Sampling of Stars

For my second block for August's Seams Perfect Scrap Bee I decided to play around with a star sampler within the 12" finished block.



The larger star on the lefthand side is from a pattern in an older Alex Anderson book, Simply Stars - Quilts that Sparkle. I used the 6" Variable Star pattern, found on page 48.

In addition to that I decided I wanted to try a 6 point star, a cross between a Star of David and a Seven Sisters. I started with a sketch in my sketchbook and went from there. I had no finished size worked out, just aiming for smaller than 9".

I began with a hexagon for the center of the block. I was lazy and used a template I had cut a couple of months back to make these blocks for Cruz (knitla), for the same bee. With seam allowances, the hexagon measures approximately 1.75" on each side. I estimated that the equilateral triangle star points should be about 2.25" on each edge, and so I cut (2) 60 degree triangles each from 3 different fabrics. It took me a while to figure out a way to piece this block WITHOUT any inset or Y seams, but doggonit, I figured it out! Again, there is little that is precise about these instructions, but I got to where I needed to be.

After cutting my 6 itty-bitty triangles, I cut background pieces from the Bella Solid fabric that Theresa supplied. I cut (4) each at 2.5" x 4" for the top and bottom "corners" of the block, and (2) each at 2.5" x 3.5" for the side settings.

I began the piece work making a top and a bottom row using the 4 corner background pieces and a pair of matching triangles. I began by placing one of the triangles face down on one side of the 2.5" x 4" rectangle, making sure the triangle corners overlap the edges of the rectangle at a 60 degree angle. Stitch along the triangle edge using a 1/4" seam allowance and trim off the excess on the background piece.


Flip the triangle open and press seams toward the background.


Now, take this unit and place it face down over another of the background rectangles, matching the opposite edge of the triangle across the corner of the rectangle.


Press seam toward background piece. Repeat with matching units.

Next, piece a second pair of the little triangles directly to opposite sides of the hexagon. Press seams toward the triangles and trim. At this point you should have 7 total units, the triangles centered in background pieces, the hexagon with 2 triangles attached, the 2 remaining triangles, as shown below, plus the 2.5" x 3.5" background pieces for the side settings:


With that last pair of triangles, it's time to start the tricky stuff! Place the rectangles for the background side settings just alongside the hexagon and other pieces for the star. Take one of the last pair of triangles, place it face down across the corner of the background piece, along the edge of the hexagon still unoccupied be a triangle unit. As you did with the top and bottom rows, be sure to have your corners overlap by approx. 1/4" for seam allowance, with the seam at a 60 degree angle to the bottom edge. Stitch in place, flip open and press.


Place the hexagon unit face down over this last section, lining up the edge of the last triangle with the open edge of the hexagon, and extending the triangle already attached onto the background block. The seams on the respective triangles should overlap by 1/4".


Press open. Repeat for the opposite side. You see you will have tails of excess on the background pieces. Just trim those off to be even with the upper and lower edges of the center hexagon.




Now you are ready to add those original top and bottom rows, respectively.


From here, trim your block to your desired size, just keeping in mind you need at least 1/4" of background beyond the star points.


Mine ended up measuring about 4 7/8" x 5 1/4". Given the improvisational approach to this whole block, I was not too concerned with ending up with a perfect square - I just got to make up the difference in bits and pieces of the background later on...


And after working through the two main stars in this block, I decided to use the classic Friendship Star for the smaller sparklers. Based on a standard 9-patch construction, I worked with 1" units to get two different blocks that would finish at 3" and work as filler in the larger block. All in all I had a lot of fun playing around with this one! Don't know if I'll be rushing to do more like it, but I am certainly glad I tried my hand at something new! Thanks for the impetus, Theresa!

STARting with a star

This month in the Seams Perfect Scrap Bee on Flickr is Theresa's (terrikuns') month. Her theme is stars... any type of stars, wonky, whimsical, 12" or multiple smaller ones... AND, she set us up with some of her fabric choices: Sanae's Chrysalis by Moda and a Moda Bella Solid.

We were invited to use some or all of the fabrics she sent, as long as we used the solid at some point in each of the blocks, and were welcomed to supplement with a coordinating fabric as well. As luck would have it, I just bought some pieces from that collection a little over a week ago while visiting Pioneer Quilts in Happy Valley, OR.

