As June Flew By ...

June seemed to go by in a blur ... but I did manage to start (and sometimes finish) a few projects.

Here's my re-cap for Barbara's NewFO challenge.

This pair of pincushions, made from some miniaturized 5 1/4-inch versions of the Star Chain blocks we made for the Block Lotto in March were made using these directions as a guide.

The pincushions flew away earlier this month, as thank you gifts for a couple of the quilters that stepped up to help me make replacements for missing March lotto blocks.

Thanks again to everyone who helped.

In June, I was finisher for two of the quilts from Julie's Cotton Robin. The deadline for mailing was yesterday. Until all the finished quilts have been received and the big reveal is published, I can only share this much.  I hope both owners love them as much as I loved quilting them.

These two little quilts have since been received and I heard yesterday that my quilt is on it's way home. I can't wait to see what happened to the funky center I sent out into the world in January.

I found a use for a stack of twenty 12-inch square neutral + cream HST sampler blocks from a long-ago block exchange. I deconstructed them them and then re-constructed them as a dozen 18-inch frames for my summer project.

The lighting was very different in the before and after photos, but I think you can get the idea.

Here's two of those frames in use, as background for the hand-pieced blocks I am making during the 12 weeks of summer.

My plan is to design and hand-piece one block each week. These are the first two.  So far, so good.

The circles are set into those deconstructed-reconstructed machine pieced background using Dale Fleming's 6-minute circle technique.

The last new project in June was this 12 by 18 inch placemat, made for one of the local guild's charity efforts, Kitchen Angels.

I used five orphan blocks, created with the last of my pink scraps in February (for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge).

It was quick to make and fun to quilt and made me want to make some quilted placemats to use at home.

In June, I made progress on a few on-going projects, but I'll save that for the RSC "half way" report in another blog post.

End of May ... Green Scrappy Blocks and Projects Begun and Finished

Little things make me happy ... like realizing earlier this week that there was one more Saturday in May and so I had time to make and share some scrappy green Briar Path blocks–the last of the projects I'm working on as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You can see all the Briar Patch blocks I've made so far here.

At the beginning of the month, I thought I'd work on more green projects ... but it didn't turn out that way.  I did start some other projects and mostly finished them.  Here's my recap for Barbara's NewFO challenge.

In May, I made the I-Spy Stars quilt and the little pinwheels top, inspired by using the bonus triangles. The pinwheel quilt isn't quilted. I was recently gifted with some tiny buttons that are part of my plan for it. The sewing machine cover was started in April, but finished in May.

My name tag and Sophie Junction signpost piece were begun in May as something to stitch while watching TV.







I also played around with an idea for a Kitty Softie and made this prototype ballet kitty softie.

In June, I plan to make more kitty softies and many (many!) scrappy yellow blocks for four rainbow scraps projects.

I'd like to finish putting together the top for the Feather Bed Quilt and start quilting it.

And I really want to kick off a new project for the 12 weeks of summer that will make use of those very old neutral and cream swap blocks as a scrappy background.

I rarely commit project lists to blog pages because I fear life or another interesting project will distract and I'll end up getting none of it done.  Curiously lists and project plans DO work for me for other things ... maybe I resist anything that turns what's fun into a commitment, a deadline ... work.

Are you a list maker?  Do you create project plans or schedules for your quilts? Does it still feel like play?

April's New Projects

In April, I worked on a few on-going projects ... and started three new ones.


This 14 inch pillow, the front of which is made entirely from fabric made from small scraps, was begun in April for the Spring Challenge on the 15 minutes blog.  It was also my goal for a Lovely Finish in April.

A week ago, I started making feather blocks for Anne Marie Horner's Feather Bed Quilt pattern.  I managed to make the 52 feathers I need at the NNMQG retreat, but am still squaring up and thinking about how they will be arranged in my quilt.

A couple days ago, I decided I had to make some Violet blocks from purple scraps for the rainbow Scraps Challenge before the end of April–the purple scraps month.   They will become a sewing machine cover for my Purple Bernina 153 QE ... which somewhere along the way became named, Purple Nina.

I hand embroidered her name on what will become the front of the cover last night while I watched some TV ... It was no small feat because I also had both cats vying for position on my quilt-covered out-stretched legs.  They usually take turns lap-sitting, but there was a chill in the air last night and I think that they decided to they would both fit so they co-existed for a while.

The iPad photo isn't great, but I had to try to capture the moment with the tool I had at hand.

