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.

Grace says . . .

Grace says it's time to stop quilting ..., a photo by jeansophie on Flickr.

Grace says it's time to stop quilting and go upstairs to bed. I've been quilting the scrappy comfort quilt every night and I think both cats think I should find some handwork to do instead and give them a cozy lap in the evenings ...

Still Quilting Along ...

Pat and I seem to be on the same path–quilting traditional quilts with less-traditional free-motion-quilting–and her post today sums up my feeling as well ... It's Taking Longer Than I Thought.

But I am making progress.  I've finished quilting the 9-patches.



I've started quilting feathers into the Flying Geese in the border.



I only have 88 geese to finish ... and all that background to fill with more pebbles.



Since it's already Wednesday in other parts of the world, I'm linking to Esther's WOW (WIPS on Wednesday) blog post ... and updating this post to add it to the WIPS Wednesday Linky party on Freshly Pieced.

On an FMQ Roll

I seem to be on a free motion quilting roll. The weather outside has been frightfully cold, so staying inside and quilting this weekend had a lot of appeal.

Yesterday, I came downstairs in my pajamas, went into the studio with my morning latté and kept quilting until late in the afternoon--still in my pajamas.  While I was making my late lunch/early dinner, I enjoyed a nice sunset over the neighborhood and laughed at the realization that the sun was setting and I was still in my PJs.




The quilt I'm working is among the oldest, if not the oldest, of my many UFOs.  It is made from some signed comfort blocks, larger orphan blocks, itty bitty 3-inch 9-patches and some additional snowball blocks and flying geese--added to make my comfort quilt large enough (66-inches square) to be comforting.

At this point, I've quilted the snowballs blocks, the large blocks and the small 9-patches.  The quilting has been a mix of loopy feathers, tiny spirals and lots of pebbles.  I started quilting this project in October with an attitude of using it as an opportunity to practice and improve. I picked it up again yesterday and I think that my practice may be working.  My FMQ technique still has a long ways to go, but I see progress and that motivates me to keep rolling along ....

I'm not completely sure how I want to quilt the 9-patches, so I decided it was time to break for some stretching and something to eat ... and to pin it up and think about it.

Updated:  Adding a link to Judy's Design Wall Monday Linky Party.  Go see what other quilters have on their wall and add your own update.

January's Lovely Finish

Johnny Be Good is a little blasé about it, but I'm pretty happy with my finished April-December Romance Table topper, made from the 2012 lotto blocks for April and December.

The color inspiration came from the striped sisal rug under my little dining table.  Notice that Mr. Blasé insisted upon being in every photo.

This little 30-inch square quilt was my January choice for Melissa and Shanna's Lovely Year of Finishes.  Here are a couple more photos. 

And a detail of the quilting (my warm-up for Bloom)

This first lovely finish has motivated me, so, last night, I pulled out another project and kept going.

I had to look through my blog to see how long it has been since I last worked on it.  Yikes!  It's been three months.  Here's the photo I took on October 10.

I'm now quilting the folded throw in the background–with more loopy feather-ish shapes–and planning to finish this month.

(Then maybe I can finally get around to working on the project with those selvages ...)

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.

The Warm-Up

It's been a while since I've done any free motion quilting and so, before I quilted the little separated-at-birth twin quilt (to be revealed on Friday), I decided to warm up on the background of the 2-block table-topper I've designated as my January Finish.

I was rusty and it shows.  But, with the background now quilted, I'm one step closer to finishing.  And even though I can see the warts in my quilting, I know that I'm still going to love seeing it finished on my table.  

I'm linking up with the WIP Wednesday post on Freshly Pieced.  Go check up on the progress other quilters have made. 

Proof of Concept - My 2012 Block Lotto Sampler

A year ago, I planned to make a sampler from the 9-inch lotto blocks we would make in 2012. A few days ago, I actually started making the blocks. Here's my set of 12.

 

This quilt will be a proof of concept of my ideas about putting together a set of blocks for the lotto each year that not only represent a variety of techniques and skill-sets (and a learning experience for beginners), but will play nicely in a sampler for those that choose to make a set of blocks for themselves. For 2012, I wanted to choose blocks that would play well in a sampler designed with a modern quilt aesthetic. 

