Merrily We Quilt A Long

 Ahhhh, The Quilt A Long or QAL as we aficionados like to call it. Lots of teachers and designers lead these QAL (also CAL and KAL for crocheters and knitters), but so far, my favorite is Gudrun Erla of GE Designs.  I've participated in 2 so far and am about to start my third this week.

What is a QAL? The details vary a bit, but basically a group of people work on the same quilt at the same time. Sometimes its on one day, other times it progresses over several weeks. The quilter usually buys the pattern (or already has it) but uses their own fabric (and sometimes buys new fabric for the QAL - any excuse, right?). The last aspect of a QAL is that the designer or leader shares tips and techniques during the process, these days via Facebooks Live or some other virtual platform.

Wait, isn't that kind of like a Block of the Month? When I think about it, it is. But a QAL usually takes place over a much shorter time span, and except for the pattern, there is usually no charge. Somehow they just feel different. Maybe it is the togetherness feeling of participating in an activity together.

My favorite QAL leader is Gudrun Erla, of GE Designs. She is the force behind the Stripology Rulers and Patterns. She is creative, fun, a great mixologist (a special feature of her QAL and Friday live events), and a great pattern designer.

 The Stripology Rulers come in different sizes and have different markings, but their common characteristic are the slots in which your rotary blade sits to cut straight strips. 

The first QAL I participated in was actually a Strip A Long - Strip to Shore. I was really taken with this pattern and I immediately envisioned a sand and water palette. 

The blocks were easy to make and really lent themselves to the contrast between the "sand" and the "water". I only got a few rows worth of blocks done before another interesting QAL piqued my interest. This quilt is on my UFO list and I'm excited to get it done. 

I hadn't finished Strip to Shore when another GE QAL was offered - Hope. My sweet husband Saul was ill and I saw this as a sign to have hope. Unfortunately, no amount of hope could stop the ravages of Parkinson's Disease and he passed away on the 16th of May. The quilting process was and continues to be a solace for me and my healing. 

For Hope I used a couple of Layer Cakes that I already had. I loved the bold colors. They look really cool with this dark charcoal as the center strip.

There are 2 Hope blocks and they go together so that there is a minimal amount of matching needed.  In the FB group - Gundrun's Quilt Crew, other quilters posted all the different layouts possible with these blocks. I'm still not sure which layout I'm going to use, but I'm leaning towards this one. 

Next week on Gundrun's Tipsy Tuesday, we start Wanda, a wonky 9 patch. The feature that attracted me to this quilt is the use of an interesting strip or plaid in the sashing. I don't know yet about my fabric choices. I plan to dig into my stash of Charm packs (5 inch squares) tomorrow. I'm also considering black and white 9 patches with some red thrown in. Who knows? We'll see what the fabric fairies whisper to me.

There's lots to be curious about in Gundrun's world. Check out her Website and FB groups - it'll be well worth it!

My Favorite Designers - Chapter 4 Julie Herman

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!

Rulers - The Right Tool for The Job

I'm a sucker for rulers. Quilt shops, quilt shows, trunk shows, workshops - if there is a ruler for sale I'm always looking, and usually buying.

When I started quilting, the yellow OmniGrid rulers were really the only ones available. In combination with the rotary cutter, rulers  were probably the most innovative thing to happen to quilting since the sewing machine. When I started quilting, rotary cutters and rulers had just come out, so I've never really quilted without them.

Now Creative Grids, special order rulers, designer specific, as well as other ruler companies have joined the game and there are rulers out the wazoo.  And I own a lot of them. Not as many as I could (that's how I rationalize it), but a lot.

Let's start with what I call the "traditional" rulers - most of mine are Creative Grids. I love the Creative Grids website, they have videos on how to use the rulers, which is especially helpful for the specialty rulers. Traditional rulers are the rectangle and square rulers, used for cutting squares and rectangles for piecing, and squaring up blocks. But there is so much more I can do with these basic rulers. 45 and 60 degree lines enable me to cut bias strips and triangles. The extra lines help me cut specific sizes like .25 inch seam allowances after completing foundation paper pieces. I have a long (6.5 x 24.5) and medium (6.5 x 12.5) as well as some smaller ones (2.5 x 12.5 and 4 x 12.5). Several shops have 2.5 x 6 rulers with the shop name on them - I have 2 or 3. 

Square rulers are handy for cutting, fussy cutting, as well as squaring up blocks after piecing. Technically, I could use one large ruler to square up blocks the size of the ruler and smaller. But, its much easier and always preferable to use the ruler that matches the size of the block. So - I have 3 of them - a 14.5 inch square, an 8.5 inch square, and a 6.5 inch square. And of course I covet a few more to fill in all the sizes.


OK, so these are the necessary, but somewhat boring rulers. Now, for the more exciting, enticing specialty rulers. There are tons, so I'll highlight just a few of my favorites - Stripology Squared (in this post), Hexagon and Side Kick, Trimmer by George, and  the Quick Curve Ruler (in a later post).

I learned about Gudrun Erla's Stripology ruler about a year ago and have used it a lot to make jelly roll strips and smaller strips for fabric bowls. A cool ruler.

But then Gudrun came out with her Stripology Squared ruler. It does everything the Stripology does and more - squaring up, fussy cutting, and cutting blocks in specialty patterns.

I took a class from Gudrun sponsored by Prairie Point Quilt Shop and learned all sorts of fun things to do with her new ruler - most involving layer cakes (the fabric kind, not the chocolate kind). Gudrun also designed a bunch a cool patterns to accompany the ruler. In class I worked on her Valerie pattern with these great bright fabrics from the For You collection by Zen Chic. I added some solids to have enough layer cake squares for the pattern, and some popping orange for the sashing.

This cheery quilt is in my rotation as the "free spot", so hopefully it will be finished soon. I'd better start looking for some yardage for the backing. For You is an older collection, so there isn't a lot of yardage still out there.

Next time - more specialty rulers.

I'm curious - what are your favorite specialty rulers? Let me know.