This is my update for the April NewFO challenge and Linky Party.

Retreat!

I think quilt retreats are universal in many ways.

Quilters gather in a large room, with cutting tables and ironing stations.   Sometimes you're one of the lucky few with a spot near the window and enjoy the natural light; sometimes you end up in a dark corner, glad you remembered to bring some lighting of your own. 

The food is always good.  You may not have as many vegan and gluten-free options as I enjoyed today, but it's always tasty. 

The kale chips were a nice change from the usual chocolate and sweet/salty snacks.

Finishes are shared and celebrated. 

If you're organized and focused, you can get a lot done. My day today started like this.

Looked like this for much of the day.

And started to look like this around dinner time.

At the end of the day, I had 19 feathers completed ... and 33 more in progress. I couldn't resist bringing the finished ones home so I could put (some of) them on my wall.

(It was after dark when I got home so the light/color in this photo isn't great.)

Really, the biggest difference between the retreats I've attended, in California, Michigan, Texas and New Mexico is the architecture. 

April's Lovely Finish- a Spring Challenge Pillow

Here's what I made from those made fabrics that I shared a couple weeks ago.  It's my Lovely Finish for April.

This 14 inch pillow is also my response to the Spring Challenge for the 15 Minutes of Play blog.  The requirements of the challenge were to begin with the sketch below and change one thing about it and to use some made fabric.

Because the line drawing was so similar to the Modern Clover block that Kate designed and I created the block pattern for the April 2011 Block Lotto, I initially thought to use that block because it would fulfill the requirement of changing one thing.

You can see the beautiful quilt Kate made from the lotto blocks she won that month in the Block Lotto Gallery on this page: Modern Clovers - A Finished Quilt.

Then I started asking myself those what if? questions and pulled out a compass to turn all the straight lines in Victoria's drawing to curves: A circle instead of a square for the bloom, a curvy stem and symmetrical leaves with pointy ends.  (You might have to squint or enlarge the image to see my penciled design).

I had become a fan of Dale Fleming's technique for sewing inset circles when I tried it for the first time a couple months ago to make the February Bead-on-a-String blocks for the block lotto, that I thought of it as a way to sew this block ... but I wondered if it would work when the fabrics involved were made fabrics and had lots of layers and seams in them. I also had never inset anything with points, like the leaf shapes.

If you google Dale Fleming 6-minute circle, you'll find links to Dale demonstrating her technique on Simply Quilts (on the HGTV website) and a longer version (with other shapes and examples on The Quilt Show (membership may be required).  You'll also find others sharing their experience–clearly I am not the only one who has become a fan.

You can see in my sketch, and in the finished pillow, that the circle bloom overlaps the leaves. I decided that the bloom would be "in front" of the leaves and so, I would need to inset the leaves, then inset the circle into the piece.  I created two templates (from freezer paper) and made them 14 1/2 inches square, the same size as large as the background, to help me keep the individual elements aligned.

Here are the in-progress photos I took of the process.

The individual photos (and more) are in my Flickr album: Spring 2014 Challenge.  You can also flip through them using the arrows on the photo at the bottom of this post.

I wasn't sure that my sewing machine was going to like sewing through the many layers of made fabric and the glue that holds everything together, especially at the bottom of the circle, where I was sewing the circle into the leaf/background seams.

It worked beautifully, the first time, with no ripping or re-sewing. I was amazed.

The last photo in the mosaic above shows the wrong side and how it all somehow worked.  

I added the curvy stem by hand appliqué of a bias strip, sewn into a 1/2 inch tube.

Since I wasn't entirely happy with the center of my string-pieced circle, I also added three circles by hand appliqué using a US dime as my template to cut and prepare the circles.

Since I knew it was going to become a pillow, I used a plain muslin fabric for the back ... which makes it easy to see the good, bad and the ugliness of my quickie free motion quilting.

I outlined the pieced and appliquéd shapes, quilted the background with a free motion fill design–similar to Leah Day's Bed of Roses, though mine actually feel more like fried egg flowers with spiral centers–and added veins to the leaf shapes. There's an extra layer of batting behind the circle bloom.

After it was quilted, I turned it into a pillow by added a plain fabric lapped back and binding the edges.

And then,  after a weekend of gray rainy days, it was ready for it's day in the morning sun.

In my case, April Showers bring progress to quilting projects :-)

Sometimes a little play and a small challenge piece can spark a new idea ... and this experience was no different ... I can't wait to see if my new idea works.

