Centennial Project Detail

More from the Arizona Flag Centennial Quilt.  The blue in the border shows governors' names, and I used a variety of  dense fillers in the yellow and red rays. I used some of the AZ Centennial commemorative fabric on the back.  This quilt gets delivered next week and it will be out of my hands for over a year!  Just like dropping your kids off at school, that make me kind of sad.  But I am excited to see the show next spring.

Centennial Project Complete!

Grrrr. I'm having trouble uploading photos today. Check back later in the week!

My quilt for Arizona's Centennial is finished! This photo shows the border where I quilted each governor's name (in blue, on black fabric). Kinda like Where's Waldo...easy if you know what to look for.

Summer UFO List Part 2

More projects from the UFO pile:

6. Rainbow charms. Squares from a Ravelry exchange, laid out in ROYGBV order, light to dark.7. Quilt of Valor, Persimmon Quilts Mystery pattern #12, just needs binding, label and a wash before mailing to a deserving soldier.
8. I-Spy...squares from a Ravelry exchange. Simple blue sashing for a quick finish (she said hopefully)
9. Turning 20 pattern in Christmas batiks. Needs to be quilted and bound.
10. Sedona Stars, a quilt along pattern from Judy LaQuidara. Needs to be quilted. I offered this to a friend's son since I have made quilts for his brother and sister, but he hasn't told me if he likes it. I want my quilt gifts to be appreciated, so I haven't decided who the actual recipient of this one will be.

June Update

Ahhh, summer school is over and the surface-of-the-sun-hot temperatures have arrived. In between swim sessions at the local pool, I have been in my sewing room. (The city pool is open for a few hours in the early afternoon and again from 7-9 pm...late bedtime means a quiet morning for mommy!)

I finished the Reeds quilt. I won these blocks in exchange (see the Block Lotto button to the right) and decided to do a color gradient layout based on the white-grey-black background prints.
I had a bright floral fabric in my stash that worked for the back.
And I used a simple wavy frond quilting design, somewhat following the piecing.

Of course, the major focus has to be the Arizona Centennial project. Entry forms for the "100 years, 100 Quilts" were due this week, so I mailed mine in with fingers crossed. I laid out all the squares in their final position, so it looks like a finished quilt. I plan to add a plain border when the center is done, and I have grand plans for the quilting! Stay tuned...

The end is a new beginning

As I was at the sewing machine yesterday, I realized 2010 was a year of paper piecing for me!  I started with "Sparkling Jewels" a queen size quilt that I made as a wedding gift.  Completely pieced and quilted by me.  It took about six months.

 On New Year's Eve, I whipped up a little 6-inch-square sunflower from a kit I purchased at least a year ago.  It will make a nice gift for a friend at work since I wasn't organized with my Christmas cards before we left on vacation.

Making Progress

I've been quilting on the longarm, trying to finish a Quilt of Valor. The pattern is Mystery 12 from Persimmon Quilts. Nothing too fancy, just some loops in the background and squiggles in the gold area.

An older UFO, "Hidden Stars" a block of the month from Marti Michell, started in 2005.
The pattern originally called for alternate squares of a busy floral, fussy cutting the large roses. I am not that kind of girly-girl! My first thought was to find a light denim blue to match the light blue in the patchwork blocks, which would have been a great plan five years ago. Alas, my LQS didn't have anything suitable when I went shopping a few weeks ago. Rather than spend time searching for something to fit that perfect mental image, I settled on this forest green. I think it looks great so far - just masculine enough while still being a soft complement to the other florals.

And, TA-DA!!!! A finish! I started this bargello quilt at my first Quilt Camp in the Pines, July 2004, just 6 months after I made my first quilt. The class was taught by Louisa Smith and she actually had us turn a section of the strips to create a twist in the design. Great idea, but six years have gone by and I can't even find pictures of that layout now.
When I picked out the fabrics, I had the local quilt show theme of Mardi Gras in mind, so I went with yellow, purple and green. I am still debating adding some applique to "explain" the Mardi Gras colors, but really, who am I kidding? A much better idea is just to get it quilted and donate it to the small quilt auction, or maybe keep it as a spring display for my classroom.

UFO Club

Thanks to some quilty knitters on Ravelry, there is now some incentive to get moving on my UFOs. We all pledge to work on specified projects, with a reward of fat quarters if we finish at least one thing in three months. Fall is really busy with school and clubs and life, etc. but I think I can focus on these things:
#1 - Reversible placemats for a Christmas gift
#2 - Quilts of Valor. I have several tops pieced and I need to load them on the longarm then get them in the mail. If any of you have time to devote to this worthy cause, check out the QOV website. The group in Delaware needs many more quilts for the airmen/women stationed at Dover AFB, which is the point of entry for fallen soldiers. A difficult assignment for sure.


