December Fat Stacks

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Merry Christmas from Fat Stacks!!

We started off with Jennifer F’s FABULOUS Serendipity Sampler. Gina Allen custom quilted it for her.

A close-up.

Beautiful fabrics; beautiful quilting; beautiful hand applique.

Voile back.

Joyce’s finished quilt. Beautiful Asian fabrics.

The pieced back. Love this!

Carole D’s “Night Garden” from Sarah Fielke’s pattern. She hand quilted the alternate blocks.

The back…

Tillie’s foundation pieced finished quilt for our Meals On Wheels Christmas quilts. Our Fat Stacks group donates quilts for Meals on Wheels clients. The volunteers deliver them at Christmas. I’ll take 22 beautiful quilts to Senior Services this week. Such a generous community of women.

My new clutch; Sue Lauer’s class and pattern. So much fun!

Denyse Schmidt Fat Stack; pattern is “Box of Chocolates” from Skip The Borders.

It’s amazing what you can find on Pinterest. 🙂 This came from hmahercreative.com. Fuse Christmas fabric to the back of the printed card stock. Cut out the gift tags. Sweet!

Carole’s Glimmer quilt. Karen Fridy quilted this for her. Wow!

Same Carole. We love Carole.

Jennifer’s Sew Mama Sew blocks from their Modern Block of the month.

Jennifer’s blocks with sashing. We liked this…

Carole’s block from last month.

All her blocks.

One more block.

Our 2015 Christmas ornament…3″ x 4″ miniature quilt ornament. Arts and Crafts time!

And finally, a picture of my new Panthers iron. HAHAHA I bought it at Target. Now Debbie and I just have to find Luke Kuechly and get him to autograph it for us! 12-0. Crazy.

Happy Holidays to you! I’ll see you next year!

Thistle Thicket progress pictures

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Debbie’s Thistle Thicket Center. Wow! She reverse appliqued that dark center ring. Genius.

Here’s her patchwork border and her large border fabric.

Her “proposed” circles. We like. 🙂

Mary Ann’s beauty. Mary Ann repeated the same fabrics. It’s a very soothing center.

Patchwork inner border and gray Joel Dewberry outer border. Love.

Here’s a closeup of Mary Ann’s petals and plumes. It does not get any better than that!

Ann’s center. We were absolutely wild about this one. She’s using the Alison Glass border as her inspiration. Check out the different colors in her four bulbs/petals/plumes. Fabulous.

The circles and leaves are just cut-outs. She was “experimenting.” We all do that! 🙂

She’s making two….

Here’s the center with her border fabric. She fussy cut those thistles as one piece. They look like little owls. Perfect.

A closeup of the border fabric. LOVE.

Paula also finished her center but of course I forgot to take a picture of it. I’m such a good friend. Trust me, it’s pretty wonderful. She did some pretty cool stuff with lights and darks. Sorry Paula! I’ll post extra pictures next month!!!

Here’s the progress from another class. They are just finishing the “Tinkertoy centers.” Here’s Kay’s color palette. What is not to love about this one??? So glad you are joining us Kay!

Here’s Alice’s center. Wait until next month! She is on her way to wonderfulness.

Helen’s center. She’s using the same border fabric as Mary Ann for her inspiration. She’s just adding a little coral for some fun. So proud of her!

Becky’s stick center. 🙂 That’s a printed background folks. Such a good choice! Just wait until next month.

Darla chose a dark gray background and she has some glowing fabrics for it! Progress is being made.

Hope these photos help you in your Thistle Thicket journey! Let me know how I can help. Beautiful work!

Fat Stacks in November

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We started off November Fat Stacks with this beauty. Joan calls it her “summer quilt.” It’s voile with a flannel back. There’s no batting and she hand quilted it. So soft; so wonderful!

Here’s her donation to Senior Services for our Christmas Meals on Wheels sponsorship. It’s a colorful rag quilt; great to cuddle!

