Special Exhibit of Sylvia's Quilts

We are proud to be a part of the Special Exhibits at the Minnesota Quilt Show in Rochester.  The Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilts were from a 2-1/2 year club we had at the shop based on the book Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilts from Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini. When this book arrived at the shop, Nancy and I thought it would be fun to make this quilt, but more fun with a group of quilters to share and motivate us.  140 six inch blocks seemed a little overwhelming.   Little did we know there would be about 100 quilters who would choose to join our club!  The plan from the beginning was to have a quilt exhibit in January of 2012 from anyone who finished their quilt.  Members could make as many of the blocks as they wanted and choose their own setting and fabrics.  What a variety of ideas those members came up with!  We ended up with 43 quilts and 2 special exhibits.  It was a great display!

35 of those quilts will be in the special exhibit in Rochester.  Thanks to all of you quilters and a special thanks to Patty Von Arx for putting this exhibit together.

Quilters have been delivering their quilts to the shop for their trip to Rochester.  Here's a sneak peek of the quilts so far.  What a stack!  We can hardly wait to see them on display.  Hope you can see them too!  If you won't be at the show, you can see the  slideshow of our exhibits on the blog that we wrote in January 2012.

Glad Creations will be vending at the show, so be sure to stop and say hi.  We'll be in the Taylor Arena area.  The quilts and displays will be in 3 different areas of the convention center--so be sure you don't miss anything!  Hope to see you there.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Part 2

Wow! Another fantastic display of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilts. I am so impressed at all the effort that has gone into creating these quilts. They're just beautiful. We've had lots of folks through the shop to see the quilts and there have been many complements while trying to select a favorite. Such a fun variety of sets and fabric combinations.

This group of quilts will be on display through Saturday January 21. If you're planning a visit to see this group of quilts, keep in mind that we do have a few classes scheduled during this show. You're welcome to view the quilts while classes are in session but it may be a little harder to get up-close to all of them. Our volunteer group will be working on quilts in the classrooms during the day on Tuesday but they'll be glad to have folks in looking at the quilts. Some of them even have quilts hanging in this show. We'll be open Tuesday evening until 8:30 PM with no class scheduled in the evening so that would be a great time to stop in. The final day of the show, January 21 is also our Scrap Tamers day so one of our classrooms will be a bit crowded. If that's your day to see the show, stop in after 2:00 for the best viewing.

Enjoy the slide show. The first 2 quilts in this slide show are quilts that were in the first exhibit but we didn't have a good photo for the first slide show so we've included them here.

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Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

The first group of Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilts are hanging at the shop and they look fantastic! If you've been following our blog, you'll know that this show is the culmination of 2-1/2 years of work by our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler club. So many members completed their quilts that we'll be displaying them in two groups.

Thanks so much to everyone who finished their quilt and brought it in to share with us. Our New Year's Day shoppers enjoyed the great variety of sets and fun fabric combinations. This group of quilts will be on display through January 10. On the 11th we'll switch everything around and hang a second group of quilts that will be on display January 12 - 21. Enjoy the slide show!

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The Story of Sylvia's at Glad Creations

In the spring of 2009, we received a new quilt pattern book at Glad Creations. The title of the book was Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. The author, Jennifer Chiaverini, is also the author of the "Elm Creek Quilts" series of fictional stories featuring a quilting guild in central Pennsylvania. In the sixth book of this fictional series, the members of the quilt guild make a wedding quilt using 6" x 6" quilt blocks for their founder, Sylvia. This led to the book we were looking at, Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, which features patterns for the 140 6" quilt blocks that the guild used in Sylvia's quilt.





Susan and Nancy, owners of Glad Creations Quilt Block in Minneapolis, looked at this book and thought it would be fun to make all these blocks. We talked about how long it would take to actually complete this project. We started wondering if anyone else would want to do it with us. As we talked to our quilting friends around the shop we found out that quite a few people were interested in this project.

