Retreat!

Ladies of the Lake are on retreat!  Here is the first group:

New stuff

12" quilts

Lonnie and I have been making these little 12" quilts, adding our own twist with wool felt applique. 

These kits come with the pattern, batting, a pre-fused applique shape and all the fabric for front, back and binding for just $12.95 each while they last.

Happy Holidays

Pumpkin Patch

Counting Sheep

We're planning a spring quilt with a bunny applique next.

Football Season

I like to visit son Gabe in Texas during football season as that's his passion. He teaches and coaches high school football in a suburb of Dallas, Coppell. This smile says they won! I took a sweatshirt but did not need. It was still in the 90s there.

You know you are not in Iowa any more when the marching band is so big you can't get it all in one picture! The kids are spelling out COPPELL, the name of this 6A high school.

While Gabe was at school, I visited my cousin in Dallas. We did a bit of antiquing but mostly we chatted with several years to catch up on.  

I spotted this cute pumpkin in an antique shop. How cute but simple is this? Tie jar rings together and insert a stick.

It was a fun evening and a great weekend.

October Quilt Circle of Friends!

After catching up with each other for a bit and sharing some quilt news, it was time for Show and Tell.

Deb S. had all of these half square triangles pinned to a large piece of batting. Most of these HST's were collected in our exchange. She rolled it out for all of us to help her inspect, looking for pieces turned wrong. No such luck. Try as we did, we were not able to find one piece wrong. Gorgeous. Deb is making three large bright quilts, one for each son.

On to the next quilt, Deb also asked our advice on which black to use in her next bright quilt, the solid or the black with the specks of color. Hands down, we chose the speckled black.

This is the first of Deb's three "son" quilts.  The Jewel Box.

We chatted some about ideas for setting together our Barn Quilt BOM blocks. Here's the start of mine.

Nancy H. shared her blocks. We all agreed the pop of yellow was really nice with her jewel tones.

Lonnie K. made this little 12" cutie. It will have a wool felt applique of a pumpkin and will be a shop sample.

Nancy H. made this baby quilt using the Stacked Layer Cake pattern. Sweet.

WOW! Right? Nancy also shared this quilt from the Block A Day program. 

And she showed us this wool quilt started by her mother-in-law. It kind of tracks the progression of her Alzheimer's disease as the stitches became more and more irregular. Nancy's m.i.l, Bev Hagelberg, passed on September 29 from this debilitating disease and our heart felt condolences go out to the family. What a blessing to her memory that Nancy will finish this quilt and keep it for the next generation.

We also send condolences to the family of Quilt Circle member, Theresa Hane, on the death of her Mother in Law.                              

Jackie O. came to club in style in these quilter's sneakers she found online.

Marti got creative. Well, Marti is always very creative. Isn't this a clever effect? Not a pattern, she just made it up as she went.

From her stash, she found this for the back. 

Not a minute too soon, Joyce S. finished up her Halloween quilt. So cute.

Abbie A. took 6 classes at the recent AQS show in Des Moines. In this class, they made fabric by fusing strips together and then cut their applique from it.

This log cabin version did not look like a log cabin quilt on the pattern jacket. Maybe we will see more of this one in a month or two.

 In a fabric dying class, she sprayed color on to printed tone on tone fabric. Using tone on tone fabric as the basis gave it a more mottled look.

And even more dying techniques. One used shaving cream to block the negative areas. Very fun.

Here we see Nancy J's first pineapple quilt.

And a quilt for her sewing room wall.

Nancy has been making quilts for all of the grandchildren for some time, using her father in laws collection of Hawaiian shirts. This one she will keep. It is the Hawaiian Islands made from his shirts. Nice.

 After a quick demo, we drew for prizes. This month we had these cute mini pumpkins for prizes.

Then it was time for snacks and more chatting.

Thank you to all of my special Quilt Circle of Friends and to Jackie O for acting as our photographer.

Visit the Iowa Quilt Museum in Winterset!