I'll be linking to the Finishes party for A Lovely Finish when it's published later this month.  This is also a NewFO finish for me in April.   If only the rest of my life was going so well and ahead of schedule ...

February Finishes and Failures

In February, some quilting happened ... but I made ZERO progress on a couple projects that were goals for this month.  With my 20-20 hindsight, I can see that perhaps my recent obsession with espresso machines was one way to avoid those projects ... hmm.

I DID make scrappy pink blocks for four ongoing rainbow scraps projects.

Pink scraps also found their way into two new projects.


I made a basket of string-pieced heart pins and sent them to dozen quilters to thank them for their support of the Block Lotto site.

Then I used the left-over bits of string fabric to make liberated star blocks for a future to-be-determined project.

I am joining the February NewFO Challenge linky party with these two new projects.

I spent a lot of time watching the Olympics coverage on TV in February, which allowed me to finish up the stitching for a pair of large Redwork pillow covers.

I also made a whole lot of Bead-on-a-String blocks: for the lotto and for two Mod-Mod quilts.

BUT ... because I failed to put a single stitch into my designated goal for a Lovely Finish, nor get much beyond creating a pattern for the Tea Towel Challenge, I am feeling pretty pathetic on this last day of the month ...

Can I blame my failures on a retrograde Mercury?  It seems as soon as Mercury started moving forward again, I had an idea for something completely different for my Tea Towel challenge quilt–I am still hopeful I will be able to make that happen.

Or maybe my optimism for March is fueled by a return to my routine and a first-thing-in-the-morning coffee?  As it turns out, after serving up the best cappuccino that I've ever made, the Goodwill bargain refused to make another.  After spending too much time trying to make it work and talking with the manufacturer (who offered to service it for $400), back to Goodwill it went.  the experience helped me decide on a replacement, which I did find locally. I'm not sure how a single cup of coffee in the morning can make things feel more ordered and normal around here, but it has.  I am ready to march on to March.

New Projects in January

 It seems that January has just flown by, doesn't it?   Still, I managed to start a few new projects, continue others and even finish a couple.

I'm joining the January NewFO Linky party on Barbara's Cat Patches blog and fessing up to all the NEW projects started this month.

For fun, I started (and FINISHED!) a little quilt which celebrates my chosen word for the year, Dare.

I rejoined Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, making blue blocks for a continuing project and for a really old (golden oldie) project that I pulled out and revived, but, somehow, couldn't resist starting a new ongoing project (OK, actually TWO)  and made this large (10 by 15 inches) scrappy oak leaf block. I'll be making at least one of these in each of the designated monthly colors.

You can find my pattern for the oak leaf blocks (6 by 9 inches) on the Free Quilt Block Patterns page.  The pattern includes both scrappy and plain versions of the block.

I also used blue scraps and made a start on a new original quilt design.

It is the first in a series of quilt ideas I have on the topic of Facing 60 later this year.

I can't share the center I made for the Cotton Robin even though it was one of my first new projects in January.   I also finished a small quilt for Another Little Quilt Swap that I have to keep secret a while longer ... though you can probably guess which of the 23 quilts posted so far is mine.

The Mod-Mod Quilt-Along kicked off in January and I started two quilts,  a throw that will be made from scraps as another Rainbow Scraps Challenge project and a bed-size quilt from a more limited color palette.

Here are my Double Chevron Blocks for both projects, for January:

The completion of the hand pieced blocks (and finishing the top!) left me needing a new handwork project, and so I started some redwork (which auto-correct always converts to rework ... humble, grumble).

So far, it's been enjoyable and also very very slow ... I suspect it will keep my hands busy while I watch TV through the Olympics next month.

In January, I met a delightful group of modern quilters in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  They asked if I could come teach a workshop and I suggested improv curves and the Silly String blocks we made for the Block Lotto a couple years ago ...and then I realized I had no sample project and so I made one.

I plan to quilt this later tonight ... so maybe it will be a second NewFO that is started ... and finished. Yay! 

New Ideas for the New Year

Last year, I didn't join Barbara's NewFO Challenge because I wanted to focus on OLD projects and thought NewFO would make it way too easy to keep starting new ones ... but, of course, quite a few new projects happened anyway. This year, I gladly accept that fact that I am happiest when working on a combination of old and new quilts and am joining the 2014 NewFO Challenge. I am currently thinking about all the quilts and other projects I'd love to be working on–whether I finish them or not–in 2014.  I'll share some of my existing UFO's and on-going projects as well as my plans for the 2014 Block Lotto in future posts, but here's a look inside my brain at some new ideas I'd like to explore.