So, my adventure began with an improv, wonky Ohio Star variation. Very easy to make, and rather flexible, so I thought I would share with you all:
*these measurements are for a 12" finished block*

I began by cutting a center square 2.5" x 2.5". I decided that the solid would be an inner border around the center square, so from that I cut (2) 2" x 2.5" and (2) 2" x 5.5". And from the background fabric (for which I used one of the small-scale prints from the Chrysalis collection) I cut (4) 4" x 4" squares for the corners and (4) 4" x 5.5" rectangles to be the backgrounds of the star points.


Start by attaching the solid 2" x 2.5" rectangles to opposite sides of the center square. Press seams toward the "borders." Next, add the 2" x 5.5" rectangles to the remaining sides, to make a 5.5" square.


For the next steps I took a somewhat improvisational approach to a stitch 'n' flip flying geese block, making 4 units measuring 4" x 5.5" each. By starting with the background piece at that size, I could use various scraps to make up the geese, or star points.

Place a rectangle at an angle face down on top of the background block. Be sure that when you press it open it covers as far as the bottom corner of the piece. Stitch down using a 1/4" seam allowance.


Trim the corner from the background piece, using the seam allowance as your guide.


Press open.


Trim the edges flush with the background piece, maintaining the original 4" x 5.5" dimensions.


Repeat the last 4 steps for the other corner on the same side of the rectangle. Try to alter the size of the scrap piece and the angle at which you place it, for more variety on the star points.




Repeat these steps on the other (3) 4" x 5.5" rectangles.


Now, arrange all of your block units in a 9-patch formation, as pictured below:


Piece in horizontal rows, pressing seams toward the square units.


Sew the 3 rows together, press seams open and VOILA!

Studio painting - Day Five

And now, the walls are covered from floor to ceiling. Hoorah!

I was so ready to blow off painting last night and go in there today to finish things up, but J convinced me otherwise, and I'm glad he did (especially since he was the one who would end up doing most of the work in this stretch).







So today, we get a day off (which means I'll likely go down to the basement and actually do some sewing - a novel idea, I know!) The only thing left to do before moving stuff in, is to clean and finish painting the floor - something I thankfully don't need a ladder for! Thursday's task, as I see it.

new accessories!

So, with all of this prep work to get the sewing studio ready for actually moving in to, I've been thinking a lot about what I will be moving in to the space. I've already made two trips to IKEA just to check out table, shelving and office chair options, so that when I actually have the rental truck I know exactly what I'm going in for.

But, there will also be a couple of pieces of furniture I'll be moving from my house... my current sewing cabinet and cutting table, of course, but in addition I have an arm chair and coffee table that have outgrown my little craftsman bungalow. And what does an armchair need?? Maybe a throw pillow or two??






I'd been eyeing that Alexander Henry fabric for quite a while, and found that the Kaffe Shot Cottons work beautifully as accents. They will be excellent splashes of color in the studio space, and would just as easily work in my living room area at home if the time comes. Love the versatility!

Studio painting - Day Two

So, we started the day with most of the walls fully primed - except some nooks and crannies, behind beams and up high.


and as I said before, I had some color decisions to make.... I started editing my options, and discarding the "rejects" on the floor

until I was left with the final 2 contenders:


I ended up going with "Bay Waves" by Valspar, from Lowe's. So, J and I made a trip out there, picking up 6 gallons of paint, plus a few accoutrements, as well as six 8' full-spectrum strip lights for the fixtures (J changed out the bulbs in one of the three fixtures as soon as we got back to the studio).

While J worked on finishing the primer details, I got started on the edge work with the paint.




Then our friend Jenny joined us, and took up a roller!




We worked until a little after 9pm, I think, and got the first layer of color down, from the floor up about as high as either Jenny or I could reach with the 4'+ roller on our tippy-toes (and a few hops on Jenny's part)...



Gonna give it a couple days' rest, then return for day 3 of painting... I'm feeling good about it so far!

New Studio - Before Pics

And today I picked up the keys for the new space! This is also the first I have taken photos, as it was previously occupied by a small theatre company, and therefore had a stage and counter taking up much of the space.






Next step - PAINTING PARTY!!! And thankfully the building manager has promised to leave one of those crazy A-Frame ladders for us to use for that purpose. Now starting to load the back of my car with supplies from home, but still have to decide on just the right shade of light grey or off white or whatever. It's a good thing I'll have to use a layer or two of primer first, giving me plenty of time to decide on the finished color while actually in the space...

