Hoop Sisters Embroidered Mystery Quilt

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.

Space Journey EPP Mystery Quilt - Hillbilly Quilt Shop

So what's better than an fussy cut EPP project combined with a mystery? Not much! Tonya Owens of Hillbilly Quilt Shop designed this project using Paula Nadelstern's Chromazone medallions.  

We were directed to choose 3 fabrics that complement the Paula Nadelstern medallion fabric. I choose a bright lemon-lime, a teal and a fuscia. Love, Love, Love those colors.  

At this point we have hexagons, diamonds, large and small triangles and no clue how they go together.  I prepared all my paper pieces to take on a cruise (that never happened). Oh they were beautiful - little baggies of color.




Piece by piece the sections took shape. Tonya gave them wonderful space-type names like Stars, Meteoroids, Super Novas, Space Stations, Tie Fighters, and Space Rovers. 

I now have it half completed and I am liking the look. I'm sort of toying with adding another section. Luckily I had a premonition that I might want it longer, so I bought some extra medallion focus fabric. 




Another great EPP project!

2017 - New BOMs! Oh Boy!

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!

Foundation Paper Piecing - An Enchanted Forest by Janeen Van Niekerk

I love foundation paper piecing! It is the best way (IMHO) to get accurate points and seams especially when working with small pieces. What is it? Sometimes called sew and flip, it is the technique of sewing fabric directly onto a printed pattern and the flipping it over and sewing another piece to cover the raw edges. Usually you can just follow the lines on the printed side so it is really easy. The hardest parts are getting your fabric pieces the right size and shape to cover the shape you are working on, figuring out in which order to sew the pieces, and working upside down and backwards. For a more comprehensive description and instructions check out this YouTube tutorial from Connecting Threads.

I do foundation piecing almost exactly the way Karen (from the video) does with a few exceptions. Instead of pinning I use either a dab of glue stick or a piece of blue painters' tape. 

Additionally, instead of paper or vellum, I have recently been using a foundation product that doesn't need to be taken out - Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly. I think both foundations (lightweight paper or Stable Stuff) are good it just depends on the final product. I really don't like removing papers, so this works for me. 


I'm working on a couple of foundation pieced projects at the moment. Sedona Star, a BOM from Sarah Vedeler, and Enchanted Forest, a BOW by Janeen Van Niekerk of Quilt Art Designs.  I'm loving the Enchanted Forest (I added the adjective enchanted - it fits), I keep thinking about painter Bob Ross every time I piece a little critter (remember? "its your world, you can put little squirrels and rabbits anywhere you like").


Janeen is the QUEEN of foundation piecing. She has patterns for animals, cars, dresses, traditional blocks and anything else you can think of. Check out her Pattern Shop at Craftsy. She also has BOM and Quilt Alongs on her website every year. Enchanted Forest is the Art Quilt Along for 2015. 

To make Enchanted Forest, I've needed green fabrics - lots of different greens! Lime, Avocado, Olive, Kelly, Moss, Forest, Spring, Hunter, Spruce, and Blue-Green. And lots of different prints - Solids, Tone on Tone, Textures, Dots, Stripes, Foliage, Swirls and more. It's been fun looking over the green Fat Quarters in the shops I've visited. Of course I also needed blues, reds, yellows, browns, grays, and oranges for the critters.

So, I've finished week 5 of 12 - some sky, sun, flying geese, 3 trees, 3 birds, and 1 lizard.  I hope to catch up  - Janeen has been sending out a pattern a week and I am 4 weeks behind.  

Janeen lives in Pretoria South Africa. I wonder how many people from different countries are participating in her Quilt Along.

So, if you are at all curious about foundation piecing, check out Janeen and Quilt Art Designs. They are terrific!

  

What? Another New BOM? Yep - Forest Quilt Along

Facebook can be dangerous - we all know that. It's especially dangerous for someone like me who is addicted to Block of the Month quilts. 

