Farmer's Wife blocks and more quilting

I have been seeing several bloggers quilting along on the Farmer's Wife quilt blocks.  Here is a Flickr group where you can see a couple thousand of these blocks. I was sure I wasn't going to jump on this quiltalong. When I was at the library the other day, I saw the book was in  so I grabbed it to see what all the fuss was about.  The book is The Farmer's Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird.  There are 55 wonderful stories written by farm wives in the 1920's as part of a contest.  There are also 111 six inch quilt blocks.  When I started reading the stories, I thought it might be fun to do the blocks.  The one above is #1 and it is called Attic Window.  The one below is #2, Autumn Tints.  I am going to redo #1 to get back my points.  There are templates on an attached CD, but I don't really like using templates, so I goofed on the measurements.  I know where I went wrong, so I will fix it tomorrow.

I also worked on my Lotta Jansdotter Echo fabric, but I don't want to show it until it is finished.  It has been quite the topic of discussion around here with Tom, Lisa (my daughter), and Bella all weighing in on what I might do to improve the overall design.  After weighing all their input, I added some design elements and I think it is much improved.  I will try and get it done tomorrow to share here and over at Modern 8 Create.

I started the day by practicing my free motion quilting.  I started yesterday with the sample on the left, and today I did the one on the right.  My hand was definitely steadier today, but I really do have a long way to go.  I am just glad I have started working on it. 

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.  Joyful quilting.

Modern 8 Create and a new challenge quilt

I have been invited to join with a group of seven other quilters to who will challenge and encourage each other to continue to explore the depths of our creativity.  We will have regular challenges posed by the members, and occasionally we will be given pre-release fabric to play with.  You can watch our progress over at http://modern8create.blogspot.com/.

Our first challenge is to use a small charm pack of the new fabric line by Lotta Jansdotter for Windham Fabrics.  It is called Echo, and it is very modern and exciting.  I have been playing with it a couple of days, and this is what I have on my design board so far.

Hop on over to Modern 8 Create to see what the others are doing.

It is warm and beautiful in the Pacific Northwest and we are finally enjoying our summer.  The strawberries in the yard are starting to get red.  The blueberries are turning blue.  The cane raspberries in the neighbors yard are getting ripe.  And the fuchsia has decided it is warm enough to bloom, finally.  Soon enough, the cool fall weather will arrive and my favorite season will begin.  I have a long list of quilts I want to get made over the next three months.  All is good with the world.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

A couple of small new things

I have been a bit under the weather the past couple of days and it has really affected my quilting.  Most things I sewed together got taken apart again because they were done wrong.  My brain was not working as well as it needs to for quilting.  So, today, I was determined to get something done to post and to get me started in the right direction again.  This is my guild's BOM in process.  I love the colors and hope to win the blocks this month.  I have more of this green fabric.  It is a Robert Kaufman manufactured in Japan.  It has a very interesting texture.  I wish I had bought more when I was in California.  I will finish up two of these blocks tomorrow and start on the presentation blocks.  They are also Christmas colors.  They are for a member who loves Aunt Gracie fabrics, and I have a vintage piece of Christmas fabric I think I will use for her blocks.

One of the other things I did over the past couple of days is to deconstruct several of the thrift shop shirts and dresses in my stash.  When I saw this one, I thought it would be great as a first border around Hokule'a.  These are just on the design wall and not attached yet.  I am thinking of putting some pieces of the dark background fabric in random places around the border to let the center breath instead of walling it off.  I was inspired to use this bright fabric by wonderful advice from members of the Rebels group of quilters.  Fabulous quilters who share ideas and advice.  I think the next border will be stars of some kind.  I do love star blocks.

Finally, I have decided to start practicing my free motion quilting so I can move beyond the stippling stage.  I do like the look of stippling because I want the focus to be on the fabric and the patterns of color and design, but there are times I wish I was a better free motion quilter.  From the look of my first small practice piece, I have a long way to go. But hey, it's a start. I am going to work my way through Leah Day's FMQ tutorials, trying to get at least one small piece done each day.  (When I say small, I mean 3" squares)
Other than that, not much else to report.  Have a joy filled evening.

