Quilting

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Sunny D

Did you know that Vitamin D activates the genes that release Dopamine and Serotonin, two of the neurotransmitters “responsible” for your happiness?   Me neither, but you can find anything on the internet these days!  In the end,  we are responsible for our own happiness.

But seriously,  sunshine does provide us with Vitamin D, and happy memories (seratonin release my friends! I’m learning… ) have a funny way of making me feel warm on the inside.

I found this kit at Stitch On Needlework & Gifts on a fun adventure to Mass Street in Lawrence, KS with my two kids.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to make it.  The “You Are My Sunshine” embroidery in the middle of the Dresden plate reminded me of my mom singing that song to all of her babies.  As the oldest of 5 and a 12-year difference between me and my baby sister, I heard that song for a long time, and it still makes me smile.  Mom has never thought she had a good voice, but she is wrong.  It always sounded pretty and I’m sure it calmed the babes.

Since the plan was to gift it to my mom for her mini quilt holder, I sized the pattern down to fit a 12″ mini quilt frame.   If you want to give the Dresden a little “3D” look,  try not stitching down the outside of the wedges, but tack it with a circle towards the center. In this case, I fused it in place with the embroidery circle, then stitched it to the quilted background when I blanket stitched the center circle.  Does that make sense to you?  It gives the appearance of a flower with petals sticking up.  The other mini with the red flower (in the featured image) was made a similar way.

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I would not do this on a quilt, but for mini quilt or wall hanging, it will last for many years.

I needed some happy today, so I’m glad to share this with you !
I hope this made my mom as happy as me when I made it.

Happy Quilting!

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180 Baby

 

 

This is known.  A new baby, especially the first is a life changing, schedule changing, priority changing event.  The smaller the package, the bigger the change! You might say life takes a 180-degree turn.

When I saw geometrics with these colors on a colleagues registry for their first child, I just couldn’t help it.  Instead of well wishes of diapers, I couldn’t resist “just” making a quilt!  The idea for “180 Baby” was born.

I was heading to a quilt retreat with the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild at the “Disneyland of Quilting”, Missouri Star Quilt Company.  This quilt presented itself as a perfect excuse to shop and sew a project that I could finish fairly quickly.  Another friend and colleague, Randy,  thought it sounded fun and offered to go in on it with me, so we made it a dual gift.

I laid out the colors, and size ahead of time in EQ7 and was able to get an easy estimate of yardage required for each color.   After applying colors in the expecting couple’s registry, I decided that it needed something extra.  A “pop” of non-symmetrical color is used often in modern quilts, so I wasn’t surprised when I landed on the peachy-orange triangle and binding.

I had fun at MSQC Modern, and selected fabrics from Cotton+Steel, Timeless Treasures, Moda, Red Rooster Fabrics, Robert Kauffman, and Michael Miller.   I don’t think that any two of the fabrics were from the same line.   This was a very fun combination to select.

Triangles for this design were cut from 8 1/2″ strips using Jaybird Quilts Super Sidekick Ruler.  I’m looking forward to making their pattern called “Gravity” later this year!

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The only trick to tumbling these triangles is to make sure that you get the 1/4″ seam allowance accurate and line each up over the other before sewing.  If you do this, then you will not cut off the points of the triangles when you sew your rows together.

The new design wall at the Missouri Star Quilt Company Retreat Center was a perfect canvas for laying everything out.  I really enjoyed the weekend I spent with my wonderful Mom!  Here are some pics soon after we arrived.  Ignore my mug, and take a look at the new design wall.  Also, if you look above, you can see details of the restored original ceiling tiles of the building.  I love how MSQC uses some of the existing architecture when possible to add historic interest to the main street buildings!

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I was able to finish the top late the first evening, and then worked on the back early the next morning.   My friends at the retreat snapped some images of my reveal.  I laughed when one friend said “What happens if we like the backside better than the front?”.  The back was put together with yardage and leftover triangles.

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After bringing it home, I quilted it on my longarm.  The batting is 100% cotton Dream Angel.  I used a larger spaced quilt design to keep it soft and cuddly.  The finished quilt is a little larger than a typical crib quilt, but would be perfect for a day at the park, or snuggles with dad…   Congratulations Daren on your new baby girl!IMG_0678.jpgIMG_0678 (1).jpg

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Scraps for a Friend

What’s the story…

I am typing this post from the KCMQG retreat at Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Yeah!  Look at the wonderful design board that have been installed for retreaters.   By tomorrow they will be full of beautiful fiber artwork!

