Quilters math

I've been facebooking so much- my thoughts here are short and disjointed...

 Quilters Math: 6x7 does NOT equal 35 (or 36) - that's what I get for making it up as I go along and not writing down my plan.

Rearranging the studio - AGAIN. Jill is coming to visit -and the room has changed TWICE since she was here a year ago.

The garden is calling - yesterday was a full purge of the garage- we emptied EVERYTHING out and put some of it back in.  Today I cannot move...

Hubby just put fresh waffles on the table - so that is where I am headed.

Have a wonderful sunny Sunday!

 

Turtle(s) of the week

I haven't posted any new turtles in a while - though FIVE more entered my life (four on Christmas morning and one on Christmas Eve)  Three are from Jill.

Jill sent the pink/purple batik with the turtles on it -not sure what I am going to make that into just yet -but it is lovely!  The color is very vibrant.

Next from Jill was a pin - this is recycled felt and ZIPPERS of all things - very cool!  I can't wait to wear this to work - I have a pair of coppery turtle earrings that will look really nice with this - since the zipper has a coppery/dark brassy look to it.

The next turtle from Jill is crochet -and covers a measuring tape.  This will be really handy to have around.  And if you push his "belly button" the measuring tape retracts.

The last turtle is a construct-your-own perler bead kit that was in my stocking from Santa.  I will probably have the Munchkin help me put this together - since he is on a bit of a perler bead kick recently - but this will be fun to hang up in my sewing room.

I also won a beautiful print from artist Regina Lord at Creative Kismet- her stuff is just gorgeous!!!  The print I won from her is not currently in her Etsy shop - but it is a girl riding a turtle -just lovely.  If you ever think of ordering from her - the prints are shipped so they stay flat, and the quality is very nice -vibrant and colorful.

PS:  Creative Kismet posted earlier this year about the inspiration behind her turtle print here - and you can see the print there, too.
 

The Ribboniest Quilt

Ever have a quilt pattern you just fall in love with???  For me that was Pat Speth's Sunny Lanes.  From the first time I saw pictures of it on Jill's blog, to when she won a ribbon for it in a quilt show, I knew someday, somehow, I HAD to make this pattern.  When I visited Jill last spring, I made sure that her version, "Lovers Lane" was on MY air mattress for the weekend!  It was even better in person than in the pictures.

I made my version - "Return to Wonderland" early last year in a quilt-along with Shellie.  I was working through my stash of Moda Wonderland fabric (this was the 2nd of 3 quilts from it) and just love how it came together.  Then I sent it off to Jill to be quilted.

I loved loved loved how it turned out - and it has been at the foot of my bed - or on it- ever since.

When I joined the Caledonia Quilt Guild this spring and heard we were having a quilt show in July - I knew this quilt would be one of my entries.

The show was today.
The quilt was popular!!

The quilt was recognized with THREE Vendor's Choice ribbons, and another Runner Up ribbon in the Viewers Choice ballots (I think Runner Up to the Best of Show, but not 100% positive on the placing).

I also had another Vendor's Choice ribbon on the Munchkin's quilt, also quilted by Jill.  I also entered the crab quilt that Lazy Sister Sue and I made for Mom, that is currently in my custody (we share - Sue had it since July and I took it home when we visited in April).  No ribbons for the crabs -but lots of compliments.

These were my first ever quilt show entries -and it was such a positive response, from my friends, family, peers, and the quilt loving public.  Feels great.. but the best part was the big smile on the Munchkin's face when he saw the ribbon on HIS quilt (though he thinks we should be winning chocolate ice cream sandwiches instead of ribbons!).

A great day!  And all because of Jill and her Lover's Lane!!!

 

My long neglected SIS

Don't need to say much more than this... three SISters, three ChristmaSIS quilts, lots of SISillyness.
It DID start with a triple-four patch so perhaps it is fitting that it ended in three quilts....

Unwrapping the UFO - AT LAST!!!

(Well - at last for 1... the other one is still in the hands of the United States Postal Service -hopefully to be delivered Saturday.)

So I have taunted and teased long enough - it's time to share one of the quilts, as well as a bit of the "backstory" on this project.

This project actually began in April, when Lazy Sister Sue, Jill and I got together to swap our fabrics for our SIS quilts (oh - and visit Jill and attend a big quilt show and some other fun stuff... but that's another story).  Later that month, as I am cutting the fabrics - I once again realize that I have more fabrics than needed for the pattern.  So even as I cut my top, my brain is plotting what to do with the scraps.