Bella's newest design

As some of you know, I have a three year old granddaughter who loves fabric and creating on my design wall.  This is her newest design.

I am going to see what I can do to make this into a mini quilt for her.  I have the photo, and the fabric.  Now, I just have to play with some sewing techniques to put it all together.

For myself, I started a new project with the Asian fabrics I have been collecting since before I started quilting again.  I have seen this pattern around in many variations.  I had great hopes.

Imagine my despair as I went to put it on the design wall only to have the black fabric begin falling apart on me.  You can see some of the whitish tear marks on the upper right side.  I knew this fabric was odd when I ironed it and it smelled funny.  Not polyester funny, but something else.  Foolish me, I just ignored it and went on my merry way.  I love how the block looks, so I will make more, but I have thrown all the black out, including the pieces in this block.  It was easy to get them off.  They just disintegrated.  Sometimes, free fabric, even when it looks and feels okay at first, is not to be trusted.  Live and learn.

I am still trying to get the new quilters as readers club off the ground.  So far, I have one other person interested.  Look for more information soon, as well as a giveaway to help spread the word.

Joyful quilting, everyone.,

A little Matisse, another fish, a finished bookshelf top

Back in early July, Victoria over at Bumblebeans Inc invited people to quilt along on our own interpretations of any Matisse painting we liked.  I started by selecting this painting and these fabrics.

That was then.  After several starts and stops, I have arrived at this stage.

At this point, everything looks a bit out of proportion.  I will be able to fix some of that with the next additions, but it is still just my interpretation and not meant to be a real portrait.  There are several curved seams and quite a few Y-seams in this piece.  I was going to work in all solids, but I wanted to get the look that I could only get with batiks for a few sections.  When all the piecing is done, I am going to applique a flower or two to the hat.  I don't know if I will leave the face blank or add eyes.  I guess the piece will tell me what it wants.  This has been a real challenge, but I have learned so much doing this and that is what it is all about sometimes.

I finished the top for the bookcase wall hanging quilt.  It looks a little droopy in the photo, but it really is straight.  I know how I am going to quilt the book spines, but I am not sure about the background yet.  I think I will put a daisy on the mug.

I added another fish and now have a nice little family.

Have any of you heard about Cover to Cover Book Club Quilters?  They are Oregon based and they create quilts based on books they read.   Some of them are totally amazing.  I would love to start an online book club with other quilters to do the same thing.  Anyone game?  Take a look at some of the quilts these quilters have made and let me know what you think.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Taking on the Y seam

Here is my second fish.  Only ten more to go for the swap.  I did cut out two more bodies from this strata.  I used some already made fabric for the tail and the bottom fin.  The top fin is from a batik scrap.  The water fabric is consistent with all the swappers.  This fish is 14.5" by 8.5".  These fish are a bunch of fun to make, but they take time, at least for me who is angle challenged, it seems.

I got the top shelf of two done today.  I started on the bottom shelf.  I think it is going to be a challenge to get the widths to match for each section.  Again, it is the angles of the leaning books.  I really like the way they look, though, so I am keeping them.  The little blue and yellow pieces is another story,

The other day, I found a photo I took a couple of years ago of an abandoned lumber yard.  One of the walls of the main building was a mish-mash of boards and windows of different colors and textures.  It was that time of day when the sun was glowing in reflection on the glass, making the building look like there was a fire inside.  I decided it looked like a quilt.  Then, before I could get it sketched out, I misplaced the photo.  So, I started sketching my impressions of the photo, and I think it is better than it would have been if I had the photo.  The only problem is that there are tons of Y, or set-in, seams on the left half of the quilt.  I tried re-drawing it to make them go away, but I didn't like it half as well.  So, I am going to have to learn to make them.  I started to learn a while ago, but gave up.  Thus, the blue and yellow piece.

This is my fourth attempt today, and there is still a pucker in the corner.  At least I am heading in the right direction.  Now that I have an incentive, I will keep at it every day until I am happy with the results.  Hopefully, that won't be a long time. 
Have a wonderful quilty weekend.

The quilted book shelf

I got the first three sections of the bookshelf done today.  I have one more section of the top shelf, then I start on the bottom shelf.  It is fun putting the puzzle together where the books lean.  In the third section, I appliqued a fabric circle of Beatle fabric.  MAD is a Beatle's fan, so it seemed like the right thing to do.   I am loving the fabrics she selected for this project.  I will work more on it tomorrow.