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Every time I retreat, I meet so many wonderful people.  Everyone has a story and their projects are extensions of that story.  I just had to share the smiles of some of my new friends.

I met one such friend at another MSQC retreat a couple of years ago.  Last year we met there and she stayed with me at my home.  Before she came,  my friend said;  “You like, batiks, right?”.  I think this followed making my first quilt from batiks.  I said;  “Yes, I do!  They are easy to work with, and I love the “waxy” smell when I iron them”.   (Are you with me, or am I just nuts!?)

That was just the opening she needed.  Friend told me that she was going to bring me some scraps she had leftover from a quilt, that she just wasn’t really “IN” to batiks.   I said;  great!  I’m sure I could use them.  🙂

What was delivered was a disposable grocery bag full of batiks.  Later when I sorted through them, I discovered that the scraps consisted of half paper pieced blocks from a Judy Neimeyer quilt and small accompanying yardage.  SCRAPS?  What’s the story?

Well,  I’m sure we have all had projects that, part way through, just stopped being fun.  Either something goes terribly wrong, or it just doesn’t encourage us to continue with it.   If that ever happens,  by all means,  give it to a friend!

This quilt is the result of those scraps.  I just couldn’t bear to see all of the beautiful paper piecing go to waste.  Curved piecing is cool with me, so I salvaged all that I could and came out with an alternative layout for the pattern and added a border.

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THEN, from all of those scraps, I pieced a backing too…

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and binding…
and five mug rugs…

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and I still have fabric left!

Those are my kind of scraps.

So my friend,  I will be sending your scraps back to you, with the watery depths of fabric quilted with golden fish.  It is appropriate I think, for the Goldfish in Chinese legend is a symbol of surplus and wealth, and a GIFT of goldfish is a blessing in the hope of good fortune.   Send me your scraps anytime!  I feel rich having a friend like you.

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Winter Stargazing

Stargazing in winter might seem ideal as you have more uninterrupted viewing hours.  However, shivering in a Kansas field doesn’t sound like best way to take in the stars.  I prefer to quilt! At least that hobby keeps us warm in the 60 degree winters…

Was anyone else part of the warm spell last week?  My kids were running around outside in sweatshirts complaining that they were hot.  Sigh.  It didn’t stay warm, so they are back inside, bouncing off the walls and each other.  We had to declare a moment of silence this evening for our sanity.

Last weekend was so productive!  Since the kids were enjoying an unseasonably warm day and my husband was working on a project, I was able to quilt.
(Pepper helped.)
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Making up for lost time I managed to longarm a Minecraft quilt for the school auction, create a log cabin paper piece pattern for my friend, and finish a few small blocks and projects.  I’m saving some of the other projects for later posts, so no pics, but you can see the Winter Star block from the Farmgirl Vintage book.

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One thing great about the Farmgirl patterns is that you rarely work with bias.  Take the star point for instance.  Instead of cutting parallelogram pieces on the bias, you start with a rectangle and sew two squares on, similar to creating quick half square triangles.    The bias is never exposed, so your block stays nice and squared up.   I love this!

If you only sew the desired line, you end up with triangle waste on each end.  However, if you are tricky you could create smaller half square triangle blocks for your next scrappy quilt by making a second seam line 1/2″ away from the first, and trim between the two stitch lines.  I really should do this more often!  They might be handy in scrappy or mini quilts.

I said no pictures, but I’d better share this mini that I finished from a BOM club my Mom has gifted me.  🙂  Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop has a fun Tiny Dresden BOM program that started this month.  The pattern is for hand applique dresden with embroidered sayings.  Of course, I love my machines, so tried to figure out how to beautifully finish this mini using a scanner, custom digitizing and embroidery, and longarm quilting. Alas, the buttons were too small, so I had to hand stitch those on!   In February, I will give a run down on how my experiment worked and what I would do differently next time.

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Contrary Wife

Contrary Wife… No, not me…  (Though, if the definition of contrary is “perversely inclined to disagree or do the opposite of what is expected or desired.”, then Yes, I might be that woman occasionally!)

Contrary Wife IS the next block in the Two Sisters sampler quilt.  There isn’t much to it.  Half square triangles paired with squares in a 9 block.   If you look closely, you will find that I alternated tones between the two.  Take a look at them in mono.   Which colors are your eyes more drawn to in each block?  I’m curious?

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Here is a fun exercise.  Look at the picture in color, then close your eyes and give me a comment on what color you remember most from each block.  How does it compare to the way you view the mono image above?

