Happy Valentine’s Day!
Posted in twister, update
2 Comments
One Thing Leads to Another . . .
You already know that I’m crazy about kaleidoscope quilts. My most recent effort, Cosmic Kaleidoscopes, contained five oversized kaleidoscope blocks floating on an inky background; it measured 62″ x 82″ before quilting. I wanted to try a scaled down version using softer fabrics and a light background. I sketched a design on graph paper and chose a luscious pink and green hydrangea print as my focus fabric.
The blocks are three different sizes, the largest being 20″ and the smallest 13½”. I suppose it was inevitable that I would start thinking of them as the Three Bears. Here is Papa Bear:
. . . and Mama Bear:
. . . and Baby Bear:
The next time you see these blocks, they will be in a quilt top, floating on a pale green background.
Posted in kaleidoscope quilts, update
7 Comments
Fabulous February
Why is February fabulous? Well, Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow last Saturday, Groundhog Day, thus predicting an early spring. Here in Portland, Oregon — about 3,000 miles from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — we are already seeing signs of spring. The tulips are pushing up out front, and my next door neighbor Dolores has roses in bloom. I’m looking forward to the first unexpected whiff of daphne, my own personal harbinger of spring. It usually happens in March but maybe it will happen this year in Fabulous February.
I feel good about what I got accomplished in January, and February is already shaping up to be a good month. I’ve pieced two baby quilts using the same fabrics but in different combinations. The pattern is BQ by Maple Island Quilts. First up is Baby Nemo’s quilt top . . .
. . . followed by Baby Gregory’s quilt top:
The robot focus fabric and the royal blue circuit board print are from the Mechanical Genius line by Mo Bedell for Timeless Treasures. (Mo, also a Portlander, designs for Andover Fabrics now, and I am eagerly awaiting her new line, Full Moon Lagoon.)
The blocks in these baby quilts are 16″ square so they went together very quickly. With borders the quilt tops measure 50″ square. I plan to piece the backs tomorrow. Then I’ll take the tops and backs to Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting — not to quilt them for me but to sandwich them. I learned recently that one of the services Nancy provides at Just Quilting is basting quilt layers together using her longarm equipment. She uses a very large stitch in a giant stipple design. I usually baste my quilt sandwiches with safety pins; it will be interesting to see if the quilting process goes more smoothly when I don’t have to stop and remove pins. Of course I’ll have to remove the basting stitches later but I understand they come out easily.
I’ve also been working on a few other fun projects and will be posting pictures soon. I hope you’ll stop back by for a look!
Posted in update
2 Comments
Mad about the Mini
It would be fair to say that the Dear Husband and I are slow to embrace new technology. Not that we’re averse to it. It’s just that we get along with what we have and don’t recognize a need for something until it’s been on the market a rather long time. We were probably the last family in the western world to buy a microwave (which we use primarily to reheat coffee) and we still don’t own a flat screen TV.
So it came as a surprise to friends and family when we acquired a new gadget earlier this month: an iPad Mini. The iPads have been around for a few years but Apple released the Mini just a few months ago. I had been thinking about buying an iPad for a couple of years but never quite got around to it. By the time I was ready to take the plunge, the Mini was available. In a way, my procrastination paid off.
We’ve had this tiny little computer for only three weeks and have a lot to learn about its capabilities, but so far I love everything about it. I do feel guilty about something, though. I bought it for the DH and me, but I have monopolized it from the get-go. It has my email, my Scrabble, and my music loaded on it. I listen to Pandora Internet radio on it for hours in my sewing room. I even carry it around in my purse!
Of course, one of the first things I did was make a case for it:
The case is basically a padded envelope with a flap that covers the entire front. That’s because I wanted to protect the iPad Mini with extra batting. The back side has a layer of batting and a layer of stiff interfacing.