Two secret projects to start the year

• A small quilt for Kate's Another Little Quilt Swap 8. The deadline is January 20. I've known what I want to make for a while ... but haven't yet made it. Must get busy soon.
• Another round of Julie's Cotton Robin. Our centers will be due February 1, so this is another January project that, like my quilt for Another Little Quilt Swap, I won't be able to share my quilt nor my contribution to other quilts until sometime after it's all done.

(If you are intrigued, there's still time to join me on either/both of those :-)

Tea Towel Challenge 2014

This challenge has an end of March deadline ... and since it was my idea, I suggested the timeline and I have compelled a dozen or so quilters to join me, it will be a priority for me for the first quarter.

FYI, it's not too late to decide to grab a tea towel and play along with us–you can find all the details and see what some others have planned from this page:  Tea Towel Challenge 2014.

The Block Lotto

The Block Lotto continues and begins anew in 2014. There will be a new direction, new blocks, new block patterns, some quilts made from some of the blocks through-out the year and a sampler quilt (and sampler quilt pattern) that uses all the blocks.  For the curious, look for more information in the future.

New Series ideas

• The Chinese Year of the Horse begins near the end of January.  I have had a idea for a series of fabric horses since first seeing Ann Wood's cardboard stampede (photo from her site) and it would seem the time is right to begin, especially since I am one of the horse people, born during another year of the horse.
• Sometimes, I cannot believe it myself, but I will turn 60 in 2014 and I have some ideas about new art quilts on the theme of Facing 60.

Continuing Series 

• While I failed miserably at producing a Daily Feather, I plan to pick it up again and continue making new blocks for ongoing feather projects and new feathers.  There will be more of these and some new, not-yet-defined feather and bird projects.
  
  
  
  
  
  1. 14 - Aunt Betty's (Feathered) Star, 2. 007 - Bird in Flight Quilt Block, 3. Detail of 007 - Stenciled Feather, 4. 020 - Yankee Doodle, 5. 025 - Sea Gull in the Sun Set, 6. 024 - Feathered Edge Star, 7. 002 Feathered Star Quilt Block, 8. 051 -Large Appliqué Feather, 9. 026 - House with Feather Stitch Tree 

Some Fully Formed Quilt Ideas

• I'd like to (finally) move forward on using up all those leftover bonus triangle squares I've collected over the years and creating the big scrappy quilt that has been living in my head for too long.
• I rarely make a quilt from a pattern, but I love Ann Marie Horner's Featherbed quilt and plan to make it (and count those feathers on my way to 365, too :-) I found this lovely example, made by Meredith Daniels, on Flickr.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Two giveaways won combine: Provencial fabrics + Japanese Garden pattern and a not-yet-used set of acrylic templates (an impulse buy at a quilt show long, long ago) will become Jardin Provençal
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After the holidays last year, I found this book on sale and planned to dye fabrics and make a wall quilt for this Christmas ... then I promptly misplaced it and soon forgot about it.  It turned up when I moved the bookshelves to the other side of the studio. I still love it and would love to make Melinda Bula's Candy Cane Lane Christmas quilt for Christmas 2014.
  
  
  

Following Along

• Esther Aliu's Love Entwined is the most incredible pattern.  I've been lurking, thinking about fabrics (and changing my mind about fabrics) and planning to start in 2014.  She has published 6 steps of the pattern so far–they make up this center square.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I love Leah Day's new plan of using a quilt made of pieced blocks for her free motion quilt-along next year.  I have an idea for playing along with a liberated twist, if this one doesn't fall off my list.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After taking a year (or was it two) off, I plan to rejoin Angela's Rainbow Scraps Challenge.  There will likely be other projects, but I definitely want to finish the blocks needed for this one.
  
  
  

I tend to avoid making lists like this one, of quilts I will make or UFOs I will finish because I know myself too well and I will always end up working on whatever idea catches my imagination at any given time no matter what I plan or say I'm going to do. I don't stress about it because quilting is something I do for fun.

I also know that any wish list in my head (or on the page) far exceeds the time and space needed to complete it.  In case you've read this far and think I'm more than a little bit crazy, rest assured, I have no expectation of finishing all of these, but I do expect to spend some time on most of them and make some forward progress.