Back in the studio at last

I finally made it back into the studio to work on quilts.  It has been way too long.  The place was such a mess, I couldn't find a table top or anything that I was working on.  After spending some time straightening things out, I decided to work on some small projects.  I have posted the red and white part of this one before.  Here it is with the border.  I just need to quilt it and add a red binding and it will be done and ready to send to Germany as part of the Doll Quilt Monthly swap for July.  The theme is Patriotic.  I am hoping red, white, and blue fulfills the theme.

This is the June quilt for the doll quilt swap.  This theme is Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.  The lighter border is old fabric I had in my stash.  The darker fabric is new from my trip back East.  The borrowed is the idea for the pattern from an antique quilt pattern I saw in a book.  The blue should be obvious.  This one was really fun to make. I really like the dark fabric.  I wish I had purchased more of it.  This one is on its way to Florida.

This last piece was made for a new friend who had us over for dinner the other night.  I knew she liked purple, so that was where I started.  It is a 12" square with fast finish triangles for hanging, if so desired.  It is always tricky to make anything for someone you don't know well.  The colors are a bit tame compared to what I have been working with lately, but it was very calming and peaceful to work on.  Maybe a larger calm quilt is in my future.  We will see.

For those who are interested, we did get the chickens.  We have four beautiful Americauna chickens:  Veronica Lake (the blondest and most difficult to get into the coop at night), Janis Joplin (the one with the darkest coloring who dares to be different), Katherine Hepburn (the classiest looking and the one who behaves the best), and Lady Bug (the one with the dark cheeks who Bella named).  I will try and get photos posted soon.  So far, we have enjoyed getting to know them.  They are pretty quiet, making only soft murmuring sounds unless they are upset at us.  They love the weeds from our flower beds and oatmeal.  By the end of the summer, we are hoping for fresh eggs with beautiful blue shells and creamy yolks.  As we go along, I will add snippets of our life as backyard chicken farmers to this blog, along with more quilting adventures.

Until later, joyful quilting, everyone.

Another finished top, and some play time

I added the borders to Tom's Primitiva quilt, and now it is ready for quilting.  It is bigger than I usually do, so I hung it over the backdrop in Tom's photo studio to take a picture, since it doesn't fit on the design wall very well.  Here is a close up of the corners and the border fabric.

I love this fabric, but it does two things that make me crazy.  It sheds strings everywhere, and they all stick to the orange.  The other thing is that the orange is the most wrinkle catching fabric I have worked with in a long time.  I iron it and by the time I get it ready to hang up, it is wrinkled again.  Hopefully, this won't matter when I get it all quilted.  I have no idea what I am going to use for a backing for this.  I have looked in my stash, and there is nothing that will work.  I may have to take Tom to the fabric store to select something he likes.  It is a good thing he likes to visit the fabric store.

After I finished that, I decided to work on my Modern 8 March challenge.  The challenge is to take an orphan block, and make something small just for ourselves.  I have a ton of orphan blocks from when I first started quilting and thought I would be a traditionalist.  I looked through them, trying to find one I could cut up and do something wild with.  Then I found the little moth.  The original block only goes out to the gold/orange squares.  I made it because I found this 3" square with the moth in my stash.  I fell in love with it and didn't want to lose it.  Today, I added the turquoise border, the quarter inch "flap", and the leaf border.  My new thing to learn with this piece was to include a three dimensional "flap" portion to the border.  I realized, too late, that to get what I wanted, I needed to miter the flap piece and the leaf piece.  I still like it, but next time, I will remember before it is too late.  I have drawn on some quilting marks and will do that tomorrow.  It will finish up just over 12" square, and I will hang it on my wall of mini quilts. 

The last thing I did was play with some of my improvisational blocks and see how they would look with

the turquoise.  I still have more blocks I want to make before I fully commit to a layout, but I am leaning toward the turquoise for improv sashing.  What do you think?

I have a few bee blocks I need to get done, and a doll quilt to start, and all those tops to quilt.  Where is my resolve?  Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.

A star for a hero, and building more fabric

Yesterday, I got a small package from Victoria that included small small pieces of camouflage fabric.  She invited 24 of us to use camo scraps to build a 12.5" square that she will include in a Quilt of Valor.  This is my block.  I love the idea stars for hero quilts, so I designed this star so I could use as much of the camo I got as possible.  That is how I started my day today.

