Busy busy busy

 Good Morning! How are you all doing? You know what they say about time flying when you are having fun? I must be having a blast because it is already halfway though April. Where does the time go? Only 6 more weeks of school for my little monkeys and then we will be spending the summer by the pool on base. I can't wait. You are welcome to come join us.

So, last weekend I drove up to Dallas. Why would I do such a thing? Well, the Dallas Quilt Guild arranged to have Gwen Marston come and speak. Well, if Gwen was coming to Texas I was going to go see her. I had a great time and once again my creative fires have been fueled. I love her attitude towards quilting.  I already posted the pictures of the Basket workshop and the guild meeting where she spoke about her solid quilts on Flickr, but I erased them from my computer. Anyway she was brilliant.

 Basiclly if you make a quilt with solid fabrics it will be timeless, yet using prints dates your work. And hand quilting looks great on solids...heck hand quilting looks great on everything.

So, in the picture above we are talking about "parts department" quilts. You can just glob all your orphan blocks into a quilt. Cool, huh? Well, I don't have that many orphan blocks ( I guess I do, but I was too busy to hunt for them before leaving) so I just worked on more baskets and some new to me techniques.

 Here Gwen is demonstrating how you can cut "Strata" (that may not be the right word...it is when you make new fabric by sewing together narrow strips of other fabric) and use it as strings for string piecing without having to use any sort of foundation.

 Here I am with my new friend Linda and my old friend Jennifer (jennifer and I met a couple years ago during the Bushfire Quilt Project. She sent us coffee for the Quiltathon. Since then I have made several bags for her and her Navy husband. This is the first time we have met in REAL LIFE). Funny how you Blog people are friends to me in my mind, but you are pretty wonderful in real life too. Small world and all that.

 Gwen hopped in our picture too. Oh I took the 2 quilts I started at the Beaver Island quilt retreat last September to show her and she loved them. Well, she said she loved them. Hubba hubba. You will be able to see them in her Liberated Medallion Quilt book which will be released next year. Cool, huh?

 These are the blocks I worked on at the workshop. I finished 7 basket blocks during the Friday workshop and the other 8 baskets back in the Hotel room because I couldn't sleep and was wide awake until well after 2 AM. I even watched Terminator (Salvation) trying to put myself to sleep.

So I never thought I was much into baskets, but these have really grown on me. I am going to add some more trees and some more birds and more of the diamond boarder which is AWESOME!

 This diamond boarder is mostly what I worked on on Saturday. Gwen has a fabulous "No Math" method. I can show you if you are interested.

So, when I got home and put my sweet little feather weight away and my blocks are all folded up and put on the shelf, I noticed that my sewing room was configured perfectly to just go ahead and quilt this quilt!  I figured I would try to knock this out quickly and then back to the bags! Hot dog. It is coming together really well.

And I finished this quilt top last week. I am not sure if it is really finished, but for now it is folded and put away for later contemplation. I am really thrilled with the big reverse applique flowers in the corners.  I found the template in Material Obsession 2. That is a great book if you don't have in in your library.

OK, I have work to do. You all have a great day.

xo,
Tia