Improv Challenge

 The other day over lunch my friend Chris and I were celebrating the near completion of a recent collaboration (more on that soon!) and wondering what we should do next. We tossed around lots of ideas and finally landed on a fun improv challenge. It will allow the two of us to make quilts simultaneously following the same biweekly prompts. It will be fun to see how different our quilts end up! Here's the really exciting part.... we'd love for you to play along. 

Every other Monday Chris and I will each be spinning a wheel we've created on the app tiny decisions. My wheel will determine a technique/shape that is to be created. Chris will spin her color wheel twice, giving us two colors to work with. Use one, use both, add another color of your choosing... there really are no rules. During the next two weeks, work with the selected technique and colors. Make a quilt block, ten quilt blocks, add to a previous block, you get to choose.

Are you ready? Here is the first prompt for our challenge:

We can't wait to create stripes in pink/purple! If you join in, post your improv on Instagram using the hashtag #improvchallenge2024 and follow Chris and I at @scarf.mama and@ellynz.

I'll be posting our next prompt here and on my instagram feed in two weeks!

Quilts Unscripted Bee Blocks

Quilts Unscripted Bee continues to inspire me! In September, Carole challenged us to make blocks that represent Time in a  prescribed color palette. Songs about time kept coming to me, including my favorite song of all time, James Taylor's Secret of life....

One part of the song says "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time... any fool can do it. there ain't nothing to it. nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill. But, since we're on our way down, might as well enjoy the ride". It always makes me think of a roller coaster! That's what I was going for here.

Block two was time "slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future...

And yes, I do know block three looks like olives! hahaha so it goes with improv.... it's an hourglass with sand keeping track of time. Hey, I tried!

Chris had September and asked us for black blocks with bright lines that intersect.... or don't. Basic geometry. I loved it! I know Chris is a rainbow fan so block one was a rainbow....

blue and green lines for block 2....

and a rainbow ladder for block 3,

 I'm really enjoying this bee! If you want to follow our shenanigans, check out our hashtag on instagram, #quiltsunscripted.

Through Ellyn's Eyes

In the last several weeks, an idea has been percolating in my brain. Today I am putting it out there for the world (or at least a few of you!) to read, so that you can hold me responsible and follow along with my wacky plan. So here we go!

Much of this idea came to me after reading Lisa Congdon's book, Find Your Creative Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic. Actually, reading it for the second time, highlighting portions that spoke to me (honestly, it would have been easier to highlight what didn't speak to me! ha!).  This book really got me thinking. What is MY creative voice? Do I even have one? I decided it was worth the time and effort to go chasing after it. Thus, Through Ellyn's Eyes was born. Here's what I know so far:

Goal: To create a cohesive body of work in an effort to develop my own voice.

Timeline: Six months, July-December 2021. I am planning to commit 10+ hours per week to this project. 

Colors: Use of seven specific Kona Cotton Solids, plus black and white. Narrowing down my colors proved to be a chore, but I am happy to say, this step has been completed.

The colors I will be working exclusively with are:

•     Kona White
•     Kona Black
•     Kona Red
•     Kona Orange
•     Kona Tangerine
•     Kona Corn Yellow
•     Kona Chartreuse
•     Kona Glacier
•     Kona Capri

Although I will use only these colors, I do not intend to use EVERY color in EVERY piece of work.

Other parameters: Based on my current personal trends, these are my intentions, which may evolve as the project progresses. I plan to make a series of mini quilts, allowing me to walking foot quilt them on my domestic machine. I also plan to include some pearl cotton hand stitch accents in most or all of the quilts. These will all be original designs. Modern characteristics that I currently focus on include high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism and use of negative space. I intend to incorporate many of these in each piece. 

Lastly, I will continue to dabble in other creative work outside of this project. So, you will continue to see bee blocks, other quilts, weaving, etc in this space. I will document this project both here and on my instagram account, using the hashtag #throughellynseyes. If you peek over there now, you will see that I have already been working on my first quilt for this series! I'll share more about that very soon.