She was on a roll with this quilt for her grandson. She used the Parson Gray Fat Stack from Village Fabric Shop for this. We loved it! Hand quilted. Her grandson is a lucky young man!

Here’s a close-up. Joan quilts with Sulky 12 weight.

Here’s Carole’s “Charlie Brown” quilt. She made this for Senior Services.

Here’s her second Senior Services quilt. So generous! Isn’t this a great quilt!

Close-up.

Diana’s Science Fair! Finished! Karen Thompson quilted this for her.

The back. She includes a selvedge edge in her back. We love that!

One of Paula’s Tula blocks. She’s using the pattern from an older Quilt Sampler magazine to make Tula Pink’s “Beads” quilt.

Of course I can’t let her get ahead of me so here are a couple of mine. 🙂

Suzanne joined us this morning. She lives in Hawaii and is visiting her sister. Here’s a Hawaiian applique block she brought.

And another Hawaiian applique block. Reverse applique. Hand quilting it in an echo pattern. We loved her and her quilts!

Martha Claire’s wine bottle gift bag from a Ginabean Quilts tutorial. How pretty is this?? Well done MC.

Her circle quilt. She gave it to Karen Fridy to quilt. Love!

Here’s Martha Claire’s Country Sunshine quilt. This is a beauty! Gina Allen quilted it for her.

Close-up of the bottom half.

Here’s another Senior Services quilt. Karen Fridy brought it to me this morning. I used some of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics.

Here’s Joan’s block of the month.

Carole’s. That gray…

Paula and her Tula crush.

Martha Claire’s.

The rosette wreaths. We had a good time with this. I went to Hobby Lobby and spent way too much to make this wreath. HAHAHA We are all guilty of it!

Here’s the second attempt. I found the inspiration for this at Yellow Mums’ blog post. The sticks came from my yard. The rosettes are made from white Essex linen. Hot glue holds it all together! Check out the directions at Yellow Mums. Such fun!

See you in December!

The Thistle Thicket Quilt

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Lots of pictures to show you from my Thistle Thicket hand applique classes.

Ginny finished hers FIRST. Yay Ginny! She used a group of Liberty fabrics and a touch of Tula Pink pink 🙂 for hers. It’s ready for the quilter!

Here it was just last Sunday during our class. Check out that blue leaf placement.

An earlier class picture.

Here’s Beverly’s TThicket using flax Essex linen for the background and Liberty fabrics for the applique. It feels wonderful.

Here’s a close up of Bev’s from a previous class.

Her Tinkertoy center.

Here’s Bev’s second Thistle Thicket center. Yep, same quilter, just a different quilt. How fun is that??

How it all started.

Here’s Linda S’s progress. My oh my. We marveled at this one.

From an earlier class.

Fowler’s center. She’s using a collection of Amy Butler on a pale yellow background. Very Fowler.

Cydney’s “Elizabeth.” She has started her swags. That gray is pretty fabulous.

Here’s an earlier shot of Cydney’s.

Here are some more shots from other classes. Mary Ann’s center. She’s using a new Joel Dewberry.

Ann’s center.

Here’s a shot of her border print.

Ann’s second quilt. (What can I say? I inspire people to make more than one 🙂 She used Moda Grunge for her background. It’s not showing up here but it glows.

She’ll use Alison Glass for her border. Fab.

Deb’s center. Wow. She’s using a diagonal set for her patchwork center.

Deb reverse appliqued the outer ring. Brilliant.

She’s also the student who taught me about dangling threads. See that silk thread? When she places her next piece of applique, she will thread her needle with that thread and finish stitching. No need to tie off or start over. Genius.

Here’s her patchwork border and her outer border. Just a little more applique. 🙂

Sandra is making a quilt for her son. Don’t tell him.

Here’s her border fabric. She has a muted collection. It is going to be wonderful.

Paula’s start. I LOVE THIS.Her patchwork border. She forgot to bring her outer border but trust me. It’s gorgeous. I’ll show it to you next time.

