Tuesday, December 27, 2016

En Provence Clue #5


Clue #5 was so easy and quick. Thanks, Bonnie., Now waiting for #6. Will it be the last or will there be two more? We will have to wait and see. To see what other exciting color combinations are being used, go to Bonnie's Mystery Monday Link-Up.


The quilt I started in Paducah, KY with Victoria Findlay Wolfe is back from the quilter. It is quilted in lime green thread in an allover spider web with spiders pattern. I finished it off with a flanged binding. Not something I want to do everyday, but it works here.

Monday, December 19, 2016

African Baby Quilt #3


Here is the second African rail baby quilts. I realized after posting the third one that i had not posted a photo of the second one. I had only one 4" block left over, which I consider excellent use of materials. It's quilted in an allover diamond pattern.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

En Provence Clue #4


Clue #4 of Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Mystery Quilt is finished. Again, it was a relatively easy task to make 80 triangle-in-a-square blocks using the Tri-Recs set of rulers. Visit Monday Mystery Link-Up to see all the other possibilities!

I am on to finishing another baby quilt for a local organization and my guild's January optional block, which is a snowman!

Update: Finished Snowman block.


Third baby rail fence quilt with African fabrics. This is it, folks. I used up every block I cut except for one. Close enough. Quilted, labeled, bound. Done!


As I write this update on Monday, December 19, it is 3 degrees outside. I was hoping for a white Christmas, but guess what? The predicted temperature for Sunday is 66 degrees. No white Christmas this year.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Plenty of Purple


Clue #3 of Bonnie Hunter's 2016 mystery quilt, En Provence, calls for 168 purple four-patch blocks. I made 171; it's always good to have a few extra. Besides sewing like crazy for the mystery quilt, I have been working on another African-themed baby quilt and quilting the first one I made.

To see what the rest of the gang is doing vis a vis the mystery quilt, check out the Mystery Monday Link-Up

Friday, December 9, 2016

African Baby Quilt


I made this African themed baby quilt in just a few hours last night and this morning. It's made using Sujata Shah's free cutting technique. It's not very baby-ish, but there is only so much pastel I can do.

Tonight is our guild's Christmas party, so no sewing on Bonnie's mystery quilt for me today. But tomorrow? That is another story.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

En Provence Clue #2


I finished quilting this top today using an idea from Pinterest for the straight line quilting. It was a little tricky because the original photo I saw was a square quilt. This one is not, as you can see and the quilting came out a little different but okay. It's a baby quilt for a neighbor's granddaughter who is one year old. The top itself has been in the time out box for several years. The original pattern was in blue and green for a boy. It's supposed to have a transparency effect where the colored strips overlap in the center. I think only one of them is really successful, Maybe two - the bottom two. The others, not so much. I was working from stash and couldn't really get the effect I wanted with the fabrics I had. So I really disliked the top and made something else for the originally intended recipient. Now with the quilting, I feel it's good enough to gift. One UFO out the door.


Clue #2 of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt was posted Friday. Yesterday I sewed at a friend's house with three others who were also working on the mystery quilt. This afternoon I was able to finish up, completing 100 triangle in a square blocks. They came out really nice and no sliver trimming, thank you very much, I really detest doing that. Measuring and cutting everything twice? No way. What a waste of time. With Bonnie's expert tutelage my piecing has really improved tremendously. No need for trimming. This is a sampling of the blocks I made with neutrals and magenta, the one constant fabric. Check out what others are doing with this mystery at  Bonnie's web site.

After lunch and trip to the grocery store, I plan on working on my Scrappy 3-D Stars that I began in a workshop with Teajuana Mahone two months ago! Here's my Optional Block for Friday's guild meeting and holiday party.


Monday, November 28, 2016

En Provence - And So It Begins



For the fifth year in a row, I am jumping into Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt. Bonnie provides this mystery for free to her blog readers to thank them for being loyal followers. The inspiration for this year's mystery is Provence - specifically the lavender fields of Provence. The colors are yummy - purple, green, yellow, lilac, magenta and neutrals, of course. The first clue was posted last Friday. We are to make 221 scrappy neutral four-patches which finish at 3 inches. I was able to complete this clue by noon Sunday. This photo shows 90 of the blocks but rest assured that all 221 are finished and "in the bag." They are just more of the same, so I didn't pull them all out for the photo.