I hope you'll follow along, give me feedback and maybe even begin an exploratory journey of your own!

Improv triangle sew along

Ever since I received  Nicholas Ball's book, Inspiring Improv, for Christmas I've been intrigued with his techniques. So when he announced his improv triangle sew along on Instagram, I was gently nudged by friends and decided to join in. With Quiltcon smack dab in the middle of the sew along and other commitments I had made, I decided to join on a small level. To start, I made 30 triangle units to assemble into a mini quilt.

I made these all from my scrap bins, using solids and prints that read solid in pinks and aquas.

By the end, I had this awesome mini and and a new triangle technique under my belt...'

I quilted it on my domestic machine with a walking foot, horizontal lines 1 inch apart and 30 degree angled lines coming from both directions, which forms a lovely triangle at the bottom, hard to see in the photos but I rather like it...

Thanks for the great opportunity, Nicholas! I'm so glad I joined in. If you want to see more of the sew along check out the hashtag #improvtrianglesewalong. Many made large and gorgeous quilts!

Solid Seven catchup

I haven't updated you on the antics of the Solid Seven Bee in a while. We've been busy bees as usual, making pretty solid blocks for each other. A couple of months ago, EA gave us a pretty color palette and asked us to make "our favorite blocks". Her finished quilt promises to be interesting! Here are the blocks I made......

a woven block

an x & + block 

and an arrow

 Linda wanted a bit of sunshine in her winter so she requested these awesome blocks....

And then Jessica asked us to make these blocks in blues, teals, greens and purples.....

I had already assembled my strip pieced blocks from last year into a quilt top before the holidays. My friend Diann from Happy Quilts had worked her longarm magic on it and it was just waiting for binding. This week I got that done and now I present to you, Fruity Lemonade!

finished quilt is 48x60

I had to show you the awesome swirly quilting!

I still have my 70's Feeling Groovy blocks from the gals waiting to be puzzled into a quilt top.... I'm thinking they will be taking over my design wall this coming week. Hopefully I'll have some progress to share with you soon. 

Meanwhile, if you want to follow along and see what the Solid Seven gals are up to, you can follow us on Instagram at #thesolidseven.

Tiny Dresden Party

Deidre over at Quilty Obsession has introduced  a fun sew along over on instagram #tinydresdenparty. You'll want to check out all of the amazing things being shared on that hashtag! So much fun. The idea is to create dresdens smaller than 5" diameter & make things from them. Always the rule breaker (in sewing anyways, I'm totally a rule follower in life), I have been making tiny dresdens from my solid scraps.

These all measure 4 1/2 - 5 inches across. Crazy! Also, I didn't want huge holes in the center of my tiny dresdens (although many over on instagram are fussy cutting fabulous large circles for their centers).  I made myself templates using my various dresden rulers. I simply extended the narrow edge of the templates, continuing the same angle, until the bottom of each wedge was just over 1/2". This way when I created my dresdens, I ended up with small holes in the center.

Tons of instagramers (is that a word?) are putting their tiny dresdens on pin cushions or pouches and they are so cute! I decided I wanted to put mine into hoops & add embroidery and embellishments. I chose the rainbow dresden for my first week's hoop

After I appliquéd my dresden to a black grunge background, I filled the center hole with tiny black sequins.

I added some chain stitch lines to match each wedge and then, because I simply couldn't leave well enough alone, I filled the negative space with more tiny black sequins.

I love this in a 7 inch hoop. And yes, I decided the hoop needed to be black. Did I have any black paint? No. Sharpie marker to the rescue! I only had one hoop this size, so I'm waiting on an Amazon order to continue this project.

Stay tuned for more tiny dresden hoops to come.

MQG swap received

It was so much fun stalking my Modern Quilt Guild mini swap group on Instagram, watching the quilts evolve and speculating which one might be for me. Honestly, there were so many beautiful quilts and I would have been happy with any of them. But, MAN OH MAN! When my mini arrived I was over the moon excited!

