Mid-Week catch up

Newest kaleidoscope block

All of them so far - unsewn.

Kansas Sunflower in batiks.

All the batik blocks so far.

Newest AAQI block in progress.  I couched some yarn and shiny ribbon for more movement.

Detail.

Tomorrow and Saturday, I am going on a Kitsap Peninsula Quilt Shop Hop with my sister.  Hopefully, I will be able to post some photos, if I remember to take some this time.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

Kaleidoscope

There are days when synchronicity amazes me.  I went to my ballet class this morning, in spite of not wanting to go.  It was as hard as I imagined it would be.  There are days I question the wisdom of starting ballet at 65, but then I come home and am treated to this ballet outside my window.  Madame Spider has been working hard to create a new home, in spite of the fact that it will probably have to be rebuilt over and over again because it is using a slender fuchsia flower as one of the anchor points.  As I watched, I was reminded of my newest quilting project - you knew I was going to get there eventually, didn't you?

So, I went into the studio and pulled some strips out of the scrap bin and created another piece to the kaleidoscope.  It is great fun to see how these look once the wedges are cut.

This is how they look together so far.  As I was pulling strips today, I found a Jacob's piece with mostly purple.  I am going to have to move to another bin to make a block with it.  My goal is to have this be very colorful.  That will be a stretch since I seem to stick with favorites all the time.  I am intentionally putting something lighter in each block, so at least I am working on that.  I still haven't figured out what to do with the filler squares, but I may do some 15 Minute Play blocks and see what happens.

I also took some time to cut the batik pieces for the Kansas Sunflower.  I think I am going to like this one much better because of the contrast.  I may have to go back and redo the paisley one.  Oh, joy!  By the time I am done, I will get good at this block.  If that happens, look out world.  Then I will be able to do anything!

The next three days are Bella days.  I may try and squeeze in a kaleidoscope block or two.  Until next time, joyful quilting, everyone.

 

 

 

 

Three more blocks

I made two more of the Grandmother's Choice blocks for the batik set.  The first one is Grandmother's Choice.

The second one is Union Square.  I am not sure how long it will take me to make the next two.  I may get started tomorrow on them.  Given that it took me a week to make the sunflower one last time, who knows what will happen this time.

I also made another set of wedges for my octagon quilt.  I realized that when I looked at the other quilts made in a similar style that the strings were all more or less the same width.  My  scraps don't come that nicely.  I am lucky to find pieces long enough to eke out eight wedges, so I have decided to go with the kaleidoscope look in each block, with each one being very different from the others.  The one thing I will try and do is have one solid, or reads as solid, string in each block.  In the first two, that happens to be the widest piece.  I don't know if that will always be the case.  I am not sure how I am going to put this all together yet, so I am just making wedges at this point.  I would enjoy avoiding y seams if possible, but I will cross that road when I come to it.

For now, joyful quilting everyone.

 

 

Wow! Look what I got in the mail!

I have been part of the Doll Quilter's Monthly swap for several months now.  I have received some very wonderful small quilts as part of this swap.  This one is from Barbara Black at My Joyful Journey. I love the fabrics.  Barbara took colors from the focus fabric to use as background in the star blocks.  The shiny silvery fabric in the nine patches is really beautiful.  It is quilted with variegated thread that matches the colors in the fabrics.  She must have known of my love of dark fabrics.  This one is a great addition to my wall of small quilts.  I am skipping the October swap because I am just not a fan of anything spooky, and that is the theme. 

 This is a very fun and talented group of quilters.  It is not to late to join, if you are interested.  I love the small quilts for so many reasons. They actually get finished, which is a big plus.  I can use fabrics from my stash which is mostly made up of small pieces of fabrics and scraps.  I get to try new and fun patterns and quilting techniques.  I get to add small quilts from quilters all over the country to my collection.  What could be better?

Joyful quilting, everyone.

New blocks

Here is this week's Grandmother's Choice block, New Jersey.  I like the block, but I think I would like it better with the fabrics reversed.

Yep.  I like it better this way.  I decided to start another set of these blocks using my batiks for the darks as well as the lights.  I only have four to catch up on and two of them are relatively easy, so I don't think it will be a problem.  Of course, I have to do that sunflower again, but it will only make me a better piecer, right?

Then, because I didn't have fifteen or more other things needing to be finished, ha ha, I decided to try something new.  I have seen this idea several places.  One I love was done by Nifty and can be seen here - Nifty Quilts, and another I love is here - Quilts and Dogs.  In both of these, the design looks different because of the way the wedges were put together.  I am going to do this with the scraps in my bins as I get time.  This will be a long term project, but a fun one.

