Last Tuesday at quilt group night Syd Haglund kicked off the year talking about inspiration and gave us a trunk show. Syd has also designed our 2011 group quilt. Syd is the owner/operator of Alpine Quilt Retreats. She has the amazing house with the beautiful bedrooms and is also a wonderful quilter. She has a website and a blog. Check her out. You can see our 2011 quilt on her post here. I'm currently working on the first block so I will talk more about that later, as soon as I'm done with my first block (this week!).
Here is Syd holding up her vintage quilt she made patterned after a quilt from her grandmother. Syd is a long time friend of mine. She used to live in my neighborhood but moved several miles away, but still lives in our town. I miss her being my neighbor but I get to see her at quilts. She's a fabulous quilter with an incredible sense of class and style about her and her quilts/home.
This is Syd's "Empty Nest" quilt she designed after being inspired by a member of our quilt group's project. Syd loves to work in wool, too. Her quilts are rich and imaginative.
Syd's quilts mostly all have a purpose. I find that inspiring in itself.
She talked about her history of quilt making.
Obviously a valentine quilt. She embroidered messages from old family valentines in the quilt.
She has made (most) all her children memory quilts. I love that.
This is her daughter Carly's quilt. Syd embroidered drawings and messages from Carly's old report cards on it. The messages from teachers are so funny, so Carly.

Another one of her son's quilts.
This is her 2009 Alpine Quilt Group quilt. Mine is unfinished. Darn. When I see Syd's it makes me want to get back to it.

Syd and several others of us took a class for this quilt from Jody (another quilt group member). Flora says her "pies" ended up looking like bra cups. Mine did too. It was amazing that Wren could quilt that out for me.
This is Heidi's quilt, her daughter. I used to teach Heidi in our Primary church class. Time flies.
A fabulous sampler.
Inspired from a vintage quilt.

Baskets from a past Alpine Quilt Group project.
More baskets...
And more. Syd got 3 quilts out of that exchange.
Another past Alpine project.
Inspired by Suzanne Lawrence of American Fork's Quilting Cottage and an old neighbor. (I miss Suzanne.)
Another block exchange from our group.
I love this quilt. It is just fantastic. One of my favorites of hers. Fabulous trunk show. Syd is an example to me in so many ways. Her fabric is thrifted much of the time and so it is unique. You know I love that. Syd is so talented in so many ways. And I love her husband and family. They are all great people.

I'm working on my checkers block so I'll talk more about our 2011 Alpine Quilt Group Project later. If anyone wants to make this along with me let me know and I can email you the patterns. I hope Syd puts them up on her website or blog though.

-nanette
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I know it is January and so many of us are fabric dieting. I mean don't we try every year with the D word? So it helps to plan. Market is going to be in SLC and there will be so many tasty treats between now and then. For Fabric Friday I wanted to tantalize you with photos of an upcoming line I'm super excited about. You will want to allow for these delicious fabrics as you plan your sewing feasts.
Lori Holt's Sew Cherry for Riley Blake Fabrics will be in stores during April 2011. I'm personally counting the days and dreaming of what to make. My head is swimming with ideas and I haven't been able to decide yet. But for sure I'll be making several projects with Lori's fabric.
Lori's fabric will be available in yardage and pre-cuts. I personally love pre-cuts. They give me a taste of each individual color and design.
Fat quarter packs are my favorites to nibble on. A fat quarter pack is so incredibly flexible.
Just look how delicious these beauties look lined up like that. The colors are simply delectable.
I'm definitely going to have to make my Freda's Flowers quilt with cute little roll. I think my pattern would serve up so yummy with these cherries and flowers.

I simply can't wait. Spring hurry up.

-nanette
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Tuesday night was our first meeting in 2011 with my friends in the Alpine Quilt Group. The room was packed. It is always great to see friends with quilts.
This quilt was made with Amy's pattern from American Quilting. It is a lovely quilt.
This is Flora's Quilt. I made a quilt made with this pattern, too. It is a fun one to make and enjoy looking at all the different fabrics. The yellow is lovely with it all.
This is Flora's too. I really like the fabric and colors in this quilt. It is quite modern and lovely.
This quilt shows off the fantastic fabric so well. Love the feel and I love mushrooms.
Susan did a great job with this pinwheel and circle quilt. Darling.
This is Wren, who does my custom machine quilting. She's fantastic. She did the quilting on my latest pattern. Her quilt has a wool like feel to it.
This is another Wren quilt. She quilted the rough edge circles with her long arm as she quilted the whole quilt. Smart.Really really love this quilt. The applique is beautiful.
This quit is made with Fruit Cake fabric. Love it.This is Paula's quilt. It is so perfect. She's been working on the hand quilting since 2007. Beautifully pieced and appliqued but amazingly hand quilted.This is Janice's quilt. She customized the original pattern to show things outside her own window.This is Amber's quilt. She's teaching this at Alpine Quilt Retreats coming up this spring.