With the flap open, you can see how the iPad Mini is easily tucked into its snug little pocket:
Thinking the case might double as a cushion for the iPad Mini while it’s in use, I added four strips of elastic to the back corners:
I wasn’t sure of the proper position so each strip of elastic is in a slightly different place. This cover is a first attempt so the fact that the strips of elastic are not in perfect alignment doesn’t bother me (well, not too much).
As it turned out, the two top strips of elastic aren’t deep enough to hold the top of the device but the bottom two work just fine. The bottom strips actually do double duty: they come around to the front and hold the top flap in place, keeping my — er, our — iPad Mini very secure when it’s in my purse:
The divided pocket on the front is for earbuds and a stylus. I think the next version might have a zippered pocket on the inside for these items, leaving the front cover open to some creative patchwork.
Isn’t this robot fabric perfect for an iPad Mini case? The fabric is from the Mechanical Genius line by Mo Bedell for Timeless Treasures. You’ll be seeing more of the robot fabric before too long because I’m using it in two baby quilts, currently under construction.
Posted in family, iPad cover, update
3 Comments
Marta’s Quilt
My third finish of the year — Marta’s Quilt:
I started this quilt last spring as part of a Quilt-Along led by Jenny Pedigo of sewkindofwonderful.com and finished the top in June. The pattern is Jenny’s own design, Urban 9-Patch. I added the fuchsia diamonds between the blocks for an extra jolt of color.
Why did it take so long to get it quilted? Well, I had lofty ideas of doing some fancy free motion quilting (FMQ) on it. The longer I put off practicing my free motion quilting skills, the longer the quilt top languished. There’s just no getting around the fact that FMQ demands lots of practice.
Little Miss Marta is now 14 months old. I figured I’d better hurry up and get her quilt done before she graduates from college. I had done some preliminary stitching in the ditch to stabilize the blocks in preparation for FMQ. I stitched in more ditches and then quilted ribbons in the center of each block and a loop-de-loop in the borders to finish it.
A leftover block went on the back:
Don’t you love that wrinkly, crinkly look a quilt gets when it’s been washed?
Posted in free motion quilting, Quilt-Along, update
4 Comments
Cosmic Kaleidoscopes
Allow me to introduce Cosmic Kaleidoscopes, my second finish of 2013 and #6 in my series of kaleidoscope quilts. You may remember from a recent post, My Lucky Day, that I won a quilting session with Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting at last month’s Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting. Nancy was able to finish it in time for this month’s guild meeting (Jan. 17). I wanted to show it there first before posting pictures.
Here is my quilt, enhanced by Nancy’s lovely work:
Because the kaleidoscope blocks are so busy, I wanted the quilting in the background to be very simple. Nancy and I decided on slightly wavy lines that would simply flow off the edges of the borderless quilt.
The back is another story. I inserted a strip of the focus fabric and added some half-kaleido blocks made from the leftover focus fabric. Nancy used a lighter thread for the kaleidoscope blocks on the front, creating an almost lacelike effect on the back:
Just for fun, the label is the same octagonal shape as the kaleidoscope blocks:
My quilt was on display at the Pine Needle last weekend . . .
. . . and today it went to Silverton, Oregon where it will be shown at the Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show at the Oregon Garden this Friday and Saturday, Jan. 25 and 26.
About the fabrics: the Jacobean floral is from the Ruby line by Timeless Treasures. Before sewing the kaleidoscope wedges together, I sewed on sashing strips of a soft mossy green (Shadow Play) and a pale coral dot (The Emperor’s Garden), both by Maywood Studios. The background fabric — a soft inky blue-black with hints of charcoal — is Modern Textures by Marcia Derse, from the Riverwoods Collection for Troy Corporation.
In a Bind
I’m not really in a bind. I’ve just spent part of the last three days binding two quilts. I really enjoy the process of finishing a quilt by hand-stitching the binding. I’m not bothered by the amount of time it takes; I’m content with either sitting in my sewing room listening to music or settling down in the TV room with a movie I’ve watched so many times I hardly need to look at the screen. I did some of each over the weekend.