If you would like to see what others have made, head on over to Bonnie's blog for linky Monday.

I haven't blogged in a while, as several of you have noticed. It's really nice that someone actually notices. Nothing amiss at this end, just busy and frankly a bit lazy. Our guild's quilt show is fast approaching in March and the deadline for registering quilts for the show is mid-January. I have been busy doing mundane things such as sewing quilt backs, and making labels and hanging sleeves.

In addition to that, I began another double wedding ring quilt ala Victoria Findlay Wolfe. Again, it has a Halloween theme. I belonged to a block exchange group for several years and literally have a large box full of blocks in themed sets of 13. I pulled out the best of the Halloween ones and set to work incorporating them into the quilt as the centers of the rings.I could make at least a dozen others with blocks ranging from coffee and tea cups with wedges of cake to flowers to various animals. Should I choose to do so, that is. This is partially sewn together but will not be as elaborately finished as the first one, i.e., no piping around the outside and probably no border either.



I took another class in Paducah in October with Katie Pasquini Masopust. We used photographs for color inspiration and placement within the small wall hanging we made. I finished the binding on mine this evening.



I still am working on figuring our where I am going with the Dresden plates I started so long ago. I have decided that they need a lot more color. More of the yellow for sure and some brighter turquoise.


There are also two challenges to be finished for the quilt show. They are so unformed at this points that there is no point in showing a photo.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Sew Day Quilt #2


I had 11 more of the made fabric blocks. I made one more and cut 12 blocks of blue circle fabric and voila! Sew Day quilt # 2. Quilt #1 has been quilted and bound.

Sew Day


Our guild had a Sew Day yesterday at Janie Lou Quilt Shop. We  used Victoria Findlay Wolfe's made fabric technique to sew 6" blocks for our Comfort Quilt project. We are making small quilts for Nurses for Newborns, a local non-profit. Some of the members didn't want to make an entire quilt, so I took the "leftovers" and paired them with a neutral fabric to make this small quilt. I used my treadle and will sandwich it and quilt it today. using one of the kits we made up from fabric donated by Janie Lou. The neutral squares are from Brigitte Heitland's Zen Chic line. I found a black and white striped binding on the free table at the last guild meeting, and may use that to bind this quilt. Or I might use a purple fat quarter that was in the kit I picked up.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Victoria, What Have You Wrought?


I no sooner finished the quilt top from Victoria Findlay Wolfe's workshop in Paducah, than I started another. I am using blocks exchanged in a guild activity years ago. Lo and behold, there were a bunch of Halloween themed ones  in the box! Enough to make another double wedding ring quilt.This one will be a bit less involved - no pieced outside arcs. All the arcs will be orange and all the melons will be black. This is a pick-it-up-off-the-floor-and-cut-it quilt. Oh, Victoria, what terrible path of obsession have you led me down?

In case you are wondering about the first one I made, the top is now finished and will be resting while the quilting makes itself known to me.


Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Boo!

I had the most fantastic and inspiring three days at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY with Victoria Findlay Wolfe. She posted a video about the workshop on Double Wedding Ring Quilts at her blog.

My quilt has a Halloween theme and is almost all sewn together. At the bottom center of the quilt, the orange polka dot arc will be replaced with a cheddar and black striped arc to make the border uniform around the quilt.


If life had not intervened today, this would have been completely sewn together.  It will have a tiny purple flange all around the outside edge and will be sewn down onto a gray and black striped outer border. It will have to be mitered, which normally I avoid like the plague, but I don't want anything visually to mar the outer border, such as cornerstones, so I will suck it up and miter the border for the effect.

Victoria is an excellent teacher. if ever you have the opportunity to take a workshop with her, jump at the chance! The classroom at the Quilt Museum was excellent and overall the experience was 100% positive.

Monday, September 5, 2016

School Bus Block


I don't Have a lot to report. I made this block this afternoon for my guild's monthly optional block activity. The choice of fabric to put in the windows was up to us, so I loaded up the bus with a crew of happy Trick-or-Treaters.

