I’ve never done a mystery quilt before, so I’m excited to try this one designed by Joyce Geiszler from our quilt guild http://www.quilterchickdesigns.com/. I found these fabrics at Joann’s that are different colors than the pattern but match the light/medium/dark requirements:
The first “clue” is to make about 40 triangles using a new ruler (thanks to coupons and teacher discount). The birds are a directional fabric, but since I don’t know what the final project will look like, I’m not too concerned…in fact I think it will look great, like they’re flying all over the place!
Speaking of birds flying around, the second “clue” is to make flying geese blocks. A whole flock of geese actually. Thanks to Marta, I borrowed her BlocLoc ruler to square up the final blocks, which made it much easier.
At the November Sewing Saturday, Joyce gave us the next two clues (four square patches and square in a square blocks). She helped me with some color choice ideas and techniques for making accurate blocks with cutting/ironing techniques.
Sewing Saturday November 2014
lesson on square in square
finished work for today
Here’s what Marta’s looks like as she finishes sewing the pieces together!
I really enjoy it when people find out I sew and ask “I’ve seen ____ on pinterest/etsy/boutique/store, and I wonder if you could make me one like that.” It stretches me to learn new patterns, work with new fabrics, and personalize something for them.
This summer, my aunt Mary asked me if I could duplicate some owl ipad covers that she saw on Etsy. They were listed for $38 but looked pretty simple in design, and using felt which is an affordable and easy to sew fabric. She already uses a protective cover for her ipad, so this just a cover for her kindergarten students to enjoy. I used an online tutorial and help from my mom to adapt the design.
Cute, right! And the owl body and accent color could be different. I could add other detail or try other animals/designs for embellishment. The loop at the top connects with velcro around the back so that kids can secure the ipad in the case easily.
My aunt also had purchased (from a local bazaar) some potato bags for making baked potatoes in the microwave, but the fabric eventually burned. I followed the pattern on the “Tator Batting” and hopefully my version will be safer! 🙂
Let me know if you’d like me to make a special order for you. Maybe you see another product I made that you’d like in a particular color/fabric scheme, or you see something online that you’d like me to try to make for you….sometimes I procrastinate on finishing such challenges though, I want them to be right, but it takes me awhile to get started. I’ll work on that though since the end results have so far been successful (i.e. doorknob latch, duvet cover, yoga bag, and these two things).
Here’s a quilt that a parent at ISB made for a teacher. Good idea to use this block for signatures and messages woven into the quilt!
I realized tonight (8/22/14) that I haven’t yet written a post for quilt shows. It’s fun to attend quilt shows to get inspiration and see products/fabrics/displays from a wider variety of shops.
This fall, mom and I attended the Quilt Knit Stitch Expo here in Portland, OR. Thanks to Deb at Quilter’s Corner Store for the free tickets!
At this particular fair, many vendors had signs about not taking pictures of their displays. They must have had difficulty of people stealing their designs. So instead, I tried to pick up flyers and information so I can go back later and look at or purchase patterns. Here’s some of the interesting sites to check out:
Kay Mackenzie = a friendly lady who helped me with ideas about how to applique. I told her about my recent attempt (Initially Yours Quilt) and she gave some good advice about going slow and stitching at 90′ around the appliqued design.
Thanks to the reps of Moda for the free mini pack of fabrics and a reminder to visit their bakeshop site for free patterns.
Some great little ideas and colorful projects covered the booth for Pieceful Designs. I especially want to make something like this:
One of the guild activities each year is a Challenge Quilt. This year, it was the theme “Initially Yours”. We were to use either fabrics or styles or images reminiscent of our initials. For me, this was a chance to make a quilt I’ve been thinking about for awhile, a landscape beach scene.
I used the “A”pplique technique of using “F”usible “F”abric and decorative “S”titches. Included are fabrics that imitate “A”qua water, trees in a “F”orest, and “S”andy beaches. There’s even a tidepool and kites flying since those are two of my favorite parts of visiting the ocean.
layout of kites and sun
tree detail stitching
final product
It was fun to see what other people came up with, and many of us used this opportunity to try a new technique. Here are a few that I liked, which turned out to be the three most popular as voted on by the guild members.
