Some Designing Fun in EQ8

Just wanted to share some designing fun I've been having in my EQ8 program.  Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Ho, Ho, Ho,
Suzy

Sewing Time

Yay!  I finally got in some sewing/quilting among all the chaos here.  I've finished sewing the center of the Mystery Quilt that I designed for my Guild.  Unfortunately, I can't show you that here (yet).  *grin*

But I can show you what I just finished quilting and binding.  I made this cute little quilt (15" square) for our Guild's Small Quilt Raffle that will be held at our Quilt Show in late February. 

Feels good to finally get some quality time with my machine!

Suzy

Hurricane Woes

I must apologize for neglecting my blog for so long.  I have had some damage from Hurricane Irma and have been working behind the scenes with insurance companies, claims adjusters, repair peeps, etc.  It has been an ongoing cycle.  Sometimes I feel I'm running around in circles, and then other times I feel like a manatee out of water.  But I refuse to complain too much because there are so many others who fared much, much worse than I did.

To top it all off, I'm still trying to keep up with my Guild's Mystery Quilt/Clue of the Month that I committed to spearheading.  Clue 5 goes live next week, and I've just finished putting my center together, not including borders.  I really needed to get it to that point so that I knew for sure all my Clue instructions were correct.  Even though I had a friend do the same, I wanted to be certain first-hand.  I can breathe much easier now knowing that all is well and everything is as it should be.  Now to assemble the borders and get the entire top complete before my house is torn apart and repairs begin and I won't be able to sew for who knows how long.

No, don't worry -- my sewing room is intact.  However, I had water damage in my master bedroom, my office, as well as a front bedroom and bathroom.  Lots of drywall work, carpet removal, flooring replacement, painting and a new roof will make for a new "hurricane," with boxing up ALL rooms, and furniture being moved and re-moved hither and yon.

To top it all off, I had previous plans to attend the Houston Quilt Festival with several friends, so I won't be home for a week from 10/30-11/6.  So things have been on hold for a bit until I return and the upheaval can commence.  Meanwhile, I have had my bedroom dresser, nightstand and jewelry chest in the living room, and my office stuff has taken over the dining room since the storm hit in early September.  But the current chaos is nothing compared to what's to come.  LOL.

At least I can kinda laugh about it now.  At the time, I was a wreck.  Thank heavens for insurance.

Thanks for understanding,
Suzy

And The Winner Is . . .

The giveaway winner of the magazine is...

#6 - Ady!

Yay, Ady!

If you could contact me via my email, I'll get it right off to you!

Thanks everyone, for reading my blog and for entering!

Happy Quilting!
Suzy

Giveaway! Giveaway! Giveaway!

As previously mentioned, I am giving away the extra copy of McCall's Quilting Magazine - Nov/Dec 2017 issue that they sent me featuring my quilt.

If you would like an opportunity to win, just leave me a comment below.  I would also be tickled if you hit the "Follow" button for my blog, located on the right sidebar.  It's not mandatory to win or anything, just hoping to reach that elusive 100 Followers mark.  I'm so close...  :o)

I will draw a name around 7pm EST tomorrow evening (Sunday), and the giveaway is open to all my blog readers, not just the US.  Be sure to check back around then, because if you're the winner, I will need a way to contact you to mail you the magazine.

Good luck and thanks for reading my blog!

Suzy

Amanda Jean Nyberg - aka Crazy Mom Quilts

Amanda Jean Nyberg (aka Crazy Mom Quilts), gave a lecture and trunk show at our Guild on Wednesday.  Not only is she talented, she is so very sweet, pleasant and friendly.  I was quite happy to finally meet her after following her blog pretty much since I started my own in 2008.  You all know how much I love me my scrappy quilts!  :o)

I was also lucky enough to take her full-day class on Thursday.  We were able to work on whichever quilt we chose from her most recent book "No Scrap Left Behind."  There are so many that I want to make, it was difficult to choose.  But rather than going through all my scraps just to schlep them to class and back again, I saw my solid stack staring at me, and ran with it.  I'm sure there will be more quilts made from her book in the future -- especially the string rail fence one called "Scrap Happy Rails."  That one really tugs at my heartstrings.

