Kari's Creations and Musings

  Learning new skills has been the most recent theme in my quilting journey. September and now October have been filled with opportunities to develop my craft and to share my knowledge with other quilters in the classroom. HQH had a national speaker come to guild in September. Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis shared with us how our choices in fabrics really can take the look of a quilt to a different level.  I took Tammy's Melon Blossoms workshop and had a fun time putting her lesson into practice. The look of the melon block can change a lot depending on where you put your lights and darks. I had a ton of different ideas for fabric placement. But, in the end, I played it a bit safe – didn’t want to fail my class! – to make sure I had enough contrast and here is what my final block looked like:   As I go further with the Melon Blossom quilt, I might experiment more with the values and tones of fabrics to get different looks in each block. The best part, really, of the Mel...

  Working on nametag hearts for  Sitchers Etc. Summer Retreat! Last Sunday, I promised to blog about our Stitchers Etc. annual quilting retreats and post additional photos from our group’s summer retreat. Well, here we are! Me and my sidekick Elida! After the struggle with a flat tire on set up day, I was very eager to get into the excitement and happiness of retreat! Friend Elida, who now lives in South Carolina but comes back to Huntsville for quilt retreats and to visit with her son, helped me with set up at Camp Maranatha on Wednesday. She stayed overnight at my Huntsville home and the two of us got up early Thursday and were out the door by 7:30 to get to Camp Maranatha before our fellow retreaters! True to form, it wasn’t long before our retreaters began arriving. It was such a joy to have them in the house and setting up!  Our Stitchers Etc. Quilting Room  at Camp Maranatha. Friends enjoying their quilting time. Pat V. with the Bama bag she made at retreat...

Sue and I at Bernina Users Group! July and almost all of August have zoomed by thanks to all my friendly quilt activities! It’s been a quilt-packed six weeks since I last posted a blog! All these friendly quilting activities keep me really busy … and very happy!!  Vicky, Joan and I having a blast! So, where do I start? How about with the Bernina Users Group! This group meets every fourth Thursday to sew on projects together. Sometimes Sue leads us through a project while other times we have free sew on our Berninas. I have the honor to be Sue's assistant in helping and encouraging our Bernina sewists, and sometimes I even get to teach a workshop for the group! In July, we had an awesome meeting that coincided with the official showcase of the Bernina 990! Sue showed us all the great features of the new Bernina 990 and its embroidery capabilties. Because it a 990 special event, we also had snacks and door prizes and watched a video on this amazing machine. It was a total day of Bern...