February AAQI quilt

Hope Rises

8" x 10.5"

I realized the other day that I hadn't made my AAQI mini for this month.  I belong to the quilt-a-month club at AAQI, and I haven't missed a month in a year.  I didn't want to start now.  I had drawn out a sketch for this one a while ago while I was waiting for Bella at dance class.  I wanted a Phoenix-like bird rising from the dark into the light.  This morning, I pulled my blacks and whites and created the background strata.  I then pulled what I thought were going to be really bright colors for the bird.  They are not nearly as bright as I thought they were going to be.  They are very spring like.  Hey - that symbolism works okay for what I wanted.  Spring is rebirth and hope.  Once I got everything cut out and appliqued on, I started building pebbles at the bottom where it was solid black.  I used a variegated King Tut by Superior in a really light mix so they would stand out.  Then, I put some FMQ feathers on the bird and some wavy lines going up from the pebbles.  The binding is another batik that is very spring like in this piece.

It was very interesting creating a piece like this.  I haven't done that much FMQ except overall stippling, so I really had to concentrate on what I wanted it to look like.  I didn't want to pebbles to look uniform or perfect, and that was no problem.  Ha ha.  I think I could have put more feathers on the bird, but I wasn't sure where to go with that, so I stopped while I was ahead.

I am not sure how much studio time I will have this weekend, so I may not be back until Monday.  Until then, joyful quilting everyone.

Happy Valentine's Day

Stash Bee Blocks

I think I mentioned that I am the queen bee for Hive #2 over at Stash Bee.  I decided I want to create a rainbow quilt with string blocks.  I am so excited about the blocks that have been coming my way.  I just got a squishy from the UK today.  There are 20 members in this hive, and I have asked for one or two 8.5" blocks from everyone.  I said they didn't have to be trimmed.  It is so much fun to see all the fabrics.  The siggy blocks are great because they list the names and the places of origin.  For now, I will just keep adding the blocks to the design wall as I get them.

I have been doing other things, but I can't show them for now.  One, I will post tomorrow, but it is a surprise for now.

I will be with Bella for the next three days.  Until Friday, joyful quilting, everyone.

The last house

Here she is.  The last house for the wonky house swap.  This African Hut created itself, practically.  I had a pile of scraps on the cutting table from other projects, and they asked to be made into a hut.  Do your scraps ever talk to you, or is it the diet I am on that has turned my mind toward hallucinations?  Anyway, this is the last one I am making for now.  I need 11 to send in for the swap.  The object was to make 12, then decide which one to keep.  That choice was becoming very difficult.  I wanted so many, and Tom wanted other ones.  This way, I don't have to choose.  I can make the 12th one after I get my 11 back from the bee and see just what is needed to make that quilt work best.  And, I have photos of all the others in case I want to recreate one of them.

This is a pretty pitiful showing for an entire day, but I am off my game these days.  My body has been invaded by a pesky and irksome bacteria, and my doctor has put me on some hideous medicine to get rid of it.  The bacteria is less annoying than the side affects of the antibiotic.  I am a big believer in the development of all modern medicine, but I think we may have gone a bit over the top with some of it.  I won't get on my soap box here, so rest easy.  I only have to take this terrible stuff for another couple of days, then I should be as good as new, and back in a creative frame of mind.

Hopefully, I will be somewhat productive tomorrow.  I have siggy blocks to make, and blocks to mail.

Until then, joyful quilting everyone.

(By the way, for anyone intrigued by my diet statement above, I have lost 23 pounds since January 1, and almost 4 inches around my middle.  I am on my way to a new streamlined me.)

Getting closer

I took some good advice from yesterday's comments and used some scraps to work out the best way to sew the units onto the center block.

After getting the size and shape sorted out, I made four paper foundations for piecing.

I had first thought I would have the pointy part of the purple pointing toward the center, but changed my mind.  I decided that I wanted to continue having the energy from the center flowing outward.

