought it would be done with lots of orange and would be perfect in my kitchen. Boy was I wrong!! Funny how complete strangers can't read your mind! BUT it will be just perfect for my daughter's pink room. I love it!

Here are some of the other quilts from the day. See if you can pick out the centers and each round....






Now go back to the photo of me holding my quilt - notice anything different? Huh huh?!! Oh yes, I am no longer a blonde, but have joined the ranks of brunettes. I do this every so often, (I think my real hair color is a lovely shade of boring mousy brown) so to me it's not that strange, but you should have seen the eyes of the kids I teach singing to in church yesterday. They just couldn't fathom how it happened! I pretended that I had no idea and thanked them for telling me :) Here'a a before and after, complete with zebra strip shower curtain...

See, not as much like my Dad with makeup on, right??!!! LOL!!

Finally, Applique

Firstly, yes I know I've taken a blogging break, and it wasn't really on purpose, I just didn't really have anything quilty to blog about! I need to keep reminding myself that I have that no blogging guilt button on my sidebar:)

I have indeed kept up with my sewing goal. Not as well as I would like, and sometimes it has been 'technically' keeping my goal, but not keeping it in the spirit it was made - eg I have sometimes been woken up by my hubby, and gone to my quilt room at 11.55 at night and sewn a two inch line on a scrap of fabric, then crawled back into bed! I know, I know, terrible!! Other times I have fixed hems, sewn up seams, sewn on buttons, but not a lot of quilting has gone on the last couple of weeks.

I am here to fix that though!

On Saturday I am going to a quilting workshop at a local quilt store. It is free (yay!) as it is an experimental workshop for the teacher. We are to take an 8 1/2 inch block, and it will be the centre of a round robin quilt. We will go home with a 22 inch square quilt top, and the 'rounds' will be determined on the spot - drawn out of a hat. Should be a lot of fun!

I have thought quite a bit about what my centre block should be, after all, it will set the tone for the whole quilt. I decided I want something to go in my orange kitchen, so of course, orange had to be in my centre. It's been a while since I've done any applique, so of course that had to be in it too.

So last night, I did some cutting, and this is what I came up with...
The first one is on my design wall, the second in where it is right now, on my nightstand waiting to be appliqued...I think I have some applique to get done today! You will be able to see those yellow windows a lot better once those pesky seam allowances on the sashings are turned under :)

And now you just know I will have something to blog about after the workshop - I can't wait to see what my simple little house is turned into, and also what I will get to work on for the other ladies.

Other happenings of late? Well there's always the snow. Or rather, here in New Hampshire, there's ALWAYS the snow!! I thought we were done for the year. Really! I mean, I could see our grass!....That's the three handsome men in my life, AND do you see the grass in the background? And my lasagne garden in the front of the house, completely snow free??? Well a few days later, this is what happened...

But I suppose there are good things about snow. We got to go sledding at the park, only the snow was too fluffy and soft to sled, so the kids played on the snow-covered playground instead!

And just how deep was the snow? Well here you can see that it reached my knee...I actually think we were a little crazy. I mean, look - we are the only ones in the carpark!!
But you want to know the scariest thing of all? How much I look like my Dad in this photo...
That's what happens when you spontaneously decide to go to the park in the snow with no make-up on!