Friday, August 31, 2018

Labor Day Dip

Here is a tasty and easy dip I had at a family gathering in Chicago. I love a recipe with 5 or less ingredients:

Jarlsberg Cheese Dip
4 oz grated Jarlsberg or Swiss cheese
2 T mayo
1 T chopped red onion

Mix at least 2 hours before serving. Great with crackers. It's more like a spread than a dip but would be good with veggie sticks, too.

New stuff

This kit comes with 5" precut strips of the gray with a $2 Villa Rosa pattern, making it affordable and easy. Made by Lonnie K.

Close up of machine quilting by Deb S.

Stars and Stripes.  Pattern shows in red, white and blue. Good pattern for quilts of valor.


What shall we do with his new panel? Below are a few coordinates.



Monday, August 27, 2018

August Open Sew

It was another fun two day gathering of quilters at Open Sew last week. Here's a little bit of what was stitching up:

Sarah D led a group in making little zipper bags from candy packages. I never heard exactly how the packages were emptied. I suspect some grandkids were called into duty.

The wrappers are covered with adhesive clear vinyl and then quilted to batting and lining.

Add the zipper and you have a really fun little bag!

Marti worked on these applique' blocks. It is going to be fun watching this quilt grow!



This Lone Star quilt started Open Sew in 8 large wedges. Nancy J is finishing this for a church friend. Nice job, Nancy!
I worked on coming up with a little cross-body bag for a pre-schooler to carry her Epi pen without cramping her play style.
I also worked on this baby quilt for a friend.

Here it is now, ready for the baby shower. The theme is forest animals and arrows. I think this will work.

Thanks to all who came out. See you next month, September 13 & 14.


Sunday, August 26, 2018

August Quilt Circle

It was another great time with my Quilt Circle of Friends! Here is our show and share for the month:

Nancy H showed this creation using her blocks from our snowball block exchange. Pretty.

Jackie O. made this quilt from blocks gifted to her for her birthday from an online group.

And this state fair blue ribbon quilt made for her grandchild!

Jackie made this quilt from a stack of unfinished butterfly blocks given to her to finish from a friend. It's another state fair ribbon winning quilt!

Of course, the extra blocks go on the back!

Lonnie showed us this pretty pink and grey quilt, just back from the quilter. This is a shop sample and available in kit.

Deb S shared this fun bag and the even funnier story that came with it.

She also shared this quilt, made with snowball blocks from our exchange. Yes, I said snowball blocks. This is the Disappearing Snowball pattern from Missouri Star Quilts.

This close up of the back shows what Deb's grandson thought was the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek.

And 2 more by Deb. These are quilts for baby cousins coming into the family soon.

Celia shared this wall hanging made by her granddaughter for her father. So sweet!

Margaret finished this cute little scare crow.



And Trish shared these two scarves made in our Indigo Dyeing class.


Talk about working to a deadline! Nancy J. showed us this baby quilt, made for a baby that was born about an hour after this sharing! Oh, and please notice she made a special back-to-school pencil name tag for the evening.

Bonnie brought this sashing strip as a tease on her next project.

We were happy to welcome a new member, Flo (not FRAN!)

Flo shared a stack of place mats she made to practice her machine quilting.

She also shared her sweetcorn pot holder.

I shared this jelly roll race quilt. I won this as a quilt top at a gathering of quilters earlier in August and quilted it up using Moda's Fireside plush. It's a perfect match to my living room furniture where it will be residing this winter.

We finished the evening with a demo and then snacked on "treats on a stick", in keeping with the recent State Fair.

Thanks to Jackie O for taking these pics and for all my Quilt Circle of Friends!

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Thread Bags

Nancy Sharr has written this pattern and will be teaching it at Ladies of the Lake Quilt Retreats this fall

It's made from 2 1/2" squares and I love the little scissor loop. Thanks to Lonnie for making this shop sample for us.

Monday, August 20, 2018

Customer Show and Share

Angie Storck brought in this T-Shirt quilt to show me. She made it for a niece. She used one of our fun new wide backs and had enough excess to use for binding. Nice job!

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Dates to note:

Saturday, August 18, 10 am to 11:30 am, Indigo Dyeing yard party in front of the shop. This class is now full so, if you are already registered, this note is for you. Wear your "painting" clothes. All other supplies will be provided.

Monday, August 20 - Quilt Circle of Friends, 6 to 7:30 pm, in the shop. 

Thursday and Friday, August 23 and 24, 10 am until the last stitch is made - Open Sew at the Adel Library

Tuesday, September 4 - Row by Row ends

Saturday, September 15, Sisters of the Cloth class at Adel Library.

Saturday, September 29 - 2nd class of Indigo Dyeing - several openings at this time. - $35 and all supplies are provided.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

State Fair Quilts

So many beautiful quilts at the Iowa State Fair! I chose to grab a picture of those of Quilt Circle of Friends members.
Margaret Beal

Marti Klatt

Jackie Orton

Another by Jackie Orton

This one is by Millie Kehrli and machine quilted by our Monday girl, Julia Swallow. Millie is not in QC but she recently shared this quilt at Sister's of the Cloth so I included her here.

Here is Best of Show by Leigh Lussie. She is not a QC member either but I have followed her beautiful applique work for many, many years as my mother used to hand quilt for her. Leigh was definitely an inspiration for me to start quilting

Another by Marti Klatt. The story goes that this is what happens to our sewing machines when we leave them unused for a bit. Fabric vines grown on them.

Yet another by Jackie Orton

This is by Karen Thompson. She is not a QC member either but she spoke to QC recently about Temperature Quilts and I LOVE this little quilts, especially the colors.

Then we skipped on over to the 4-H building and spotted this quilt by Great Niece, Sydney Hurd, with a blue ribbon on it!!

I share with all of you in wishing we could view more of the quilts but, it is still a wonderful show, featuring hundreds of talented quilters from all over Iowa. Hats off to those that participate and hats off to those who help make it happen.

We are sponsoring 2nd, 3rd and 4th place quilts with $25 gift certificates.