teeny tiny trip around the world

at Quiltcon in February, several of my friends took a workshop with Chawne Kimber on piecing teeny tiny squares (1 inch finished) into a #teenytinytriparoundtheworld.  When Debbie came to visit in May, I begged her to teach me, because I wanted to make one too. I'm trying to use all fabrics from my stash for this. The first few rounds went pretty fast (four squares, 8 squares, etc). but this last round of 52 squares took quite a while!

Debbie taught me the secret of how to press the back so it all lays neat and tidy. I think it looks almost as cool as the front!

My project measures about 18 inches square right now. Several friends have asked me how big I intend to make it. My answer? Hmmmm I have no idea! When I get tired of piecing it, or run out of fabric (hahaha) I will stop! Stay tuned.

Solid Seven blocks for Kara

When I first saw Kara's (karascreativeside) prompt for our June Solid Seven Bee blocks I was a little bit stumped. Kara teaches marine science and biology. She wants to create an ocean quilt with lots of fish, sea life, etc. We do seem to have a lot of nature/water lovers in our bee! City girl Ellyn is doing her best to fit in. 

I searched for free paper piecing patterns (they were scarce and most had already been snatched up). In the end, I drafted piecing patterns and put together these three fish for Kara. 

Do go check out her instagram account and see what the others have sent her! I think it's going to be a terrific quilt.

weaving towels

I thought maybe over time I would get tired of weaving kitchen towels. Not so! If anything I am enjoying more and more the process of combining colors and the rhythm of weaving.

This time I warped the loom with one color of 8/2 cotton, a medium gray. Then I wove 2 towels in a combo of coral pink and a lighter gray.

and another towel in a combination of grays and yellows. I find, when I weave with 2 strands of yarn, using two shades of the same color gives my finished weaving some depth. All of these towels were done with waffle weave, using a pick up stick on my rigid heddle loom.

After wet finishing in the washing machine, the edges were bound in polka dot cotton fabric.

The pink one have been sent off to Ally to use in her kitchen (she requested them and chose the colors.

I don't think I will ever get tired of this!

curated quilts challenge

I love a good challenge. The new mini challenge over at Curated Quilts is improv minis with the theme Connections. Here's the color palette they gave....

Lots of people are grumbling about the colors but I kind of like them! I made 2 minis to submit

My first one is pretty literal. As much as I really hate to talk on the phone, with family and friends spread all across the country it has become my lifeline! 

I improv pieced the phone and the letters and embroidered the coiling cord. I mostly used solids, but the phone is a cotton and steel basic print.

For my second mini I was more abstract. 

This one is all solids. I used some of my newly acquired improv skills, like the skinny inserted strips. I also used lots of negative space. I tend to over do sometimes, and I want to practice more minimalism. This one is matchstick quilted in gray and yellow thread. If you're going to tackle matchstick quilting, I highly recommend doing it on a little quilt FIRST (this one is about 10 inches square) rather than learning on a bigger quilt like I did. 

I did a faced binding on both little quilts. 

I had a lot of fun with these and have linked them here. There are some really wonderful quilts linked up there.... you should go and check them all out!