Under-the-wire Finish for the #intrepidthreadchallenge

Last fall, Julie at the Intrepid Thread created a challenge based on using fabrics of her choosing. She has a great way with putting fabrics together and so I knew I wanted to play.

Here are the fabrics.

I love text on fabrics and scrappy backgrounds and knew that I would use those mini-charms in whatever I made.

After I saw the fabric, I had lots of ideas ... a few that played ping pong in my head for far too long.

Ultimately I decided to chase down something else that has long ping-pinged in my head: the traditional block whose name is on the tip of my mind whenever I see a modern Swoon block.

I flipped through Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns and decided Rolling Star, published by The Rural New Yorker on 6/4/1932 looked to be an ancestor to Camille Roskelley's Swoon.

So I started here, and resized it to work with the mini-charms, added a seam that I thought would make construction easier and set to work.

I used a combination of shapes cute from templates and rotary cut squares and half-square triangles.

I started by putting together the center, then assembled the chunks that would surround it.

I expected the Y-seams in the star in the center ... but was a little surprised when I realized that there would be a lot more Y-seams when it came time to put all my chunks together.

But, as the saying goes, all's well that end's well ... and here's my finished pillow. 

The finished pillow measures 12 by 16 inches.

The front is simply quilted with loopy feathers, wobbly matchsticks and doodle-y daisies and loops.

The back is made from the rest of the pink fabric, along with a coordinating fabric from my stash, in a simple lapped construction.

Although it was made as a pillow cover, it may end up serving as a table mat at my house.

Thanks, Julie, for the interesting challenge.

Not only was it fun for me–once I finally decided what I wanted to make–I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's creative projects on the Intrepid Thread Challenge Link Up Party.

Three Questions for My Quilting Friends

First, because it's (almost) WIP Wednesday and two of the three questions I have for you are about this piece, here's what happened with my scrap bag challenge.

To refresh your memory, some local friends and I exchanged quart-size zip lock bags filled with fabric scraps.

The challenge was to use all the fabrics we received and make a little quilt.

It's OK to add your own fabrics, but you must use everything you find in the ziplock bag.

Here's a better look at the fabrics I had to include:



And now for my three questions for you:

         Do you see what I see?

1. This was one of those projects that took on a life of it's own and ended up being something completely different that I first imagined it.  An idea took hold and I ran with it and now I wonder if I made my intent clear.  My question for you is, what do you see in this design?  



Borders?







Does it need borders?  If so,  how wide and what color?  Keep in mind that it was made primarily from someone else's scraps, with some of mine added, so I don't have any more of any of the fabrics. The pieced top currently measures 26 by 37 inches.  It will be a wall hanging, or possibly be used as a table mat.   




What three words describe your quilts? 






As I was playing with these scraps, I started thinking about how you think the challenge is to use all the fabrics, but you find that it's also about how do you make a quilt from fabrics not chosen by you, in combinations you might never choose to combine and have it turn out looking like a "you" quilt. That led me to think about what makes it feel like me and I came up with these three words that often apply to the quilts I design and make: scrappy, organic and color-saturated.  What three words do you think describe your quilting style? 

I'd love to read your answers to one, two or all of these questions in the comments.

Because it's already Wednesday in Australia, I'm linking with Ester's WOW (WIPs on Wednesday).  Be sure to click over–she has quite a WOW to share today. 

Updated Sep 29 to this improvisational effort still in progress with AHIQ.

Preparing for Play

I confess that I was looking for something else that I had tucked away before the move (which I haven't yet found) when I pulled out my in-progress Scrap Bag Challenge.

I put the completed units on the small design wall, which is (another confession) not yet attached to the wall in my sewing room.

I still have quite a few fabrics left in the zip-lock bag that must be used in the challenge.





I described how the Scrap Bag Challenge works at the bottom of this post: Challenged by Challenges. 

Coming back to spending time quilting has made me see how much I need it as part of de-stressing.  This week, I'm going to make a conscious effort to spend at least 15 minutes working on this project playing and enjoy the tangible and intangible benefits.

Since I almost have a design wall again and something on it to share, I'm joining the lists for Design Wall Monday  and Monday Making.

July's Goal for a Lovely Finish (on my Design Wall)

I haven't yet finished quilting May's Goal (and hope to do that this month), but in the meantime, I am setting a goal for June to finish the appliqué the top for the MQG Spring Fabric Challenge.  At this point, I have only gathered the challenge fabrics and enlarged the Noshi pattern that I plan to use and pinned it to my design wall.

The appliqué pattern is from a book of Japanese quilts that I picked up off the free table at the guild's quilt retreat earlier this year.  I plan to hand appliqué the noshi ... which will likely make this my slow stitch Sunday project for the month as well ;-) 

So ...

