Steppin' Up the Squares finished top

 Steppin' Up the Squares

Pattern by Mary Kay Davis
Threads on the Floor 

Top is a finish :0)

Quilting yet to be done and I have some good ideas for this one.  Hummmm... a label and binding. OK technically it's a UFO. Still, happy that the top is completed! This was a fun fast project made in a workshop with Mary Kay on Friday. If you like fussy cutting and a quick project, check out Mary Kay's other patterns as well! Well written and illustrated. We all purchased more :0) What impressed me the most tho, was Mary Kay's challenge quilts. Wow, they are gorgeous! Check them out :0)

Update... Mary Kay posted a pic of my top on her Quilt Friends page of her website!!!

Fun! Thank you Mary Kay

Happy with the mitered borders. Most of the fabrics are a collection by Andover purchased at a quilt store in Genoa, Nevada when I lived in South Lake Tahoe many moons ago!

Earlier I watched a program on PBS on Quilts ~ Why Quilts Matter. This episode was from 2011 about quilts in museums. Some wonderful old quilts and they mentioned Gees Bend. Off to watch some of the Grammy's and then Downton Abby.

Enjoy your week

Tot Ziens, Jo

 "We will be known forever by the tracks we leave."
Native American Proverb

Steppin' Up progress

Yesterday I finished the center field and cut the inner borders for Steppin' Up the Squares, Friday's workshop project with Mary Kay Davis. 

During the workshop we talked about different layouts for this pattern and I played around with my blocks. I like the layout on the left but in different fabrics...

I am sticking with the original layout and design, on the right, because IMHO it works well with the Native American fabrics pulled for this quilt.

After fussy cutting the inner border fabric I decided the corners needed to be mitered so I put it off until this morning. All of the borders are now cut, pieced and laid out on the design wall...

Ready to be sewn this afternoon. 

I am going to finish this quilt top today!

It's been raining since early this morning and no wind today. Yea! Friday we had a large  Walnut Tree branch break and fall, luckily missing any structures or the fence.

Enjoy your Sunday

Tot Ziens, Jo

Workshop with Mary Kay Davis

Mary Kay Davis with Shimmering Sight

Mary Kay Davis was our speaker at Thursday nights Annie's Star guild meeting. I went early and met Mary Kay for dinner with Beth and Judy before the meeting. Really nice person, close to kindred spirits as we had allot in common :0) Plus it was great getting to the meeting early for a front row seat and a good view of her quilts during her trunk show. Follow the link to see more of her work. Wonderful speaker as well. 

Shifting Focus

by Mary Kay Davis

Pictured above are just two of many challenge quilts Mary Kay has made. I was hooked and showed up yesterday for her workshop. We made quilts from one of her patterns ~ Steppin' Up the Squares. Fun pattern that can be made in a day. Perfect for large prints and fussy cutting. 

Three of the group actually finished their tops! Cindy, Tess and Char were almost finished when I left early. We had the best day :0) plus we kept venturing out of the classroom and into Honey Run Quilters to make different fabric choices! One of the fun parts of a workshop! Our tops in progress...

Top & layout by Tess
I really like this pattern done scrappy!

 Cindy G

Both of these quilts will be going to the Wounded Warriors project at Morning Star Quilts.

Char

who fixed the goof on the layout before her blocks went together :0)

This quilt will be donated as well to a cancer organization

These three were the "over achievers" who finished their tops! Yea!!!

This is Mary L's. LOVE her fabric choices! 

The border fabric on the left is an addition from Honey Run and it's perfect!!!

My border fabrics pinned next to the few blocks I had sewn before leaving.

It will be finished today this weekend because I am not going to have another UFO added to the ones not getting finished! It's raining and windy today, the perfect day to quilt :0)

Thank you Mary Kay. It was so much fun to spend this time with you! Hope you made it home safe last night with this storm and that we will see you this Fall at our quilt show.

Tot Ziens! Jo

btw, if anyone is interested... Sue Spargo will be doing 5 days of workshops at Honey Run Quilters at Cathys in March!!! Link to HRQ with a photo of one of the projects! There are a few spaces open :0)

January Goal for 2015

For 2015 I am going to be realistic and say my goal is to work on UFOs and stash busting scrappy quilts each month. It would be great to actually finish one each month however, my goal is to finish 9 UFOs this year. There. That's doable.

January goal is a scrappy quilt I started at Goldie's Scrap Happy Day last year in July. Everyone brings scraps from home, they get piled on the cutting table and everyone picks what they like. I picked the brightest geometric prints from my stash and the 'pile'...

and this is what I came up with :0) a take off from a Kim Diehl quilt. Each snowball block has a different print. There will be appliqued pieces in the border. The original has leaf shapes, mine will have Jewel shapes to maintain the geometric theme. Top is pieced and quilted with a geometric e2e design with a variegated Fantastico thread. 

During our Texas trip I English Paper Pieced one inch Jewel pieces with the same scraps. Great project to work on in the car, it only works on long straight roads and we had plenty of those. Once home, I laid out the pieces on the border and found I only had 4 more to do, Yea! Done as of Monday at lunch with Beckie, Donna and Nancy.

Something I tried on my challenge quilt, to machine applique pieces onto a quilted top. Some of the pieces were fuzed, others turned with freezer paper. Will see how it works here without fusible or any paper.

Today they are starched, pressed, papers removed, laid out and ready to applique down.
It's a good start... 

Groetjes, Jo

East Texas

(NQR) The only quilting accomplished so far this year has been for customers on my Innova. Pix posted on my quilting business blog. In place of quilting, here are a few pix from our trip to Texas over the holidays. I enjoy exploring texture and color...

and reflections (mirror images ;0)...

Look close, there is a black long legged spider
crawling along the fungi!

The pix above were taken in East Texas in Martin Dies Jr. State Park close to Woodville on New Year's Day. It was cold and rainy which made for great photos! It looked like we were in Louisiana. Cypress trees with big root balls in the lake and hanging moss. We kept expecting to see an alligator, thankfully only in our imaginations...

We had a great weekend stay at a cabin on a small private lake with friends from Houston. Ken, Eva, Michael, Wendy, Michael and I plus Lola, Ken's beautiful lab. Thank you friends for bringing in the New Year!

Ken is the president and owner of a scuba diving vacation business called Island Dreams Travel. Also a wonderful musician, participating in the Gypsy Dance Theatre. Wonderful person and great photographer too, thank you Ken!

We love to spend time in Houston, where the Michaels grew up together, spending a few days with Michael and Wendy. Great places to go out for eats. The Christmas lights were amazing. We had a wonderful visit despite the weather.

A few pix of Michael and Wendy's garden in Houston the day before we left. So many wonderful little treasures to be found! Love how Michael repurposes items into his garden...

with a few additions we contributed over the years...

There are always veggies mixed in everywhere as well :0)

 and one of the mermaids for Michael.

Beautiful!
Thank you Michael and Wendy, we love you!

Groetjes, Jo

This was our drive home and this is in Northwest Texas!

It was burr chilly all the way thru until we reached Nevada.

Not fun, happy to be home safe.