Growing and Trimming

     Yesterday I trimmed Kalina, Now she is ready for binding and her label and sleeve. I forgot to put the binding in that photo. It will be a medium coral/pink color.

     I worked on the new A Maze Zing quilt some.I like the zigzag fabric on it.

     I have been spending time gathering class materials and handouts for trunk shows and classes I have coming up in February.

     And last, but not least, I found some brussel sprouts in the garden.

     Linking to Design Wall Monday 
                     Move it Forward Monday

     I hope things are growing well for you! Thanks for stopping by!

Jacob's Ladder Series-Drawing #4

     The next thing I wanted to try, was to add a third color. You can see that I just played around with putting a navy accent in a couple of places. The blocks in this drawing are the same size as the blocks in the last drawing. There are 12" A and B blocks, and 14" Bear Paw blocks.

To learn more about this series read this

Jacob's Ladder Series-Drawing #3

     When I see this drawing, I am reminded that when I was started on working with these drawing, I was asked for a custom quilt in 2 solid colors.Naturally, my mind immediately went to this Jacob's Ladder quilt. Again, I am using 12" A blocks and B blocks in the Jacob's Ladder sections, and 14" Bear Paw blocks. My customer was very interested in the Bear Paw block, so I did a bit of experimenting with combining the two blocks in a composition. 

To learn more about this series read this

     Jacob's Ladder is a nine patch, and Bear Paw is based on more of a seven patch layout, so they don't fit together very smoothly, mathematically, but you know I had to give it a try anyway.

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Jacob's Ladder Series-Drawing #2

     So I will start out slowly, since that is the way I did in real life.

     The original motivation to embark on this journey came from a wedding quilt I needed to make. I had always loved the quilt I showed in the first post of this series, and I thought this wedding gift was a good opportunity give this block a try. That way, If I didn't manage to come up with something very original, it didn't really matter, I still had a wedding gift. Back then, I had no idea where this was going to lead me, because I had very few ideas of how to make this block my own. 

     The bride's mother told me that the bedroom was to be turquoise, brown, and beige. The first thing I wanted to try was adding third color to this 2 color composition. The most obvious way to try that was to choose a motif in the quilt, and make it a third color. Don' ask why I started working with red and blue. It must have been laziness, and the original quilt was red and white. So this is where I started.

      This quilt uses A and B 12" blocks alternating, like the original quilt did. The quilt measures 84" by 96". I think its fascinating how it kind of looks like this quilt is set on point, but it really isn't.

     I am planning to post drawing at least once or twice a week, and gather them under a tab under the blog header so they will be easy to reference.

     I hope this will inspire you to try and see what you can do with this block. I would love to see what you come up with!
       

Moving Right Along

Since my main goal for the week has been setting up the loom for the next rug, there hasn't been a whole lot of time for sewing around here, but I have managed to fit some here and there.

 I am almost finished with the 4th section on the Rose Garden Quilt. I really need to do some research to find a more interesting name for this quilt. I can't wait to see the 4 sections sewn together as a big square. Maybe by next week. 

I have the next quadrant of Julie's quilt laid out. Now that I only have one quadrant left, I could see that I needed to make another strip set, so I cut, and started sewing that.
The bottom half is already finished, and folded in half since this design wall isn't wide enough.

The place mats I am working on take 2 different strip sets for each place mat. Last week I had a sewing day with Eleanor, and got them all sewn. It was really nice to have some one to visit with while sewing those long boring seams. I didn't have enough of one of the fabrics I chose, so I had to substitute in something different next to the light blue fabric. There will be 2 place mats made from each of the 3 prints. I think that will make a nice variation. There will be a coordinating table runner, and potholders, but I am not even sure what block I will use for the table runner, and the potholders will be random made from the leftovers of the place mat strip sets.

 I bought some new shelf units for my sewing room. Isn't is just wonderful to have new shelf space in the sewing room?

