Design Wall Monday

     Most of the sewing I have done this week has been on sample blocks for my next quilt. I don't know what to call it yet. It uses the same technique as my Sonja's Windows pattern, but the color is distributed in a totally different way. Here is my drawing:

 

      Here are the blocks that I made to try out the idea:

 

      I was interested is seeing  how far I could push the color to keep the quilt lively, but still be able to see the pattern well. I also finished cutting and gathering all of my strips for this project.

     I did manage to get one more big hexagon sewn together, and 2 planned out , and ready for sewing. The one in the lower right hand corner is the new one.

      Through all of this, my solid quilt languished on my design all with no attention paid to it.

      Sorry, the bottom portion is cut off because I have a big weaving loom in front of my design wall. It's just something I have to live with for now, since this is the largest blank wall in the house. Now that all of my strips are cut for the new quilt,  and I have a plan in place for this next nameless (for now) quilt, I hope to get it put together in the next week or 2.

     Don't forget to check out all the yummy things to see at patchworktimes.com for design wall Monday. Thanks for stopping by!

Busy Week

    It has been such a busy week, that I am trying to decide if I should put it all in one post, or break it into a couple of posts.

     On Monday of this week, I spoke at the lunchtime program at our quilt show at Art Station in Stone Mountain Village.  I had been debating how much of my audience would be quilters, and how much would be nonquilters. Since it was at an Art Gallery, I decided to gear my remarks mostly, to nonquilters. Wrong answer! I got up in front of about 40 people, and asked if there were any quilters in the audience. All but 3 people raised their hand. I immediately decided to dispense with the rotary cutting demonstration I had been planning. Thank God I had a trunk show planned. I just spoke about each quilt in more depth than I had originally planned. Fortunately, they did seem to enjoy it, and I even sold a pattern.

     Friday afternoon, I demonstrated at the show, and taught the second half of a class at A Scarlet Thread in the evening. It was great to see the work that the students got done during the week. Everyone had a fun time with this quilt; which is pictured in my most recent blog post. I took photos of what they had so far with my phone. I am a bit spotty with using this phone for a camera. 2 of the photos turned out fine, but the third was terribly blurry. I am so sorry Sherry, that I didn't get a better photo of your beautiful quilt.
 

      Barb use beautiful, bold colors. She is planning to use the blue fabric is all of the centers.

     Lyn chose a gorgeous Asian fabric, and got tons of fabulous variety.

     Unfortunately, my hand must have moved when I took the photo of Sherry's quilt. It was delicate and whimsical. I know I have a tendency to do this, and I usually try to remember to take a couple of shots of each thing, but on this occasion my battery was about to die any minute. I was so disappointed when I saw this photo.














     I will be teaching at A Scarlet Thread again on March 23. I will be teaching my Let's Polka pattern.

     Then, I demonstrated again Saturday afternoon, and evening at Art Station.

     In between I got all of the strips that I needed cut, and made practice blocks for a quilt I wanted to start. I don't have a name for it yet, but it uses the same technique as my Sonja's Windows pattern. I have wanted to do something else with that technique for a long time now. Here is my drawing:

    
     I made a set of test blocks in every color combination needed. I was trying to see how far I could push the boundaries of color variation. I think more variation makes he quilt more lively and interesting, but I don't want to cross the line into confusion, and being unable to see the pattern clearly. I think I am doing OK so far. Do you agree?

      One thing I like about working with this technique is that it goes very fast. Dare I say that I will have this quilt put together in no time?!

     So that it what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!

New Projects

     Whew this week went by fast!

     Have you ever had this experience? You have a plan for what you want to accomplish, then all of a sudden, some other project comes to the forefront and just demands attention. You can't get it out of your head-you just have to start it right now! That is what happened to me this week. I was planning to work on a couple of quilt backs, finish my solid quilt, and continue working on my pieced hexagons. Then I suddenly just HAD to start this other quilt. I think part of the problem was I was thinking that right now I don't really have a good project for chain piecing, and I don't have a project that lends itself well to portability, and carrying to the houses of friends. The solid quilt used to be good for that, but it is past that stage.

     So, I spent most of my sewing time this week cutting and sorting strips.

     I went through all of the strips I sorted last year, and pulled out ones I thought would be the colors that I needed. Then in the middle of this process I realized that I was pulling together colors that I wanted to use for another quilt, so I thought I should cut some strips for both quilts, since the other quilt needs the some of the same colors, but different size strips.

     I took this photo early last year. These units all went into the Missing Monkeys quilt that I recently finished. When I had all of these on the design wall, I thought I would like to make a quilt where these Economy Patch units played a more important role. When I played with it a bit on EQ, I used blues and greens. I want the blocks to be just a bit larger though.

     Here is my test block. I don't yet have a test block to show you my other idea. That will have to wait a few more days.
     

