I promise to keep posting progress.

Some Shot Cotton Love

July's been a busy month for me, which has unfortunately taken away from some of my sewing obligations. I've done my best to stay on task with some precommits, but besides that, my sewing room has been more or less dormant. But that will be changing soon....

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how little time we have, or how little we're getting done in that time, new projects and inspirations always pique the interest. Just over a week ago, I spotted a link to a new swap on Flickr: For the Love of Solids, introduced as a joint effort by Megan, at Canoe Ridge Creations (blog) and Elizabeth, at Don't Call me Betsy (blog). My heart quite literally went "pitter-pat" as I read the description and paged through a few of the members' inspiration mosaics. But then the logic side of my brain kicked in making it abundantly clear that in NO WAY do I have the time right now to commit to another swap. It's all I can do to get my "I *Heart* the '80s" package together and in the post by deadline (which is this coming Monday, by the way!). And next month I am going to be moving my sewing studio in to a new studio space, as well as finally coming through with the place mat commission that I've struggled with since May or maybe even April, plus concentrating on inventory for an upcoming craft fair. So, I would hate to short-change an unsuspecting swap partner... I'll have to wait until Round 2 gets under way, but that doesn't mean I can't ogle some of the current entries, while salivating over this amazing spectrum of Shot Cottons at Cool Cottons...


playing "tourist"

Just a few days after my brother and his partner left town, my dad arrived for a week (or so) long visit. The weather has been a little more typical Portland... more interruptions of sun by clouds, slightly cooler temps, that sort of thing. And then there was yesterday - a beautiful Friday by any gauge! My father had been saying he'd like to make a trip to Washington Park, just on the outskirts of downtown Portland, in order to stroll around The International Rose Test Gardens here. Truly a sight, especially in mid-July!

But on the way, we did have to finally stop in and introduce him to Voodoo Doughnuts. Two wonderful, fresh doughnuts each and a steaming cup of coffee just taunting us until we arrived at the gardens and got out of the car to find a bench to sit and enjoy. And enjoy we did! It's probably been a couple of years since I had made it up to the rose test gardens, certainly at least as long since I had been there on such a beautiful day. So, I went a little camera-happy. It didn't help that I have garden planning and landscaping on my brain, with a sad, very mature rose plant on its last limbs possibly needing to be put out of its misery. So I documented lots!


I loved the powdery, cool lilac of those Lagerfelds


It's hard to see, but I was happy to catch a bumble bee doing what bees do best




I learned something new about my dad - this is apparently his favorite hybrid tea rose, "Peace". And below is what was labeled as a "Peace tree", but such a vivid difference in color!




I must have really liked those European designer flowers!





After spending a nice amount of time gazing at the flowers, we exited the city, in a most lovely and circuitous way, and found our way toward Forest Grove and Gaston, OR in search of some local wineries. Since we got a little off track while wending our way through NW Portland on Skyline Blvd., we arrived in wine country later than anticipated, and so only made it to 2 wineries this trip, Montinore and Plum Hill. Both located within half a mile of one another along Hwy. 47, they had dramatically different feels to them. Montinore is much more established, with gorgeous views of their vineyards and the outlying areas, but I have to say that the ladies at Plum Hill were fabulous. They've only been in the business for about 3 years, but you can tell that they LOVE what they are doing there.

A view of one of the fields from the balcony of the Montinore tasting room.

It was a surprise to see the school bus on this rural road on a Friday afternoon in the middle of summer.

As if I hadn't seen enough roses in the day, I was intrigued by the fact that they had a rose bush planted every 3-4 rows in this part of the vineyard.

The view to the south(ish?) from the parking lot outside the Plum Hill tasting room/shop.

And honestly, that wasn't even the end of our day, but the end of the picture-worthy part. I always forget how close all of these wineries are, and am now inspired to keep it in mind for a good outing as the season progresses.

Thanks for indulging!

a new skirt!

A few weeks ago I posted an entry about a skirt pattern that my mom picked up for me, and the fabrics I had found to make it up. Then I got distracted.

Then I sat down and actually started looking through the pattern and reading it thoroughly.

As a brief recap, the pattern itself is called "Fashion Formula Skirts" from Serendipity Studios. It actually includes 3 distinctly different skirts, with at least 2 or 3 variations of each featured. I chose to do the Penelope Panel Skirt, the one fabric, shirred version. And though I bought the fabric requirements for the middle of the 3 lengths, when I actually measured myself, I decided to go with the shortest one, being that I am pretty short anyhow. It still hangs a couple of inches below my knee, which is perfect!

