Quilting in Williams

Alex and I made a rainy day trip up north and look what we found!  Williams is home to Grand Canyon Railway, Bearizona, and best of all, Quilts on Route 66
Easy to find in a turn of the last century building on the old Route 66 historic Railroad AVE of Williams, Quilts on Route 66 has tons of charm and some unique finds too:

This sample of Creative Girl Pattern from BelieveMagic stopped me in my tracks.

Yes, it really is raw edge applique, Customized with tiny sayings patch and script quilting too!

 

Here are handmade lampwork bead fobs. So great to find local arts represented:)

 

This sparkly Japanese floss was another  must-have find.

Quilts on Route 66 is a  great LQS for Americana and Route 66 fabrics -

Alex chose a prickly pear FQ, of course;)

 

An adorable shop in an adorable town, I can't wait to return:)

 



Local Themed Quilts

Here is our Saguaro Sunset hanging in a good company at show. And do you know what? It came home with some nice judges comments. Don't laugh, ok? But I thought judge comments were only for quilts with ribbons. This entering show stuff is so fun! I love a report card!!
OK, you must be laughing by now, very well. But the way I see it, if you've already gone to all the work of finishing the thing, and you really want to get better in the art, why not take a report card when you have the chance? I'm going to find more quilt contests:):):)

 Here is President Sue hanging in President's Challenge. Yes, our President Sue was super surprised:)

And here are more local themed quilt from this show:

The View Before They Jump by Trudy Cowan

Forest Fires are a big deal here. This is Trudy's Smokejumpers quilt. There are variegated logs quilted in the tiny border. The "smoke" is wool roving and the "fire" is machine stitching. Even in my bad phone pic you can see the depth Trudy crated by stitching half the trees before putting the backing on. Genius! Trudy says the background fabric is something hand dyed she found in an estate sale, and it has sat in stash for ages waiting for the perfect quilt! Don't you love happy stash stories?

Mogollon Rim Strata by Catherine Clark

You thought there would be lots of cactus quilts in this post? Wait, they are coming;)

But canyons and their resulting exposed rock layers are such a part of our state landscape, even school kids here can name the strata. Catherine is so creative; stash comes in strata too, right? BTW, There was a MQG retreat on the Rim last year. I wonder if Catherine's quilt started there?

 

Blooming Desert by Barbara Nicholson

You know Prickly Pear is my favorite:) Do you have a favorite cactus? Barbara's is extra cheery, fun batiks, perfect orange+green. Prickly pears bloom yellow and pink too, but I've found these orange blossoming ones have the best pears for making jelly.

 

Fork & Spoon by Liz Stark

How fun for a southwest kitchen! Reverse Applique? More "strata," this time desert novelty prints.

Yes, kitchens need quilts too, right?

 

saguaro spine stitches - sew cute!



Okay this next one is unusual. It is a group strip quilt in progress. I hope you can see all the fun details in this collage. There is a studio with a big window on a flower garden with quail. There's a hogan with quilts on a clothesline. And there is Sue and Sam flying a kite by delectable mountains. I've posted the attribute card at the end. I understand this will be next year's raffle quilt for guild. For sure, I'm saving for these tickets! Can you imagine when this all quilted!?!

 

 

Happy Quilty Trails



President Sue

Our chapter president is Susie.
This is President's Challenge: 

use the Moda Lipstick and thimble charm.

So......

Yes- it's President Sue :)
These '30's greens cacti were just asking for
a Sunbonnet Sue friend.

Plus, you can see how easy it is to customize

Random Cactus PDF improve pattern.

I'd like to see one with orphan blocks. Or a panel! Hmmm...

Susie won't see this until our show next month.

She's been a great President, and the reason I finally joined Guild.

I hope she will be pleasantly surprised.

 

President Susie really does wear pearls:)





Saguaro Ornaments and Bunting

Christmas lights are kindofa big deal here in the Wild West. I guess it's because...no snow! There's no excuse for not getting out there and doing the work of putting up lights. So we put lights on everything. Yes, even the cactus get lights and Santa Hats. I'll be sure to get you some good pics next month.