So my top is all cut - not assembled but cut - and it's now July and I come across this pattern on Moda Bake Shop.  Instantly the lights go on in my head, and I set myself to cutting squares for half square triangles, planning on making this for Jill - who has told me she does not put up a tree for her and the pups. 

The flimsy for Jill is finished in August (and mine is not):  (note the green trees and grass, and flowers in the garden)

The quilting got put on hold as I needed to get my table adapted to do better quilting - and then with Christmas and new windows and a new furnace and a new hot water heater and a full time job and Cub Scouts - it kind of got put even more on hold.  I opted not to rush through the quilting as I wanted to do some new things and did not want to be stressed about the calendar, too.

And then it FINALLY got finished.  I was a bit spooked by all that open white space that just begged for FMQ - I was straight line quilting within the tree itself and thought straight lines in the open area would cause the tree to get lost on the back.

 

So I quilted some snowflakes.  This was an experiment -and I had printed them out and quilted over the printouts - causing a bit of paper and toner to get trapped under the thread (oops - not good on WOW) but they look really great despite that!!!

 

 Then on the borders, which were rippling slightly - I wanted really heavy quilting, so I did what I think of as "radiators" -kind of a loopy zig zag one way, then the other way, in squarish quadrants all around the border.  This picture shows it on the red stars (red thread) and on the back (an offwhite pinstripe shirting fabric).

 

 

It was a tough secret to keep - only a few people saw the flimsy photo ahead of time.  My son loves this quilt and wanted me to "decorate" the tree with ornaments, but I love the crispness and simplicity of it.  It was fun to see the swap fabrics in a different light as they made up my "branches".

It is finally in Jill's hands -with some shortbread to sweeten the gift.

Unwrapping the UFO - Part 5

So in case Jill and Lazy Sister Sue have not already guessed, these quilts are Christmas themed quilts.  The fabrics we swapped for our 2011 SIS swap were all reds and greens and golds and "Christmasy" colors.

I was able to piece both these tops from the leftover SIS scraps and some additions from my stash - right down to the backings.  The backing on one of them, in fact, is a well aged fabric... and a well traveled one.  It was purchased probably around 1998 in South Carolina - at a store that I believe is no longer in existence - and made the journey north in 1999 - to languish in a drawer for a long time.  It's original purpose was for a Christmas shirt - but long ago I realized I would never make such a shirt - let alone wear it - and so it sat.  A few pieces were cut off to make some holiday gift totes and book covers a few years ago but I could not figure out a use for the rest of it, until now.  To be honest, the SIS quilt and these 2 quilts are the very first Christmas themed quilts I have ever done.  Lucky for me there was plenty left to do the backing on one of these two UFO's (I won't say which)... and even a teeny bit left over to make ME a pillowcase!!!  (and the red star fabric in the cuff part of this pillowcase is part of the backing in the OTHER quilt!  Now how cool is that!)

Things that make you go WOW!!!

I do not own a quilting frame, and my attempts at FMQ have been fledgling and very small scale - so finishing my quilts over the years has consisted of a great deal of straight line quilting and tying.

Thank goodness for Jill - being able to send some of my tops to her for finishing on her frame has been a wonderful option.  I first sent her Summer Sunshine two years ago - and still  need to take some "finished" photos of this quilt, though it has been on my bed for ages now.  She also did this quilt and this one, too.  But I have been very very bad at taking the BEFORE and AFTER pictures to show what a good quilting job can do to make a quilt go WOW!!!! (and so many quilts get gifted before I get the AFTER pictures - something about finishing binding on the way to a party may have something to do with that!)

Until this one: 

Nearly finished - just auditioning borders.

Completed flimsy.  I liked it - but all that muslin kind of left me "flat".

After Jill got her hands on it - it hasn't been washed, but now there is some movement in all that open space.

Love this square spiral - the quilt is for a young man, and this really gives it a great masculine feel.

Look at how the back just sparkles!!!

And doesn't every quilt need to come with a 6 year old with attitude (I think it's the hooded sweatshirt that does it!)

 

Still Here

Sorry if I have been a bit absent of late - lots going on.  4Patches4Hope is off to a great start - one month in and we have nearly enough patches for the first 2 quilts, plus a bunch of generous quilters offering donations of quilting, backings and batting.  More to come on that - I promise!!!