#3 Marti Michell's 2005 Block of the Month. Ha, ha, ha. Yes, this is an oldie, but goodie. You can see some of the floral fabric that is supposed to be alternate blocks. Not in my version! I will be shopping for a light denim blue instead. (hubby breathes a sigh of relief...I want this one on my bed!)#4 Bargello...even older! I started this one in 2004 at Quilt Camp in the Pines, Flagstaff AZ. I got all the strips together and laid out on a "Block Butler" portable design wall. I was worried that years of being shoved in the back of the closet on sticky stuff would damage the fabric, but it looked pretty good today as I unwrapped it! My plan is to press a couple strips at a time and pin them in front of the TV, then sew them together in between other projects.
#5 My Centennial project...the 2012 piece Arizona Flag postage stamp quilt. Here is a section of the bottom half. I need to make steady progress on this because there is a call for entries in a Centennial Quilt show due next September! June is my best month for quilting on my longarm since there are no pressures from school, so that is my self-imposed deadline for this one. Phew! The journey of a finished quilt starts with a few stitches, and I've got quite a list!

Hello out there!

We're back to the school year routine, which means I only get to sew on holidays! Well, on the occasional Saturday I can squeeze in time to do things like put borders on a QOV mystery from Persimmon Quilts:
Of course, my photo skillz are horrible, and I chopped off the borders. You can see a few bits in the upper right corner! Great pattern, but I have no idea how I will quilt it. I need to do something all over (pantograph suggestions anyone?) or it will languish for at least a year.

Then I needed a quick project, so I grabbed some fabric that I bought on a whim this summer during our vacation in Minnesota and made some placemats. Left side is stack-n-slash, and the reverse is a log cabin with the Minnesota fabric in the center. They will be a Christmas present for a snowbird friend who splits her time between Arizona and Minneapolis.

Quiltathon Progress

Change of plans since the last post. The quilt I wanted to put on the longarm was a bit too small to be a Quilt of Valor, so I added some borders. Then, I had no batting so I set that one aside and turned to the other mystery of the summer.

I've been working on LeAnn's QOV mystery #12 (check out Persimmon Quilts).I'm almost done with Clue #5. Of course, I'm a couple months behind the rest of the world...LeAnn has already started mystery #13!!

The Quiltathon was a success, I logged 6 solid hours in my sewing room. Now THAT'S a vacation day :-)

Quilting Designs

All I have left is the background meandering! Oh, and then binding, ugh. Well, I needed a project for the dog days of summer...
Front view:
I couldn't get the hopping foot over some of the points, so I just avoided them!
I used a circle design in the blue diamonds, so I brought that into the border with a "Bubble Curtain" (courtesy of Leah Day's 365 freemotion designs).My staple "Flame Flower" in the green diamonds and green border:I've used matching thread throughout the project, so the back will be as interesting as the front. The backing fabric is a navy blue tone-on-tone print and the first picture is truer to the actual color.

Mysteries

I am working on two mystery quilts, destined to be Quilts of Valor.
Mystery #12 from Persimmon Quilts...traditional red, blue, cream and gold. I'm working on Clue 3.
JudyL is designing this one. Bright colors with cream background and green accents. Working on clue 3 on this one as well!On the longarm is the wedding quilt, which was paper pieced. The wedding is this Friday. I totally blew the deadline, as explained in the last post :-) So, now I can relax and enjoy the process of stitching. The jewel blocks are in purple, blue and green, and these stars appear in the corner. I am quilting a feathery pinwheel in the purple area, and I will use some concentric teardrops in the turquoise triangles.The view from the back - I am using a different design in each jewel block. I love this purple thread, it's King Tut and it is working like a dream in my machine! At the top of the photo is the over/under feather I used in the inner border.

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Quilting Time!

I've started the quilting phase of my paper-pieced gift. Nothing too complicated, although I am in the process of ripping out a row since the backing puckered...what a bummer!
To reward myself after an hour with the seam ripper, I have started a mystery quilt-along with the Quilts of Valor group. This one is designed by LeAnn at Persimmon Quilts. She uses a great method for the flying geese! (Look for clue #2 on quilt 12)

I thought I'd share a tip I learned from the Yarn Harlot - a counting thread.
That is the sleeve for a raglan sweater, and I need to decrease every 4th row. So, I grabbed some contrasting yarn, and laid it between stitches in the middle of the first decrease row. It's very easy to count those four rows, then bring the red yarn forward. You can use this method to keep track of how many times you've decreased along with counting the individual stitches.