This bunting project was so quick. Stitched up in 2 hours! That included hunting for cookie cutters and tiny Christmas lights in the back of the closet. Easy beginner quilting project.

 

You know I love quilting with cookie cutters. This time I'm using Saguaro cookie cutter for a mini-bunting pattern. Sandwich some batting and fabric scraps in Christmas colors. Double batting will give more body to your tiny cookie cutter shapes and help support the lights.

Draw around your cookie cutter. This will be your stitching line. Next, stitch the outline with your darning foot. [Or go ahead and use a regular foot. Smaller stitches - about 3.5- will help you turn the tiny curves of cookie cutter shape.]

Then stich some straight lines right across your cactus shape. Change back to regular foot and use a long stitch. Overstitch your outline - that's right - we are coloring outside the lines! When you finish a line, just flip your cactus sandwich, turn around and stitch in the other direction, just like chain piecing, no need to trim threads.

Here is the time saving part: Get your pinking shears and cut out your cactus. See - all the threads are instantly trimmed. Now you have super Cactus Ornaments you can hang with regular ornament hangers or....

Tack Cacti onto jute for a quick and quilty Southwestern Holiday Bunting!
To determine how long your twine needs to be:  add 3" to the width of  each cactus, then add 20" for ties.


Lastly, remember to add Christmas lights to your bunting. [I was lucky to find battery powered mini light string in the back of the closet.] Here is Becka with lighted Saguaro Bunting at MQG Swap.

Quilt my Chairs

Pinterest convinced me I could do this. Time to refinish ye 'ol dinning room chairs.

Yes, this is my dining room chair. I know, yikes, right?

"Chair, meet Drill."

This soft sanding attachment was less than a $1 at the hardware store.

[Why aren't quilty tools always that cheap? Just sayin'.]

You could use sandpaper instead. But, hey, if you have a drill...

 

You'll also need:

screwdriver (ask your chair what kind)

mallet (optional)

old towel

old quilt :)

staple gun

3 spraypaints: primer, dark blue, black

 



Looks better already right? Here's how it goes:

• take seat off chair w/ screwdriver.
• sand chair (but don't sand cane back - I learned)
• dust with old dishtowel
• spray with primer
• spray with blue spraypaint
• spray with black spraypaint

It's VERY dry here, so I only waited 15 minutes between spray coats.

You may want to let them dry longer. 

• Wrap quilt remnant right over old seat cover (pretend you're wrapping a present) and staple in place.

• Fit chair onto seat. Mallet is handy for making alignments.
• Screw chair to seat. [I found screws went right through old quilt, no need to pre-drill holes.]

 

Seat is covered with more of the old Northern Star remnant.

I takes two coats of spraypaint to cover primer. Blue undercoat gives a nice glow and keeps new black paint from being too stark with old quilt, don't you think?

 

But wait there's more -

I painted blue roses on top of chair back.

{Did I ever tell you how I learned to paint? Didn't think I would survive Alex's first day of kindergarten, so I invited all the Mom's on the street for a Donna Dewberry painting party to keep me busy until school was out. Hired a craft teacher for the party and we all learned to paint.}

 

 



Christmas Surprise!

Everyone says Christmas is about giving. Most of us would agree, but it also feels good to get something as well ;) As this holiday is coming, we give and receive.
From our friend, Diane (@ddrquilter), we received beautiful, hand-crafted presents, plus the gift of an unexpected surprise in the mail.

 Isn't the cactus mug rug cute? It looks perfect. Hand quilted too!
It says, "Life can be prickly, friends make it sweet."

  

 Diane has neat craftsmanship skills! Pretty rainbow colors too:)

I got the fancy pillowcase! How did she know blue was my favorite color?

And there's also a prickly pear coffee mug for Mom. She says every morning, "Coffee tastes better with prickly pears on my mug."
(Mom and Diane are huge coffee fanatics. You should see all their coffee pins.)

Thank you for all the super sweet presents Diane, and the wonderful surprise too! We absolutely adore them!! Where did you get the time to make them?

 

Merry Christmas!

And thank you too, our first 100 RHQ Followers for your kind gift of taking time to read our posts.  We are sew glad you are here! Wishing each of you all the very best in the New Year.