I have begun packing up for a trip to Paducah on Wednesday. Virgina Findlay Wolfe is giving a class on her Double Wedding Rings at the National Quilt Museum there. Two friends will be with me as well as the other students that I hope will be friends by the end of the three day experience.


For something to do in the evening while watching television, I dug out this oldie moldy hand applique project. It is a William Morris pattern and all but two of the center blocks were finished. I have since finished one of them and am partly through the last block. The setting and corner triangles have scroll work applique in them. Not really keen on making 8 identical setting triangles and four corner triangles, I may resort to fusible in the interests of moving this thing forward to completion.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

One Step Forward....


The Fancy Forest baby quilt is sandwiched and ready for quilting. I am planning on a free motion wood grain design. A bit more practice and I will begin the process.


Some progress has been made on Bonnie Hunter's 2016 leader/ender challenge. The challenge for me is keeping ahead of the process by having the fabric cut and ready to hand. I probably could have had the top and bottom green borders and the next round of neutral blocks done by now while piecing Fancy Forest if I had been prepared.


Sunday I took a short workshop on how to finish up this project that I started ages ago. I had initially decided on an aqua background, but surprisingly it wasn't doing anything for the Dresden plates. With the help of the teacher, I settled on a taupe-ish background. I am so not sure this wallhanging will be a winner; the colors are no longer speaking to me. The smallest block in the bottom left hand corner was a lot of work for the dog it has turned out to be. I will salvage the teal segments and possibly reuse them somewhere else. Or maybe not. The yellow plates are giving it a bit more punch and I will make more with that color in them. The plates are fun to make except when they turn out ugly. The one lightish one with the rick rack trim may also be saying bye-bye. Maybe if  it gets a more vibrant overlay it is salvageable. I tell you, the design wall is a double edged sword. Can't live with it and sometimes you just can't live with it either. Or at least what you put on it..



Monday, August 15, 2016

Dog Days of Summer


I have started (without much enthusiasm I must admit) a dorm quilt for my nephew who is off to college when he returns from a trip to California with his father and sister. I say with not much enthusiasm because the colors don't grab me. Black and gold are the colors of his chosen school, Missouri University at Columbia, known in these parts as "Mizzou." The fabrics are licensed Mizzou fabrics and the pattern will be a hounds-tooth check. It is easy enough to do, but for me, that is part of the problem. I like challenges.


I have jmped into Bonnie Hunter's 2016 leader/ender challenge. Only the orange center and surrounding row of neutrals are sewn together. I need a few more of the green blocks before adding them on. Then comes another round of neutral ones. I think the next color rows may be purple.


I have started a Fancy Forest baby quilt. This is a very popular pattern by Elizabeth Hartman; there are images all over the internet - Instagram, blogs, Pinterest, etc.There are lots of pieces in each block and following the directions can be challenging. There was a bit of reverse sewing involved, notably on Harriet Hedgehog. That said, so far the directions have been impeccable - correct to a "T". Any mishaps were due to operator error. There are two of every block, except for the fox, of which there are four. He is also the easiest to piece  So I am a bit more than halfway. Although the cutting can be a bit much, because it is challenging it holds my interest. However, I wouldn't want to make the entire large quilt which is four times the size of the baby quilt.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Houses, a Dog, and Doll Clothes



I have been doing a bit of this and that, without a lot of anything being truly finished. Our power went out here last week for 24 hours in the aftermath of a violent thunder storm. The temps hit the upper 90s, but leaving the house closed up, shades drawn, etc. the house never got warmer than 75 degrees. The freezer was not opened, so most everything stayed frozen except the ice cream and ice cubes. Life is better with electricity!

This 12-inch dog block is the August optional block for my guild. There were several small stitch and flip 1.5" square pieces. I learned right away not to cut away the excess until the units were all stitched and laid out. There was some reverse sewing that had to be done.


These are the first two blocks (20" square!) of Carolyn Friedlander's "Local" quilt. The blocks are paper-pieced. I like the pattern, but have quibbles about the way it is printed. There is no way to copy the pattern onto 8.5" x 11" paper. The pieces are too big. You can either go to the office store each month and pay $$ to have them copied, or you can try and break up the individual units that will fit onto normal size paper. The latter method worked for me on these two blocks. However, block #3 consists of many large triangular pieces and short of taping a bunch of stuff together, it is unworkable in an 8.5" x 11" format. I have decided to make templates instead as all the pieces are large and not particularly complicated. Freezer paper on a roll will be used to make the longish triangular templates. My piecing skills are such that sewing straight lines is not an issue. I think so anyway.