So, we decided to start a club. We planned on 2 ½ years to complete the project. We sorted the blocks out by technique and planned club meetings, about 4 times each year, each of which focused on a particular technique. Imagine our surprise when almost 100 people signed up to participate in the club! Our group ranged from fairly new quilters to very experienced quilters and included quilters from all around the Twin Cities Metro area. We shared ideas on techniques and everyone learned and improved their skills.

So here's the result. We have about 40 completed quilts to display. They will be shown in two exhibits. The first will hang January 1 – 10, 2012. The second exhibit, with a completely different group of quilts will be shown January 11 – 21, 2012. Not everyone completed all of the blocks but put together the blocks they did complete into a variety of interesting sets.

What an exciting week it is as folks are dropping off their Sylvia's quilts at the shop, getting ready for the display. What an accomplishment! Congratulations to all who have worked on this project!

Watch our blog for a slide show of the first group of quilts on January 1, 2012. We'll post a slide show of the second group on January 12, 2012. www.gladcreationsquilts.blogspot.com.

Mystery Weekend 48

All four sessions of Mystery Weekend 48 are done. We can't show the Mystery Quilts yet because some folks are still working on the quilt via Mystery by Mail. But, we can share all the fun "show & tell" that we saw during the Mystery Weekend sessions. We saw lots of quilts from past Mystery Weekends and many other fun projects that participants have been working on recently.
We snapped some photos during "show & tell" so we could share all the fun in a slide show. We've labeled quilts that use Glad Creations patterns plus some that were made in other classes at Glad Creations. It's so fun to see our Glad Creations designs come back made up in so many different color combinations! You'll also see a preview of some of the quilts that are in the works for our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler show that we'll be hanging in January.

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Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

When we started our Sylvia's Bridal Sampler club a year and a half ago, it seemed that a quilt show in January 2012 was a long time away. Now it's just around the corner. We're having our last sessions of the club this coming Monday and Tuesday. The members have really stuck with it--although some of those blocks were really hard! If you don't know about the Sylvia's blocks, they are from the book Sylvia's Bridal Sampler from Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini. There are 140 six inch blocks using a variety of techniques. I think we will have enough quilts in our show to put up 2 quilt displays. Our only criteria for displaying your quilt was that it had to be completely finished--quilted and bound. I think some of the members made all of the blocks and will have a bed sized quilt--some will be lap quilts or wallhangings. We'll have all the specifics for entering your quilt ready by next week. If anyone else has finished a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilt or if you are not coming to the final club meeting, let us know so we can send you the entry information.

Several of the club members have used the classrooms to lay out their blocks and make their final decisions. It's been really fun to see the blocks in different fabrics. Both Nathan and Dee have posted photos on their blogs. Check them out--we have links to their blogs on this page.

I've made all of the 140 blocks--I guess that's the pressure of being in charge of the club. I might not use all of them in my quilt. Now to make the final decision--how to lay out the blocks. One bed-size quilt or 2 lap size? I've been playing with some different layouts. Should I use a straight setting with sashing?




















Or set my blocks on point? Maybe I should use alternating squares. Time to make those decisions. I have a quilting date set in December, so it's time to sew blocks together.










I'm really looking forward to seeing all of the quilts. I know it will be an amazing show--or maybe 2 shows. Watch for information on the dates of the show. We will have all the specifics in our next class schedule and in our E-mail update. We hope you will come!

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Club

We just had our first meetings of the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Club. We had a group on Monday night and another on Tuesday night. Everyone will be making the quilt from the book Sylvia's Bridal Sampler from Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini. The quilt is made of 140 ~ 6" blocks. The photo shows a sampling of the blocks we talked about in our first session. We will meet for the 2nd session in July and then after that one time a quarter. Our plan is to put on a quilt show of these quilts in January 2012. If you had not heard about the club or missed signing up, we will repeat the 1st 2 sessions again in the Fall, followed by the 3rd session. Watch for information in the Fall newsletter. Sign up for the 1st 2 sessions and you will be ready to continue on with the group. Come in to the shop to see some samples up close! We have about 70 quilters working on their quilts now! Nancy and I are thrilled that so many of our quilting friends are joining us in this adventure.
Happy quilting! Susan