Quilt finish, Will's quilt, and new fabric

I finished En Vino Veritas just in time to put up the library display today.  After discussions with Tom and Will (SIL), I selected a dark gray/black batik for the binding.  I quilted the top with light lavender and the back with dark purple.  Here are some details of the quilting.

 

I decided to use a medium size overall stipple, because that is what I know how to do.  One of these days, I really need to set up a practice piece and learn to do something else.





Will started a new quilt for one of her sisters while she was here.  Don't you love the colors?  The sister is a strawberry blond and has a very traditionally styled house.  This is going to be perfect.

While Will was here, we visited quite a few quilt shops.  I did some stash building, as well as picked up some fabrics for a wedding quilt I need to get done before October 1.

I seem to be a sucker for these colors and the floral prints.  They jump off the shelf into my hands if they happen to be in whatever shop I enter.  One of these days, I may have enough to make a quilt.  I also love paisleys.  Go figure.

These are for the wedding quilt.  My sister thinks the greens are not right, so I will have to continue my search for the right green.  It is supposed to be kelly green.  If any of you know a line that has kelly green and white, please let me know.  I haven't found any yet.

Finally, I added to my tiny Jacobs collection. When I went into Island Fabrics and saw all that bright wonderful fabric on the walls, I was hooked.  I will build this stash a little at a time.  I am, however, going to make an AAQI quilt with the center fabric this weekend as my July quilt.




Will left today, so I have lost my quilt shop companion and have no excuses to be out of the studio for a while.  Joyful quilting, everyone.

Orange and Blue in a Dresden Platter

I worked on my Dresden platter today.  First I cut the pieces in 2 inch strips.  That was my first mistake.  I thought I measured correctly, but I should have added another 1/4 inch.  It was pretty touch and go making everything meet, but I was able to get it all put together.

 

After I got it all trimmed, my husband and I auditioned three different center possibilities.  At first, I was sure I was going to like the one in the center first.  Then Tom pulled the fabric on the left, and I liked it better, but it still wasn't what I wanted.  I dug through the scrap basket when Tom saw a tiny piece of the third fabric, and I found one just the right size with the spiral on it.  That is the one I selected.

Now, everything is fused down and ready for the next step.  I am trying to decide whether or not to stitch this down by hand or machine.  I was thinking about adding some decorative embroidery stitches.  At the garage sale, the seller gave me a huge bag of embroidery thread, and I want to get started doing some embroidery again.  Maybe this will be the right project to get started.
I also finished stitching En Vino Veritas together and moved it from the design wall to the quilting rack. I even found backing fabric for it. I want to get it quilted soon, along with the six other quilts waiting on the quilt rack.  All together there is one gift, four charity quilts, and two I want to enter into my guild's show in July.  I better get busy.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

A little of this, a little of that

At last!  The intuition quilt is finished and I have been snuggling under it for a couple of days.  Yes, it is chilly and raining again here in Renton, Washington.  I try not to have issues with the weather around here.  After all, it is what it is, and I have chosen to live here knowing that.  However, this time of year, I do yearn for 75 degree days with beautiful blue skies.  At least, I have this quilt done to keep me warm.  I have decided to call it "Self Portrait."  It has a bit of controlled chaos, and that pretty much describes how I am most days.  It works for me, though.

I always love getting squishy envelopes in the mail, and this one was a real surprise.  Karen G at K's Quilting Corner sent me a thank you note with this totally cute thread catcher inside.  As you can see, I have already put it to good use.  I love the colors and the fabric and just the convenience of having a little thread catcher right there on the table.  Thank you so much Karen.

I spent a little time today making heart blocks.  This one was made with my crazy made fabric.  They are freehand and a little wonky, but that is intentional. I used a double buttonhole stitch for the upper heart, and a fancy flower pattern for the bottom one.  I am getting better at this machine applique, but it is still pretty new to me.  I would like to get really good at it before I tackle a big project I have on the drawing board. This block is 8 1/2 inches square. It will be going to an online quilting friend.

This one is going to be my next AAQI quilt after I use it as an example of what you can do with the rainbow of geese I am teaching my guild next week.  Again, I used some of my crazy made fabric for the heart.  My wonderful husband really likes the one above, but this heart doesn't make it for him.  He does like the rainbow geese, though.  I used a single buttonhole stitch for the heart and I pieced the curves for the rainbow arch.  I am calling this one God's Promise.  It is 9 1/2" by 8 1/2".  I think the binding will be a dark color and the back will be more of the background color.





