Design Wall Monday 2-27-12

Jump over to Patchwork Times today for Design Wall Monday - always a great source of inspiration.

The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, VA -  Wow! Wow! Wow! My friends, Lori and Ruth, and I went on Thursday. It was phenomenal, and inspiring, and awesome, and amazing. The quilts were spectacular. I took a gazillion photos. If anyone reading this wants the link to my Picasa album of the photos of the quilt show, just email at SallyJH123@gmail.com - I'd be happy to share them with you. But the main thing that happened at the show was I bought a sewing machine. A BabyLok Symphony. It will be shipped to me in a couple of weeks - can't wait! I sat down at the machine, sewed a bit, and it was love at first stitch.

Spiral Tablerunner using the 9-degree wedge ruler - pattern by School House Quilts. It took me a while to get my mind around this one but finally I just let go and followed the instructions step-by-step and the project came together nicely - can easily be made in a day. I would do the quilting differently if I make this again, and I probably will make it again - on my new sewing machine.

At the quilt show I bought these fabrics (1/2 yard pieces) and plan to make a quilt for me - the design is still coming together in my mind but I'm thinking I'll use the "swoon" block by Thimbleberries. I'll purchase a white tonal fabric for the background and maybe a very light gray fabric to use somewhere in the block or as a border since there is light gray in the daisy fabric.

Isn't this wine bottle tote adorable? The free tutorial for it is available from a blog called Needle and Spatula - her blog is fun to read. My theme for Bunco this year when I host is "Wine" so I am planning to make these totes for prizes. The tutorial is excellent - easy to follow. I made this in about 1.5 hours. I found out about these perfect fabrics from a blog through Design Wall Monday (Tamera Quilts) and asked her where she got them. She gave me the fabric line name and I did a Google search for them. One yard of each should do 4 wine bottle totes but I'm only making 2 to start.

Crayon Batik Dyeing - we're trying it again ... I'll let you know how it goes. We're tweaking the process a bit. This time, instead of using black paint I'm using green paint. It's hard to tell right now because the design is covered by the paint but it's supposed to be 4 whimsical birds. I'll give an update on the 3/5/12 Design Wall Monday.