Sorting, stacking, bagging..........
The basement and guest room are clean but the main floor studio is having guests tomorrow, the girls I used to work with. I have been sorting through the piles, stacking like items, bagging small pieces. There is still a lot of work to do but I am teaching the first class of Strips 'n Curves today. I'll get back at it tonight and hopefully find a place for everything, AND hopefully remember where that place is when I look for it.

My art quilters group is coming today...........
This is the group of projects that I will be showing to them. This is what I have accomplished since June 8, not including the queen size Trip Around the World which is too heavy to hang. The cookies have been baked, the basement has been cleaned. I'm ready.
Here is the view just outside my front door. The tiger lilies have just started blooming.
The rudbekia (brown eyed Susan) is just starting to bloom too. Some of the yellow flowers look like they are attached to the tiger lilies in this photo.
The balloon flowers look so pretty with the coral bell sprays behind them. I have volunteer balloon flowers all over this front garden.
My cousin from the Springfield, IL area came through this way Friday night and he stayed at my house overnight and visited my dad on Saturday morning. Dad really enjoyed the company. This also forced me to clean up the guest room. It is amazing how much I can pile on the guest bed between guests.

Vanilla quilt blocks......where's the color?......
When my dad gave back this quilt it reminded me that I had started another one about 10 years ago. While I was cleaning the basement I came across the box with the parts in it.


Here are a bunch of blocks already sewn.

Here are the rows that make the blocks, waiting patiently to be sewn.

I used some of the blocks to demonstrate how to sew a quilt together for a class years ago. I admire the people who can make all white and cream and beige quilts, what I call Vanilla Quilts. Somehow I just couldn't stick with this one. Maybe the name of my blog explains it all. I am going to make one more effort to sew this quilt together so wish me luck.

What's on my sewing table........
I cut some more shapes from the strata I showed a few days ago. The block in the center top has been sewn and the others are just laid out for final approval.
It turned really cool yesterday, low 60's. I'm not complaining since I don't like hot steamy weather.

My Ray of Sunshine is finished..........
I put the last binding stitches in yesterday. I'm really happy with this simple quilt.
As I mentioned in an earlier post when I had finished the quilting, some rows are just wavy lines with loops here and there and the rest of the rows are leaves with an occasional flower.

This was the first flower I did and I thought about taking it out but decided to leave it.

This is the second flower and it was considerably better. I showed the third flower a few days ago and it was the best one.

I also got this one quilted this week, just simple large meandering. It is one that will be used and washed and used some more so I didn't think I needed any fancier quilting than that. Meandering gives an all over even pucker and the quilt stays soft too. Too much quilting makes a stiff quilt.

I still need to do the binding on it but I wanted to see how it looked on a queen size bed without a dust ruffle. It is unlikely that it will end up in a sunshine yellow room but that is the only place I have that size bed.

How I sew the curve with just one pin........
First I find the center of both pieces and pin them together with the concave piece on top.
Then I go to the end of the seam and baste with a few stitches. This works better than a pin because the fabric always moves when you pull the pin out. This last corner will try to swing out crooked if it isn't attached. This picture was taken with super macro so it looks like a big mismatch at the end of the seam when in reality it is about 1/16th of an inch off.

Then I sew a few stitches at the beginning of the seam and stop with the needle down. Then just smooth the top curve to match the bottom. Sew slowly and use your fingers to hold it in place as it moves into the presser foot.

When you get to the center again stop with the needle down. Hold the basted corner with your right hand and with your left hand just smooth the top piece out to match the bottom piece. I didn't have 2 hands to show this since one was holding the camera.

Once again your fingers will just ride on the fabric holding it in place as it gets sewn.

And there you have it, another block finished.

I was holding the fabric with one hand and the camera with the other hand. I took pictures of the first block but wasn't happy with some of the shots so had to start a second block and retake some of the parts. You may or may not have noticed the top fabric isn't the same in all of the pictures.

Some of the blocks will have strip pieced sections in both parts, some will have plain fabric for one of the parts. Click on Strips and Curves in my Labels list to see all of the quilts made from this type block. When you have pieced sections both top and bottom, you just roll the top piece back 1/4" as you approach each seam and see that it is matching with the seam on the bottom piece. It is just a little slower sewing those blocks.

Today I am meeting some of my students to help them with their fabric choices. Also one lady couldn't make it to the demo so I'll meet briefly with her to explain the pressing procedure that is in the book.

The demo went well..........
and the class starts next week. I have 8 students so I broke it into 2 classes again. The maximum number of students to work comfortably in the classroom is 5 so with 4 in each class they will have a lot of elbow room. I will be teaching on Tuesdays and Fridays for 2 weeks. In the demo I cut into this strata and pieced one block to show how the seams line up.
I only use one pin to match centers.

We had the most beautiful day, warm but not too warm, and low humidity. I'll take some more of those please.