MACHINE QUILTING

On saturday, I gave a workshop on machine-quilting. It was fun and we all (I think!) enjoyed ourselves even if some had aching shoulders at the end of the day.
For the course I made the pink sampler and the students made the samples in white.



It is not always easy to adjust all the machines for machine-quilting and we had some problems at the beginning with the tension of some machines. I am so glad my Bernina sews everything with only some adjustments.

Anyway, the students had to draw on paper first so as to learn the movements and then sew without thread to get a feeling of using the machine without feed dogs.

And here are the results:

from Sigrid

from Monika

from Barbara

from Iris

and from Jutta

Well done, ladies!

Friday was the dutch fabric market in town and guess what I did! I just bought a few fat quarters and some buttons. Mind you next week there is a wonderful textile market in a town nearby so I guess my purchases won´t stop here!
I wish you a wonderful beginning of May.

A GREAT DAY

Today was our region guild meeting and it was great: over 100 women who had a nice time, showing, explaining, meeting new faces and recognizing others, eating yummy food and spending some money (just a little!) on nice fabrics. Next time in november, our group will organize the meeting and I am looking forward to it.

This week I received the second season of my socks yarn suscribtion.
I would like to start knitting straight away to see how the patterns will come out but I have other things to do too (unfortunately!). The dandelions in the garden are calling!

I want to thank you all for having given your opinions on the borders of my nine-patch. Indeed most of you chose my favorite! It was very nice to have such a great feed-back.
On monday I will post my 4 seasons swap quilt, so keep a look on your letter box, you ...over there!
I wish you a peaceful sunny sunday.

WHAT A WEEK!

I am glad this week is over. It was very busy: new courses have started, a few appointements, and a workshop on machine-quilting to prepare.

Last week-end I managed to squeaze in some sewing and I made a 9patch center. I have seen so many of these blocks on blogland lately that I had to have a go at it too. On top of that I think I had never made one before so here you go. But now I can´t seem to decide which border I will put around. Your opinions are wanted! I won´t tell you which one is my favorite so that you are not influenced. If you don´t like any of them, feel free to say so too!

For my workshop on machine-quilting, I bought some (more!) Valdani quilt thread. I like the variegated ones as they blend so nicely.

And this is the pin-cushion I made at our last quilting group meeting.

It was easy and much fun to make thanks to the clear explanations (thanks Martina!).
I am expecting the new socks yarn delivery at the beginning of next week, let´s see what yummy colors I will get this time!

I wish you a nice week-end.

STASH ENHANCEMENT? NEVER!

Look at what was in my garden this afternoon! Being french, I would have prefered it in my cooking pot! Still it is not that often that one can see a pheasant in a big city so I had to take a picture.
I finished my "Back to school" jumper from "Fitted Knits" last week and I like it as much as the other jumper I made from the book. Now that the weather is getting better (at least it is not snowing anymore!), I will have occasions to wear it. AND I have already casted on new cotton yarn on my needles to make a summer top.
Those wonderful fabrics came to my stash in an unusual way. After the Creativa fair, I had been moaning that I could not find any repro fabrics there. Well Christiane contacted me telling me that she was trying to reduce her repro stash and that I was welcome to come and have a look. No need to tell me that twice! And she has some more, so if you want to get some, do contact her.
My fourth Bea´s BOM is finished too. The design is as cute as the other 3.

Tomorrow is our monthly meeting with our patchwork group and we will be making a pin cushion. I will post a picture of the result next week.

Till then I wish you a nice beginning of spring.