A trip to Arkansas

Well, that was an unplanned and unexpected blog break! I wish I had a fabulous, exciting excuse but I don't. I do have a lot of things to share with you. I'll begin with the most recent fun I had and work backwards!

This week I had the honor of speaking for the Modern Quilt Guild of North West Arkansas. I shared the story of my Through Ellyn's Eyes project with them and the members were very engaged and asked lots of questions. I hope they were also inspired to perhaps begin projects of their own!

My friend Chris went with me on this fun road trip and served as my driver/quilt holder. She's great fun to travel with.

We got to spend some extra time with our friend, Elizabeth Ray. She gave us lots of ideas for fun things to do in the area and restaurants to try. We had delicious crepes for lunch on Tuesday and talked and talked.... oh, and we might have had ice cream for dinner before the guild meeting. shhhh....

Our good friend Christina invited us to stay with her while we were in town. Christina was a guild mate of ours in the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild years ago and now lives in NW Arkansas. Yes, we did drag her to the guild meeting and introduced her to them..... they are lucky to have her as a new member!

Christina's fun loving puppy, Bear, welcomed us warmly and enjoyed lots of pets while we were visiting.

 All in all it was a very fun trip. I'd love to share my story with more guilds...... feel free to send me a message if you'd like me to come to you!

2021 year in review

 Whew! What a year! While it would be easy to focus on all of the crazy negative things going on in the world right now (no, I'm not going to list them. you already know!) I'm choosing to focus on the positive. And there sure was a lot of it in my world this year. Here are the highlights.... so I never forget how blessed I was in 2021.

Urban Emergence

In February, my group quilt, Urban Emergence was part of Quiltcon Together, the virtual MQG show that replaced in person Quiltcon this year. It was my very first quilt accepted into Quiltcon. Imagine my surprise when I won first place in my category! As if this wasn't enough, it was chosen for publication in the Quiltcon magazine! What an honor!

Later that month, Sarah Goer and I formed a pARTnership, inspired by Danielle Krysa's In 

tandem Art project. Sarah and I have continued to meet on Zoom every two weeks all year long, encouraging each other in our artistic journeys. One of the greatest things to come out of our friendship is the start of our new improv bee, Quilts Unscripted. This group is incredibly talented and inspiring! 

Again in 2021, I was able to participate in the Virtual Quilt Guild where I met so many amazing quilters. One relationship that came out of that group is my collaboration with Karen Bolan. Karen and I have also been meeting often on Zoom and have shared a collaborative quilt project (Welcoming Lamp), a series of blog posts (Exploring Collaboration) and coming soon..... a published article on Collaboration in Curated Quilts magazine! This was completed in 2021 and will be arriving in mailboxes early 2022.

Welcoming Lamp

One other thing I am so proud of this year is the completion of my Through Ellyn's Eyes project. When I set out on a six month personal journey to create a cohesive body of work and explore my creative voice it seemed daunting at best. The more I worked through it, the more joyful it became. I am so lucky to have had the time and the resources to complete this project and look forward to sharing it with guilds in the coming year.

Through Ellyn's Eyes quilts

So, 2021 proved to be a productive, fun year for me. Most of these things were not even on my radar a year ago, so who knows what 2022 will bring? Regardless, I look forward to sharing it with you. Happy New Year everyone!

itty bitty improv

Well, despite all my fussing, I did finish 20 quilts for my Through Ellyn's Eyes project before the end of the year! As I had speculated, it's TINY! Finishing at just 7"x9", thus the name itty bitty improv, it would make a good mug rug. 

I played with some spiky triangles, one of the very first techniques I learned when Debbie (A Quilter's Table) came to teach our guild years ago. It's one I return to often and was fun to revisit in just two colors, Kona Corn Yellow and Glacier. Quilted very quickly on my domestic machine with some accent hand quilting big stitched in at the end. 

I will admit to feeling a bit of a letdown with this project wrapping up. I look forward to compiling my conclusions (I will share some here later. If you'd like to hear a detailed report and see all of the quilts in person, let your guilds program chair know I'd love to come visit!). 

Scalloped Rainbow

 Even with the business of the holiday season, I managed to complete quilt #3 in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series! I give you Scalloped Rainbow. 

What began as a stack of improv quarter circle blocks made on a whim at the day retreat center became this fun mini that measures 14"x24". Grid quilted and faced all on my domestic machine. I used the full rainbow of colors from my series for this one: Kona Red, Orange, Tangerine, Corn Yellow, Chartreuse, Glacier and Capri. 

