Post 31-Quilt Bliss and Thimble Blossoms! Quilting Concentric Circles on a Longarm.

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU! to everyone for their kind comments about my 1st place quilt! I love being part of such an uplifting and supportive community of quilters! 

I don't have many friends or family members who enjoy quilting. My oldest daughter tolerates it, but that's about it. So I'm constantly on the lookout for people who are passionate about quilting.

 There is a great online community of quilters, but sometimes I just want to sit and talk and quilt with real people. I'm a bit nostalgic and think of the days of quilting bees with fondness, when building connections was just as important as finishing a quilt.

So lately I've been trying to find ways to connect with more people who are just as passionate about quilting as I am. I've started attending some new guilds. But I've always wanted to attend a quilt retreat. It just seems like I always find out about them after they've ended. 

A few nights ago, I googled 'utah quilt retreats' and found a few links. One of them was for the Quilt Bliss 2015 retreat at Timber Moose Lodge in Heber. And guess what? Registration was the next morning!

I took this as a sign that I needed to be at Quilt Bliss, and made it a point to register as soon as it opened the next morning. I'm so glad I found it when I did, because it sold out in less than 2 hours!!

Oh, and did I tell you who will be teaching? Miss thimble blossoms herself, Camille Roskelley! A few other amazing teachers, Jeanette Hartvigsen, JoyLyn Rigby, and Heather Armstrong, will also be there!

I'm so excited! My only complaint is that I have to wait 7 months!!

In light of my Quilt Bliss excitement, I am posting pics of a Thimble Blossoms Round & Round quilt made by Brittany over at Quilter's Haven in Bountiful and quilted by yours truly.

 I can't take any credit for the design. Brittany told me exactly what she wanted. I think it turned out amazing! In fact, I loved it so much I bought the pattern!

Quilting circles as large as these can be tricky on a longarm machine where the throat space is limited, so all the quilt lines had to be marked before I loaded it on the frame. 

Since I don't own circle rulers this big (can you imagine?!), I had to find a different method of marking circles. 

Thanks to Google and some awesomely smart people, I found all I needed was some string and my blue marking pen.

I tied the marking pen onto one end of the string. Then I held the other end of the string in the center of the quilt and marked with the pen as I moved it in a circle around the quilt. I adjusted the length of the string from where I was holding it to adjust the size of each circle.

Once it was on the frame, it was just a matter of quilting on the lines using the guidance of a curved ruler.

I love the blue border with circles that breaks up the larger circular design! That's not part of the pattern. Brittany in all her awesomeness added that!