Alien Feathers and Plans for a Friday Night Sew-In

I've marked the golden oldie string star quilt and started quilting it last night.  These marked feathers felt like alien feathers to me, they are so different from my usual–the unmarked, perfectly imperfect feather-like shapes. I have begun to wonder if anyone will see me in this quilt when I'm done.

I'm a roll with this, so my plan for tonight's Friday Night Sew-In, is to keep going ... it is also my current golden oldie UFO project, so I am joining Angie's WIPS Be Gone.  I'm joining the linky party there today, as well as Free Motion Mavericks.

Next up will the be the bright logs raffle quilt.  The quilting design will definitely not be marked.  I have pieced the back ... my cat Grace Hopper helped me measure the top for that effort.

Whenever fabric or a quilt top is spread on my worktable, Grace will be there to help–she's a fiber-loving girl.  If the fabric or top is large enough to drop to the floor of my studio, her big brother, Johnny Be Good, will roll up in whatever touches the floor, making it difficult to move or adjust.  If I am quilting late into the night, both of them will join me on the sewing machine table and curl up on a piece of whatever I'm trying to quilt.  Both of them will no-doubt be part of my Friday Night Sew-in tonight ...

I'm sharing the photo of this quilt top to ask for your input on what color thread(s) you would use on this?  Help!

Suspending Disbelief

I had ambitious plans for my FNSI last night, but ... a too hot studio and a head still spinning from my work day resulted in limited results.

I did make the six 7-inch spokes blocks that I need for this month in my rainbow scraps challenge version of the Mod-Mod Quilt-Along.

As I made them, I realized I was a little fearful that the red blocks would be over-powering when combined with the rest. Once I suspended disbelief and moved forward, I was pleasantly surprised.

My ideas of what this version of the quilt–with mono-chromatic blocks in colors not of my choosing–continues to change each month, but ... so far, I'm not hating it.

Today I pulled out all the blocks and put them into their relative places on the design wall.

A Proof of Concept ... and a Plan for FNSI

These are the twenty 12-inch Half-Square-Triangle blocks from a block swap a long while ago.

Below them are the twelve 18-inch frames I created, after I disassembled and re-combined and assembled them for my idea for a summer project.

I'll blog more about my plan for the 12 weeks of summer this weekend, but here's a sneak peek at my first completed block–my proof of concept for the this idea.

The center is a hand-pieced block made from a pattern drawn by me. The design is most identified as a New York Beauty ... but I've been thinking of it as my summer of Sunflower blocks. 

I am happy with the combination of HST background and round and spiky centers ... my summer of sunflowers is a go.

My plans for the Friday Night Sew-in tomorrow are also HSTerical. I'll be cutting and sewing the 672 yellow triangles I need–or as many as I can cut from my scraps–to make scrappy yellow broken dishes blocks to add to those made so far, as part of the Rainbow Scraps Challenge.

Some of those triangles will come from the scraps of pretty yellow and gold hand-dyed fabrics from Vicki Welsh that I won in the drawing last month in the HSTeria QAL.  Thanks, Vicki!

A Finish and a Plan for a Friday Night Sew-In

The I-Spy Stars Kids Quilt is quilted and bound and ready to take to the guild meeting next week.

It was fun to use I-spy fabrics as "background" ... I definitely will be exploring this idea more in the future.

My second effort at spiral quilting worked out pretty well.

As before I started with free-motion quilting a spiral in the center until it was about 7 inches wide, then I switched to a walking foot and continued around (and around and around). I was definitely more relaxed and confident the second time around and I think it shows.

I used the side of my walking foot as a guide, leaving approximately 1/2-inch between the rounds.

I have concluded that for the skinny bindings I almost always choose to make, the faux-piped binding technique isn't a good choice for me–I had too much trouble with the corners.  For me, making real piping is easier, more exact and my corners work.

I haven't given up on faux piping just yet though ...

I am joining the link parties for this finish:

Richard & Tanya's Link a Finish Friday
Fabric Addict's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday
Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday (TGIFF)

This quilt is also my Lovely Finish for May–I'll add the link when the Finishing party is posted.

Yesterday, I began quilting the sewing machine cover for my purple 'Nina made from 5-inch violet blocks. As I sat down at my machine, I remembered that I had once sketched an idea for quilting these blocks ... so I had to move over to my desk and go hunting for the post with that image. The Violet block was the August 2011 lotto block.

