Royal Weddings and Royal Blocks

Everyone is royal crazy at the moment, they sure do know how to get married!  What a lovely setting for the wedding and the carriages and horses!  Love the tradition.

Quilters are crazy too, like we didn't know?  Diary of a Quilter features some nice, really royal quilt block ideas on her blog.  I love one with the rug, who would have known the Union Jack could be so decorative.  She also a lot great tutorials here, especially for those who want some basic instruction.

Not sure if I shared Noodlehead before but she has a really elegant and simple looking pillow tutorial right now and you have to check out all her tutorials.  There are many and some cute ideas for kids too, I especially love the quilted bike basket.

Have a good weekend, hope we get more sun and don't forget sewing on Monday.  Diana

Paducah Winners

The show has started in Paducah and here is a link to the winners!  You can check out all the beautiful quilts that won and I guess we wish we were there.  Bad weather has hit Paducah this year though.  They have shut the flood gates in town and many venues had to be moved.  The quilts are in the big white tent this year and the vendors are spread out in many areas but the show will go on.  Hopefully, the bad weather is over for them and the rest of the South.

Laurie and I have a niece, Megan Zeman,also Kathy's granddaughter, who is a student at Mount Mary College and she is a whiz at fashion design, jewelry design and just about any design!  We are so proud of her and she is one of several talented young ladies participating in a contest for Milwaukee's LifeStyle Magazine.  The link will tell you a bit about the contest and we hope you will vote!  I am hoping we can get Megan to come up for one of our meetings and have a runway show of her designs and tell about the design process too.  A lot of her clothing involves some quilting and applique in the design.
Diana

Still More Show and Tell...

Here are some more of our Show and Tell quilts from the April meeting.  One more posting after this one and I will have them all done!  Fun to see all the neat projects!

Sue shows a Home Sweet Home Banner that she is giving to her new neighbor.

Chris made a cute Easter pillow.

Chris also showed a quilted shower curtain that she has made.  It has grommets accross the top for hanging.

Maggie shows a quilt that she made in her quilting class.

Terri proudly shows the Bedtime Baby quilt that her granddaughter made.

Joanie shows her froggy tote bag, fit with a froggy zipper pull!  What fun.

Some Weekend Fun

One good thing about a weekend is having a little time to look for new ideas.  Here is a nice place to start.  Karen is a longarm quilter with nice tutorials on the side bar, I especially love the Magic 8 tutorial.

If you want to keep learning go here to PS I Quilt.  Rachel Griffith has many, many tutorials with just a ton of ideas and she also sells patterns.  You will spend a lot of time at her blog just visiting her many projects and her recipes too.  Don't forget the recipes!

Stitched in Color is a very sweet blog with great projects and tutorials.  She has a wonderful idea called Bottled Rainbows which is based on Ticker Tape Quilts.  The idea is to use up scraps.  Her Love Pillow is sweet and how to miter, her Christmas Tree Skirt and ColorBrick quilt are great too.   A lot to see.

DawnHay Designs is a wonderful place.  She offers free patterns and there are a couple I really need to make, the Peaches and Cream Doily is so cute and the Crisp Delight table centerpiece.  You will also love her Christmas projects with embroidery and her chocolate cake embroidery, too sweet. 

I have more but will put them on later.  I am thinking of making a separate page with links to all these wonderful places so we can go back and visit a lot.  What do you think?  Besides, I'm afraid I'm having do overs on some of these places so bear with me.  I hope you enjoy visiting these places and leave them some encouraging comments too.  They are so generous to share their ideas.  Diana

More April Show and Tell

Here are several more beauties (quilts too!) from our Show and Tell.  I will have to do a couple more postings to get them all up on the blog for you to see...so keep watching for more!

Peg's hand embroidered wall quilt called "Gifts of Grace".  She plans to keep this one for her own wall.

Judy had three quilts to show this month.  Above is a 2006 Thimbleberries BOM called "Vintage Stitches."

Here Judy shows the 2010 Thimbleberries BOM "Village Square".

