Dreaming About Chairs

After being off for a week, my first day back at the shop was fabulous! Designer and teacher Alethea Ballard was in the shop for a day of instruction on her Dream Chair Quilts. She is a delightful person and the students had a great time in her class. I had a blast watching each project unfold.


Since Alethea's home is in California, she wasn't able to bring all of her finished quilts, but she was able to show lots of examples on her computer. All of the students were able to complete most of their design in class. Here are their works in progress:


One of the great features in her pattern is that each project comes in two sizes, so you can make a big statement with a single chair, a small statement, or put together several small chairs into a group. I'm sure there are hundreds of other combinations, but I love it that the multiple sizes are there without having to use your copier to create a larger or smaller version.






After seeing all these great examples, I have started thinking about making one. I think it would be fun to make two chairs side by side. One is reality...in my case, there would be a dog toy and stray army men underneath, a blanket draped over the back, and probably a book laying in the seat. The other is fantasy...I'm going to have to think about that a bit. Would it be a rocker on a porch, a luxurious chaise lounge, or a chair and ottoman? It's so great to be freshly inspired.

Inside Outside

I have a dual personality when it comes to where I like to spend my time. When I'm home, I prefer to be inside...sewing, organizing, reading, cleaning...all those inside things to do. It is a rare day to find me in the yard doing something productive. Fortunately, my husband Duane, enjoys taking care of the outside of our home.

However, when I am away from home, all I want to be is outside. It's spring break for the kids and I'm taking most of the week off with them. They made a list of things they wanted to do this week and we're working through it. Here's what we've done so far:

Friday - We attended the University of Georgia's annual insect zoo. Not only can you see all sorts of insects and other critters, but can also experience bug cuisine. I was brave and tasted meal worms in a chocolate snack mix and crickets mixed in caramel popcorn. There was also pasta salad and brownies, but the bugs were a little too prominent in those dishes. If I were in the midst of a culture that ate that sort of thing, I'm sure I would have tried it, but not just for fun. I also pet a tarantula who was bald on part of his back where he had been pet so much. The kids enjoyed it just as much as I did, though none of them desired to pursue bugs as a career.

Saturday - We played tennis, or I should say, we attempted to hit a ball back and forth over a net. It was great fun, but tired muscles and a sunburn led to a wonderful afternoon nap for me.

Sunday - The only request from our teenager for the week was to go to Six Flags over Georgia. We thought about going with him but decided it was too expensive, and I just wasn't excited about going. Is it possible I've outgrown theme parks? I wasn't comfortable with him driving himself and it's too far to take him and then pick him up. The perfect solution emerged. Duane and I dropped him and a friend off when the park opened and proceeded to Sweetwater Creek State Park for a day of hiking. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful park. About a third of our hike was along the banks of this creek, and the rest was through the surrounding woods.



Monday - My mom and niece visited and brought lunch. We attempted to go pick strawberries but they aren't quite ready yet. Instead, we went to the playground for a while, then came home and played Scrabble while the kids did their own thing.

Tuesday - A lazy day at home with reading and relaxation.

Duane is home with us for the rest of the week. I think we have more hiking, a night camping in the backyard, and maybe a late night game of kick the can on the itinerary. We'll see what other adventures the week will bring.

Next week, I'll be back to more sewing and crafting. It's fun to take a break, but it's also fun to get back to the routine and the things I love to do.

First Quilt Progress

Erica's first quilt is coming along nicely. Since she finished all the blocks, we spent some time this weekend laying out the quilt.

One of her goals was to make a quilt that wasn't a specific color. I think she did a great job accomplishing that one. After she was happy with the overall layout, we did a bit of rearranging to add a special surprise to the design.

Once we were finished, we carefully stacked up and bagged each row.


She'll be sewing the rows for the next few weekends. There is a deadline associated with this quilt so she's decided to let someone else quilt it for her. Our goal is to get the top done before the end of April. We'll keep you posted!

Dream Chair Quilts by Alethea Ballard

It's fun trying to find new, up and coming, and veteran talent to bring to the quilt shop for workshops. Most of the time we stick with the southeast just to keep down travel expenses but sometimes we get lucky and go outside those parameters. This time, talent found us! Alethea Ballard is the author of this fabulous pattern, Dream Chair Quilts. Lucky for us, Alethea's sister-in-law is a quilter who lives here in town and helped make the connection. We'll be having a Dream Chair Quilt class here on Saturday, April 9 from 10am-4pm.

Alethea sent us two quilts to display in the shop. They are so much fun! I hadn't looked at the pattern in detail before the samples got here and I was thinking they were going to be a small little wall hanging. One of the quilts is from the cover from the pattern and it is 32 inches across.


The other is a crazy Halloween chair. It looks good from the front and the back. If you can, you should stop by the shop to see these. Her stitching and embellishments are wonderful.



There are a few seats left in her class so stop by and sign up if you'd like to make your own Dream Chair Quilt.

A New Quilter!

It is always exciting to me when someone new enters the wonderful world of quilting. I did not believe it would ever happen, but my daughter has caught the bug. She's working on her first quilt and loving it. When she told me she wanted to make a quilt, we broke out my collection of quilt magazines and started looking. She's a college student and didn't want to spend a lot of money. The solution...go scrappy. I just happen to have a few scraps here and there at home ;-)


We chose a pattern and she's taken it from there. She selected all the fabric and did all the initial cutting.


She's about a third of the way through making the blocks. This pattern is a good one for beginners because the cut size is a good bit larger than the finished block. I've been helping out by squaring up the blocks (there will be 208 in the finished quilt!) It's been fun for both of us to watch the quilt top slowly reveal itself.


I can't wait to see the finished quilt top.

I haven't been sewing much, but Robin has!

My sewing life, like the rest of my life, tends to have peaks and valleys. I seem to be in a valley right now, so both me and the sewing machine are taking a little rest. I do have a couple of small works in progress to show. Our Hot for Halvorsen club meets tomorrow morning at 10am and, as the facilitator, I thought I should be showing a little Nancy Halvorsen love to the girls. I started these two wall hangings today.


I'm thinking about quilting the March one in a fun gold metallic thread since I'm sure there has to be a pot of gold near this project. I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt this next one, though that big ol' egg screams for something fun to be done to it.


The main quilt I wanted to show you is this fabulous quilt made by Robin Cook. Robin teaches lots of classes at the shop including First Time Quiltmaking and Beginning Quilting II. She has introduced lots of ladies to the passion of quilting over the past couple of years. She's starting a new club with us in April, the Marti & Me club. All of the projects in the class are by Marti Michell. This quilt is the first one.


I love, love, love the bright colors in this quilt and I especially love that the each sashing is in a different color. Can you tell I like this quilt? The pattern it comes from shows a sample in batiks which is equally stunning. Here's a close up of one of the blocks.


I'm looking forward to all the quilts and techniques that will be introduced by this club. This club will meet on the second Thursday evening of each month from 6-8pm. Join us if you can!

More Fabric Covered Mousepads

Over in the FourKidZooDesigns Etsy store, fabric covered mouse pads are the best selling item. I thought it was time to add a few new ones. I made these this morning and will have them available in the shop before the end of the day. Enjoy!