These beautiful Anna Maria Horner feathers were made for me by Jane (Janequiltsslowly). And not only did she nail my likes (bright colors, Allison Glass Sun Prints, feathers...) but her workmanship is impeccable. She even put hanging corners on all four corners so I could choose which direction I wanted it to hang! Such a great idea, which I will surely copy down the road.

This lovely quilt is now hanging in my front room, right inside the front door, where I see it a million times a day. Thank you Jane! I love this.

MQG Mini Swap

Now that Sandi has received the mini I made her in the Modern Quilt Guild  mini swap, I am happy to share it here with you! This was the MQGs first swap and I was happy to be a part of it.

My graph paper notebook has been getting a real workout lately. As usual, that's where my ideas for Sandi's mini started. She had said she liked alternate gridwork, solids and low volume so that was my jumping off point.

I've been having some fun with wonky churn dashes for a while now, and I decided to explore these a little more. The small churn dashes in this mini are only 3" square!

Once I had it all pieced, I machine quilted with some straight line grids...

Then I added some big stitch triangles here and there...

I had a lot of fun with this one! I hope you enjoy it Sandi!

my Wicked Funky Dresden

Last Friday morning I woke up with a quilt design dancing around in my head. This doesn't happen to me often, but every now & then things come to me in my sleep! Often I roll over and ignore them and then they are gone forever. This time, I dashed to my studio for graph paper and pencils and got it drawn out before it got away. Boy am I glad I did!

By the end of the weekend, my drawing was sewn into what I lovingly referred to as my "funky dresden".  Once it was all assembled, I was perplexed as to what I should put in the center. My first instinct was a split circle, to make it look like the background was coming through. But then I began to consider other options. I took to Instagram to see what others thought...

My original idea is top right. And many liked that too! The green dot, top left, got lots of votes from more traditional folks who wanted a place for the eye to rest. And the split square on the bottom? Also popular, mostly with those who wanted a bit of the unexpected. In the end, the votes were split almost perfectly in thirds! Well, that was helpful!

In the end, after examining the options for a day or so, I decided to go with the square.

Jennifer, who is tenseturtle861 on Instagram, suggested I name it "Wicked Dresden" based on the color scheme which reminded her of Wicked, the musical.  Brilliant! So this particular one is named Wicked Funky Dresden, but the pattern overall is just Funky Dresden. Thanks Jennifer!

By Sunday evening, I was stitching down the binding on my finished quilt (maybe my fastest ever quilt finish)

My background colors are charcoal gray and white, with the lime green pop of color. Finished quilt is 30 inches square and the very feeble quilting was done on my domestic machine, just radiating lines which s fine, I guess. I'd really like to try a spiral on my next one, but I've never done that before & frankly it scares me. We'll see.

I also did matched binding so as not to take away from the simplicity of the quilt.

So there you have it. There has been interest in a tutorial. Naturally I was in such a hurry to get this done I didn't take any pictures of the process. So, I will work on a tutorial, but I'm going to need a few days. Meanwhile, if you're anxious to jump in and make one too, here's what you will need:

1 yard dark background

1 yard light background

1/2 yard contrast

18 degree dresden ruler - mine is creative grids. This will give you a 20 section circle. If you have a different size, that's ok, you just might need more or fewer wedges for your quilt

batting & backing bigger than 30" square.

 I can't wait to see what others come up with!

rope bowls

With all of the coiled rope bowls popping up on Instagram, it was only a matter of time before I went down the rabbit hole too and gave it a try. My first bowl came out pretty good (even if the edges are a little wonky!)

I'm still getting the hang of molding the shape of the bowls and evening out the top. Let's just call it organic and move on, shall we?

My second bowl is equally wonky  organic and quite a bit larger! I loved pulling out green strips I had on hand as I am rather loving the newly announced Pantone color of the year, greenery! I intend to explore this color even more in the new year. I don't think I've ever made a quilt that featured green so that will be a new adventure for me.

Also, I'm guessing there will be more bowls. And maybe, just maybe, I'll master those wonky edges. Or maybe not. Stay tuned!

Triad meets McKinney swap... received!