That’s all for now! A new session of Thistle Thicket will start in January. Think about joining us!

October Fat Stacks

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Happy Fall! We had a great Fat Stacks meeting last Wednesday. So many pretty things.

Here’s Joan’s block of the month from Sew Mama Sew. Wonderful piecing.

Martha Claire’s block. Love the dark center.

Paula’s Tula. Love.

We got a little crazy with drawstring bags. These are Carole’s. Paula shared the tutorial a couple of months ago. It’s from S.O.T.A.K. handmade.

Here’s another one. Carole used the new Joel Dewberry collection. Her silk cords were such a nice touch.

Speaking of fabric collections, Village Fabric Shop looks fabulous. It’s transforming right in front of us. She has several new collections and more on the way. It’s a rainbow in there!

Carole was also very busy making fabric trays.

Here are those great bags from Noodlehead. This is a fabulous tutorial!

Diana is our resident framer. Here’s her newest creation. Pretty cute.

She also finished a pretty counted cross stitch piece. So sweet.

More Noodlehead bags. 🙂

Here’s Martha Claire’s quilt from the Nod to Mod collection. This is small and wonderful.

Martha Claire has finished her Churn Dash from my workshop. Yay Martha Claire!

Paula got a few pieces of embroidery back from Carolina Stitcher. This lady finishes “stuff.” I fat stackhave used her and just love what she does.

Here’s a Lilipopo piece. Now it’s a zippered bag!

One more Lilipopo. “My New Dress” That’s Liberty fabric. I love it!

Debbie Gordon brought her 20-year-old Halloween pumpkins to share. They look great!

I did a quick tutorial on fabric pumpkins. How cute are these??? Find the info at A Delightful Life.

So three days later, Paula sends me this picture.

How fun! Glammed up with bows!

Finally, we will be making quilts for the Meals on Wheels program to deliver at Christmas. It’s an all-day sew-in at Village Fabric Shop on Monday, October 26 from 10-4. No charge. Come and sew. Last year we delivered almost 30 new quilts. Amazing.

Let me know if you have questions. So fun!

Sew Day at Trailer Stash Fabrics

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Once a month, Gina and I host a Sew Day at her shop in Advance. Here are some pictures from August’s little party.

Sue is binding her Gaslight quilt from Sew Many Creations. She used Cotton + Steel’s Christmas fabric. Gina quilted it for her. It’s beautiful.

Diana and Tillie are working on a road map quilt from the book, For Keeps.

Linda is hand quilting the sashing in a sampler quilt. She is ALMOST done.

Cydney’s blocks using the Darling line from Camelot Fabrics. This is a free pattern on Camelot Fabrics’ website.

Carole’s log cabin blocks. LOVE.

Linda’s equilateral triangles. She finished this top; I saw it last week. Awesome.

Jennifer’s Sashiko.

She is good at this.

Ann’s star shuffle quilt. Loved her color choices.

Linda S’s houses. Those are appliqued birds in the windows. Gina will be quilting it for her.

And here’s Ginny’s Thistle Thicket applique block using Liberty fabrics.

Pretty impressive day! We usually meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month. Space is limited so let us know if you are interested in coming!

Fat Stacks in September

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We had another great Fat Stacks class yesterday at Village Fabric Shop. So many pretty things.

Jennifer started us off with her Denyse Schmidt Christmas Trees quilt. Gina Allen quilted this for her.

The back. She used voile; my favorite!

Jennifer’s original design Christmas tree skirt, also quilted by Gina Allen. Jennifer is ready for Christmas 2015!!

Diana made several bags from the great Noodlehead tutorials. So pretty. Several people have used laminate to make their bags waterproof.

Carole won this one in our giveaway. Thanks again Diana!

Check out the Village Fabric Shop charm zipper pull. Love it!

Diana also made these great pincushions using Jaybird Quilts’ Sidekick ruler. She filled them with crushed walnut shells. She bought those at a pet store. Who knew?

