Love Apples Workshop and Contest

As the chair of LAQ's workshops, it's my responsibility to not only provide a quality "educational" experience for the membership, but a time of escape from every day routines and opportunities to build relationships.

Yesterday, I took a class with Karen Zeplin making a small table topper (Kay Woods, Fons and Porter, January 2006). Most of the project was completed before lunch, except for the little bit of handwork required to finish the edges. (Karen is such a sweetheart--she did half of my binding while I was running around!)

Here's mine:

Since we finished early, she had a surprise for us! She had made up another little block kit for us to do!

Isn't it cute?

How fortunate we are to have such dedicated teachers that go the extra mile to make their classes exceptional! Melissa Boos taught the other class, a mystery, which turned out to be an Amish Puzzle ball. She kept her class in suspense for four hours!


At lunch time, it has become a bit of a tradition for me to create a new quilt related game. Some are better than others, but yesterday's game was the most successful so far.


Here it is:

There are twenty-seven quilt patterns hidden in this picture. Can you find them? The ladies were given ten minutes and were able to find 18. Would like to have a contest for anyone who reads my blog--the first one who e-mails me at contest@njquilter.com by November 29, 2009 with the most correct block names, will win a prize! (Only the ladies that attended yesterday's workshop would not be eligible, since I gave them the answers.) So, print out the picture, search for names of quilt blocks and send your list to me no later than November 29, 2009. Enjoy!!

Notebook Quilt

Love Apple Quilters is having an October challenge making a "Notebook Quilt." Seemed like a perfect way to try out a technique I learned several years ago at Quilt University. The technique involves a tracing of a photograph and machine applique. (You should really take the class--it's fascinating!)

Wanted to incorporate my flowers into my quilting, so took a host of pictures looking for one that was simple enough to finish in a limited amount of time. My fifteen year old hibiscus proved to be a perfect candidate. Of course, this past summer wasn't very sunny, so the leaves are a less than perfect. Was excited for the chance to use some of my hand-dyed fabrics, but putting scissors to them was not easy!

Got to work, tracing, cutting, stitching, outlining and trimming. With very well-written directions, the learning curve was kind and I made only a few mistakes and easily recovered.

Here's how it turned out:

Happily finished putting the last few beads to realize that the challenge required the object to be oriented in a vertical position. Ugh!! With the excitement of finally doing a project I had waited to do for over a year, getting my flowers in fabric and using my hand-dyed fabrics, completely forgot to look at the directions one more time!

Hope the kids don't realize I didn't follow directions! Perhaps I should listen to myself when singing the virtues of reading the requirements before starting the project!

Working My Way Through the Rainbow, Part II

Finally the schedule allowed me to finish dyeing my rainbow! Seems a dead-line tends to inspire me the most. Tomorrow, I'll meet with the art teacher to show her what fabrics have been collected from Love Apple Quilters and dyed.

Tried for the first time dying so many fabrics at once. Thinking seven vats is pushing it a bit, so will stick to five in the future.

So, here are the colors marinating....

And here is the final result.

PFD vs. Muslin

Comparing how the different fabrics take the dye.

Even purchasing brand new gloves did not prevent me from having one blue finger....

Dare I say, I'm "dyeing" to do this again?

Putting the UGH! in Ugly

Had the privilege of selecting a game for Love Apple Quilters last guild meeting. Regularly scour the internet for games suitable for workshops, but thought this game would be perfect to involve the whole guild.

About 30 of us all brought one yard of the ugliest fabric on our stash. Amazing how one quilter's "ugly" is another quilter's "treasure." We tore our fabric in two, keeping one half and passing the other half around the circle. The passing and tearing went on for three more turns. The challenge was to make a small wall-hanging out of what we acquired, without adding any other fabric.

Here's what I got:

Sort of redefines "ugly," doesn't it?

Looked at those five fabrics for two weeks before being inspired. Started to grow concerned when they started to look nice together...except for one. The small squares just did not fit in the abstract pattern of the block print fabric, no matter what pattern I picked.

So, I decided to tea dye the odd ball. Well, hours in a tea bath did not make much of an impact. Tried coffee next, without much success. Turned out a brown pencil did the trick! Pleating the fabric to show only the complimentary squares seemed improve the situation.

Here's what I made:

Thought a fitting name would be "Tile Work in King Neptune's Privy." Our teenage daughter is horrified I would use the word "privy"--fearing the Quilt Police will revoke my license, this quilt isn't making any public appearances, so she can save her embarrassment for a future event.

Here are a few of the other contributions:

Such a talented group of ladies! (No names were used to protect the innocent.) By the way, the first entry pictured won!