Streak of Lightning an e-novel

No not real lightning! 'A Streak of Lightning is a design that can be made in a number of ways.  Some people use rectangles that are offset, some use half-square triangles, and the one Nell Fitzgerald is making in an e-novel by Clare O'Donahue, is a variation on the classic log cabin.  The main point, however it is done, is to create the sense of movement, of color that juts back and forth in a line, just how most lightning bolts are represented.'

This excerpt from Clair's book gives you an idea of her attention to detail when comes to the quilts that she uses for the titles of her books.  In Streak of Lightning a Someday Quilts Mystery, fans get a chance to check up with what is happening in the lives of quilter turned amateur sleuth Nell Fitzgerald and the other residents of the small town of Archer's Rest, New York.  Now, available STREAK OF LIGHTNING ($2.99 /August 2013), as A Penguin Special (e-book only) which went on-sale July 30th. 

 

I enjoyed making the time to read about Nell's next adventure and look forward to Claire's next book Double Wedding Ring which comes out this fall.

                                                 

                                            

Marti Michell has a couple versions in the Marti and Me class, Log Cabin Snuggler, that I missed and the Zig Zag Geese class.

 

 

 

 

2012 From Marti and Me Club Christmas

Had a great time today at the 2012 From Marti and Me Club Christmas

at Cottonpickers Quilt Shop in Chardon, Ohio.

Show and tell was fabulous, we have some very talented quilters.

Plus the cookies were great!!!

Thanks to Gayle and Beth for a great time
 

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From Marti and Me Club November 2012

Attended the From Marti and Me Club meeting at Cottonpickers Quilt Shop in Chardon, Ohio this morning. 

 

Our attendance was light because of illness and grandchildren!!  Hope you feel better soon Marge!!  And Jenny we hope you had a geat time with kids!!

 

We always start with show and tell.

 

 

Marge showed us this Wool Applecore table runner that she made for under caseroles.

 

 



Nancy showed us her hexagon quilt.



Cathy brought this quilt that she made for her granddaughter.  Which is an example of one of the quilts we will be discussing in class.

 

Our instructor Gayle is great at sharing ideas of how to use the patterns that Marti Michell has designed for us.

 

 

 

This is the Hexagon Pinwheel that Gayle made for the class sample.

 

I think this may be the project I start after the holidays.

 

 

 Thanks Gayle for a great class!!!

 

Buckeye Sewing Retreat Day 1

I arrived at the Inn at Amish Door in Wilmot, Ohio at about 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning for the start of the Buckeye Sewing Retreat sponsored by the Calico Cupboard in Pataskala, Ohio.  It was beautiful day too travel, I just wish the fall leaves had stuck around a couple days longer.  I grabbed a luggage cart to unload everything from my car!! 

 

I had 8 quilts/wall hangings that needed bindings attached and sewn down.  My sewing machine, acrylic table, display board, 2 quilt kits, Feathered Star paper piecing project, rulers, cutting board, a shoe box of tools including, rotary cutter, extra rotary cutter blades, thread, bobbins, pins, chalk pencil and many other tools of the quilting trade!  I also took my Spinning Sampler for show and tell.

When I got upstairs Sherry directed me to my table so I could unload.  That table became my home away from home for the weekend.  I wish I had the space for a table that measured 4’ by 8’ in my sewing room!!

My table mate wasn’t there yet so I had both tables to myself for a while.  That allowed me to get my bigger quilts done.  I decided to work on the 2 quilts that are gifts first.  I had cut the fabric for the bindings last weekend, but I still needed to sew the strips together and press them, prior to attaching.  I attached the binding with my machine and then folded it to the back and used Clover Binder clips to keep it in place, as I sewed in the ditch from the front.  Since these are not SHOW quilts I figured sewing the bindings on by machine would work ok.

I love using a stripe for bindings, because they end up on the diagonal!!

 

I need to design and print labels for both of these prior to presenting them as gifts.

I managed to catch the backing when attaching the bindings to both of my first 2 quilts, so that required some reverse sewing with my seam ripper!!