I worked on building some strata for more fish today.  I got some of them sewn together, but it got too warm in the studio, so I decided to finish the rest tomorrow.  I will make several fish bodies using this.  Then, I will try something new.
I will have more to share tomorrow.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

Some ribbons and a fish

No, these are not all the ribbons I won at our quilt show last weekend.  These are, however, the ribbons we will be handing out at our guild meeting to the winners in this year's show.  There were some outstanding quilts featured in the show.  Over the next few days, I will try and share a few of them.  I had fun making all the ribbons.  I folded the points and stitched them together using a stiff pellon button covered with batting and fabric on the top.  I used iron on labels to cover the backs.  Each one gives the year and the type of award it is.

After I got the last pin affixed to the last ribbon, I started playing with fish.  I have joined a swap over at Mary Lou Weidman's Yahoo group and we are all making brightly colored fish.  This fish block is 14" long by 8" tall.  I used a piece of made fabric that doesn't go with any of my other made fabric.  It was just the right size.  Mary Lou teaches a method she calls hootchie mama piecing, and I tried it with this block.  I was amazed at how much stress was reduced using this method.  I have already sketched out an idea of how I want to put the 12 blocks I will receive together.  I will be working on these blocks for a while along with MAD's bookshelf quilt.  They should keep me out of trouble for a while.
Did any of you read the article in the new issue of Quilter's Newsletter about modern quilting?  It sort of gives an overview of the modern quilting movement.  I don't really consider myself a modern quilter, but found it interesting. There is also a cool lesson on whole-cloth "Applique" where you do no cutting.  You use permanent markers.  Intrigued?  I am ready to try it on a small scale.  Not too small, though, as it calls for very tiny stipple quilting as it is. I also downloaded free patterns for four 9 patch quilts from the Quilter's Newsletter site.  Free patterns are a good thing.

Finished H2H quilt

I finished the binding on my H2H quilt and it is in a box and ready to mail to Green Fairy Quilts.  I really enjoyed making this quilt.  I am going to use the pattern on a couple more quilts I am making for family members, at their request.  One will be black, white, and green.  I am not sure of the other one yet.  It will be bold and have oranges in it.  That is as far as I have gotten.  Here is a detail of the quilting.

I received a wonderful 15" x 15" quilt yesterday as part of a solids challenge quilt exchange at 15 Minutes Play.  Isn't it incredible! Thank you Nancy B.

The deer just wandered through my back yard.  They don't eat weeds, you know.  My hostas are gone now.  I have to go protect my fuchsias.
Have a wonderful quilty day.

A new project and two fabric stores

My friend, MAD, asked if we could create a wall hanging for her bedroom while I was visiting her in the San Francisco Bay area.  Of course, I was very excited.  I thought and thought about what to do, and came upon the idea of book shelves.  MAD is a voracious reader, a reviewer of YA literature for VOYA (a journal about YA lit), and the best English teacher I have ever met.  Book shelves seemed like a no brainer.  Fortunately, she liked the idea. (editor's notes:  This idea was inspired by a project by Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy) We found fabric she liked for the spines and a wonderful woodgrain print for the shelves.  I brought a few pieces from my stash for background and a few more books.  Then I set to work sketching, measuring, and cutting.  The photo above is the space I turned into a quilting studio for the morning.  You can see the shelving unit has two shelves with four spaces in each one.

 

I cut all the book fabrics into 2" strips that I could cut to any size I needed to match my sketches.  I put them all on the ironing board so I could pull colors as I needed.  I want to make sure I balance the values and the colors throughout the piece.  I am finding it pretty easy to adapt any space to a studio.