In the meantime, I have been working on some of my projects.  Two are in the binding stage, and I hope to have pictures to offer up soon - and this is my latest flimsy completion:

This is "Merry ChristmaSIS" - made from strips swapped with Jill and Lazy Sister Sue.  Jill has already finished hers - called "Argyle Holiday" - and Lazy Sister Sue has been busy as a new grandma to 3 so we have not seen her progress - yet.  Jill and I made our finished blocks different sizes, but I think the finished quilts are about the same throw size.

Now to get this one backed and quilted before Christmas... but which Christmas! ;-)

The Class

When Jill and I first decided that my trip to the International Quilt Festival was really going to happen, we decided that taking a class would be a great experience.  The biggest question was which one to choose - there were so many and they all sounded so good in different ways.

We finally settled on our class based on three things... it was on Thursday before the rest of our group was to arrive, it was all day, and it was a process/techniques class that would lend itself well to many kinds of quilting, including the scrappiness that I seem to be working with most of late.  We were online texting each other and registering the very first day that class registration was open - we were NOT going to miss this opportunity!

Our class was "Savor the Scraps" and was being taught by Gayle Bong. This was the picture of the quilt that we were shown in the catalog and on Gayle's website - but rather than being an exact project - Gayle taught us how to make the different elements in this quilt -namely the 30 degree angled blocks - plus some bonus elements that we could combine to make lots and lots of different blocks and quilts.

These are the blocks that came out of my little pile of scraps.  I had most of them finished before we broke for lunch - about 3 hours - and that included the introductions, show and tell, and cutting time, as well as sewing.  This is a great little block for using up those bits and pieces of 2.5" strips - I was even able to 'recycle' some leftover binding strips to cut the dark triangles from!  I was getting excited with the possibilities just with these stars alone!

Then I started playing with laying them out in different ways.  This diagonal layout was only one of the versions I came up with.  Of course Gayle's examples were all GORGEOUS and gave me even more wonderful wonderful ideas.

After lunch we worked on the larger rectangular blocks -these had even more layout possibilities and I just kept turning them and going "ooh" and then turning them again and going "ah-ha!!"  I was having battery issues in the camera and had yet to hit the show floor - so I did not take pictures of all my different variations.

Jill has two of her books (now BOTH signed) - and it was fun to look through them back at the house and just marvel at how complex the designs looked and all from just changing the layout on some simple elements.


Jill was a great sewing buddy - even though she ribbed me about not giving her enough table space during setup.  Jill was "Teacher's Pet" so responsible for taking attendance and collecting evaluation forms, so she was a bit distracted while I set up our work spaces.  I did skooch over a bit later and give her more room!  The class had 19 of a possible 25, so we had some extra open spaces to spread out a bit.

Here is the "Teacher's Pet" doing a bit of sewing for Gayle as she demonstrated assembly of the rectangular blocks with the equilateral triangles in them. There were gals from all over the country (and Canada) in the group - including some that came on a bus from my area (and that like to shop at my favorite local quilt shop).  Meeting the other people was great fun, too.

And if you ever ever ever have the opportunity to take a class or workshop with Gayle - I highly recommend it!  She was EXCELLENT!!!



Here are some examples that Gayle shared with us:

And given the 11:45 PM pickup from the airport, the 2:00 AM bedtime, and the 6:00 AM wake up call and subsequent rush-hour drive to the Convention Center - the "Teacher's Pet" needed a little noon siesta.  They gave us 2 hours for lunch - and since the vendors were not yet open, we finished our lunches quickly and came back to the room for some extra sewing (and a bit of shut-eye).

We hit the afternoon refreshed, re-energized, and ready to enjoy the rest of class - all the while anticipating the arrival of Lazy Sister Sue and the South Carolina contingent (Sue, Marj and Carolyn) - and the opening of the quilt show and vendors for Preview Night.

Next up ... the Show!!!

Home but Tired

Had a wonderful wonderful wonderful time at the International Quilt Festival last week/weekend - getting home close to midnight last night.  Running on energy reserves today -and it is going to take me a bit to mentally process the experience, and physically process the photos.

In the meantime I will share with you one of the quilts I saw - this is not my photo but was taken from the artist's website.  It was for sale - but a bit beyond my price range....

I settled for some other goodies that will allow me to make some fun projects -for me and for others.  More to follow!!

Thanks Jill for hosting us and enabling this wonderful weekend to happen!  Love ya!

