Sharon Schamber Trunk Show

Yesterday I attended the monthly meeting of the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild.  It was held at Scrapbooks ECT, in Mesa and it was a meeting not to be missed.  The guest speaker of the day was none other than quilt extraordinaire, Sharon Schamber.  Sharon brought with her several BIG suitcases filled with her quilts.  These aren't JUST QUILTS, these are BEST OF SHOW award winning quilts that have hung in national shows all over the country. Many of her quilts have also been published in national quilting magazines.  I just gotta say... the woman makes some AWESOME quilts!

This is the third time I have been privileged enough to see her trunk show.  Her skill and talent is such that you just don't get tired of seeing her stuff.  AND she is one of most down to earth people you'll ever meet.  She is very engaging, funny and sharing.  She has developed several techniques for accomplishing exquisite workmanship in time saving ways and she shares all of her tips and tricks with the audience.  If you ever get a chance to view her trunk show DO IT!

Sharon will be at the Rim Country Roundup Quilt Show in Payson, AZ in October this year.  She is teaching five classes (at very affordable fees) in conjunction with the show.  Here's a great opportunity to learn from one of the best.

Pat's Scraps

This table runner just landed in the DONE pile.  :o)  

You know, every quilt has a story and this one is no exception.

Once upon a time... a quilter was looking for a way to be entertained by getting out of the house AND hanging out with other quilters.  So she signed up to participate in a monthly gathering of quilters called Scraps R Us.  This gathering always happened at a local quilt shop called, 3 Dudes Quilting.  The quilter thought this was a perfect group to join because they would show her ways to use up some of her stash allowing her to then go SHOPPING for NEW fabric.  Makes sense, right?  She went to her first gathering with these quilters and was given a quilt block pattern and told to make 80 six inch blocks using the pattern and her scraps.  She was supposed to sew the 80 blocks together into a quilt top and bring the top to the next months gathering for Show N' Tell.  Now, this six inch block used 10 pieces of fabric all cut 2x3.5"  As quilter started to work on her assignment she soon realized that was a lot of cutting and sewing but really didn't use much fabric from her stash, thus slowing down her ability to go SHOPPING!  So she devised a plan to use MORE fabric in less time by making the pieces BIGGER.  But she really didn’t trust her math skills so needed to test her theory by making a test block. That nice Scraps R Us teacher was in the process of moving into a smaller home and had given the quilter a bucket of scraps she no longer wanted and those scraps would be perfect for a test block!  As quilter rummaged through that bucket for a few good pieces of fabric she also ran across a couple of courthouse steps block… hmmm.  Then quilter noticed, 'there’s more fabric in the tub those blocks were made from… hmmm.  They would go with the test block I’m gunna make… hmmm.  I’ll just sew them together with my test block in the middle and make a small table topper… hmmm.  This is kinda small with only 3 blocks but if I made two more test blocks and sewed them on the ends it would be long enough for the dining room table… hmmm.  This looks pretty long and skinny maybe it would look better on the table if it had a border… hmmm.  There is a bunch of little strips of this fabric in that bucket teacher gave me I could just make a piano keys border with those… hmmm. This border doesn’t fit the center strip of blocks and there isn’t enough fabric left to make it bigger. Darn…  All this work and I can’t finish it…hmmm.  Unless…  I go SHOPPING!  I would only need to buy one fat quarter.' 

Quilter didn't use up ANY of her fabric but still found a way to go SHOPPING for fabric.  AND she now has a red, white and blue tablerunner that will work perfectly for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday.


 

This Problen I Got...

This is the next project I am hoping to get outta the UFO pile.  It just needs quilted and bound.  As soon as it was unfolded I realized WHY it was in that UFO pile.  That slight “S” curve that is very evident down the center is NOT part of the design.  The whole piece is CURVED like an “S”!  I gave it a good dose of Fresh Press and laid a hot iron on it while stretching the edge that curves to the inside and it didn’t HELP A BIT!  Short of taking it apart and giving it another round on the sewing machine, I’m at a loss on how to FIX THIS. 

Any suggestions on how I can fix this (preferably WITHOUT taking it apart) AND how to avoid this effect in the future?

I Seam To Be On A Roll !

