Around the World Blog Hop

Moira tagged me to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop.

Does anyone know who started this?  Or why there isn't a nice long list somewhere of everyone who has blogged an Around the World Blog Hop post?

Like Kate, I found the hardest part of saying yes was to find quilters to tag who haven't already been tagged ... so I suggest, especially since there's no master list anywhere, if you'd like to play along and answer the questions, just do it. 

Here are the questions and my answers: 

What are you currently working on?

As usual, I am working on next month's block pattern for the Block Lotto.  I can't share it with you, yet, but the sneak peek will go out later oday to those who have made September lotto blocks. 

I'm also very behind on finishing this quilt ... my September goal for a lovely finish and one I plan to enter in the local guild show early next month. 

How does my work differ from others?

I'm not at all sure it does except in the way that each of us creates quilts that represent our unique way of seeing color, fabric, shape and design.

I almost never use a quilt pattern, I often come up with my own patterns for the individual elements (blocks, borders), and I think as much about value as color when choosing fabrics and placing elements in the quilt. I often include traditional blocks. I prefer asymmetry over symmetry and I like mixing blocks, styles and techniques within a single quilt design. 

I think my quilt Cock-a-Doodle Tea Towel is a good example of my approach to quilt design. 

Why do I write/create what I do?

I am fascinated by understanding how thing are made and creating has been part of my life as long as I can remember. It is my therapy, my unstructured outlet to a structured job, the 'high touch' that balances what has been a mostly 'high tech' career. 

Quilting is a path to creating something that is both beautiful and functional. 

Creating the Block Lotto is a way to share the joy of quilting and help others try new things. 

What is my creative process?

This question is almost like trying to describe, how do you think? 

My quilts start with something and once that fixed something is decided, build upon it by pushing the boundaries of what is not fixed.   

That something might be a tea towel, like the one in the challenge quilt above that defined the theme and the color palette for the quilt, or the one below which a friend from the Block Lotto recently sent because she knew I'd love it. 

That something could come in the form of a challenge, like the word challenge on the 15 Minutes blog that specified choosing a word and using made fabric.

That something might be an idea for blocks, like this year's lotto blocks (and the Mod-Mod sampler quilt I designed from them) where I designed blocks and created patterns that I thought would lend themselves to Modern Quilting design. Here's my quilt-in-progress at the half-way point

I know it sounds kind of simplistic, but that's me ... I start with one fixed something, push the bounds of what's not fixed, and see where it takes me.

Tag–they're IT

I've tagged these three quilters.  Look for Bridget's and Cathy's posts next week.

Bridget at Nickel and Dime Ranch - Bridget is a New Mexico quilter that found me and invited me to go meet the Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild--a great group in Las Vegas (New Mexico). 

Renee at Quilts of a Feather - Renee is a New Mexico quilter that I found in the blogiverse.  I love her quilting! She's already posted her Around the World questionnaire (in response to being asked multiple times and finally saying yes.)

Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting - Cathy is one of the wonderful quilters I have come to know from the Block Lotto. I love the way she works with saturated colors.  Here's a peek at Wild Thing, her Mod-mod quilt in progress.  I think our two quilts may represent the two ends of the spectrum in terms of color and feeling.

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. 

The 2014 Tea Towel Challenge and How I Became a Collector

Welcome to my blog stop on the Quilting Gallery's Giving Thanks - Quilter's Blog Hop Party.

I am thankful for the support of quilting friends and strangers and the way interesting things happen when you share a little idea on the great big internet ... which is how the 2014 Tea Towel Challenge began.


It was this post on the Spoonflower blog and this lovely Tea Towel Calendar design by Julie that got me thinking about how much fun I had using a tea towel as a design element in a quilt earlier this year and how maybe I should challenge myself to do it again.

Then I began to wonder if anyone would like to join me. I sent email to a few quilters and casually mentioned it near the bottom of a blog post last week.  The response was very encouraging ... and then, the great tea towel hunt began.  My email has been filled with messages containing  links to beautiful tea towels, new and vintage and announcements of, "I've found my tea towel" and "My tea towel is here."

