Blogger's Quilt Festival

     It has been a busy week with deadlines, so, I am running a bit late, but finally, I am joining the fun at Amy's Creative side, and The Blogger's Quilt Festival. I hope it is not too late to get this link in.

     The quilt that I decided to share this time is called Anastasia, because my friend Eleanor said that it looks Russian, and reminds her of the St. Basil's Cathedral.

 

 

     I wanted to use the Kaleidoscope pattern to combine Kaffe Fassett prints with those lovely rich stripes he has. I like to make my quilts scrappy, including the backgrounds. When I drew out this quilt on EQ, my printer was running low on ink, and this is what I got.

 

     The background color gradates from a light green in the lower right to goldy peach in the upper left. When I saw how this printed out, I thought, Hey! I could do that gradation on the quilt! The change is subtle on the drawing and on the quilt, but, naturally it shows up better in person. I really like it when there is more to see in my quilts the closer you get to them. As you can see, I also scattered the colors in the "stars".

     This quilt won 1st place in the Guild Members Choice Awards at our guilds quilt show earlier this year. For what it is worth, it is also the subject of my very first blog post ever, but then it sat for awhile, as other quilts were quilted ahead of it. Like my other quilts, this quilt was long arm quilted by my good friend, Regina Carter. 

     There is a wide variety of beautiful quilts on display at amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival

Thanks for stopping by!

Cutting the New Quilt

    Well, I got up a bit early this morning (early for me anyway). The plan was to go feed my friends' cats (I am cat sitting this weekend), and go sit on another friends porch and sip tea while a large group of tandem cyclists ride through our town. Just as I was about to leave, the sky opened up. Darn! So I sat down to write this post. Then the rain stopped, so I saved the draft and went. Then it rained again. No cyclists, but we had a nice time chatting, eating pastry, and sipping our coffee/tea on the porch while it rained and rained. Finally, we gave up; and went our separate ways to get on with our day. Now it looks like the sun is coming out! Go figure.

     I am trying a larger font for this blog post. I usually think the font on the blog is tiny, even though the size I use is called "normal". When I switch the size to large, it looks enormous while I am typing the post. So, I usually change it back to normal; but, it looks very different published than it does while you are typing.

     I have started on the custom quilt order that I mentioned last time. On Friday, my friend Eleanor came over, and we had our first sewing day together in months. She made several sets of beautiful pillow cases. I wish I had been thinking about blogging when she was here, and I would have taken photos of them for you. I worked on making a sample block for the quilt order. I thought I knew the size pieces to cut, but I wanted to sew 1 block together just to make sure I had the measurements correct. Then I cut out all of the red star centers, and all of the red star points.

     Last night, I worked on my blues, and I hope to finish the greens, and get to the neutral backgrounds today.

     I also ran out to Sweet Home Quilt Company to pick up some additional fabrics. This quilt used civil war and similar older looking fabrics, and Sweet Home is my "go to" place for civil war prints. I did not limit myself to using "official civil war reproduction" fabrics; but, added in other fabrics that I thought would coordinated well in the mix. I still have many of the fabrics I used in the original quilt, but I have run out of many. My purple collection is the worst. But, I could use a few more browns, and greens too. What better time to boost the stash a bit, than when I actually have an order. Good excuse-right? This is what I came home with.

     I'm not sure about using that bright coral on he top, but I really like it. I know I will use it for something. I may as well make a block or 2 with it. If it turns out to be too bright, I don't have to use them in this quilt. I love this about quilting. As a weaver, it is much much more difficult to work this way. In weaving, you have to make decisions on where things will go based on seeing only a foot at a time. Sometimes, you can add or delete a small amount when you are finished, but it is much more difficult. Things always look so different on the loom than they will when they reach their end use.  

 
     When I saw that coral fabric on the bolt, I thought of my customer saying that she wanted this quilt to be vibrant and varied like to original quilt. Most quilters would not have thought of that quilt as vibrant, but it is all relative, and it is a bit more lively than some other quilts in that genre. I think this because it is scrappy, instead of just coming from a single line of fabric.

