Star Block Exchange

May 2, 2011April 28, 20112 Comments

Last week I told you about some of the fun things my sewing circle does. We recently had a block exchange where we all made the same block in our choice of colors. The only rule was to use a cream or tan background.

About a month ago I cut out the pieces for the blocks. I’m fond of rust and green so I found enough material in my stash that I thought would work. I only had enough background for half of the blocks so after I made those, I had to cut some more!

The block is sewing intensive and I started out by sewing half square triangles. With the leftovers from the first block I made a second smaller pinwheel block. Then, the leftover pieces from the second block made a smaller pinwheel. So it’s like 3 blocks for the price of one (except for the fact that it took a lot longer to sew them).

In fact, here’s pictures of me frantically trying to get them done in time for my meeting. I had to use the help of my assistant Marcie, to trim and press while I sewed like crazy!

Marcie had fun taking a break from cutting fabric orders to help me out.

Here are my finished blocks, just in the nick of time!

The nice thing about a block swap is the variety of blocks I received in return. Now the hard part – how do I put them all together??

A Visit With Annette Kennedy

April 29, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

Fiber artist Annette Kennedy came to our quilting guild meeting last night and it was quite a treat! Her specialty is landscape and pictorial quilts and she uses beautiful embellishment techniques to bring her images to life.

She likes to paint on the surface of her quilts to add detail, texture, and depth with elements of shadow. She then quilts them by machine with decorative threads.

Here are two beautiful examples of before and after quilts that she’s teaching our guild how to do in a couple of workshops this weekend (images used with permission):

The picture above is Red Rock Canyon. Below is Calla Lillies. It’s amazing how such details add to the beauty of the finished piece. I think I have been inspired!

Quilt Meeting and Charm Square Swap

April 28, 2011Leave a comment

As part of my local quilting guild I belong to, I attend a smaller group once a month. This “quilting circle” I go to has about 25 members and we meet at a local quilt shop. It’s quite fun as we show and tell our latest projects and find out about all that’s going on in the larger guild of about 300 members.

Another thing we do regularly is exchange quilt blocks and fabric. Yesterday we had a novelty charm square exchange. Each person brought in 5 different 6 inch squares of “Eye Spy” fabric for each of 16 people that signed up for the swap. Here are the fabrics I chose. Don’t they look nice all cut up into tidy squares?

It was nice to use fabrics from my stash! In exchange, these are the charms I received:

We each got a total of 80 charm squares, perfect for making an I Spy quilt or two!

In our little group we also have a drawing each month for who will receive a fat quarter assortment of their choice. I got picked this time around and I needed some nice chocolate browns to round out my stash so I put in my request. These are the ones I got – aren’t they yummy??Tonight I’ll be going to the larger group meeting where we usually have a “Quilt Celebrity” who comes to visit. I’ll post more about that tomorrow!

Shakespeare Costumes

April 25, 2011March 19, 20133 Comments

My oldest son is in a Shakespeare group preparing to put on a performance of “The Comedy of Errors.” Lucky me, I got to be on the costume committee!

This is my friend Becky, an extraordinary seamstress, wheeling in racks of costumes that she’s made over the last few years for prior Shakespeare performances.

Under her tutelage I’ve learned how to add a “yoke” to a “doublet” and how to adjust sizing by using drawstring ties and grommets.

Here’s a whole shot of the cast during a dress rehearsal. Too bad you can’t see closeups of the many buttons, beads, sequins and trim we added by hand!!

Here’s my son and his “twin” from the play. It takes a real Shakespeare thespian to wear that kind of a hat!! It’s nearly opening night and I’m kind of sad. Although I’ll be able to return to my regularly scheduled quilting routine, I sure will miss all the embellishments!

Half-Marathon “Runners”

April 18, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I ran a half marathon race this past Saturday with several friends of mine. Here’s a picture of us after we all finished. We dubbed ourselves “Team Purple” because we all got matching warm up jackets for after the race. I’m the shortest one in the middle.

This was a comeback race of sorts for me because I injured my foot when I ran a marathon in 2009 and it’s taken me that long to recover. However, I had a great time and met my race goal. I ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes and felt fantastic after!

The race was located in the beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah Valley surrounded by pretty snow-capped mountains. This picture makes me want to make a scenic landscape quilt.

The most fun part about my weekend (after I recovered) was meeting my friend’s mom and discovering that she has an affinity for “runners”, too! She gave me a mini show-n-tell of seasonal tablerunners & wallhangings she’s been making. Aren’t they “sew” cute?

