Follow the Leader

It's been too long since my last post, but there hasn't been much to report until now. A couple of weeks ago, at the Old Town Guild meeting in Jonesborough, we were treated to a pictoral report of the 2016 quilt market held in Houston several weeks ago. You can look forward to lots of great new patterns and fabric lines for 2016!!

Opportunity Quilt for Appalachian Heritage Quilters, Gray TN

A couple of posts ago, I showed you the Opportunity Quilt that the AHQ guild will be giving away at our annual Quilt Show in April this year. The quilt is 80" x 100" and is now finished. Tickets for the drawing are now available. When you buy Hershey Kisses from the guild, you get tickets to put into the drawing for the quilt.

Contact any Appalachian Heritage Quilters guild member to find out how to get tickets.

News from the Studio

 

New Quilt Patterns on Craftsy

Jacks on the Porch - Easy!

Starry Nights

Recently I published 2 new quilt patterns on www.craftsy.com. Just search for "deming" and you'll find all of my patterns. Just click on the caption to see the pattern.

A nice straight leader

Leaders

Icky wavy edges

I have developed a deep personal relationship with my canvas longarm leaders! Longarm leaders are pieces of cloth or canvas fabric attached to the rollers. The edges of my leaders had become stretched an ripply and needed some maintenance.

So, I marked locations for "hem-lines" and "stay-stitch-lines" placed well behind the ripply area and onto nice smooth, flat canvas.

New hem line placement

Then I pinned the leaders together, adjust the pins to get a nice smooth surface, and stitched a straight horizontal line for the new folded edge of the new hem, and a stay-stitch line to prevent fraying after I cut off the ripply edges (no pics of this).

My big challenge was hand basting on the zippers that I had removed previously, so I could secure the folded edges together, so I could stitch the hem in place. That hand basting was a "do-over-and-over" task until I got the canvases to be smooth and flat under tension.

Now I have to leave the zippers off for a few quilts to let the canvases settle in to their most aligned positions. Then I'll remark the centers again and permanently re-attach the zippers. They really make my life easy. I miss them.

Learning for the week

Do you suffer from "winter blues" like I sometimes do? It's a challenge to get yourself up off of the recliner, get dressed, warm up the basement, and go do some sewing or organizing or something in the studio.  Sometimes, it just feels like work, not fun. But as you know, when we force ourselves to just go to the studio and find something to do, we always feel much better.  The good news is that the doldrums will pass, and we  will be motivated again and eager to get busy. Meantime, get out of the house and go to guild meeting! Smile and hug everyone, and be inspired by the beautiful projects you'll see at Show & Tell. All that love at guild meeting does wonders.

Now, my dears, let's go quilt something!!

The Butterfly Effect

Happy New Year everyone!! Monday, January 4 officially marks the end of the holiday season and the return to the normal routines of life. Have you made any resolutions this year? I stopped making resolutions years ago because they were usually either guilt based, fear of something-based, or just wishful thinking. So I encourage you to examine where your resolutions come from. If their basis is any of the above - rethink them.

The best, and most successful resolutions are about relationships, friendships, and joy. Here are some suggestions:

Batiks, Etc., Wytheville, VA

• Reconnect with an old friend and stay in touch.
• Invite 3 people you want to get to know to lunch (one at a time, of course).
• Invite a new member of your guild to your home for a private "sit & sew".
• Holler "Road Trip" at your guild meeting! (I do this when I'm planning a trip to Batiks, Etc. in Wytheville, VA.) No telling what fun you will have giggling all the way to the quilt store.

Get the idea?

News from the Studio

Joyce came to pick up her beautiful quilt, today. The DH took the picture for us. Ain't he sweet? She has quite a story about this quilt. Joyce told me that from the beginning it was a challenge, fraught with discouragement and exhaustion with the whole thing. But when quilted with the meandering leaf pattern, it went from a sluggish, all-consuming caterpillar, to a beautiful butterfly of a quilt. It's now full of life, infused with Joyce's love, and will look great on any bed. She is still working on a name for her quilt. One option she came up with: Never Give Up!


Joyce is also an accomplished knitter. When she came to pick up her quilt, she brought me these very nice (and warm!) hand warmers. Great job, Joyce and Thank You!

Frogging

On another topic, every quilter is an expert at frogging. When you have to "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it" - you are frogging. Here I am, engaged in that very activity. When I finished Joyce's quilt, I examined it thoroughly and found a place that had a boo-boo in the quilting. So it had to come out. Re-stitching the area was simple enough and now it's good as new.

Learning for the Week

I didn't learn anything this week. I'm still trying to recover from the Christmas pancakes. (See the Dec. 27, 2015 blog post).


Now, let's get back to the sewing room!