 
I am getting ready to do a trunk show for the Madison Station Quilters, in Madison, Alabama next Thursday, so if you are in the area, come and let me show you some of my quilts in person. 

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

Section #3 Complete!

Last week I had a lovely time, doing a trunk show at the York County Quilter's Guild, in SC. It is always so much fun going out into the world and making new friends. I really appreciated how welcoming they were. Shout out to Jane in particular for putting up with me in her home, and entertaining me in such fine style. She even MADE me some scones which were TO DIE FOR!

Since I wrote last I finished the rug I was weaving, I am getting a new one this week. We had a workday in the community garden this past weekend. It was a good feeling, to start getting ready for summer planting season, and getting the first mowing out of the way. I won my tennis match (by default, but I'll take it).

So more to the quilty point: I finished section #3 of my rose garden quilt. Here are the 3 finished sections on the design wall:

Section #4 is laid out, and I have started sewing on it.

This will go in the blank space to the left, on the bottom. So that puts me at more than a third of the way on this quilt.

I have half of Julie's quilt sewn together:

A dear friend of mine bought a house last week, so a special house warming/wedding gift is in order. I didn't really meet her until after she got married. She married the son of a good friend of mine, and I am just now getting around to their gift. I thought a set of place mats, table runner, and potholder set might be nice. Here is a photo of a "prototype" place mat:

I am not sure if I want to leave the side borders so dark like that, or if I will make them narrower, and add another, lighter border. 

Hope all of your projects are going well.

I am linking up with Design Wall Monday 
Oh Scrap!, Moving it Forward Monday
Main Crush Monday 

Lots of fun projects to see!
Thanks for stopping by!

Progress and a New Start

Actually, I am supposed to be weaving today, but the yarn color needed to be adjusted, so I get a free day of play! It's like found money-you hardly know what to do with it first!

Anyway, I have made a bit of progress sewing together the section of my Rose Garden quilt that I laid out last week.

My washing machine bit the dust, and through a series of moving, and other flukes my across the street neighbor ended up with an extra washing machine, and she gave it to me-so I had to make her a quilt. Since she was in the process of moving at the time it took a little while to see what colors the quilt should be. I happened to have this quilt out.

She liked this quilt, and the colors in my Rose Garden quilt, so I took those ideas, plus my memory of what her house had looked like before she had packed it up. The last month I have been gathering fabrics, and cutting/sewing/pressing strip sets for her quilt. I have been looking forward to laying a portion of the quilt out to see what it will look like.

So that is what I have been up to lately, plus a little bit of getting ready for spring gardening. Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up with Patchwork Times , Oh Scrap!,  Monday Making and Move it Forward Monday Lots of fun inspiration! 

New Section

I am back home from my trip to the Staying in Stitches Quilt Guild in Statesboro, and Quarterdeck Quilts in Springfield. It was a really fun trip, and I had a great time and met lots of wonderful quilters. Sandy has a lovely shop with many fabrics I hadn't seen around my neck of the woods. It truly had me wishing I had deeper pockets. 

And there was a bonus. I really hadn't given it much thought, since I was focused on all of the new things I had been trying to learn how to do at home, but it was brought to my attention that we were only 45 minutes away from Quiltcon in Savannah. How silly would it be to miss that when I was so close?! So down to Savannah I carried myself, and boy, am I glad I did! There were a lot of beautiful quilts. I think I will make a future post with my favorite quilts from Quiltcon. 

Right now though, I am excited about the new section of my Rose Garden quilt(working name). I have just laid it out on my design wall. You can see the drawing for this quilt in my last post. This section is the lower, right hand corner.

This is the first section I have put together that isn't a diamond. I can't wait to see what it looks like with the others. I really love working on this quilt. All of my small units are sewn together now, so this is about to stop being a "portable quilt". I will need to have my thinking cap on to layout and sew these sections together. Between traveling, visiting with friends, and watching Netflix, I have gotten most of my HST and 4 patch units made. I even took a couple of hours last week to walk down to our local riverside park, and sit at a picnic table and trim units. Winters in Georgia usually have some mild days, but this winter has been so much milder than normal. 

