Sarah's Sewing Circle - Summer Session Plans

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

It is hard to believe that May is already ending!  I lost a week somewhere, but Katie and Diane helped me pull together a great little quilt for the first meeting of Sarah's Sewing Circle this session.  The quilt is based on this antique top from my collection:

Antique Quilt that inspired Criss-Cross Applesauce

We had wanted to use Jo Morton's beautiful Carolina collection for something, and this seemed to be the perfect choice.  It is pretty quick and simple, and, of course, kits are available.  Of course, if you were a member of Sarah's Club, you would have received 15% off at the first meeting.  You can join this club at any time, and we are especially looking for daytime members.  Call the shop to sign up and pay only for the remaining meetings this session. 

Criss-Cross Applesauce
Sarah's Sewing Circle, May 2011 - Kits Available

   We talked a little about changing the format of Sarah's Sewing Circle a little bit.  We will still have a project each month - sometimes biggish and sometimes small - sometimes both!  I would also like to make it into more of a real sewing circle.  Of course, that means some hand work.  For those of you that want to learn a new skill, we started an English Paper Piecing project.  If you that have been in Sarah's Club for awhile, this will not be a new skill, but we will be doing hexagons this time, instead of diamonds.  Here is my ongoing hexagon quilt project.  It is still growing:

If you want to do the hexagons, we will be working on those next time, again.  Talk to me if you have questions about what to bring.  If you don't want to do hexagons, you can work on your own favorite hand project - bindings, embroidery, knitting, etc.  We also talked about doing a little reading.  I am hoping to read Gone With the Wind - one of my all time favorites.  It seemed appropriate, somehow.  If you guys have other ideas that excite you more, I am easy - but you know that.

Next month I will also have a project based on a quilt that is owned by one of our members:

 Blocks from quilt owned by Club Member Karen Schultz
Inspiration for upcoming Quilt, Karen's Stars our June project

I haven't started it yet (there's a shock), so I am not sure how large I will do it.  Maybe I will give you a choice?

Karen's Star Block - Quilt to come

You will also get instructions for our quarter-square triangle exchange.  We will be doing this with Triangulations Software print-outs so that the blocks will be easy and accurate.  Here is the inspiration for this project:

Sarah's Hourglass Sashed

The exchange will take place at our July meeting.  You will be able to choose your own sashing if pink isn't your color.

Finally, in August, we will be duplicating this wonderful quilt that I acquired recently.  I am in love with this quilt, and I can't wait to get started on it.  I will probably do it full-size, but I will definitely have options for you to do it in smaller sizes, or as a tablerunner - or something like that....

Sarah's Checks and Steps

So, that is the plan for this session.  I am always open to suggestions - this is your club.
Hope to see some new faces next month and in the future - come and join the fun!

Piecefully Yours,
Carrie

Spring Quilt Market 2011 - Our favorite things!

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

My mom and I just got back from Salt Lake City where we spent four days looking at all of the newest fabric, patterns and notions.  We had a great time in a beautiful city and our heads are spinning with all kind of new information and ideas.  Our market review demo isn't for a couple of weeks, but we just couldn't wait to share with you some of our favorite things.  So here they are, Carrie and Katie's top three Market finds:

Carrie's #1 - My THREE fabric lines!  (Obviously)

Cynthia's Scrapbag

Carrie's Madders

The Captain Phillips Collection

Katie's #1 - Generals' Wives B.O.M.

This is a new BOM by Windham that's going to be starting in October.  We got to see the actual quilt and it is gorgeous!  Each month, in addition to the pattern and fabric, you'll also get a little bit of history on a Generals' wife. We manages to snatch up a fabric bundle of this fabric at Sample Spree so you'll want to come and see it at our Market review demo. 

General's Wives Block-of-the-Month

Carrie's #2 - The Accucut Studio Fabric Cutter




Accucut Studio Fabric Cutter

 You all know what a gadget gal I am, so you will understand why this caught my eye.  I have been thinking about getting one of these for awhile, but the show special sucked me in.  I can't wait to get it so that I can start playing!  
 
Katie's #2 - Goodnight Moon Fabric by Quilting Treasures

We didn't get to the Quilting Treasures booth until the end of the day on Saturday.  By this point I was really missing my little Sam and I just couldn't resist this fabric.  This is one of my absolute favorite children's books.  It's been around forever and I'm sure that all of you have either been read this book or read it to someone special.  The fabric doesn't seem to be up on their website yet but I can tell you that there is a panel of "the great green room" along with a handful of great accompanying pieces.  They did a wonderful job on the colors, they really are exactly like the book.  This fabric will be arriving in September and we plan to do some baby quilt kits. 

My Favorite Childhood Book, EVER!

Carrie's #3 - Cool Gadgets from Guidelines 4 Quilting

These are the folks that make that nifty ruler we have been carrying with the fabric guide:

So - at this market we picked up this nifty add-on thing that takes the math out of cutting squares, half-square triangles and quarter-square triangles:

Quilt Ruler Additions

I think a lot of you will get into this neat little tool that you can use to trim your points for more accurate piecing:


Guidelines Prep-Tool


The guy that sells this stuff is like the Sham-WOW guy, if you have ever seen him (I think he died - RIP), but the tools he has are so cool!  We ordered some other new gadgets that aren't even out yet - you will have to wait for the details on those!

Katie's #3 - Sew many patterns!

We found so many great new patterns, I couldn't pick just one to share with you.  I found a couple of new and different wool patterns.  One that I thought was especially cool from "Heart to Hand" used yarn to add some embellishment which looks really neat!  Here is a cotton and wool project from one of my favorite companies "The Quilted Crow" in Australia.  They always have cute stuff.

We also got some great new patterns from Lori Smith, Carol Hopkins and many more (probably too many!).  Come to our Market Review Demo on Saturday May 28th at 10:30 to see them all. 

Happy Quilting!

Carrie & Katie