Then I started cutting into the fabrics...

... and piecing the panels

Then there was the waistband channel, with buttonholes for the drawstring. This was actually my first attempt at buttonholes on the Bernina my mom handed down to me last fall. Though many other aspects of this machine are taking me a while to adjust to (and in several cases I do still prefer my lovely little Viking Lily!), once I took a look at the manual, the buttonhole feature went like a DREAM!! Granted, it helped that she had an automatic buttonhole foot already for the machine, but oh my goodness!! I've always struggled with keeping those things even on my other machine, but after just 2 initial test runs on extra fabric I was able to get the lovely set of buttonholes you see pictured above!

Then came the gathering stitches, pulling on the bobbin threads and evening the whole thing out (as best I could!). Add the hem fabric and the drawstring and *voila*!
Now, this photo was taken before putting the whole thing through the washer, which did help to relax the gathers a bit and it seems to fall a little more naturally now.

All in all, a fun little skirt. I'm thinking the Fiona Faux-Wrap skirt is next...

(P.S. I absolutely LOVED working with the Robert Kaufman Pure Organics fabric. Yay!)

adding to the '80s

Ever have one of those weeks (or months) when you seem to be pulled in several directions at once, but then you look back and can't figure out why, or what might have gotten accomplished? The last few weeks has been kind of like that for me. One of the things to end up on the back burner here was my project for the I *heart* the '80s Swap. But a few days ago a "check-in" discussion thread was posted, to assess who was still actively involved in the swap, and make sure people are on schedule for the August 1st mailing deadline. That was kind of a wake-up call for me.

I've been working on a rainbow sampler, each block an icon or imagery associated with that decade, or our experience of that decade. I've now got all the blocks EXCEPT orange (though I have had in mind what I will do for that one since the beginning - just a matter of getting the right materials for it). Here's where I'm at:

imagine this without the pom-poms along the top... just the ones by the "laces"

words to follow

a little Frogger

this one needs no explanation, I hope ;-)

and though this isn't specifically an '80s icon, most of us (my secret swap partner included) were still relatively young during that decade, and what little kid didn't love seeing this face??

The Pacman and Kool-Aid blocks were my first attempts at using Wonder Under. Might be one of my last, too. I've had a little experience with Steam-a-Seam, but tend to stay away from the fusible webs in general. However, at this scale, the applique bits needed it. I should have stuck with what I know, though - the Wonder Under was nearly impossible to separate from the paper backing once I had fused it to the applique piece, even after I had tried to separate the two in advance. That's why my little ghostie is looking worse for wear (and he was not the first ghost I cut out, either). Lesson learned.

I've started playing with settings and layout, but I'll have to wait until I do ORANGE before I settle on anything. So far, this is where I'm leaning:


Now for the extras!!
I'm keeping it a secret what this will become, but I hope she likes it, and won't be too embarrassed to carry it around. I found the adorable pink and green elephant fabric at Jackman's Fabrics on my last visit back to St. Louis, and it screamed out to me for this project! And just yesterday I picked up the coordinating dots when I went in to work at Cool Cottons, with the help of Marie. Just need a couple more things to get this piece under way....

and then there are just the fun little goodies. We'll see if I come across any others before the package is ready to go out. I'm glad to say I feel a little bit more on track than I did just a week ago. I'll be cutting it close with my dad's visit coming up and some of my other obligations, but August 1st is a doable date now.

July Visits begin!

For the last few weeks I've been amping up for some family visits during this month. Nothing stressful, just a great excuse to do a more thorough house cleaning than I tend to do just for myself and J. The first of those visits was brief, but extremely enjoyable! My brother, Lee, and his beau, Glenn, flew out here from NYC the night of July 4th, arriving a little after midnight. I wish I had a link to some video that Glenn took during the flight - a solid minute or two of constant lightning flashes (which apparently was actually going on for a good duration of their 6 hour flight!) They also got to see a couple of east coast fireworks displays from an uncommon vantage point! Again, I don't have access to any photos that they took, but thought I would link to some great fireworks photos my friend Connie captured from the Hudson in NY/NJ at her Flickr page here and here.

