Plaidish 2

 In an effort to use my scraps this summer, I decided to jump on the plaids bandwagon and make a Plaidish 2 quilt. This quilt is a free tutorial from Kitchen Table Quilting and it's a good one! The quilt top was fun to make and when it was finished, hubby declared it one of his favorites. I decided right then and there to finish it up for him for Christmas.

My friend Anne quilted it for me on her longarm. We bartered for woven towels and shoe laces, which I was so happy to make for her! 

It's a great big quilt, 69"x86", which I knew hubby would love for tv snuggling in the evenings. He was very happy when he opened it up on Christmas morning.

A couple of weeks before Christmas I told him I was making him a Christmas gift and I challenged him to do the same. If you look carefully in the photo above, you can see my gift behind him.

He built me a wonderful storage unit for my rigid heddles and shuttles! It's perfect and much needed.

Christmas sure was different this year, with none of the kids here to celebrate (we visited all of them on zoom) but we made the best of it and enjoyed each other's company. I'm so happy my kids are all choosing to stay safe and make wise decisions. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.

The Big Easy Quilt, AMH version

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to test Alice and Catherine's soon to be released pattern, The Big Easy Quilt. This is an awesome pattern using fat quarters,  perfect for big prints. My test quilt (which still needs to be quilted!) was made all from my stash. If you've been following me for a while, you might guess that it was not an easy feat for me to come up with prints to use! But I did it, and I'll share that quilt with you down the road.

While we were working on our test quilts, Alice shared a version that she had made using Anna Maria Horner prints and I fell in love with it. I have always been a fan of AMH florals, but never knew what to do with them. Finally I had my answer! I immediately began collecting prints for my own version.

This has quickly become my go to snuggle quilt for evening tv watching! 

I couldn't bear to waste the leftover thin strips, so I pieced them into my pieced backing. I must say, the back makes me almost as happy as the front.

Diann and Jeff from Happy Quilts quilted it for me, perfection as always! And the quilting pattern Diann chose is absolutely perfect with the prints. 

I promise to update here as soon as this awesome pattern is available. Also, I have one more quilt finish to share with you before the end of the year. 

ornament swap

Every year the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild has a great ornament swap during our December meeting which is a fun Holiday party. Of course, this year looked much different. Our party was on Zoom, so there was no stealing of ornaments. boo. that part is always fun! Instead, swappers signed up ahead of time. The Saturday before our meeting, swap fairies flew all around the city and swapped out the packages that had been left by the front door of each member's home. Then we waited until our meeting on Tuesday to open up our packages.

I ended up swapping ornaments with Kacey, a fun new member of our guild. I found this cute squirrel ornament pattern in a recent quilting magazine and had everything I needed to make him. Kacey seemed to like him!

Meanwhile, I received this beautiful hand embroidered holiday hoop from her. I just love it! Such beautiful handwork.

This meeting also marked the end of my two year term as president of our guild. The time really flew by! I had so much fun leading our guild with incredible board members alongside me. Now I get to be a regular member and be surprised every month by the fun activities. 

weaving

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged! I've been very busy filling weaving orders for kitchen towels. I'd love to fill my etsy shop with towels, but I can't seem to get ahead of the special orders. It's a great problem to have.

I saw someone warping their loom on you tube (can't for the life of me remember who it was) and she had a board with multiple pegs to help keep her warp even. I showed it to hubby and he set to work building me one! It works really well....

Here are just some of the towels I have woven and shipped off in the last month or so...

                               

 I still have several orders to fill then I can start to fill my shop!

Inkle weaving

 Not a lot of quilting going on here these days. I've been flooded with weaving orders, which I love! In the last month I've woven a dozen towels and there are more on the loom now. At the same time, I've been keeping my smaller, inkle loom busy too. I've woven several pair of shoe laces and a couple other projects I'll share with you today.

A friend asked if I could make a camera strap for her to give as a gift. I did some research, ordered some hardware, and set to work. I'm thrilled with how it turned out and she was too.

The woven band is about 2 inches, the widest I've woven! 

When I got an order for a guitar strap, I knew I could do it! Similar band, only longer, and different hardware. A few you tube videos later and I had it all mastered.

I even sewed one of my leather labels on the back, the perfect touch I think. In case you are wondering, the yarn I used is #10 crochet cotton.

I'll be getting back to my sewing machine soon but in the meantime, my looms are keeping me happy and busy!

My Midcentury Modern Quilt

Eek! This is a big finish for me. Well, not literally. It's actually not a huge quilt, about 46"x48", but the whole process of the making was fun and new.

Somehow, a couple of months ago, I became intrigued by midcentury modern graphics. At some point I decided to try drafting some into quilt blocks. It began with color selection. Even this part took several days, as I auditioned different colors from my stash, let them sit, switched some out, etc etc. These are all Moda Bella and Kona cottons

Then the designing and assembly began! Some blocks were entirely pieced, or paper pieced. This diamond block proved to be especially tricky.

Other blocks lended themselves more to raw edged appliqué...

and this block required a combination of traditional piecing and appliqué...

Several instagram followers asked if I would provide a pattern for my quilt after I finished. After mulling it over a bit, my answer was no, I would not. First off, I pretty much designed each block on the fly! I have some rough sketches I made along the way, but no precise measurements or any of that. Second, I selfishly wanted my quilt to be one of a kind. I struggled with that, but in the end that was my decision.

