Visiting the Friendship Square Quilt Guild, a finish and a cool new product!

 

This week’s post is a mix of activities from a guild visit, to a quilt finish and a game changing new product discovery! Let’s start with a visit to La Habra, CA in far northwestern Orange County to spend time with the Friendship Square Quilt Guild. It’s a beautiful city filled with gorgeous flowers and trees. I spent a bit of time before my lecture at Judy’s home and look at those nasturtiums:

What a riot of color and beauty!

We met for dinner at this iconic restaurant. I didn’t know of it, but hey, it’s been around since 1923 so they must be doing something right! The food was fabulous.

I received a great reception to my “Tippy Top Tips” lecture! Some of the audience traveled from another guild to attend and it was a good sized crowd:

I taught “Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt!” to 16 the following day in a spacious room (it’s always nice to have plenty of room). Here we are all gathered around my “Everything Done Wrong” quilt:

You learn a lot more from seeing it done incorrectly than done perfectly!

Oh I love my job! I meet the most wonderful people. Quilters really are The Best! I stayed the night at the guild President’s beautiful home and look what greeted me:

Sweet Peas! Oh they were so beautiful! And there was a quilt on the bed with coordinating colors. I felt like a queen. Terrible photo, but my hostess Tina and me:

She wants you to know she looks much better IRL!

And Cathy was my shepherd and was such a delight! We discovered we had much in common and it felt like we already knew each other. I was a little high maintenance for a bit and Cathy just rolled with it. She is a gift to the guild.

I am so grateful for all the people in guilds who work hard to bring us teachers in. You all deserve a crown!

I hit the ground running when I got back and went right to work on a baby quilt for my………grandDAUGHTER! She has yet to arrive, but will hopefully make her debut before my next post. I don’t know anything about girl babies, so I am going to learn and love my new role.

Even though her parents really don’t need anything and they are in a tiny space, pssssssssssh, Gramma HAS to make a quilt, right?

I went shopping at CaliQuilts with my friend Marti. Marti is a PRO with color and I was grateful to have her input. After putting maybe 20 bolts into the cart, we settled on this combo:

Marti admonished me that I really should pre-wash this bunch. I whined, but complied, and of course she was right. The color catchers were vibrant with color!

I chose to make a Trip Around the World for my new granddaughter. I really did not realize it until afterwards, but I made another Trip Around the World for my son, about 36 years ago. I unearthed it:

It is tattered, worn, stained, thread bare and just soooo precious! The backing and batting are long gone. It is my hope that the quilt I made my Granddaughter will be loved to death.

I was so excited that as soon as my fabric was prepped, I got right to cutting squares. I used this almost forgotten tool, the Quilt Stick, and oh my, what a difference!! It is a board, with a ripply underside and that thing is NOT going to move in an earthquake.

I made the most accurate cuts I have ever made; it holds way better than the grippiest of traditional rulers. I have the set, with I think 8 widths. Why did this wonderful tool get pushed to the back of the cabinet??? They absolutely rock.

But wait – I didn’t need squares, I needed strips! What was I thinking? Decision point here: I could have taken the squares and tediously sewed every one of those dog gone things together one-by-one, or, take my loss and create and sew strips together like I should have in the first place.

I took my loss and cut more strips and sewed them together. Duh.

I did need a cheat sheet:

And isn’t this just the cutest selvage ever??

Another tool that I just love is my LAURASTAR Ironing System. I did a short 2 min video which I posted on FB in which I describe one of the reasons I love this system.

It just makes any pressing or ironing soooo much easier and faster without the damage and distortion that traditional steaming can cause.

And while checking out at CaliQuilts, I discovered this newer product, 505 in GLUE STICK form. OMG this absolutely rocks!! I have used 505 spray baste for many years, but there is always the problem of having to protect from overspray and the issue of the toxicity of the fumes. The 505 glue stick solves all those problems!

This was my first try at basting with this and I loooooved the result. I started out by putting a whole lot of product down on my backing. This is my quilt backing on my design wall; the blue lines are the 505 stick:

I kinda thought that might have been too much product and it did get a little gunky when I put a line down. What would happen if I just put dots down?

Ah, much better, easier, faster, less product. I put the dots about the same distance as I would have put pins.

A few observations:

• This is a 45” x 45” quilt. I would guess that one stick would do maybe 3 of this sized quilt or one queen sized.
• It was super easy to reposition, way easier than the spray.
• If you dot it on, it goes on lickety split fast.
• I was surprised at how well it held, given that it was not an all-over grip like the spray would have been.
• I had no puckers or moving in between the dots.
• I didn’t have any of the issues with the stick that the spray has – having to protect surrounding surfaces, having to do it with good ventilation, having the spray clog.
• No, it did not gum up my needle.

I am excited to try it on wool batting soon. Wool is not as grippy as cotton; will it still hold as well on wool? Stay tuned.

Soooo, tada!

The backing required some piecing, but I love how it turned out:

Because it was a busy surface, it was easy to miss quilting a spot:

The best way to handle this is to quilt an “Amoeba” (remember that from high school science?):

That did it and it’s not intrusive like it might have been had I come off an existing line in a “v”.

What a week of discoveries, accomplishments, travel and camaraderie. I love quilters and quilting!

I’ll be linking up with:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Finished or Not Friday