Judy loves puffins, and made this cute quilt called "Alaskan Puffins".

Ruth shows us her very striking winter Texas project, "Irish Ribbon Runs Thru It Log Cabin".

So many great quilts this month.  Oh, and just in case you didn't know...if you want to get a closer look at these lovely quilts, just click on the picture, and it will enlarge  for you!  Oh, the wonders of the computer...when they are working that is!

Laurie

A Square Deal Mystery Quilts

Many of our members have been working on a Mystery Quilt this past winter.  Some members are starting to finish up their tops.  Five of them appeared at our Show and Tell.  We all received the same patterns, but with the different use of color and block lay out, they all have there own look!  Some members chose to make more blocks and make larger quilts.  They are all lovely!  Congratulations to those of you have finished the tops, and for those of us who are still working on them, aren't you inspired by these beauties? 

Peg's finished top.

Toni's top.

Deb's red, black and white.

Maggie's block lay out is unique, she had some in put from her husband.

Joanie's quilt is already finished...she must have connections with her quilter!

I will be posting more of our show and tell in the next few days, as we had a pretty impressive one this month.

Laurie

Lily Anna Stitches

Our April meeting featured an inspiring trunk show by Lori Kabat of Lily Anna Stitches.  Lori began her presentation by talking about how she "came to be", and what was her inspiration for Lily Anna Stitches, which is named after her daughter.  Lori's patterns feature lovely wool designs.  A lot of Lori's designs are based on a seasonal theme.  Over the years Lori has perfected her designs, as well as patterning some of her friends designs. Her work shows that she loves what she is doing.  We we all amazed by her tiny perfected blanket stitch!  You can check out Lori's website at Lily Anna Stitches.

Lori displays some of her fine wool projects.

Lori and Terri discuss projects.

Before our meeting began, 15 of our members chose to take the class to learn Lori's process of how she works with wool.  Members got a nice start on this very sweet Easter project.  Lori offered that if you have any questions or need any additional help to please contact her, and she would be happy to help. She hopes that if you are a beginner at working with wool, that you will not become frustrated if your stitches are not a perfect as you would like them to be...she showed us her first wool project (still unfinished) as an example that it takes a lot of time and practice.  Her projects feature lovely hand dyed wools and Valdani perle cottons that she finds at Primative Gatherings, in Menasha, where she can often be found. 

Lori left perle cotton with Laurie S. for working around the rabbit, as well as the perimeter of the mat.  Please contact Laurie S. if you need more bunny brown, and I will get the other color to you all as soon as I can!  Happy Stitching.

Laurie

Our Susannah Quilt

If you are looking to start a new quilt project, check out the Our Susannah quilt at Erik Homemade.  Instructions for this project will start being posted on Monday April 18th, and then every Monday following until the project is complete. 
The quilt is made using simple rail fence blocks and a up-dated rotary cut version of the classic Sussanah block.  Directions feature a nice photo tutorial to help you along with this project.
Laurie

Town and Country Quilters Show



Memoribilia and Facts From Civil War

Some Pine Needle Quilters made the jaunt to Pulaski to see the Town and Country Quilters Show which had a Civil War theme.  As usual, the Pulaski ladies put on a great show and displayed great hospitality!  Laurie and I had our sister-in-law from Wyoming visiting and she was pleased to be able to see a show while she was visiting us. 
A great display of Civil War information was displayed with attention paid to Wisconsin's contributions to that war. 
The quilt displays were inspirational and the vendors lured us in.  Several of us succumbed to packets of fat quarters that were 18 for $20.00!  We could not resist...and the colors were so luscious. 
There was also a couple who were dressed in authentic period clothing.  How did they live in those hoop skirts and that wool uniform would be ok in Wisconsin for eleven months of the year but what did they do down South?  They were very charming and the lady was doing crafts or handwork that would have been happening during that time period.  She had some interesting tools that I've never seen before.

Anyway, thank you to the ladies from Pulaski for a nice day and outing. 