Then I moved on to my first From Marti and Me Club quilt, Bali Breeze.  I used the same fabric that was in the border to bind the quilt.

 

Next was my Halloween Wall hanging

 

We broke at 6:00 p.m. and had a wonderful dinner of Salad, Rolls, Fried Chicken, Roast Beef, Mash Potatoes, Green Beans and Pie!!

Then it was back to sewing!!

I only worked until about 9:30 p.m., I have a tendency to make sewing mistakes and rotary cutter mistakes after 9 p.m.!!!

I will have another post later this week for Saturday!!!

Feathered Star Quilt - Completion of Chapter 1 - Judy and Brad Niemeyer

I have determined that Wine and paper piecing doesn't always go together!! 

Thursday night Jim and I had a wonderful Birthday dinner and shared a bottle of Wine!!

I came home wanting to finish Part 2 of Chapter 1 so I sewed on one of the sections and realized Friday night that they were on wrong!!  Of course I had already trimmed all of them but one!  Which meant using the seam ripper and cutting new pieces!!

 

I was able to finish Part 2 of the Chapter 1 Friday night!!

 

 

I laid them out at Cottonpickers so that I could get some suggestions on the fabric for Chapter 2.  Beth's daughter, Becky was there to give me a hand.

 

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself!!

 

 

These are the fabrics we selected for the Chapter 2!!

 

Today was the From Marti and Me Club and Sit and Sew of the Super Saturday Stitchers.

These women are very talented and will be working on their own Judy and Brad Niemeyer patterns soon!  I was able to complete Chapter 1 and start cutting out Chapter 2!!

 

 

I love how it is coming together!!  The next chapters fabrics are a little darker, so I'm hoping the center star will pop!!!

 

 

 This one of the 8 wedges in Chapter 1

 

 

This shows 2 of the wedges with the different colored centers.

Desert Sky Steps 6 and 7

I started removing the paper from the blocks earlier this week.  The process went pretty smoothly.  The pattern suggests reducing your stitch size by 1 to allow for easier removal of paper.  The important thing is to not pull so hard that you pull stitches out at the same time!

Yesterday was the first meeting of the Super Saturday Stitches at Cottonpickers Quilt Shop in Chardon, Ohio.  It is a group of quilters that met attending the From Marti and Me Club meetings.  Now we stay on Saturday afternoons for 3 hours to work on our projects.  I packed too many things and Jim was wondering if I was leaving for longer then the day!! 

I had some quilts that needed backings, so I had those in a bag, and backing for my Let It Snow quilt to stitch together.  Then I had 2 of my ArtBin Double Deeps filled with my Snail Tail and my Desert Sky projects.  I love these boxes, they help to keep my project organized.

Beth at Cottonpickers was having a Ping Pong ball sale, so I used my 30% to get backings for 3 of my quilts.  I need to contact Becky at Ruby Blue Quilts to get them on her schedule.

I spent part of the afternoon working on removing the paper from the blocks and then I used 45 minutes to put the blocks on my design wall so the other quilters could help me with my color placement.

I completed removing the paper today and I'm now ready to cut out the final six 7 inch blocks and complete the placement of the border blocks.

As you can see Nermal is helping me!!

My Spinning Sampler quilt received a Red Ribbon!!!

One of the items on my 'Bucket List' was to win a ribbon at a Quilt Show. 

I'm so excited that I can cross that off of my list!! 

I found out today that my Spinning Sampler quilt received a 2nd Place Ribbon in the

General Pieced, Mid size category of the 2012 Lake Farmparks Quilt show!  The General category is for those quilters that pieced their quilt and then someone else quilted it.

If I was to give an acceptance speak I would have to thank the following people:

My Dear Husband Jim for putting up with quilting projects all over the house.

My friend and longarm quilter Jennifer McCann for her great quilting and support.

My friend and fellow quilter Leita Shahan for suggesting that I enter this quilt and coming up with the great name.

Marti Michell for teaching the class I took in 2010 and providing a tool that helped me to improve my piecing.

Gayle Norman instructor of Cottonpickers Quilt Shop Marti and Me Club, for her encouragement.

God for giving me the time and talent to improve my piecing.

