Sticks and Stones Show and Tell

On Saturday it was exciting to see all the sampler projects that people brought to show each other.  Last year's Sampler blocks used a colorway that included grays, taupes, browns and charcoal, as well as light colored neutrals.

 Karen used a lovely feather design fabric for the sashing, and sewed stars for between the blocks, and smaller blocks to use around the edge in the setting triangles for a beautiful allover look.

 I loved the cobblestone like borders and setting triangles on this one.

 It will be interesting to see what gets quilted in those alternate squares..

 This sampler from the batiks colorway from a couple of years ago had a stained glass look to it.

 Verna also brought her 30 block king size top using the topsy turvy setting,

 I was sorry to see it get folded up,

 This was the first totally finished project that we saw.  Dianne used a light colored border, and it was all-0ver quilted with Baptist fans,

 Another finished one!  Very impressive!

 Beautiful quilting, and done on a home sewing machine!

 This was the third totally finished quilt, and again, quilted on a home sewing machine,

 You need to see some closeups of the beautiful motifs in the setting triangles and outer borders,

 Sheila made her quilt pretty zingy with her fabric choice for the sashing and inner border-- that diagonal stripe is great,

 what a difference you can make just by the addition of a narrow little strip of fabric:

 Another gorgeous quilt that uses a light colored border.  (I might have to re-think my plan for using a dark border....)

 I love what she did with the arrangement of the sub-unit s in that square on the lower right...

 It was refreshing to see this black white and lime green quilt!  Love everything about it!

 She also had her sticks and stones quilt, using a two-sided sashing

 I like the way the blocks seem to float on the light background:

Thank you again to all of you who brought your projects.  I was inspired.

Yoko Saito

Anybody who is ever seen a Yoko Saito quilt or handbag has never forgotten it. This Japanese quilter has produced an extraordinary number of breathtaking projects.  She has also been prolific in writing books and teaching workshops around the world. She is one of the main quilters working in neutral color ways.

I have a few of her books and they are just so relaxing to look through because of the beauty of her work.

One thing about Japanese quilters is that they love to make handbags.

The book on the left has 10p handbag patterns in it as well as the 78 pieced blocks.

These ones are near the top of my wish list to make,

And from the other book, which has patterns for 19 handbags!!  I hope to someday make this one, 

And this one..

But today, I am embarking on this one...

Isn't it a great shape?

However, I have been dying to use this Catnap fabric from Andover,

I've discovered that it goes really well with some of the Mirabelle fabrics from Fig Tree fabrics,

The pattern is pretty straightforward, and so I begin....

Some pretty simple appliqué of the front panel

I like to use the short little pins.

I noticed that the brown fabric shadowed through the lighter cat fabric, so I trimmed it away after I had finished the sewing,

I will continue my big quilt, but it's fun to have a smaller project on the go too.  

Plus, it is really fun to make handbags!

Saturday's Block, Many Roads, #15, plus #12

Saturday was the pick up day for Block # 15 of our Saturday surprise Sampler Program, It is called Many Roads:

I did in fact sew it, but I forgot to take a photo of it before I took it to the store.  
Speaking of forgetting,
I also forgot to post this on Feb 15th, it was block 12 for the Sticks and Stones Sampler Blocks:

Block 11, Star in the Window

Today's block!

Block 10, nancy Cabot 1938

This is blocked 10 of the Saturday surprise sampler.

It sort of echoes the  design of Block six, the shaded pinwheel

I think it's quite an interesting block and it would be fun to Play around with it a bit more…

Sticks and Stones, Block three, Irish chain

 

this is a pretty block, and it's got a nice mix of straight and diagonal sewing lines.  

If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out the previous post which shows some finished quilts from last years' blocks, the black white and bright ones--- there are some beautiful quilts!