Lorelei

So this is the quilt I entered into Sew Original's "Solids Challenge"

Lorelei, named after Marilyn Monroe's character in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". This was the role where she sang "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend". And wore a killer dress.

I wanted the diamonds to stand out, so I kept the quilting in the neutral diamonds.

I kept the quilting simple.It's number 14 and voting is open through May 15.
You can vote once each day. I would appreciate your vote!

Darma Sunrise

I got a little carried away with the quilting on this one.

Darma Sunrise 46" by 36"

I started the border first on this one. One of our LQS, Sew Original is hosting a "Solids Challenge" and this was originally going to be my entry.

I love how the border looks. But originally I wasn't loving the dark gray I used in the center.

So I decided to lighten it up with quilting. And I quilted a lot. 

Feathers, fronds, swirls, oh my!

I believe this will serve nicely as a teaching sample for a while.

 

The backing is a batik I had in my stash, and the colors worked perfectly.

reconnecting

Bonnie and I grew up attending the same church. There was a slight age difference, she is 3 years ahead of me, that when you are younger seems greater.
Our parents have remained connected, but life happened and we each grew up going our own ways.
Last year, at a local quilt show, we ran into each other. "I didn't know you quilted!" we both said. And we were delighted to start talking quilting. We exchanged email addresses with a promise to get together.

Life happened again, her mother fell into ill-health, her father passed away.
We ran into each other (yes, at another quilt show!) and again, promised to get together. Well, this time, we kept the promise to each other.

Last Sunday, I paid her a visit (we only live 15-20 minutes apart!). I arrived, and when I next looked at a clock, I had been there 4 and a half hours!

I feel like I have been given a huge gift! It is so great to reconnect and feel the love and the commonalities of deep friendship.

We talked quilting, of course! Bonnie has been sewing and quilting like me, but she had taken the plunge and purchased a sit-down long-arm, an HQ Sweet 16.

She invited me to play on it.

Ya'll (as we say in here in the South), that machine ROCKS!

Bonnie also shared with me, her summer hobby, marquetry. Look at this beauty:

She quilts with wood!!!

What a great Sunday!

 Neat coincident: she and her husband attended an event this week, and met my husband.

a quilty Saturday, and I didn't even sew

But the day was devoted to quilting!

I started Saturday morning attending the quarterly meeting of the Carolina Longarm Association, which was held at Sewingly Yours. This was our Machine Quilting Bee meeting for this month and it was so informative.

Next, I traveled to deliver all my mini-quilts. They are going to be on display and offered for sale at Statesville's Downtown Art Crawl, this coming Friday, April 19 as part of Taproot Artisans. I met Janet (from Taproot), at a Barn Quilt workshop. There were 4 people there, painting their own barn quilts! If you want a barn quilt of your own, contact Taproot, they can help you! They also lead barn quilt tours through Iredell County.

Brand-new barn quilts, just born!

Then on my way back home, I stopped by Carolina Quilt Market, where I am teaching on May 4. What an amazing place! Jean sells quilts on consignment, as well as holding classes.
Quilts were everywhere, sorted by size and theme.

There is a great group of Christmas quilts and wall hangings, as well as an amazing group of vintage quilts, at great prices. She also had a large selection of handbags, as well as quilt books and some fabrics she was selling from the estate of a quilter.

There will be sewing tomorrow, but this was a day filled with inspiration.

Last, of this batch, mini quilt

A wall quilt based on the traditional Shoofly block:

23" square

Various fabrics

This is another I really like. I love the turquoise with black&white and yellow. I feels really fresh and bright. I FMQed it by marking overlapping circles in the solid part of the center, then I quilted straight lines in the corners, and finished up by quilting a large loop in the border.

Having fun using my stash!