Ollie And His Quilt

I delivered Ollie's quilt on Sunday and his mommy was tickled with the finished results. She took him out yesterday for a few pictures with it.

This quilt is good enough for napping...and it looks like Ollie is about to fall asleep any minute.

Or maybe it's good enough to eat! Babies love to put everything in their mouths, don't they?

It's certainly big enough to share with a few sisters! I love those happy smiles :)

Happy Quilting!

Ollie's Quilt-finished!

On May 1st I blogged about making Ollie a quilt. Ollie is my 7th grandchild-but my first grandson. My daughter, Melissa, (Ollie's mom) picked out the fabric and I picked the pattern and sashing/border fabric. This was a fun quilt to make and I am pleased with how it turned out.

This was the layout that I decided on. It was quick and easy to stitch and I thought that the fabric would be the focus and not the quilt pattern-which was my goal.

I even fussy cut some of the cute robots to showcase them in the blocks. They were so adorable that I had to feature them!

This is the top before I added the border. I was really on the fence about the border width. So, of course, I had to send pictures and ask my quilting posse. They said three inches-so, three inches it was. 

Here is the top, layered on the floor all ready for me to crawl around and pin together. This is my least favorite part of making a quilt. But, it is such an essential part of the process. 

Melissa was adamant that the quilting not look "girly". I can understand that-after so many girls, this has to be a BOY QUILT-nothing girly about it at all. I copped out and decided that an all-over meander would be quickest and easiest.

I loved the striped fabric and thought it was the perfect frame for the quilt, so I used it as the binding. All done! I took it to my daughter's house yesterday-it was a birthday party celebration for her oldest, who just turned 5. We didn't have a chance to take pictures of Ollie with his quilt yesterday, but Melissa is going to take a few and send them to me. I will post them at a later date. He is so cute and I know they will be adorable pictures. 

This is going to be a really cute nursery for Ollie. Melissa is making a crib sheet and curtains out of the same fabric line for his room. Ollie's aunt (my other daughter, Meredith) is painting some of the robots on a floor cloth for him. It's fun to take a fabric line and do a whole themed room with it! 

Happy Quilting.

Georgia Celebrates Quilts~The East Cobb Quilter's Guild Quilt Show

Wow, that's a long title for a blog post. And it looks like I was trying to see how many times I could use the word "quilt" in one post title. But, when you are writing about quilts and you're excited about quilts--then you want to just shout "quilts" at the top of your lungs. 

Last weekend was the Georgia Celebrates Quilts show at the Cobb County Civic Center in  Marietta, GA and it was fantastic! As a guild member I got to go on Thursday night for the awards ceremony and a preview of the quilts in the show. We have had a very rainy spring with lots of thunderstorms and Thursday evening was no exception. As we left the auditorium to go into the building with the quilts, the sky had darkened and the tornado sirens were going off! Everyone was calm and continued to look at the quilts as the rain pelted down and the lights went out! Thank goodness for emergency lighting. We were able to continue viewing the show quilts. There were never any tornadoes, but the 90 mph "tornado like winds" (according to the local meteorologist) at my daughter's nearby house had us all a little anxious! 

Friday morning the sunshine broke through and the crowds came. The show was wonderful. I volunteered for a two hour shift as a vendor hostess. It was so much fun. I ran back and forth to the break room getting sandwiches, drinks and snacks for the vendors. They were all so sweet and appreciative. 

I took pictures of some of the quilts I enjoyed and I thought I would share them with you. I hope you enjoy your virtual quilt show. And remember, I am a terrible photographer-especially with my cell phone. 

First, the applique-always a favorite of mine.....

There were beautiful pieced quilts too....

I am always amazed by the miniatures.....

There are always a few quilts that add whimsy to the show and put a smile on your face...

And this quilt was Best Of Show....

There were over 250 quilts in the show-so there were many that I didn't take a picture of. I always try to get a nice variety of photos to catch the "flavor" of a show. I hope you enjoyed these. 