Kim asked how I'd quilt it and this is the sketch I posted.

It took a while, I found the original post, on the old Block Lotto blog, here:

A Quilting Idea for Kim

It wasn't exactly what I had planned ... but once I found it, I decided to follow my own advice.  Something I said in that article is still true:

I usually opt for something curvy and organic looking when the block is leaves or flowers

I quilted the violet blocks as in my old, rough, sketch, outlined the embroidery (which was easier than I thought it might be), then started filling in the background with arcs and spirals and curves, which, in my mind, represented leaves, blooms and buds.

My plan for tonight's Friday Night Sew in is to finish quilting and assemble the sewing machine cover.

A Baker's Dozen of Scrappy Purple Blocks

Last night's Friday Night Sew-in was a success at my house.

Almost all of those 425 triangles were sewn into 13 of my what I think of as Broken Dishes Star blocks.

It was an evening of a lot of chain sewing,  followed by lots of pressing, followed by more chain sewing as the triangles became half square triangles, which were dealt like cards into 13 piles of half light-medium and half light-dark squares ... which finally became blocks.

While all this chain sewing and marathon pressing was going on, I watched some episodes from last season's Orphan Black in preparation for the new season which starts tonight.  I'm not a Sci-Fi fan, but I really like this show about a group of clones who discover each other and their history.

Dealing with all those triangles was less tedious as I stitched along with Sarah, Alison, Cosima, Helena, Beth and the others (all played by one talented actress).

The thirteen blocks on the left in an on-point orientation are the result of last night's effort. The eight on the right are the blocks I made a couple years ago as part of the rainbow scrap challenge.

This morning, I couldn't resist pulling out the stack of 84 blocks in 4 color groups and putting some of them up on the wall to see them all together.

Now, all the purple blocks for my on-going Rainbow Scraps Challenge projects are done, though, I have a couple of ideas  ... if I don't run out of month. 

To see more scrappy purple projects, check out the links at Scrap-happy Saturday.

Since I will likely be enjoying these blocks on my design wall for a few days, I'll also be linking this post to Judy's Design Wall Monday. 

Scrappy Signs of Progress ...

Sometimes we can see signs of progress even before we sew one stitch.  Here's the evidence of my progress for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge.

On the left, 450 scrappy purple triangles, in stacks of light (top two), medium and dark.  On the right, the scraps from die-cutting those triangles.  This is a few more than I'll need to make the 13 more purple broken dishes star blocks I need.

My plan for tonight's Friday Night Sew In is to turn these triangles into half-square triangle (HST) units and the triangle squares into blocks.

Grow My Blog Party and Friday Night Sew-In Results

If you have found my blog via the Grow Your Blog 2014 party, welcome to Sophie Junction.

My name is Sophie and I blog a lot about quilting, fairly often about food–mostly vegan and vegetarian recipes I like, sometimes about knitting–the impulse to knit comes and goes for me, occasionally about my life in Santa Fe, New Mexico and pretty rarely about anything else.

And then there's my two cats: two irresistable creatures that find their way onto these posts from time to time. Here they are helping me finish up a flannel quilt I made at the end of last year.

As a quilter, I have found a wonderful group of quilting friends in the blogiverse and I love participating in those virtual group activities, like the monthly Friday Night Sew-in.  January's FNSI was last night and here's what I made. 

This 30 inch quilt top was made using my directions from another online quilting group activity that is near and dear to me, the Block Lotto.  We made blocks like these–which I called Silly String–in July of 2012.  At the time I had recently moved to Santa Fe and was living in an incredibly small, adobe casita.  I always wanted to play more with the pattern, but it wasn't the time or place.  Yesterday I decided to take a break from the projects on my list and just play.  This is the result.


I have been leading the monthly Block Lotto since January 2002.  Along the way I have created a lot of free Quilt block patterns. The latest can be found on the Free Quilt Block Patterns page on this blog.  Unfortunately, what was once a much longer list was accidentally deleted–maybe by me, probably by Blogger, grumble, grumble.  All the patterns are also linked on the Lotto Block Index pages on the Block Lotto site.