Other than surviving with no electricity and looking after Mom who fell a couple of weeks ago (nothing broken, but very achy) I have delved into making clothes for an 18" American Girl doll owned by my great niece. I made a wardrobe for another such doll 7 or 8 years ago for my niece. I really enjoyed it and as I have an extensive fabric collection and several shoe boxes full of bits of trims and ribbons, I have not needed to buy anything other than some Velcro and elastic. Photos to follow but so far completed are baby doll PJs, top and matching miniskirt, and sundress. In the planning are a summer top and shorts, boho chic peasant blouse and long ruffled skirt, and a prairie outfit with bonnet and apron. There are plans to include a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder's  "Little House on the Prairie" to pique her interest.

Oh, yes, almost forgot. I am jumping into Bonnie Hunter's 2016 leader/ender challenge. See the badge on the sidebar to the right for more information. The last time I took the challenge was a few years back when the challenge was little bow tie blocks. I bought an entire bolt of cheddar fabric from Mary Jo's Cloth store for that one.

There is much to like with this challenge. 1. It's controlled scrappy. 2. I have a lot of the correct 2" strips already cut and waiting in my Scrap User drawers. 3. You can complete each round as you have the units made so there won't be (I hope) a big old box of parts to be sewn together at the end. 4. It starts with orange, my favorite quilty color.

The indiviual blocks are hourglass units, which Bonnie points out are made with quarter square triangles. Broken dishes blocks use half square triangles. Don't confuse the two! So here is a tip that I had not previously thought consciously about. Learned something new today.

Happy Monday!

Houses, a Dog, and Doll Clothes



I have been doing a bit of this and that, without a lot of anything being truly finished. Our power went out here last week for 24 hours in the aftermath of a violent thunder storm. The temps hit the upper 90s, but leaving the house closed up, shades drawn, etc. the house never got warmer than 75 degrees. The freezer was not opened, so most everything stayed frozen except the ice cream and the ice cubes. Life is better with electricity!

This 12 inch block is the August optional block for my guild. There were several small stitch and flip 1.5" square pieces. I learned right away not to cut away the excess until the units were all stitched and laid out. There was some reverse sewing that had to be done.


These are the first two blocks (20" square!) of Carolyn Friedlander's "Local" quilt. The blocks are paper-pieced. I like the pattern, but have quibbles about the way it is printed. There is no way to copy the pattern onto 8.5" x 11" paper. The pieces are too big. You can either go to the office store each month and pay $$ to have them copied, or you can try and break up the individual units that will fit onto normal size paper. The latter method worked for me on these two blocks. However, block #3 consists of many large triangular pieces and short of taping a bunch of stuff together, is unworkable in an 8.5" x 11" format. I have decided to make templates instead as all the pieces are large and not particularly complicated. My piecing skills are such that sewing straight lines is not an issue.

Other than surviving with no electricity and looking after Mom who fell a couple of weeks ago (nothing broken, but very achy) I have delved into making clothes for an 18" American Girl doll owned by my great niece. I made a wardrobe for another such doll 7 or 8 years ago for my niece. I really enjoyed it and as I have an extensive fabric collection and several shoe boxes full of bits of trims and ribbons, I have not needed to buy anything other than some Velcro and elastic. Photos to follow but so far completed are baby doll PJs, top and matching miniskirt, and sundress. In the planning are a summer top and shorts, boho chic peasant blouse and long ruffled skirt, and a prairie outfit with bonnet and apron. There are plans to include a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder's  "Little House on the Prairie" to pique her interest.

Oh, yes, almost forgot. I am jumping into Bonnie Hunter's 2016 leader/ender challenge. See the badge on the sidebar to the right for more information. The last time I took the challenge was a few years back when the challenge was little bow tie blocks. I bought an entire bolt of cheddar fabric from Mary Jo's Cloth store for that one.

