A challenge or two, or maybe three

I could not bring myself to create another house today.  I tried to pull fabric, but they all so no.  I had ten things on my list to get done between last Friday and today, so I grabbed the list to see what I had left.  On it were three challenges.

Challlenge #1  Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict put up a challenge to design a block any size using blocks no bigger than 5", 3.5" and 2", cut.  They could be smaller.  I love a puzzle, so I started with a 12" square design, and started filling the space with squares.  My drawing called for 4.5", 3.5", 2.5", and 1.5". 

Since one of my goals this year is to conquer the Y seam, I paid no attention to how it all laid out.  In the end, I ended up with two Y seams, and I pulled them off without a hitch.  After the drawing, I had to pull fabric, which lead to

Challenge #2  At the November Rebels meeting, we each took a piece of this fabric and are to return with a project using it in February.

I started out really not liking this fabric.  Then I decided the colors were okay if I only paid attention to them.  So, I pulled it out and started pulling other colors.  I decided not to focus on the reds and blues, but on the golds, pinks, deep purples and mauves.

When I was pulling the pink hand dyed, I remembered the small Madonna from Victoria, and knew I had to use it.  It violates the rules about squares in the first challenge, but maybe I can sqeak it by.  I also pulled a couple of scraps from the Mexican Star quilt and another batik I thought would work well.  I seem to be in a very warm color mood these days.  I know there is a fancy name for this color combination besides complimentary, but it escapes me at the moment.  It is one I like.

Here are a couple of detail shots.

I decided I could use some vignettes of the challenge fabric, as long as I kept them small.

Challenge #3 The colors for the Patchwork Times February color challenge have been posted.

I have them up on the wall, and I noticed that today's puzzle project was very near the right colors for the left half of the bar.  If I want to add lime green strips and borders, I will have completed challenge #3.  Hmmm.

All in all, I got 6 1/2 things out of the ten done.  I usually over-estimate much worse than that.

I will be with Bella the next three days, so you probably won't hear from me before Friday.

Until then, joyful quilting everyone.

What if I tried a different color palette

This year, I decided to work on four different aspects of my quilting.  I wrote about them here.  One of the really important ones to me was number four, color.  I really want to try and break out of my old standard palette, so today, I did just that.

I went to a quilt group meeting on Wednesday, and Sally showed the most beautiful quilt she had recently finished in these colors.  She generously shared a roll of strips she had cut from the borders so I could play in a new palette.  It was instant love.

I started pulling fabrics from my stash, and was very surprised to find so many that worked.  I was very excited to get to the studio this morning to play.

Before I started, I found a few more pieces of fabric I thought would work, and they do.  I am not sure how this quilt will grow, but I know I want to start with Victoria's Triangles Galore star, so I set about cutting all my triangles.  Then I laid them out on the table.

Before I even started sewing, I had to put some of Sally's strips around the edge to see how it was going to work.  It all goes so well together.  I only got a little of the piecing started before I had to leave for the afternoon, but I plan on working longer in the studio tomorrow to see where this will take me.

I have created quilts in several different palettes, but most of the ones that differ from my fall back palette of teal, orange, olive, turquoise, and purple, have been for other people who wanted different colors.  This one is an intentional moving into new colors and opening up new possibilities.  I am not sure why this is important to me right now, but it is, so I am going to go with it. 

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

AAQI and emergency bear surgery.

First, the bear.

Isn't he sweet?  For Christmas, Bella received two Build-A-Bear kits.  Her mother put one together and I put the other one together.  I wanted to bring it home to sew on my machine, but Bella wanted me to do it right then so she could take it in for her nap.  I agreed with the understanding that when it began to fall apart, because of the really crazy way they had for assembling it, I would have to take it to my house to sew on the machine.  Today, Bella came over, bear in hand, and said, "I wish I had listened to you in the first place, Nanny."  Music to a Nanny's ears.  So, I took the bear apart, took out the stuffing, and sewed it together like it should have been in the first place.  The operation was a success.

The other thing I did today was to start my January AAQI mini quilt.  When I joined in the 2012 Color Palette Challenge over at Patchwork Times, I decided to use the monthly palette to create my monthly AAQI mini.  This is the color palette for January.

I think I did okay with the colors. 

The other thing I wanted to include were prairie points.  Why prairie points?  I was watching Susan Cleveland on the Quilt Show the other day, and she made some of the cutest prairie points I have ever seen.  I thought they would make a great addition to my intuitive quilts.  This AAQI quilt is completely intuitive, even though it has some traditional elements.  Sometimes, my intuition tells me I need something traditional.  I am going to hand quilt it with #8 perle cotton in the deep purple.  If you notice, you will see my safety pin basting.  I will post it again when it is finished.

