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 . . .
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!
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!
I am about to put the binding on the largest quilt I've ever made - 90x100 inches! Not only is it large in size, it's also large in learning. Stitcher's Garden is a block of the month quilt I teach at Mea Bernina. I've been working on this sample for over a year and I thought it might be interesting to write about everything I've learning while making this monster quilt.
My first lesson was how difficult it was to choose fabrics for the entire quilt at the beginning. I learned through this process that I am more like a design-as-I-go type of piecer. I had trouble visualizing all the different blocks and how they would look together. I do like the final result, but I was uncertain until I saw it all together. I'm not always going to be required to choose everything before starting, but it was a good learning opportunity for me. Actually, today I chose fabric for a new BOM we'll be offering - again, having to pick everything at the beginning. It's still a challenge, but getting easier.
In month One I experienced prequilting an applique background for the first time. I started out somewhat conservative and used black thread to match the solid black background fabric. if I were to do it over, I would use variegated thread or a bright color to prequilt the background. I'm going to try to remember pre-quilting as a possible technique for future quilts.
Since this is a mostly applique quilt, I had the opportunity to experiment with different paper backed fusible products. I tried Light Steam-A-Seam 2, Pellon's WonderUnder. and OESD's Fuse & Fix. My favorite appears to be Light Steam-A-Seam 2. I like that it is on 9 x 11 sheets (more manageable) and in a sealed envelope (stays fresher). However, occasionally I got a "bad batch" where the paper released before I was ready or the fusible didn't stick well. Since Light Steam-a-Seam 2 has been out of production (see an update here) I've been using WonderUnder on the roll. It's OK but I tend to stuff it into my work storage tub and it gets all wrinkled. As soon as Steam-A-Seam comes in I'll switch back.
More about what I learned in a later post.
About a year and a half ago I took a KVQG sponsored workshop from Joe the Quilter - Joe Cunningham. Although Joe's experience and training is in traditional quilting, he has branched out into sort of abstract and modern quilting. Check out some of his work here.
The Workshop we did was "Rock the Block, block style". Piecing the blocks was a breeze because there really was no specific pattern - it was just slice and add or slice and insert.
Deciding where to put the blocks was another deal altogether. Joe suggested we lay them out so that the color flowed from one area to another. When I did that with my blocks, I did get the feeling of a landscape with golden flowers, greenery and sky. But it was a landscape as seen through fractured glass - hence the name of the quilt - Fractured Landscape.
Adding the borders was another interesting step. I didn't want it to look "bordered" so I added borders in a way that continued the colors and lines of the design.
Next step - quilting. I have been paying more attention to how quilts are quilted and had seen this "follow the lines swirls" somewhere - I'm sorry I can't remember who inspired me - maybe several folks. And now that I started quilting it this way, I see this all the time - most recently on one of Jacquie Gering's quilts (see the post on her quilt Shattered Remix). If Jacquie is doing it I'm in really good company!
I have never spent so much time looking at my walking foot before. This quilting design is simple, but it takes a lot of time. I can use all the different "toes" on my walking foot as guidelines. I'm also really thankful for the needle stop down feature on my machine. I could stop with the needle down every time I needed to pivot.
My new (used) Bernina 440 has a free hands system that enables me to lift the presser foot with my knee. It works better if I used my left foot on the gas (foot control) and my right on the lift. It felt a little weird at first, but I am getting used to it.
I also used my Machingers gloves, a textured finger glove, to help me exert more control over the quilt sandwich. These gloves are especially useful when free-motion quilting.
Since the quilt design had irregular shapes in 3 colors, I decided to quilt the shapes separately, and then as some colors bordered each other I decided to try combining some of the shapes. It was enjoyable to see how the shapes emerged with the quilting.
So then I was approaching my non-bordering borders and didn't to quilt them like traditional borders. After consulting with my quilting sister Kathy at the retreat and seeing what she did on an angle quilt, I decided to continue to quilt the shapes into the border area. I marked the outlines, making sure that I varied the size and contour of my shapes.
I am finishing up this wall hanging just in time for the KVQG annual quilt show (5-6 April at Crown Toyota in Lawrence). Now I have to figure out how to bind it. I'm having the same dilemma I had regarding the borders. Should I bind as normal? Match the binding color to the border color? Face? Or use some other technique? I'll show you what I ended up with in my post about the quilt show.
What do you learn by taking workshops?
Always curious,
The Galapagos really was the trip of a lifetime. The ship was terrific, the crew and fellow passengers were amiable and interesting, but really the best part was the wildlife. The guides were so knowledgeable about all the different species and their place and contribution to the development of our knowledge about evolution. The isolation of the islands (600 miles from Ecuador) combined with the respect and protection shown by humans to the animals has resulted in a place where the animals have little fear and allow us to approach them. We got to get very close and get some good shots. Too bad my camera malfunctioned half way through the trip and I had to use my cell phone for the rest of the trip. I have hundreds of great pics still stuck in my camera - waiting for me to take it to be repaired. Thanks to anonymous photographers for the pics below. I'll replace them with ones I took after my camera gets fixed. I hope I am not violating any copyrights.