And a tip for the quilters...I was getting stuck with the corners of some blocks on the mystery quilt. My machine was eating the tips and creating a tangled mess of thread.
So, I flipped the fabric so I could start sewing on a wider edge rather than the tip.
Happy Stitching!

Knitting Update

I do have to mention my blog-iversary during this Winter Olympic season. I joined the first Knitting Olympics, the brain-child of Stephanie McPhee Pearl, the Yarn Harlot. She will be knitting a gorgeous Dale of Norway fair isle sweater. Yes, from cast on to finished sweater in 17 days. She is a knitting legend. I will be plodding along on my socks:I finished the front of a sweater vest. The yellow marks show where I have to cut the steeks to make the V-neck. I'm a little nervous at the prospect of attacking my knitting with scissors, but my mom says it helps to think of it as fabric :-)
Here is a tempting little quilt project that I may use as a reward for passing the halfway mark on my paper-piecing stars. A Valentine Sudoku!

Quilt Designs

I had planned a beautiful, photo-heavy post of the quilts I am working on. Tragically, I cannot find the usb cord that goes with the digital camera, so that will have to wait. Luckily, I took a picture months ago of the quilt that is currently on the longarm:It is the Boxy Stars pattern from Bonnie's Quiltville. Here is a rough idea of the quilting:
meandering around the stars, sun rays in the stars, and a wavy filler in the border.

New Quilt Designs

I finished Judy's "Freeze Frame" pattern...I'll post a full picture after I get the binding on. Here is the design I used in the big squares. I'm calling it "Shark Tooth." Just a few spiky arches in one direction then switch towards the other corner of the block.Here's how it looks on fabric:
I used green, gold and brown fabrics, hoping for a manly look since I will send this off to a soldier as part of the Quilts of Valor project. I wanted a simple, quick quilting design to complement the blocks. I really like how it turned out!

In the smaller squares, I used a design I learned from Linda Matteoti. She was having us practice with rulers, stitching from the midpoint to the corner of a square. I thought it made a cool star:So, I call this the half corner star, since you travel from the halfway point to the corner :-)
Here's a diagram to help you visualize the stitching line.Five days left of vacation...it always goes by much too fast. I did NOT get enough quilting time!! I have lots of things mentally lined up to work on in the New Year, but I have a project with a deadline that must take priority. It's a gift, so no pictures. If you need inspiration, visit Leah and her free motion design project.

All Talk...

...no writing! NaNoWriMo fell by the wayside very quickly. I got about 2500 words into my novel, realized it was really hard work, and promptly rationalized that I have other, more important things to do in my life. Any time I flirt with another hobby it fans the flames of my quilting desires, so that's what I've been focusing on.

Which brings us to the topic of the purple beast. Quilt from HE&L! I started out with beautiful feathery pinwheels in the background areas. Quilted down to the last row, and the bottom border had huge ripples. GRRR. Thought I could pick out a few blocks and ease in the fullness (this was back in August...school started, life got hectic, ripping was easy to ignore.) October rolled around and I started to get nervous messages from the customer, so I finished ripping and put the quilt back on the longarm. Darn, re-sewed that side and still had extra fabric in the border. Decided the only fix was to rip out everything and start over. Bentley helped, we worked every spare minute ripping stitches out for a whole week, and finally I was ready to sew again. I rotated the quilt 90 degrees, measured carefully, and started quilting with a pantograph. Yesterday, I got to the bottom edge and about lost my mind. STILL HUGE RIPPLES. The customer will just have to put up with a few puckers, because I have quilted the thing twice and can't make it flat. I have one spot left to quilt where my tension was off, and then it's done. I can't wait...better go check to see if there is any champagne in the pantry, LOL!

Sorry, no photos. Kendra is in a non-smiling mood these days when the camera comes out. Quite the little princess! She delights us everyday with snippets of songs from her music class and church choir. Just adorable.

Phase 1 complete

I finished knitting the last of the mitered squares - Hallelujah! Phase 2 is the seaming. After I get the squares sewn in groups of three, I will lay them out to check on color placement and size (remember, the crazy plan is to have this fit my queen size bed). Then comes the border.

It's probably insane to think I could have this done by Christmas, but with cooler evening temperatures there is an incentive! And it was so fun to cast on a pair of socks after almost six months of stockinette stitch.

Here is Kendra, all ready for a sleepover at Grandma's. Everything is packed in her Disney princess backpack.
My latest quilt project was a log cabin charity quilt. I did some meandering leaves on the dark half of the log cabin, and a spiky ferny thing on the light side.Happy Stitching!