So I haven't really alluded to it in a while - but I also dabble (OK more than dabble) in machine embroidery. I've got several projects working, although only one is on my active rotation.
One of my favorite embroidery companies is Hoop Sisters. Every year they offer an embroider-block-of the month. These quilts are quite fantastic. I should write a post about these quilts later.
This post is about their Mystery Embroidery Quilt. It's a 6 week weekly download. You can sign up here between now and the end of June. Mea Bernina and Babylock is offering a sweet deal - if you bring in your Mystery Quilt Receipt, they will treat it like a Mea class and will give you 20% off your fabrics and threads for the quilt. Call the shop at 785-842-1595 for exact details (effective dates, excluded products, etc).
So I have completed one set of blocks - it was fun, and a bit of a challenge to assemble. You'll get plenty of practice on inset seams (grin). You know I love EPP and Grandmother's Flower Garden, so you'll bet I love this quilt with its embroidered hexagons. I'm using a really cool pastel variegated thread for the background of the white block. You cant see it in this photo, but the variegated thread gives it a nice look.
I can't wait to work on the other blocks. I wonder what they'll be! I'll just have to wait and see. It is a mystery after all.
Curious about Embroidered quilts? Check out Hoop Sisters for the Mystery Quilt and Mea Bernina for the next Embroidered BOM - Sisterhood, which starts soon.
I had a great opportunity last month to go with Mona and Liz from Mea Bernina to Logan Utah. Logan Utah? February? I know!
It was great!
Logan Utah is the home of Kimberbell Designs, a wonderful embroidery design company owned by Kim Christopherson. We were there to go through training so that Mea Bernina can offer very cool embroidery events. So now after the training we are officially a Kimberbell Certified Shop!
Our training was held in the gorgeous, spacious classroom at My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe owned by Kim's twin sister Kris. The shop has wonderful fabrics, including Kim's line of Kimberbell fabrics. I also bought some wool to use on Around the Garden (more about that in a later post).
We made a sampling of various types of projects from four of the main event collections: Pillow covers, goodie cinch bags, zipper bags, flower pins, and mug rugs. All absolutely adorable. What impressed me the most was how ingenious the digitizing team constructed the dimensional pieces - putting in zippers in the embroidery hoop, lining cinch bags in the hoop, using mylar and tule, and adding ribbon hanging loops. Oh so much fun and so interesting! Our (Mea's) embroidery customers are going to love these projects! But until they are ready, we've got some other great Kimberbell classes. Check it out!
Logan Utah is in the Cache Valley, a beautiful vale surrounded by snow dusted hills. The trip there and back was also pretty cool. I had never been through north eastern Colorado or southern Wyoming before. The landscape was quite spectacular - barren and beautiful. The rock formations were awesome - perhaps they might inspire a future quilt!
Kimberbell rocks in so many ways - as a woman-owned and run business; as a source of sweet, cute embroidery designs (Kimberbell Kute); as a smart, customer-focused enterprise, and as great hosts in Logan. Overall, a great trip!
As you can tell by most of the pictures in my blog, I like modern, colorful quilts. In the past I've been able to resist the temptation of wool applique because most of the patterns were very traditional or primitive in style. Not so anymore.
The new trend in wool applique is whimsical, colorful, and full of wonderful embellishments. So, count me in!
I've had my eye on Sue Spargo's work for a couple of years now. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to take classes from her. So it was lucky for me that Catherine Redford was teaching wool applique among other things in Houston.
Our kits included wool, cotton, applique threads, and embellishment threads to make a little needle case like this one. I'm not finished yet, but I am really enjoying it. It's refreshing to be able to applique without having to prepare the applique pieces. That's the beauty of wool!
Catherine's pieces are awesome and she is a great teacher. She also teaches beading and embroidery embellishments. To see more of her work, check out her website.
While at Houston, I bought a wonderful wool applique pattern by Australian quilter Wendy Williams. Round the Garden is quite an ambitions project, but I'm itching to start on it. I bought a piece of linen for the background and have begun collections wool felt for the applique.
Look for updates on Round the Garden later this year.
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!
This next series of BOMs Current aren't quite as current as they should be, however, I foresee some completion this coming year.
First up is an internet mystery quilt by Linda Hahn. This was the first mystery quilt I have ever done. I saw it advertised in an AQS newsletter back in the beginning of 2013 so I figured I'd give it a try. I really like the idea of mystery quilts, but I haven't quite gotten used to not having control over the elements of the design. How do you know which fabrics to chose if you don't know where they are going to be used? So this time I went with the designer's fabric choices - besides, what's not to love about bright pink, blue, turquoise, lime green and purple batiks?
I still have a ton of blocks to make. This is the kind of project that I could easily get bored with - making 20 of the same block - so I usually only do a few blocks at a time. This project will get moved up on the action list once my EH Modern Sampler is done and will hopefully be done in 2015 (don't hold me to it though).
Next up is a JayBird Quilts BOM that was offered through a lot of shops last year. I ended up doing it through Fons and Porter, though now I don't remember why F&P and not another shop. Toes in the Sand appealed to me for several reasons:
1. I love the PB&J fabric that Julie Herman used for her sample and wanted to use that same fabric line (in fact I just found a FQ of each fabric in the line on Etsy and ordered the whole bundle for another quilt).
