Mount St Mary's University

 

I'm spending the weekend at Mount St Mary's University in Maryland.

 

So what's a nice Jewish girl doing in a place like this?

In front of a case saying Holy Work?

I'm teaching 3 quilt workshops at the Mid-Appalachian Quilters retreat (MAQ).

It's a little hard to see because of the glare, but my vending space is right in front of

the case with Catholic relics!  I do like this embellished headdress.

 

I'm here in the middle of nowhere, at least it seems like the middle of nowhere.  It was a 2 1/2 hour drive from Philly and the last half hour or so was all on country roads.  I know I'm near Gettysburg, PA but there will be no time to visit. Why is it that so many colleges are so isolated?  I guess that's a good thing so our kids can focus on studying?

 

The campus  is beautiful and so bucolic.  I feel like it's wasted on the young.  I would love to go back to college, be a student and study something like graphic design or textile art with not a care in the world. Spend my days learning and designing and my nights socializing.   But, I would not want to be 18 again, not for all the money in the world. 

 

I'm here to teach 3 workshops.  It is very exciting to be an instructor instead of a student at a retreat. Yesterday it was all about fusible machine applique.  Secretly I call it boot camp, because I work their butts off.  But when these quilters are done for the day they have mastered the tension on their machine, learned new stitches and have added another tool to their toolbox. 

Another good name would be "Choose To Fuse".

 

Today I taught about how to work with silk dupioni. 

I brought all of my silk quilts and hung them in the classroom to share.

 

I didn't realize I have made so many.

My silk was well received both in  the classroom and in my sales booth.  The ladies were very interested in my quilt with the curves and circles.  It's the one on the top left side of the quilt rack, inspired by the fabric in the booth at the local deli.   I need to come up with a name for it, since it will most likely be offered at MAQ 2014. Let me know if you can think of one.

The Collaborative Baby Shower Quilt Reveal

My DIL's baby shower was almost one month ago.  Each guest created a unique fish block for a quilt.   If you want to read about it, click here to see the blog post.

 

I am proud to say that in less than one month, it is appliqued, quilted and bound. 

IT IS DONE!! 

Hooray!

with more than 1 month to go until Baby Lynch's arrival.

 

I finished it while we were in the mountains for the 4th of July.

I stitched around the fish and all of its body parts using the blanket stitch on my sewing machine.

I love those lips.

After putting the blocks together and adding the borders, I quilted the background to resemble water.

I added a handwritten label to the back

to make one of the most adorable quilts.

 

 

What's A Boppy?

Maybe you have been living a quiet, sheltered life like me and have no clue what a Boppy is?  I had never heard of one until 5 months ago. My pregnant DIL informed me that a Boppy is a U-shaped pillow designed to make nursing your baby more comfortable for both you and the baby. I checked it out and saw that there were tutorials to make covers for them.

 

  The replacement covers that they sell are a bit cheesy and are not made of the highest quality fabric. Their aesthetics are just OK. So aren't you happy when you discover that your published, award winning, quilting MIL can make Boppy covers??? Would love to make Boppy covers for her upcoming grandson?? And you, as the Mother to be can pick out high quality quilting fabric with a design that you love??

 

It's a WIN-WIN.

 

After perusing a bunch of blogs where young mothers are making Boppy covers, I bought a Boppy - a naked one to use as my test subject (and to give to the Mom). The women make their own using the pillow for a pattern. For insurance, at the same time I bought the Boppy, I bought a waterproof liner to use as a pattern.  But then I saw that Simplicity had a pattern.  Normally $15.95, the patterns were on sale for $1.00.  How could I go wrong?

 Call me naïve.  I thought if you bought a Simplicity sewing pattern, that you were assured of success - especially if it were a Sewing For Dummies pattern. 

 

Even at my age (LOL), you learn something new all the time.  Don't they have pattern testers???? Do they think that no one will make the item that they are making the pattern for??? I made the cover using their directions.  It was simple as pie.  I even added rick rack to stick out in between the top and bottom. It was so cute.  How many do you want, I asked my DIL?

 

 That was until I tried to put the cover onto the pillow.

 A struggle ensued and then I heard the seam ripping. Grrrrr.

 

Since I ordered the waterproof liner, I decided to actually use it as a pattern to make my own templates.  The first thing I noticed was the gusset for the inside curve.  I thought this might be the key to success (and it was.).

 

  I measured and partially deconstructed the liner and made paper templates.

. 

The original Bobby covers have a zipper that goes across the back (not perpendicularly like the Simplicity pattern) and I thought that was the best way to go, but I used Velcro instead. 

The first one I made, I used cotton for both the front and the back, and lo and behold, it fit!

 

Then I decided to try minkee.  It’s a stretchy fabric that is so soft and gives a nice tight fit. A word of caution – minkee is very slippery so use lots of pins when sewing the top and bottom layers together.

