Four months sure went by fast! The Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild Annual Quilt Show is this Saturday and Sunday and I'm almost ready.
I have the privilege to be this year's featured quilter. Over the last several months I have felt excited, scared, overwhelmed, frustrated, ready, not ready and absolutely exhausted. Tonight I am excited and exhausted.
In the morning I am leaving for LA on a short trip, and I'll get back on Friday afternoon just in time for final set up. Thankfully my friend Shari is hanging the majority of my quilts for me.
I'm hanging 15 quilts and then showing 9 more that we didn't have space for (but really I didn't have time to sew on a hanging sleeve). Then I'm doing something a little different - at least I think it's different.
I'm going to show and talk about some UFOs. When people display quilts at a show, we see beautiful, finished quilts, and then I usually assume that the featured quilter has it all together - all their quilts represent a theme, they are all perfectly finished, including labels and documentation. OK, so maybe they aren't as "perfect" as I am imagining. But it sure looks that way.
I plan on showing the more everyday, human side of quilting - the early practice pieces, the "can't wait to start" but don't finish quilts, the not so beautiful quilts, they are the ones I'm most excited about. I'll also have a display of some workshop projects that I'll eventually finish. I have learned so much about quilting over the last several years, and I've learned a lot about myself and life.
So, I'm still working on the details, I'm sure I will be down to the wire (like a lot of quilters). I'll be giving a short talk at 1:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. I'll be at the Mea Bernina table on Saturday and hanging around with my quilts on Sunday. So please come down to the show at Crown Toyota and visit with me. I'm sooooo excited!
I've started lots of new projects this year and today I am happy to say that I finished a long-time UFO. Last year (or was it 2013? or 2012?) I took a class with a great teacher and friend Kathy Pflaum at Stitchin' Traditions in Topeka. We made a wall hanging from the book 3-D Folded Blocks by Geesje Baron and Esther Vermeer. And today I finally finished it - quilting, binding, hanging sleeve and all.
The blocks look like regular traditional quilt blocks. But they aren't! Each of the shapes in the block is achieved by folding fabric into squares, rectangles or triangles and layering them. It was really fun and a very unique way to make blocks. The shapes are layered and sewn together around the outside edge of the block.
For example, in this block, the shapes would be sewn together about where the cream border is. Then the borders (cream and green) were added, and then they were set with the red background. One very important tip for the folded blocks is to really get a good, sharp crease. I used Faultless Extra Crisp Magic Sizing and I really like the result. It's a bit hard to find here in Lawrence, so I order it by the case.
I decided to quilt this myself. One of my favorite quilting motifs is pebbles (are pebbles?). I started quilting this at a Stitch On retreat last year (or the year before? I see a pattern emerging here - I can't remember stuff!). Pebbles take a lot of time for me, as well as a lot of thread. Luckily I kept the thread with the project so I could complete it with the same thread - at least on the top! One would think after doing this many pebbles that I would be good at it. No such luck. My pebbles are still irregular and my "sew-overs" aren't exact. I'm not good yet, but I'm better than I was!
I really enjoyed these blocks and I imagine that some day I might make a sampler from all 71 different folded blocks in the book.
Keeping Curious!
Squeeeee!
Guess who has been asked to be the featured quilter at the Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild 2015 Annual Quilt Show! Yep, yours truely! I feel so honored, a bit scared, and really excited.
My brain parts are having shouting matches with each other over which quilts to show, what my theme should be, and whether or not to show a few not-quite-finished quilts. What will people think of my quilts? Of ME? My work isn't good enough. My quilts don't have a theme. How am I ever going to pull this off.
OK, self, this is not Paducah, Houston, or Quilt Con. It's Lawrence Kansas and these people are your friends . . . . I mentally shake myself a few times and then calm down. I can do this.
Theme - none of my quilts could "hang together" because they are all so different. Style, Color, Size, Story - all different. The only common denominator is that almost all my quilts are a result of something I wanted to learn. I have always had a love of learning and a curious mind (hence the name of my blog ;-D ), so it is no stretch for that quality to find its way into my quilting life. OK, theme is something about learning.
What about UFOs? I have a ton of UFOs and most of them were started in a workshop. I would like to talk about some of them and the technique or teacher that makes them special. I could maybe bring a few of them and have friends hold them up like they do at guild programs. I could take pictures and do some sort of slide show, assuming I can locate a projector and screen, and assuming slides can even be seen in the large bright room where the show is going to be held. I think showing UFOs might be OK if there aren't too many and there is something really special about them.
