Tackling quarter square triangle units

It only took me two tries, but I figured out how to make quarter square triangle units the size I want them.  I still say that using quilting to teach basic math concepts would be a fantastic way to have students use math in a practical way. I have been putting off learning how to make these beauties because I was unsure how to keep them from getting all out of shape.  After a year and a half of making quilts, I think my skills are really improving.  I am still really looking forward to class with Gwen Marston next weekend to see how these things are really supposed to be done.

But I digress.  As I look at this mini now, I wonder how I can make the pink and blue solid pieces in the second border work better.  I like the brightness of them, and having a nice place to rest your eyes, but I am not sure my love of asymmetry works well here.  I believe I can make it work in the final border.  I just have to figure out how.  Don't you love the fussy cut corners on this border?  They are from the same KF as the center flower.

Tomorrow is going to be another beautiful day in the PNW.  My daughter and son-in-law are taking me out, with Tom, to a wonderful seafood dinner on the water at Salty's in West Seattle.  Until then, I will play in the studio.  I hope you moms out there are doing something equally as fun.  Enjoy your day.  Until next time, joyful quilting.

A couple of minis

Orange is the latest color for the weekly color challenge at 15 Minutes Play.  I had some leftover Sassy charm squares on my cutting table, so decided to make some fabric with them.  I really like the turquoise and olive with the orange.  I grabbed some orange batik for the flange and some Kona solid for the border.  This measures 8" x 12" and will be quilted and sent in to AAQI for my May quilt donation.  This little mini reflected how I felt yesterday in the beautiful sunny Pacific Northwest.

I was going to work on the improvirobin piece, but I was stumped as to what to add next.  So, I pulled some fabrics for a mini medallion quilt.  This is what I have so far.  It will eventually be 20" x 22".  For the next round, I am going to figure out how to make good quarter square triangle units.  So far, my efforts in that realm have been less than successful.  They say practice makes perfect, so I think I am in for a lot of practice.  First, I need to unsew the bottom border and turn it.  It is backwards and I think it will make me crazy if I leave it that way.  Wish I had seen it earlier.  Better late than never, right?

This morning, I have a meeting, then back to the studio.  What a beautiful day!  Joyful quilting, everyone.

The Avocado Challenge

I am really enjoying the weekly color challenges over at 15 Minutes Play.  It is fun to play with a color just for the sheer fun of seeing how it works with others without having to think of a big project.  I love seeing what everyone is doing with these colors.  Some people are making the same block each week with the intention of putting them all together at the end of the 12 weeks of challenges.  Some, like me, are doing something different each week.  This week, the color is avocado.

I originally started to make the small log cabin block in the upper right. As I was building it, I decided to make two of them, thus the one in the lower left. Then, I decided I wanted to join the two somehow, and thought the avocado marbled fabric would work. It needed something to break it up, so I cut and sewed some diagonals here and there. Then, I remembered some avocado linen table napkins I purchased at a garage sale to add to another small quilt I was working on. Where were they? After looking through a few project boxes, I found them. (Note to self: Label project boxes) I liked where it was heading, but didn't like the shape, so I used more of the napkin fabric to create top and bottom borders. Too solid. In came the strip made of scraps from the diagonal pieces. As it is now, it is about 18" square. I think it will be come a mini quilt with hand quilting and bead embellishments and some embroidery on the solid strips, for sure. At the rate I keep making these challenges bigger, by the end, I should be making bed quilts. Who, me?  The queen of nothing bigger than a lap quilt?  Hey, it could happen.

I am spending the afternoon, on this very rare sunny day in the Pacific Northwest, doing some hand work to finish up some projects.  Later, we are planting peas and a tree with Bella to celebrate Earth Day.  I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday.  Joyful quilting, everyone.



Doodles to quilts

Do you ever doodle little quilt designs?  It is something I do sometimes when I am waiting.  I don't do a lot of waiting, so my doodles are small, about 1" x 2" usually. When I get one I think has possibilities, I will work on it more when I am home.  This week, I came up with several I liked, so I decided to try and make one into a mini, either for a small quilt medallion, or for AAQI.  Not sure yet.

As I was developing the drawing, I wanted to create a sense of depth.  I have always been intrigued by ribbons, and the idea of ribbons escaping from a box is something I have wanted to do for a while.  I also knew I wanted to try the flange idea again, to see if I could get it the way I wanted it this time. I did, by the way.

Once I had the drawing done, I had to figure out how to make it with fabric.  Next time, I will take photos along the way, but for this one, I just enjoyed the process.

Steps I took

1.  I drew the design full size on freezer paper.

2.  I traced the different shapes on another piece of freezer paper.  Somewhat redundant, I guess.

3.  Selected fabrics.  I decided on a soft spring like palette for this one.  I think I will make another one with brighter solids.

4.  Put fusible backing on the pieces.

5.  Cut backing, flange fabric, and borders.

6.  Started putting the puzzle together.  Some of the ribbons come out from under the flange, and some go over it.  Some go over the bottom of the loop, and some under the top part.  It was very important to do things in the correct order to maintain the design.  That was the fun part.

7.  Add the outside border.

8.  Iron all the pieces down, making sure everything is fused properly.

9.  Machine buttonhole stitch all the fused pieces.

If I decide to use this for AAQI, the next step will be to quilt it.  It could also be the center for a doll quilt I need to make for a swap.  I will decided tomorrow.

The one thing I am not totally pleased with is the way it doesn't look like the top orange piece is connected to the bottom yellow piece, making a loop.  I will fix that in the next one.

I also did a little studio pick up and made a couple of star crossed blocks for a bee.  All in all, it was a fun day in the studio.  I needed that time just to play.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

More play

I decided to quilt the mini I showed you Saturday.  I also wanted to do some thread drawing.  I started with the moth in the center using a Superior King Tut variegated thread I love.  You can see all the colors in the thread in the meandering on the light border here.