Tonight, Tom and I are taking photos at a wedding, but we are doing the photo booth corner without the booth.  I have been busy putting together props for the last couple of weeks.  It should be fun.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.

 

 

The block that took a week . . . .

 . . . . and is still nothing to write home about.

 

As some of you know, I have decided to play along with Barbara Brackman's new Block of the Week program over at Grandmother's Choice.  This week's block is the Kansas Sunflower.  When I looked at it, I decided I would skip this week.  Then I realized that part of why I joined the program was to grow my skills.  After all, it is important to keep growing as a quilter or all my work will look the same.  Some people think this would be a good thing, having a signature look and all, but I am not one of those people.

The first thing I did was select the fabric and cut the pieces.  I have decided to do all the blocks with my wonderful selection of paisleys and light colored batik.  For this one, I decided two fabrics wasn't going to work, so I grabbed another batik.  After I cut everything out, I took the time to draw all the seam lines on each piece.  I learned from doing another block with Y seams that this helped quite a bit.

I pieced all the light points to the dark shapes, then pieced them all together into the star.  I don't know if this is the easiest way to piece this, but it worked okay for me.

Next, I pieced in the center circle.  So far, so good.  When I pressed it, it lay flat as could be.  Drawing in those seam lines really was a good idea, even with the extra time it took.

Today, I finished piecing the outer wedges, then pieced it all into the circle.  This is where things started to go astray.  If I was going to do this again, I would machine applique the star circle onto a background square.  I may take this apart from the background and do that, but I really wanted to piece the whole thing this time.  It is hard to see the difference in the fabrics in this photo, but the star does stand out better in real life.  I honestly don't think I will do another one of these, but who knows.  I am thinking of making another quilt at the same time using my batiks, and I may really want the sunflower.

Here is what I have so far.  I look forward to seeing what Ms. Brackman sends our way tomorrow.  I am hoping for something a bit easier this week.

Once again, I want to send you over to the flickr page to see some of the stunning Kansas Sunflowers others are making.  There are some real beauties.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

 

 

 

 

 



Have you ever . . .?

Have you ever really liked a block so much you wanted to make more but didn't really want a whole quilt from it?  This was one of the Grandmother's Choice blocks that I really liked.  When Victoria called for 12.5" blocks for a friend, I immediately thought of this block.  Then I realized I had the measurements for an 8.5" block.  Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem, but this one has those pesky triangular pieces.  After a couple of careful measurements, I was able to enlarge the pattern and create the block in the right size. What fun.

Have you ever put together a piece, quilted it, and then had trouble deciding how to bind it?  I have cropped this photo to show it all squared up, but this piece really has some irregular measurements.  It is the piece I made for the October challenge over at Modern 8 Create last year.  I just finished hand quilting the piece.  Now that I have cropped it into a perfect rectangle, I think I like it much better with the irregular sides.  Now to find fabric to use for binding.  The back is all the red stripped fabric you see on the lower left.  Fabulous find at the thrift store, just like much of the rest of this piece.

It is nice to have a new card reader.  It was a long day of training for Univera, then getting some salmon for visiting family.  I don't think I will have any more studio time until Friday.  I may sneak in there now and then if I can.  Until then, joyful quilting everyone. 

 

technical difficulties

My digital card reader bit the dust, so I will not be posting until I can get a replacement.  Hopefully, that will only be a couple of days.  I know you are all eager to see what I have been working on, right?  In the mean time, for some really cool fabric combination eye candy, hope over the the Grandmother's Choice flickr page. Be sure and go back through the photos. Some of these quilters are going above and beyond in the cutting and combining of quilt fabrics.  Enjoy.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

Playing and cutting

After spending the morning going to my ballet class and picking up Bella at her new pre-school, I had to run around doing some errands.  When I got home, I wasn't sure I was up to going into the studio, but after lunch and a Reginicare, I was ready to play.  This one really only took me 15 minutes.  I put it with the other three and I couldn't resist trying them against a dark background.

This first piece I found was really too small to get the full effect, but I decided it was too dark, and too blue/teal.  I wanted something darker, but not this.  I rooted around for a larger piece of fabric I could live with.

I found this piece of batik I had been hoarding and petting for a long time.  I think I have a little over a yard and a half.  I really like the way it works with these light blocks.  I am going to measure carefully and what I have will determine the size of this project.  Who knew I would enjoy working with lights? 