My view from the park bench:

I love our riverside park, and I am so grateful that I can just walk to it.

That is what I have been up to. I hope things are going as well for you. 

This week I am linking up with Patchwork Times.

Thanks for stopping by!

What I Did on Retreat, and Why I Love Love Love The Jacobs Ladder Block

This is a project I have been very excited about for a very long time. 

Many years ago. I saw this photo in a book titled Quilts, by Ljiljana Baird.

It is an antique quilt created by an unnamed maker dated to 1870. I really love this quilt, but anyone who knows me at all know that the chances of me voluntarily limiting myself to 2 fabrics, let alone 2 solid fabrics are slim indeed. 

But, this quilt was always in the back of my mind as an idea I wanted to do something with.

A couple of years ago I wanted to make a special wedding gift for a young women who is very dear to me. I thought it would be a good opportunity to play with this block. The colors of her future bedroom were to be turquoise and brown, so I got right to work on the computer to begin playing with color placement. Long story short, I came up with an idea for Kimberly's wedding quilt, plus about 200 other drawings!

Obviously, not all of them are keepers, and some of them are so similar to each other that they aren't worth bothering with. But it made a real impression on me with regards to how versatile this block can be. I had some many ideas that I really loved! Here is a photo of Kimberly's wedding quilt.

I have really wanted to submit this as an idea for a book, but I knew it was going to take years to make 12 or 13 quilts, since these quilts, though easy to make, are pretty time consuming, and I had none of them made. I have been trying to think of another way to share that information. 

I thought it might be fun to post one drawing a week, just as a drawing, then maybe self publish them as a book sometime in the future. Before I did that, I thought it would be a good idea to make at least a couple of them to see what they look like translated into fabric. Maybe I should call this "My Jacob's Ladder Project". 

There are so many things I really love about making these quilts. I love the almost infinite number of different designs you can get, once you start playing around with color placement, and rotating the blocks. Then, you can add another set of variations by either using all the same block, or alternating with a "B" block. The difference between the A block and B block is the position of the lights and darks. The antique quilt in the book, and Kimberly's wedding quilt both have an A block alternating with a B block. I am not sure if one of these options is a true Jacob's Ladder block, and the other isn't, but I have spent a good deal of time playing around with both options. 

Since these quilts are made entirely from half square triangles, and four patches. These are simple, basic units that are easy to make, and have many "portable" steps. By portable steps, I am referring to steps you can do even if you do not have a sewing machine handy. For example, cutting units from strips, pairing, marking, pressing, and trimming. When you DO use a sewing machine to do the sewing required on the units, you can just run them through the sewing machine, quickly and easily, instead of spending time to figure out where you left off. You can make these units even when your brain is tired, or you don't have very much time to work, or when part of your brain is doing something else, like visiting with friends, watching TV, or keeping an eye on the stove. If you are a fan of Bonnie Hunter, you can use them as "leaders and enders" while you are making other quilts. 

Eventually, of course, you will have to put your thinking cap on to make the units into blocks and layout the quilt, but until then, it is just a matter of making the right number of units in the color combinations that you need. 

I have started a couple of these quilts, but set them aside because this one was really pulling on my imagination. I just couldn't wait to see what it was going to look like, and if the colors were going to work like I hoped. Another reason is because I had to do some traveling, and the way this quilt is laid out really lends itself to working on these "portable" units.

I have written some about getting the units  ready to take to retreat in this post.

Unfortunately, I didn't get all of the units done, so I was still making 4 patch units while I was laying out the sections at retreat, which really slowed me down. That said, I am so excited with the way my colors are working! Since I am dealing with 4 values, pink, coral, red, and maroon, I wanted to be sure that the pattern was showing up clearly. 

So here is a reminder of what my drawing looks like.

 

I have this drawing divided into 9 sections, 5 of which are centered around the 5 diamonds, and the 4 corners.

Here are 2 sections I made while I was on retreat. 

