... And I Helped

Earlier this summer, I shared some of the Tula Pink sampler blocks I made for a group quilt being made by the Chicken River Modern Quilters in Las Vegas (New Mexico) for a fund-raiser for their guild.   I ended up making 11 blocks.  Now, the quilt is finished and it is fantastic. 

The setting is the one called Urban Planning.  When I flipped through the book, it wasn't my favorite option, but now, I think it's pretty perfect for showing off our collection of diverse blocks.  It's a lovely group effort and I'm happy to have been part of it. 

If you are in the area, it's hanging at Thread Bear in Las Vegas. 

I'm sharing this great group finish on the lists for: 

Finish it Up Friday 

Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Link a Finish Friday

TGIFFF

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.

Projects in Progress

I'm getting back into the swing of things and my design wall is filling up with signs of my progress.

 

I've got last month's Little Windows Lotto Blocks to be mailed and 14 more, made for my Mod-Mod Sampler. Some more words and a Rose, to be added to the back of the quilt I shared on Monday, a couple of this month's Sweet Dreams Lotto Blocks, waiting for some friends and the twin center I made for my Cotton Robin quilt, still waiting for me.

And that's what in-progress on Wednesday at my house.

September's Goal and my Design Wall

This top has been finished for a while ... and this month, my goal for a lovely finish in September is to quilt, bind and label it and deliver it to the organizers of the local guild show.

It's already off the design wall and waiting for me to piece the backing and get started.  The only thing left on the wall at the moment are a couple of blocks for the Block Lotto: 

This is Marcia Hohn's block pattern for a 7-inch (finished size) paper-pieced and appliquéd block, Sweet Dreams. For the Block Lotto this month, we're making it in a controlled scrappy color-way that includes a red background and a print on white background for two of the points. The circle can be appliquéd (block on the left) or pieced into the block (the one on the right).  For my notes on making these blocks, see my post on the Block Lotto, here:

Sophie's Blocks (and How I Made Them) 

If you are curious about joining us, you'll find the guidelines for the month and a link to the pattern here:

Paper Piecing and Appliqué in September - Sweet Dreams

Finding my way back to quilting projects ...

I can't say what happened, but not a lot has been happening around Sophie Junction in August ... I thought this signpost image–found on Susan's blog–pretty much reflects my creative state for this month.

Among the confusing elements was Angela's choice for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge this month ... it was green, but not like the green that had come before.  Unfortunately, because I had chosen a broad interpretation for my scrappy blocks, I had effectively painted myself into a corner. I did manage to make a yellow-green oak leaf block today (second from the left in the bottom row) that comes close to being distinctive enough from the green block beside it.

I didn't need any more green broken dishes stars and I decided to wait and see if a bunch more green paper pieced Briar Patch blocks makes sense, rationalizing that it might be a good thing to wait until the end of the year, or whenever it's time to lay them out and see what color blocks I need to make them play happily together. 

Modern Quilting Design Inspiration

Lately, I've had my eyes open for examples of great quilting design that feels fresh and Modern.  At the local guild meeting this morning, I picked up a book from the table of old library books for sale and bought it, mostly because of the quilting on this quilt.

This is Carol Armstrong's Crane quilt.

The quilt appears in her book Wildflowers: Designs for Appliqué & Quilting, published in 1998.  It is still available on Amazon in paperback or electronic (Kindle) format–clicking the link or the book image will take you there. 

Carol's work is hand-appliquéd and hand-quilted.  I doubt that she thinks of herself as part of the Modern Quilting movement or that many Modern Quilters are familiar with her work, but I think there is much inspiration to be found there.

I came home from the guild meeting and pulled out some of Carol's other books from my bookshelf–including Wild Birds: Designs for Applique and Quilting, which has the pattern for that crane–and really enjoyed re-reading them with new eyes.

Do you remember your dreams?

I woke up this morning, an hour before the alarm, feeling really well rested–a good thing because some of my old fatigue issues are back and kicking my butt.

But a funny thing this morning happened as I was becoming fully awake.

I don't know what I dreamed about, but I'm guessing I didn't just dream it, I must have been acting it out, too:  my legs were sore, my back hurt and it felt like I had jammed a couple of my fingers on my left hand.