I haven't made much progress finishing the orphan block quilt.  I have pieced a back and made some scrappy pink binding. The scrappy pink binding is for the orphan block quilt and the red paisley is for the liberated wedding ring with the red background.

Even though I have made next-to-no progress on much of anything this week,  because I had so much fun playing with those orphan blocks, that I found some more blocks (with black backgrounds) and some time to put them on the wall to see if there were enough for another H2H quilt.

I only made a few of these.  Most are from an orphan block swap from a few years ago.   I think it's time to use them up.

I am joining the lists for QuiltShop Gal's Creative Goodness and Angie's WIPs Be Gone.

Playing with (orphan) Blocks

I went to bed last night thinking I would get up and rip out part of the progress I made yesterday.  I woke up this morning and kind of liked it ... and so left it and kept going.   It measures 51 by 65-inches which I think is a nice size for a lap quilt to use during chemo treatments or blood transfusions.

I think it will be able to brighten up any institutional setting. 

It is made from 2-inch, 3-inch, 5-inch. 6-inch. 9-inch and 10-inch blocks in addition to the 24 inch Hawaiian appliqué which I stitched down with buttonhole stitch on the machine.  Everything except the half-square triangles and a few of the heart blocks came out of my big ziplock of orphan blocks.  I expected that the blocks would be more randomly arranged, but since the blocks I had worked in this almost log cabin arrangement, I followed that path. 

The backing will be pieced because I have ALMOST enough of a pink/cream/green print.  I haven't yet decided how it will be quilted, I know the binding will be scrappy pinks.  In the meantime, it is pinned to my design wall for me to think about. (Follow the link to see what others have on their design walls in the link list on Patchwork Times).

When it's finished, I will be sending it on to Happy Chemo as part of the H2H challenge. 

While it hasn't been a WIP very long, some of those orphan blocks have been around forever, so I'm joining Angie's WIPS be Gone list. 

Pumpkin Seeds?

This block design seems to go by many names: pumpkin seed, melon, orange peel.  What do you call them?

I think I first learned it as orange peel and in Barbara Brackman's book, Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, the pieced version has been called Orange Peel, Melon Patch and Flower Petals ... but it looks so much like a pumpkin seed, that's my favorite name for this shape.  I am making mine by using needle-turned appliqué.

Each time I see them on a blog (or in a quilt), I want to make some ... the scrap bag challenge presented an opportunity.  I am using any of the scrap in the ziplock I received that are at least 4 1/2 inches wide for the backgrounds–I was a little surprised to find that there are only a couple.  I'll be making a few more later, as my Slow Sunday (night) Stitching project.

Challenged by Challenges

I love challenges, but may have over-challenged myself a bit this year ... to give you an idea, here are some of the things on my plate.

I have previously participated in one of C&T Publishing's Creative Troupe challenges - to use their paper-based kraft•tex™  product in some new colors.  I received a sample of the new light gray called stone.  I wanted to take advantage of the leather-like stiff nature of the product and designed this cell phone wallet.

You can see all the other projects made on C&T's kraft•tex™ Pinterest Board. 

For me, it was fun, functional and I always intended to make another for myself adding some fabric for my version ... but procrastinated while I thought about buying a new phone.  I mention it because that experience led me to sign up for another Creative Troupe callout–to use their TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) product in an interesting way ... the deadline is approaching and I am still creatively stuck.

I know that sometimes I am a little frozen by fear.  I've blogged about my scaredy cat ways in the past and you would think that by now I would have just gotten over it.

Another example is the current round of the Cotton Robin (which I cannot share until after the round robin quilts are finished and home again).  I love the idea I have for the quilt at my house, but ... I am afraid that I will not be able to accomplish it. That deadline is also coming soon ... so I will be forced to face that particular fear soon.

I am curiously drawn to the Modern Quilt Guild's fabric challenges ... probably because making a quilt from a single fabric line is not the way I usually work and it is challenging for me to do so. I can't resist trying ...

I missed the announcement about the spring challenge, but when Marie offered to send me a package of the fat eighths of the challenge fabrics, I said yes, please.

Unfortunately, when I went to my local quilt shop, they had none of the Riley Blake Cottage Garden fabrics, nor coordinating solids ... fortunately, I found a layer cake and some yardage at fabric.com. Part of the challenge is to try something new ... I am planning to include some sashiko stitching–something I've long wanted to try, but never have.

The deadline for this one isn't until July, but some quilters already have finished quilts and a lot of others are much further than gathering fabrics.  You can find photos on instagram with the hashtag #mqgfabricchallenge

You'd think I have enough on plate ... but I have also signed up for the Poster mini-group at the guild (you create a piece of 6 quilts based on posters, with deadlines every 6 weeks).  I am also committed for the H2H challenge and haven't made much progress on that front ... and when Bridget sent email out last month about a scrap bag challenge for the Chicken River Modern Quilters and I had a conflict for that day, I promptly turned around and suggested it to our local Modern-ish mini-group.   The challenge comes from Victoria Findley Wolf's 15 minutes of Play.  The basics are you fill a quart-size ziplock bag with scraps, swap them, then make a quilt using ALL the fabrics in the bag you receive.