A couple of weeks ago I shared the quilt I sent to Kim in the Triad Modern Quilt guild for our swap. Well Tuesday night, it was finally our turn to receive quilts! I couldn't believe Alice, our swap queen, kept that box from NC taped up tight and opened it in front of all of us. Seriously, if that box had arrived at my house I would have peeked! No kidding.

Look how happy we all are with what we received! Those Triad gals pulled out all the stops.

Of course I was incredibly happy with the fabulous quilt I received from Katie! She took my favorite Squirrel pattern (found here, by Quiet Play), shrank it down and made not one... but FOUR squirrels!

Katie said the way the colors popped reminded her of an Andy Warhol painting, and I totally agree! such fun. 

The colors and fabrics she used are so great. This is going to make me smile every time I look at it.

There was some talk at our meeting about making this swap an annual event. I sure hope we do! It was great to connect with a sister guild. Thanks Katie! You rock!

My Small World - a finish!

Last year, the quilting world was in a tizzy. Everyone was searching for the special issue of Quiltmania that had Jen Kingwell's My Small World quilt pattern in it. Add me to that list. I searched every Barnes & Noble I had access to. Had friends looking. I couldn't find it anywhere. I was bummed. Then I heard that Jen Kingwell was going to release it as a stand alone pattern in the fall! Hooray! I bought it the day it became available. I thought "someday I'll make this" and I tucked it away. That was that. Or so I thought.....

Toward the end of the year, Nicole announced on Instagram that she'd be hosting a quilt along after the first of the year. I only hesitated a minute. The pattern is daunting.... but maybe, with the encouragement of other quilters. I could do it! Yes! Yes I could. I started digging in my fabric stash. Bought a few novelty prints that I knew I'd love to add and off I went!

Yesterday I put the final stitches in my binding. I'm so excited to share it with you!

My friend Sandy quilted it for me. I love how the swirls look like wind blowing through the sky...

I'm so happy I added that little rainstorm! And a smattering of yellow sunshine.

Those arched triangles were daunting! But I used @sewwhatsherlock's paper piece pattern for them and it worked like a charm!

I just love how you can add little fussy cut details to make this quilt your own. Some of my favorite details are my ballet studio and the Happiness Hotel in section one.

I used almost all fabric from my scrappy stash. Thought it would make a huge dent in my scrap bins but, no. There's still plenty in there.

This is my final finish in the third quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. A whole month early!  I'm so glad I tackled this project. It was great fun!

retreating

This past weekend, the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild held a retreat at the wonderful Sunset Retreat Center. I had not been to Sunset before, and I have to tell you, it was delightful! The facility is spacious, clean, and inviting, the employees are friendly and cheerful and the food.... well, for a girl who has to eat gluten free, let me tell you, the food was AWESOME! 

When our guild didn't fill all of the spots, we opened registration up to the Dallas and Fort Worth Modern Guilds too. Yay for new quilty friends! It was fun to meet gals from both of these guilds (and some other tag along friends/moms of our guild members too). I especially loved getting to know Trish, who I had befriended on Instagram. She's Trishlovesquilts over there.... and she makes some amazing quilts! Do check her out if you haven't already.

don't you love the awesome name tags Alice & Catherine made for  all of us?

Some of us had a zippy pouch/fabric basket swap which we had prepared for in advance. I brought this pouch.

I had English Paper Pieced the arrow using the same pattern as my Valentines Pillow, only half the size (yes I'm crazy like that!) and thought it made up into a fun little Lola Pouch. My friend Paula chose it and was happy to take it home with her!

And check out the awesome One Hour Basket I got to bring home with me....

My friend Catherine made it and I couldn't resist choosing it. The bright happy colors really spoke to me! It's really big too, I can't decide what should live inside it just yet!

There were so many beautiful finishes on retreat and I worked on several different projects which I'll be sharing with you soon. My daughter, Ally, asked me last night if I was exhausted after retreat and my answer was NO! I feel totally energized and inspired! It was just what I needed. Have you been on quilting retreats?