... and neither cat was sleeping at the foot of the bed or coming to wish me good morning (and bug me until I got up and let them out on the deck) as usual.

I usually don't remember my dreams, but my physical side effects make me wonder ... and reminds me of when I was married and talked in my sleep.  Back then, my husband could at least give me a clue about what I was dreaming/talking about.

Do you remember your dreams?  Talk in your sleep? Wake up with mystery aches and pains?

July's Lovely ... Failure

These silly string blocks did not become a tote, as initially planned, nor any other lovely finished object in July.

I finally returned to work and along with the time spent earning a living, I am working on re-finding the balance of work and life, leaving the work stress at the front door and being organized enough to be able to find time to quilt again.

As far as my goal for a lovely finish, the quilt blocks did become something, this color saturated top. I got as far as buying threads for quilting it before I started the new work project. I bought fabric for a quilt backing yesterday.

It will have a plain back and lots of quilting. I'm still undecided on binding fabric ... I have enough of the plaid in the curvy strings, but would it be distracting?

I have shared this before, but am sharing it again, mostly to help me find all my lovely finishes and failures near-finished objects at the end of the year.   I am  not-so-secretly hoping to finish all my lovely goals by year end, even if a couple of them happen after the deadline. 

You can check out the successful bloggers and their lovely finishes in July here.

Squirrelly Visitor

It feels like nature week at Sophie Junction. This guy appeared just outside the glass sliding doors in the studio several times today ... as Johnny slept nearby, oblivious to the wild life on the other side of the glass.



A few times, though, Johnny WAS awake and aware and appeared ready to charge through the glass to chase away the animal in his territory.

Bizarrely, the squirrel wasn't afraid of the large cat charging at him and they spent a lot of time in a sort of stand-off, simply staring at one another through the glass door.

Small Wonders

They were easy to see in person as 6 of them buzzed about a lavender plant along the walk outside my studio.

But when I tried to capture them with the iPhone that happened to be in my pocket, the result was less obvious.  I first thought were some new-to-me variety of hummingbirds, traveling quickly in and out and around the lavender blooms and evading my efforts to capture their image.

I cropped this guy out of the photo above, edited the contrast and shadows and it is still hard to see him ... though he buzzed about in a typical hummingbird way, he didn't look like any hummingbird I'd ever seen and so I did some research ... and found the White Lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth. They really seemed to enjoy lunching on my lavender.

I found a much more lovely photo of this interesting moth on the blog, Morning Bray Farm.

My Mod-Mod Update for July

Over the weekend, I finished making the 14 July blocks I need for the full/queen-size quilt I'm making as part of the mod-mod quilt-along. The blocks are a little catty-wumpass on the design wall ... but you can get the idea and decide if you think they are playing well together.

As I was sewing the 14 spokes blocks, I parked them on the wall, on point ... and decided I like them in that orientation.  I also thought they would be a good block to use in a setting where some are straight set and some are on-point. (I blogged about it yesterday on the Block Lotto site)

I'm joining the party for Design Wall Monday.

It's not much, but it's progress

I've sewn the sections for my new red scrappy tote together.

It will have a black twill bottom and black and red straps.

I changed my mind about making a messenger-style bag and decided on a slim tote that would be good for carrying my iPad, keyboard and some paper files, or a few library books.

I really like the scrappy version of the Spokes block we're making for the Block Lotto this month. The background is constructed from four squares and the spokes were added in a different order than in the non-scrappy blocks. First the four squares were sewn into a background with the vertical and horizontal spokes added.

The trickiest part was adding the correct fabric to the diagonal spokes so that they will match/blend with the background squares.

This is the last of my red scraps projects for the Rainbow Scraps Challenge ... I hope to finish before the end of the month, ready for whatever color comes next.

Think Snow!

Continued high temperatures have me visualizing snow in my hot, un-airconditioned studio.

Snowflakes have 6-sides, unlike these blocks, which is why I called my pattern for them the more generic term,  Spokes.  You can download my pattern from the free quilt block patterns page, if you're interested.

Whatever you call them, I was thinking of them as snowflakes on my wall today. 