I started with the center section, and the center-right section.

That is what I worked on at retreat. 

Next week I will visit The Staying in Stitches Quilt Guild in Springfield GA, and teach a Sonja's Windows class at the Quarterdeck Quilt Shop in Springfield GA. Stop by and see my quilts in person if you are in the area!

I hope all of your winter projects are going smoothly.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hitting the Ground Running for the First Weeks of 2017

They go by so fast! Here is what I have been up to since the first of the year.

I have been working on finishing the 3 quilts I got back from Regina, late last year, adding bindings, labels, and sleeves. That is pretty pleasant and relaxing when you are tired, and brain dead. Especially after you get the machine sewing part done. I should have some finished quilt pictures done before too much longer. 

I am also getting ready to go on a quilt retreat with some of my very favorite people in the world. Hooray! Hooray!

Quilts I want to work on at retreat:

 

It is time for this quilt to get done, especially since it only has 16 rows left before it is there. I am really looking forward to seeing it finished, but I work on it less than others because it is less portable than the next quilts I will tell you about.  

 I have started another quilt in my Jacob's Ladder series. Or as I like to call them: "Quilts comprised entirely of HST and four patches". Now THAT is portable. During the holidays, I cut out my pieces, and paired them with a mate. I have been sewing the units together in the evenings, when I am tired. Then, when I go to visit friends, I carry a box of the units, with a small, portable ironing board, and iron, and sit and press, as we chat. I already have all of the HST done. When I get the four patch strips pressed, I will have to cut them into 2 units, then sew the center seam to make a four patch.

 

Here is my Drawing.

The colors of this quilt make me think of a rose garden. I want to make as many HST and four patches as possible before retreat, and start building the blocks at retreat, where I know I will have large blocks of sewing time.     

By the way, here is a curious question. Do you notice that my text is centered in this portion of the post? It is not because I think that it is artistic. I have been trying everything I can think of for the last 15 minutes to get it to justify to the left. I have pushed the text down from the quilt photo above. I have gone up to the icon and clicked the left justify button at least 50 times by now. I even justified the quilt photo to the left, hoping the text would follow along. No dice!!! If anyone knows what this is about, I would love to know! For some reason this blog post is just not a left justifying frame of mind.Go figure!

I have also been trying to sew together some strip sets for the remake of this quilt.

 Okay, so the photos will justify to the left, but the text will not, maybe later?

Keep calm and carry on.

What else have I been doing the last couple weeks? Working on my technological skills. Can't you tell? I did successfully add a tab to the top of this blog that shows my speaking and teaching schedule for the year so far. I also added the rest of my quilts, classes, and patterns to my stand alone website:quiltdesignsbycandace.com

As with so many things lately, it took a day and a half to figure out how to do it, and then another half day to actually do it, but I did it.Yippee! That is one thing I can check off my New Year's goals list. 

I have edited my guild program. I had to move some things around since I added some new quilts. 

I have written 3 Youtube video scripts, and spent some time watching Youtube videos about how to make Youtube videos. I confess, I am a bit nervous about getting the editing right, not to mention, having to see myself on camera.  I don't even like to hear myself on tape!

I have started writing the first of several patterns that need to get written. I have sworn that I an going to learn to use InDesign, or something similar, so I can use the computer to draw the figures, instead of doing that by hand. At the rate things are going, that should be exciting.

So that is what I have been working on. I Hope the first few weeks of 2017 have been good to you, and you are accomplishing what you want to get done. Maybe by next post I will be able to justify to the left again! Check back and find out.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

                                    

                                     

Design wall Monday

     I am currently working on making potholders for a fall show, and gifts, so I haven't accomplished much on the quilts that are on my design wall and/or design floor.

     Actually, these are last years crop of potholders. I haven't gotten any photos of this years crop yet. I will photograph them when I get some more finished.

     I have been working on the units for the next row of each though. here is how they stand now. I wrote more about the idea behind the Jacob's Ladder quilt in the previous post, and to see more about the idea behind the strip pieced quilt click here.