Although I had already ordered the fairytale calendar, I found myself wanting more and bidding on eBay auctions ... which is how I became a tea towel collector in spite of myself. All my tea-towel orders arrived, in one fell swoop, yesterday.

And that's how my tea towel collection began.  It includes some of Julie's Fairytale yardage which I will share with the winner of my giveaway for the Blog Hop Party. To enter the drawing, leave me a comment by Saturday night and tell me what you collect–either by intention or ... accident. If you are a No-Reply blogger, make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win. I love this panel as a Tea Towel, as an element in a quilt or maybe as a tote bag. I'll choose a winner on Sunday.

If you're wondering what happens when you make a quilt from a tea towel, here are two wonderful quilts made by two of the challengers from earlier this year.



Read more about Tea Towel Tess (on the left) here:  Tess Waits No More.  Miki's quilt for her pink-loving daughter, Bella, is blogged here: Update on my Tea Towel Quilt.  They started with two very different tea towels and made two very different–both fabulous–quilts.

If you are inspired to join the challenge and make a quilt from a tea towel, I hope you will follow along and share your project.

I have put together some suggested guidelines, a timeline and a few check points ... and a blog badge with a handy link back to my Tea Towel Challenge 2014 tab that contains all the basic information and will track our progress.

Suggested Guidelines

1. Your quilt must include a tea towel–it can be new or vintage.
2. The colors in the tea towel determine the color palette for your quilt. 
3. Try something new. Since this one is defined by you, it can be anything and is an opportunity to add your own personal guidelines to the challenge.

Timeline & Check-ins

End of 2013 - Decide to participate, blog your commitment and join the linky list below.
January - Tea towel and fabric selection
February- In-progress report
March - Finished project show & tell


Are you in? Blog your intention, link back to the Tea Towel Challenge 2014 page (or add the blog badge) and enter your link below.

Remember: to enter the drawing for the Fairytale Calendar tea towel, leave a comment. To join the Tea Towel Challenge next year, ALSO join the linky list.

Starting things ...

I made a trip to a local new-to-me fabric store yesterday and came home with the beginnings of two projects.

A tea towel for Victoria's Tea Towel challenge on 15 Minutes of Play. 

(After a couple weeks of looking for an interesting vintage tea towel in resale shops, I settled for this new one, based on a vintage design)

Some striped fabrics for my piece for the All About Me blog hop. 

These textiles are the inspiration for these two projects.  What comes first for you?  The design idea or fabrics that whisper, "use me?"

New Projects (That I Cannot Share ... Yet)

Although any machine quilting has come to a screeching halt around here, I have been working on a few things that cannot be revealed for a while ...

I've joined another Blog Hop on Madame Samm's blog–click the badge image for details.  I have a crazy idea of where to take this cute little appliqué quilt design by Amy Bradley.  The working title of my WIP is Note to Self.  The blog hop for this one is about a month away.  I'm moving forward with my fingers crossed that my Bernina can be repaired at a reasonable-for-my-current-situation cost ... and I'll be able to machine quilt it.

I'm also busy making sample blocks for the February Block Lotto. We'll be making another 6-inch by 9-inch rectangle block. Those who have made and posted January blocks (33 quilters have made 184 blocks so far) will receive lotto guidelines and block directions later this week ... for everyone else, directions and early block photos will be available here and on the Block Lotto site on February 1.

Bad News - Good News

First the GOOD news.

I have chosen the winners for the giveaway for the In Your Words blog hop.

Congratulations go to:

Giddy99
Scrapatches

I have sent email to both of you and only need your mailing address to send your goodies.

Now the BAD NEWS.

Last night, I was on the home stretch quilting my really old UFO scrap comfort quilt when my little Bernina died.

The nearest dealer is more than an hour away and the earliest same day appointment is at the end of next week.

The contract for my job went sideways and I lost my job just before Christmas–I haven't shared the news because I didn't want to be a downer. Quilting has helped keep my balanced through the stress of no job in an area with few opportunities.