Diana



A local Civil War Hero Was Featured




Authentic Garb




Some of our members plus Linda from Wyoming



Monday Meeting Reminders

Just a reminder for our Monday meeting.  If you are participating in the wool applique class please be at the hall and ready to begin by 6:00pm.  Our regular meeting activities, including a trunk show by Lori Kabat will begin at 7:00pm.
Remember to bring in any Chinese Auction items to the meeting.  Deanna's car will be by the front door for you to load your auction items into before you come in for the meeting.
Have you looked at the theme ideas that have been proposed for our next quilt show?  Remember to pick your 3 favorite ones, as we will be discussing this as well!
Also, we will start to take membership dues of $15.00 for the year.  Election of officers will be held as well, we are still in need of someone to fill the Vice President position.
See you Monday!

Argyle Pillows and Other Things of Interest

Isn't Argyle a wonderful thing?  Here is a tutorial on how to make an Argyle pillow called Adamant Argyle.  The featured one is just darling. Do you know the history of the Argyle pattern?  It is commonly referred to as "Tartan hose" because of the socks and it was derived from Clan Campbell of Argyll in western Scotland.  Got to admire the Scots.  So go to Stash Manicure and check out one of her featured  spring bloggers.

Rebecca Johnson from Australia is kindly sharing an online quilting course for 12 Weeks.  It starts at the beginning of the process from ideas and designs and onward.  I think she is at Week 2 so you still have time to join in and follow along with her.  Never hurts to see how others approach their quilting.  If you check out her tutorial page, there is a very very sweet birdcage pillow.  If your interested, she also threatens to show you how to piece curves.  Yikes!

Kay Sorensen at Quilts + Color is one of my favorite places to learn about color and she has a great tutorial on her Sunrise-Sunset Quilt.  I just was showing my granddaughter my sack of 2 1/2" strips from our exchange with Leah and this quilt uses 2 1/2" strips.  How cool is that.  Plus, you really don't need to cut them up too much for this quilt and it looks stunning.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I have.   I have some photos to  post later of the Pulaski Quilt show so will get them up.  Diana

Reminder: Wool Applique Class and Trunk Show

As a reminder, if you are planning to take the wool applique class prior to our April meeting, you must contact Malea by Thursday, April 14, so that she can get a count.  If you plan to take the class, it will begin at 6:00pm, prior to our meeting.  There is no fee for the class, but there is a $15.00 charge for the supplies for the small wool project that Lori will supply, which is payable at the time of the class.  So, please give Malea a call if you plan to take the class.  You can learn more about Lori and her designs here.
If you are not attending the class we will see you at the regular meeting time of 7:00pm, where we will enjoy a trunk show of Lori Kabat's projects.  Lori will also have items for us to purchase at our meeting if you are interested.

Binding Tutorial

Whether you are a new to quilting or a veteran quilter, it is sometimes nice to refresh ourselves on the binding process.  You can check out this nice step by step tutorial offered by Konda Luckau. Click here to view the binding tutorial. 
Submitted by Deb

Quilt Shows! Quilt Shows! Quilt Shows!

I have just uploaded a pile of quilt shows on our side bar for you to check out.  I have found some from April through December.  Many of them have links to websites if you click on them to check out the details.  If you have the hunger to go see a show, or perhaps enter a quilt of your own (some of the shows are taking entries), go check out their websites!  If you know of any other shows that I have not listed, feel free to submit the information to me, and I will be sure to add them to the list.
Laurie

Members Participate in Prairie Heritage Show, Sun Prairie...Bring Home Ribbon!

Sheila brings home a 2nd Place Ribbon in the Scrap Quilt Category at the Prairie Heritage Quilt Show!

                                           

Here is proud Sheila with her lovely Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  Congratulations on your award winning quilt!

Deanna entered her Delectable Mountains quilt in the show as well.

Carol poses with her very pretty lavender and blue quilt.

Sheila also had entered her Winter Wonderland Quilt in the show.  All of the member quilts entered in the show looked wonderful!  If you have never entered a quilt into a show (other then our own) you might like to give it a try...it's kind of fun to walk into a show to see your quilt hanging proudly!

Laurie