Seems like I'm on a roll with getting UFO's out of the closet and moving towards the DONE pile... Well, roll may be a bit presumptuous.  Roll sounds like I'm really going for it and gaining speed, when in fact I may run out of momentum at any moment.  A couple of days ago I shared a UFO from 2006 that was on the longarm (FINALLY) getting quilted.  Well now I'm down to doing the hand work on the binding.  Since hand work is an evening TV watching activity I decided to work on something else that requires a machine.  So in the closet I went again and dug out another UFO from 2006.



Backing Fabric



 This one, like the last one, is a top that needs a back pieced.  The top is a sampler (of sorts) with blocks that have a black background.  The block design was made using a multitude of scraps.  Not really wanting to go fabric shopping (Yes, you read that statement correctly) I made a visit to the STASH.  I did come out with a hunk of fabric that will serve well as a back on this quilt BUT there was NOT ENOUGH.  Which means I gunna have to do some real piecing!



Scraps From Blocks



 I went through the scrap bucket and came up with some of the same fabrics used on the front plus a few extras.  Since a whole section was going to have to be pieced into the back using all these SCRAPS I may as well make it look PLANNED.  And sewing the label into this section will accomplish that.  





Piecing the Back



 My label making method is to compose the verbiage in a word document and print it out on fabric.  But my printer wasn't on board with that plan.  The printer and I went 5 rounds with the printer CHOKING ON ALL 5 of them so I gave up and began to write it out by hand (something I haven't done in years).  Even this method was a trying one.  With a few words on the fabric my Pigma pen started to run out of ink!  REALLY!  But I persisted and kept going over the letters to darken them until there wasn't another drop of ink left, but a whole lotta words were still left.  So I drug myself out into the Heat Advisory temps and made my way to the closest JoAnn's.  Back home with my new pen I finished the label but the end result was pretty UGLY.  That section that I kept going over with the running out of ink pen, it was BLURRY!  I started over with a new piece of fabric and my new pen.  So my section that looks PLANNED with a label sewn in... took a total of 7 labels before the mission was complete!!!  That right there is dedication to the quilt police rule that says, "LABEL YOUR QUILTS"!




Being Quilted



YES, another 2006 UFO is on the longarm and getting closer to the FINISHED PILE. 

Hopefully the stash closet has something I can use for a binding.

What's Next?



 Here's what I'm working on now.  This is a UFO from 2006!  The top was completed WAY BACK THEN and I THOUGHT the back had been pieced.  I was very surprised (and disappointed) when I discovered the back had NOT been pieced.  The fabric had been washed and ironed (as I always do) but that's as far as I got.  DARN!  Piecing backs is my LEAST favorite part of making a quilt so the part about it having been PIECED must have been wishful thinking.  It has been hanging (neatly pressed, folded and covered in plastic) for all these years waiting for me to GET IT DONE.  The past two days have been spent getting this quilt closer to being in the DONE pile!  One more day on the quilting and it will be ready for the binding and label phase.  This is a BIG one so that binding part is going to take awhile.  My goal is to have it done by Fall since it is Fall colors (well kinda).

I'll let you know when it's done and share the 'How This Project Started' story and show you a picture of the done project.

Another Jelly Roll Race !!!

Race Official, Andrea Williams



A few days ago I was a Pit Crew Member for a Jelly Roll Race held by the Cactus Patchers group, http://www.cactuspatchers.com/.  I've been a member of this group since 2003 and like many quilt groups they do community service work on an ongoing basis.  Their current mission is to make 25 quilts for a group of homeless families.  The group rotates between local churches that each provide a week of night time shelter and meals for the families.  Cactus Patcher member, Lora Riordan, is a member of the Mission del Sol Presbyterian Church in our area, this church is one that provides the service.  The quilts will be used by the homeless families when they are sheltering at that church.  Cactus Patcher members got together and cut some of their charity fabric into 2 1/2 inch strips and packaged them into kits in preparation for the race.  Guess you would call these Scrappy Jelly Rolls. 

There were twelve Jelly Roll Racers all doing their best to complete the first Jelly Roll quilt of the race.  Phyllis Ames, Jelly Roll Queen, was the first racer to finish a top.  Eleven tops were finished by the end of the race.  The twelfth top didn't get finished because when the kit was being put together the strip counter MUST have lost count cuz there was waaay more than 40 strips in that bag!