That is what I have been up to so far today.

Joyful quilting, everyone.



Starting block for Improvisational Round Robin

In December, I was chatting with Stephanie at Venus de Hilo about round robins.  We were both inspired by Victoria at Bumble Beans, Inc. She and a friend did an improvisational round robin exchange that got us to thinking.  What if we did something similar, only with more people.  Stephanie got it all worked out, and there are five of us in this first group.  This piece is my center for the first step.

I have been playing with scraps, in my usual color choices, with nothing in particular in mind.  Then, at my guild meeting on Tuesday, I was presented with 17 of the spool blocks in a variety of colors.  This one, made by Sharon M., really struck my fancy.  In the middle of the night, I realized it would work really well with the scraps I was playing with.  This morning, I pulled out the scrap units, and played until I came up with this.  I am really excited to see what other people add to it over the next five months.  This is my first round robin.

Speaking of color choices, Victoria is doing a series about color and quilters and the way they select color.  Check this post out to read her interview with Stephanie at Loft Creations.  Read a couple of earlier posts to say what Victoria has to say about her color choices.  Then head over the Loft Creations for Stephanie's interview of Victoria.

I will be back in the studio for the next four days.  I have the first clue for the mystery quilt made into a PDF.  If anyone could tell me how to create a link in my blog for this, I would be most grateful.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Color - Wow!

You may remember this piece I did a couple of months ago.  I used the Harmonic Conversion pattern from Ricky Tim's book of the same name.  I only used one fabric to create the inside, then added the two borders.  Well. . . . when I was cleaning a space in the studio, I came across it again in a pile of UFOs.  I also found a piece of Spirit by Lila Tueller for Moda in another pile.  Hmmmm.  Could they possibly go together?  How would I make them harmonize?

I know you are not used to this much bold color from me, but maybe this will be a new direction. I added four inch borders and fussy cut some of the pattern elements to applique on to the top.  This is what it looks like now.  I still have stitching to do, but I am very excited by this look right now.  The two fabric lines work great together because of color and line.  I was able to harmonize them by bringing elements past the border into the center.  This is certainly different from the very traditional piece I have been working on.  It has been interesting to see the drop off in comments with the traditional piece.  I wonder if it is just coincidence.  Anyway, here are a couple of closeups of the applique pieces fused onto the top.

 

I do hope you are all enjoying the longest day of the year.  As I write this, my sister-in-law is sitting on the ground at Dulles International Airport, in a plane, waiting for yet another thunder storm to pass.  So far, the flight is over two hours late taking off.  Oh well.  You can't mess with Mother Nature when she gets excited.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

A new AAQI quilt

Today, I made a new mini quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  I call this one Inside Out.  The name came from the fact that the points of the upper star are outside the red arc and the points on the smaller star are on the inside of the red arc.  I used made fabric for the corners of the stars and the background fabric.  I added the red to the turquoises for a surprise effect.  I really like the way it is working.  Playing with colors is so much fun!
Tomorrow, I am going to do more work on the ribbon quilt before I go over to watch Bella for a few hours in the early evening.  I will try and post progress before I go.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

Playing with color - a little block

I have spent the week doing things other than sewing.  On Tuesday, after watching Bella all day, I cooked a Cambodian dinner for 15 women.  More about that later.  On Wednesday, I watched Bella.  On Thursday, I went to my Bernina class to learn how to use all the bells and whistles on my new machine. In the afternoon, I started getting ready for my trip to Bremerton to my sister's.  I will be staying here for a week (with two days back home to take care of Bella and go to guild meeting).  I am cat sitting while Sis and BIL go on a cruise.  The photo above is one of the views from the deck.  It is a Washington State Ferry leaving for Seattle.  To prepare for this week, I sorted and bagged many projects to work on while I am here.  My sister has a new Bernina that I am going to love working on.  It has more bells and whistles than mine.

One of the many projects I brought was pieces for a block I need for my color class on Tuesday.  I am going to be talking about playing with color outside of theory and rules.  I have a strong background in the formal study of color, but I like to step outside that box every now and then.  One of the things I am going to challenge the group to do is pick out two colors they really don't like together.  Then, we are going to play with other colors that make those two colors work.  For me, it is brown and yellow.  I really don't like this combination.  So, I picked up some teal and orange and designed a block that woud make me like the brown and yellow together.  This one works for me. 
So, why did I cook a Cambodian dinner on Tuesday night?  I have joined a local chapter of Dining For Women.  Please go check out this site.  We have someone in our group who has thoroughly vetted the organization, and I think it is a very worthy program.  Each month, the organization dedicates all money raised during the month to women and children's organizations in developing countries around the world.  Each month features a different country and our group has decided that each month, a small group of women will fix the meal using recipes from the featured country.  This month was Cambodia.  I get to cook again in November when India will be featured.
That's is it for today.  While I sit back and enjoy the evening on the water, I want to leave you with this question.  