This year, I have also challenged my friends and anyone who would like to play along to make a quilt, beginning with a tea towel. It's not too late to jump in–you can find all the details on this page:

Tea Towel Challenge 2014

Like many, I have started many new projects already in 2014, including a series of art quilts on the somewhat daunting-to-me idea that I will become 60 years old later this year. To end this little post, here's the start of one of them. 

Friday Night Sew In

I need a day off from myself, from the lists and goals ... just to play with fabric. That's how I'll be spending my Friday Night Sew In.

To start, I have pulled these fabrics.

'Twas the (Friday) Night (Sew-In) Before Christmas ...

With less than a week to go before Christmas, it is usually right about now that I really enjoy all the hustle bustle (and the quiet moments) of the season. Any gifts that are going to be made are finished and wrapped and, in most cases, mailed.  I might be out and about, but because I want to (and don't desperately need to), I really enjoy it.

And I can choose projects simply for the joy in working on them.  For me, it's a great date for the December Friday Night Sew In.

This morning, I went looking in my WIP boxes for a project from a year ago–some large stars that I intended to make into pillow shams to go with the Christmas quilt on my bed ... and ended up taking photos and beginning an inventory of UFOs.  Lately, I've really been in a (re) organizing mood and moving things around all around the house.   Tonight, I am looking forward to some quiet time with my sewing machine (and maybe a silly Christmas movies or two).

Here are those newly excavated star blocks.

Remember the thrifted Christmas cross stitch I brought home with some frames? I washed it yesterday. When the water turned bright pink, I was pretty sure I had ruined it, but it came out of the experience just fine. I have an idea for displaying it and it could happen tonight, too.

I might learn to love it, but I'm not so much liking this new Flickr interface when I only intend to share one photo.

C'est la vie.

Saturday Morning Progress Report

A funny thing happened when I went to pull some fabrics out of my stash to make the table quilt in my head:

• I couldn't decide on what color I wanted the background to be–I finally decided on white-on-white. 
• I kept changing my mind about what fabrics to use for the band and handle for the basket blocks.
• I decided the time was right to fold and put away a basket of left over fabrics and scraps from other projects ... before I did anything else. 

It doesn't necessarily look like a lot of progress during my Friday Night Sew-in, but it's all good.  All those fabrics and scraps are put away and I moved forward making the bottom of the basket blocks and allowing myself to wait until later to make the decision about handles and bands.

Maybe I'll find some clarity, cut some fabrics and be ready for some basket handle appliqué for Slow Stitch Sunday night?

I NEED a Friday Night Sew-In

I know I probably seemed ungrateful to some in my post about those birthday fireworks.  I have politely left out some of the facts and tried to put a happy face on events.  Plus, I guess I have come to prefer the French tradition where if you're the person with the birthday, anniversary or other reason to celebrate, you throw the party ... if you want one.

My uninvited visitor continued to push and insist and push some more that we go to Abiquiu.  I thought he meant the tour of Georgia O'Keefe's home there, since we had talked about it at my birthday dinner–and we did come dangerously close ... but his only goal was to eat a meal at a restaurant where he had once travelled with a friend, and found closed when they arrived.  The cafe was located at the Abiquiu Inn, which also contains the tour office for the Georgia O'Keefe house/museum.

I should have kept my mouth shut as he hopped back into the car after our lunch, but instead, feeling some disappointment at the bait-and-switch tactics of my visitor, suggested we might wander around the area that inspired O'Keefe ... since I still believed that was the point of the trip. He took my suggestion as a cue to drive, drive, drive some more ... first to the historic hot springs in Ojo Caliente–where we might have enjoyed a soak, but didn't, because we had to race to go to Taos.  The road winds through the Rio Grande basin–I wanted to take photos, but only when a pair of big horn sheep blocked our path, did he slow down.

The sunset was spectacular, but it took a traffic light in Taos before the vehicle stopped and I was able to capture the last of it.

Maybe it's a Mars-Venus thing?  He joked a little too much about having me captive ... and it felt a little too much exactly that to me.

Our afternoon together ended at 10 PM when I finally got home ... because my pushy acquaintance wouldn't take me home until I had dinner with him–an Indian meal that didn't sit well.  I woke up violently ill after 3 hours at 1AM and was miserable all day yesterday. 

