A Grand and Productive Day

What a great day we had yesterday at Terry's. Three tables, 7 sewing machines, two ironing boards, 8 quilters - we were B-U-S-Y!

We had some fantastic show and tell quilts to share. You can have a look, too. They are wonderful!

 Jan brought her finished Lucy Boston English paper-pieced quilt to show us. You may remember our Canter's Cave retreat last April where she was finishing up the blocks. Well, this is her glorious finish! What a labor of love and dedication. Click here to go back to Canter's Cave to see close-up views of the individual blocks.

Jan wasn't finished with EPP, either! She had this surprise for us to see - It has the hexies in the center, and broderie-perse border. A thing of beauty, to be sure.

Since Jan has become quite the expert on EPP, she gave a demonstration on the method at a guild meeting a month or so ago. She wanted the quilters to understand that you don't have to make massive quilts with your hexagons; smaller projects are possible, as well.

Other quilters had beauties to share, as well, so let's see what Cherie has been doing.

Both of these quilt tops are recent projects from Cherie. The chevron quilt is made from layer-cake sized squares, which makes for a fast completion. The 4-patches on black is Cherie's first attempt at putting blocks on point. She conceded that it's not as difficult as she'd always imagined. ;)

From Mary, we have this beauty.

The quilting on it is amazing, so I'm showing you the back, too. Mary said the pattern was a free one from Moda that came out with one of their lines of fabrics. She used dyed muslin on the backing, and in reality, the blue is much darker. I was fighting some serious sunshine coming in the big window, so my colors are affected.

While most of us worked at our sewing machines, Jan was binding. By the end of the day, her binding was finished, and this is her newest finish. Those are covered bridge panels.

 Our hostess, Terry, stitched and stitched all day long, and was able to show us this finished quilt top. She has decided not to use a border, so she's ready to take it to the quilting machine.

I just had to get a picture of this table mat that Sharon O. is making. Her handwork is exquisite. Look at how delicate this is. The tiny flowers, and the stitches, oh my, what a gorgeous addition to her decor!

What did I do? Well, I have just one more FWQ block to make to meet my goal of 25! I was ultra-productive; I made 7 blocks at Terry's and made 3 more here at home last night. That means I've got just one left. Pictures of all of these will be the subject of tomorrow's post.

We had a wonderful day, and I got to catch up with some quilters I'd not seen in quite a long time. What a great group to spend a day with and to boost one's creative juices. Love it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jan's Lucy Boston Blocks

Have you met Lucy Boston? She is new to me in the last month or so, and since first meeting her, I realize that I have seen her everywhere, I just hadn't been paying attention.

Lucy was a British quilter who used English paper piecing to create the beautiful pattern known as Patchwork of the Crosses. She must have been prolific, from the bit of reading I have done on her, as she was still quilting and publishing books well into her golden years. Here is a link to a pretty blog that shows some Lucy Boston applique. Click on this Wikipedia link to learn about her life.

The reason for all this historical introduction is that I have a new quilting friend, Jan, who is making a Lucy Boston quilt. She has several blocks completed, and a few more pinned into place for appliqueing down. Here is a montage of Jan's blocks. What strikes me is that there is not only a design formed with the color placement of each piece, but also careful placement of the template onto the fabric yields even more intricate designs in the patterns of flowers, stripes, flourishes and swirls.

I feel fairly certain that Jan had more completed than this, but heaven only knows what I've done with the pictures - if in fact I even took them all! Regardless, you can see how pretty these turned out, and how striking the finished quilt will be.

I have just a few more things from the Canter's Cave retreat to share, so bear with me for one or two more posts, then we will put that puppy to rest!

Happy Quilting, Friends!