"Bounty of Baskets" offers a plentiful variety Members of the American Quilt Study Group were challenged in the most recent quilt study to study a quilt from the nineteenth century and create a new quilt of their own that was inspired by the original. The new quilt could be a reproduction or simple reflect the original in a way that spoke to the maker. Of the 50 entries in the quilt study, 25 were selected for a traveling exhibit which is on display at the Iowa Quilt Museum through December 30th. This bountiful exhibit displays excellent craftsmanship and scholarship throughout. Display your Blue Ribbon Quilt at the Iowa Quilt Museum!   We are seeking submissions of Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Winners for an exhibit to be on display  July 31 - October 14, 2018. Submit your Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon winning quilt by May 15, 2018. To submit your quilt or quilted item: Submit an overall photo of the entire item. Include the following contact information for the quilt owner: Name, Mailing address, Email address and Phone number Include the following information about the quilt: Name of Quilter, Year & Class in which blue ribbon was awarded Electronic submissions strongly preferred!   Please direct entries and questions to: Iowa Quilt Museum • Megan Barrett, Director 515-462-5988 | director@iowaquiltmuseum.org

New Stuff

This is a new shop sample pillow made with a 12" pig block. We have a few other animals as well.

Another new shop sample, this pattern features "gifts" in either a place mat size or a table runner with more gift boxes. The bow is made like a half Dresden plate block.

Lonnie made this panel quilt for the shop. Really cute and I love the colors. Great for any sewing room wall.

Quilts by Mille Freese

 A group of friends each gave Millie a piece of fabric and this is how she used it. Beautiful.

Here is a close up of the back to show Julia Swallow's graceful machine quilting.

Millie,  a talented quilter, historian, quilt collector and educator will speak in November at our Sisters of the Cloth meeting.

Three monkeys in a tree.

Had a great time with these guys last weekend. Glad Liv left her bike helmet on while tree climbing!

Recipe for a quilt block

Have you seen these? They are just like Triangles on a roll or Thangles but are made to use with Layer Cake squares (aka 10" squares). Miss Rosie has also come out with Cupcakes, the same thing used with 5" Charm squares.

One sheet makes all of the parts to build two blocks and each recipe makes different blocks. This is recipe #2.

I played some with this over the weekend and it was very easy. All of my points came out with no dodging and hoping. Each sheet makes 2 blocks.

I'll be showing these at our fall Ladies of the Lake Quilt Retreat later this month.

Super Nova!

Super Nova is the name of this panel from Hoffman. Lonnie fancied it up a bit with borders, making it about 52" x 52". She put flannel on the back for a winter couch throw. Deb S quilted it with a fun snowflake design. In kits, of course, but they are going quick.

Retreat Flag

Hard to see in this pic but the entire quilt is made using Cathedral Window Blocks. We will teach this technique at our fall retreats Oct 23 to 25 and Oct 26 to 28.

OOOOOpen Sew!

It's this week, Thursday and Friday at the Adel Library, 10 am until the last stitch is made!! Free!!! Come and bring a friend, bring your projects and sewing machine. Cutting and pressing stations are provided.

Retreating as a guest!

Last weekend, I was invited to join a group of quilters at the Christian Conference Center in Newton for a "No Frills Quilt Retreat". That meant we mostly just sewed all weekend. There were a few games of quilters poker thrown in, though. 

It was both a fun and a productive weekend. Here are a few pictures of projects coming together around the room.

Cathy's owls

Diana's string quilt

After Diana finished one string quilt, she started another one!

Playing with wool

Jane was pretty diverse in her piecing!

Jackie shared to quilts made from Missouri Star patterns - above and below.

Linda made the quilt top below with this border fabric as her inspiration.

This quilt is about 5' x 6' - (tee hee)

This was cool. It's a reverse fusible applique Linda learned in a class.

Made from leftover pieces.

This is a block-a-day quilt. Lovely.

Stunning in person, I loved that Sheryl chose to use grey with these warm tones. Really set it off nicely.

These three sisters had a great time stitching together.

Trademarked fabric for University of Wyoming. Very nice,

Thank you ladies, for including me.