My introduction to Julie Herman of JayBird Designs was at the Sisters Oregon Quilters Affair - the workshop week before the annual outdoor quilt show. I've had the pleasure of going there twice - once in 2013 and again in 2015.
One of my courses on the first trip was Chopsticks. I thought it would be the perfect pattern for a series of crazy purple, salmon and greeny/gold fat quarters I bought on a cross country road trip. They were wild and at that time, a little outside my color comfort zone. I added a sashing fabric that was even more outside my norm. I call this one Hazardous Material because the acid green evokes a feeling of toxic material. I love it!
Julie's class was awesome. As she says, her "superpower is geometry and design". And Boy is she a s-hero. She puts such thought into her designs. She designed a set of rulers - Hex N More and Sidekick - that are used in most of her patterns. With these rulers you can cut so many shapes. And they all play well together!
So this workshop got me hooked. The next quilt to come to my attention was a BOM called Toes in the Sand. I loved the colors. Loved the look of the repeating triangles. Kelly Cline quilted my Toes in the Sand. And of course it was perfect.
I don't know if this was Julie's first BOM with repeating shapes, but I was hooked. First Triangles, then . . .
Hexagons - Park Bench. I am hoping to teach this at Mea Bernina and I had so much fun making the shop sample. Turquoise, green, and orange fabrics on a dark blue background. Stunning if I do say so myself.
Ok, so now I was on the lookout for more. The next one I did was Gravity - in fact I just finished it last week and it is in the "to be quilted" pile. Following Julie's style of repeating shapes, Gravity is a series of 18 diamonds. This quilt was offered by several shops as a BOM in solids, but I chose to do it in batiks instead of solids and I really like how it turned out. It was quite a challenge to get enough batiks of the right colors and I argued with myself about whether to continue Julie's design for the dark to light background, or just do a dark background. In the end, I went with her original design. It still needs to be quilted, and it's huge! This is my 6'2" son standing on a chair holding up the quilt.
I have several other JayBird patterns and BOM waiting to be started. The one calling my name the loudest is Sweet Tooth.
So, I highly recommend Julie's classes and patterns. Julie is a fresh, young designer and great teacher. Her patterns are fun, interesting, geometric beauties. Oh, and I just saw her post on FB that she is expecting her first baby. Congratulations Julie and and hubby Lawrence.
Curious about Geometry? Check out Julie and JayBird!
What is a typical sewing day for you? For me, last Sunday was a super productive sewing day and it happened to include multiple BOMs! I wish I could say it was typical in terms of productivity, but I don't usually get quite so much done. It was typical in one huge way - variety.
"Typical" usually means multiple projects going at once, often at very different phases (design, cutting, piecing, quilting, finishing), and in very different colors and fabric styles. One thing I have learned about myself is that I get bored easily if I have to do too much of the same thing - same blocks, same fabric, same whatever. So I like to keep it varied. Sunday was a really varied day!
As you know I've got several embroidery BOMs going, so yesterday I made 2 tiles for the last Month 10 block for feathered star. I'm only 1 tile away from finishing all the star blocks. Then I will only have border blocks left to do - talk about boring, all 48 of them are exactly the same block with just one piece of fabric changing from block to block. Oh well, at least its bright, bold, happy fabric.
While my Bernina 830 was busy embroidering the feathered star (I'm needed for thread changes and adding pieces of fabric now and then, but mostly the machine takes care of it), I was working on last year's JayBird Quilts' BOM Toes in the Sand. Each month there are 2 blocks using the same pattern but with different fabric. So I got 2 blocks (Month 7 checked off my checklist) done and started cutting the pieces for the Month 8 blocks.
Then in the afternoon I scooted down to the shop for some sewing on the Sedona Star (more details in a later post). My friend Peggy is teaching the Sedona Star at Mea and I join in when I can. Class was cancelled yesterday due to the holidays, but Peggy was working on the shop sample, so I joined her and worked on the Month 4 paper pieced stars. I got one of three done!
As you know, sewing is fun, but designing and thinking about quilting is almost as, if not more, fun. In January I'm going to start a new BOM (details available in a later post) so I've been perusing Pinterest and other sites for ideas about color choices for the new
BOM. I found a FQ bundle of PB&J on Etsy and ordered it so I could potentially use some for this new BOM. Craftsy was having a year end sale, so I also ordered a few FQ bundles from them too.
Overall it was a productive day and I got lots of creative itches scratched (I'm sure there is a better metaphor than that but I used up all my creativity!).
Happy Productive Creativity to You!
My introduction to Julie Herman of JayBird Designs was at the Sisters Oregon Quilters Affair - the workshop week before the annual outdoor quilt show. I've had the pleasure of going there twice - once in 2013 and again in 2015.
One of my courses on the first trip was Chopsticks. I thought it would be the perfect pattern for a series of crazy purple, salmon and greeny/gold fat quarters I bought on a cross country road trip. They were wild and at that time, a little outside my color comfort zone. I added a sashing fabric that was even more outside my norm. I call this one Hazardous Material because the acid green evokes a feeling of toxic material. I love it!
So this workshop got me hooked. The next quilt to come to my attention was a BOM called Toes in the Sand. I loved the colors. Loved the look of the repeating triangles. Kelly Cline quilted my Toes in the Sand. And of course it was perfect.
I have several other JayBird patterns and BOM waiting to be started. The one calling my name the loudest is Sweet Tooth. 
