Quilting In The Robyn's Nest: June 2016

Friday, June 24, 2016

Crumbs, Improv, & A RING!!!!

Preparations for family visits keep me busy. In between power cleans... I sneak in sewing as often as I can.

I have continued making crumbs.
I love how utterly mindless it is once I choose my color and grab scraps from the jar.
I love the ability to just sew haphazardly & improvise at whim.

building blue crumbs

growing to 6 inches

After 2 weeks, my crumb collection is starting to look quite "palatable"!

Eventually, I hope to have enough crumbs for a full palette

I also spent time improvising some modern scrap blocks to create some samples for a workshop.

In preparation for our modern quilt guild meeting

I designed a few sample blocks.

This week we had our monthly modern quilt guild meeting and had a 30 minute workshop found within the pages of the book "Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making" by Lucky Spool.

We each brought bags of fabric scraps from 🏡 home!

We tossed them on the table. Mixed the mound, and I filled paper sacks with scraps and redistributed to participants.

This design workshop of improvisational patchwork as described in the book by Denyse Schmidt, allowed Tricia to lead us in a team building- block building thirty minute sew-for-all.

Fabric scraps tucked in a sac... pulled unseen & unexpected... and sewn together just like that.

For some of us it was relaxing and fun.

But for some it was stressful not to choose- mix & match, exact cut, press seams, and the list goes on & on...

BUT.... THIRTY MINUTES LATER... All who remained for the workshop part of meeting were productive and we had an improvised 30 minute frenzy of fun.

30 minutes to sew...

The Tyler Modern Quilt Guild

BUT- The biggest news of the day...

of the week...

of the YEAR...

My son got ENGAGED!

My son asked Caitlin Bennet to spend the rest of her life with him and she said YES!

Congrats Caitlin & Mason!

Friday, June 17, 2016

Birthdays, Broadway, Crumbs, & Pieces

Family reunion gathering in NYC last week allowed lots of laughter, eating, Broadway, celebrations of 3 birthdays, and the practice of CROWDING survival skills!

Book of Mormon!

Something Rotten!

My husband was honored with a very special distinguished alumni award from Wagner College and it allowed for some very special family time.
We visited with old friends, family, and I remembered I hated crowding and why I was eager to move away...

As a quilter however, one of my favorite parts was the "me" time I snuck in & the visits to MJ Trimming & The City Quilter it allowed.

MJ Trimming is like eye candy & honestly... I didn't buy anything because I was too in awe of all I was looking at!

The City Quilter was a great modern quilt shop & I purchased a few panels & yardage of NYC themed fabrics that they created themselves!

My Fav NYC fabric: A City Quilter exclusive creation

And while I was VERY relieved to get the hell out of NYC and return 🏡 home... it was a special
visit with memories I will cherish.

Crowding left us with minimal motivation for getting across the city for the "real" museums...

so we settled on a few hours at Madame Tussauds down the street from our hotel.

this pretty much sums up how my daughter and I felt on the street of NYC...

The Brooklyn Bridge!

Since returning,
Spring cleaning has been pushed into fast forward as spring storm delays have lead to a summer heat wave...

So quilting time has been limited...

more crumbs...

It was a red week... 3- 6" and 1-5"

I tried to paper piece a new name tag using the logo for the Tyler Modern Quilt Guild... but by the time I was done, it was too large. So my old one will have to do...