I delivered my finished topper to my friend Diann at Happy Quilts to work her quilty magic. She found the perfect design (she always does!) which reminds me of the Jetsons in a way.

Those cosmic swirly star shapes really added to the mood of the quilt I think.

Today we had a guild zoom sew day and it was the perfect opportunity to stitch down the binding. Such a satisfying finish.

oh, and can we take a moment to appreciate my wild and crazy covid curly hair? slightly out of control. haha!

 

vote

 Hubby and I early voted in Texas yesterday. I've been voting for more than 50 years and have never felt as passionate about voting as I do this year. There is so much at stake in our nation right now and the obligation (and privilege) to vote has been heavy on my mind.

The line was not long yesterday at the polls, and it moved quickly. They had great safety measures in place and everyone was wearing masks and socially distant. 20 minutes from arrival to finish... not bad!

In a very timely manner, our Improv small group, the Comedy Club Quilters, chose "VOTE" as our quilty prompt this month. I made this postcard to share...

I used Sarah's great tutorial posted here.  I'd really like to make more postcards. Maybe I'll do all of our monthly prompts as postcards so I have a collection!

I hope you have a plan to get out and vote!

an outdoor photo shoot

 Is anyone else desperately missing their quilting buddies? Our improv small group has been meeting on Zoom since March but it's just not the same. Since the Texas weather is finally cooling down (hooray for fall!) we decided to do an outdoor quilt photo shoot at a nearby park. We met at the park in the morning on a perfect, cool and cloudy day and got some beautiful photos of our quilts.

Five of us met, we all wore masks and social distanced to keep each other safe. There was a pretty gazebo that served as a nice backdrop for most of the quilts.

This is a charity improv quilt we made as a group last year.

There was also a beautiful bridge over a pond where we got some gorgeous pictures! I love the way the quilt reflects in the water in this shot. This gorgeous quilt was made by my friend Chris.

There is an old train car at the park and it was a great backdrop for groups of quilts.

Many people wandered by to see what we were up to. It was fun to chat with them and share our work. A mini outdoor quilt show!

I think this is my favorite photo of the day, another one of Chris's quilts

We got a great shot of our guilds charity quilts that are ready to be donated to the kids at CASA in December.

It was a wonderful day and a safe way to spend time with friends! Do you have a favorite spot for quilty photo shoots?

Bee blocks

 Here's an update on bee blocks I've sent out to my Solid Seven beemates in recent months. If you're not familiar with our bee, you can follow our shenanigans on instagram at #thesolidseven. We work only in solids.

In July, we made these awesome paper pieced blocks for E.A. She sent us the fabrics she wanted and we could place them in the block however we wanted.

In August, Sarah requested these tic tac toe blocks. She provided us with her desired color palette.

I had so much fun making them, I decided to make a whole baby quilt with them for yet another great niece who arrived this month.

Laura was queen bee in September and her paper strip pieced blocks were so fun and cheerful...

And finally, Nicole requested these blocks for October (yes, they are done and ready to mail. don't hate me). They are improve curves based on Maria Derse's Palette print...

This group inspires me so much! I can't wait to see what we get to do next.

variations on Geo Pop

 When my friend Jayne, over at Twiggy and Opal started sharing her Geo Pop pattern in different variations, I decided to see how small I could make one! I pulled out some of my solid scraps and made this citrussy version...

Each block is 1 1/2" finished so the mini finished at 9"x12". pretty small but, of course, Jayne made a smaller one hahaha, which you can check out on her instagram.

Our Improv small group is doing a placemat swap. In August I needed to make a placemat for my friend Anne who had chosen pink and green. I enjoyed making the Geo Pop so much I decided to do a variation of it for Anne...

This one measures 12"x18".  Anne brought me this placemat (my chosen colors are black and white)

I love it! It will be fun to collect different placemats from my friends over the next few months.

Of course I didn't stop there with the Geo Pop quilts. A new great niece was on the way (she has since arrived and her quilt has been delivered). I thought a pink baby sized quilt was in order.

I quilted it with a simple grid on my domestic machine. 

Can you tell I really love this pattern? Jayne really hit it out of the park with this one!

Denim shirt remix

Years ago, hubby bought me this cute denim shirt from the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. I wore it a lot at first, but for a long time it's just been hanging in my closet. I decided to revamp it into something fresh and new.

A quick trip into the local quilt store and I had some gorgeous Ruby Star Society fabric and a couple of spools of 8 weight thread in coordinating colors.

In a jiffy i had this cute tunic all done! I added a gathered "skirt" with the fabric and embroidered flowers above the front pocket and on the back .

 Now I can't wait for fall so I can wear it! We've been having lots of 100+ degree days here in Texas, not exactly conducive to long sleeved denim shirts! For now it's safely tucked back in my closet.

doodling

 

I've followed Alisa Burke for a long time. I just love her art, the whimsical style, huge flowers, vivid colors. So, when she recently offered her doodle it out class 50% off I jumped at the opportunity (it's still on sale as of today! quick, go sign up!). 

Thirty days of video tutorials and prompts went by so fast!

I worked on cardstock, doodling with Sharpie markers, no special supplies needed.

I really didn't think I could draw faces, but with Alisa's excellent instruction I pulled it off! And buildings...

I found myself really looking forward to each day's lesson. Bonus, Ally said she wanted to color them! For her birthday I made copies of some of my favorites on cardstock(just used my printer) and I mailed them to her with a new set of colored markers.

I'm so glad I did this! now I'm eyeing up some of Alisa's other classes.