Row by Row

I haven't been getting as much of my own sewing done as I would like, because I am getting the shop ready for the 2015 edition of the Row by Row Experience.  

Each visitor to the shop between June 21 and Sept. 8 will receive the pattern for my row:

The row pattern is FREE, but there are all sorts of other row by row items to tempt the shoppers.  There are collectible fabric license plates!

There are fabric kits for people who would like to make a row just like mine!

There are pins!

There is even an official mascot!  Bobbin the Robbin!

Each shop will award a grand prize of 25 fat quarters to the first person to return with a FINISHED quilt of at least eight rows.  My prize is a gorgeous batik bundle from Anthology Fabrics.

Let's have some fun! 

Show and Tell

I know that a lot of you can identify with this.  Too many projects at one time means SLOW progress on each one of them.  Then, magically, several things are completed in quick succession.  Hooray!!!

The first thing that I have to show off is the quilt I designed for our annual shop hop in February.  It had to remain a secret until Feb. 4, the day the hop started.  Now it can be shown!  The name of the pattern is "Star Play" and it is available at Cotton Fields Quilt Shop.

I had a great time making this large wall quilt.  It's my version of the quilt featured on the cover of Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shaw.  The majority of the fabrics used were French prints that I had been hoarding.

Close up:  I machine quilted with a walking foot and variegated thread. Straight lines, 1/2 inch apart.  It took a WHILE.

The paint ship challenge quilt is also finished.  It's 12 inches wide and 63 inches long.  It's also machine quilted with walking foot and variegated thread.  The 12 inch wide quilts from this challenge will be on display together at the Crystal Coast Quilter's Guild show in Morehead City, NC in May of this year.  They will appear at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Virginia next February.

The title of the quilt is "Inner Light".  Here is a close up of the quilting and a little bit of bead work I've added to the center.

What else?  I've also made a small quilt top from a pattern called "Plume" in the book Fat Quarter Style.

AND

I've finished knitting a second pair of socks and started a third.

Where's Waldo?

OK, maybe "Where's Lori?" would be more like it.

I've been hard at work on the new store blog (separating business from pleasure).  I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking, so I hope you will give it a peek.  The link is on the right.

Anyway, I HAVE been sewing, on a wide variety of things.
First, for a class sample, this simple table runner:

Then, another sample, this one for a beginning paper piecing class.

Both of those projects are very simple and straight-forward, so you might suspect that there has been more going on.  There has!  Here is the instigator of some TROUBLE:

Katherine McNeese LOOKS innocent enough, finishing the binding on one of her "Improv Log Cabin" quilts.  She taught the class at the shop for me last weekend and I couldn't resist joining the fun.

I had NO business doing this.  Have I ever mentioned how many unfinished projects I have?  I am making progress, now that I have learned to machine quilt my own small pieces.  I love to hand quilt, but I can't do it fast enough to ever catch up with everything.

Speaking of quilting, I have begun the quilting on the graffiti quilt that is due in January and may be on exhibit at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in February. I am much happier with "sort of straight lines" than I was the other day when attempting "perfectly straight lines".

(Those are my "Machingers", quilting gloves that really do make a difference.)