Good Stuff, On the Fly

I've been busy with commitments away from home. I spent about four hours Saturday with kids in the Sumter County 4-H Club. Nine of their 11 members were in attendance. The kids, ages 8 to 14 years, had a chance to trying sewing with a serger, to edge-stitch a section of a Christmas stocking. They're piecing them piecing on their sewing machines to donate to Operation Shoebox. 

Sunday afternoon found me in Jacksonville, Florida, giving a Big Stitch Quilting and More program to members of the Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild - JAX MQG. They had 78 quilters in attendance!

I presented my lecture, followed by a trunk show. 

I shared many items I've hand quilted with size 8 and size 12 perle cotton. 

From Kawandi... 

...to Kantha (pronounced Kahn-tah)... (Ha! "Oh my!" How about that facial expression?! What could I have been saying?!)

... to big stitch quilting. This selvedge quilt is a free pattern here on my blog. 

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing big stitch (and more!) with everyone, and appreciate all the generous compliments and thank-yous I received afterward. I'd love to return to your guild!

JAX MQG members are preparing for their upcoming annual JAX QuiltFest put on by their members, and members of six other Jacksonville area guilds. I will have two quilts in the Modern category: Party Time! (improv pieced), and Turnabout (paint chip challenge quilt that's mostly big stitch hand quilted).

Below is the opportunity quilt being offered to raise monies for the Alzheimer's Association. The quilt is called Tiger, Tiger - improv at its best. Don't ya love it? 

After the excitement of being with JAX MQGers, I've jumped back into activities at home. A priority is helping our Central Florida MQG make bylaw amendments according to MQG requirements. After a meeting to determine where changes are needed, I'm preparing revisions for review by our Executive Committee, and then membership. Tedious stuff to work on, but necessary. 

Registrations open Wednesday for QuiltCon! It's in Raleigh, NC next February, and classes will sell out fast. I'm still debating about one workshop - Wild Stitches with Nichole Vogelsinger - and will be registering for a few lectures. 

I want to share a new thing I bought for my little Janome Derby sewing machine. Because the machine doesn't have a built-in light, I am now using a Vivilux rechargeable LED light.

It adheres to the end of the machine, and can be removed from Velcro for recharging.

I took my Derby to Big Cypress Quilters on Tuesday - after all, the machine fits in a shoulder bag and weighs less than five pounds! - to piece blocks for a charity quilt, and the light works beautifully to illuminate piecing.

At home I've been quilting whenever I get the chance, working on our Central Florida MQG QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge Quilt - QCCOCQ. (Is that a title, or what?!)

I've been walking foot and free motion quilting and it's coming along nicely.

All of us working on the quilt have been tracking the number of hours we do our parts, so that info can be added to the quilt description when it's donated to a local church for a fundraiser. I spent three hours piecing the back and pin-basting, and thus far have about ten hours in quilting. Good info to include with the quilt to hopefully impress upon bidders how much time was invested in making this 64" X 80" quilt.

Still on the go, I'm aiming to complete my portion of the quilting by Saturday to then pass along the quilt to my friend Karen for quilting the four outside borders.

Back to it! Linda