Then, I decided to tackle a new challenge Victoria put up on 15 minutes Play.  The goal is to find an inspiration shirt with colors I don't use that often.  Then find scraps in those colors and build 6.5" squares of made fabric. I picked this thrift shop shirt that I just love.  It was well loved and has a very soft feel, but it is still strong.  I started pulling reds and greens, and decided to make a Christmas quilt without actually using any Christmas fabric.  I am going to try and use the inspiration fabric in every block.  Here are my first six blocks. 97 more to go. This is going to take me a while.

Before I left the studio, I pulled the fabrics I am using for a quilt for our son and daughter-in-law.  Aren't these yummy?

I printed out a couple of copies of my Bella's Star quilt pattern and started coloring in the blocks.  It got very confusing, so I cut the little pieces up and had Hugh, Cyrielle, and Tom put them the way they thought the quilt would look best.  Amazingly enough, they were all very different, and different from all the ones I did.  I took photos of each of their designs and will post them later. 
Hugh and Cyrielle are staying with us for a few days before the move to France, Cyrielle's home.  Tomorrow, we are going to drive up to Sunrise on Mt. Rainier.  It is always beautiful up there.  Hopefully, the predicted fog will lift by the time we get there.  That means I won't be in the studio for a few days.  Maybe, I will post some photos of our trek.
Have a joyfilled day, everyone.

Here we are after our recital. Bella, in pink, was born to be on stage.  She did a fantastic job.  Lisa and I were two of our quartet.  According to the applause and the comments of our family members and some audience members, we did a fine job.  We sang a medley of Broadway musical songs through time.  Once we decided to just have fun, we all really enjoyed it.  I am so glad I did this and can check it off the bucket list.  Oh, and here is the hat.  It is a bit crooked, but I think you get the idea.

I spent a few hours in my studio today and caught up on my June BOMs for 15 Minutes Play.  First, I needed to make some fabric.  I have a plastic bag full of scraps just for these blocks.  I would like to make a quilt with the blocks at the end. 

The first June block is called Beacon Lights.  I have to say I have never seen this block before.  I enjoyed making the block because I got practice making quarter square triangle squares.  I haven't done that before.  This is not my favorite block I have ever made, but it will be fine in the quilt.

The second block for June is the Courthouse Steps.  I do really like this block.  I am using different background material for each block.  For the Courthouse Steps, I used a burnt orange.  I like the way it looks with the turquoise based made fabric.

Tomorrow, I think I will start making flying geese with the Kansas Troubles Perennials.  I also want to start getting everything ready for my sister-in-law's visit.  She is coming from the D.C. area to spend a week with us.  I am really looking forward to her visit.  We are going to do many quilty things.
Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

More blocks and some HSTs

Excuse the lousy photo, please.  I just wanted to show that I made three more blocks to go with the yellow.  I had to go to the fabric store for something else, so I picked up a couple of small cuts of the blue and purple pastels.  I am not really a pastel kind of person, but I think these blocks turned out sweet.  I can't wait to see all the blocks other people have made for this presentation quilt.

I also decided to tackle pressing all the little extra HSTs left from piecing En Vino Veritas.  There are almost 300 of them.  I have decided to keep the pile at the end of the ironing board and do a few each time I go to press a seam.  That way, they will get pressed eventually.  While I was pressing these, I remembered that I had already pressed the ones from Farmer's Market, so . . . .

This little piece is only 7" by 8 1/2" without the borders.  It will be another AAQI quilt.  I have pulled the top and bottom pieces to audition as borders.  I really don't know which one I like better.  What do you think?  I still have so much of this fruit and vegetable fabric left.  I am thinking about creating a jelly roll as a swap for something else.  I will let you know and see if anyone is interested.
Have a wonderful long weekend, everyone.
Joyful quilting,
Miki

Guild blocks

Today, I spent some time making blocks for my guild today.  This one is the BOM that is due in June.  One of the things I like about my mostly traditional guild is the opportunity to practice my piecing skills.  I am getting better at making my corners and points meet.  I am also getting better at cutting and sewing with a 1/4" seam.  I think it is all because of making these blocks pretty regularly.

