Spring Quilting Day in Plainfield

Saturday was a gorgeous day for traveling south to Plainfield for a QBee (Quilting Buddy) day with Miss Carol from Sweet Peas and Possum, and of course, Barbie.  I was excited because Jen, a friend from my swimming group, came along with me to try her hand at quilting for the very first time.  I loved having company for the drive down and back. Jen is already an artist, but has never tried quilting and Carol's studio is the best place to learn to quilt.

Jen - eager new quilting student

Start with a pile of rainbow material.

All new quilters start with reading the directions and figuring them out.  Or Miss Carol figures them out while you admire your new material.  

Collaboration is very important in quilting.  

Miss Carol taught Jen how to measure, cut and lay out the block - Beautiful!!  Jen wanted to start with stars.  She is so brave!

Pinning and sewing the block together came next - lots of concentration!

Time for show and tell.  Jen did a fabulous job making her first block and Miss Carol is very proud of her new student.  Jen might be "hooked" on quilting now!

Other projects from QBee Day:

Barb's Snowball, 9-patch quilt laid out on the floor ready to sew the blocks together

My snowball - 9 patch up on the wall

The day flew by, as usual, especially when you are sewing and creating with good QBee friends.  

 Friends are the splash of color in every quilt.

  

Kent Free Library Book Club

It seems that many quilters are also readers, so I thought it would be appropriate and fun to blog about some of the books that I have recently read.

I decided to join a book club sponsored by our local library, Kent Free Library.  The group meets once a month and we have tea or coffee while discussing our latest book.  So far, I've totally enjoyed being in the group and reading the books that were chosen.  I started in February with Liar Temptress, Soldier Spy written by Karen Abbott.  It was an amazing book and well researched!  I learned so much about the Civil War that I had never realized and also discovered the many rolls women played during that period in history.  I highly recommend it!

Our next selection was The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  Everyone in our club liked this historical fiction selection.  Again, I learned about some interesting facts from our American history. If you have never heard about orphan trains, be sure to check out this book.   This is a good story!  

The book we are reading this month is Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel.  I saw the movie, which I enjoyed, but am looking forward to reading the book this month.  I'll let you know what I think about this book in May after out next meeting.

Happy spring reading to all my quilting friends and remember you can always listen to a book on CD or on your Kindle while you are quilting.