The last thing I worked on today was to get En Vino Veritas up on the design wall.  All the blocks are sewn, and I am pretty happy with the layout.  There is supposed to be another row, but I wanted the bottom and the top to look the same, so I left it off.  Now I have six extra blocks.  I will probably make a pillow out of four of them.  I haven't made a pillow in ages, and we could certainly use some.  The process for making this quilt has been a bit repetitive, and when that happens, I tend to make mistakes.  I only messed up twice on this so far.  I intend to be more careful piecing this all together.  Hopefully, I will make progress on that tomorrow.
Thanks for stopping by.
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.

Making more fabric

Today is my last day here in Bremerton for a while.  Sis and BIL have landed and are on their way to catch the 4:20 ferry.  I spent much of this day sewing more units for en vino veritas.  I got 96 2.5" x 4.5" units sewn.  I still have to cut the extra hsts off and press them before they can get sewn to the green rectangles.  Maybe tomorrow.  I spent the rest of the time in the studio making fabric.  I am getting this ready to do a tutorial on making a traditional style block incorporating made fabric the 15 min play way.  I will post the tutorial here when I post it on 15 minute play.  Should be May or June sometime.  I am looking forward to doing this tut.

It is an absolutely beautiful day here in Bremerton.  The sky is blue and there are no clouds visible where I am looking.  This morning, the sailboats were out in full force and the boat slips in the marina are pretty empty.  I will leave you with this last look at the ferry rounding the point.

Joyful quilting, everyone, and a peace filled Easter.

Back to the studio

There are some really beautiful sunrises from my sister's condo.  Since they shine directly into the room where I have been sleeping, I am up to get photos of them.  I returned to Bremerton on Wednesday night.  Yesterday, I played bridge with three wonderful women.  This is my sister's bridge group, and I am fortunate enough to be invited to play whenever I can get over here.  It is always great fun.
After bridge, I walked into town in search of the post office.  I wanted to mail my package of fabric to Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap.  She is my partner for the Hands 2 Help quilting project.  I sent her a small stack of batiks in cuts from fat eights to fat quarters.  We were supposed to send 2 yards total.  I hope she likes what I sent.  She posted a photo of the fabrics she is sending me.  They are reds, whites, and blues.  I will have fun designing a quilt to use these fun fabrics as soon as I get them.

After eating breakfast and watching some Fons and Porter on QNN, I went into my sister's studio to start sewing the units I need for the ribbon quilt.  My working name for this quilt is En Vino Veritas, which means "in wine there is truth" in Latin.  This came from the Zinfandel name of this Bali pop pack.  We will see if this name sticks.  Anyway, I am still amazed at how long things take in quilting.  I always go into the studio with grandiose ideas about how much I will accomplish.   Today, I imagined I would get at least half of the blocks finished.  Instead, I only got 96  A units completed.  I still have 96 B units to do before I can start making the blocks.  And this was with already cut and marked pieces.

It seems like such a small stack to have taken five hours.  I don't know what I am doing wrong.  I sewed 192 of the green half squares on with the flip and fold method, and chain piecing.  Of course, I had to sew two seams on each piece because I am too intimidated by sewing small triangles together and I don't want to waste.  I guess that means I actually got 192 2 1/2" block units and 192 HST units. I then paired and sewed these units to make 96 A units. Each of the A units is 4 1/2" square.  Of course, there was a lot of pressing.  I even saved the small HSTs for later. Tomorrow, I will try and get all the B units made.  On Sunday morning, I head back home and will start sewing the blocks together and putting them on the design wall. 
I am trying to keep track of all the time I spend on this quilt, as well as the money.  I am going to put up a display at our quilt show in July to show how much time and money it takes to make a twin sized quilt.  Hopefully, it will help those who have a hard time understanding why quilters charge what they do for their quilts.  If any of you have insights or ideas on what I might include in this display, please feel free to share.  I would also love to hear any of your stories about people gasping in disbelief at your quilt prices.  My display will be up for the full month of July in the front display case of our downtown library.  I would like it to be educational.
Thanks, everyone, for stopping by.  I would love to hear from you.
Joyful quilting, everyone.