Dilemma

I am preparing to do some renovation/tweaking to my studio space.   There have been some little changes over the past few weeks since the addition of a larger TV due to the purchase of a flat screen HDTV for the living room, the relocation of a cabinet to hold the TV, and the gentle purging of unneeded/unwanted items.  For a while now I have been wanting to replace my table with one I could modify to drop in my sewing machine, and thanks to the generosity of a local resident who responded to an internet plea - I now have just such a table waiting in the wings.

The dilemma(s)? 

Dive in now - or wait until my two upcoming trips are done?

Make a mess that I will not have time to un-make, or just putter along with the status-quo so that I can finish up some projects in the interim?

Use the table in it's current state so that I have a better feel for where I want hubby to cut the hole, or wait and let him modify it before we take it all the way up to the attic?

The mind says wait (and my machine is in for service - so the modifications MUST wait) - but the heart says "go for it"....  I think the fact that the studio is directly above the Munchkin's room and that moving major furniture and using power tools should probably not be attempted while he is sleeping -especially on a school night - is going to force me to wait... until EASTER WEEKEND!!!!

I did add a comfy camp chair to the mix today - we got to try it out at Home Depot, and it was comfy for both the Munchkin and I - he was lounging sideways and I think the addition of a blanket to "sling chair" it a bit will make it a cozy spot for movie watching and hand work.  It, too, is propped up in the corner, along with my mondo cutting mat and the legs to the 'new' table.

If only I were not going to the International Quilt Festival this coming week AND seeing my best buddy Jill AND seeing my Lazy Sister Sue AND seeing some other friends AND taking a class AND following it all up with a visit to my brother's the following weekend....

:-)  When you put it that way, I CAN wait for the renovations....

PIGS - a herd? a litter? a pod?

What do you call a group of PIGS? Is it a herd? A flock? A crowd?

When it comes to sewing PIGS, Jill is asking... how many do I have? do I keep a list of them? and what is my oldest?

And the answers are "I don't know." "No." and "Hmm....."

I have been quilting for about 13 years now - and I do have a UFO from the one and only quilting class I have ever taken - but for a while I was finishing every project I started, and was making quilts for specific gifts, specific recipients, and making them one at a time. I even - gasp - bought fabric just for that specific project, and had no real stash to speak of - other than some leftover bits from previous projects, and clothing sewing.

Then I met Jill.... and things got totally out of hand. I started traveling to retreats, started shop hopping, started trolling the web for free patterns and ideas, and GASP - started working on more than one project at a time. (ok -that's my story -and I will stick to it -but we all know that it really wasn't Jill's fault -it's just fun to blame her! :-0 My "problem" started before that!)

OK -back to PIGS. I have a few Lazy Girl bags that are PIGS, and a whole bunch of quilts that are in the UFO stage. The oldest UFO's??? Those would have to be the quilt blocks we "inherited" when we bought our house in an estate sale - cathedral window blocks that a relative of the previous owners asked me to consider finishing. Next oldest are blocks that my mom started in 1986 - and recently passed along to me to finish. (sorry - no photos of either). The oldest UFO of my own origin is a quilt I started 2 years ago when I attended a retreat with Jill - it is all assembled and only lacks quilting.

And just what do you call a group of PIGS?
According to one source i found, all of the following are acceptable:

Pigs (General)	Drift, Drove
Pigs (Boars)	Singular, Sounder
Pigs (Hogs)	Team, Passel, Drift, Parcel
Pigs (Piglets)	Litter, Farrow
Pigs (Swine)	Sounder

I think that in my case - Parcel and Passel are both VERY descriptive!!!

The Clothesline Shots

I am loving my clothesline this summer -not so much for drying laundry (especially since last time I tried that the one and only rain cloud in the sky opened up on my yard) but for getting wonderful shots of my completed flimsies. I don't have a big design wall or open floor space inside - so especially when my quilts are big, getting a good photo is a challenge. Don't know what I will do with any quilts I finish once the weather turns? Maybe a snowbound clothesline shot will be worth a try?! :-)

This flimsie above pairs up with the pieced backing below and I hope to have it quilted and delivered to Dad in mid-October when we go visit.

If you do a closeup look on the backing, you can see the tools on the fabric - I had to do a bit of creative piecing to get it wide enough - and then had to piece again when I mismeasured the first insert... but I like how it turned out. It used up a few of the extra blocks I had made. The lighter large piece of fabric near the bottom is brush strokes so looks like it was paintbrushed - a great fit with the tools.

Thanks again to Jill for her fabric shopping - and then sending me the extra piece of the dark rust that she had bought for herself so that I could eek out enough borders for the top, and extra for the back.