Friday, October 28, 2016

back to my childhood! bee quilt finish

You all remember the 1970s right? Everything was neon bright, yellows, oranges, lime green? Ok, maybe some of you don't remember. You young things, you! But the rest of you know what I'm talking about. In the early 70s I was that preteen girl who wore smiley faces (for you young kids, you would call this an emoji) on her t-shirts. One year I was a smiley face for Halloween! Wish I had a picture of THAT! We moved into a new house when I was in the fifth grade. My bedroom was perfect, bright yellow walls, built in bookshelves under the eves. Everything was perfect EXCEPT for the butterfly wallpaper on the front wall. Yuck. It was very girly and not my style. 

One day, I asked my mom (please note she was on the telephone and distracted at the time) "if I tear down that ugly wallpaper, will you paint my wall orange while I'm at camp?" Not hearing me at all, she waved her hand at me, "yeah yeah" and went back to her call. That was all I needed! I ran upstairs and 15 minutes later I was back with armloads of ripped up wallpaper. That got her attention! But, she had promised. When I returned from camp a couple weeks later, my wall was bright orange.

Mom also helped me acquire an orange shag rug and a bright geometric quilt for my bed. She even painted my desk bright yellow. I was a happy girl.

40+ years and a generation later, both of my older kids LOVE orange (Steve had us paint his bedroom wall bright orange years ago. That's my boy!) and when we moved to this house a couple years ago, Ally had us paint one wall of her bedroom bright pink. They are my kids for sure.

To Ally's credit, her tastes are more subdued and mature than mine. She paired her pink wall with black and white, a color scheme she has carried with her to her new apartment. With her room empty, I decided it needed a new quilt to welcome her home on visits and other visitors in her absence.
Pardon the bad lighting, but here it is! She isn't terribly fond of the change, but her black bedding is tucked into the closet for her to use when she's here.

This is my latest bee quilt from my Sew Bee It group with the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild. I gave each of the girls fat quarters of three of the four colors (pink, orange, yellow and green) and a fat quarter of white and asked them to make me two different blocks from Sew Mama Sew's 2015 Modern block of the month. The blocks I received back were fantastic! Of course, since I have sixteen blocks, some are duplicates. Turns out none of the blocks are in triplicate which is perfect. And the blocks that are from the same pattern look so different from each other because of color placement. Can you even find the four duplicate blocks?

I used a simple setting, a row featuring each of the four colors with wide white sashing in between. My friend Diann added her magic on the longarm...

I love the modern triangles with the swirls to add some movement to an otherwise very angular quilt.
You might be able to see that she used a variegated thread, with citrusy orange, yellow & lime green which was the perfect choice. I made a scrappy binding, using all of the solids found in the quilt.

Also, this is finish #2 for me in the fourth quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. How is your quarter shaping up?

Thursday, October 20, 2016

wonky dresden neighborhood

Welcome to my Wonky Dresden Neighborhood! About a month ago I took this fun class from Martha Lindberg at Not Your Mama's Quilt Store. For me, one of the best parts of taking a class is seeing how different everyone's projects look just based on different fabric choice...

I started with a layer cake of all of the new grunge colors & I just love how mine came together. But everyone elses are so cool too! Makes me want to make another one. 

My finished quilt is 26 inches square.

And, I'm happy to say, this is my first finish for the fourth quarter in the Finish Along! 




Monday, October 10, 2016

NYC 2016

Last weekend I jaunted off to the Big Apple to visit my oldest daughter, Leigh Anne...
The main purpose of this visit was for the two of us to attend the She Is Free conference, hosted by her church, Liberty Church NYC. There's an incredible video here, if you want to see more about She Is Free. It was an incredible weekend!

We ate lots of great (gluten free!) food in NYC, of course. And on Sunday, after the conference had ended, I requested a trip to Purl Soho which Leigh Anne politely agreed to (she did not acquire the crafty gene sadly). I had been planning my purchase from Purl Soho and saving for it for quite a while. 

Isn't it beautiful? A fat eighth bundle of 56 different pieces of Liberty Lawn. OH. MY. GOODNESS. and since Liberty Lawn is 54 inches wide, a fat eighth is 9" X 27" which means even more incredible goodness! I plan to stretch this fabric and include it in many many projects. But I wasn't home long before I selected 30 prints and cut a 2 1/2" strip from each, prepping pieces for an English Paper Pieced plus quilt. 

I have dreamed of a liberty version of this quilt ever since I made my first EPP Plus quilt last year. When I finished prepping, I had a pile of tiny strips of Liberty on my cutting table and I couldn't bear to throw them away....
My friend Mahriam, the queen of "no scrap left behind" suggested I put them in a pretty jar! Brilliant. So off I went to Walmart where I got this cute, tiny jar for less than $3.
It was the perfect size! And now I will always have a little bit of Liberty making my studio a happy place...
I have added my EPP Plus Liberty quilt to my fourth quarter goals for the finish along.



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Saturday, October 8, 2016

Finish along fourth quarter goals

After an amazing third quarter, where I set my goals high (and reached them!) things are going to slow way way down in the fourth quarter here. I am scheduled for a knee replacement (did you know they make them custom now? pretty amazing) the first of November and my recovery, combined with the upcoming holidays will force me to take things easy in the sewing department.

That said, I do have some things I'd love to get done. So here goes....

1) Last month I took an awesome Wonky Dresden Neighborhood class from Martha Lindberg at Not Your Mama's Quilt Store. I love my resulting quilt top & am thinking of making it into a giant pillow. Or maybe a mini? Whichever, it needs to be quilted and completed.


2) These bee blocks have been waiting patiently to be made into a quilt top. My Bee mates did such a fabulous job on them and I plan to add a few more blocks to the mix and at least get the topper done and off to the quilter in quarter 4.


3) This deserves a whole post which I promise in the next day or two. A recent trip to NYC resulted in a beautiful bundle of Liberty Lawns. I promptly cut into them and prepped an English Paper Piecing project to do while I am off my feet. I think an EPP Plus Quilt entirely out of Liberty will be so yummy. 

So that's it. Anything else I get done will be gravy. What do you plan to get done by the end of the year? I'm linking up at A Quilter's Table.





Tuesday, October 4, 2016

2016 finish-along, third quarter finishes



Whew, I did it! When I set my goals for the third quarter I didn't even begin to imagine I'd finish them all, BUT I DID! Yay! Here are links to my finishes.....


My Small World is done! I'm really proud of this one. It was a major project & I enjoyed it so much.

My swap for the Triad meets Mckinney swap is done, delivered & appreciated! This was so much fun to do.

Ally's pillows are happily hanging out on her couch, or wherever college kids keep pillows! ha!

My girls have matching San Francisco Swing Dresses and they both love them. 

The Pow Wow quilt has been delivered to a sweet new baby boy in Ohio and he is enjoying it very much.

So there you have it. Third quarter was a huge success for me! I'm linking up over at A Quilter's Table.