I hope to see many of you at the KVQG quilt show. It will be April 18th and 19th at the Crown Toyota facility. In addition to the quilts there will be demonstrations and vendors with some cool stuff. Our Guild website will have info and details.
Now I've got to go get some quilts finished!
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 . . .
It's a disease - I haven't met a BOM I did not love. Well maybe 1 or 2. Not only do I love them, I feel like I just HAVE TO do them. Even though I already have 5 . . 6 . . . no, it's 7 going.
Last year I signed up for an 18 month Dear Jane BOM through Stitchin' Heaven in TX. Thankfully they delayed the start until January 2015. So this past January, I received my first set of fabrics and some extra tips for the first series of blocks.
Dear Jane is a quilt made (well finished and dated) in 1863 by Jane A. Blakely Stickle of Vermont. The quilt blocks were then drafted into a pattern and published in 1996 by Brenda Manges Papadakis. There are 169 four inch blocks, 52 border triangles and 4 corner blocks (my mathematician hubby tells me that is indeed 225 different blocks).
I had already bought the book and in fact got it autographed by Brenda, but I thought that instead of obsessing over color choices, I would just do a BOM that included fabric. There were several choices out there - traditional, reds, blues, or brights. I decided to go with traditional, although I tend to prefer the bright colors. My reasoning? How could I do a Dear Jane in anything but the original colors? Jane went to so much work to make the quilt and Brenda took years to draft the patterns, so to honor them I decided to go traditional.
The notes that came with the fabric indicated that I can do some of the blocks using a foundation paper method. Too bad the notes didn't have the foundation pattern. No problem! I could make one. Foundation piecing is one of my favorite methods. I love it because the points turn out nice and pointy, the seams are straight and everything fits together perfectly. If you are curious about foundation paper piecing, here is a tutorial to check out. The one thing that paper piecers and appliquers all know is that you have to reverse the design in order to get it to come out like the picture. Oops! I forgot to reverse the design. It looks great, but my pinwheel is turning backwards. Oh well, I'm not doing it over just because a pinwheel is spinning clockwise instead of counter clockwise.
So, 1 done, 224 more to go. It feels a bit overwhelming when I look at how many more I have to make. I'll add them to my BOM list and make progress slowly and steadily (I hope).
I am officially a Janiac!
I'm about to start another BOM (shocking, right?) - Tula Pink's 100 Modern Block City Sampler. About 30 quilters from the Kaw Valley Quilter's Guild are starting a Sew Along to work through her 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book. Oh what fun this will be!
We had our organizational meeting after January's guild meeting and made a couple of decisions. Easy Peasy -we are going to do as many or as few blocks as we want, whichever blocks we want, in whatever colors we like. We'll get together before the night time meeting, and after the daytime meeting to share our blocks, and then also gather occasionally during the month to sew together. We want to make an opportunity quilt out of some extra blocks, but we postponed deciding about the details until next month. I set up a FB group for us so we can post pictures of our blocks. So we're ready to rock and roll!
A couple members - Joy T. and Sammie M. already had some blocks made. In fact Joy wowed us with her binder and organization. I think she had 6 or so blocks already made! She inspired me to get going.
I found a fabric to use as an inspiration fabric and then realized that all the colors were in PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda. I used fabric from this line for Toes in the Sand by JayBird Quilts and I just loved it. So I found a FQ packet on Etsy and I was ready to go.
Since we were getting ready to visit my Mom in Arizona for a bit, I only got one block done before we left. I loved how it turned out, although Cleo does not seem to be impressed.
As folks started posting their blocks on the FB group, I was getting a bit jealous because I didn't bring any Tula stuff with me to Arizona and I was really itching to make some more blocks. Here are some of the blocks that inspired me (CJ, Kathy, Shari, Maggie, Sandra and Tonya). They're great, aren't they?
Since I didn't bring my book or any of my fabrics, I asked some of my sewing friends to send pics of the blocks so I could make them here. A trip to a couple of quilt shops and I was set. I set up my Mom's 58 year old Singer and had the first AZ block done. Over the next couple of days I made a few more and so now I feel like I am not behind! I have made my goal of 6 blocks for January!
Here's what I have learned so far:
1) Some quilts are more fun when done as a group.
2) I could easily get fabric envy - meaning I love others' blocks so much that I want to do them again in different fabrics.
3) This could get addictive.
4) I can get a simple 6 inch block done in about 20 minutes.
5) I love the simple yet unique style that Tula captures in these blocks.
I'm looking forward to our next meeting, I can feel the excitement of my FB friends who are part of this Sew Along - every day there are new pictures of their beautiful blocks.
It's All About Tula!
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!