And now my machine is dead.

Bloom

Today is my day to reveal my project for the In Your Words blog hop. Here's my quilt, Bloom.

 

About the Quilt

This little quilt (17 x 23 inches) was made as a side project to Julie's Cotton Robin last year.  When I made a center block and package of fabrics for the round robin, I made a second package that I kept for myself, to see how the two twins, separated at birth, would turn out.  Here are the two quilts, side by side. 

The words on my quilt are an improvisational pieced "Bloom" and a printed, then quilted, "where you are planted." I also included a .com print, as a nod to my vocation as a techie and the great quilting community in the blogosphere.  The quilt contains traditional and improvisational piecing, needle-turnd hand appliqué, free-motion-quilting and embroidery to highlight some of the quilting lines.   Here is a photo of the back (to show the quilting) and a couple of detail photos of the quilt.  Click for larger images.

My Words and the In Your Words Blog Hop

As I have moved through life and moved across country more than a few times,  the idea of,  "Bloom where you are planted, " has been a constant throughout my adult life. I haven't lived in Santa Fe very long and this little quilt is a reminder that I know how to Bloom ... all I need to do is make an effort. 

If you have been following along, then you've probably already seen Amy's quilt with the same phrase.  If not, check it out, along with the reveals of these quilters today: 

Jane's Fabrics 

Jane's Quilting 

Nuts 4 Redwork 

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

Bits and Pieces 

Life in Every Breath 

Quilting Lines 

Travel Thru Greece 

Meadowbrook  <-- Another BLOOM quilt!

Count It All Joy!  

Sophie Junction  <-- You are HERE

Thank you to Linda at Buzzing and Bumbling and Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt for hosting this event.

A Little Thank You

Thank you for visiting my blog.  If you found me via the blog hop and it's your first visit, be sure to click over to the Freebies page for links to free Quilt block patterns, projects and tutorials.  For the blog hop,  I've uploaded the pattern templates for the small 6-inch  Lemoyne star block variation called Little Daisy that I used in my Bloom quilt. You can find it on the freebies tab or at this link.

A Giveaway for Two

I had so much fun making my separated-at-birth twin quilt that I made two Little Daisy starter blocks and a package of fabrics–a mix of the original Michael Miller fabrics from my round robin and some 6" squares from my stash.  I'll randomly choose two winners from the comments at the end of the In Your Words blog hop in a week, on Thursday, January 17. 

The Parties Continue

I'm also joining the linky parties today for TGIFF, Finish It Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop? and FMQ Friday Link Up.

Working with Words

Here's a sneak peek at my work-in-progress for the In Your Words blog hop that begins on Monday, January 7.

The piecing and appliqué are now complete, but for the sake of the element of surprise, you'll have to come back at the end of next week to see the rest ... which I plan to quilt, bind and embellish in the meantime.

I wasn't sure how well my "twin" quilt would work with the original, from last year's Cotton Robin, especially since I intentionally took the design in a completely different direction. I think they are going to play nicely together.

It's been a while since I made any free style letters--I'd forgotten how much fun they can be.  Want to guess what I'm spelling?

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday over at freshly pieced. Go check out what other people have in progress today. 

When Time Begins to Move Faster

It feels like time moves faster between now and the end of the year. Some days, I think I can see the days flying off the page-a-day calendar, like the passage of time in movie.

I'm glad I only have a few gift projects to finish up in time for giving–enough to keep me busy but not stress me out :-)

Today I went looking for this happy FQ packet of holiday fabrics.  It was a door prize at a meeting of the Austin Quilt Guild that I won just as I was deciding to leave Austin.  It was thrown into a box of fabric just as it was and unearthed today, months later, still wrapped up in a bow.

You can see most of them on Robert Kaufman's site here.

Earlier this fall, I joined the Holiday Lane Pillow blog hop. With some additions, I think most of the fabrics will find a home in this project.

Stay tuned.  My reveal day is Monday, November 26.