Day one of their visit found us tooling around Portland, doing some "must dos," like visiting Powell's Books and Music Millenium, walking around the Pearl District, and of course trying some home-brewed beer! Day two, on the hottest day so far this year, we drove just 30-40 minutes outside of town to do a day hike in the Columbia River Gorge. We chose to go up to Triple Falls, part of the Oneonta Trail, just a bit further east from Multnomah Falls. There were definitely people on the trail, but nothing compared with what I imagine Multnomah Falls would have been following a holiday weekend!
Lee, Glenn and J at the trailhead
getting an idea of how wet the spring has been... water levels are HIGH on the Columbia!



The three of Triple Falls


We spent about 3 -3 1/2 hours out there, then made our way back to town for a relaxing afternoon and evening at home. J made one of his fabulous spinach lasagnas and a couple of bottles of wine were opened, some Science Network on the TV, and there were 4 happy campers.

Warm Cool QAL stages 2-3

It took me a little while, but I have finally gotten around to cutting all the squares out (I hope) for my all-batik version of this quilt along.


I've started piecing those into half square triangles, but the real progress is with the original grouping of printed fabrics. I got my HSTs pieced, pressed (though not trimmed) and up on the design wall.


I had put this up as a consideration for the layout, but after all of the lovely comments people have been leaving on Flickr, I'm thinking this is how the quilt should be (though perhaps I'll build it out a little bit to fill the diamonds on the right side and bottom). Thank you, Jeni, for hosting this quilt along!

finishing some unfinished business

Here in Portland we've had a long, LONG winter, a very cool spring, and are only recently seeing any signs of summer (coincidentally, those signs began just about the same day as the official first day of summer). Considering that the best place for me to photograph my finished quilts is hanging from my neighbor's fence along our back yards, I waited until just a little over a week ago to shoot some of the quilts I began much earlier this year.

The first quilt I began in 2011 is this one:
which I've been calling Multi-Faceted in Sherbet, a follow up to an earlier quilt:


I did a post about getting this quilt started back in January, beginning with the gorgeous Philip Jacobs fabric I used on the border, and choosing as many prints as I could muster that pulled the colors from within that print.
The process itself went quite smoothly, and I got a finished quilt top just a few short weeks later, but it was the backing and quilting that really brought it all together. The original "Multi-Faceted..." quilt I quilted myself, echoing one of the off-set diamonds, and had chosen a Kaffe Fasset shot cotton for the backing. That was the best choice I have ever made in my quilting career - introducing me to the beauty that is a quilted shot cotton! And so, I went back to Cool Cottons to find just the right color of shot cotton to back the sherbet quilt... and I found it.

Also, in the meantime, I had been introduced to the flexibility of piecework on the backing. I had so many strips left over from the quilt top that it seemed a waste to throw them back in the scrap bags to be mishandled and forgotten, so I decided to use what I could to spice up the backing on this quilt. And this is what I ended up with:



Now, for the stunning quilting you all see, I have the lovely Melissa Hoffman, a.k.a. Fiddlestitches Quilting, to thank. Based in Newberg, OR, wine country just a bit outside of Portland, she is a wonderful person to have in one's corner, and I have never seen quilting of her's that does anything less than enhance the quilt!

The plan, now, is to continue the line of "Multi-Faceted..." quilts in different colorways, and see what I come up with down the road.

A Bigger Spiderweb

July is my turn to host the Seams Perfect Modern Scrap Bee on Flickr. For months I've known more or less what I would like to do, but have struggled with ways to convey it to my bee-mates. I have my mind set on a spiderweb quilt, primarily in greens and browns.


I want to make this as easy as possible for the girls to have the templates they need without too much extra work or wasted fabric, but I am finding that this might be a losing battle. There are several good resources online for tutorials and paper-piecing templates for the spiderweb block, but most that I have found either run smaller, or have the wrong orientation, or just don't fit, for some reason. That said, here are some links to a couple of the resources that have caught my eye:

Quilter's Cache - Easy Spider Web has what she says is a 12" paper template here, but I've found it actually FINISHES at 12.5". I've added a detailed description of how to adjust this so that it comes back down to a 12" finished block, for those who prefer paper-piecing. Also, the orientation of these blocks is opposite of what I envision, but I think that can be easily remedied by joining the paper-piecing templates on a different edge.

Heather Bostic's tutorial at {House} of A La Mode - http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/2010/06/spider-web-quilt-block-tutorial.html

Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew - http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/04/spiderweb-block-sew-along/

Now, to achieve my optimal goal, I'm going to combine a couple of different techniques. The ladies at Seams Perfect are welcome to choose whichever suits them best (and I'll be sending out little helpers at some point next week).