There is much to like with this challenge. 1. It's controlled scrappy. 2. I have a lot of the correct 2" strips already cut and waiting in my Scrap User drawers. 3. You can complete each round as you have the units made so there won't be (I hope) a big old box of parts to be sewn together at the end. 4. It starts with orange, my favorite quilty color.

The units are hourglass units, which Bonnie points out are made with quarter square triangles. Broken dishes blocks use half square triangles. Don't confuse the two! So here is a tip that I had not previously thought consciously about. Learned something new today.

Happy Monday!

Monday, June 27, 2016

Trying to Stay Cool

It has been very hot here, but then it's the Midwest and it's almost July. Heat is to be expected. It's the humidity that's the killer, though. Yesterday the temperature was in the upper 90s and it rained twice. Very sticky. But, we have a well functioning A/C system, so all is frosty cool within. I started another small quilt for our guild's Comfort Quilt project using up some charm packs that have been ageing in a shoebox on an upper shelf. Out of sight, out of mind. Last week's trip to Hamilton, MO reminded me that there were quite a few precuts in my stash and that it was time to put them to good use.


Some simple broken dishes blocks make an easy small quilt.


I finished (or thought that I had) my hexie challenge quilt. It's all spray basted to the batting and backing and the edges are machine basted. And, guess what? It's not a hexie. It has 12 sides, not six. Sigh. Back to the drawing board. I think it can be saved by (hand) sewing six small black triangles where there are the blue edges. Not a big disaster, just a pain in the keester.

Off to the side you can see the X and O baby quilt. It is just about sewn together and will be ready for quilting soon.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Changing Gears


I'm taking a bit of a break from baby string quilts. Our guild's 2017 show will be upon us before you know it and the quilt show chairman has set a challenge to make a hexie quilt. This is rosette #1 from Katja Marek's New Hexagong Quilt-Along. Only two of the "rows" have been made and already the piece is reaching the size limitation of 25" x 25". The center two "rows", minus the three trial pieces sticking out, measure 16" at the widest point. I think I will stop here and add triangles to fill in between the six points to bring it into a hexie shape.Those three other pieces are not adding anything to the overall design anyway. I will reuse the papers and start over with other fabrics for Katja's project. By the way, I saw the pack of paper pieces for rosette #1 on the MSQC web site for half the price. Click here.

You can order the paper pieces for the entire project from Paper Pieces. The first rosette is the largest and therefore is the most expensive at $21.00. When English paper piecing I normally print and cut out my own papers but I decided to splurge this time. The packet of papers was totally accurate and if there were two of the same shapes (such as the diamonds) but of a slightly different size, two different colors of paper were used to make them very easy to differentiate.


This is the mural on the side of the retreat center at Missouri Star Quilt Co. (MSQC) in Hamilton, MO. I was lucky enough to get into Carmon and April Henry's Featherweight maintenance class at MSQC this week. You can read more about them and their workshops here. I highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to learn how to service their own Featherweight machines. The Henrys were accompanied and assisted by their two teen aged children, Christian and Ruthie. Christian is a memory bank of Featherweight history and as good a technician as his father. Ruthie demonstrated how she restores Featherweight cases to pristine condition. It's very refreshing to see such two well-adjusted youngsters that seem genuinely happy to be spending the summer traveling around the United States working with their parents.

The first evening we were treated to a trunk show by Jenny Doan. The woman is a veritable powerhouse of energy and a very good speaker. I am not a big user of precuts, which she loves and which is the focus of her company. There are bolts of fabric, to be sure, but there are TONS of precuts. After her presentation I have been won over a tiny bit to her way of thinking. Since there are boxes of charm square packets on my shelves (can't resist at Connecting Threads when they are $2.00 or less!), I will be combing through back issues of Block magazine to find patterns for the baby quilts I have been making.

Unfortunately, while I have a few photos, I don't have much to report about MSQC because the shops close at 5:00 p.m. during the week. On Monday I got checked into the workshop after 3:00 p.m. By the time setup was finished, there was less than an hour to shop. The mercury was close to 100, so frankly there was not a lot of incentive to go outside and walk around in the heat. The second day class let out at 5:00 p.m., so again there was no time to shop. I left to drive home immediately after class. What I did see of the main shop and the reproductions shop was very nice and inviting. The staff are super friendly and helpful. MSQC has certainly revitalized this tiny Midwestern town. They employ 300 with many coming from the surrounding farm communities. Amish country is close by, and Kansas City just an hour away, so you could easily make a trip to Hamilton something for the entire family to enjoy.


