Sewing in Atlanta

      Sewing with friends is always fun, but when it involves travel, new experiences and new quilt shops, it doesn't get much better.  You may remember that I hosted a sew- in in Florida last winter.  This winter, Julie took a turn at hostess and had the group come to her new house in Atlanta.  Sandy and I drove, while everyone else flew in.  Lola came from Tucson, Janie from northern Colorado and Teri from Mississippi.  We converged on Julie on Thursday and Friday. spending the week-end.  Sandy and I drove home on Monday and Lola, Janie and Teri left on Tuesday.  We had a great time with five machines running at full speed and everyone working on something different.  Teri was our novice and progressed so well that she left with a completed quilt top.  Here are some pictures:

The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.  We stayed overnight,
so we could visit the museum and Hancock's.

No photos were allowed in the museum, so this was the best I could do.
The quilts were amazing!

Hancocks.   We did some damage here.

This is only one half of the store.

The next day we drove on to the Atlanta area.

After spending the night at Julie's, we took off to visit a quilt shop I have heard about for years, Little Quilts.  I have two of their books, which feature small quilts or doll quilts.  The shop was everything I thought it would be, and then some.

Here's Julie and I at the entrance.  She has done their Saturday Sampler for years.

After visiting Little Quilts, we went to "Tiny Stitches", another very nice shop.  Meanwhile, Lola, Janie and Teri are sitting in airports waiting on delayed flights.  I felt a little guilty, just a little.

Here is Julie's sewing room.  Those are built in shelves under the dormers.  Its a great space.

There were six of us sleeping in three bedrooms, so an air bed was sleeping space at night and served as our design wall during the day. 

Here is a fast, easy quilt.  Lola calls it "Disappearing Rail Fence" and brought the directions for it.

Here is Teri, our new quilter, carefully using her rotary cutter.

Janie working on her quilt.  At last count, she had made 45 blocks.

Lola was making a Kaffe Fassett quilt with his signature fabrics.

Lola

This is Sandy's project.  It is the KC Star's "Women of Influence", 

from a few years ago.  She had the blocks done, and added the setting blocks and triangle border during the sew-in.

This is the Disappearing Rail Fence in red, black and white with the blocks framed.  It doesn't even look like the same quilt, does it?  Julie made this one.

Here is what I was working on.  The blue border is the air mattress.  It will have a green and yellow border.

Here are two of Julie's recent quilts.  We had lots of show and tell.

This is made with a panel Julie bought in Stover, MO

Julie's friend, Laura, brought this over for show and tell.

It is a Kaffe Fassett design and she used 25 thrift shop dress shirts to make the blocks.  They are all stripes and yes, she matched the stripes.  Each block is four triangles.  It was spectacular!

Here is Teri's completed top.  Not too bad for a newbie.

Good job, Teri!

  

It wasn't all work and no play.  Julie cooked a great Italian Dinner (family recipe) and we didn't leave much of it for leftovers.

Here are the quilters, getting ready to attack those meatballs.

One last picture.  Here is the pincushion I made for everyone.  The pattern is on Kathleen Tracy's website.  Avoid it if you don't do tiny.

It was a great time with lots of inspiration.  Thanks, Julie.