Still quilting

I have spent the last few days making sure I had everything ready for my guild's upcoming show.  The show is July 22 - 24 at the downtwon Renton branch of the King County Library, if anyone is interested.  I am entering five pieces.  At this time last week, only two were finished.  I have shown you the finished Tanzanian Tango, Rhumba, and the Iris.  I am also showing a vest I made, but haven't figured out how to photograph it well because it is pretty dark.  On Friday, I quilted Farmer's Market and attached the binding by machine.  I put the last hand stitches in it this morning.  It is pretty bright, but I do love it.

While I was quilting away, my husband came in with a surprise for me - a new shelf for fabric!  Here you can see how my stash has been stored, and the new shelf after the first five minutes of cleaning off one table surface.

It is a bit fuller now, since I cleaned off another table.  I don't think it will hold everything that is in the bins, but I have another shelving unit coming at the end of the month that I hope will hold most of it.  My stash consists mostly of smaller pieces of fabric - fat quarter size to half yard size.  I haven't done much stash building.  Most of the time, I only buy fabrics I need for a specific project.  Every once in a while, however, I do buy small amounts of something just because I love it. 

My last project with a deadline is the H2H quilt.  It is on the frame as of this morning.



You might have noticed in the first photo and in this one that my batting and top are just hanging and not on pick-up rollers.  I started doing this about six months ago, and I am much happier with the results I am getting.  I have much more control of the top while I am quilting using this method.  I know it probably breaks a few rules, but it works very well for me.  This quilt needs to be done and in the mail Tuesday. 

My list of new projects is growing daily.  For one of them, I need to find Kelly green fabric.  For two of them, I have some ideas for color, but have to earn some money to buy it.  These three are gift quilts.  Then there are the three I want to make for us, and more to make for charity.  I have also embarked on a Matisse QAL with Victoria at BumbleBeans.  Such fun!

Project updates

The iris is finished.  I used several different Superior King Tut threads for the quilting and the thread play.  I chose two purple blends to applique and outline the flower petals as well as the thread play.  I have never done thread play before, and just tried it based on what I have seen on the web.  It was sort of fun, but made me a little tense.  I was so happy with the flower, I didn't want to ruin it.  In the end, it comes close to matching the image I had in my head, but I can definitely use more practice.  I used a green blend thread to do all over stippling on the green background.   This piece was great fun for me, for the most part.  I enjoyed going through Tom's photos to find the right flower.  I had fun sketching it out, deciding what parts to leave in and how to simplify the drawing to make a quilt.  I had fun selecting the fabrics, and all the rest.  I decided on a batik that has a light value for the binding.  It is hard to see in the photo, I think it works well.  With this finished, and Rhumba complete, I only have Farmer's Market to complete for the quilt show.  I think I will get that quilted tomorrow.

While I was in a quilting mood, I took the solid challenge off the design wall and quilted it.  Before I did, I drew what I wanted on the paper I was using for size.  Then I quilted the straight lines, followed by the circles.  There was something missing, so I chose three small areas to to small stippling.  I am pretty pleased about this piece, except for the bits of puckering I just couldn't get rid of.  At one point, I thought about starting another piece instead, but stuck with this one because I really liked the way it looked.  I hope my swap partner will overlook the flaws and enjoy it for the overall look.
We are having summer here for a few days.  It is quite beautiful and warm.  We finally felt a need to turn on the fans.  Summer is quite a treat around here, when it arrives.  I am hoping the strawberries in the yard begin to produce some fruit.  The blueberry bushes are full and are beginning to get ripe.  Bella loves to pick the blueberries.  We gave up on the hope for tomatoes this year.  Maybe next year.  I am still hoping for a raised bed garden, but we have to find a space where it will get enough sun besides the front yard.  For now, we do what we can.
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.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

The Blogger's Quilt Festival begins today over at Amy' Creative Side.  I am excited to be a part of this great and exciting show.  Any quilt blogger may link up to her blog for this week to show a quilt.  Take some time to look at one or all of these beautiful quilts and read about how they were made. 