This is the newly remodeled and just this week re-opened main store. As you can see from the photo it is very large, open, and airy. There are big screen TVs in the store which air Jenny Doan's tutorials; there are nice, big cushy arm chairs for resting and watching the videos.


This is a new spool doily I scored at the class. I love the watermelon theme and the little black seeds are tiny black seed beads crocheted into the doily. The Henrys have a woman who crochets these doilies for them in all sorts of patterns and colors. There was a red, white, and blue star for the Fourth and many other designs. They had an entire case of these things, so the little crochet lady must just be hooking her little heart out.

Friday, June 17, 2016

In the Pink


Small string quilt #6 completed! Easy as these are, I want to try something different. If I can find the roll of adding machine tape that a friend gave me some time back, I will cut 36"strips and make long string pieces. They will be sewn with strips of whole fabric in between to make small coin quilts. Crazy Mom has a tutorial on her blog if you are not familiar with the pattern. If I can't find the roll of paper tape, I will use more of the telephone book pages and sew the sections together.


I have started a new baby quilt for a friend's grandson; no pattern but the one I have made up. There are a number of these X and O quilts on the web. The blocks finish at 8" and are made with a stitch and flip process that yields a lot of "bonus triangles."


These small pinwheel blocks finish at 2.5" although from the comparable size of the photos it's hard to tell the actual size until they are placed side by side.


The little pinwheels will go into a doll-sized quilt for another little girl.

Next week I will be in Hamilton, MO at Missouri Star Quilt Company for a Featherweight maintenance class. Inasmuch as I have two Featherweights and a Singer 301, I am eager to learn more about these machines. 

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Seeing Red



Almost there. This little string quilt lacks just one lonely block. I made the right number, but in trimming them up, I grabbed two blocks instead of one and whacked away with the rotary cutter. I did this once before and thought that I had learned my lesson. Obviously not. When i get a moment I will make the last one.

Tomorrow I will be working on our guild's 2017 raffle quilt. Four of us worked on it today and got the first skinny 1/2" border sewn on. The next border is 3" wide and has a row of hexies appliqued down the middle of it. It will require some finagling to get it to fit the existing top. Perhaps I am a bit cocky after my success with "My Blue Heaven" putting on a pieced border, but I volunteered to do this. Nothing will be cut and nothing will be machine sewn; I will be marking with chalk and only hand basting the borders until certain that everything fits. Guild meeting is Friday evening and we want to have the top out for display to show our progress. Wish me luck.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Stringin' Along



The blue and green string quilt for Nurses for Newborns has been sewn together. These small 6" blocks sew up quickly, even though I am using my treadle and taking my time. I hope to get this one sandwiched and quilted in the next day or so. Soon I will prepare the papers and select strips for this evening's sewing. Red and neutrals come to mind.


This behemoth of a quilt top is very nearly finished. The last border needs to be sewn on, but the pieces are all sewn together. This quilt was started in a workshop with Bonnie Hunter last fall and is my rendition of her free pattern, "My Blue Heaven." The original is done in blues and neutrals. As there were not enough blue strips in my scrap drawers, I branched out and chose the additional analogous colors of green, purple, and aqua. All well and good if I had paid closer attention to value. As it turned out, with the additional colors and a good many of the star points disappearing into the background because they were too light, the effect of setting the blocks immediately next to one another was a big visual mess. Hence, the sashing was introduced. That, of course, changed the dimensions of the quilt and required some figuring with paper, pencil, and calculator to figure out how to compensate for the extra inches created with the sashing.


I was pleasantly surprised (actually startled is more like it) when everything fit together so well. It was almost scary how well the border fit. I used the broken dishes blocks from the original pattern which mirror the centers of the interior blocks, each of which features a broken dish block. However, I decided to make them in the same gray and white tones of the sashing and cornerstones to bring some cohesion to the quilt top. The idea came to me from reading Mickey Depre's latest book, "Half Scrap Quilts". She has a couple of quilts in this book (which I highly recommend) that use this coloration. This quilt is huge. It easily covers my queen sized bed with enough to actually completely cover the mattress and with enough to tuck under the pillows. Needless to say, I will not be quilting this one.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Dipping Into the String Pile (Again)!