Some of these blocks are for the Block Lotto, some are the red monochrome blocks for the rainbow scraps Mod-Mod throw, the gray-on-white ones are my start on 14 spokes blocks for my large mod-mod quilt and two, with scrappy red backgrounds, I made on a whim.  They've been added to those tomato-red left-overs on the design wall ... 

The scrappy blocks are easy to make–the only tricky part is matching the background fabrics which are added to the diagonal spokes to the squares in the 4-patch background.

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.

Red Projects in Process

The practice silly strings blocks have become a quilt top, with the addition of tomato red squares from my red cotton scraps and a bit of linen.

I thought it might grow larger, but as I extended the red background, when it grew to this size, I decided it was "done." 

I had some leftovers squares and rectangles that will likely become a messenger-style bag.

I haven't been quilting much, as I pep are to jump into some new contract work. I haven't yet made any of the blocks for my Mod-Mod quilts–the July update was published yesterday on the Block Lotto.  I plan to make the spokes blocks I need for these quilts during this month's Friday Night Sew-In.  Some of them will be red– this month's Rainbow Scraps Challenge color.

There's been a bit more red progress going on around here.  I've made a couple more red Briar Patch blocks for the scrappy version of that quilt.  I'm joining Lee's party for WIP Wednesday.

Moonlight

I need to learn more about night photography ... but I couldn't resist TRYING to capture last night's super moon and my view of it, looking huge and bright, above the clouds over the distant mountains.

Enjoying the Process

The third year of Julie's Cotton Robin has just wrapped with The Big Reveal where she shares all the finished quilts and tells us who did which parts for which quilts.   I've participated all three years and, for me, the sum of the experiences is always greater than it's parts and getting my own beautiful little quilt back is like a bonus gift at the end.

This year, my hands touched six of the quilts made by the group (plus my unfinished twin quilt which is my work-in-progress to share today). Here are some details (and a lot of photos) from my Cotton Robin journey this year.

At the end of last year/beginning of this year I was on a bit of a binge of making and using pieced made fabric and that is reflected in the center and fabrics I sent out into the world for my quilt.

I used made fabric for the oak leaf which is reverse hand-appliquéd and for the 1 inch half-square triangles.

I sent along more squares of made fabrics along with some of the blue batik background.

In last year's Cotton Robin, none of the fabric I sent along (normal, commercial yardage) was used by anyone, so I wouldn't have been surprised if all the funky bits of pieced made fabrics came back to me ... but that didn't happen.

My quilt arrived last weekend, with a maple syrup sampler and a magazine from New Hampshire ... I was immediately made nostalgic for that corner of the world.

Elizabeth (in Michigan) added the first borders, with the colorful stripe and the acorns in the corners.
Glen (in Louisiana) used some of the made fabrics to create the trees in the second border.
Marie turned the little top into a quilt.

Here's my beautiful little quilt and some detail photos.  The quilt is just under 19 inches square.

When the center block for the first round arrived last winter, I had no idea who had made it. It turns out, it was Glen.

Whenever I looked at the lovely hand-appliquéd lemon wedge, that phrase, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade," kept coming to mind.

As usual for me, whatever I've BEEN working on can heavily influence my creative process.  In February, it was stitchery (the redwork pillows I stitched during the Olympics) and inset circles (for the Bead-on-a-String blocks we made for the Block Lotto.

After rejecting the idea that I could piece all the letters in that phrase that was firmly stuck in my head and squeeze them into a small border, I decided to stitch it ... in the round ... around the lemon.

After figuring out what size the circle would have to be, I used Adobe Illustrator to wrap the text around it.  First I stitched the words, then I cut the circle and appliquéd it onto the block.  Then I cut away the comers of the block and had a moment of terror when I wondered if I'd just broken a rule ...

About that time, I think, Julie posted something about how our borders couldn't be a single fabric border, so, to be sure I wasn't breaking the single-fabric rule,  I added some piping and a black and white fabric.  It didn't feel quite done yet, so I decided it needed something more to continue the circle. I conferred with a friend who was not participating in the Cotton Robin (since I had no idea whose quilt this was) and I added more embroidery to continue the text around the circle with a line with X's and daisies.

This project was sent on to Marie, who added the second round, and Sandra, who finished the quilt and it came out like this:

Next for me was Marie's center, with the first round added by Mary Jane.  The note that was traveling with the quilt said it would hang in her vacation cabin with a collection of quilts with a rainbow theme.