     I only found 2 purples. Purples always seem to be the hardest to find. I want to add to my purples for another quilt that I have in the back of my mind too. I have 2 more quilt shops I want to check out this week, but neither are open in Sundays, so I will have to wait until next week. Patrick's carries a lot of "Kansas Troubles" fabrics, and A Scarlet Thread has a good selection of subdued colors. With it raining off and on (I was wrong about the sun earlier), today will be a great day for more cutting.

     So, it's off to the cutting board with me! Hope your Sunday is peaceful, and you get to do something you love. Thanks for stopping by!

New Classes, and a Quilt Order!

     Once again I have been guilty of blog neglect.

     There has been a frustrating lack of sewing going on around here lately. But, good things have been happening, and I do have lots to be grateful for, so NO complaining from me!

     Since I last wrote, I had a lovely time doing a trunk show at the Southern Crescent Guild in Fayetteville, GA. It was great fun to make some new friends, and to see a couple of familiar faces there, from the classes I have taught at A Scarlet Thread, earlier this year. AST has asked me to teach 3 classes there this fall. I will be teaching Indian Summer on September 28th.

     Pineapple Storm on October 26th.

      And Sonja's Windows on November 8th.

          One thing I have been noticing over and over again in my travels this year is huge range of greens you can see everywhere you go. From the bright green new leaves, to the dark green pine trees, and everything in between. And, some days the sky has been SO SO blue! I have been thinking about this for a couple of years now. I have got to make a quilt about this before much longer.

     Unfortunately, some of the widest range I have seen was while I was driving, and I am not so good at taking pictures while I am driving!

     One more bit of good news. I think it will be easier to get some sewing done soon. I have almost caught up on my weaving. This is lucky, since I just got an order from Etsy.

        
       I sold this quilt last fall, and now they want another one just like it! Woohoo!!

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

What I did on Retreat

     Things have been awfully hectic lately. I am grateful for that. I would much rather be a busy person with a lot going on, than bored. Wouldn't you?

      Lots of these things have been non quilt related. I have gotten the first Porterdale Village newsletter out. People seem to like it. I have always thought it would be a good thing to have all of that information gathered in one place. And then there was tax day! The less said about that, the better, but when you work from your home there is so much paper work and record organizing to get it done properly. Also, I have been working on a couple of rug weaving deadlines.

    Enough of that; let's turn attention to more quilt related matters. I just got back from a retreat. It was great! Good friends, beautiful weather at a gorgeous facility. 3 days of sewing that was only interrupted by good eating, pleasant conversation, a little sleep, and, maybe an occasional walk. I have already posted photos of what was being worked on around me, Now it is time to share that I actually did some sewing myself.

     Remember this project?

     

     Sometimes, I can get 2 photos to land next to each other on my blog; other days I can't. Why is that? Today is looking like a "can't" day.













     Anyway, before I left for retreat, I had all of my strip sets grouped together according to how many I needed of each color family. 

     I got them all sewed together, pressed, and trimmed.

     When I got home, I organized them into pairs, and realized that I had 5 sets too few of that dark blue, and 5 sets too many of the light blue. Coincidence? I doubt it. Well, I can use the extra light blue sets on the back of the quilt, but I obviously have to make some more dark blue sets. Monday, a group of friends were getting together to sew, and I pinned the whole stack. Now they are ready to go under the needle the very next time I get some quality time with my sewing machine.
 

 
     I realize these are not the most exciting photos you have ever seen, but this is what I have been doing. I am pleased that this quilt is on the verge of coming together.

     On a related project, I have been working on a quilt that uses the same overall design, but done differently for a nearby on line quilt shop. The name of the quilt shop is honeybegood.com  We took that drawing, and are making a lap quilt out of solid (as opposed to strip pieced) HST. Karen from Honey Be Good, picked beautiful organic cotton fabrics, which will be marketed as a kit on her website. (Don't you think those colors are yummy?!) I had just gotten the quilt back from Regina (my fabulous long arm quilter);  and got the binding on before I left for retreat, so I could hand stitch the binding and sleeve at retreat. By the way, the name of this quilt is Tangerine Twist.

     I got another quilt back from Regina too, but this one doesn't have a name yet. I made the variegated binding, and machine sewed it on, but it still needs the hand stitching done. I would like to get it done by next Thursday, since I will be speaking at The Southern Crescent Guild in Fayetteville.

    
     That is what I have been up to. I am off to finish a rug, and get my quilts in order for Thursday nights trunk show. Thanks for stopping by!