This is the first space laid out.  I haven't put the background in, so you can see the placemat in the background.  I will piece all of this when I get home.  Today, I am going to work on the rest of the spaces.  Then, I will pin all the books together in order for each space, and take photos so I can get them right when I do the final piecing.  I think this is going to be very cool when it is done.
We visited two shops to find the fabric.  One was in Sunnyvale and the other in Santa Cruz.  The shop in Sunnyvale is Eddie's Quilting Bee.  This is a beautiful shop with fabulous fabrics.  The first thing I spotted as we went in was a shelf of Kaffe Fasset I drooled over.  There were wonderful batiks, collections by favorite designers, fantastic Asian designs, $1.00 fat eighths, and the best book collection I have seen in a quilt shop yet.  They also had a good selection of Laurel Burch designs, and novelty prints.  I think I may have to go back to this shop before I go home on Tuesday.
The second shop we visited was Harts Fabric in Santa Cruz.  This was completely different from Eddie's.  Harts has all kinds of fabric, including a huge selection of upholstery and home decor.  There is a wall of quilting cottons in one room that is separated by color.  There are Tula Pinks and several Moda designers, but you have to look for them in the color sections.  I know some people really like this kind of layout.  It makes me crazy.   They have a nice selection of Japanese import fabric that I have not seen in person before.  They also have several Liberty of London fabrics.  These are so beautiful, and have a wonderful light hand, but they are $43 per yard.  Worth it if you have extra money to spend.  I don't.  At least I got to see and touch them. 
Have a wonderful quilty weekend, everyone.

Another AAQI quilt finished and fabric if you want it

This is my July AAQI mini.  It is 8" x 10".  I used the mariner's compass pattern I had from Hokule'a.  I liked the idea of the compass helping to point the way, unless you are lost inside the sea of your own brain with Alzheimer's.  The center is made fabric quilted with small stippling to represent the maze of that brain.  I also used small stippling on the background to show how confusing the world can become to someone with dementia.  This is foundation pieced and uses all batik fabrics.

One of my husband's friends came by with a very large box of fabric that had been collecting in their storage space.  There was a wonderful assortment of interesting fabrics.  One of the coolest thing was this selection of solids.  Each is a half yard to a yard.  This is a fantastic addition to my solids collection.  A month ago, I could only find a few small pieces in my stash.  Now, I am ready to work on my Matisse.
One of the pieces of fabric is this piece of  C. S. Shamash and Sons Inc #5574.  It is 4 yards of fabric depicting Plains Indians chasing buffalo. 

If anyone is looking for this fabric, I would love to send it to you.  I tried to find it online, but had no luck.  I know someone out there has been looking for just this piece of fabric.  If you know anyone who is looking for it, I will be happy to trade.    Just let me know.
I am leaving for San Francisco tomorrow morning.  I don't know how much blogging time I will have, but I will try to post updates.  Until next week, joyful blogging.

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.

A little play, a little machine applique, and an award

I started my studio time today making a little bit of fabric.  I need quite a bit of it for some upcoming projects, so I thought I would get started.  If I add six to eight inches every day, I will have enough by mid July to do everything I want.

Next, I got started on the applique portion of the iris.  Before I started, however, I wanted to add leaves.  That meant I had to go get some SteamASeam.  Then I realized I didn't have the right dark green for the leaves, and I was out of stabilizer.  Hmmm.  After a quick trip to JoAnns, where the rotary cutter blades are on sale at 50% off, I cut the leaves, steamed it all together, and started the machine applique.  I was working on another project yesterday and used the double blanket stitch.  After I got half way through, I realized I don't like the look of that stitch very much.  Today, I used the single blanket stitch, and I was much happier.  I got about 2/3 of the way done before my eyes started to cross and I had to call it quits.  So far, I am very happy with what has been happening.

Sunni and Melissa over at Love Affair With My Brother gave me this lovely blog award.  I am supposed to tell you seven things about myself.  Here goes.
1.  I am going to be 65 this year and I'm really excited that I can finally get all those senior discounts out there. 
2.  I am a vegetarian. 
3.  My favorite food is bread.  I especially love hardy European breads with crusty outside and chewy inside.
4.  I have just discovered the joy of working with Philip Jacobs fabrics, and want to have them all.
5.  My husband and I are Send Out Cards distributors.  Interested?  Leave me a comment.
6.  I am a retired teacher and school librarian.
7.  I love the process of selecting fabrics, figuring out what to do with what I have chosen, cutting, sewing, quilting, and enjoying quilts. 
I will select more lovely blogs over the next week.
Have a wonderful fourth, everyone.