I'm so happy my visitor has moved onto his next victim surprised hostess and that I finally feel well enough to eat ... the Friday Night Sew-in couldn't come at a better time for me.  

A week ago, on the Block Lotto site, I shared this simple sketch of an idea for for a quick project that would work with any of this year's lotto blocks in a simple medallion.  

Follow the link for measurements, if you're interested. 

Using 6 by 9-inch blocks and 9 and 12 inch squares (finished sizes), the result is a 30 inch square. 

My plan for FNSI tonight is make some of this month's Banded basket blocks and pieced square blocks and arrange them like this for a holiday table topper.

Friday Night Sew In?

I went looking for the sign-up for the April Friday Night Sew-In.  I didn't find a sign-up for this month on Heidi's blog, but my plan to sew tonight is the same.  Anyone else sewing tonight?

Spending Friday nights at home has become my practice.  It doesn't seem to matter where you live, traffic is always bad on Friday night, going anywhere out to eat means a wait because of the crowds ... it's become so much easier for me to avoid the people and have a quiet meal and evening at home.

I'll be making more of little paper foundation pieced blocks for the border on the cotton robin piece now at my house. I hope to finish this up and mail it onward on Monday.

In other news, my prize from Shana and Melissa–the ladies behind A Lovely Year of Finishes–arrived today.  When they emailed me and told me what I had won, I was excited.  I have only tried English Paper Piecing in a small way and thought this book of doll quilts might inspire me to begin a project–I actually thought it likely that I'd spend this (non) Friday Night Sew In beginning a new EPP project.

Unfortunately, the directions for each of the 11 projects require that you purchase the specified pre-cut paper pieces.  While I likely would have gone that route once committed to a project, I simply do NOT understand why the basic shapes and measurements weren't included.  Without including those basic shapes, this quilting book feels to me like little more than a sales brochure with a $21.95 price tag.   It makes me wonder what the authors, Chris Moline and JoAnne Louis of Paper Pieces, were thinking ...

Still Quilting

As a result of the Friday Night Sew Quilt In, I'm still quilting the tea towel challenge quilt ... but I did make a lot of progress.

Look close and you can see the basting pins in the checkerboard border ... and that the hens are missing some quilted details and that the triangle border is only half-quilted with feathers.  I could be still quilting for a while.

A cold front is blowing–really blowing–through here, so I plan to spend my time inside this weekend, continuing to quilt away on this piece and putting together a sample lotto block and directions for for April so I can send out the sneak peek tomorrow.  

The cold weather and wind make no difference to my big boy cat, Johnny. It's his job, apparently, to go outside and survey the neighborhood each morning, before I can begin my day.  Once he determines the neighborhood is safe (and I'm dressed and ready to go downstairs), he races me to the kitchen and his food bowl ... to make sure I remember to top it off for him ;-)

One More Border?

Tomorrow night is the Friday Night Sew-in in Blogland.  (Follow the link if you want to learn more or play along.)

I plan to finish up the Lotto Block Sampler--not sure if I will add a narrow cream border and call it done, add a final plain border (I'm thinking purple, but could be under the influence of the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge).

I put it on the bed to see if that perspective would provide any insight.


 

Is it wrong to make the quilt just a little bit bigger so it will fit on the bed . . . even if my original intention was NOT to make a bed quilt? And what about those big white spaces I've created around the outside of the quilt.  Does the quilt seem to need some appliqué or should I leave those quiet spaces alone, knowing that when the quilt is quilted, they won't seem so empty?

Did you notice the tail in the photo above?

Probably the only thing Grace enjoys more than admiring quilting fabric or sewn blocks is helping to make the bed.

She seemed to think that the new quilt would make a great bed cover . . . she even held on tight to the in-progress top when I tried to take it away.

Friday Night Sew In - February 18

For the past few months, the Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) has coincided with another quilting activity–a workshop or UFO night at the Honey Bee Quilt Store.  But, this month's FNSI–next week on February 19–I have no commitments or other plans and will be spending some ALONE time with a quilting project–probably the Road Trip to the 1930's feed sack quilt.  I'm already looking forward to racing home Friday after work and spending a creative night at home.

Want to join me in this virtual Sew-in?  You can sign up here.

Friday Night ... Saturday Morning

Here's one of my first blocks made from the feedsacks: It is perfectly imperfect and so quick to make.