I believe that choosing blocks that share characteristics with some of the other blocks, none would end up being the one block that's not like the others and looks like it doesn't belong and they will all play nicely together.  So, last year, we had: 

Blocks with curved elements:

 

Blocks made from geometric units

Star blocks 

Other figurative block designs

Etc., including blocks with skinny inserts, traditional block patterns, liberated blocks ....

If you are curious about any of the individual blocks, you can find the block patterns (and photos of more examples made for the Block Lotto last year) in the 2012 Block Lotto Index on blocklotto.com

Now I just need to make a quilt and decide if my ideas work. But first I'll be quilting and finishing my quilt for the In Your Words blog hop which begins today.

Did you spend the weekend working on something you planned or, like me, were you distracted by an idea that continued to assert itself?

Lazy Saturday Afternoons

After racing around running errands earlier today, I returned to a lazy saturday afternoon and evening in the studio. I know crockpots can make for easy meals while you're sewing away ... I am also a fan of sticking veggies in the oven to roast. Today, it was these tomatoes, eggplants and whole cloves of garlic, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

My dinner was loosely based on Giada de la Laurentis' Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree.  The roasted veggies were so beautiful and fragrant when they came out of the oven, I almost skipped the puree step.

I didn't have any pasta in the house, so I sliced up a couple of small zucchini into faux angel hair using the newest tool in my kitchen arsenal, the spiralizer.



I warmed up the zucchini with some of the sauce in a couple minutes.  I realized after the fact that I forgot the parmesan cheese in the recipe and didn't miss it ...

After a bowl of roasted veggie goodness with a glass of chardonnay,  I'm ready to return to the design wall and my Saturday night sew-in.



Tonight I'm working on my January pick for Melissa and Shannon's Lovely Year of Finishes, this table topper made from a couple of last year's lotto blocks from April and December.

If only we'd made those Hot-Crossed 9-Patch blocks in May, then this combination could have been a May-December Romance ...

Block Lotto 2013

Block Lotto 2013 is off to a great start–more than 100 January blocks have already been made an posted ... but I realized this afternoon I haven't said anything about it here.  Oops :-)

This year we'll be making rectangular blocks which measure 6-inch by 9-inch (finished size when they're sewn into a quilt). 

Our January block is this Tall Shoo Fly variation,  in colors inspired by my Holiday Lane pillow project: tomato RED, LIME green and BLACK & WHITE.  There's a link to the print-friendly directions from my Freebies page (click the block name there.) The blocks on the right are my contribution for January.

As always, I hope I that I've made choices that will appeal, that many lotto blocks will be made and entered in the drawing each month and that beautiful quilts will be made by the winners.   But it also makes me happy when quilters follow along and use them for their own projects and I love to see photos when they do. 

(I confess that I'm less than happy when quilters steal them and use them for commercial projects, but we'll leave that topic for another day.) 

This year, there will also be a little bit of discussion about the ways we can STRETCH some well-known blocks to create these stretched variations. 

The blocks this year can all be made from two colors (though we may not necessarily make them that way for the block lotto).  My plan is to make a very scrappy two-color sampler from this years blocks ... and if you'd like to play along, I'd love to hear about it.  

If you are thinking of using the Block Lotto 2013 as a BOM, here's a couple more considerations for designing your sampler quilt: 

• Half the blocks need a Tall orientation to make sense, but the other half will also work as short, wide blocks.  
• A couple of the blocks would work well as borders. 

A couple of simple layouts I am considering for a 60-inch by 90 inch quilt. The black rectangles represent the lotto blocks.  The black bars at the top and bottom are multiples of those two blocks that I said would work as borders. 

   

If you counted, you'll see that there's only 9 blocks + 2 blocks in the bars, or 11 blocks.  There will be 12 blocks ... and I will use one as the label on the back of my quilt. 

More information about this month's Lotto block is here: Tomatoes, Limes and Tall Shoo Flies.  Information about how to join the Block Lotto is here: Block Lotto Basics.

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.