2. I like the idea of blocks being something other than 4-sided. Each triangular block is made up of several different shapes, but relies heavily on triangles.
3. She used a unique ruler that she designed - the Hex N More Ruler - to make the blocks. She has gone on to design other quilts with this ruler. In fact I'm teaching one next year at Mea Bernina called Park Bench.
4. I met Julie at the Sisters Oregon Quilters' Affair workshops in 2013 and I really liked her and her design philosophy. Check out all her cool stuff here.
I'm about half done with Toes in the Sand and will keep it in my active rotation in 2015, so I should have it done by the end of the year.
The third in this series of BOMs is one we offered at Mea Bernina last year. It was called a BuckABlock and featured half square triangles using Thangles. Half the blocks are done in a turquoise small flower print and half in a red-violent larger flower print. I think I'm going to set the blocks on point with setting squares in between.
Toward that end I bought Garden Couture by Embroidery Design Studio thinking I would applique and embroider flowers in the setting squares using the fabrics from the pieced blocks. This project is also in my active rotation so I am aiming for completion in 2015.
So, I think I am almost at the end of BOMs "present". Only a couple more for next time. Whew, there are a lot of them! I'd better stop blogging and start sewing!
Wow, do I ever have a lot of BOMs that I'm working on! A couple of posts ago, I showed a picture of my spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my progress. Here it is again. I'm not sure if you can read it, but on this sheet I am tracking 11 different BOMs. Some of them have only 1 block completed (not even a whole month's worth), some are pretty close to being done. I wonder if I have some BOM in tubs that haven't made the list. I guess I had better look!
I'm working on several embroidery BOMs and the first one I started (in 2013) was Hoop Sisters' Feathered Star. I only have part of the last block to finish and then 48 blocks to do for the border. Each block takes about 50 minutes . . . so I still have a good deal of work ahead. This BOM was one offered at Mea Bernina last year and was the first time I really put my BR 830 Embroidery machine to use. It was a great way to get comfortable with my machine. Now I'm hooked. It's a good thing I have another machine - I start my embroidery machine and then turn to my BR 440 and work on a pieced or applique quilt.
Hoop Sisters comes out with a new Embroider-a-Block each year. The design for 2014 was Jacobean Journey. Of course, I also had to start this one - the colors are so rich and vibrant. I haven't gotten far at all - maybe only 2 blocks out of probably 100. I've worked on the blocks at Mea to help make the shop sample. The pattern has several optional ways to combine the blocks, so I might put together a smaller version or a table runner. We've received 2015's Embroider-a-Block at Mea and it is also stunning (like I said they are hard to resist). Sown Seeds is bright and fun, totally different from Jacobean Journey but just as beautiful. This one will go on my future list!
The last Embroidery BOM on my list is actually a Row of the Month. It is called Tree of Life by AnitaGoodesign. Mea Bernina offered it as a class meeting for 2 days a month over 3 months. I couldn't attend all the classes, but I did get 2 and 1/2 rows done. It is a gorgeous design, and the best part are the dimensional leaves that are added when the quilt is done. The three of us in class each used a different background. One was white, one was black, and I used a light blue background. I'm planning on putting it on the wall in my guest room which is bright and happy with colorful accents.
So, I have 3 current Embroidery quilt designs in progress. I intend to finish Feathered Star first before I move on to the others. I'm sure other gorgeous embroidery BOM quilts will come along and move from my future list to my present list!
Happy Embroidering!
We've been in our new house for 6 weeks now and we're starting to get settled in. I'm working everyday on some part of the house, but it's more fun to work and play in my studio. I'm making a lot of progress with setting up the new space, but I've still got projects that I want to work on.
Our guild quilt show is next month and I've taken a couple of classes that have homework (!!!!) so I still have to be productive in the chaos.
I set up my old sewing table (now my desk and beading table) for my Bernina 830 and embroidery module. I've been working on the Tree of Life, a gorgeous embroidered wall hanging of a colorful tree with flowers, critters, swirls and leaves that you can put family members' names on. Teacher Jane is a taskmaster (grin) and has assigned homework to be done before the next class in March.
I usually keep projects contained in plastic totes, but with all the chaos reigning downstairs, its especially important for me to keep everything together. I don't have a place for things yet and I'm afraid I won't be able to find stuff. So I have all my Tree of Life stuff in a portable tote, including the thread.
This design requires that motifs stitched in one block are continued in another block, so it's very important to make good notes about the thread colors so that I can carry the thread over to the adjacent block. My solution - copy the picture of the block and make notes including color numbers.
I now have one row done and need to finish sewing the row together. Jane's sample was made with a white linen-look background fabric, a classmate is using black and I am using a light blue. I'm curious to see how they look on the different background colors.
So I have completed one set of blocks - it was fun, and a bit of a challenge to assemble. You'll get plenty of practice on inset seams (grin). You know I love EPP and Grandmother's Flower Garden, so you'll bet I love this quilt with its embroidered hexagons. I'm using a really cool pastel variegated thread for the background of the white block. You cant see it in this photo, but the variegated thread gives it a nice look. 