This is what one completed corner looks like.  I got two sewn in place before I had to leave to go to a vision board creating party.  As you might imagine, my board has a quilting and fabric area. 

Tomorrow, I will finish up this project and get the last two wonky houses made.  Week after next is spring break for my daughter, so I will have an entire week to work in the studio.  I am going to dedicate one day to clean up my studio.  It is time. 

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

It's about the process some days

I am participating in a round robin with four other quilters.  They are all extremely talented quilters.  They pay attention to things like points and seam allowances.  I try, but sometimes I fall a bit short.  This time, I am really working to be disciplined so none of them will be sorry I joined and they will want to work with me again.  My first center came from Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks.  You can see it here.  After looking at it on my design wall for a while, I made some decisions and have started my addition.

First, I measured the center, and decided how wide the base of these triangles needed to be.  I decided how tall I wanted them to be, added a 1/4" seam allowance all around, and cut out the pieces I needed.

Since I have been playing with triangles lately, with varying degrees of success, I decided to mark the points in the corners where the seam allowances met.

I carefully pinned these points together, and sewed my strips.  This really worked well.  I got nice straight lines, and the strips are nice and even.  I am very happy with these results.

Amazingly enough, my measurements were correct and the strips were just the right length.  Then I got stumped.

These next few photos are without the strips sewn to the center. This is what the corners look like now.  Here is my dilemma.  I know how to achieve this:

But what I want to achieve is this:

I know how to build this corner piece, I just don't know how to sew it on.  It is a Y seam of sorts, but totally outside my comfort zone.  I will figure it out tomorrow, I am sure, but for now, I will just look at it for a while.  If you have any words of wisdom, I would be so grateful if you would share them.

What wonderful projects are you working on that have challenges to them?

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting, everyone.

A challenge or two, or maybe three

I could not bring myself to create another house today.  I tried to pull fabric, but they all so no.  I had ten things on my list to get done between last Friday and today, so I grabbed the list to see what I had left.  On it were three challenges.

Challlenge #1  Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict put up a challenge to design a block any size using blocks no bigger than 5", 3.5" and 2", cut.  They could be smaller.  I love a puzzle, so I started with a 12" square design, and started filling the space with squares.  My drawing called for 4.5", 3.5", 2.5", and 1.5". 

Since one of my goals this year is to conquer the Y seam, I paid no attention to how it all laid out.  In the end, I ended up with two Y seams, and I pulled them off without a hitch.  After the drawing, I had to pull fabric, which lead to

Challenge #2  At the November Rebels meeting, we each took a piece of this fabric and are to return with a project using it in February.

I started out really not liking this fabric.  Then I decided the colors were okay if I only paid attention to them.  So, I pulled it out and started pulling other colors.  I decided not to focus on the reds and blues, but on the golds, pinks, deep purples and mauves.

When I was pulling the pink hand dyed, I remembered the small Madonna from Victoria, and knew I had to use it.  It violates the rules about squares in the first challenge, but maybe I can sqeak it by.  I also pulled a couple of scraps from the Mexican Star quilt and another batik I thought would work well.  I seem to be in a very warm color mood these days.  I know there is a fancy name for this color combination besides complimentary, but it escapes me at the moment.  It is one I like.

Here are a couple of detail shots.

I decided I could use some vignettes of the challenge fabric, as long as I kept them small.

Challenge #3 The colors for the Patchwork Times February color challenge have been posted.

I have them up on the wall, and I noticed that today's puzzle project was very near the right colors for the left half of the bar.  If I want to add lime green strips and borders, I will have completed challenge #3.  Hmmm.

All in all, I got 6 1/2 things out of the ten done.  I usually over-estimate much worse than that.

I will be with Bella the next three days, so you probably won't hear from me before Friday.

Until then, joyful quilting everyone.