Dipping into the blue and green drawers of my scrappy strings, I have begun a fourth string quilt for the babies' "tummy time" small quilts. Out guild is making as many of these 24" x 36" quilts as possible. They are kind of addictive. Being so small they almost sew themselves and are super easy to run through a domestic home sewing machine when it's time to quilt them.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Back in the Saddle!

The blogging saddle, that is. I never left the quilting one. What happened? Nothing monumental, I just got busy, and first a week passed, then another, and another, and pretty soon I was out of the habit of posting. So this post will be a bit long as I try to catch you up on my doings.

I took a bookbinding class at the local community college. Over four evenings in April I made these four books.


It was fun to learn something new and different from quilting. The teacher was excellent, very patient and knowledgeable.The books were each bound using a different method: western pamphlet, coptic, chain stitch, and one other whose name escapes me.

I have acquired several new books on the topic of quilting. The three most recent ones have captured my attention and I have my eye on projects in each. First up is "Mixing Quilt Elements" by Kathy Doughty; she never fails to inspire and astonish. Kathy is not afraid of mixing it up with many fabrics in one quilt - often to the point of nearly visual confusion. I like that, though, because she gives you permission to use the unusual and unexpected. It gives her quilts great energy. Sh e has now gone just a step further and mixed applique, traditional piecing, English paper piecing, and foundation paper piecing in her work. She explains that she has learned so many wonderful ways of doing things and wants to use all the tools in her tool belt when constructing her quilts. I agree wholeheartedly. I feel as though I am finally able to make just about anything I care to tackle after numerous workshops and classes over the years. Wild Child and Colorworks are particularly appealing, although Wild Child relies on a very specific and graphic fabric that will take some thinking to replicate the bold appeal of Kathy's quilt without using the same fabric.


The other two books are Millefiore Quilts and Millefiori Quilts 2, both by Willyne Hammerstein. She is a Dutch quiltmaker and her books are full of patterns made entirely by English paper piecing.


The photo on the cover is "Passacaglia with Mr. Penrose." Quite the title, isn't it? A passacaglia is of Spanish origin and can refer to either a dance or musical work that consists of many repeats and variations on a theme. The projects in this book are stunning and promise me many happy hours of hand stitching. Many of the pieces are fussy cut, although this is not necessary. If you google Millefiori or passacaglia quilts, you will see many examples from the very traditional to the modern.They are popping up all over the internet and Instagram. The kaleidoscopic designs are mind boggling. It took me awhile to track down the books. I finally located them through Quiltmania; they are pricey and not available through Amazon unless someone is selling a used copy. The books are written in both French and English which adds to their size, and thus, I assume, to their cost. "Love in my Guiding Star" is a pattern that I am pretty sure I could tackle without a lot of difficulty. The blocks are LeMoyne stars set in a hexagon and separated by triangles. I have hand pieced (without paper piecing them!) an entire quilt of LeMoyne stars, so this looks easier somehow with the accuracy of the paper pieces.


For some reason I don't have a photo of the finished quilt, just this one of the completed top.

I have been on somewhat of a string piecing tear of late. I love treadling on my vintage New Cottage treadle, but frankly, string piecing is about all I am skillful enough to accomplish on this treadle. Taking Bonnie Hunter's advice, I learned to treadle making string-pieced blocks. Since I also have followed Bonnie's advice and cut scraps down into usable sizes, I have drawers full of ready made strips. I just go through the drawers and pull out strips by color.


This purple quilt with pops of green is for my neighbors' three year old girl. She asked for a purple quilt with some green. This pattern is from the free patterns on Bonnie Hunter's website and is called "String-X". The strips are pieced using old telephone book pages as the foundation. The paper is quite thin, tears off very easily, and the ink does not transfer to either the fabric or your fingers.


This blue and yellow version, not yet quilted, is for my nieces' new baby. I usually wait until the babies are toddlers before giving them a quilt, but her baby was born with some health challenges and I thought he could use the quilt sooner rather than later.By the way, while I piece the blocks and sew them together using the treadle machine. I use my modern Bernina to quilt them.

