I had a deadline that I had to complete by today, so naturally, midstream I had to take a little break and do something else. It really wasn’t my fault. I was a Joann’s, and they had buttons on sale, and they had cute little packs of all blue buttons. A light bulb went off in my head and I knew I needed to squeeze in one more tiny project.
I use magnets to hold up my revolving door calendar to the sheet metal that we attached to my studio door. The magnets I use are [ ... ]
May 12
2012
I had a deadline that I had to complete by today, so naturally, midstream I had to take a little break and do something else. It really wasn’t my fault. I was a Joann’s, and they had buttons on sale, and they had cute little packs of all blue buttons. A light bulb went off in my head and I knew I needed to squeeze in one more tiny project.
I use magnets to hold up my revolving door calendar to the sheet metal that we attached to my studio door. The magnets I use are [ ... ]
Category: other projects, tutorials
2 Comments
May 09
2012
The Miami Valley Quilters’ Guild met last night, and they announced the winners from last weekend’s show. Our guild doesn’t use a panel of judges to pick the winners. Instead, each person that comes to the show is given a ballot as they enter, and they get to vote on their favorite quilt in each category. I always enjoy learning what quilts the average viewer picks since they are a mix of quilters and non-quilters. It is often very different from what trained judges might pick, but each group is looking for something different, [ ... ]
Category: awards, my quilt guild, Quilt Queen
2 Comments
May 07
2012
I’m so excited about my great deal, I just had to share about it!!! I met another one of my deadlines, and just have one more to do this week, so I decided to reward myself by going to our favorite thrift store. This is the place that sells stuff by the pound. I headed straight to the bins of linens. What perfect timing! This is what I got for $5.41.
Four cream colored quilted placemats with no stains
Two random medium-size lace curtains
Five large, matching lace curtains
One brand new lace curtain still in a sealed package
Six yards of lace fabric
One [ ... ]
Category: wedding
3 Comments
May 07
2012
I have added Surrender and Quilt Queen to the “My Quilts” page. I’m sure I’ll be tweaking the information a bit from time to time, but for now you can read about each of these quilts on their own pages:
“Surrender” can be found at http://mariaelkins.com/index.php/quilts/surrender/.
“Quilt Queen” can be found at http://mariaelkins.com/index.php/quilts/quilt-queen/.
Category: Amalya, Quilt Queen, Surrender
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May 06
2012
This weekend my quilt guild, the Miami Valley Quilters’ Guild, held their biannual quilt show. I always look forward to going to the show. We see many of these quilts during the show-and-tell portion of our monthly meetings, but it is such a treat to see them all at once, up close and personal. We have many really talented quilters in our group. I love to examine the beautiful quilting. Absorbing all of the great color combinations is also a joy. I like to just stand in front of each quilt and drink [ ... ]
Category: my quilt guild
One Comment
May 05
2012
I spent a wonderful time with the Goodtime Quilters of Circleville, Ohio this past week. Thursday morning, I was invited to show a PowerPoint presentation and trunk show of my own quilts. I especially wanted to encourage them all to try new things and not be afraid of experimenting. The Goodtime Quilters were also the very first group who got to see my newest quilt, Surrender.
They fed us a fabulous lunch afterwards. Delicious! Sweet hubby went back for seconds. I prepared his first plate because he was busy. Hahaha — [ ... ]
Category: other quilters, teaching
11 Comments
Apr 30
2012
I’ve had a few very early mornings the last couple days. I woke up around 4 AM for no reason and couldn’t get back to sleep. Usually I go out to the living room and put in a movie that I’ve watched a hundred times, hoping I will be bored back to sleep. This time I noticed my copy of “Why Quilts Matter.” It is a nine-part documentary on quilts, and it has been sitting unwatched on my shelf for several months. I popped it in the DVD player, hoping I would fall back asleep. [ ... ]
Category: product review
2 Comments
Apr 26
2012
Hooray!!! I’ve finished all the quilting, and we’ve celebrated with Dairy Queen! Now I just need to label it, sleeve it, photograph it, document it…what else? I’m afraid all that is going to have to wait a bit since I have two other deadlines to work on first. BUT, I did finish it in time to send an entry form for June’s NQA show. This is a non-juried show that accepts the first 400 entries, and the “received by” deadline is April 30. So, as long as they haven’t met their quota yet, I’m hoping this quilt will [ ... ]
Category: Amalya, family, my art quilts, Surrender, work in progress
14 Comments
Apr 25
2012
I had a few available hours today, so I dove in and made a start on the background. The basic outlines are now in place. Tomorrow I finish it off!
This was the fourth month of SewCalGal’s 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge. This month guest teacher was Don Linn. He introduced a method of tracing your design onto tulle or netting with a permanent marker, and then using the marked tulle to trace the design onto your quilt with a washable blue marker. Since I was working on a deadline for this project, [ ... ]
Category: free-motion quilting, Surrender, work in progress
10 Comments
Apr 24
2012
I gathered up my courage and finished quilting the mom’s face and hair. It is a small, but important area. I really wanted it to look nice. I tried giving myself some convincing self-talk so I would quit procrastinating and get it done. In the end, it took the motivation of an impending deadline for me to jump in and do it. So, it is with great relief that all of the main elements are now completely quilted.
But now I’m stuck on that background again. I can’t figure out how I want to quilt it. I don’t [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
8 Comments