Here are the fabrics I pulled from my scraps.

It's probably because I have packaged up and mailed fabrics, blocks and quilts so many times over the years, that I neatly pressed and stacked the fabrics in the ziplock I created.

It also helped me see the mix of fabrics that would be someone else's challenge.

The result was that my bag looked neat and flat (on the left) and most of the others looked like the one I received (on the right).

I came home Monday night with the idea of making some liberated basket blocks, probably because it's on my someday list, but woke up yesterday with a new idea.  I unpacked the fabrics, considered each one, pressed them, and lined them up on the table ... asking myself if they could work in a quilt now in my head.  So far, so good ... just have to meet a few other deadlines first so I can dive in.

Add to the pile a couple of personal challenges–I heard last week that the owners of the house I rent will be putting it on the market and terminating our lease early–which will mean a lot of downsizing (I'll never find a sewing space like this one) and packing and moving a lot earlier than I planned–and well,  I am definitely feeling challenged by challenges–in quilting and in life–right now.

I am joining the lists for WIP Wednesday and Ester's WOW ... even though most of the projects listed here are just barely in-progresss ... the good news is that I should have lots of progress to share going forward ;-)

Plan B - My pillow for March FMQ Challenge

Em, of Em's Scrapbag, calls it a Plan B when you use blocks made for a different purpose in a new project.  I like that.   Here's my Plan B pillow, made for the March FMQ challenge.

And here's how it started.

After a demo and presentation of improvisational piecing at the Modern Mini-group, I wanted to try something more abstract than my usual.

At the time I had just finished Jenny's Welcome Spring stitchery design and thought I could improvise some borders, so I gathered some fabric scraps that would coordinate.

After playing around a bit, I had created a border that I thought looked interesting on it's own but ... absolutely horrible next to the stitchery.

I considered (and dismissed) a few ideas for using the improvised strip with the stitchery.

   

And then, Plan B was born.

I put a simple print border around Welcome Spring and combined my improvised border with another fabric and use it was the background for the March FMQ challenge.

I chose option #1:

Use the free FMQ tutorial provided by Patsy, from the 2012 FMQ Challenge, to create a FMQ Pillow adapting her border approach to your pillow design.  To clarify, you get to decide the number size of your pillow, the number of borders you wish to use, as well as which of the designs Patsy shared in this free tutorial, as you feel appropriate.

It was suggested that we sketch out our plan and practice first, but since this was my Plan B (and dangerously close to the end of the month), I just went for it.  Here are photos (front and back) of the quilting, before it was assembled into a pillow.

Hand 2 Help Challenge

Since I seem to be a rare finishing state of mind ... I'm joining the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge on Sarah's Confessions of a Fabric Addict blog.

I am planning to finish quilts (and probably start at least one) for Happy Chemo–one of three designated charities for the challenge this year.

But first,  I need to finish the kids charity quilt I started this weekend and make one from the kit of coordinated fabrics I grabbed at the guild's sew in last weekend ...

February's Lovely Finish - A Kitten's Work is Never Done

When my computer was first down and then in the shop and the prognosis was unsure, I linked a photo from Flickr to the Lovely Finishes February party but wasn't able to blog about it. When I was working on the quilt, I imagined a photo on this weathered coyote fence in my neighborhood. The reality, a photo taken on a snowy gray day, didn't quite match my vision.

Here's a better look at the quilt itself in a photo taken inside ... it goes without saying (I hope) that the quilt really isn't as wonky and wavy as it appears here.

The quilt is approximately 54-inches square.

The Kitty Homemaker redwork patterns are from Nancy Martin's book, Kitties to Stitch & Quilt: 15 Redwork Designs, that was gifted to me just after I moved to Michigan to be close to my dad when he was ill in 2001. The gift was much appreciated as it gave me something to do while I sat with him in the hospital, during transfusions.

Here are detail photos of each of the two types of blocks in this quilt:

Doing things in a new way (while my computer was in the shop) was interesting.  Using a combination of digital camera and iPad looked like it was going to work and, in fact, the WordPress app  DID work and I was able to share this quilt (with January's Lotto Block pattern used for the double 9-patch blocks) on Blocklotto.com but ... BlogPress or otherwise posting here?  Not so much.

UPDATE

I have mentioned in the in-progress posts about this quilt that it was a nice bit of serendipity that when I pulled out the fabrics put aside for this golden oldie UFO, that the happened to be Pantone's color of the year, marsala.   It was good food-for-thought to think about how color trends repeat, change and morph. 