 The following trio of quilts are small - only 24" x 36". They will be donated through my guild to a local non-profit that provides home health and nursing services to young mothers and their babies. The nurses often have to teach the mothers basic things about raising babies, such as providing sufficient "tummy time" to allow babies who sleep on their backs to develop strength in their necks and upper bodies. Often there is nothing appropriate in the homes to lay on the floor for the babies. These small quilts will fill that bill. Their small size also makes them ideal for slipping into a diaper bag or using in the car. I have many, many strips, so this will be an ongoing project for me for the coming year or so. The secret to making an attractive scrap quilt such as these, in my opinion, is limiting the color palette so that the quilts appear to be purposeful rather than just a haphazard collection of cast off fabrics.




Last September Bonnie Hunter was here in St. Louis and I was able to take a class with her. The projects was "My Blue Heaven", another of her free patterns from her website. Here is her original  pattern which is limited to various shades of blue and neutral. Bonnie considers any beige, white, cream or tan fabric that is no darker than a paper lunch bag, to be a neutral. The pattern consists of alternating Puss in the Corner and star blocks. The outer border is made from the same 4" Broken Dishes block that is in the center of the both the Puss in the Corner and the star blocks/ Since I did not have enough blue strips in my scrap drawers, I chose to include the analagous colors of green, purple, and turquoise as well as blue. I also made the fateful error of not paying any attention whatsoever to value and included some light blue and green strips that made for disappearing star points. Setting the blocks directly next to each other resulted in a god-awful visual mess.  I decided to sash them, figuring it couldn't be worse than what I was looking at. Here is the top so far and the sashing did tame all the disparate patches and colors.


It is certainly not perfect, but I can live with it. The two little lonely Broken Dish blocks off to the left will be the final border. I chose to make them in neutral tones, ala Mickey Depre (she does this to great effect in her most recent book "Half Scrap Quilts"). It required some simple math to figure out how many 4" blocks will be needed for the border since in adding the sashing, I messed up the original dimensions of the quilt. The secret to making everything fit is the turquoise border, which is currently outermost in the photo. It can be adjusted to allow the border to fit and while it turns out that it will be 1" in finished width for both the length and width of this particular quilt, small differences in the width of the border can be made if necessary. I am assured by quilting gurus that in the end the differences would not be noticeable.

I also have made good progress on "Octo" by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic.This is an easy project to make. The blocks and pieces are large and paper pieced. That said, it became mind numbingly boring and I have put it away for awhile. It will come out again when I want something easy to do and it will seem like a snap as 12 of the 16 blocks are finished. It won't take much to push through and finish it. Just not now.



I have bought "Twirly Balls and Pinwheels", a pattern by Sue Garman. I really just thought I would read through the pattern and decide it was too difficult. But Sue is a talented designer and teacher. Her directions are second to none. The twirly balls are hand appliqued and she gives excellent directions and tips with plenty of photos that promise to give top notch results. The little pinwheel sashings are paper pieced and again, Sue has made it appear fairly easy. Not fast, I give you that, but after reading through the pattern, I feel confident that I can tackle this

Oh, and what else? Oh, Yeah, I finally found a Singer 301! They are rare as hen's teeth in this part of the world for some reason. It is a two-tone mocha model and she sews beautifully. I have signed up for two three-day workshops in the fall at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. It is an easy three to four drive from here and I will be taking a Double Wedding Ring class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe and a log cabin workshop with Katie Pasquini-Masopust.I have already take a workshop with Victoria when she was at our guild two years ago and can vouch for the fact that she is a fantastic teacher. The friend I am going with has taken classes with Katie PM and she says the same thing about Katie. The 301 will be the machine I take with me. Can't wait.

I also took two workshops with Paula Nadelstern in late winter. She is so talented and creative, I have wanted to do this for a long time but honestly, I don't think I will be making even a wall hanging at this point. Paula is a great teacher but her technique is really labor intensive. Really, really.

I will close for now. I have probably left out some stuff, but my brain is fried right now. We are getting up super early tomorrow to get to the hospital by 6:00 a.m. for my husband's second knee replacement surgery. He had his first one in January and the results have been very good. He is looking forward to being pain free. And I need to rustle up some type of hand piecing project to take along to pass the time.