Tanzania Tango is my entry for this show.  Some time ago, I purchased some fabric made in Tanzania to add to my stash.  I really had no idea what to do with it.  Then, I discovered Ricky Tim's Harmonic Convergence and I fell in love with this process.  I like the idea of not having total control of the outcome.  (That is also what drew me to Victoria Findlay Wolfe's 15 Minute Play techniques.)  For the center of this quilt, I used four different fat quarters.  They were tied together in color, sort of.  Once I got the center sewn together, I was really excited about how the purple swirl pattern became a focal image.  I decided to pick up on the orange for the inner border.  I think that pulls all the fabrics together, and it contrasts well with the purple so that it really stands out.  I chose a gold on black fabric for the outer border because the gold pattern is almost a repeat of a pattern in one of the Tanzanian fabrics.  I used a deep purple binding to help bring out the purple swirls even more. 

I really didn't know what to do with the back.  I thought about going with a solid black, orange, or gold at one point.  Then, I decided I had just enough left of the quilt fabric to piece a back.  I am really glad I went that way.  Now, you can see what the original fabrics looked like.  I used a piece of the bottom row to make a label.  I actually finished this piece last night, and was excited to post it, but blogger got in the way.  I am happy they fixed their problems so I could share this with you all.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

Another Convergence start

I started with two lovely pieces of batik that I purchased in a scrap box from Carol Doak.  There was this turquoise piece and a purple piece, amongst a total of 42 different fabrics.  I was blown away with the quality and size of these "scraps."  I was also very excited to see them all in my colors.  I cut 16" squares from the turquoise and purple. stacked them, and made three curved cuts.

I swapped out the center piece can came up with these two squares.  I cut each one in different width strips, and alternated them.  I didn't take photos of this step because it is much better explained in Ricky Tims' book about Convergence quilts.  I have talked about this book before.  I really like the way each technique is explained and there are great examples for inspiration.

This is what I got after I sewed all the strips together.  It is 15" by 24.5".  I am going to add a border and use it as a table runner on the coffee table in Tom's photo studio.  I just love these colors and the leafy pattern on the purple fabric.  The color difference is subtle between the two fabrics I selected, but I can still see the curved elements, and I like what they are doing.  Next time, I may try more contrasting fabric.  I know I will be making more.  I am even learning to enjoy sewing curves.

I also made two more blocks for the Market Basket quilt.  I still have to come up with a name for this one.  I did go pick up three more fabrics for the last three blocks.  I got bananas, carrots, and mixed berries.  This is going to be one yummy quilt.

Joyous quilting, everyone!

A new Alzheimer's Art Quilt and a pieced border

I decided to make a small Tanzanian Tango for my March Alzheimer's Art Quilt.  This time, I started with 8" squares.  I cut my strips smaller and made sure I used a scant 1/4 inch.  These quilts have a maximum size limit of 9" x 12" including binding.  I didn't have enough room to add the same borders as the original piece, so I decided to add the black and gold pieces to the ends, then use orange for the binding.  This piece is 8" x 11.5".

I worked on the second border for Rumba today, as well.  I made strips of hand dyed fabric in two different shades of turquoise and a sky blue along with the teal from the containment border and the original fabric.  I sewed the strips together in a wonky fashion to match off-kilter lines in the original fabric.  Then I cut the striped sections into 3" sections.  I sewed them end to end to make long enough strips for the piece.  I am really happy with the way this is coming along.  I like the way the blues continue to bring out the bright oranges, reds, and golds.  I don't know what comes next.  Does this stop here, or do I continue to add borders to make this into a lap quilt.  Time will tell.  Presently, the piece is 23" x 24".

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.

My first convergence quilt

No.  This is not it.  This is a project I started doing with pieced curves.  When I finally started hand sewing the curves, I decided to scrap the original project, and see what would happen if I sliced this up, rearranged it, sewed and sliced some more, adding more fabric here and there.  This is the result.

Then, I got out my new Ricky Tims' book on convergence quilts.  I have wanted to do this for a long time.  I cannot afford any of the great hand-dyed fabric out there that is really perfect for this project, so I went through my stash to see what I could find that I could make work.  I found some fat quarters of African fabric that I have been collecting, and selected four for this project.

I followed the directions for the harmonic convergence.  I wanted the patterns of the fabrics to keep their strength in the finished piece, so I placed the first pieces carefully.  After cutting, sewing, turning, cutting, and sewing again, this is what I created.

I really liked it, but wanted to add just the right borders.  I selected bright orange for the small containment border and a gold on black pattern that mimics one of the patterns in the African fabric.  Once, I put it all together, I was really pleased.  I am calling it Tanzanian Tango.  I love this process and will be doing more of these quilts.

To see some of Ricky Tims' convergence quilts, take a look at his web site.