3D Lily
Sashiko Hexagons
Blooming Sunflower
(2015) This year’s challenge quilt was to use “neutral + 1 color family + zinger”. It was again interesting to see how people interpreted those “directions”. This was one of my favorites.
(January 2015) This month, Portland quilt maker and artist Sam Hunter brought a trunk show and words of wisdom to inspire our guild members. I bought one of her patterns and enjoyed the variety of her quilts (colors, types of quilting, “crap backs”)
Sam Hunter explaining her quilt
sample of Faster Fourteen
(Fall 2014) This month, Karla Alexander visited the Westside Quilt Guild. Her studio is in Salem, so I’ve seen her work over the years. She is known to be a good teacher, so I’m really excited to sign up for her class in September. At the meeting, she showed many quilts from her new book Stack, Shuffle, and Slide as well as some other quilts from previous patterns/books. I choose two that I like most to buy a pattern for the upcoming class (and borrow the rulers needed). I hope to choose some charity fabrics and donate the quilt when it’s completed.
Marco Polo
I really liked a few other of her quilts, and appreciated hearing how she decided colors/rulers to use plus pointing out the shape of the “block”.
Churn Dash
She included a bunch of wise quilting advice in her presentation:
“I am the boss of my quilts.” meaning that you get to decide the colors, shapes, techniques to include. If you don’t like something, it’s okay to change from the pattern to make it yours.
WRAP “wonder, reflect, appreciate what you’ve done, pause/plan/ponder your next project”
Modern quilts include techniques like “upsetting the grid” meaning that things could be set on their side or at angles that are unexpected. Floating blocks and using the background as a design element also create a more modern look.
Also at this guild meeting during show and tell, I showed my ladybug quilt! There was also a presentation to the previous board president of a collaborative quilt (my block is one of the yellow ones). Also, I made two of the star blocks for the free BOM this time in hopes of winning the stack (someone else won this time though).
Ladybugs finished
July Stars from the guild members
Barn Quilt
I also visited the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. A woman I met at a garage sale encouraged me to attend and a friend who quilts came with me. Turned out there are quite a few women from the Westside guild who go there too, so many of the show and tell quilts were familiar. Here’s a few others that I liked (sorry for poor photo quality):
looks like the Marco Polo quilt
creative use of strips and focus fabric
like the setting of pinwheels and color
from selvages
medallion quilts
I was impressed by the projects by this group, but the organization of the meeting wasn’t comfortable for me. I didn’t feel welcomed as a guest and the updates about things focused on website updates and/or key things that only members would know. There were some quilts donated to an organization but no description given so I had to google them to figure it out (Camp Erin serves kids/teens who are grieving). I was surprised that some of the donated quilts were dreary colors and/or patterns that didn’t look like teenagers to me. Again, maybe working in middle school I’m more tapped into their style. Overall, I think I’ll look online at the PMQG blog for pictures of projects but not make the long drive over to their meetings.
This shop hop, the Row by Row Experience, is nationwide and quite simple. Just visit the participating shops and ask for their free “row by row” pattern. The theme is “seasons” so it might be holiday themed or use the four seasons tree fabric provided by the sponsors. Some shops offer a kit for purchase with the fabrics needed to make it in their color palette. Many shops are also selling license plates with funny fabric/sewing related sayings. I’d like to collect one from each state I visit this summer.
Here’s a few of the blocks I collected in Ohio (pictures courtesy of the shop’s website or from my visit):
Wadsworth, OH
Akron, OH
Medina, OH
example how to use license plates
When I returned to Oregon, I collected another few row patterns and started work on a wall hanging using 8 of the blocks. Since I only bought the fabric pack from two shops, for the rest I used stash fabrics or picked up fat quarters to fill in sections. It was fun to practice some new techniques, like the fusible applique.
