Dragon Con 2018

Quilt Show Filler

These are just a handful of the 370+ quilts on display this weekend. Was an amazing show to walk through! 

Heartsick

No real post today. My favorite uncle suddenly passed away on Friday. We're all in shock. I just can't word right now and photos of glittery holiday decor just doesn't feel right at the moment.

Much Glitter; Little Sewing

I'm trying to get this post up at a reasonable time, so I'm typing it up ahead of time. If you're reading this on Sunday afternoon I"m back at the Festival shop working on another Christmas tree. It's been a fairly busy week. Our team is now about a third of the way through the needed items at this point.

We're all about to start traveling though, so it's good that we got this great head start. Productivity is about to tank for a month or so. Here's the sneaky peak collage of non descriptive close ups.

In case you're wondering why I'm not sharing the full photos, we don't want our designs copied until after our local Festival of Trees is over. So I'm only sharing glimpses. I plan on sharing some of my favorites once everything's been purchased and delivered.

I've been asked before how long it takes to build one of our trees. Well it depends on the tree and the type of elements we've chosen. As examples, here are some trees from last year:

This whimsical 2.5 foot tree took about 3 hours or so. That includes adding extra lights to the tree (there are rarely enough on pre-lit trees) and wiring all the ornaments in place. This tree didn't use much in the way of floral picks or stems though. Only the top really has them.

My Pinwheel tree (that I made for myself) on the other hand contains quite a bit of floral elements, so that can add another hour or two, if you're creating your own units like I do. (As an aside, both of these 2.5 foot trees were my own design. I wanted to show an example of how one designer can work comfortably with different themes and structure too.)

Building units like this not only means you have to figure out how you want it to look, but you have to wire all the pieces together and wrap them in floral tape.

If you're working alone, this process gets time consuming. And the bigger the tree, the more elements you need. Even in a group with everyone pitching in it takes time.

One of the trees we just finished this year is 4.5 feet tall and took over 5 hours to decorate because we used 5 different floral elements. And there were four of us working together that evening. A similar tree to the one I just described could look like this:

And then the 7.5 foot trees take 5-6 people and take an entire late morning to early evening to build. 

That one wasn't too bad, but it was light on the florals.  I will say that any floral heavy tree design for a 7.5 foot tree has their floral units made well ahead of when we come together to decorate, sometimes with wine and cookies. Otherwise we'd never get home to sleep! It's taken us 8+ hours to do a floral heavy 7.5 tree before. But the results are stunning!

That's all for this week. I hope you enjoyed this look at some of last year's trees. We're not just decorating Christmas trees. We're making works of art (to a variety of tastes) and the proceeds benefit children in our community. We're also having an absolute blast doing it too!

More of the Same and A Bit of the Old

More and more designs for Festival are being cranked out. These 6 teasers aren't even all that were made in the last week!

I also finished up the fox quilt and Bejeweled, the hexagonal table topper.

AND I went to Miniature club on Thursday! We made tiny clutch purses.

Time for me to head back to sewing... after I find some dinner. Tomorrow's another long day capped off with more Christmas!

I Didn't Forget!

It's just been a busy week. There've been some pretty flowers to brighten an early Saturday.

Lots of glitter and glitz.

And a bit of quilting too.

I need to go try and catch up on some laundry now that most of the glitter is off me, and then get back to quilting. See you next weekend!

It's That Time of Year Again

We've started unpacking supplies and designing the trees, wreathes, and home decor items for auction. It's hot, time-consuming, sweaty, and tiring, but it's all to help children and families in need.

We got seven 7.5 foot trees designed and their supplies boxed up today. Starting the 4.5 foot ones tomorrow! See you next weekend!

Happy 6th Birthday to Pixel Pea!

Birds, Bejeweled, A Bunny, and Various Beans

I finally finished up the binding on the birds Friday evening. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

The quilting on the Bejeweled topper is almost finished. As of this morning, only 4 more diamond blocks need quilted. However I was apparently really lazy and neglected to get photos. Let's blame sleep deprivation due to sinus cavity rebellion.

Ellie Bean does make it difficult to work when she wants to. Apparently quilting WIPs are the BEST place to have a bath.

No, not Victor. He hates the camera with a grumpy passion. This bunny, that I dug out and started piecing last November during Festival season and forgot to blog about or finish it. I found the border blocks and the green-bordered panel under my sewing table and decided to piece it before I lost important bits. The camera angle is kinda funky, but the top is roughly 37 inches square. 

And what would a summer holiday be without baked beans? (No Ellie Beans were harmed in the baking of these beans, but she was irritated about me not sharing the bacon.)

That's all for this week. I've got laundry taunting me in the other room and quilts to finish. And an Ellie Bean to fight for my sewing chair. See you next weekend!

For the Birds

I couldn't really quilt anything this past week. The diamond tabletopper requires special needles that work for metallic thread and the fox baby quilt was waiting on me to purchase some new equipment. So I started a new project to keep me busy in the meantime.

I didn't really take many photos as I went, but this is where it's at now. The pattern can be found in Table Please: Part Two from Art to Heart by Nancy Halvorsen.

A fun combination of needle turn applique and piecing. And it's been kitted up for 3 or 4 years at this point. I did switch out one of the original batiks in favor of the bright yellow one for the top center bird. It's roughly 26 inches square and was designed as a tabletopper, but I've added hanging loops to make it more versatile.

If you poke the photo, you can see some of the quilting details clearer. Usually I make the binding before I quilt a piece, but it's taken me all week to decide how I want the binding to look. All that's left is to make a label, make and attach the binding, and then do the hand finishing. Not bad for a week's work!

Once the binding's attached, I'll get the diamond tabletopper quilted. The necessary needles came in last Tuesday.

Then it will be time to play with my new toys and start the fox quilt. I picked up a set of Westalee rulers yesterday. For anyone unfamiliar with the product, it's basically Spirograph for quilting. I'm looking forward to upping my quilting game on the smaller pieces I decide to do myself at home.

I'll be dropping the sea turtle Dresden top and back off with the long armer on the 14th. She's got several quilts in line that need to be done for the county fair, so she won't get to mine until after.

That's all for now. I'll leave you with some cuteness while I get to making some quilt binding. Tare care and stay cool!