This is one of the presentation blocks I am making.  I will make another one in pink and white.  The only downside of participating in all these block making opportunities is that I often don't have the required fabric.  Until recently, I did not have any white on white.  I looked through my stash bins today and found only two pastels that weren't batiks.  I really thought I had more, especially purple.  I guess I should buy fat quarters of these kinds of colors every now and then so when I need them I will have them.

My quilting tastes are very eclectic.  I really like a traditional style quilt with star blocks.  I also like a good churn dash quilt.  I am drawn to old fashioned feeling fabric like those designed by Kansas Troubles.  Then there is my love affair with improvisational quilting.  I really enjoy pulling scraps and sewing them together to make new fabric and then building something with it or around it.  I love the colors in the new fabrics out there, but I think I may just be a bit too old fashioned to really appreciate all the patterns.  I do appreciate the talent out there and the fabric companies who support these artists.   My biggest problem is that there are not enough hours to make all the things I want to. 

 I did take a little time to make a bit of crazy cloth by cutting up a D9P block I made back in January.  I will be using it to cut up and make a more traditional block.  Oh, how much fun I have in the studio!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful long weekend.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

A beautiful exchange quilt and more work on En Vino Veritas

This incredibly beautiful quilt was made by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  She hosted an challenge exchange over at 15 Minutes Play.  The challenge was to make something from nothing into a 12" finished quilt using the fabric making techniques we use on that site.  I have been loving all the quilts people have been making for each other, and I especially loved this one.  I was so excited today when I saw the postman put a squishy into my mail box.  Then, when I saw Victoria's return address, I was even more excited.  I am one very lucky woman to have received this quilt.  This is the quilt I made for the challenge.  It is on its way to its new home right now.

In other news of the day, I got back to working on En Vino Veritas.  I trimmed and pressed and finished piecing all 96 B units, so now I have two stacks ready to put together into squares.

I did get four blocks put together and up on the design wall so we could all get some sense of what it is going to look lie all together.  I am not really sure right now if the sage green was a good choice for the background, but I am going to live with it.  I really liked it at first, mostly because I like the color and the weight of the cotton is wonderful.  I am sure it will be fine when all is said and done.

I also washed the new fat quarters I got for the next preemie quilt.  I really don't like washing fat quarters because there is so much raveling, but it needs to be done for these quilts.  I have picked fabrics in cheddar, orange, and olive green.  Not really baby fabrics, but they are bright and cheerful.  I am going to make flying geese for this one.  Now, I have to find backing flannel that works with these colors.  Hopefully, I will have something to show you on this one tomorrow.
Happy Mother's Day to all of you who do mom-like things.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

Flying Geese Tutorial

I have been making flying geese for a while now.  I have tried several different ways:  flip and fold, paper piecing, and templates.  This is the way I have found the fastest and best way for me. The best part is I get four great geese, and no little triangles.  No waste.  With the price of fabric, that is great for me. I wanted to try my hand at a tutorial, and decided this would be a good place to start.

First, I cut my squares.  When you are making geese this way, you add 1 1/4" to the desired finished width, and make a square instead of a rectangle.  The small squares (the sky or wings) are cut 7/8" larger than the desired height.  For a finished 6" x 3" goose, I cut my 1 large square 7 1/4" and the 4 small squares 3 7/8".  I have also used this method for 2" by 4" geese with much success, cutting the squares 5 1/4" and 2 7/8".

 I always draw lines when I am doing diagonal sewing.  I use a #2 mechanical pencil because it gives me a finer line.  I use a light touch so I don't stretch the fabric, and a deep angle to get as close to the ruler as possible.  Draw a diagonal from corner to corner on each small square, then parallel lines 1/4" to each side. 

Pin two squares in opposite corners of the larger square, right sides together.  Make sure the marks line up.  The squares will overlap.  I always pin the squares so they don't wander when I sew.  Sew on the lines on each side of the center diagonal.

 Make one cut on the center diagonal line.

After you have made the cut, you need to press the sky/wings up.  This is a very important step.  If you forget, you will have one wing that folds out nicely, and one that does not.  See the bottom unit to the left.  I call this the wolf face stage. It just reminds me of a cartoon wolf.

Place the remaining two squares, right sides facing, so the lines go from the corner to the space between the two points.  Sew along the outside lines.

Cut each unit along the center diagonal line.

Press each piece.  You will have four beautiful flying geese.

This is the block I made with these flying geese.  It is 12" x 12" finished.