For doing Fabric Foundation:
In looking through some of the different tutorials, I found Heather's at A La Mode Fabrics to be the clearest for me. She and Elizabeth use a similar foundation piecing method, but the dimensions in Heather's tute (and the overall finished look of her blocks) is much more like what I have in mind, and she does a great job with the photo illustrations and explanations. Now, for my bee-mates who do choose to follow Heather's tutorial here, we are going to make a couple of adjustments:
*First of all, if you prefer to do paper-piecing instead of fabric foundation just follow her instructions on a piece of newsprint or other light-weight paper product. The only real difference is that you will need to start by cutting out pieces of your fabric for that center "kite" section. I will be sending templates for that step shortly.
*We are going to be doing a slightly different size than this tutorial. Where she begins with a 12.5" square of foundation fabric (which is the fabric that shows as your center star or kites), we are going to increase that to 13.25".
The only other change that comes along with this increase is in marking the 2 shorter sides... she says to make marks at 6" up from the bottom corner, but if you could please use the templates I send as your guide, that way everyone has a consistent gauge, regardless of which method she chooses. The easiest way to do this is to line up the right angles at the top and the center point at the bottom inside the 1/4" seam allowance, and mark the long edges along the template. (this SHOULD also be the equivalent of marking 3 3/8" from the top corner (the 90 degree angle) on each side.)

(using Heather's tutorial, but started with a square just slightly too big)
(my second attempt using the same method, with the dimensions listed above)

For printing a Paper-Piecing Template:
I did a test run with the paper-piecing template from Quilter's Cache at this link, and though I did have to make a couple of minor adjustments, it was pretty easy to get it. So, if you prefer using a paper-piecing method, I do ask that you either go with those printouts, following the adjustments I am about to go over, or use Heather's fabric foundation method converted onto newsprint.

The page as it prints from the website - you will need 4 of these for each block

Cut the two triangles apart, leaving the seam allowances intact EXCEPT along the side of section 3 on the piece that does not have the website ID written over it... the piece on the right in the photo above.

Mark a guide line 1/4" INSIDE the printed line on section 2 of the other piece.

Take a glue stick and apply from that line you just marked out to the edge of the paper. Place the other triangle on top, lining up the edge without a seam allowance to the guide line you drew on.

As you can see, because we've changed the size of the template, the center kite guide lines are now uneven. We are going to utilize the fabric foundation piecing method for the next step, just to get back on track. Start by folding the triangle in half so that your points match up accurately. Crease the center, then unfold.



Make a mark where the center crease meets the inside line along the bottom of the template.

Now, using the template I will be sending (or have sent), match the bottom points and the top 90 degree angle and edges, then mark along both sides of the template. This will give you your paper template to start sewing with! (trust me, this process is much quicker than it appears in this step-by-step explanation!!)


Next, choose your solid fabric for your center star on your block, and using the (to be) sent template, trace around, keeping the seam allowances intact, and cut out on your traced lines.



Start your block by lining up the edge of the center piece along the right guideline you marked on the paper template (fabric facing up), then lay one of your strips face down, with the raw edge along that same line. Continue working out from there, pressing open after each strip.
(the finished paper-pieced block)

I had drafted this on my EQ7 program, which has had its benefits, but one of the drawbacks is, though I can access a printable paper-piecing template myself, it won't let me convert into a PDF or JPEG file, nor could I get it to print accurately when I selected Legal paper, in the hopes that I could just print for everyone without having to tape different sheets together (and wasting a ridiculous amount of paper, the way they align the pattern!)
(made with the EQ7 paper-piecing printouts... but couldn't find a way to replicate)

So, we are going with alternate options. Hopefully this post has made some sense, and allows everyone to work within a good comfort zone, but still giving enough guidelines to be clear. If anyone has any questions, do not hesitate to ask me!


Happy quilting!

Thursday is swap day

Last week I came to the realization that I need more structure. Part of that process will be assigning different general projects to different days of the week. For instance, Tuesday is now a "merchandise" day, for making (primarily) place mats and pot holders:





My new schedule allots Thursdays to working on bee and swap projects. Last week I worked on blocks for the do.Good Stitches bee on Flickr. Megan, a.k.a. Canoe Ridge Creations, posted a tutorial on her blog for a simple as pie bow tie block.


