Birthday Gifts For Friends

Tomorrow is our monthly Epic Sew Day and it happens to be a few of my qbff's birthdays too!

I had to make some special gifts for them. :-)

A secret book of maps is always useful to a quilter!

They are so fun and easy to make :-)

***Notebook TUTORIAL HERE!!***

And of course the best present for a quilter is a Sew Together Bag ;-)

Such fun fabric!

I love Rustique by Emily Herrick!

...and I love Emily too ;-)

Happy birthday dear friends!!!

Round Robin Medallion Update

I am so excited about this quilt! 

 I absolutely love it!!!

To help me with quilting design inspiration, I hung the top in my front room window so I could stare at it for a few days :-)

It was so much fun to look at it :-)

For the backing I HAD to buy this Matroyska doll fabric. It's perfect!

I also decided to embroider the names of all of the Round Robin ladies in the centers of the friendship stars that Ella added. 

My embroidery is not very good :(

But nobody is perfect :-)

I chose to use white because [my embroidery skills are so lacking and because] I like the subtly. 

Each lady in the group is special to me. 

I will always cherish this experience and all that I learned from it!

Can you read the names?

Don't feel bad if you can't. 

I have a hard time too!

Lol!

I am so sad that Maggie is far away and couldn't be here for the reveal. :(

So now for the exciting part!  I layed the quilt on the floor, getting ready to baste when I decided that the slight ripple in the top could be ironed out. 

I pressed with best press for an hour and when I laid it back on the floor it had a GIANT pucker!  I mean HUGE!!!!

Due to this problem, I had to do some [major] surgery on the quilt.  After a border removal and a giant tuck all of the way around the center, it behaved and laid down flat and square!  I reattached the border that I had removed and basted the quilt :-)

Now those pesky quilting ancestors insist that I hand quilt this quilt!

I told them to shove it!

The quilting ancestors are still harassing me so I am going to add hand quilting too after a bit of fmq. 

I can't wait to finish this next week :-). The hubbs and I are I are off to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary with a weekend getaway :-). I am so excited!!!

Metro Hoops Wedding Quilt

I have wanted to make a double wedding ring quilt FOREVER!!!  I even bought the creative grid templates so I'd be ready when the mood struck ;-)

Well, while I was at the Small Town Quilt Show, the Quick Curve Ruler/Sew Kind of Wonderful ladies were there teaching classes. 

I watched with sceptisism as all of the ladies oooed and awed over the ruler and patterns. What could possibly be so cool about that little ruler?

The quilts that the Sew Kind of Wonderful ladies made with the ruler were truly AH-MAZING!! No doubt about that!  But how slick could that ruler truly be?

Finally on the last late night of sewing, I asked Melissa Corry what the big whoop was. What could possibly be so stinkin' cool about the Quick Curve Ruler method?  Melissa set me straight!

She showed me how no pinning was necessary with their method. NO PINNING!!!  What the?!?!  SOLD!!!

Strip piecing???  Stack(ish) and whack(ish) methods for cutting?!?!  SOLD and SOLD again!

I bought the ruler the very next morning!

Now for whom to make a quilt!?  Well, my daughters best friend is getting married today :-). How about her?

I opted to make the Metro Hoops pattern instead of the Metro Rings (double wedding ring). ...I'm saving the Metro Rings for my new grand babies :-)

The brides favorite color is blue and because it is my least favorite color, I didn't have a lot :/.  I called upon my quilty bffs to lend a hand. A few of them sacrificed a 2.5" strip or two from their stash to help me out :-). It made a world of difference to add that extra variety!

For the background, I opted to use a variety of neutrals that I had in my scrap bin :-). I really love how it turned out!

The quilt label came to be as I cannot add correctly :/. I made one too many blocks ;-). Happy mistakes!!

This quilt seriously only took a few days to make. Like three, tops!  It measures 60" x 75".  I used a Twin size sheet for the backing and that same fabric for the binding. 

I gave it to Emily (the bride) yesterday. I can't wait to see the happy couple tonight at their reception!

***UPDATE   look what I spied at the reception in the gift pile ;-)

Round Robin BIG REVEAL

About 18 months ago, twelve of my quilty friends and I started an adventure. We decided to do a round robin, medallion style. ;-)

Annette Rawlinson

Each of us made a center and then passed it from friend to friend over the last year and a half. 

Emily Herrick's Happy Surprise Face

Most of us never saw ours until the BIG REVEAL yesterday at our monthly Epic Sew Day. 

Emily Herrick

Each quilt top was SPECTACULAR!!!

Close up of embroidery detail.

The detail and time spent was phenomenal!

Emily with her quilt.

Everyone was so happy with their top. 

Natalie Smith

Having something so special, from all of your sewing buddies is hard to describe!

Natalie and the quilt models admiring her quilt.

For the BIG REVEAL, a few of the quilters daughters helped us out with the quilt holding  ;-)

Katie Gardner

Each medallion has such a unique personality and feel. 

Katie is thrilled!

I am astounded that so many creative minds can make such a unified piece of art. 

April Mazzoleni

Each quilt is so special. 

April's quilt is HUGE!!! 109" square

Each quilt is so different. 

Konda Luckau

Each quilt represents 100's of hours. 

Pamela Cardwell

Four of the ladies were not able to be there for the BIG REVEAL.  So we didn't get to see four of the quilts either :(. Hopefully we will all get to see them soon!

Marion McClellan

This beauty is mine!  I LOVE IT!!!  I never could have imagined this GORGEOUS top when I made my little Matryoshka center!  I can't wait to get it quilted!!!

So much was learned by by us all during this whole process. Lots of growth on my part alone. I am so happy to have been able to participate with these amazing ladies!!!