Pin It Weekly #311

Happy Weekly! I have a special announcement tomorrow. Here's betting you can't guess, but it would be fun if you tried. :)
Today, though, it's time to meet a few new folks who have joined the Pinterest party.  Let's start with Rebecca Cameron who just followed all of my boards today! She has a "fan quilts" board that is rather unique. 

Say hello to Suzi Chankhio. I could not resist the hydrangeas on her flower board.

And finally we have Dana Å ubrtová who has a board called "soupravy pončo a čepičky" which means ponchos and cap sets. Know how I know? I used Google translate. Hey, do what you have to do, am I right? After all, there's not much sweeter than these little pieces.

Have a great weekend and stay safe from CoVid-19.

A New Venture: GSQA ~~ and a finish

The Gulf States Quilting Association (GSQA) is accepting applications for circuit teachers, making this a good time to expand my quilt teaching. I miss the classroom and hope that this will fill some of that need. I truly hope that this pans out and I am able to give more lectures and workshops in our region.  Although I understand they are difficult to get into, I think I'd like to eventually teach at a show like AQS or QuiltCon. 

Years ago (back in the late 1990's) I gave presentations at conferences around the state and country and loved every minute. Until I burned out. Teaching, you see, takes lots of preparation if it's done correctly. It's also difficult to teach high school English, raise three teenage boys and fly around the country to present at conferences. Ah, decisions!

The pictures in this post are of one of my class samples, Dresden Kaleidoscope, that I'll use to teach fabric repeats, fussy cutting, and repeating designs. There are different levels of difficulty built into the quilt so that students begin with an easy concept and move up to the most difficult.  

I'll leave you with a couple more photos of this fun quilt. What do you think? Would this be a class you'd consider taking?

 Your guild or shop could always contact me at mary.marcotte@gmail.com. (Just saying.)

June guild meeting

I realized today that I never told you about our June guild meeting. I don't know why that would be.  I guess it just slipped my mind. Shame, that.  I was the presenter and I had such a blast.  

I was tasked with explaining how I create my art quilts.  Not an easy task since I don't record my process in any way.  I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants, in a creative sort of way.  I did manage to think about my process and figure out the order of things.  I even took time to make a teaching quilt so that I could show members the steps I use.
 












Apparently we've had some confusion as to who was supposed to serve as hostesses, which means that we had food for days!  That was not a problem, but one of the members came up with a good idea--a sign up form so that each person could put her name on the month she wants to bring food and dessert.

Of course, we had show and tell.  I showed both my license plate block, explaining to the group that it will appear at the Houston Quilt Show.  I also showed my Dresden plate quilt.  

The other quilts that were shown were gorgeous.  I really like the unusual block in this brown and blue quilt.  Check out the block in the second row.

My sweet friend Pam took some time to explain how the blocks are made in her quilt, then showed it to us.  I got a pretty good picture of Pam, but missed the quilt.

Have you noticed that every picture has a little white head?  It's impossible to snap a picture without one.  And I spend so much time trying to get above the heads that I often miss the shot all together.

This final quilt is made with fabrics from the Stonehenge Collection.  Is that not perfect?  She did a fabulous job with the bias strips.  

And finally someone has begun growing orchids and showed her beautiful pinks that are blooming for the first time.  She is quite proud and who can blame her? They really are beautiful.

My apologies for forgetting to post this.  I'll have another guild post in just a week.  Hopefully I'll do a better job of taking photos!

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Pillow Party

Here are a few pillows that could either inspire quilts or have been inspired by quilts.  The table runners that I've added sometimes are quite easily identifiable with the pillow, but sometimes it's not so easy.  You'll see what I mean.