Building houses again

I decided I needed to try and finish up the wonky houses this weekend so I can get them in the mail.  For the first one, I decided to go with pink for the house and a nautical print for the windows that makes it look like little panes.  I am afraid, it looks like bars on the windows, but it will look better when I get the machine applique stitches on them.

The next block started with the bottom.  It is left over from my Jacob's Ladder quilt.  I thought it looked like a farmers fields, so I decided to build what I think looks like a farm house.  Tom thinks it is a bit of a stretch to see farm fields, but I just let my imagination  go.

The last house was made with some strata I was playing with.  My goal here was to have it be sort of symmetrical wonky.  I am pleased with the way this one came out.  Now, I have two more to make before I have to select one to keep.  This one is in the running.  Here are the ten I have made so far.

I will be happy and sad to see these go, but I have seen some real beauties from other players.  This will make a fun quilt.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

Making Bee Blocks

Today, I decided to get some of my February Bee blocks made.  This one is for the Comfort Group Quilting Bee.  There are  ten members in this group.  The goal is for each person, when she is queen, to collect two blocks from the other members and make a quilt to give to someone who is really in need.  This bee was started by Angie at Summerfield Quilts.  My turn to be queen is in August.  I enjoyed making these blocks.  They helped me practice matching my points and corners.

This one is for Hive #1 at Stash Bee.  It is my second block for Hive #1.  I am also queen of Hive #2 this month, and people are making me some really beautiful strip pieced blocks in the colors of the rainbow.  There are 18 to 20 people in each hive.  Hive #3 has just started, so if you are interested, head over to Stash Bee and get signed up.  Sunni at Love Affair With My Brother started this bee. 

This block started out fine, then about half-way, I felt like I was getting lost.  I know some people paper-piece this pineapple block, but these instructions did not include paper piecing, so I tried it this way.  It is my first pineapple block, and once I figured out what I was doing, I enjoyed it.  The queens choice of red and black is very dramatic.  Unfortunately, I only had black solid.  Others are making blocks with various mostly black fabrics.  One thing that was reinforced for me today is that I really don't like working with black fabric any more than I like working with white.  My eyes are just not good enough any more to see what I am doing on the black.  Too bad, though, because I do love the dramatic effects.

I signed up for three bees and a round robin this year as part of my skill improvement plan.  These two blocks were great for that.  As an added bonus, I also got to practice my patience skills on the pineapple block.  I worry that my blocks will not be just what the queen is looking for, but for now, I will continue to do my best and hope it is good enough.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Another finished top

I think the top is finished.  The working title is Quilt Provencal.  The very dark piece on the right is not as noticeable in real life, but I may have to change it out.  I learned many things in making this top. 

1. Triangle spike borders are not as difficult as I thought they would be.  Of course, I took the easy way out in the corners because I wanted to use more of that fabric, and I only had enough to do the corners.

2.  Allowing the process to be the most important thing helped me to focus on what I was doing at the time.  That helped me to work on skills development along the way.

3.  I shouldn't be afraid to play with colors in all their varieties.

4.  Paying attention to fabric patterns can be fun.

5.  It is okay to have fun and focus on only one project at a time, sometimes.

6.  It is good to challenge myself to continue to learn and grow, and jump outside my box.

I am very happy I took up this self-imposed color challenge.  I will continue to look for more.

This is Primitiva by Jane Dixon for Andover.  I fell in love with it when I first saw it at Intrepid Thread.  I started saving my pennies, then Julie put it on sale so I was able to get a fat quarter bundle of the entire collection.  I saw a quilt I thought would work great with this collection over at Michelle's.  I thought I would use the Primitiva for the scrappy blocks and an orange that Julie found for me as the snowball centers.  This one is going to be for Tom, and he approves of my color choice.  He needs another bright lap quilt to keep the beauty his sister made him company.  I don't think one can ever have too many quilts.  I plan on getting this one started after I finish up some small projects I need to do because they have deadlines.

I look forward to a weekend in the studio playing and enjoying the process.

Joyful quilting, everyone.