Here’s the show stopper. Laura Davies took my Serendipity Sampler class several months ago. I taught her how to hand applique. She made the first block, quilted it and bound it to use as a wall hanging. It finished 24″ square. Insanely good. Laura has a beautiful blog.

Here’s a picture I received from her before she bound it. So proud of you Laura!

Tillie and Carole made Diva Wallets with Paula and Debbie. Now that sounds like a party! Well done ladies! Carole said she used Pellon 809 Decor Bond for her “insides.”

Here’s Carole’s mini hand appliqued eagle. Pieced 2″ square background. Carole has some work hanging at 4th Street Art and Frame here in Winston-Salem.

Here’s Nod to Mod. I made this for Village Fabric Shop’s Shop Hop. Used a pattern from Quilt for Keeps. (Amy has the books.)

Karen Thompson quilted it for the shop. Her original design panto is called Lollipop. Love it! Thank you Karen!

Tinted Mason jars. We have all kinds of show and tell in Fat Stacks! I’m using these for our son’s rehearsal dinner as centerpieces for the tables. (The wedding is at the end of September.) Go check out the tutorial I found on Pinterest. It really does work!

I used a Celebrate Creativity tutorial on mitered napkins. They are also a part of the RD centerpieces. 🙂 I used gray Essex linen and lots of spray starch. I’ll post some centerpiece pictures next month.

Here are the pictures from our Sew Mama Sew Improv block of the month. Not easy. Great blocks!

Carole’s monochromatic gray.Jennifer’s wonky wonderful chartreuse.Paula’s Tula.
Martha Claire’s. Love!

Joan’s. Great job!

Gina finished quilting my Sampler top from Sew Mama Sew. Amazing!

Quilting really does make the quilt! Thank you Gina.

See you next month!

Thistle Thicket Month 1: Erector Sets

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Here are the blocks from our first Thistle Thicket applique class. Linda F’s center. She’s using Alison Glass Ex Libris. Love the diagonal center.

Cydney’s center. She’s nicknamed hers “Head on a Stick.” Stay tuned. 🙂

Bev couldn’t be with us. She sent me this photograph. She wasn’t sure she was going to lie this one so she started a second one.

Ha! Bev likes a challenge. We can’t wait to see what you do!

Fowler’s! Do you not love those striped stems?

Linda S’s center. She set her patchwork on the diagonal. Excellent workmanship and I love the rich purples.

Ginny’s beautiful Liberty fabrics. I was able to sit with her at an Open Sew this week and watched her add this.

Ha! Too much fun! Tula meets Liberty. Ka-boom! Beautiful!

These six women put a lot of thought into their fabric selections. They are all excellent hand appliquers. The class is going to be a lot of fun and I am a very fortunate teacher.

Next month they should come back with centers looking like this…

and then this. No goofing off in my classes!

The Circle Quilt

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Liberty Lawn circles appliqued on double gauze and hand quilted. The fabrics are from Trailer Stash Fabrics. I was probably inspired by a tutorial on Purl Soho’s wonderful blog, The Purl Bee. I don’t remember seeing it in my Pinterest wanderings but I’m sure I did. 🙂 My buddy Carol also spurred me on. 🙂

40″ square. Wool batting. Liberty Lawn back. Yum. It weighs nothing. It is the perfect baby quilt.

Hand quilted with Aurifil floss and linen thread.

I’m teaching it as a hand applique/big stitch hand quilting class in September but it’s kind of easy-peasy. I thought you might be interested in how I put it together.

First I trimmed my double gauze to 40″ square and stay stitched the edges because the double gauze ravels badly. I appliqued six different big circles (about 9″) to the background. I used templar plastic for applique (thanks Debbie G) to make my circles. Freezer paper will work. Raw edge fused will work. I just wanted to preserve the softness of the fabrics.

Of course I needed more circles. I used Karen Kay Buckley’s Bigger Perfect Circles for the smaller sizes.