You might wonder how I decided on my color scheme this time…  I wonder too.  I really just selected some colors that I thought looked nice together, that my daughter would like, and that weren’t too “matched” to my other blocks.

However, our minds are powerful.  If I compare my selection to known color combinations,  then I actually didn’t really stray from partial triads or complementary colors.  What do you think?  The only thing “contrary” about these blocks is that I swapped the intensity in the pattern between the two.  It shows up more in the mono image.

Colors:  (Color Wheel, Intensity, Proportion)
Pink / Gray  : When I look at the block, I “remember” the pink. 
image011Pink can also be thought of as magenta, or a primary color on the Cyan-Yellow-Magenta color wheel.  (See this one from Surrency Studios)
Grey is a mix of secondary colors, and can be created a multitude of different ways and goes well with just about anything (as long as it has the right tint).
Purple / Turquoise  :  When I look at the block, I “remember” the turquoise. main-qimg-c6c88e61bb8be95c1dee8a46a82cc583-c

Purple and turquoise are equidistant from each other on the color wheel.  They produce high contrast while maintaining harmony.  If I was to add a third color (besides white), then I might select yellow-orange. (It does look nice on the yellow background…)

 

 

However, in both cases, my eye caught the less intense tones that were closest to primary colors.  Do you see them the same as me, or is it all in the eye of the beholder?  I’m sure a color expert could explain that to me.

I think if I ever have the chance, I should take some art classes.  I would either drive the art teacher crazy with them hoping I will pass through quickly, or I would find someone else with my love for the science of color.

Happy Quilting!

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EnderQuilt – Game On!

Lately I have not posted many completed works.  I have been quilting for others, which, though rewarding seems to slow progress on my own projects.  But, I persevere…  This one took me less than 1 year!

I started this quilt back in November of 2015, on a whim, during a visit to Quilted Memories.    I remember picking up a stack of solids and talking to one of the ladies cutting about my plan to make a Minecraft quilt for my son that I had seen on Pinterest.

Creeper was completed in November of 2015, then in January he was followed by an enderman, cow, and a pig.  Steve, the chicken, lava and diamond ore came later, much later.   If you remember in my previous post, my son declared that he wanted an Enderdragon on his quilt.

Yes, I am glutton for punishment.  I couldn’t resist the challenge.

GAME ON!

An Enderdragon was born out of fabric in my stash.  I designed him in EQ7 as four separate blocks, based on a perler bead image I saw at Kandi Patterns online.  I didn’t want to use all small blocks like a bead pattern does, so created the pattern out of a mixture of large and smaller squares.

Originally he was on a solid background, but I felt that white just wouldn’t work.  I couldn’t use black or grey, as it would blend with his body and wings.

In comes Max (he is 8).  He sees my design.

“Cool!  That’s epic”, he says (or something like that.  I am glad he approved.)

Me:  “Max, what color do you think the Enderdragon should be on?”
Max: “Mooom, Enderdragons live on enderstone.”
Me: “What’s enderstone?”
Max: “Duh, just google it, here I will show you.”

Max proceeded to pull up an image of enderstone on my computer.  There it was in all of it’s stoney glory.  Max helped me pull out scrap squares of tans from my box of brown and tans from his great grandmother’s stash.   Stone is good practice for random.

After finally assembling the four, 24″ squares of the dragon, I assembled him in all of his glory.  As the dragon took up my entire design wall, I realized that I needed to come up with a plan for the rest of the quilt, that would now be a king size!   I used MS Excel to layout my borders and sashing.  What you see was my final pick.  I didn’t keep all of my sashing and borders equal because if I did, it wasn’t going to fit on my longarm!

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The quilt is hanging from my second story bannister below.  It is the largest I have made to date.    I think, in minecraft, the enderdragon prevents players from leaving “The End” until he is defeated.   Once defeated, a player gains lots of “experience”.

A special challenge deserves a special label.  I digitized and embroidered the minecraft diamond sword and font.  This was my final touch to a “just because” gift for my son, and co-designer, Max.

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Ladies of the Lake

I mentioned that last weekend was very productive for sewing.  Long weekends filled with rain will do that.   While I finished quilting “Farmer’s Market”,  I also pieced a few blocks that staged and waiting for direction.