Below is the story I submitted with my quilt.

I took a class from Marti Michell using her Perfect Patchwork Templates at the 2010 Lake Farm Park’s Quilt Show. She displayed a number of samplers in class in 12” and 6” sizes. So I started one using my Scarlet and Gray stash that includes twelve 12" blocks on point, with a 24" Carpenter’s Wheel center medallion block.

Starting at the top the 12 blocks used in the quilt are Rising Star, Weathervane, Northern Lights, Rosette, Pieced Star, Hidden Star, Rolling Sawtooth Star, Ohio Star, Dutchman’s Pinwheel, Sweet Sixteen, Martha Washington Star, Wild Goose.

I used a layout I found in Electric Quilt’s EQ7 and then added a border that includes 200 Flying Geese. I’m not sure what really possessed me to make that many Flying Geese??

Jennifer McCann’s quilting really adds to the final overall presentation of this quilt.

So I have a question. can I now say that I'm an award winning quilter??

 

Check out the beautiful Thanksgiving quilts and VOTE!

I have entered my Fall Pumpkin Wallhanging in Quilting Gallery's Thanksgiving gratitude quilts contest.  There are some really great quilts that make us appreciate the change in seasons!

This wallhanging has also been posted on the EQ Blog, I hope it inspires some other quilters.

Fall Pumpkin wall hanging completed!!!

I designed this wall hanging using EQ7 and a Quiltmaker quilting stencil.  I hand embroidered the center and then added the Marti and Me Club Twinkling Stars to the borders.  It is 36" x 36" and just fits on the back of my front door!  It brightens up the hallway.  My next project is a smaller turkey wall hanging.

2011 Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival

It has been a busy year for me here at I Quilt Scarlet and Gray.  I started blogging last year and also started pattern testing for some great quilt designers.  I have tested 23 patterns for 16 different designers.  In addition I have been participating in a Marti and Me Club at Cottonpicker’s Quilt Shop, created by Marti Michell, so each month this winter I have been working on a different project.  So it was a little difficult to pick out just one quilt to enter in the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival.

I have decided to share my Bali Breeze quilt which is the first project we did for the Marti and Me Club.  I made the quilt using Batiks from my stash.  The pattern gave us options for a tablerunner or quilts.  I actually made three table runners into a quilt.

What I haven't decided is that if I choose to hang the quilt what direction I should use.  Any suggestions?

Thanks to Amy's video I took some pictures of the quilt outside after I got it back from my wonderful quilter Jennifer McCann.

I really like the backing I use for this quilt.

Can you see the bubbles that Jennifer quilted?

Bali Breezes blowing in the wind!!

Thanks Amy for giving us the opportunity to share our love of quilting with the world!!



Celebrating my Blogs 1st Anniversary

I can't believe it has been a year since I started blogging.  I have really enjoyed sharing my quilting projects with my followers and those of you on Facebook. 

I have been keeping busy testing patterns and attending the From Marti and Me Club sessions at Cottonpickers Quilt Shop this winter.

This is my Seven Sisters project.  The girls at the club suggested that I keep this a hexagon and use it as table quilt.

I'm currently working on a Scrappy Bear Paw wallhanging.  Made from Holly Taylor's Dargonfly Summer by MODA.

Spring is actually thinking about making an appearance in Northeastern Ohio.  Once the rain stops falling I will have a lot of grass to mow.

Since I started writing my blog I have met some wonderful quilters from around the country and even world!!  Reading about their lives and their quilt projects is a very special part of my day.

It's National Quilting Day!

I visited the quilt shop that moved into Geneva, Ohio called A Quilting Affair.  While there I found Sweet Liberty designed by Pat Sloan and distributed by P&B Textiles.  It's a great patriotic fabric and I purchased a Fat quarter pack. 

I'm a member of the From Marti and Me Club at Cottonpickers Quilt Shop in Chardon.  Our current project is Seven Sisters.

Gayle had mentioned during our class that you could use Fat Quarters so I decided to use my Sweet Liberty ones.  I picked out seven of the ones I thought would stand out the best against a cream background.

I have completed the first three blocks.