I hope you found this tutorial useful.  It was interesting to make.  I may have to make more some day.  Joyful quilting, everyone.

Three More Blocks and a Mug Rug

I have decided that making blocks is a good way to learn different techniques. I have also used the time to try and get a good 1/4 inch line on my sewing machine. I am getting better at cutting accurately, as well. All these are good things. The top block is the last of the block exchange for February at Fayza's Fabric Exchange. If you are interested in different kinds of exchanges, including round robins, this is the site for you.

While I was playing, I made this 6"churn dash. I like this block, and may make more for another lap quilt. I don't think I will use such a bright white on all of them.

This is the broken sugar bowl BOM for the guild. It is a 12" block. It will be interesting to see all the different green and white blocks at the next guild meeting.

Finally, I figured out what to do with one of the exchange blocks I received. I cut it into four triangles. I then turned them around and created two blocks that looked like this. I decided to turn them into mug rugs. Mug rugs are larger than coasters. They are perfect for a resting place for a drink and a small snack. If you look really closely, you can see the spiral I quilted on each black and white square.

I think I am going to start working on making the quilts I want to make for a while. Before I left the studio this afternoon, I cut some pieces for a Planet Patchwork BOM project for 2010-2011. This one is "Oh, My Stars" designed by Diane Hundley. I am only three months behind. When I get back in the studio on Thursday, I am going to work on catching up. I have changed the colors completely. I will post photos of my progress on Thursday.

Four more 12 inch blocks

I spent the day today creating more 12 inch blocks for the online exchange. I am having fun making blocks with fabric I like and trying out different blocks. The top two were made with more fall colors, and I have enough fabric left to make a small quilt. I like this block, but I will play with the fabric layout some more. The bottom two are made with more civil war era prints. I did some strip piecing, and used them in two different ways. It is hard to see in the photograph that there are five rows in the stripped part. I am not sure I really like the dark brown on the bottom right, but it is growing on me. Maybe if I used it as inner strips with lighter outer strips, I would like it better. Actually, I do like it better on the wall than on the computer. I have one more to go before they all go in the mail.

I have received three blocks from other members of the exchange. Now that I have started this, I am not sure what I will do with the blocks from others. These three are very different from anything I would make. All are well made. I like each one for different reasons. I think I could make table runners out of them, not together of course. I will have to dig through my stash and see what I can find that will go with them. If any of you participate in block exchanges where you get individual blocks from different quilters, what do you do with them?

More 12 inch block play

Today, I did some fusible applique for a presentation quilt for a guild member. I did not photograph those yet. They are Scottie dogs with plaid blankets. Cute, if you like that sort of thing. I also made this 12 inch block for an online block exchange. The colors didn't show up perfectly, but this is close. I actually used the reverse side of the fabric with the large circles because the circles showed up better. The black is not as dark as it looks in this photo, but it is close. I was going for modern, sophisticated. The block was very easy, and I like how it turned out. I think I may make some other blocks like this for myself.
The other thing I did today was finish the top for the D9P. I did a little piecing on the inner border to add interest. I am very happy with it. I have to piece the back together because the fabric I am using is not quite big enough. I have designed something fun to do to make it bigger, and attractive at the same time. I may get this on the quilt frame by Monday, meeting the timeline I set for myself.

A Quilt for a Hero

Before I got my quilt frame and new sewing machine, I made a list of all the things I would like to do this year with them. One of the charitable quilts I want to make is an American Hero Quilt. This project is a big one that was started by a Washington resident. Today, I decided to make the first block for this quilt. The quilts need to be blue, red, white (or off white), with some gold. The completed quilt will have five of these stars altogether. This pattern is mostly paper pieced, which I really enjoy. It took me a long time to do this one, but I am pleased that I took my time. I am happy with the results. The pattern is #121 in Quiltmaker's 101 blocks vol. 2, and is by Chloe Anderson and Colleen Reale. Toadusew is the name of their blog.

One of these days, I will get out of the studio with enough energy to add a list of all the quilting blogs I check regularly. Each day, I find one or two more that I add to the list. There are so many great quilters out there who are willing to share tips and patterns. It is fun to take a look at what others are doing.

Today's 12" block

Today, I worked with the pink again and added a bit of turquoise. This block was from a quilt designed by Gerrie Robinson. I am very pleased I got the points to come together in the middle. I am getting better with practice.