Still growing, and I still like it

This is what I got sewn together today.  I am always amazed by how long seemingly simple things take me.  Getting all these 2 1/2" squares together in a seemingly random pattern was harder than it should have been, I think.  Then, keeping them that way when I sewed them all together was another challenge.  It was worth it, however.  I really like the way this group of squares frames the triangle star in the center.

I think I am going to go with a triangle border.  The question is whether or not to add another red border first.  Tom and I both like it with the border best, but a final decision won't be made until tomorrow.  I am not sure I will get this done tomorrow, but I will give it a good shot.  I think this will be the last post about this quilt until the top is done.  I don't want to wear out its welcome.

I don't usually just work on one project at a time, but this quilt has really got my attention.  It must be the bright colors and the fact that I am making it up as I go along.  I always enjoy the process, but this one seems extra fun.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

Growing a quilt

The first thing I did today was sew the star together.  The points don't all match in the center, but it did lie flat, which was my goal.  I decided to add a 1/4" containment border at this point.

Then I added some of Sally's strips for another border.   I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next, so I cut a bunch of 2.5" squares.

I was thinking about maybe doing a bunch of half square triangles, but decided I needed something that wasn't triangular.  I started making rows of squares, then put it on the wall to see what that would look like.

I thought it looked too busy, and I wanted a place for my eye to rest, so I added another red border. 

I made another set of squares for the other side, but tried them out on the bottom to see what it would look like with these all around the center.

I think I am going to like this.

This is where I stopped today.  Tomorrow, I will finish the top and bottom squares.   Then I will have more decisions to make.  At this point, it is 32" wide.  I would like to grow it to a lap quilt size.  I have toyed with the idea of a sawtooth border.  Unfortunately, I am running very low on fabrics for this quilt.  I only have a little of one of the yellows left.  I may be able to find another red that will work.  The blue is going to be a challenge.  I will check deeper into my stash and see what I come up with.

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

What if I tried a different color palette

This year, I decided to work on four different aspects of my quilting.  I wrote about them here.  One of the really important ones to me was number four, color.  I really want to try and break out of my old standard palette, so today, I did just that.

I went to a quilt group meeting on Wednesday, and Sally showed the most beautiful quilt she had recently finished in these colors.  She generously shared a roll of strips she had cut from the borders so I could play in a new palette.  It was instant love.

I started pulling fabrics from my stash, and was very surprised to find so many that worked.  I was very excited to get to the studio this morning to play.

Before I started, I found a few more pieces of fabric I thought would work, and they do.  I am not sure how this quilt will grow, but I know I want to start with Victoria's Triangles Galore star, so I set about cutting all my triangles.  Then I laid them out on the table.

Before I even started sewing, I had to put some of Sally's strips around the edge to see how it was going to work.  It all goes so well together.  I only got a little of the piecing started before I had to leave for the afternoon, but I plan on working longer in the studio tomorrow to see where this will take me.

I have created quilts in several different palettes, but most of the ones that differ from my fall back palette of teal, orange, olive, turquoise, and purple, have been for other people who wanted different colors.  This one is an intentional moving into new colors and opening up new possibilities.  I am not sure why this is important to me right now, but it is, so I am going to go with it. 

Until tomorrow, joyful quilting everyone.

Finished top - Mexican Stars

I have been hunkered down doing the hand work on this quilt top for the past couple of days.  I finished it last night and put it up on the design wall to admire.  When I decided to do the curves by hand instead of machine, I didn't realize how long it was going to take, but it was worth it.  Now I have to decide how to quilt it.

Detail of center area.

I chose to do this in the earthy palette I like so well.  It would be interesting to do this again in brights just to see the difference.  Working with this pattern has convinced me to try more patterns if I find them as interesting as this one. 

I have a question for you all.  I would love to know what you look for in a quilting blog that makes you want to visit again.  Thank you for taking a few minutes to share your thoughts.

Joyful quilting, everyone.