 

Minkee on top

Cotton on the bottom

Once I had my own pattern, it did not take long at all to make the covers, three in all.  I would definitely recommend a stretchy fabric for either top or bottom to get a nice tight fit.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, Wednesday's Wanderings Completed

Tonight I will be unveiling my Wednesday's Wanderings quilt for the first time, during my visit to the Moorestown Area Quilters in Mt Laurel, NJ.   

It is finally complete with sashing, borders and binding.

 It was a year long journey, chronicling my wanderings in 2012.

It is a great memory jogger for me about how wonderful the year was.  I am amazed by how busy I was and how many places I visited.

 

There are only borders to the top and bottom. I thought that was all that was needed.

 

 I used fusible machine applique to add the words.

In the background, I used chicken scratch stitching that I did by hand. 

 It's a little blurry in the photo.

 

I wish I could have found the time to repeat a similar documentation of my year for 2013.

Maybe next year.

2012, it was a very good year!

Collaborative Party Quilting

I know I shared some photos yesterday of the day I have been waiting for to share the love.  It was the day where I could show my love for my DIL and how grateful I am that she is carrying my grandson. This will be my first grandchild.  I have been sewing for weeks getting ready for the baby shower and that explains my lack of quilting blog posts.  I feel like I have been vamping, but I didn't want to show too much because I wanted Olivia to have some surprises. 

 

Now that I have had some time to rest and recoup I can share a few more details. 3 of Olivia's friends, my other DIL and I made the shower together. It was a book theme and we asked for children's books instead of a card.  It was the start of quite a library.   I took responsibility for the party favors and I volunteered to do a "craft" instead of playing baby shower games. 

Can you tell that games are not my thing?

Party favors using Mother Goose themed fabric made with a little help from my friends
 

The craft - I wanted to make a collaborative quilt with everyone's participation for the new baby. This meant that all the guests were to create a block and then sign it.  So I had to come up with a theme.  Several danced through my brain.  Olivia's sister actually came up with the one I used - FISH!  My son loves to fish and had many fish tanks growing up. 

This would acknowledge his presence in the process!

 

I designed fish body parts that were interchangeable so each fish would be unique. 

 

 Think Mr. Potato Head.

I prepped a bunch of different fabric to be fusible, cut them out, removed the release paper and organized them by body type.

 

I made a sample and  a direction list for the guests to follow.  I wanted it to be fun, friendly and fool-proof. A few of the women were my quilting friends and they were great helpers.   It turned out that it was not that hard to get everyone to participate and I heard very little whining.

 Creativity was in the air.  

 

I had labels to be filled out for each block.  I wanted the signature to stand out instead of blending into the background. Although I have used Pigma pens for years, I think they are a little hard for non-quilters to use for writing on fabric.  There just isn't a good flow.  So I did some experimentation, which included a trip through the washing machine and dryer and settled on using Gel pens.  Heat setting with a dry iron made them permanent.  The writing flows smoothly and they come in a bunch of colors.

 

I provided some fabric for practicing and had lots of extra labels for any mistakes.  I left the release paper on for stability while writing.

 

As the blocks went up on my design wall, excitement grew.  Each fish was cuter than the next. 

 

 And I even saw some of the women rearranging the blocks. That made me feel good.

 

And most importantly, the mother to be just loved it

and created her own block with her hubby, my son. 

 

I can't wait to start blanket stitching these fishy blocks. I have 2 months to finish before the arrival of Baby Lynch and machine applique is one of my favorite things to do. It's certainly  a lot more fun than playing baby shower games.

 

In the next few days, I'll share some of my gifts that I made, with some tutorials. 

 Then I'll get back to my quilts.

 

 

 

 

Baby Shower

Here's a quick overview of today's baby shower for my DIL, Olivia.  I wanted to share some photos, but am pretty exhausted after spending 4 weeks working up to this day. I'll share more photos as the days go by, but suffice it to say that the weather co-operated and my DIL that is usually the one doing for others, was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from her friends, our family and my friends.

 

You deserve it!! 



And Baby Makes Three



We were so lucky that it was a beautiful day.

Dining "al fresco"

Milk and cookies!

Opening gifts.  Thank you everyone.

Drinks with a label



Loren, ME, Olivia

 

 

Seasonal bibs, by Auntie Hattie!

 

Tag pillow from Kelly

 I didn't get a photo of all the handmade gifts, but there were others,

including knitted hats and even booties.  I overheard one of  Olivia's friends saying that she wished her Mom had quilters as friends!  That made me giggle to myself.

And Bailey chooses June to cuddle with.

Exhaustion prevails.  Tomorrow I will share more.
Good night.

 

Holland, From The Seat of My Bike

The Quilt Show received so much positive feedback about their armchair travel series last year, they decided to do it again this summer. During a casual conversation, upon finding out that I had just done a Bike & Barge trip, one of the producers asked me if I had taken any photos.  Photos??? How about 575 photos? And who's trip did they decide to start the series with???

MOI! (says Miss Piggy)

 

Click on the link at the bottom of the photo

 and see Holland from the seat of my bicycle, via The Quilt Show blog.

I would highly recommend it.

http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php/blog_id/5696