      Also this week, I took a class from Flavin Glover on Innovative Court House Steps. I had always wanted to make a Court House Step quilt using solid fabrics, Here are a few blocks I got done in class. I don't know when I will start working on this quilt in earnest; there are a few ahead of it.

     I also taught a class at A Scarlet Thread this week. It is a 2 session class, and we had the 1st session Friday night. This is the quilt we are working on. It is so much fun to see all the variations that students bring to an idea. I can't wait to see what they bring to class next Friday!

    
     I am doing a lunchtime program at my guild's quilt show at Art Station in Stone Mountain, this Monday, so I have been gathering quilts, and other items to show for that today.

     I still have a couple of other colors of strips to cut, so back to the cutting table I go!
Hope your week went well. Thanks for stopping by!

Design Wall Monday

     Good morning everyone. It has been a pretty good week here. I got the back done for  Missing Monkeys quilt. It is 96" by 110" so it is too unwieldy to take a photo of inside, and it is wet outside, so you will have to wait or it to come back from Regina to see it. I will do real "quilt portraits" then. I have to admit, once I get these monsters pressed and folded neatly, I hate to unfold them. I did meet with her to discuss quilting patterns and thread colors for my finished quilts, which is always fun. She always has such great suggestions. I always think they look so much more "real" after they are quilted.

     What is on my design wall now? I have been working on 2 things. I am using them for leaders and enders for each other.

     I have all of my solid blocks completed; and all of the setting triangles sewn to the "on point" blocks. I still have to sew strips to most of the straight set blocks. Will I get this quilt sewn together this week? It's possible. After all, there are only 12 (huge) blocks.





      

     I also got 2 hexagons made! I am excited about this, because my goal was one per week, so I am off to a better than expected start. God bless long. dark winter evenings, Netflix, and Quilt Cam with Bonnie Hunter.

     To make these, I sew the triangles together in rows. Then I sew the rows together; but I DO NOT sew the center seam.

     It is nice that these are symmetrical. I just sew on one side at a time. That way, when I get confused about the order of the triangles, I just used the other side as a guide, and then I can figure it out much faster.

    Eventually, I plan to sew them together in straight rows; just like I would assemble a One Block Wonder-with no "Y" seams.

       So, that is what I have been doing this week. Now I am going to go to patchworktimes.com to check out what others have posted on Design Wall Monday. It is always interesting! Thanks for stopping by!

Things in Progress From Retreat

     I wanted to tell you about about some other things I worked on at retreat, but didn't finish. In preparing for retreat, I finished all of my solid units. At retreat I got 4 more blocks finished.

     I can't wait to see what these will look like with their setting triangles added. I am planning on shades of red for those.

     When I came home, I laid out the last 2 blocks.










     Next, is a quilt I have been itching to work on for ages. I have been mesmerized by seeing  beautiful hexie quilts in progress; but I don't seem to be very good at finding time, or patience to hand stitch. While I was piecing a One Block Wonder, I thought it would be fun to use the same construction to make a quilt that would use a similar motif to the hexie quilts, but be machine pieced. You could use the fact that the "hexies" will have to be divided into equilateral triangles as a design element. I immediately got on my EQ and came up with several sketches and motifs. I think I will be having fun with this concept for a while.

     They will all be the same size once they are sewn. The big ones just have not been sewn together yet.

     I would love to plan to make one of these a week, but regular plans like that don't usually work for me; so we will just have to see what happens. Right now, I am really enjoying working on these.













     That is what I have been up to. Thanks for stopping by!

Design Wall Monday

      I just came back from a 4 day quilting retreat; so I have a lot to share. I finished 2 quilts that have been on my design wall recently. All they need is to have backs made for them, and be taken to the quilter. The first is my bird cages quilt, aka, Missing Monkeys.

 

     The second is the lap version of my Native Harvest pattern. I started this quilt last summer, to help me write the pattern for the first Native Harvest quilt. I guess I will have to think up a new name for this quilt since Native Harvest really doesn't fit this color way. I will have to think about this.

    
     When I look at these 2 quilts I am struck by how different they are in so many ways. The colors, fabric style, one quilt is very controlled while the other is pretty loose. I really enjoyed making them both. I wonder how many others really enjoy making quilts that are so diverse. Do you prefer either very traditional patterns and fabrics, or very contemporary patterns and fabrics? Do you feel driven to go back and forth between the two as I do?

     Since this is Design Wall Monday, I had intended to show what I have on my design wall at home now. At retreat I also worked on some blocks for my solid quilt. Now will only need 2 more blocks before I can start working on the setting triangles and sashing.

         I also allowed myself to start on something new. Unfortunately I will not be able to show you these things since I am writing this from a car repair place, and I forgot to take those pictures before I left home this morning. I will have to show those later in the week, along with all of the other beautiful quits that were in progress around me at retreat.

    I know there are tons of other fabulous things to see at http://www.patchworktimes.com/ for Design Wall Monday. Go and check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!