Earlier this year at a guild meeting we did a hands on project with narrow strips of fabric. I was careful in cutting out the dragonfly which allowed me to create a second project. The first project can be seen HERE.
Last week I finally got a frame to put it in. Now to decide where to display it.
I recently got back from a 10 day quilting road trip. Last fall I had the opportunity to choose any date for a speaking engagement at Candlelight Quilters in Raytown, Missouri. They meet on the 3rd Monday of the month. I picked June as I could drive up and go to the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival the weekend prior and the Minnesota State Guilt Quilt Show the following weekend. Naturally, along the way my SIL Ruby & I visited family and friends and hit a few quilt shops between here and there. Pictured above is my portion of the luggage. The big suit cases have the quilts I’m showing, the little bag next to Luger contains my laptops (yes plural – I had to haul my work laptop) and the next bag my clothes. The charm bag has a quilt & pillow and the other two were my purchases through Monday morning.
My SIL Penny and my sister Alison joined us at the KCRQF. Penny doesn’t quilt, but enjoyed looking at the quilts, did some Christmas shopping and picked out a quilt for me to make her.
This is one of my favorite quilts in the show. 
Those blocks are tiny — I just happened to have a yardstick from one of the vendors — then I read the the card….
Sunday we took in a ball game. Penny is a great one for taking selfies. Alas, the Royals lost to the A’s.
Let me backup a moment. Penny fell in love with this quilt and I agreed to make it for her.
But the Quilted Chicken had sold their last kit. They found these FQ (not the bottom one) they had used in their quilt, so Penny bought the pattern and FQs. Monday, before my presentation at the guild, we wandered around to a few quilt shops. I found the border, binding, and background fabric and a few more FQs. I was not able to find the backing, even trekking through the Iowa and Minnesota shops, so I ordered it from a shop in Ohio. It should be here on Friday.
I don’t have any pictures from the presentation. There was a communication mix up between the group and the venue, so we were in a small room with out a projector (and I’m not convinced there was AC in the space). Fortunately I had 2 suitcases of quilts and a printout of the notes from the slideshow. That evening we stayed with my sister as she lives north of Kansas City and I got to shop in her ruler collection!
The next morning we headed to Iowa. We saw 3 of the 5 covered bridged of Madison County, but not the one in the movie as it was in the wrong direction.
We also saw the exhibit at the Iowa State Quilt Museum. That evening we had dinner with one of Ruby’s friends. The next day she took us to the quilt shop in her town. Then we were off to Minnesota. Did I mention June & July is the All Iowa Shop Hop? Naturally we stopped at a few more shops before we hit the state line. We did not make it to St Cloud in time for the Preview night.
More on the rest of the trip in the next post.
Yesterday I dug through my FQ box and found this cool dot print to use for the reverse applique of the dragonfly. It’s fused together, now I just need to decide how I’m going to finish the project — put it in a frame and call it good, finish it like a fabric post card or something else altogether. The reality is it will sit unfinished for a few more days. I need to work on the mystery pattern.
At the Quilters By Heart’s Desire meeting last night we had a hands on activity presented by Jackie Watkins of the Southern Fiber Artist group. She brought in a big bucket of 1/4 inch strips of batik fabric with double sided fusible. We laid them down on a 5 x 7 piece of fabric, trimmed and fused them into place. We then took a 5 x 7 piece of batik and cut out an image. I picked the dragonfly. Once fused into place it was popped into a frame. 
I was careful cutting out my dragonfly, so I can do a second piece having the fabric show through. I just happened to lay the piece on one of my fabric covered notebooks and I think I’m going to skip cutting strips. There may even be some of this fabric left in my stash.
