One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

I have created nine fish now, and have three to go.  My design wall has a decidedly fishy flavor right now.  I had no idea these fish would take me so long to make.  I just couldn't make them plain, I guess.  I still want to sew some water around most of them, and some of them still need eyes.  My goal is to have them all done and ready to mail by Tuesday.

 Joyful quilting, everyone.



Guest posting at Victoria's and a giveaway winner.

I am so excited to be the guest blogger over at Victoria's Bumblebeans blog today.  Stop over there to read all about the process I followed in creating this Matisse block.

Thank you all for leaving comments and following my blog.  Now, for the moment you have been waiting for.

The random generator selected # 17

And the winner is

Missy said...

I'm now a follower of your blog. This sounds like a lot of fun. I haven't done this before and I think it might stretch my creativity some.

 I have sent Missy an email and will send her fabric as soon as I get her address.



Joyful quilting, everyone.

A new fish

This one makes six. 

 I think my mojo walked out the door this morning when Priscilla (my Juki) and I had some difficulty over a new kind of thread my client wants me to use on her quilt.  I am afraid, it is so bad that I am going to have to get Priscilla's bobbin case fixed or replaced.  I also had to rip out about 12" by 85" of quilting.  It looked fine on the top, but when I started to roll it up, it was a mess.  I am still new enough at this that I didn't automatically check to see if the back was alright before I got that far.  Priscilla didn't do her part in warning me, either.  Anyway, it has been on my mind all day and my studio work suffered.  Only one fish all day?  That is sad.  At least I like the fish.  I only have six more fish for the swap, unless I decided to send one directly to Mary Lou.  Then I would need seven more.  Decisions, Decisions.

If you are interested in the Soul Blossom giveaway, you still have until tomorrow morning around 9:00 AM PST to enter here.

I hope you are all having a better day than I am.

New fabric and more Farmer's Wife blocks

I got a very nice package in the mail today.  I ordered these beauties from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I had my daughter-in-law select colors she wanted in a quilt, and I am very excited with what she chose.  I am going to use the same pattern I used for the H2H quilt.  I can't wait to get started.

I have been doing two of the Farmer's Wife blocks at a time.  Here are #1 - #6.  They are not in numerical order here.  I have to make more with the light fabric.  I was inspired for the colors by the leaf fabric in reds, blue, and golds.  This was a thrift store shirt, and I am going to be frugal with it so it lasts for the whole quilt.  I used the same fabric for the first border around Hokule'a

I added the dark blue to the border to give the center breathing room.  I am happy with the way it is coming along.  I think the next thing is stars.  I think this section will be in the lower right part of the quilt with the next borders only on two sides.  Then, I will put one other border around the entire thing.  As with everything I make, I reserve the right to change my mind along the way.

Tomorrow is another quilty day.

Joyful quilting, everyone.



Guest Blogging and a Fabric Giveaway

Today, I am guest blogging at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Please visit over there , then come back here to enter the fabric giveaway.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 8:30 AM

The giveaway is closed

I have three fat quarters from the Soul Blossoms collection by Amy Butler for Westminster Fabrics.  I have been drooling over this line for a while.  If you would like to win this yummy fabric, you have four chances.
1.  Visit Sarah's blog and become a follower.  Come back here and leave me a message letting me know you are now a follower.
2.  Read my post on Sarah's blog and come back here to leave a comment about the "Why" section of the post.
3.  Become a follower of my blog.
4.  Leave me a comment about what you are reading these days.
Winner will be chosen Wednesday morning.  Please be sure I have a way to contact you.

Thanks for stopping by.
Good luck, and joyful quilting.

More fish and a giveaway announcement

This lovely lady still needs fins, but I couldn't resist sharing her portrait.  I now have four and 3/4 fish completed.  I need to have 12 for the swap.  They are really fun to make, but they do take me a long time to put together.  Here is the one I finished today.

My other big project for today was the Lotta Jansdotter challenge.  I got the top put together and am trying to decide about a border. 

Here are the details of the elements squares.

These were fun to make and I think they really improve the look of the quilt.  These were done after a family conference about the quilt.  Quilt by committee.  You have to love it.
Finally, I am guest blogging at Confessions of a Fabric Addict tomorrow and announcing a fun fabric giveaway back here.  Hope you visit over at Sarah's great blog and come back here to enter into the drawing.
Joyful quilting, everyone.

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.