Lone Star Class

At Quilting in the Desert this week, I took "Lone Star Sparkler" taught by Helen Young Frost. (pictured here during her show and tell).

I showed up for class with a variety of fabric...

And chose these three for my first star:

Here are the pieces for the star points (mine on the left, a classmate's at the top is actually green with purple accent fabric, and my friend's earth tones on the right).

Jeanne and I at the end of the day! We both like to finish as much as possible in class, so we stayed in and sewed during lunch.

And my first stars! You can see I have a problem with the blue star, the red fabric is very rippled. Jeanne's solution is to rip it our and applique the star onto the background, but I think that A-word is nasty! I'm going to email the teacher and see what she suggests.

Since I had some extra time and fabric, I pieced an orange and green star, but it's just pinned to the background. I might try the background again, but I am nervous about screwing it up again! I thought I did a careful job measuring, cutting and pinning...wish me luck on the next attempt.

Sunday Sewing

While everyone was napping, I cut more 1.5 inch squares for my Centennial Postage Stamp quilt, and started work on the left half.

Here is what I have so far...I'm not liking the darker "stripe" between the star and the left-hand blue section, so there may be some ripping soon.  I knew that would be a possibility when I began sewing before I had all my fabrics laid out!  I tried to keep lights near the center, but I forgot that the whole section was the center of the quilt!

 

More quilting fun this week - I checked in today for Quilt Camp in the Desert. 

 

I can only take one day off from work, so I decided to take a Lone Star class with Helen Frost and meet up with my camp buddy Jeanne.  I hope these blue fabrics work...maybe the star will be a medallion for a future Quilt of Valor.

Quilt Camp 2009

I enjoyed a quick trip to Quilt Camp in the Pines this week. When I went for the first time in 2004, I won the roommate lottery and met Jeanne (on the right). She is so much fun...one of those people who you meet and feel like you've known forever. We only see each other once or twice a year and each time is a delight.
We took John Flynn's class, Glorified Nine Patch. My advice if you ever take a class with him - BUY THE KIT. He sells wonderful templates if you want to bring your own fabric, but in class it is much more fun to sew than to spend all day cutting out pieces.

Every year at camp, Jeanne plans an extra curricular craft. This year it was fat free treats:Some quilting magazines this summer have featured patterns for these "quick and easy" pincushions. Mine is on the right...lumpy and lopsided. In my own defense, I was using an unfamiliar sewing machine that didn't like the interfacing and ruffly edges. I figured for a first attempt, finished was better than perfect. Jeanne's cupcake on the left was her fourth try ;-)

The featured instructor was Esterita Austin. She gave a lecture on her quilting journey. (Esterita is the redhead on the left.) It was educational and entertaining. I learned a few tricks about color placement (highlight the contrast between light and dark to give dimension) and fell in love with her stone portal quilts.
Great mini-vacation away from the desert heat. Anyone want to join me next year??