Little Red School House row
Just for Fun Quilting row
Holly Hill row
Pine Needle row
Quilter’s Corner Store and Sandra’s Stitches row
Fabric Peddler row
Also, I used a new technique for basting (not pinning) the quilt that mom taught me using two boards to mimic a quilt frame. It worked really well! I also figured out that it would look nice to quilt with two different threads and using diagonal lines since the rows didn’t line up front to back very well. Here are a few more pics of the process:
set up at Piece and Quiet
auditioning fabric placement on row from Tea Time Calicos
basting technique
After a few nights up until midnight sewing, I turned in my finished quilt for the prize at Quilter’s Corner Store. 25 fat quarters in a rainbow of colors ready for inclusion into new projects and 2 yards of anything in the shop (I bought some beautiful batiks for an upcoming quilt project! Tea Time Calico also generously gave me a free yard of fabric for including their row in my final project. It’ll be fun to show the final project at the September WSQ guild meeting.
The Westside Quilter’s Guild includes a group of members who get together to work on Charity Quilt projects. They donate to three or so agencies that provide the quilts to kids in crisis, cancer patients, or foster kids. I’ve been wanting to participate but hadn’t been able to make the day time meeting during the school year. July was the perfect month and it was great to spend a few hours with this kind group of women. They encouraged me to pick out 5″ squares and a bag of binding/sashing strips to put together a quilt using the reconstructed 9 patch pattern used for the spring Charity Quilt Olympics. All the fabrics were donated, and they’re not the usual colors I like to work with, but a good practice experience for me and rewarding to think about giving it away to someone who needs a warm cozy quilt.
I made some progress on creating the 9 patch blocks. I’ll use 12 different fabrics combined in pairs to create some organization, but still a scrappy look. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but most of the blocks are brown/pink/green colors and the sashing will be green.
This summer, I had the great fortune to visit Ohio to celebrate my Grandpa’s 95th birthday with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We enjoyed a picnic in his backyard and hosted an open house for his friends from the community.
Since my Grandma was a quilter (she did the piecing) and my Aunt Jean does hand quilting, being in Ohio reminds me of the origin of this hobby for me. We visited Aunt Jean and at 92, she has two projects going at once. A baby quilt being hand quilted and a cross stitch project:
We also visited Amish country. Since it was Sunday, a day of rest, no shops were open, but if they were, we’d have likely seen horse and buggies parked outside here:
I picked out this ladybug fabric since I’ve always liked ladybugs and thought it would make a cute picnic blanket. I’m using an easy 3 yard quilt pattern (one yard each of three fabrics) and have the red fabric for the back. The plan is to take it to have someone long arm quilt it for me with a winding bug-trail type pattern.
In process on the design wall
Up close to the bugs
Top Finished
The first time we took this quilt out to use for a picnic, a real ladybug landed on it…no kidding! 🙂
When visiting mom in Arizona at spring break, her quilt guild hosted a “Trash to Treasures” sale. It was fun to look through the goodies and I found quite a few treasures, including 12 Amish style blocks ready to put together into a project.
Then, at Powells in here Portland, I found a funny chocolate recipe quilt book for only $1!
At this month’s quilt guild meeting, they had their annual Brown Bag Sale. Some items were available to “ticket and take it” for one or two 25c tickets, other items were a raffle, put your ticket in and hope to win, and a few bigger things were listed on a silent auction. I helped out with the process and came away with a few goodies, mostly patterns and quilt magazines, but also some Christmas fabric, a bilingual panel to give mom for a charity quilt, and a few templates and rules. Great additions to my stash for only $10! I even won the raffle for 3yds of marching band fabric to donate to a friend’s stash (she and her husband are both band directors).
The first “clue” is to make about 40 triangles using a new ruler (thanks to coupons and teacher discount). The birds are a directional fabric, but since I don’t know what the final project will look like, I’m not too concerned…in fact I think it will look great, like they’re flying all over the place!