After playing with the lights, I turned my attention to the Marcia Derse group.  I re-did my math for the third time and finally felt comfortable enough to start cutting.  My finished quilt will have 12 14" blocks like the block I showed yesterday.  The sashing will be 2 1/2" wide and I will have two borders.  As you can see, I am using very light sashing.  It is a pale blue batik and it goes nicely with all the Derse fabrics I have.  Each little pile is for one block.  I discovered that I can make two blocks with each quarter yard of Derse fabric.  Next time, I will buy more.  Does anyone out there know where I can buy more here in the Seattle area? 

Ballet class was much harder today because we used the barre for the first time.  On Wednesdays, we rely on balance, so I am not able to stretch as far. I know I am going to feel this tomorrow. Taking up ballet at 65 is quite an adventure.  I am very glad I am blessed with a good sense of humor.

Until next time, joyful quilting - and dancing - everyone.

 

 

 

Post #300 - Whoohoo!

I finished this little AAQI quilt.  It is dedicated to Lori Crammer who is the mother of a friend's friend.  There are so many people I know who have friends and family affected by this terrible disease, Alzheimer's.   If you want to help raise funds for research toward the elimination of this disease, and get a little bit of quilt art for your wall, stop by the AAQI site and look at all the beautiful quilts for sale.  I know I mention this each month, but I believe these folks are doing a good thing and I want to help spread the word.

The other day, when we went to La Conner and bought the Marcia Derse fabric, I started toying with an idea for a quilt.  I had seen some pieces in the Japanese quilt exhibit based on a game called Genji Koh.  I really liked the designs, so I very loosely interpreted them with this one. In fact, it is so loosely interpreted, the people who know this game would probably not recognize my inspiration.  I made a block up using some batiks I like to see if I really like the design.  I will use this for a pillow, I think.  It is 18" square.  When I put four of them together, using the magic of Photoshop, it looks like this.

I have enough of the Derse to make 16 blocks, and I bought enough light batik to use as background.  There will be six different Derse fabrics in the quilt.  I think it will go together pretty quickly, once I get all the pieces cut.  Now, I am wishing I had purchased more of the Derse, but I will keep looking for them on sale.  Ha-ha.

I was trying to figure out how to celebrate my 300th post on this blog.  I could get all philosophical about why I blog, or why I quilt.  I could have built a collage of the highlights of what I have posted since I started quilting.  Instead, I will leave you with a photo of the first quilt I made when I started quilting again in 2010.

It is made with a layer cake of Sandy Gervais's Tranquility for Moda.  I had such difficulty with the layout of this quilt, I thought I would never get it done.  The trouble I had quilting it on my old Bernina prompted Tom to purchase me a mid-arm machine and Little Gracie frame for my birthday that year.  It has been all uphill since then.  I love quilting.  I love blogging about quilting.  I love the online quilting community.

With that said, joyful quilting everyone.

 

 

 

 

Broderie perse and the Union Square Block

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This week's block from Grandmother's Choice is called Union Square. Before I started this block, I decided I wanted to have a more uniform look to the backgrounds for each block. I dug through my light colored batiks and came up with a couple of larger pieces. They will last me a little while. This block was fairly easy to make and Tom and I both like it the best so far. Of course, I had to remake the other two using the new background

This is the remake of the first one I did, Grandmother's Choice.

I remade Amethyst changing it up quite a bit.  I used the paisley for the center square as well as the points, instead of using the background fabric like I did before.  I like it better this way.  I also discarded the cutting instructions from before and redrew the pattern using measurements I knew would make the block the right size.  Now, all my blocks are 8.5" unfinished.  I am very happy I decided to use a light background with similar fabric.  I think the paisleys will really be the stars this way.

I also finished up the borderie perse project I was working on for the International Robin.  It is the last piece out there, and I am sorry I dragged my feet for so long.  When I first decided to do it this way, I wasn't really thinking about all the pieces I would have to attach.  I just wanted a certain look, and didn't take time to consider what I would have to do to accomplish it.  I started out with traditional buttonhole stitching.  Then, I realized this is supposed to be more of an art quilt, so I switched to free motion stitching for the smaller flowers.  I think it is a nice mix.  Above is a detail look at the upper left of the bigger piece below.

This piece will be winging its way to Frea in Scotland as soon as I can get to the post office next week.  I am sorry to see this robin end.  I have really enjoyed the variety of work in these small art quilts.  Maybe after a brief rest from robins, I will try and start another one.  Maybe we will do a flat robin this time.  If you are curious or interested, leave me a comment.

Tomorrow, I have a couple of small AAQI pieces to finish, then a new project I want to start.  I think tomorrow will be my 300th post.  I wish I had something to offer as a giveaway, but I can't think of anything right now. 

