Quilty Catch Up

I'm so sorry that I've been away from the blog for almost two months! November and December do seem to be the busiest months of the year, what with all the holidays and partying. Here's what I've been up to on the quilting front.

 

Two of my quilts were accepted for exhibition at A Quilters' Gathering in New Hampshire at the beginning of November. Engineer's Wife was awarded a codirector's ribbon from Kate Sussman. She liked the Morse Code anniversary quilt, too.  

  

During the same weekend,  the Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild presented an exhibit during the Fine Furnishings Show in Pawtucket. Three of my quilts were included: Diamond Party, Sugar Wave and Picture Perfect.

 I had an opportunity to meet Mary Fons! 

  I quilted up an old WIP/UFO before to fill out my craft show booth. It was made from a really cute collection of Debbie Mumm lighthouse prints and coordinates. I think I pieced it in 2008. It can be a baby quilt of small lap quilt, perfect for a beach house.

Finished size: 48" X 54" 

 Another pre-craft show finish was the scrappy pyramid quilt. I really like this fun collection of modern scraps. The green binding works because green goes with everything!

Finished size: 48" X 64"

Started 2/22/15

Completed 12/2/15

While I was in a free motion quilting mood, I quilted up a guild quilt for a Habitat home dedication.

 The RIMQG hosted a postcard swap in November and there were the 2 fabric postcards I sent out. I bust out a paper pieced New York Beauty whenever possible!

On December 23rd, I decided I wanted to make a Christmas quilt for our cuddling up on the couch on Christmas Eve. Well, I got the top done that day and haven't taken another stitch since. I hope to quilt it this coming week. I used two charm packs of Flurry by Kate Spain and two yards of solid white Kona. Yummy!

And there you have it!

Black and White and ...

 A couple of months ago, the RIMQG issued a challenge. We were to use black and white and one additional color of our choice. Hmm. What color will Tina add? That's a tough one!

I wanted to keep it simple with a disappearing nine patch. I drew it out in EQ7 which was a great help in deciding how to use various oranges. The only thing that ended up being very different from the drawing is the binding.

I played with some extra squares for the back, and used up some more of that DS Quilts orange print.

I wanted to do something fun and interesting with the quilting. Plan A included some pebbling and matchstick quilting in the oranges. I hated it! I had gone through two full bobbins when I decided to rip it all out.

It took hours to unstitch, but it was totally worth it.

I'm much happier with Plan B. The only problem that remains is a hint of the gray chalk that I used again on the medium orange. I marked a grid to guide the petals and it just won't wash out completely. I will never use that chalk again!

 In this shot of the back, you can see the orange stripe binding. I will run out of orange fabric and move on to something else, but it won't happen any time soon.

My little quilt is currently hanging in the kitchen, adding a little Halloween cheer.

Black and White and Orange All Over

October 16-18, 2014

37" square

Bee Blocks

After driving Pete to the airport this morning at zero dark thirty, and then a quick nap, I worked on some bee blocks. The RI Modern Quilt Guild just started our first bee. For the first month, Suzanne chose these adorable Sunshine Star blocks from 42 Quilts. 

When I started clicking around the 42 Quilts blog, I was excited to see all 64 blocks that Jennifer designed for her Modern Monday series. I think I might make a bunch of these to replace the Farmer's Wife blocks I'm really not crazy about. I'm such a rebel!

I'm off to an EQ7 class. Have a great day!

Diamond Party

I just decided to call this little challenge quilt Diamond Party because it was so much fun to make. I really enjoyed the process from start to finish. No stress, just fun!

It all started with fat eighths of these fun prints from Micheal Miller for the MQG challenge. Four of the prints are from the Petal Pinwheels collection. The gray print is Star Jacks from Atomic Tabbys. And the solid is Cotton Couture Coral.

This is one of the first quilts I designed with EQ7. I even drew in the quilting. I almost never plan the quilting when I am designing a quilt. It was fun to plan ahead this time.

Fat eighths are not a lot of fabric to work with, so I was happy to have EQ7 do the math for me to verify I'd have enough fabric. In mid-May, I paper pieced the 2" finished half square triangles and the rows came together quickly.

Then life happened and it had to wait, taped to the hallway wall, until this week. I finished the top on Thursday and pieced the back from a half yard of coordinating green that I purchased plus all the leftovers from the front. I prepared the binding, too. By the way, instead of pinning the rows together, I glue basted to be sure the points matched. It worked like a charm, but was a pain to pop them open when I pressed the seams open.

On Friday, I was ready to quilt with Aurifil 50 wt, white #2024. I quilted in the ditch with a walking foot to stabilize the piece. I wanted concentric squares, but didn't want to deal with all the turning with the walking foot, so I went free motion. Labeling them "wonky" means they don't have to be perfect!

I really like the texture and character of the quilting- front and back.

I couldn't decide which end was up, so I made 2 sleeves for the top and bottom. I used the remaining green to make the sleeves, but it wasn't quite wide enough. I pieced in some of the lighter orange from my stash and matched the seams so they blend in with the pieced back. I had saved the solid coral for the binding, but there wasn't enough to go around, so I added the lighter orange again to fill the gap.

I love this piece hanging in my green and orange powder room/laundry room.

Diamond Party

Started 5/13/14

Completed 6/13/14

Working time: 4 days

Finished size: 24" X 28"

It's Magenta

 Purple is so difficult to photograph! Even after editing, this is close, but not quite right.

Anyway, the top of the magenta crayon challenge is done. I'm trying to decide if it needs a border. It is only 42" x 56" now, so it would certainly be more useful if it was a little bigger. So far, everything has come out of my stash, but there is nothing left that will work as the border. Darn. I guess I'll need to shop!

Does anyone know if this block has a name? It is similar to, and inspired by, a quilt in Camille's new book that is not available yet. My triangles are all the same size, but hers are not.

So here we are back to the original picture of the crayon and cut fabrics. Morning light creates the truest colors.

 Karen and I are headed up to the Sewing Expo tomorrow. Maybe I'll find the right border fabric.