Erin Underwood Quilts

http://maqonline.org/classes.html

Click on the link above to see all the great classes happening this July in Emmittsburg Maryland.

I am offering the Triple Dresden Tree Skirt on Friday. It uses a quilt-as-you-go technique and comes together easily!

Optical Illusions is a 2-day class for Saturday and Sunday. It can be 2-color or scrappy depending on how dizzy you want to get!

But there’s so much more to choose from! Check it out!

It has been a whirlwind of a year. You may remember me mentioning my mother-in-law moving in several months back. After all the rearranging to get everyone to fit in and have our respective art spaces, she is finally able to move into her own place next weekend – I feel the world opening up again. I get the guest room back! And she gets her own phone and bathroom! Its a win-win situation.

Meanwhile, my hubby had a major make-over on his heart. We were lucky enough to discover an aneurism lurking and he was all fixed up in January. Now, heart surgery isn’t as simple as I am making it sound but its good to know he won’t be keeling over any time soon! And a great side effect of major heart surgery is all your children come home from far and wide to be here. I think its safe to say that I got a good dose of family time too!

So I’ve been on a creative jag that I am certain is directly related to the good things happening. And things are easily finished since I seem to be thinking small.

Here’s a fun option for my Creative Grids 15 degree Ruler – Zigs and Zags. Pattern is available here and since its a Cut-Loose-Press pattern, its a very good price! Ask about these affordable patterns at your local quilt shop – there’s a lot of them available!

Here’s another one – placemats and table topper. And a quilt-as-you-go! Its reversible too! Christmas colors are shown here but the back side is patriotic – should have taken another picture… Any way, its also a Cut-Loose-Press pattern – fast and easy with the 15-degree ruler. Click here for the pattern.

Now this one is my favorite – Sunny Days Table Topper. It is also a quilt-as-you-go and I used Soft and Stable for the batting. Love the way it turned out – still waiting for the pattern to debut with Cut-Loose-Press. I’ll keep you posted!

More things are coming together in the studio – wish there were more hours in the day and I didn’t need so much sleep!

A music video with needles, thread, cloth and embroidery! Lots of fun to watch – wish I had all that thread!

Click on the link and scroll down to the fourth picture – click on the spool of thread and enjoy!

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/02/favorite-place-christophe-thockler/

This week, I’ve had a few things to do. One is to create a second Uneven Fans quilt so I can have enough quilts to share. So I’ve pulled together a smattering of fabrics that resemble the orginal quilt and got to work. Luckily, these blocks go together very quickly although I think this second version will be a bit more green that the first. Tomorrow, I put it all together and get it on the long arm.

And in the meantime, I have been working on this little bit of fluff. My art quilt group, Fiber Dimensions, has given ourselves a challenge to get a collection of fiber art together by March. Each of us must contribute three pieces all themed around Sea Scapes or something like that. I started out looking at mermaids but progressed in my research to this! Its almost finished – needs beads and binding and maybe a bit more, but boy was it fun! The shark is created with shadow trapunto. He is made of plain old craft felt covered by layers of what I can only identify as evening gown fabric from the bridal section in JoAnn’s. Actually the very back layer is a metallic swimsuit-stretchy material that I fused interfacing to for stability. I have no idea how this is going to hang since it is still on the long arm –  I’ll let ya know soon since its getting booted off tomorrow to make way for that more traditional Uneven Fans quilt.

Two very different styles – and as I flitted back and forth all week between the two, it was hard to say which one I like more – traditional piecing or something Out of the Blue – so you see, I’m torn….

I’m so glad the weather is holding out this week. I’ve got a few things to do! Heading down to the Baltimore Heritage Quilt Guild this evening for my “Putting Myself Out There” lecture. They are a great group and I had the privilege of being a member a few years back so it will be nice to see them again!

Then on Friday, I put on my art quilter hat and head off to the reception for the  Fiber Dimensions Show in Hockessin, Delaware. I’ve got  few quilts hanging there and its time to bask in the the aroma of sweet and sour meatballs and fruit trays while we meet and greet quilt lovers! If you are in the area, stop by. The show hangs until the end of the month.

This is a really cool FREE Block of the Month series. Graciously provided to us by Quilting on the Square in Kansas, it has twelve spectacular paper-pieced stars.  If paper-piecing isn’t your thing, they’ve got lots of other Block-of-the-Month programs going on – just not free. I, for one, have printed all the patterns off for safe-keeping because they have just posted the last Block. I don’t want to be disappointed if I were to come back looking for a pattern and it be gone – better to print it all now and sew it later!

Compass Collection Free Block of the Month

Tomorrow – tomorrow! That’s the day I allow myself to take down the tree! Can’t wait – very, very tired of pine needles every where and am waiting with trepidation for the dogs to knock the whole thing down with their next wrestling match. Actually one dog wrestles and one dog just lays down on the floor and takes it.

But I digress. Tomorrow it all goes away – and that means all the Christmas quilts too! Including all the tree skirts. And I am loaded with tree skirts this year! The old family favorite stayed in the place of honor under the tree and did not get replaced by any of my more recent patterns. But there they were, both the One-Fur, Two Fur tree skirt and the Triple Dresden,  just languishing around the house so they turned into table toppers. With a bowl or tree strategically placed to hide the hole – Voila!

I though it was pretty clever yet stressful at the same time because people put things down on tables which means they put things down on my tree skirts!! Aaauuuggghhh! And it so hard to train a family to use coasters when they really don’t need them and shoes on the table has always been a bone of contention with me. Dog drool I remain helpless to fend off – then I remembered. They are just quilts and they are washable quilts too! So tomorrow, they get washed. Ooops, no. The dryer died Christmas Eve. The new one comes on Wednesday. Thursday they’ll get washed, maybe…

But enough about me and my plethora to tree skirts. Check out this one! Pink Flamingos!

Who knew that flamingos come in Christmas prints?! This was made by a woman who was taking another class with me, not the tree skirt class, and she brought it in to show. She made it for her son’s girlfriend who is a pink flamingo fan to the extreme! She added yo-yos and bells to the tips of the dresdens too! So clever! So hopefully, she has been gifted with it by now and I can share the creativity of this Triple Dresden Tree Skirt with all!

So the Jelly Roll Quilt is finished! And just in time!

I debated how to quilt it – wanting to do an all-over feather or really dress up the strips with fancy patterns but then remembered – it’s for the damn dog! So I meandered all over.

Then I groaned about the binding and how much time it was going to take to hand stitch that binding down since I’ve got a couple of more important quilts waiting for binding. Then I remembered – it’s for the damn dog! So I put the binding completely by machine.

I can’t believe I just made a quilt for the damn dog!