Until tomorrow, then.  Joyful quilting, everyone.

 

This and That

This the the 2nd block for the Grandmother's Choice block of the week. It is called amethyst. I really had trouble getting it the right size.  In fact, it is the wrong size.  I followed the directions to size the template so the center square is 3 3/8".  Unfortunately, that makes the square 10".  It is supposed to be 8".  I may figure out how to make it the right size, or I may not.  It is not my favorite block in the world.  I do like the fabric, just not the design.  And that has nothing to do with the fact that there are Y seams.

On a completely different note, I decided to join Victoria's light value challenge over at 15 Minutes Play. If you follow my work at all, you know that I don't really use light fabrics.  Mid values and darks make me happy.  I keep being told that a little bit of light valued fabric would make my work more interesting and exciting.  I decided to join this challenge to see if I could make myself work light.  When I first looked at the photo, I thought it was over exposed.  It is not.  These are pretty much the true colors.  It is kind of pretty, but I keep wanting to add darks.  Maybe I will set these 8" blocks in some dark purple sashing.  Hmmmm.

Ahhh!  This is more like it!.  I had some left over fall leaf fabric strips, so I pulled some solids to match the colors and tried to create the riot of color that is fall.  I certainly got a riot.  I am wondering about the strong reds.  Maybe an orange would have been better, but I didn't have orange, and I am only using what I have for these small quilts.  This one is 16" square. I do like red, and it is growing on me.  For the record, I started this one first thing this morning when it was cooler, then did the amethyst block, then the lights when it reached 84 degrees..  Interesting progression.

Tomorrow, I will be working on my broderie perse project.  I hope to get it done soon.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

 

 

 

Quilt hunting in La Conner, WA

 

Welcome to  La Conner, WA!  On Sunday, Tom rode 52 miles in the MS Washington Bike ride fund raiser.  We drove up early Sunday morning (before dawn) to Mt. Vernon, where the bike ride started.  After getting him off, I drove out to La Conner, on the water about 15 minutes west of Mt. Vernon.  I had booked us a room at the La Conner Country Inn as a surprise for Tom.

I was really pleased to be able to check in at 8:30 in the morning for that night.  Our room was rustic but perfect.  Just look at the bed coverings.

I have fabrics like this I never thought to put together, but now I will.

La Conner is a small little artsy town on an inlet in northwest Washington state.  It is several blocks long and lined with galleries, boutiques, and gift shops of all kinds. September is supposed to be quilt walk month in La Conner.  Each business is supposed to have and display a quilt made by a member of the Washington State Quilters-Spokane Chapter.  I really looked forward to spending time strolling through the shops and seeing the quilts.  I was very disappointed.  In most shops, the quilts were not displayed well, and in some I couldn't find them at all.  I did find one that was displayed well and I liked.

This one was made by A. Morton and is called Cranes at Sunset.  I did find quilts I liked at the quilt shop in town, Quilt Diva.  The one of the left was the first quilt made by Michael who works in the shop and recently won a ribbon at the local county fair. It is made with fabric by Marcia Derse.

Speaking of Marsha Derse fabric ----

This is the first time I have actually seen any of her fabric in person.  I fell in love with it, and bought four quarter yards.  I took Tom in again today, and he bought three more quarter yards, plus a couple of other lights for my stash.  What a fabulous husband!

Yesterday afternoon, after Tom's ride, we went to the La Conner Quilt Museum housed in the old Gaches Mansion, built in 1891.  There was a fantastic display of Japanese quilts created especially for this exhibit - At Play.  The exhibit was filled with a variety of quilts in many different styles, mostly hand sewn and quilted.  Tom and I were very impressed with the designs and workmanship, and the variety in these quilts.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos and the book about the exhibit was poorly done, so the colors are far from true.  I bought one anyway for the reminders of the designs.  If you are in the area, the exhibit is worth seeing and is there through October 7.

One last must do in La Conner is dinner at Nell Thorn Restaurant. This is a farm to table restaurant where the food is fresh and excellent.  Tom and I shared polenta cakes in a creamy mushroom sauce, heart beet and endive salad, portabella mushroom sandwich, peanut soup, and incredible pot stickers.  It was all totally amazing, except the portabella mushroom sandwich which was served on a mediocre bun.  It is worth the drive to La Conner to eat at this restaurant.

Next, I have my three days with Bella, and then back to the studio to play with my new fabrics, and finish up some old projects.  I hope you have enjoyed my little travelogue.  Joyful quilting, everyone.