I follow several groups on FB - one of them is "For the love of paper piecing". That's me! I love paper piecing - foundation piecing to be more descriptive and to differential this technique from English Paper Piecing (which I also love and for which there is also a FB group).  

Several weeks ago, Janeen Van Niekerk from South Africa posted to the FB group that she was starting a 12 week quilt along. Oh Boy! The quilt is sooooo cute. I couldn't resist and can hardly wait til March 4th when it starts. Come to think about it, it's not a BOM, its a BOW, so maybe it doesn't count against my BOM count (grin).



I'm thinking about using Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly because it's a great medium for foundation piecing, it can go through the printer, and it doesn't have to be removed (my least favorite part of paper piecing). 


So, my plan is to purchase fabric for the sky and use my scraps for the trees, critters and flying geese. I'll let you know if I stick to my plan. Once I get into my green fabric scraps I may have to add a piece or two to get the contrast. We'll see!

Only a week to wait! Curious about foundation piecing? Check out this tutorial.  Want to join in the Forest Quilt-A-Long? See Janeen's website to sign up.

P.S. I'm writing this from Lawrence Memorial Hospital. My sweetie Saul has had some heart issues and is currently recovering from a catheterization and had a stent put it. He is doing well and will be home soon. During idle time, my thoughts go to quilting . . .

A New Year - Some New BOMs!

January. A new year. Resolutions. New Projects. NEW BOMs!

OK, so given the fact that I have so many ongoing BOM, it's crazy for me to think about starting any new ones, right?  But there are soooo many gorgeous quilts out there just waiting to be created. I am powerless to resist.

At this point there are three BOMs that I have committed to. There may be more later, but right now there are three. 

One of them I have already started on - it's The New Hexagon Millefiori Quilt Along hosted by Katja Marek of Katja's Quilt Shoppe in British Colombia, Canada. I had been drooling over several different millefiori type quilts on Pinterest and had even bought a book. Then as if by magic, the quilting spirits knowing I wanted to do one of these, a notice appeared on FB about the quilt along. So I ordered the book and precut paper pieces and picked up some Kaffe Fassett fabric. Within a few days I had my first hexagon pieced.

This quilt is meant to be hand pieced using the English Paper Piecing method. Each 3 inch hexagon is pieced in a different way. Katja's recommendation is to use a fabric glue stick to baste the fabric down around the shape. I've always thread basted in the past, but being the curious sort I am, I decided to try the glue stick. It is much faster and I really like it so far.

So, now I had this great center Hexie done and I'm having a lot of trouble choosing fabric for the first round that works well with the center. After hours of playing with swatches of fabric and my magic mirrors, I gave up on my first center and decided to start over. A trip to a LQS resulted in some Alexander Henry fabric I had been considering earlier as well as some cute coordinating bits. 



Have you ever fussy cut  pieces for EPP? I use a plastic template with registration marks drawn in so that I am sure I am cutting the exact same area of fabric. If you are curious about fussy cutting, this is a great tutorial. It's a bit time consuming in terms of prep work, but it gives you great results - not reflectional symmetry, but rotational symmetry.

New fabric is cut, paper pieces for all 38 hexies are basted, and center and round 1 are done for Rosette 1. If you're on FB, check out The New Hexagon - Millefiori Quilt-Along to see photos of everyone's rosettes. It's awesome! 

While I'm on vacation in Arizona visiting my Mom, I'll be hand piecing the hexies together and I'll post a picture of the finished Rosette.

Happy Hexies!

More BOMs - Not Quite So Current

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!

 

BOMs Past

Continuing with the theme of BOMs, I thought I would reminisce about the BOMs I have completed. This will be by far the smallest category (past, present and future being the categories). I think there are only 2, no wait 3, actually I found 4 finished BOM quilts, and they have all played a huge role in my quilting experience and education.