     That is what I have been up to. Check out what other quilters are up to at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/09/12/design-wall-september-12-2016/

      Thanks for Stopping by! 

Slow and Steady Progress

     I haven't had many large blocks of time for quilting lately, but I have been sewing a bit at the end of every day. The exception is yesterday, when I went to visit my friend Eleanor, and spent the day cutting out a new quilt start. (Well, half of one anyway) More about that in a future post. 

     Last week I turned in the last piece of the very very large run I had been weaving.

     Here is what the top of the rug looks like.

      That's 22 feet of rug rolled up on that beam. I wove the center of the rug, then wove 2 side borders to bump up the width to almost 15 feet! The finished size of the rug was 19' 10" by 14' 8". I know that seems a bit small given the dimensions I just gave you, but you would be amazed how much it shrinks when you take it off tension. 

    Later this week I will be starting another rug that will be woven in three 5' by 18' panels. I already have the loom set up for that. Okay, so much for the "day job update".

     I have made a fair amount of progress on this quilt. I don't really have a name I like for it yet, so I have been referring to it as "Diamonds".

       Only 16 rows left to go, and this quilt will be finished.

     I have been planning to start a series of quilts using the Jacob's Ladder block for a long time now. It all started when I was searching for an idea for a quilt for a wedding quilt I needed to make. As I was working on the design for that quilt, I got ideas for so many other quilts. Here is a photo of the first quilt in the series.

  
     I have been looking forward to using this block in a zig zag configuration, and trying a larger scale. The quilt above is made from 6" blocks this next quilt is made form 9" blocks. Here is a photo of my drawing.

     At first, I designed the quilt to be larger, but then thought that it is enough of an over all design, and this would be a good opportunity to make a smaller quilt, since most of the quilts I make are pretty large. So, I took a couple row of horizontally, and vertically. I have 3 rows sewn together so far. There will be 10 rows in all.

      I decided to use the same fabric all across the row so the pattern would be easier to see. Because of that, I can only use fabric that I have a half yard of.

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

    

Simple Pleasures and Simple Units

    We have been having the most beautiful spring, here in Georgia! Flowers are blooming everywhere. Below, is a photograph of the azalea bush in front of my porch. There are a few pansies, and snapdragon that I planted too.

     I love it when that azalea bush is in full bloom. 

      I got the sleeves attached to both of the quilts I wrote about last time, but the other side of the "flowers everywhere" coin is pollen everywhere. I think I will wait a couple of weeks to take photograph them outside, so I don't bring them back in loaded with pollen.

     The last few weeks, I have only had small bits of time to work on my quilting. Most of my time has been spent on things like routine doctors appointments, sorting tax receipts, the first mowing of the year, and of course weaving that big rug. I thought I had a picture of the big rug on the loom, but I could only find a photos of the borders. We most often have to weave a large center, with 2 smaller pieces that get sewn onto either side to get the needed size. This rug will finish at 14 feet by 15 feet.

     I have also been making a lot of 4 patches and half square triangles for one of my "project status" quilts. I have them in all stages of completion.  Here is a box of finished units, ready to go up on the design wall.

     All of the HST are done, but these 4 patches are waiting to be pressed:

     And these are pressed and waiting to be crosscut:

     I took these photos with my camera, which I am not so accustomed to using, but my camera battery was charging. You can tell I am not very accustomed to controlling the flash, and color with the phone camera indoors.


     Back to the subject at hand; I just love working with these small, simple units, because they are so easy to work on anywhere. I can carry them with me to a friends house. Several steps like pairing my fabrics, marking my diagonal lines on the HST, and crosscutting can even be done without electricity, and I can take them outside on these lovely spring days.

     I am almost done with all of the units for this quilt, and I can't wait to start putting them together! Then you, and I both will be able to see what this is really going to look like!

     That is what I have been working on. I hope you are having a lovely spring as well. Thanks for stopping by!