I cut into two of the feedsacks last night in class and woke up this morning anxious to add some of the other sacks, so I could begin to see whether or not they're going to play nicely together, so I made blocks from two more.  Here's my first dozen.

It's unlikely the blocks will end up in anything like this straight set, but it's kind of interesting to see them side by side like this. 

In a class like this, where everyone is starting with fabrics from their stash, it's always fun to see what everyone else is using.  It turns out that quite a few of us are working out of our comfort zone--across the table from me, Karen is using pretty, soft water-color-like fabrics and Mary is using some fabrics from a baby print line--including a panel that may end up on the front or as some kind of back art.

Nanci is showing off someone's blocks made from CW repros--I loved the shirting fabrics she was using.

Here are some of the other colorways from the group:

This is one of a set of brights with black & white prints, which would probably have been my usual choice ;-)

There were two or three students at each table, making blocks from dramatically different colorways.

Feedsacks

When Terri commented on my previous post about my choice of "repros" to make Nancie's Road Trip quilt, I realized I wasn't clear. When I said feed sacks, I was talking about real, vintage, from the 1930's and 40's feed sacks.

Here's my meager collection, after I finished pressing them last night.  I didn't realize until I pulled them our of my stash that half of them have paisley designs (and some of the leaves on the other half have paisley-like qualities.)

It's interesting to compare these textiles to modern quilting cottons.  The fabric is narrower--from selvage to selvage it's 36 inches--and more loosely woven.

I don't know how many of the 7 sacks will end up in my quilt--there are one or two that definitely have a "not like the others" quality . . . though I'm not sure if that's a reason to take them out or keep them in.   Plus, I keep thinking that the one with the big bold red scrolls and blue flowers could become the most adorable apron . . .

Friday Night Synchronicity

The first Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) of the year is taking place this Friday ... will you be joining the 100 or so quilters that have already signed up? You can read the details and see the impressive list on Heidi's blog, Handmade by Heidi.

I will be beginning a BYOS (Bring Your Own Stash) class, taught by Nancie V--one of the friendliest and most welcoming local quilters.  When I saw her sample quilt top, I thought the block was interesting ... maybe because it wasn't immediately obvious how it was made.

I thought the block looked very traditional and was probably made with templates or some specialty ruler, but based on what I know of Nancie, that didn't seem like a Nancie choice.  This kind of "we're all making the same quilt" class is not my usual thing, nor are templates or specialty rulers, but this quilt was calling my name . . . then when I was chatting with Nancie at the quilt shop's open house, she quietly told me it was made using LIBERATED quilting techniques and I knew I wanted to make it

I've decided to run with the traditional impression it made on me and plan to use some feed sacks that have been in my stash for a while ... along with a couple I recently won on eBay after I decided that I needed just a little more variety.   I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else in class will be choosing from their stash.

Friday Night Sew-in at the Honey Bee

Nancie, a friend from the Liberated Quilters yahoo group told me about the Honey Bee Quilt Shop and UFO nights there. I was thrilled to find out that the shop is a 10 minute drive from where I'm working--close enough for a lunch run ... if I really need something. In fact, I made a lunch run on Friday to check for a new issue of a magazine and to check if I was going to be able to move up off the waiting list for UFO night.

What a nice bit of synchronicity that it was the same night as the Friday Night Sew-In ;-)

This time, my sew-in was the literal, in person variety.  It was great to meet quilts in my new area and see what everyone was working on.  The store had just hung all the samples for their new classes and new $5 quilt (aka Five at the Hive). I faded earlier than most and left around 11 PM.  But I did get to see at least one UFO "finish."

 

The color in the detail photo of Bevo (the UT mascot) on the right is very washed out, but you CAN see how great he is--don't you love how one of his horns reaches out into the churn dash blocks?

I spent the time getting to know the regulars and working on this month's lotto blocks--tree pairs in jewel tones with black:

I also took some in-progress photos of how I made my tree block pairs. You can find them, with my notes, here:  Adding Complexity to the Free-style Tree Block.

My phone (in the pink wrapper) was out because I was using it to show the ladies all the other great tree blocks that have been made so far.  If you're curious, you can see them here.

Edited to add that the Honey Bee Quilt Store has added some nice photos of Becky's Longhorn Quilt on their blog.