Amy Butler UFO’s and WIP’s

April 12, 2011April 12, 20111 Comment

It seems like I’ve been working on quite a few projects lately but haven’t been finishing much yet. That’s just how it goes sometimes with sewing.

I’m building up my piles of WIP’s (Works In Progress) and not making a dent in my UFO’s (Unfinished Fabric Objects). This Thursday, my sewing buddy and I are going to add to the pile by taking a class using Amy Butler’s Reversible Sunday Sling sewing pattern.

This morning we spent some time picking out fabrics for our project. Another friend who just got into sewing also stopped by and picked out more Amy Butler fabrics to make a skirt. Take a look at what we chose, below:

First, I’m doing my bag in earthy orange and rust. Jessica picked soothing blue and green for her tote and Tamara selected cheerful greens and pinks for her daughter’s pieced skirt. Now, if we can actually finish our projects, I’ll have something more to write about!

Tesselating Pinwheels

April 7, 2011March 19, 20131 Comment

I recently helped my son’s school group learn about the artist MC Escher. As part of any good art presentation, of course I had to incorporate quilting!

I started by browsing through my stacks of cut strips to see what I could work with. I decided on a pink and brown combo for a baby quilt. I’ll make the same one in blue, later.

I started with 2 1/2″ wide cut strips – my own jelly roll stash. Then I subcut a bunch of rectangle units into 4 1/2″ long pieces – 4 rectangles per fabric to make one pinwheel each.

I put the pieces on my design wall to see how the block would look. Satisfied with the arrangement, I sewed the rectangles into units and joined the unit pairs to make the blocks.

Here’s two rows of nestled pinwheel blocks inspired by the late Maurits Cornelis Escher: (Notice the center pinwheels formed by the brown background pieces – that’s tesselation!)

I’ll keep making blocks until I have enough for a crib sized quilt. One of the moms in our group is expecting a baby but doesn’t know the gender yet. If it’s a girl, she’ll get this one. If it’s a boy, I’ll make the same design in shades of blue!

Deja Vu Quilt

April 4, 2011April 6, 20115 Comments

Nancy, a recent blog subscriber of mine (and fellow Fab Shop bunny hopper) made this beautiful quilt using Paula Nadelstern’s Deja Vu fabric collection (shown with permission):

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s Nancy’s original design and I love how the colors sparkle! Notice the detail in the center block below. The matching covered buttons add a touch of artistry to the piece. The tiny pieced squares and effective use of the border print pulls it all together.

Look at the fine workmanship and striking colors in the corner blocks. The Lemoyne Star kaleidoscope below right was made by fussy cutting the same repeat. The allover quilting adds nice texture, too. Way to go, Nancy!

Saturday Morning Binding

March 26, 2011March 26, 20112 Comments

My friend Stacey came over this morning so I could help her with the binding of her first quilt. What a fun way to start the day!

We started off by pinning it to the quilt. She chose a wide blue satin binding that matched the cute fabrics she picked.

It was fun to help as I usually sew my bindings using a different method.

Stacy got to test drive my machine while putting on the binding.

I told her if she really gets into quilting then she can save up for a nice Bernina and a drop in table with a big work surface.

This makes all the difference when doing lots of machine work, I think.

I am really proud of her finished quilt! She mixed fashion prints with some super soft minkee. Then she added pompoms to give it a touch of whimsy. Isn’t it so cute?

The Three Hour Quilt

March 23, 2011January 19, 20154 Comments

Now sit right back and I’ll tell you a tale of my 3 hour quilt.. my 3 hour quilt… (I hope you get the reference!!)

A friend of mine is throwing an impromptu baby shower today. The first thing I think of when I hear baby shower is, “How much time do I have to make a baby quilt and what fabric do I have on hand?”

Thanks to Moda Charm Packs, I can whip up an adorable baby quilt in a hurry. Here’s a recap of my fastest quilt ever, made with one Lily & Will Charm Pack from Bunny Hill:

(Just click on any of the pictures above to enlarge for details.)

Step One: Select the charm pack and lay it out in a pleasing arrangement – 15 Min.

Step Two: Sew quilt top together, cut batting to size and safety pin baste – 60 Min.

Step Three: Stitch in the ditch with serpentine stitch and along diagonals – 60 Min.

Step Four: Square up edges and trim batting, prepare binding – 15 Min.

Step Five: Add binding by machine and block edges with warm iron – 30 Min.

This quilt took one charm pack of 42 squares measuring 5 inches cut. The finished size is 27″ x 31″ – a perfect grab and go blankie ! To make a bigger quilt, just add borders 🙂