Happy Quilting.

Pat Wys and Lisa Bongean are guest speakers at ECQG

In January I decided to look for a new quilt guild. I have joined two different guilds since I moved to Georgia from the DC area and neither one has inspired me the way my last guild did. I decided I was going to have to be willing to drive a bit in order to find a guild that would offer what I am looking for. I did a little research and have found a home!

I have joined East Cobb Quilters' Guild in Marietta, Georgia. I have to drive 80 miles to attend a meeting, but it is sooo worth it!! The first meeting I attended was in the evening in January. The ladies were warm and welcoming and the program was educational and entertaining-it was a demonstration of several ways to make fabric post cards. Most of the business part of the meeting was about the upcoming quilt show. The raffle quilt was hanging up for everyone to see and it was spectacular! 

It's called Stars and Sprigs and the picture does not do it justice. It is a gorgeous quilt. I have bought raffle tickets for myself and my friends and I hope one of us wins!!

This is a close up so that you can see some of the details of the fabrics and the quilting.

I attended my second meeting in February-also an evening meeting. The excitement about the quilt show (It starts next Friday!) was at a higher pitch than the month before. I joined the guild that night and signed up to volunteer as a vendor hostess at the show. 

I missed the March meeting because I was ill and I was so disappointed. Joe Cunningham, aka Joe the Quilter, was the guest speaker. 

The April meeting was my first time to attend a day meeting and it was wonderful. There were so many friendly ladies there. The guest speaker was Pat Wys (she lives in the Atlanta area-we are so lucky to have her nearby!) I was really excited to hear Pat speak because last Fall Anne and I helped Pam (Pam and Anne are my two BFFs) make a quilt for Pam's daughter's wedding from Pat's book Spotlight on Neutrals.

The pictures aren't very good-they were taken at the dimly lit wedding reception. The quilting on it is beautiful!

Pat was a wonderful speaker and it was awesome to see all of her quilts made with only neutral fabrics. She brought other quilts to share, as well. Here are a few pics I snapped.

Pat also showed a two color quilt that I loved. Blue and white has always been a favorite of mine. 

I'm a fan of basket quilts too. I love the touch of applique in the sashing on this one.

This quilt got a lot of ooh's and aah's. What's not to love?

Pat and a friend of hers both made the same quilt, but in their own fabric choices. It was interesting to see the difference that color value makes in a quilt.

Another gorgeous two color quilt! 

The May guest speaker was Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings. Big fan here!! I have been attending the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Atlanta for years and Primitive Gatherings always has a booth and I always buy from them-books, patterns, fabrics, and  wool....ahhh, the wool! It's divine!! I haunted their booth at the International Quilt Festival in Houston several years ago too. I bought something (okay-lots of somethings) from them every day I was there. 

Lisa was a great speaker. She told us her quilting story-when she started quilting, the reason she opened her quilt shop when she did, and how she gets so much done! 

Then she shared her passion with us-wool! She told us where she buys her wool, how she dyes it and how to stitch it up. She showed us lots of wool table runners and candle mats, but I was in the back and couldn't get good pics. 

One of the reasons that I love Lisa is because she is such a generous person. She is always ready to share her passion for quilting and wool. She donated wool for door prizes at our quilt guild meeting, she gave away "goodies" to the ladies who attended her workshops and she was so happy to share her knowledge of dyeing and stitching wool with the guild. In the picture above Lisa is again sharing her love of quilting. That's my granddaughter, Sofia, sitting in Lisa's lap at a quilt show. When Sofia told Lisa that she likes to sew and that she had been piecing scraps together to make a quilt for her Curious George, Lisa gave Sofia a precut stack of 2 1/2" squares to use in her next project. Always encouraging and supporting her fellow quilters-that's Lisa! 

I can't wait until next month's meeting-Edyta Sitar will be the guest speaker and I am sure it will be great too. 

Happy Inspirations!