I jabbered all through dinner with my family about Ricky Tims' Luminarium that I just got home from. I'm full of wonder and speechless too. Full of ideas and inspiration. Full of gratitude for Ricky's generosity - he is willing to share all he has learned. His story, his music, and his quilts.
In addition to yards of gorgeous hand-dyed fabric and music CDs, I came home with a complete and useful syllabus of all Ricky's techniques. I'm psyched. I want to try it all - and Ricky knew I would. His last words to the 175 of us in the audience (although I was in the front row and I thought he was talking just to me), was to go home and before we start something new, we should finish something. I've got some binding to finish, so that should fit the bill.
OK, so why is Ricky one of my favorite designers? Let me count the ways!
- The Quilt Show - I've been a subscriber for many years and I love it. I've started/done 4 BOMs and I really enjoy the shows.
- Patterns - or rather I should say techniques, that lead the quilter through a process to design beautiful one of a kind quilts.
- Hand-dyed fabrics that look like suede and have a wonderful hand to them.
- Music that both soothes and elevates the soul.
- He is nice, generous, talented. Oh, and by the way, soooo cute.
I've made one of Ricky's Convergence Quilts. I call it Kaffe Fassett meets Ricky Tims. I used Kaffe's fabric with Ricky's Convergence Pattern. It really is an easy pattern with lots of impact. I can see lots more of these in my future. I bought some of Ricky's hand-dyed fabrics that will look great in this pattern.
My next Ricky technique will be the Kool Kaleidoscope. I'm going to start this one in April when things slow down a bit and I finish a few things. I'm also getting on the list to go to LaVeta in 2019 for a small group retreat with Ricky. Can't wait!
The quilts, fabrics, and music are spectacular. But the real impact comes from his inspirational words and ideas: time is precious, carpe diem, quilting should be fun, know yourself, if you want to be a quilter - then get out there and just do it.
If you have a chance to go to one of Ricky's workshops, lectures or retreats, run, do not walk, to sign up. It will be well worth it.
Carpe Diem and Keep Curious!
OK, so we all know I am a BOM addict. And here it is a new year, with a bunch of new BOMs starting. How could I resist?
So, here is the new 2017 BOM rundown:
Overbrook Quilt Connection is hosting a BOM in which you pay for your first month's block and if you get it done and bring it back next month, you get that month's fabric free. Free is good!
I love the pattern as well as their fabric choices - and that doesn't happen very often. The unique layout of the blocks is really what drew me in. The fabrics are solid/tone on tone dark purple, magenta, gold, dark turquoise and dark grey with a white background. I haven't made the first block yet, but I'm definitely on schedule to have it finished in time to get my free second block.
Even though I haven't completely finished last two year's Hexagon Quilt Along with Katja Marek, I am getting ready to start the new one called Perpetually Hexie. Katja's projects are all done with English Paper Piecing technique. I've ordered the paper pieces for the first two months. I'm not sure, but I am probably going to do this one in batiks, although grey batiks, true grey, are difficult to find.
Next up is the 2017 Murder Mystery BOM by Whipstitch Modern Sewing. I generally don't particularly like mystery quilts because they are a challenge to chose the colors since you don't know how its going to turn out. The interesting thing about this mystery BOM is that a chapter of the murder mystery story comes with the pattern. The setting for the story is Cumberland Island, off the coast of the Georgia/Florida border. The main character is archaeobotanist Kitty Campbell. Should be interesting! The first pattern (clue) arrived a few days ago, and I still am needing to locate (buy?) the main background fabric. She recommends, and I think I agree, that a bright green might just be the right color for the background.
The forth BOM on the list is Down the Rabbit Hole by Sarah Fielke. Our first block is expected at the end of January - so I'm not behind yet! I bought a champagne-colored linen-like fabric called "Quilters Linen" by Robert Kaufman. First time I've ever tried it, so I'll let you all know how I like it. I am thinking about using wild, wonderful Kaffe fabrics for the appliques.
Now, last (maybe until another one entices me) but not least is The Quilt Show's Halo Medallion, designed by the late, great Sue Garman. My quilt is going to have a much different look - I chose a paisley on black for my focus fabric and will use blue, green, red and gold from the focus fabric for the accents.
So that's 5 (1 in a shop and 4 on-line) new BOMs on top of the ones I'm still working on and the new ones I may start later . . . Like I said, I'm a BOM addict!
OK, before I move on to the BOMs I want to do in the future (or the ones I plan on starting tomorrow LOL), there are 2 last "current" ones I should write about.
The first one is the Sedona Star, a Sarah Vedeler design I wrote about in my last posting. Sedona Star was The Quilt Show BOM for 2012. This quilt is built from the inside out. It is not a simple quilt. It requires precision cutting and piecing. The techniques featured are foundation paper piecing, applique, sewing set-in circles, and using the Accuquilt-GO! cutter to cut some of the applique shapes.
In January I started enthusiastically - I ordered the fabric for this classy, rich color-way of muted blues, tans, browns, and reds, started downloading the instructions, bought the special foundation piecing / stabilizer product - Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly (a special product that you don't have to remove from the quilt - wash it and it turns into batting), and began working on the blocks.
The first few months went smoothly. The foundation piecing was right on. The Accuquilt-GO! worked perfectly cutting the 12 circles in the center medallion. The appliques star points were perfect. Then it came time to set in the center circle into the circle of star points. Uh-Oh. The diameter of the center section was 3/8 inch too small. I wasn't sure what to do. So I decided to sit on it for a bit - perfectly logical, right?
Unfortunately "a bit" turned into several months and by the time I figured out how I was going to fix my problem, the BOM for 2012 was finished and the instructions were no longer available for download. An email message from Sarah Vedeler indicated I could buy what was once a free pattern (to TQS members) for $60. So, I fixed my problem (resew some seams with a smaller seam allowance) and waited a bit more until Mea Bernina offered Sedona Star as a BOM.
So now I own the pattern and have a few partners in crime - a small group of ladies who are working on Sedona Star too. I have all the Month 3 foundation pieced stars completed and have done one of Month 4. I still have to set the stars into the background fabric, but I'll wait and do that after all 9 stars are done (end Month 5).
Whew! Sedona Star is not a piece of cake, but it sure will be gorgeous when I'm done!
The final "present" but not current BOM is another Quilt Show project - A to Z with Ewe and Me, designed by Janet Stone. I really like the whimsy of this quilt. It's obvious that Janet gets her inspiration for alphabet samplers from her cross stitch past. I hate to admit it but I only have "A" done. I've got lots to do on this one, but I'm really looking forward to it.
Well, that is all the past and present BOMs. 2015 is here, so there are surely some "future" BOMs coming soon.
Here's to a New Year, old and new BOMs, and long time (not old) and new stitching friends!
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!
I jabbered all through dinner with my family about Ricky Tims' Luminarium that I just got home from. I'm full of wonder and speechless too. Full of ideas and inspiration. Full of gratitude for Ricky's generosity - he is willing to share all he has learned. His story, his music, and his quilts.
I've made one of Ricky's Convergence Quilts. I call it Kaffe Fassett meets Ricky Tims. I used Kaffe's fabric with Ricky's Convergence Pattern. It really is an easy pattern with lots of impact. I can see lots more of these in my future. I bought some of Ricky's hand-dyed fabrics that will look great in this pattern.
My next Ricky technique will be the Kool Kaleidoscope. I'm going to start this one in April when things slow down a bit and I finish a few things. I'm also getting on the list to go to LaVeta in 2019 for a small group retreat with Ricky. Can't wait!