Two of these were the Lady of the Lake blocks. They are part of the Two Sister’s series.  My color selections here were an effort to mix colors that I might not have in some of the others to give the quilt more variability.  I wish that I had selected prints with more contrast, or at least the same color print for the center as I did for the half square triangle borders.  If you make these, be careful which direction you place the center half square triangle, or you won’t get the continuous negative space in the center.  (I had to frog and re-piece the borders of the blue block.)

 

Here is what a traditional, two fabric, “Lady of the Lake” block looks like.  Do you see what I mean?  The block looks stunning with vibrant batik.

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So, without more interest in my fabric, what makes this block interesting?  I am not a poetry buff, but know that the name of this block is the same as a poem by Sir Walter Scott.  It is easy to learn a little more with internet research.

“The Lady of the Lake” poem, by Sir Walter Scott, was first published in 1810.  The epic Scottish narrative lent itself well to opera. An opera loosely based on the poem (translated in French!) was created by Gioachino Rossini, called “La Donna del Lago”.  A beautiful lass, a King in disguise, civil warfare, rescues, romance, and death.  It certainly sounds like the stuff of opera to me!   When it premiered in 1819, it was not a success.  However, since it is still being performed today, I don’t think you could call it a failure!  Joyce DiDonato, of Prairie Village, Kansas, even performed the role of Elena in this opera with the Met in 2015.  Maybe, someday, we will have the opportunity to see it at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with the Kansas City Lyric Opera.  The new facility is really wonderful!

(This reminded me how much I missed the opera, so I hopped out and picked up some value tickets to see the 2016 – 2017 season with Hansel & Gretel, The Marriage of Figaro, Dead Man Walking, and the Pirates of Penzance!  Now I will need to find a good Opera buddy to have some fun with me!) 

“The rose is fairest when ‘t is budding new,
And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears;
The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew
And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.” 
― Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake

 

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Farmer’s Market

The holiday weekend has proven to be sew wonderful!   While my children (and husband) chose to swim at the city pool, I stayed home to quilt.  It was only 70 degrees, for goodness sake.  They are doing good to get me in the pool when it is 90 degrees!

I managed to finish quilting my Mother’s new “Farmer’s Market” quilt that she did as a BOM, in 2015, with Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop.   I think that the top may be made with Kansas Troubles, Sunflower Song Fabrics.  I have to say,I LOVE IT.  I really love how the blue in this line, used in the borders, helped set off the blocks.  The backing was a cotton sateen.  I have never used this as a backing before.  It has a shiny finish.

I was nervous to quilt the shiny cotton.  When I was selecting thread, nothing seemed quite right.  I was playing around, and found one of my Floriani embroidery threads that matched perfectly.  Believe it or not, it was called “Harvest”.  Right now, my favorite thread supplier is Red Rock Threads. I wasn’t too worried about using a polyester, as I used a Poly Cotton batting. The Floriani also had more sheen than my other quilting threads, so I decided to take the plunge.  I am so glad that I did.  I quilted it using an E2E pattern by Nancy Haacke, Wasatch Quilting called “New Beginnings”.   I love her description of how she selected the name.  She said she chose it as a symbol that change is inevitable in our lives.

I loved the pattern because it meshes classic feathers with some wild whimsy.  Peaking through the feathers is a flounce of pearls and wild grasses or cat tails!  I used to love picking and running my fingers over the fuzzy cat tails that would sneak out before mowing, or around rocks and railroad ties that didn’t quite get “weed wacked”.  After all, I was pretty terrible at mowing my parents yard.  I’m so grateful my husband does all of that at our home now!

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I hope my Mother loves her quilt.  This one didn’t get custom quilting, but the design, which took an hour per pass, really looks great with her extraordinary piecing!  She pays such close attention to detail.  I’m glad she made this one for her home.  The picture here won’t do it justice.  Maybe, once it is bound, we can get a better photograph.  It was raining and wet all weekend, so I had to take a picture inside with my extra special quilt holders in the background!

It looks like the rain will give us a day off, so I imagine we will be playing today.  I have a few more blocks to show you, but might post those later this week.

PEACE and HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! 

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Note:  The cotton sateen is more difficult to “Frog” if you find you have any stitches that need corrected.  Be extra careful not to snag it and ruin the pretty sheen.  

I am not an affiliate of any of the companies linked above.  I am simply sharing some of my favorite suppliers and manufacturers to date. 

 

 

 

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Patched Strawberry

I finished this block from Farm Girl Vintage on the last day of June.  (Do you believe me?)  Call it a late harvest.