"Scrap Happy Rails" Quilt

I'm working on the quilt "Ring Me," but will likely rework it and make it my own.  I also doubt it will be as large as the one in her book, as I have so many quilts already in the works that need completing. *grin*

"Ring Me" Quilt

In between socializing and lunch, I was able to finish 5 blocks in class before my back really started to bother me.  The chairs where the class was held (a church) certainly weren't made for sewing -- especially for 7 hours.

I feel I really got to know quite a bit about her, as a few of us went to dinner together both Wednesday and Thursday evening.  It was a ton of fun.

Here's to making new quilty friends,

Suzy

The Excitement Continues...!!!

Have you ever Googled your name?  Well, I don't know what possessed me to do so this morning, but guess what I found?!?!

Keepsake Quilting has made my quilt design, "The Night Before Christmas," into a pattern for sale on their website!

 The Night Before Christmas - Downloadable Pattern

My life is unreal right now,
Suzy

"The Night Before Christmas"

I have some more exciting news that I can now share.  A quilt I designed is featured in the November/December 2017 issue of McCall's Quilting Magazine.  It officially hits newsstands on September 26, but mailed subscriptions are already arriving in mailboxes.  I can hardly contain myself!!!

I called the quilt "Christmas Sparkle," but they named it "The Night Before Christmas" in the magazine.

I will have a giveaway here on my blog sometime next week and the winner will receive a copy of the magazine.  Stay tuned!

Visions of sugarplums are dancing in my head,
Suzy

Our Guild's Opportunity Quilt

I know I've been MIA for a bit, but I've been working on a lot of things behind the scenes that I haven't been able to share with you all.  Finally, I can share one thing; and hopefully there will be more soon.  

The Opportunity Quilt for my Guild, Seaside Piecemakers, is finally complete and was up for display at our Guild meeting today.  I did all the piecing and assembly, another member, Priscilla, did the applique, and another member and close friend, Laurel, did the quilting.  I'm so proud of the finished product.  We used a Linda Hahn design from her book "Rock That Quilt Block - Hourglass" (with her permission -- she is also a member of our Guild), but I was asked to change up the border by the Quilt Committee, as they wanted to go in a bit different route.  So I played around in my trusty EQ7 program for awhile, and this is the result.  I sure hope we sell lots of raffle tickets.  Our charity this year is Deveraux.

Tickled purple,
Suzy

More Finished Charity Quilts

There are now three more charity quilts to add to the finished list.  I pieced them and my quilter friend finished them up and brought them to our recent Board Meeting to give to Community Service for distribution.

Sock Monkeys

Happy and Bright Charms

Batik Logs

Finished is good,
Suzy

Kids Quilt Camp 2017

I had a fun, yet exhausting, time this past week volunteering at Kids Quilt Camp.  One week every June we have approximately 40 students descend upon us eager to get their hands on sewing machines and make their very own quilt.  We split them into groups based on sewing experience -- beginners (1st year), intermediate (2nd year), advanced (3rd year) and T-Shirt Quilts (3rd year or better).  At noon on Friday, we hold a "show and tell" with parents present, and each child shows off their masterpiece, which are amazingly all completed (including labels).  Some are tied, and others actually quilted using a serpentine stitch either diagonally or across some rows, as time allows.

Beginners are one-on-one with a quilt volunteer, while later year students are 2-1 or even 3-1 and we make our rounds to make sure everyone is comfortable with what they are doing in the process.  I was with the intermediate kids this year.

I have quite a lot of pictures that were taken throughout the course of the week and you can see by the happy, yet concentrated, faces, that the volunteers get just as much out of the week as the kids do.  I must really be showing my age now, because by the time I got home each day, I was beat! Don't know how I held a full time job before I retired 9 years ago.  LOL!

Each one, teach one,
Suzy