I'm updating this blogpost to join the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge. 

A Cozy Finish

I made a pair of cozy flannel pillow covers this week.

The quilting was inspired by that I used on the flannel zig-zag quilt last month and QuiltShopGal's 2015 FMQ challenge for February.

For the challenge, I chose Option #1 which was to use Leah Day's quilting design Rail Road Tracks.

It's a little difficult to see on the plaid on the front, so here's a photo of one of the areas filled with the required quilting design from the back. It is probably not a design I would choose to use, but the challenge pushed me to do it anyway.  (It's always a good thing to try something new.)



Each of the pillows is 24 inches square. They were pieced from flannel scraps from my stash.

The backs are plain (unquilted) flannel.

The edges are finished with a quarter-inch binding made from more flannel.

Here are photos of the quilted piece, front and back, before it was sewn into a pillow.

In addition to the February FMQ Challenge, I am joining the list for Richard and Tanya 's Link-A-Friday Finish. 

When you can't quilt ... PLAN

Over the weekend, I was shocked to find that simply pushing a rotary cutter was painful and the up and down of working on blocks on a design wall and sewing and pressing seams wore me out.  I'm frustrated that a couple of projects I hoped to plan this month ... may not happen.

In the meantime, I'm PLANNING for the future.

Just about the last thing I did before getting hit by the cell phone menace early Tuesday morning was attend the guild meeting.  Myrna (on the left) shared a variation of the slice quilt that she will be organizing in 2015. Each person in a group of six, buys a poster, slices it into 6 pieces (in any way she wants) and hands them out to the other members. This is Myrna's quilt and the poster she used for her piece (held by guild president Cindy).

I have ALWAYS wanted to work on a slice quilt.  I signed up immediately and hope that enough other members who need to meet in the evening or on the weekend will join me. 

Julie has announced that she'll be leading the Cotton Robin one more time and I can't wait. This year, she is asking us to challenge ourselves with a color theme that's new to us and ... I have an idea.  Click over to the cotton robin to check out the dates for this year (and also look at all the quilts we made last year–it was big fun and I am ready for more of the same.) 

I may start my Cotton Robin quilt with a little hand appliqué ... I'm thinking I might be able to handle that while I'm mending. 

I took paper and colored pencils to the urgent care today and sketched an idea for a modern quilter's code ... as it turned out, I waited for more than 2 hours before I was seen and spent another 2 hours mostly waiting once I made it to the back of the house, so I was glad to have something with which to entertain myself. 

For those that are following my saga, the consensus continues to be that I'm bruised but not broken, which is good news, if a little unbelievable because everything still hurts so much ... 

More Dice-y Log Cabin Blocks

I didn't know how large this quilt would become ... so I decided I would continue to throw the dice and make as many of the randomly colored Steps blocks as I could from the package of eight fat eighths of challenge fabric. I ended with 49 blocks for a 7 by 7 arrangement.

Now, they are living on my design wall, and I am considering and reconsidering and arranging and re-arranging before putting the blocks together and thinking about how to quilt it.

At some point in time on Sunday, it looked like this:

I am sharing my design wall with others over at Judy's Patchwork Times today.

Something Old, Something New

I've been making blocks for a new project using an idea I've had almost as long as I've been quilting.

It's one of those What if questions.  What if I made log cabin blocks with a random number of colored logs with a random placement ... determined by a throw of the dice.

I used the pattern for the rectangular log cabin variation we made for the Block Lotto last year, called Steps (you can find the block pattern on the Free Block Patterns Page.) The blocks are 6 by 9 inches (finished size).

I need to make more blocks before I decide if I can work with the result, but here are the first sixteen, parked on the design wall.

That's what's in-progress for me this Wednesday.

I'll be joining the WIP-Wednesday list on Freshly Pieced later today. What have you been up to? Starting something new or racing to finish an existing project? 

Patriotic Fabric Choices

When my plans for today went SPLAT–actually it was me who tripped and went splat on the pavement yesterday and was too sore to be walking around today–I thought it might be a good day to make a block for Astronaut Karen Nyberg's Star Block Challenge.

I've known about the challenge since last Fall, but forgot until Lynda reminded me in an email suggesting it might be a fun July activity for the Block Lotto community.  The deadline is August 1.

You can read more about it here.

I remembered how last Fall, I had been thinking of making a version of one of the blocks I was planning for the lotto this year ... though it was only a rough pencil sketch back then.  Now I had the pattern (June's Sunrise block) and all I had to do was resize it.

I have no doubt my red, white and blue color choices were influenced by the day.  Happy Independence Day ... wherever you are and whatever you did, I hope your Fourth of July was a lot more eventful (and less sedentary) than mine.