Retreat Fun

      This past weekend, I got to go on another quilting retreat. I got to see friends I only get to see about once a year, some I haven't seen in several years, and even, made some new friends too. It was wonderful.

     Here are photos of the beautiful things I got to see come together at this retreat.

 

    
     So how is that for a widely varied body of work! Next post, I will show you what I worked on while at retreat.

Strips

     I have been busy, doing so many things lately, that I have had a difficult time getting much time to sew. I have a rug due tomorrow, so I have been weaving that. This can be dangerous. I was at the loom today, when suddenly, I got an idea for a whole other quilt. I know you have been thinking: "What this girl really needs is to start another quilt." I chose fabrics from my Hancock's of Paducah catalog, and would have put an order in on the spot, but I was saved by the bell. Since it was after 6, I figured it was too late to put an order in today; I won't be able to tomorrow since I won't be home. It will be interesting to see if the drive for this idea stays with me till Friday.

      My friend Dori, and I cleaned out our town's library. (There is no heat in it so it stays closed in the winter) It needed sweeping, and dusting, and the books that have been donated through out the winter needed sorting and shelving. I decided our town needed a newsletter, so I have been working on our 1st newsletter issue. I have it just about finished, but I have to make about 800 copies. Since it is getting pretty spring like around here, the community garden is also gearing up. I just sent A Scarlet Thread several class proposals to choose from for the fall. I am looking forward to see if they like any of them, and if so, which.

     I belong to a sewing group that meets twice a month, and we each take turns hosting it at our houses. That person cooks dinner for the group that night. You guessed it. Last night it was at my house. After dinner, we all pull our our various projects. I cut some squares and triangles from strips that I had previously cut, for this quilt.

     I finished this quilt, and got it to my quilter's. Now I have to finish writing the directions for the pattern, since it is going to be sold as a kit at honeybegood.com

     I got this quilt back from my quilter, Regina, and I still need to trim it, and put the binding on it.

          I am trying to spend a little time everyday, sewing strip sets for this quilt. I have not put any more blocks up on the design wall, since I want to get the rest of my strip sets done before I pair them together.

     Help is on the way! I have a quilt retreat coming up soon. 3 days of uninterrupted sewing. I can't wait! I am planning to take the above quilt, and my big, pieced hexagon quilt. I also have several quilts that have all of the blocks done, and just need to be laid out. I was thinking it would be good to get one of them arranged on the design wall, so I could get numbers pinned onto the blocks, and sew it together, while on retreat.

     I don't get to see this group of friends very often, so I am really looking forward to this. In fact, one of them, I haven't seen in years since she moved away several years ago, but is coming for a visit, and going on retreat with us.
     
     It's time for me to hit the sack, I have to deliver the rug to Atlanta tomorrow. It is supposed to be a rainy day. Hope your week is going well, and you are getting lots done. Thanks for stopping by!

Design Walls Monday

     Yes, it's not a typo, I do mean design walls. And, once again, I am coming in under the wire. In some parts of the country, it's not even still Monday, but in my part of the country it is.

     I taught a class at a nearby quilt shop, so I spent a good bit of my sewing time preparing for the class, making sample blocks, etc. I really enjoyed teaching the class, but I need to work on remembering to bring out my camera, while the class is in progress. This class covered 5 different blocks, that kept me too busy to take pictures. Sorry, I know that sounds like a lame excuse, I will have to work on that.

     So here is what is on my design wall(s). A few more pieced hexagons. I am up to 10 finished, and an 11th one, almost finished. I did a layout on EQ, and found out I need 50 blocks, so I am 1/5th of the way there.

    

     I am still working on this quilt, although there is not much change on the design wall to prove it. All of my strip sets are pinned, and I have been using them for leaders, and enders. I have lots of strip sets sewn together, but I want to wait until they are all sewn together before I start pairing them together, to make my blocks.

     This next quilt is one I collaborated on with a shop owner who's shop is near my house. I did the design, and Karen Daniel from honeybegood.com chose the fabrics. Aren't they beautiful? And they are all organic too. This will be offered as a kit on her web site soon. I am almost finished sewing the blocks together.

     That is what is on my design wall(s) this week. Go to patchworktimes.com  to see lots of other interesting design walls.  

     Thanks for stopping by!