I might be finishing up one more (tiny!) quilt to bring the number to a nice even 20, but I'm delighted with where I am so far. 

Magic Machine

How did it take me until the 18th quilt in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series to make a quilt representing my favorite machine of all time, my magic sewing machine? I turns pieces of fabric into art, something I could never do on my own. For those who might wonder, I sew/quilt on a Janome 6600 that I love.

This little quilt is 18"x18" quilted with my walking foot. Colors used are Kona Chartreuse and Black. Simple simple!

Quilt #19 is also finished and 20 is underway. Looks like I will reach my self imposed goal of 20 minis by year end after all.  

 

scrap soup

I'm quickly approaching my (self imposed) end of the Through Ellyn's Eyes series. I've kept all of the scraps from my quilts along the way and one day I just started to play around sewing them together. I would call this a big crumb block, but honestly, many of the scraps were bigger than crumb sized so.... whatever. 

I decided to only use some of the colors to keep the scrappiness somewhat under control. The colors I used in this one are  Kona Corn Yellow, Chartreuse, Glacier and Capri with borders in Kona Black. This one finished at only 12x13".

As usual, I quilted it with my walking foot on my domestic machine and big stitched the binding with size 8 perle cotton.

 so, quilt #17 in the series is finished. #18 and #19 are both underway! I've set a goal of 20 minis for this series by the end of the year and I do believe I'll reach it! 

I'm beginning to line up speaking engagements for 2022 and would love to share more about this series with your guild!

Just Me

 Quilt #16 in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series is pretty simple to explain.... It's simply my initials, EHZ, in a bold, graphic design. I drew it up on graph paper first, then set to piecing.  It came together pretty quickly. The only tricky part was getting the half square triangles in the angle of the Z to line up properly. Yes, there was a seam ripper involved. But the end result was worth it.

This quilt was made with Kona black, red, chartreuse and capri. It was quilted on my domestic machine with a walking foot and big stitch hand bound in red.

It isn't lost on me that my 6 month project is quickly coming to the end. I will continue working on this series until the end of the year... which is SOON! I will miss it when I finish but I've learned so much doing it. I can't wait to share my revelations with you. I'm also putting together a guild lecture all about it. I hope some of you will invite me to share what I've learned with your guilds. 

Funky Dresden Revisited

For the fifteenth quilt in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series, I decided to revisit and old favorite technique of mine, the funky dresden. I've made many variations of this wonky dresden over the years but never combined lots of them into one quilt like this! I must say it was great fun and I rather love the ending result.

For this quilt I used Kona Black, Corn Yellow, Chartreuse and Capri. The finished quilt is 33x44, the biggest quilt in my series so far and, for that matter, the biggest quilt I have quilted with my walking foot on my domestic machine! I quilted it in a simple diamond pattern and bound it with a big stitch on the front. I'm really loving binding wall quilts this way.

I use a size 8 pearl cotton and a chenille needle (size 22 or 24) when I big stitch. I also find the green needle threader below to be a valuable tool when working with pearl cotton. It's made by Clover and it is so sturdy! 

As usual, I couldn't resist throwing in a couple of cross stitches along the way...

So, fifteen quilts done and about six weeks to go!

 

Welcome to my Neighborhood

The more I play with buildings in quilts the more fun I have! This one is the 14th quilt in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series and I had so much fun creating this little rainbow neighborhood...

I especially love the way the slant black roofs look on this one. I think I'll probably be moving into the yellow house.... I like the big window!  You?

 This one measures 16"x18" and I walking foot quilted it on my domestic machine. The colors I used are Kona black, red, tangerine, corn yellow, chartreuse, glacier and capri.

Triangle Trees

 Who else loves a good sew-along? I was excited when Nicholas Ball announced another Improv Triangle Sew-along this month. His improv book is one of my very favorites and his triangle method is the best. First I thought, can I do this? I don't want to neglect my Through Ellyn's Eyes project. boo. Then I thought, wait! What if I make it part of my project?! Jackpot. 

This time around, Nicholas encouraged us to make our triangles holiday trees. I pulled the colors from my project that speak Christmas to me, Kona Red, Chartreuse, Glacier and Capri with a bit of Kona White thrown in. 

First up, make a pile of triangle blocks...

look at the awesome snow capped trees! suggested by Nicholas

Then I started moving them around on my design wall. This is one of my favorite parts of improv quilting...

My layout changed a bunch of times before I landed on this completed quilt. Here it is, all done! It's the biggest quilt in my series so far, 43"x25". Walking foot quilted in all the colors on my domestic machine and faced for a nice clean edge.

like my cute shoelaces? I wove them on my inkle loom

You can see the quilting better in this photo. I love where the colors cross at the bottom...