I forgot to take a "before" photo, but this is Marie's quilt in progress, with both Mary Jane's border and mine added.

Mary Jane had done a great job interpreting the rainbow theme in her round, but it made for a hard act to follow.

There was some red batik fabric included in the package.  While I was considering how I might repeat some of the elements of Marie's 6-pointed star in the border, I happened across a book on my bookcase, Friendships in Bloom, which was full of round robin quilts and patterns for various kinds of rounds, including this one with the partial star blocks.  Finding the multicolor hand dyed fabric in my stash was another lucky accident.  It's not the kind of thing I normally buy, so it surprised me when I found it, but I thought it was a good choice to pull in all those rainbow colors and frame the quilt.

I resized the directions to create a much smaller border and used a Tri-Recs ruler to cut the tiny triangle units I needed.  I sent the top onto Rachel, who added some perfect (and amazing) quilting to finish this one.

Next it was my turn to finish a quilt ... actually two, because I volunteered to finish up a quilt for someone who had to drop out of the round robin.   But first, while I had been flipping through Friendships in Bloom looking for ideas, I happened upon a border idea that I thought would be perfect for my oak leaf center so while I was waiting for the last quilts to arrive, I made a twin center.  At the end of May, I took this photo of my design wall.

At the top is Liz's quilt, with rounds added by Maria and Elizabeth, ready to be quilted.

Below it on the left,  is my twin center, not exactly the same as my yellow oak leaf, but another leaf (I used quilting stencils for the leaf patterns) made from orange made fabric.

And on the right, is Kristin's center with one border added by Marybeth.  I loved the colors in this quilt and was glad that there were some fabrics (from a jelly roll, maybe) included because I didn't find many fabrics in my stash in this fresh color palette.

I haven't made any progress, except for deciding upon a design in my head, with the leaf block ... and it is my WIP Wednesday contribution.

I loved all the clean lines in Kristin's quilt so far, so I continued them with a piano key border of her fabrics (and some of mine) with half-square-triangle-like points at the end of each "key."

I quilted it with a lot of free-motion stitch-in-the-ditch to accent all the lines and some tiny 2 inch feather wreaths in the background of her Lemoyne star center.  I used what I think is an old Caryl Bryer Fallert-designed gradient fabric in some of the colors from Kristin's fabrics for the  backing and what was probably an even older Moda Marble in the same yellow as  the plain border in the quilt (I suspect the border was made from a new Moda fabric which is why the colors matched exactly). Here are some of the in-progress photos.

And the finished quilt.

The quilting for Liz' quilt started out pretty much the same way, with lots of stitch-in-the-ditch to outline all those triangles in her center and Maria's first round.  Me being me, I couldn't resist going back and adding feather shapes in all the light halves of those half-square triangles ... I also kept thinking about adding something to that vine ... that something turned out to be more leaves, some berry clusters and a lot of flowers, which also were used as filler for the rest of the background.   As I said last night at a meeting with the Chicken River Modern Quilters, "My name is Sophie and I am an over quilter."  I sometimes manage to restrain myself–I was pretty proud of the restraint I showed in Kristin's quilt–but not usually ...  here are some details from this quilt (taken from the front and back).

And here's the finished quilt. I chose a darker red fabric for the binding to echo the two reds in a border between the center and first round.

(I couldn't decide which way should be "up" for this quilt.  I like this orientation. )

I washed and blocked both quilts before adding the binding. I was a little afraid of the red fabrics in Liz' quilt, but thanks to some color-catchers doing their job well (and turning quite red), it all turned out OK.   When I was done with the last round, I was a little surprised that both quilts ended up being almost exactly the same size.  Here they are together on my design wall where I enjoyed them until it was time for them to go home.

Are you wondering yet where the sixth quilt that passed through my hands is?  As it turns out, I made the seven sisters center that Kate used for her Cotton Robin quilt.  I sent it to her a long time ago as part of a block exchange.   It was fun for me to see what robineers Marie, Vivi and Mary Jane did to it. 

Good bye quilts, good bye Cotton Robin.  I hope Julie is up for another round, because I'm ready to commit ... again :-)