The first BOM I did was one of the first quilts I ever made. I started it when I was stationed in Germany in the Army in the late 1980s. I took a quilting class at Rhine Main Air Base to make a sampler quilt. We had the book and we worked through a block a month. It is a very traditional quilt and I used traditional fabrics - which was really all that I could get in Germany in the 80s.  It took about 10 years but I finally finished it.  It was meant for our guest room but my current guest room has bright colors so this quilt hangs on a quilt rack in my hallway.



BOM #2 was an internet BOM that the designer was testing before publishing a book - Moondance by Applewood Farm.  I did this quilt mostly in batiks with a few tone on tones thrown in. This was before I got an obsession about not mixing batiks and cotton prints together (I'm trying to get over that).  Kris Barlow did some outstanding quilting on it, using variegated thread that brings out all the colors.

Quilt #3 was a BOM hosted by Mea Bernina before I started working there. It is an adorable tea pot quilt designed by Linda Topp Durbin (sorry, I can't find any links to this pattern. If anyone wants to borrow it I still have mine). The idea was to use the Bernina Stitch Regulator to sew down the applique edges. I didn't have a BSR at the time, so I fused the applique pieces and used a blind hem stitch to tack the edges down. Denise Mariano did a spot-on job with the quilting, framing each pot nicely.

BOM quilt #4 was Stitcher's Garden - a learning BOM that I teach at Mea Bernina. This quilt pattern features a different technique every month - pin tucking, twin needle, couching, bobbin play, decorative stitching, and circular embroidery. It was so much fun to make as well as to teach. I'm in my forth iteration of teaching it and still love it. I keep thinking about ways to vary it and have done a few blocks in black and white with just a spot of color. Thanks go to Kelly Cline for her amazing quilting on this one. 

Next time I'll catch up on all my current BOM projects - there's a lot of them!
Happy BOMing!

P.S. Isn't it interesting how we can use BOM as a noun, verb and adjective! Grammar geeks - are there any other usages?

On-Line Quilting Communties

    It's Christmas Day. The kids are visiting their other sets of parents. Hubby is napping in his chair. My son's dog Daisy is here visiting while he is at his Dad's - she is asleep at my feet and the cats are up in the bedroom hiding from Daisy. It's soooo quiet.

    So my mind turns to my endless To-Do list. One of the items on my list is to renew my subscription to Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson's The Quilt Show. My membership expires on December 31st.  I also want to consider which, if any other, groups to join and what magazines I might want to get this year. I was sort of hoping for a subscription to Quilting Life for Christmas, but alas . . .
    Even though I belong to a quilt guild and I work in a sewing store, there is so much else out there to learn about and keep up on - new techniques, new designers, quilt shows, nifty new tools, and new ideas to add to my quilting life. That's where the magazines and on-line quilt groups come in. 
    I have really enjoyed the videos and classes offered by TQS (The Quilt Show).  I started the 2012 BOM with Sarah Vedeler.  I didn't get very far - but that's another story. I don't always read the daily blog, but I really look forward to the videos and have re-watched most of them.  I've never been one to participate in forums or chat rooms, but I like knowing they are there in case I want to ask a question. 
    Lately I've been checking out QNNtv.com - a Fons and Porter sponsored site. They also have videos that look interesting.

    As far as the magazines go, I am leaning toward Ricky and Alex's Quilt Life, the AQS magazine American Quilter, Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting, and Art Quilts.  I think there is a mag for Modern Quilting  - I need to check into it.
    Yesterday I signed up for Quilting Daily sponsored by Interweave Press. They send out a daily email about various quilting topics.
    So here is my final list of online communities, email newsletters, and quilting magazines:

• The Quilt Show 
• Quilters Club of America (including QNNtv)
• Quilt Life Magazine
• AQS American Quilter
• Love of Quilting
• Art Quilts
• Quilting Daily

    If anyone has any other recommendations, I would love to hear about them.  Thanks!

Curious about magazines and online communities.

Denise