So there it is! Quilt #13, Triangle Trees! 

Down the Rabbit Hole

I've finished the 12th quilt in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series and it is a bright and happy one. I'm calling it Down the Rabbit Hole because several people mentioned that it had an Alice in Wonderland vibe to it.

Basically, this is a very improv log cabin, if you look closely, with a very loose courthouse steps layout (warm colors on the sides, cool colors top and bottom). I'm prepping to teach an improv log cabin class and thought it would be awesome to add some more samples to my class prep. The finished mini measures 15"x19".

 I channel quilted straight-ish lines 1/2" apart on my domestic machine and used all of the colors from my series in this one..... which is a bit wild, but I like it! 

So, here are the 12 quilts finished for my series so far, with more in the works!  Which one is your favorite?

Harlequin Maze

Where does your quilty inspiration come from? I just never know when it's going to hit me. A couple weeks ago I found myself really studying the stained glass windows in the chapel at church (I know, I know, pay attention Ellyn. And I was, I promise.)

These windows are so incredibly beautiful. This particular day, it was those diamond shapes that spoke to me. 

By the time I turned them into a quilt, they had changed a lot. First off, the color. And then, I started removing some of the dividing lines. Soon this maze evolved.        

I had already made a bunch of black and white quarter square triangle blocks. They were just hanging out on my design wall patiently waiting to be used. Add in a curvy line and a bunch of tiny floating triangles and Harlequin Maze began to evolve. I quilted it with my walking foot and big stitched the binding in red. Presto! Quilt #11 in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series was done in no time.

Colors used: Kone Black, White and Red.

Fall Leaves

 

I love when challenges collide and I am able to use one project to fill multiple challenge spots! That was the case with Fall Leaves. As you can see, I used my Through Ellyn's Eyes colors, Kona black, red, orange, tangerine and glacier. I used the maple leaf tutorial here,  which was a challenge put forth by my guild, McKinney Modern Quilt Guild. The finished quilt is 18" square.

I quilted a diagonal grid on my domestic machine and big stitch hand stitched the binding down. Quilt #10 in my series is done and #11 and #12 are both underway! 

Country Church Quilt

Quilt #9 in my Through Ellyn's Eyes series is finished and it makes me really happy. It's a simple little country church and it has a lot of meaning for me.

Two of my late great uncles were Presbyterian ministers. This has carried on through the generations. I am still a Presbyterian today and my faith is an important piece of who I am.The uncle I knew best was Uncle Les. His church was a sweet little country church in upstate New York. In addition to pastoring, Uncle Les and Aunt Delia had a farm. Mostly they harvested grapes that were sold to Welches. I have fond childhood memories of visiting them in their country farmhouse.

 More walking foot quilting on this one, Also, I'm really becoming fond of big stitch hand bindings on my quilts.

My collection of quilts is growing and I am seeing some distinct themes developing. Which quilt is your favorite so far?

 

Going Up!

Eight weeks into my Through Ellyn's Eyes project and I'm still having so much fun. Beginning to see some patterns and learn some things about myself so that's awesome. This week I dipped back into buildings. I love buildings and architecture and find so much inspiration in cities. 

While I have a bunch of things sketched out in my sketchbook, when this week rolled around I really didn't know what I wanted to make. It kind of freaked me out a bit! I am always itching to get started on my next mini in the project but this week I kind of hit a wall. Nothing inspired me. Luckily I had other things to work on and deadlines to meet, so I kept busy. Very late in the week I had this vision of a ladder climbing up to a high, open window.....

Going up has a story to tell... what do you think it is? Did someone already climb up through the window? A forbidden boyfriend perhaps, sneaking in behind her paren't backs? A mischievous teenager who had snuck out after curfew? A burglar? YIKES! What do you think the story is?

I love how this one plays with my City Windows quilt. Both have a cartoonish feel, don't you think?

Eight quilts finished so far! Where do you think I'll go next?
 

Barn Quilt

 Quilt number 7 is complete for the Through Ellyn's Eyes project. In keeping with my buildings theme, this one is a barn. A tiny barn! With a teeny tiny barn quilt....

that teeny tiny barn quilt measures 3/4" square. Yup. It's so tiny.

I used Kona Red, Capri and Chartreuse, and Kona Corn Yellow and Glacier for the itty bitty quilt part. The finished quilt is 18"x20" and was quilted on my domestic machine with a walking foot. I added a little bit of hand stitching on the barn.

So, seven weeks and seven mini quilts! Onward...