Erin Underwood Quilts

If you don’t belong to a quilt guild, you should try one out. Last night’s meeting at the Ladybugs was entertaining and as well as educational! One of the members, Madge Ziegler, a regional teacher and presenter, show us how to creatively use some household items in our sewing rooms then we were off to the demo night – Deb Tucker’s Hunter Star ruler was explained as well as some other quirky rulers. I was fascinated with the demo that showed how to sew your mitered binding instead of folding the corners but not sure I could master it. An inventive new way to quickly cut bias strips for binding was entertaining too!

Yep – that’s right! This entire quilt has been made from my stash. I haven’t bought a thing new for it. There are about 5 different whites and 13 to 15 blues. I’ll go back and count later…maybe. Any way, I have no yardage left in white and my blue drawer has room for more fabric!! I can even do the backing from stash – got some blue on a bolt I bought years ago but may have to piece my batting – binding may be an issue…

Yep – I actually did it. Snagged the freezer paper from my sewing room and wrapped a cake in it then actually put it in the freezer! How ’bout that? It was the first time I used it just what it was intended for and it wasn’t so bad – sort of like cutting paper with your sewing scissors….

October Trees – Pattern now available in my store and at Bear’s Paw!

In keeping with the innovative construction technique of my Phatkat patterns, I’m working up some new fan blocks. Here’s a bunch of red-hot cats – they’ll get a bit of applique in the border shortly.

This cat uses a rather clever idea if I do say so myself. The “humps” on the cat’s back are inserted,3-d, and would look great embellished with buttons or beads to tack them down.

And now its time to drop the cat theme – stay tuned for more!

Pretty neat technique –  especially if you own a Bernina because its got just the prefect stitch, 329 or 1329, to do the invisible applique. Sadly, I don’t have a Bernina and have to make do with slightly inferior stitches.

Saw Kathy S. at Bear’s Paw Sunday while we were hand appliquing by machine – she gave me a sneak peak at her new class – another Buggy Barn Quilt! Adorable!

Yesterday, the Lil’ Country Shoppe in Middletown, Delaware had a wonderful outdoor Backyard Quilt show – free to any one as well as no charge to the vendors for setting up and selling their wares. The weather was beautiful for the 60+ quilts that were on display. Needless to say they were all  safely protected under large tents.  Lots of mother-daughter crafters there too. Actually, the daughters were the crafters – the mothers were the support system!I bought an adorable felted ladybug pin from one enterprising young lady. I figure it will compliment my Ladybug Guild name tag very nicely.   I’m wondering if my “viewer’s choice” selection from the 60+ quilts won the $50 store coupon. It was a beautifully done cross-stitched and handquilted quilt – lovely and lots and lots of work put into it.  Mark your calendar for next year – always the last weekend in September – its definately worth the visit!

Had a great time at My Favorite Quilt Shop here in Elkton yesterday. At noon, they hosted a free demo over the  lunch hour.  Donna Wittkop (a  long arm quilter and teacher from Smryna DE) demonstrated the CurveMaster presser foot. This amazing little gadget allows you to sew curves with no pinning and it actually works! You’ve probably seen it at quilt shows – its great for the Drunkard’s Path and Winding Ways patterns or anything with an annoying curve that requires lots of pins. With this presser foot, no pinning is needed.  As an interesting aside, Donna had cut out all her her Winding Ways pieces with one of those Accu cutter machines – saved her a lot of time!

I’ve just sat here for an hour watching Dale Fleming on The Quilt Show. Wow! She uses freezer paper and glue to insert curves and circles! It looks amazingly easy to do – no applique or top stitching  involved at all. When she’s finished, the seams of the curves and circles are sewn in and trimmed down to a 1/4 inch seam allowance. There’s a book out there if you aren’t a member of the The Quilt Show. However, as uncomfortable as it may sound to some to sit in front of your computer watching TV, it is worth it to me when the stuff such as I watched today was absolutely awesome!

Heading up to PA for a Quilt Show – Pennsylvania National Extravaganza XVII.  Hope you get a chance to go! My plans are to try and control myself while I there and just soak up all the inspiration – I’ll let ya know how that goes…