It seemed as though some of the machines were not as into the race as the racers were.  There were a couple of machine casualties.  It appeared as though the machines could not keep up with the racers enthusiasm and they overheated, refusing to take even one more stitch.  I'm sure they will recover after a little TLC and R&R.

It was a really FUN day for all and the Cactus Patchers highly recommend this as a really great way to make quilts for charity.

My Quilted Symphony is DONE! I Think???



From the book quilted symphony by Gloria Loughman



So... I think my Quilted Symphony quilt is FINALLY DONE!  This project ended up taking a looong time, especially for how small it is!  12.5" x 21".  It took so long I was beginning to think it was going to become a UFO.  I kept waiting for it to speak to me, you know, tell me what it wanted me to do with it.  One day I walked by and it SHOUTED at me, "I've been hanging here so long my colors are starting to FADE."  I gave it a closer look and thought, "Yep, it's starting to fade."  As the days continued to slip by it would occasionally whisper, "I really am fading."  Those aren't the words I had been waiting to hear!

One day I got bored and pulled it off the design wall and started doing some quilting stitches on it.  A few stitches is all it took for the piece to start talking to me.  I guess it needed to know I was actually going to try and finish it. 

I started stitching one section at a time.  As I was doing the quilting my mind started seeing places where embellishments could be added.  But, wait... Gloria's book is full of these quilts she and her students have done.  There are pages and pages of photo examples and NONE OF THEM are embellished with anything other than thread!

Every section kept asking for embellishments!  So I started adding some yarns.  Pretty soon every section had yarn above it and below it.  All colors of yarn.  Funny how now there was no problem with choosing colors like there was in the beginning!

It didn't seem to matter that Gloria and all the others didn't use beads and trinkets to embellish their pieces.  Every piece of yarn, little bead, button and trinket I sewed on seemed to work okay on this quilt!

So I kept going.  Stitching and adding THINGS.  I didn't know I had so MANY things I could add to a quilt top.  I am, after all, NOT an embellisher!  Every once in awhile I'll add a button or bead here or there.  But REALLY, I'm not an embellisher.

I even found myself wandering the isles of JoAnn's looking for something a little special that I could sew on this quilt!  And it was actually as if the quilt was there with me, helping me find THINGS. 

Maybe... at this point in my life as a quilter I can start to say, "Sometimes I get a little carried away with embellishing the surface of a piece if the piece tells me it wants embellishments."

During the embellishing process I took the project to a sewing day with friends.  I showed them what I was doing with all these THINGS and asked if it was too much.  They didn't think so.  In fact, they actually encouraged the process and donated some beads from their collection that they thought would be PERFECT.  I sewed them on and they are... PERFECT!

And the embellishing didn't stop!  There are even beads on the BACK!  I should never have used a button hole stitch as quilting.  It should have been done before I layered the quilt.  A few years ago I took a class taught by Karen Fisher.  She shared with us a piece that had an unpleasing area on the back so she covered it up with EMBELLISHMENTS.  So I though maybe embellishments would make this yucky part look like it's special, you know, PLANNED.

And then, there's always the label.  This is only embellished with thread.  If you have read earlier posts on this project you may remember I lost my sun at one point.  So I made another sun and then wouldn't you know it, I found the lost one.  It must be one of Murphy's Laws, as soon as you get a new one you find the old one.  Now what am I going to do with a lost and found sun?  Sew it on the label!

LongArm Quilting

Yesterday my friend Jane came over and spent the day with me and the longarm.  Jane, being the best Grandma ever, made a patriotic quilt top for each of her 5 grandsons.  Like most quilters I know, Jane is a checkbook quilter and would rather piece a top than do the quilting.  But she is also an adventuresome kinda gal and took me up on the offer to come give the longarm quilting experience a try.  Jane picked a panto with a meandering star design and used blue thread.  They were a perfect match for this quilt top. 

Jane and the longarm played very well together and her quilt top was finished in no time.  We even had a nice leisurely lunch at Tott's Asian Diner around the corner from my house.  We got the quilt squared and ready for binding.  She hoped to get a binding sewn on before her head hit the pillow so she could take it to her R.U.A. Quilter friendship group today and show them that she really is a QUILTER! 

I think Jane may come back (at least four more times) and quilt that pile of patriotic quilts!