I drew these moths with water soluble pen before quilting them.  It was fun to put these little guys in each corner.

Here is the finished piece, binding and all.  I quilted the turquoise border with a deep wave line all around, and the leaf border with another meander.  As you can see, I put petals in the light triangles.  I wish they were a little more uniform, but that will come with more practice.  I now have it hanging with some of my other minis.

All these blocks came from my Stash Bee Hive 2 partners.  I still have one coming that I know of.  I am going to add more yellow, indigo, orange, and violet to make the quilt larger.  It has been so much fun to see all the incredible fabrics people have in their stashes.  This is the first time I have been Queen Bee and I really enjoyed it.  I get to do it again in August with another bee I belong to.  Whoohoo!

I am fighting a cold today, so I am not sure how much quilting I will get done.  I may hunker down with a good book, under a cozy quilt.  We shall see.  Yesterday, I made my plane reservations for a ten day trip to the Washington, DC area for the first week in April.  I haven't been back to visit Willa for a long time, and I am very excited about going, even thought Tom will be here minding the home front.  It will be great fun to explore more things quilty.

Have a fabulous week, and I will be back Friday.

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.

Bella and the doll

Bella liked the doll and has named her Dolly.  She even shared some of the stuffed friends from her bed with Dolly.  Later, Dolly went jumping on the new trampoline Santa brought Bella.  Dolly and Bella skipped nap today.

Dianne, Bella's other quilting grandma, made this incredible mini for me.  It is about 15" square.  I have always admired the Tree of Life pattern, but this is amazing.  Those HSTs are so tiny!  Thank you so much, Dianne.  I love it.

My SIL sent me these two wonderful fabrics from Africa.  The one on the right says it is from Ghana.  They are both "Guaranteed Wax."  Thank you, Willa.  I love them.

Tom had great fun in the fabric store.  In addition to a generous gift certificate, he picked out thesebeautiful fabrics.  Most are fat quarters, At least one is a half yard.  He also got me the clippies for hand binding.  He was laughing at me using my hair clips.  The green pin cushion is also from Tom and the red one is from Bella and her parents.  I am a very lucky woman to have so many supportive loving people in my family.

Have a joy filled day, everyone.

Merry Christmas to all

I think I can safely post the things I have finished that will be delivered tomorrow.  Here is what I have been doing.

AAQI for December.  I hand quilted this one using cotton floss.

Mug rug for my son in law made from his old shirts. I used the stippling to add a little fun to the business like tone of this one.  I made another one like it for my BIL using his old shirts.

I made two of these mug rugs for the hunters in the family. I quilted it in a sort of plaid pattern.

Another mug rug for an in-law.  The quilting is very simple straight (or as straight as I get them) lines.  I used my new walking foot for much of the quilting I did on these small projects.  It is a wonderful thing.

The red and white mini for Bella's other quilting grandmom. It is 15" x 15".

I made six of these all together.  They are 7" x 10" and fully lined.

And then there is the doll.  I painted the bed white to match Bella's.  I made a little pillow and a Kaffe pillowcase to go with the quilt.

Everything is now wrapped and ready to go in the morning.

Wishing you all a very joyous holiday from my home to yours.

Another sneak peak

I am working on another mini quilt for an exchange.  For this one, we are supposed to make triangle trees.  The max size is 50" total perimeter.  This little quilt will be about 12" x 12".  I didn't think I would be making mini quilts when I started this adventure, but now I love them.  It is a wonderful way to practice different designs, piecing techniques, applique techniques, and quilting.  I also love exchanging them.  If any of you want to do a mini quilt exchange with me, just let me know.  I am always up for the fun and challenge. 

I didn't get much more done in the studio today.  I had errands to run and swap ornament blocks to sort and get into the mail.  I had my usual dismal experience at the local chain fabric store.  It is getting so bad, I have decided not to go there any more.  I am sure that many of you have JoAnn Fabric stores where the store is clean, warm, and the people are friendly and knowledgeable  That has not been my experience at my local JAF.  Today, they had at least 15 people waiting to be helped somehow, and two people working.  When I asked if there would be a better time to come back when more people would be working, I was told that the shifts were all filled and that she was sorry I was having a negative experience.  I will find another place to get notions and batting from now on.  One of my biggest pet peeves is poor service, and I have given these people enough chances.

Okay, enough soap box whining.  Tomorrow, I am going to be a Salvation Army bell ringer for the first time.  Our guild has been doing this for a few years now.  I have the first shift, so I have the buckets in the back seat of my car right now.  I am looking forward to ringing my bell and sharing Christmas greetings. 

Until tomorrow evening, joyful quilting, everyone.

A tease and new thrift shop finds

This is all I can show of the red and white mini quilt.  I finished piecing the top this afternoon.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  Almost all the points survived and the corners match.  I will figure out how to quilt it next weekend.

I went to the doc to have him look at my ear, and he pronounced the infection gone.  On the way home, I stopped to pick up some King Tut thread to quilt the Jacob's Ladder and some small things to get ready for the gift exchange at my guild meeting.  Then I went to the local Goodwill.  I was really excited to find these wonderful things.

Look at all these wonderful shirts!

Intriguing plaids.

Hawaiian prints and a chartreuse plaid.

Look at the reds.

I even found a good sized piece of Grannies Flowers from 1997.  It is going to help create the back for the JL.  I also found a king sized floral on black sheet, a table cloth for our dining table, and cloth napkins.  All in all, a very successful trip.  I was excited to discover that the store had enlarged its linens section.  I will have to keep my eye out there.

Tomorrow, I start my week with Bella.  Until Friday, joyful quilting, everyone.