Lizzy House event with PhillyMQG

Philly MQG brought in Lizzy House this past weekend for a lecture and Meadow Quilt workshop. It was such a wonderful event. I met some new people, and of course was inspired. Her lecture was all about her journey to where she is now. A lot of what she said resonated with me in terms of my daughter and how I'd like to encourage her. It was fascinating to hear what's she done in order to accomplish all she has!

Here's a close up of the Meadow Quilt. Lizzy only teaches this class in person and there's a good reason for that. It's an experience!  And the quilt is complicated. It's so much easier to learn the techniques when you see it all in person. And if you have troubles, Lizzy is right there to sit down and sew with you.

She went around and spent one on one time with each person discussing their fabric selections. As you can see, I've gone with a very different color palate than I usually use. Because of that, I was lacking some oomph.  With some tips and ideas from Lizzy, I revisited my stash when I got home and expanded my color palate some. My 'centers' will be a dark charcoal which should break this up nicely.

 

But while we were at the workshop, we did a "test" block to get the techniques down.  Here was my test block:

And everyone hung theirs on the design wall. It's neat to see what effect different color combinations have! (sadly I was early taking my picture and a handful of people are not represented on here).

It was a great time. If you can get to one of Lizzy's classes while she's still teaching this quilt, I would highly recommend it! I'll keep posting here (and on Instagram) on the progress of my Meadow.

Charity Quilt Auction

This quilt will be going up for silent auction to support Doylestown Hospital Hospice and Cancer Institute. Every year the employees donate baskets of items for the Circle of Life Auction. Our department pulled together a "Warm and Cozy" basket featuring my quilt. It also includes a bottle of wine, chocolates and fuzzy slippers. This year, they've added electronic bidding so you don't even need to attend the auction to bid!  This means, if you are interested in bidding on my quilt, you can do so right here!! It's item #1004 from Doylestown Hospital Administration. (please ignore the terrible photo, they posted a picture of the back of the quilt! It will be displayed in person). The bidding site gives you the capability to put in a minimum and maximum bid and it will increase your bids for you.

 

The fabrics are all high quality quilt shop cottons. Mainly Joel Dewberry's Birch Farm line. I mixed in some Art Gallery and the background is Kona Raffia. 

Quilted by me on my friend Denise's long arm. I love the added softness the swirls give!

The backing is all the hydrangea print because it was my favorite in the line.

And a close up of my label...

Scrappy binding of the same prints.

I made this quilt in queen size before in different fabrics and loved how it turned out. That version lives on my guest bed and is still one of my favorites. I was excited to try it again in different colors and I'm really happy with how it turned out. If you like it too, please consider placing a bid! What i understand is that the bidding will work like other online bid sites where you can place a starting and maximum bid and it will increase your bid as others bid so you have nothing to lose!

Quilt stats:

Quilt name: Charity Windows

Pattern: Summer Porch - Eleanor Burns

Fabrics: Joel Dewberry -Birch Farm, Kona Raffia, Art Gallery Oval Elements
Finished size:

Finished: October 2015

Sarcastic/Nerdy Guild swap

The Philly MQG decided to have a Sarcastic/Nerdy swap based off of the online swaps that use profanity or are focused on fandom.  We use Elfster to get matched up for these swaps and you can find out if your partner has an obsession with certain shows, movies or characters through the site. Or based on their sense of humor you could do something a little more risque!

I wasn't 100% sure of my partners use of profanity so I stuck with some quilting fun.  This bag challenged me several times. It's a Noodle Head pattern called the Caravan Tote which I highly recommend. What challenged me was getting the heat transfer on their correctly.  My original design was based off of one on CafePress that I can't get to load up here. (just google Serial Quilter and you'll find it.)  I made myself a t-shirt as a tester.

Then when I started to do the bag, I just resized it, cut it out on my silhouette and put it on the piece before sewing it to the bag. However, I had not read the whole bag pattern yet and didn't realize the bottom of the bag required 3" of the side panel in order to make the boxed bottom! All of a sudden my quilter girl was too big and I had no more heat transfer material!!

What you see is the result of re-thinking. I decided to enlarge the rotary cutter and scissors and cut from a sparkly iron-on that I was able to get locally.

The bag itself is so cool! Inside the side panel (and my awesome rainbow zipper) is a subdivided pocket for tools.

Another pocket inside the bag itself, and then snap closures.  I did the handles with fabric covered webbing.

And because swaps always require a little more love, I found a few things to include. This funny little pin:

And I made this little zip pouch out of sewing themed fabrics.

She loved everything! Now to get working on our retreat swap project!!