Next week I'll post our presentation by Syd of Alpine Quilt Retreats. You won't want to miss Syd's trunk show. It was amazing. But I want to finish my block-of-the month that Syd is doing for the group before I show you her project and quilts. So stay tuned for part II.

-nanette
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My newest pattern "Dreaming Princess" quilt is finished. I'm really happy with it. The quilt turned out so sweet. Crowns are so popular with little girls and I can imagine this quilt would be darling in any little girl's room.
Thanks to Riley Blake fabric and Amanda from The Quilted Fish for this fantastic fabric called Sweet Divinity. Sweet Divinity is in stores now and it was my inspiration for the quilt design.
I love the fabric colors but unfortunately my photos below were taken at a different time than those above. So the above colors are the most true. Photographing is hard!
I really loved embellishing each crown and giving each crown personality. It was so fun picking out trim and buttons. Many of the trims and buttons I used came from Riley Blake. There is so much going on at Riley Blake.
I have my pattern up in My Etsy Shop. It is for PDF download. I email the patterns out so you get them same day and print from your computer.

Pattern making is more work than you'd think! Whew. Special thanks to Jina at Riley Blake. Wren Woodland of Sew Small Stitches did the quilting on it and it is absolutely fantastic. She's amazing.

-nanette
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It is Friday, whew, the end of a long busy and complex week. I'm excited to finish patterns and then move into new projects and I'm getting closer....
So it was such a fantastic surprise when I got home from work Thursday evening and found a sweet present from my friend Nan of Pots and Pins. Nan is amazing and so incredibly talented. I absolutely adore her but she lives states away so we have this long distance friendship. Who wouldn't be super excited to come home and find this waiting for them!
Nan knows me so well and knows my love of red. I was excited to open up and see the loveliness. The vintage valentine card is so darling. Big fat fun cotton rick-rack in red and white -just luscious. And more and more valentine themed goodness. Such unique things: a heart pancake turner, a sweet hot chocolate mug, valentine socks and PEEPS!!
There is a heart ring, sparkly valentine hearts to decorate my entryway table and red sugar sprinkles for valentine cupcakes or cookies. Nan is a fantastic cook/chef/baker. I have made her recipes and they don't disappoint. She even went to Italy and took a cooking class!
Then the whole contents were wrapped inside this sweet group of red and white dot fabric. Love the dots. I want to cut into these and play with them.

Thanks so much Nan. You made my day and week. Fabric Friday is full of Red today.

-nanette
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My dearest Freda's Hive Blog.......

I know I've been preoccupied with about 8 different projects. I apologize. I wish I could say things were going to turn around really quickly but I am not sure that is going to happen. I love blogging and I love my readers. Don't get me wrong! I'm not going to stop blogging. I'm here to stay. But this letter is to let you in on one of the little reasons I've been slightly preoccupied lately.

I've been seeing another webpage. There I said it. I'm glad to get it out in the open. Sigh. I'm confessing to two-timing my blog at another site: Freda's Hive at Pinterest. If you go there you'll see some more of my "likes". I hate to tell you this, blog, but Pinterest is a new happening place. All the cool girls are doing it. I would list all the Pinterest pages of all the cool gals but I don't want to leave anyone out and you can see some of those I follow over there on my page anyway. Don't be upset. It is just more good stuff. I hope you understand.
I found out about this magazine over there. It is from Australia and I want to support my girls over yonder so I ordered it. But here is biggest worry regarding cruising Pinterest - blowing my monthly fun budget with all the ideas there. There is so much to see and love. More than you can even imagine.

I won't quit you blogger. But make room for Pinterest. I am certain Pinterest is here to stay.

-nanette

P.S. This is also one of the reasons I'm preoccupied. I got my "Dreaming Princess" quilt, made with Riley Blake fabric, back from my quilter, Wren. She did an amazing, fantastic, incredible job. I love it. I've been embellishing crowns and working on quilt instructions. Hopefully by next week I'll have a pattern and a reveal.
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