One of my childhood memories is Dad’s garden.  He always tilled and fertilized, seeded and watered.  We loved helping plant seeds, but I especially liked picking strawberries with Mom and Dad.  We would bring in the small ripe strawberries (The ones that we didn’t  eat right off the plant) and rinse them in our stainless steel sink full of water.   They smelled almost as good as they tasted.  Strawberry shortcakes and on ice cream were the best!  I don’t remember how many years we kept our small strawberry patch.   Eventually we didn’t have it anymore.  The story goes that dad become allergic to strawberries, even the artificial ones…   Too much of a good thing?

This patched strawberry is the only harvest I had this year.  I pieced it from 2 1/2″ squares cut from my grandma’s stash… again.  I love that I am able to carry fabric elements from her stash across so many quilts.  This strawberry is pink, so not completely ripe.  It was fun to scavenge the fabrics, so I might have to make another one in reds.

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My secret for managing small scraps of fabrics is my Sizzix Bigz dies.  I have basic squares in several sizes. It allows me to select scraps and then stack them to cut squares for my patterns all at once.  I can cut 6 – 8 layers at a time with the die.  Sometimes I have to trim a few strings that didn’t finish cutting, but it is faster than rotary or scissor cutting them individually.  I think, if I starched the scraps, they would cut more smoothly.

This block would be great in a table runner or top.  It might even be fun to change-up the colors to show a strawberry ripening, white / light green, pink, then vibrant red.. The only think we are missing is the dark green leaves and white flowers of the plant.  That would make a good quilting design!

My block for July will be the patriotic flag.  My stash of reds is not very big, so I might be adding some new fabrics that I picked up on my weekend road trip to Hamilton Missouri and MSQC with my mom!  It was a great way to spend a rainy day.  We shopped every quilt store, picked up some souvenir quilt T-shirts, fabric for projects, picked up our first Row-by-Row for the year, and ate at the local restaurant called “Blue Sage”.  I was surprised to see that a new bed and breakfast, Home Inn Hamilton,  opened up there too.   It might be a another great place to arrange unofficial retreats with some of my new quilting friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sow and Sew

April and May have been real.  Real Busy, Real Life.  Low and High.
(Do you mind if I babble?)

The snow missed me this year, but I am digging myself out nonetheless.  The spring has brought birthday parties, work travel, outrageous taxes, home improvement, school events, contests, awards, death, and new life.   Would you believe me if I told you it all happened in that order?

In one more week, the current school session ends and summer begins.  What better way to celebrate life’s constant skirmish than to sow and sew?

I am a month “behind” in my personal block of the month club.  I have finished my next sister blocks, which I will write a separate blog on later.  I did get my hands dirty and planted some tomatoes, hot peppers, strawberries, and herbs in my garden.  With unseasonably warm weather, I even planted them before Mother’s day, which is akin to playing Russian roulette with mother nature.   I won! (so far)

Since I am a month behind with the quilting, I will write it off as a loss and move on.

In light of planting my garden and tending my flowers, my block from Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage patterns this May is “Crops”.

As I mentioned before (I think), one of my goals with this quilt is to construct it from my stash, most of which was gifted to me by my Grandmother.  I almost broke down and bought fabric this month.  The biggest challenge in my stash is finding large enough pieces with small prints.  Much of her stash was cut into smaller pieces.  I wonder if this was because smaller pieces were easier to use with hand piecing?  I digress.

In the end, I held strong and supplemented Grandma’s stash with some of my own, a scrap from a project I made for my Sister, probably some fabric that was passed between my Mother and my Grandmother, and some pieces of my own that didn’t have a plan yet.

The block is simple to create with half square triangles, tipped with smaller triangles, then sashed.  It was almost therapeutic.  Note: The pattern wastes fabric after trimming.  The half square triangles are created with squares of every fabric.  I have sewn and saved them for later, but am not sure if they will be handy in the other blocks in the pattern.

My block is finished.  I really need to get my behind out in the sunshine to sow some more seeds and prepare my garden for some delightful fresh ingredients this summer.

I mentioned death.  One of my Grandmother’s passed away this month.   At her memorial service, we were asked to think of a memory to remind us of her.  One thing we had in common was flowers and plants.  She loved sharing with me the flowers in bloom and the critters that would visit her back patio and garden.  I think that I might take a break from sewing one day and see if her children would mind if I transplant some of her flowers to my yard as a memory of her.

Life’s balance is that my cousin and his wife welcomed a new baby girl to the family the same week.  (Congratulations to the new parents and grandparents!)

Happiness can be Sow and Sew.