My movie of choice was Lonesome Dove, with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. It’s actually a miniseries from 1989 based on (and very faithful to) Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, which I have read not once but twice. I had this picture on my bulletin board at work for many years:
I never noticed before how many quilts were used in Lonesome Dove. Watching this beloved movie again while working on a quilt of my own making was a double pleasure.
Here’s a look at Sunrise Bow-tique, one of the quilts I bound over the weekend:
I wrote about the quilt top in a post last month called Batik Bowties, which you can read here. The top features bowtie blocks with machine appliquéd knots. In the alternating blocks I used an ombre fabric that gradates from pale yellow to burnt sienna.
Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting quilted an allover design of spirals, some with sun rays emanating from them, very much in keeping with the colors and name of my quilt. I’m so pleased with her quilting! Here’s a close-up:
I found this fabric in my stash that seemed perfect for the back:
This close-up shows more of Nancy’s quilting:
I still need to take photos of my other newly-finished quilt, Cosmic Kaleidoscopes. I hope you’ll stop by later this week for a look at it.
Posted in bowties, gradated fabric, machine applique, update
6 Comments
Yet Another Sewing Machine Dust Cover
Yes, I’m still at it. Still playing with the design and construction of a sewing machine dust cover designed to fit my Janome 6500. Here’s my latest version:
Since I’m going to be teaching a class on this soon, I wanted to test my directions again as well as an idea I had about the binding process. Versions 1 and 2 (which you can see together here) have the bottom edges of the front, back, and sides bound first, before the side panels are joined to the front and back piece. Wouldn’t it be easier, I wondered, if the side panels were bound first? Then one long binding strip could be added around the bottom of the dust cover. The answer: yes, much easier!
I really had fun with this fabric. The floral print is from Denyse Schmidt’s Flea Market Fancy line for Free Spirit. The chevron stripe is by Riley Blake, and the binding fabric is Teeny Tiny Flowers by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods. The whimsical lining fabric, seen in the photo below, is Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey for Moda:
Now on to the next good thing: finishing one of many Works-in-Progress!
Ready for 2013!
I just dropped off class supply lists for three new classes I’m teaching in early 2013 at the Pine Needle in Lake Oswego, Oregon. If you’d like to find out more about the classes, clicking on this link will take you directly to my Upcoming Classes page.
Information about the classes will also be in the Pine Needle’s new catalog, scheduled to hit mailboxes next week.
Happy New Year!
Posted in update
Leave a comment
My Lucky Day
My lucky day occurred two weeks ago, and I am still marveling at my good fortune.
I was at the December meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild, which I joined last spring. The guild was having a membership renewal drive, and those who renewed at the meeting were eligible for prizes. Of course I renewed on the spot. I’ve only made it to a few meetings this year but I have been so impressed with the creativity and talent of the women (and a few men) who belong to the guild. And every one is so friendly. I usually sit down next to someone I don’t know and introduce myself. By the end of the evening I have a new friend. This time it was a lovely woman named Vickie.
There must have been 15 or 20 prizes awarded to renewing members, fun things like new books and bundles of fabric. Alas, I didn’t win a thing. Then one more prize was announced: a quilting session with Nancy Stovall of Just Quilting. Can you imagine how thrilled I was when I heard my name called? Nancy is an award-winning longarm quilter. “What does ‘quilting session’ mean?” I whispered to Vickie. “It means she will quilt a quilt for you!” answered Vickie.
I was so excited that the very next day I took a newly-finished quilt top to Nancy’s studio, and we talked about motifs and auditioned threads. Today I dropped off the backing, and now I just have to sit back and wait till Nancy works her magic. This is the quilt top:
I’ve named it Cosmic Kaleidoscopes. Right now it measures 62″ x 82″, although the quilting process will draw it up somewhat. My goal is to get it bound and labeled in time for “show and tell” at the Jan. 17 meeting of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild and for the Pine Needle’s Open House Jan. 18 and 19.