She showed us an array of clear, saturated, rainbowy fabrics as inspiration for the palette... which seems to be a trend right now. Not an unwelcome one, I must say.

In addition to the bow tie blocks, I dedicated quite a bit of time to cutting squares for the Warm Cool Quilt Along hosted by Jeni at In Color Order. I shared a little more about this process in my previous post, found here.

This week, however, I moved on to working on 2 other projects, one of which I thought the deadline had passed me by. The Portland Modern Quilt Guild is putting together a banner to represent the group at the annual Sisters' Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, OR, along with a selection of member quilts which will be on display at the show this year (the second Saturday of July, for those who are interested!!). Admittedly, I did not get the memo in time to submit (have I mentioned that I am terrible at keeping up with my blog list and online newsletters??) so I do not have a quilt in the show, but several of my Portland colleagues will, along with hundreds of other Oregon quilters! However, I did get a chance to do a block to be added to the banner for the guild, which I dropped off at this evening's meeting.



I kept going back and forth about what design I would want to use to sum up my quilting style in one 6" block, sketching ideas, but came up with this simply by revisiting my own Flickr photostream. I originally did a quilt from one of Judy Hopkins' books (whose name escapes me right now, I have to admit) several years ago as a wedding gift for some friends.


A perfect way to combine string piecing and working with an awesome modern focus fabric (and this piece of Heather Bailey's Freshcut I have Jenn, Sunnyauh to thank for!!)

But the bulk of the day was dedicated to working on Cruz's blocks for the Seams Perfect Scrap Bee on Flickr. She pointed us toward this tutorial from Freshly Pieced.


I LOVED working on these blocks, though was thrown off by how long it took to actually select each round of 3 fabrics! And I do have to say that it was a challenge to keep my hexagon blocks even as I went around, as can be seen by the wonky angle of a couple of the strips, but hopefully it won't make too much of a difference. Next month is my month to host that bee, and I still have to get my sample blocks and templates together before the end of June, as I think I will have to send out bits for paper piecing... more to come on that one later. All in all, I think this will be a good schedule to keep to, assuming I am able to keep to it!

get to business!

A couple of months ago a friend of mine approached me about making a set of place mats for her to give as a gift to her brother and his partner. Knowing a little bit about the couple for whom they are intended, my self-editing, over-analyzing side went into overdrive. I started one project


and then another


but neither quite worked for me. At least not after studying the photos of their home that were published in an issue of House Beautiful Magazine.

So, I went back to the drawing board, quite literally, and worked on a design that found a happy medium between those two false starts, and had already settled on the one focus fabric, but decided to use only solids to compliment it, and create the full design.





I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I finally think I'm on the right track. Gonna try to get further along with these before setting anything in stone (or even posting new pics to my friend), but hope to have more to share in a couple of weeks.

Warm Cool QAL stage 1b

Over the weekend I played around with my fabric stacks, pulled some new things off my shelves and pulled other pieces away from the stacks, until I had an even 25 "warm" fabrics and 25 "cool" fabrics, intending to work on the baby sized project. In that process, I made the decision to try my hand at 2 simultaneous projects for Jeni's warm cool quilt along, found at her blog, In Color Order. After cutting my 5" squares of the first grouping:



I started in on group #2 - all batiks, aiming for the twin sized version. It's been a long, long time since I have worked on a project using ONLY batiks, but I knew this day would come again! I started cutting down the warm batiks,


though it took longer than I planned due to one heck of a cramp in my right hand (I am not sure whether it was using the weed-whacker or spending an afternoon tearing tickets at the museum, or some combination thereof) that kept me away from my rotary cutter all of Saturday. So the cools have yet to be cut into the appropriately sized squares...



But I aam enjoying just gazing at it all. And so excited about moving forward on this!

Warm Cool QAL stage 1 - fabric selection

I was so eager to get in on the action of Jeni's warm cool quilt along that it's about the only thing I've attended to in my home since arriving back last night. This morning, after my shower and while enjoying my coffee before heading in to work, I went down into my basement and started pulling, pulling, pulling. So far, this is what I have:


Though I KNOW I have more than enough perfectly good options already in my stash, I've already picked up a few pieces while at work to round out what I see as holes in those stacks. In the coming day or two I'll be revisiting my selections, and fine-tuning the group before marching on - but I am definitely looking forward to marching on with this!