What colors do you really dislike together, and

what other colors could you use to make them work for you? 

Joyous quilting, everyone.

A new harmonic convergence

Today I pulled out another piece of fabric to try a different approach to the harmonic convergence.  I have to admit, I purchased this fabric just for the joy of it.  The colors are all the ones I love, and it is so exciting. I had no idea what I would do with it when I purchased it. I decided I could cut four 10" squares from different places in the fabric, and converge them together to make something even more exciting.  Thus was born Rumba.

One of the really interesting things about taking photos for the blog is seeing how different things look on my screen than on my design wall.  The colors look a little washed out here, but they are really very vibrant. The photos I took of my containment border auditions really show how the camera lies about true color, compounded by the limitations of the computer screen.  I have decided to share the photos with you anyway.

I decided I wanted to push the warm oranges, reds, and golds, so my first choice was an orange border.  I should have known better from my art background.  See how the cools stand out and the warms fade into the border?  It is even more evident on the design wall. Tom suggested I try the teal that I was trying out for the second border.  I really like how that one brings out the warms.  I am going to piece the next border using other blues, plus a little of the orange and some of the original fabric.  The piece, without any borders, is 15 by 16.  I think it will become another table topper.

Why Rumba?  It just reminds me of a lively, exciting dance, and I used to love to Rumba.  It could have been Salsa, but I never really got into that.  Besides, Rumba is a dance that starts on the opposite beat than most, so it seems to suit me better.

New Challenge and the week in review

This week, Victoria over at 15 minutes play set us a new challenge.  Create a new 8 inch piece of fabric.  Then do something to it to make it into a 12 inch block.  The challenge is to do something I don't usually do.  For the 8 inch square, I used strata and curved pieces.  I rarely do either of these things.  Now, I have to let the fabric tell me what else to do to take it to 12 inches.  That will have to wait until Monday.  I won't be able to get back into the studio much until then.

This week has been very productive. I have linked up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for the Whoop Whoop Friday to share what I have done. She is having a give-away this week. Check out the other linked blogs to see what everyone is doing.
I finished the intuition quilt top.  I have been auditioning fabric for the back and think I have found enough of two that I really like.  I will work on that next week.

I also put the finishing touches on the design for the Coming Home quilt.  I really enjoy designing sampler type quilts.  I am thinking about publishing some of my patterns and selling them.  First, of course, I have to make all of them and figure out how to calculate yardage.  Coming Home will be my first one.  It is still not bed size, but with borders, it could become a nice quilt for my bed.

I completed three elements of Coming Home and put them up on the design wall. I am really enjoying searching through my stash for just the right fabrics.  This quilt will be more subdued colorwise than my intuition quilt.  I love exploring different color combinations.  Yesterday, I was at the local pharmacy, browsing the eye make-up section.  There are such fun color combinations in those little eye shadow compacts.  I was thinking that I should try and make small quilts using these combinations.  Or, I could just use some of them in the different Coming Home elements.  If you look, there are great color ideas everywhere.

One other really fun thing I started was this medallion style quilt.  It started out as a 15 minute play block.  I have selected the fabric for the next border.  Maybe I will get it sewn on this morning.  So far, I really like this piece. 

Next week, new studio adventures await.  I am excited to see where the path and the fabric will take me.  Joyful creating, everyone.

Thinking About Color

I finally found some time to get back to my intuition quilt. I keep finding wonderful colors and patterns in my stash bins (a gift from a friend) that I want to include in the quilt. Fortunately, the original color palette is one I can add my favorite colors to. I love interesting color combinations. I tend to select fabric in the olive green, gold tone, rusty orange, teal blue, and turquoise families. There are some purples that work really well in this group. I can also add other blues and greens and an occasional touch of bright orange. I really enjoy the happiness and the richness of these colors together.

For the house, I added the orange column to liven up the plain color of the house. I decided to use the golden batik to symbolize a warm sunny day. I found a small piece of the flower fabric on the left and knew I had to use it. There is a bit more of this I will use elsewhere in the quilt. The roof is made from the left over sashing and border of the D9P. In fact, many of the scraps used in this quilt are from the quilts I made last year as gifts for the family. I love having something to remind me of these quilts.

After I made the house, I decided to make some fabric and create another block for the quilt.

This is still a challenge to me. It is like making a collage, only I have to figure out how to sew it together - the challenge part. I chose this block to introduce a little more blue. They are scraps from a challenge quilt I am working on. You can see below how both these new blocks fit into the growing intuition quilt.