After experiencing all these wonderful animals, my mind immediately went to a sampler quilt. Maybe a 4 by 4 with a block for each animal, or a "scene" with all the animals and birds in their habitat. I could either print out my pics on fabric, using the special printer fabric, or convert them to applique and use batiks and thread painting. I'm not sure yet, but I do know that I'm going to include 16 animals, birds, and reptiles.
Lets start with the birds.
Darwin Finches - tiny but important to the scientific community!
The booby brothers - blue-footed, red-footed, and nazca boobies. They all had the most unusual expression on their little birdy faces.
We saw a group of Galapagos flamingos in a lagoon doing a very coordinated dance. No sign of the choreographer or director.
The frigate bird (red throat) and albatross. The albatrosses do an adorable mating dance - clicking their bills together.
We saw a lot of swallow tail gulls sitting on eggs.
And finally the Galapagos penguin. It's small compared to other penguins and absolutely too cute.
Whether they were sitting on eggs, flying, swimming, dancing, mating, fishing, or napping, the birds were interesting and beautiful. Perfect subjects for a quilt!
I love the 3rd Saturday of the month, because that's when I get to go to Stitching Traditions in Topeka and take the Color and Design class from Kathy Pflaum. What a treat! My mind is all a-whirl when I leave there with all sorts of colors, designs, various media options. Kathy and my classmates are amazing!
This month our assignment was to use complementary colors from the color wheel. Since I had so many red-violet fabrics from last month, I decided to to stay with that color and add its complement yellow-green.
One of the techniques on my bucket list is to add some prairie points a-la Susan Cleveland. It was really easy using Susan's prairie pointer tool. The hardest part was getting the points all lined up in the seams.
Since we discussed implied texture and actual texture in our last class, I decided to add shell beads to the tips of the points, giving the prairie points even more texture. The quilting seemed obvious to me - just follow the lines of the prairie points.
Son Jim takes a look and pronounces that my wall hanging looks like a dragon's back or tail - so now I have a cool name for the quilt - "Dragon's Tail".
This wall hanging will go into the mini quilt auction to benefit local Lawrence charities at our annual quilt show on April 6-7.
Always curious in class!
Denise
Today my Christmas present - EQ7 arrived. I have installed it, viewed all the tutorial videos and am now going to get down to business learning how to use it. I already have a list of quilts that I want to make; a task made easier with the features in this program.
I am so excited! I think I will start designing a quilt with blocks named for Kansas. I've done a quick copy and paste with photos I found on the net, but now I can really design it in a way that it can actually be sewn together and fit!
Gotta go play with my new toy!
Curious about EQ7,
Denise
Today - my first fabric postcard:
How this all started - Some of my quilting friends had shown me postcards they received from other quilters as part of a post card exchange. I was really envious - of all the wonderful cards they received as well as the fun and challenge of making postcards to send. So when the opportunity came up at our guild mini retreat in September I signed up. There were 3 possible groups based on themes - flowers, Kansas, and holidays. I joined the Kansas group. There are 6 of us in total and the guidelines are to send 2 postcards - 1 before Christmas and 1 in March to each of the other 5 people in the group. This seemed do-able to me.
I received my first postcard from Carol just before Thanksgiving. Love it!
Receiving that first card from Carol spurred me on to start working on my first postcard. After watching a show featuring Karen Eckmeier on The Quilt Show, I decided to do a layered landscape and what says landscape more than the flint hills of Kansas!
Since it is Fall now I wanted to do it in browns and tans and of course batiks would make the perfect landscape. After I cut and layered the fabric, I used a manila folder with a 4x6 inch window to do a preview of my landscape.
Next it was time for appliqueing and thread painting. I put some round squiggles on the nearest mountain, some vertical but messy lines for tall grass in the foreground and some wisps in the blue for clouds.
Then the card was ready to assemble. I used computer transfer fabric for the back of my postcard and included a clue that this was the Flint Hills. I then used steam-a-seam to fuse the back and front to super stiff interfacing.
And finally a decorative stitch around the edge to finish it off. I am really pleased with my first postcard.
I put them out for the mail yesterday and I can't wait to see new postcards from my quilting friends in my mailbox.
Come see the Flint Hills - any time of year they are beautiful!
Denise
As I posted earlier about this project, I obsessed quite a bit on the color, the design, and my fabric choices. It feels so good to have decisions made and the first fabric cut. So I thought I would post an update.
Reminder - I decided to use fabrics in the red-violet hue. After making 1 square, this is what my tub of fabric looks like. I'm starting the quilt from the center out in case I want to make it a wall hanging instead of a quilt.
I'm using the Jewel Squares pattern by Kaffe Fassett. There are 6 sizes of squares ranging from 1.5 to 9 inches (finished size). The squares are constructed using the foundation paper piecing method. I decided to use Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff Poly as my foundation material as it is meant to be left in the quilt and turns to a soft batting type material when wet. I've not used it before, so this is a chance to try a new product.
Today I finished my first block - a 9 inch block that will live near the center of the wall hanging/quilt. I love how the dark and light, pure hue as well as tone, tint and shade work well together. The block went together quickly - even though I'm coughing and sniffling with a cold! I should be able to finish at least the wall hanging size before class on 15 December!
So much fun!
Denise