I added some more circles. 🙂 I liked this so I glued the circles down and
hand appliqued them. That was fun; the fabrics are so wonderfully thin and soft. I cut away the background under the circles. That was scary but I liked the effect. The gray double gauze caused a shadow. Cutting it away allowed the Liberty colors to be true.

This next part was not so fun. I taped my Liberty Lawn backing to the floor. I used a wool batting from Trailer Stash. It has loft but no weight. Not too poofy; just right. I used A LOT of safety pins to baste it.

I hand quilted it and I did NOT use a hoop. I have been to a couple of classes where the teachers pin basted and did not use a hoop and I have seen my own students do it. Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks. It worked nicely because the quilt was poofy and full.

I used Aurifil floss because Gina had it in the shop. I liked it because it comes on cute wooden spools. I used four strands. When I finished quilting all the circles, I thought the big circles were too poofy and needed some more quilting.

I cut a BIG freezer paper circle and randomly traced the shape on the quilt with a blue water soluble marker. Thanks to Jennifer M for that idea. She’s in a Monday night stitching group that I attend. You should come. 🙂I hand quilted those circles during a road trip to Nashville, TN to see Larry. He likes to help me sew. I used Normandy linen thread because I wanted the background quilting to blend. I really liked the results.

I finished it and then hand stitched a running stitch around the outside of the quilt. I trimmed it and bound it with leftovers from the back.

I washed it in Soak and air dryed it. If you are local, you should go by Trailer Stash just to squeeze it. I really like it.

Gina has kits, including the wool batting and it will be there for the September Shop Hop. I’ll teach the hand applique in September and the big stitch hand quilting in October if you want to join me. My classes are listed on my class schedule page.

Let me know if you have questions about the process!

August Fat Stacks

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Here are our pictures from August Fat Stacks. This little 1/2 square triangle beauty belongs to Carole. Those borders!This little log cabin is also Carole’s. She machine stitched her binding on both of these. We were impressed!

Ann blew us away with the “Texas Two Step” she made for her husband. It’s from Fons and Porter’s July/August magazine.

Paula continues to make fabulous bags.

Speaking of Paula…she and Debbie helped me make this great little “Diva Wallet” from the new Amy Butler collection. Can you believe I made this?

Here’s the inside with a ZIPPER!

Here’s the inside of Debbie’s. Love her solid fabric with the print.

Amy took a picture of our little collection. Amy, Amy, Tula and Alison. Ha!

Diana’s Science Fair is glorious! The emerald green background is perfect.

Jennifer’s quilt, just quilted by Gina Allen. We loved her border.

Jennifer’s Cotton + Steel Mustangs quilt. It has been fun to watch this one progress.

The BEST back.

Jennifer B’s wonky log cabin. Wonky is hard; Jennifer did a great job with this quilt. She mixed some hand quilting with her own machine quilting.

Her great back!

This Serendipity Sampler also belongs to Jennifer B. It’s waiting to be quilted so she couldn’t bring it but I took this picture last week. It’s just beautiful.

Here’s my Hook quilt. Theresa DeWalt custom quilted it for me. I’m going to use Tula Pink’s True Colors to bind it.

We showed our Sew Mama Sew blocks from our on-going block of the month.

Ann’s. She changes her background color with each block.

Paula’s Tula. Excellent piecing P.

Martha Claire’s next block. Nicely done.

Joan’s block. I really like this one.

Here’s my sample quilt.

And here’s the improv block for August. I know several of you are following along with us. Share your pictures with me and I’ll share here.

Just one more picture. I have watched Maddie grow up; she is a couple of years younger than my son. She will be married in Winston-Salem over Labor Day weekend. Last month she asked me to cut a heart from her great-grandmother’s handkerchief and applique it to the lining of her wedding dress. Her request meant so much to me. I embroidered some little blue French knots…something old and something new. She was very happy with it. Best wishes to you and Thomas, sweet Maddie!