Some eye candy

Hi!  I'm still here and the sewing machine has been humming along.

I've been working on lots of little projects and a couple of bigger ones. A couple of projects are secrets... and will remain so for a while. Most of the small projects were class samples.  I've been teaching beginning basic quilting and also beginning paper piecing at the local shop. The shop is small and chock full of fabric and a lot of art supplies. Available space limits class size to 4 at a time. Actually, that is an ideal number, as I can give lots of individual attention. It is fun to help someone discover and enjoy the process that is involved in quilting. I allow my students to select any project or pattern with squares, rectangles and triangles, and I help them make it, providing technique information as they need it. This is a casual approach, but it works and the students set the pace!

Here is a flimsy that was created since I last posted.

The center was inspired by a pattern called Eye Candy, from !Caliente Quilts! by Priscilla Bianchi. As fun as it was making the striped squares and the background pieces, I found myself wanting more. The quilt needed action and surprises. Hence, it evolved into a liberated medallion (Gwen Marston style).  Sorry I couldn't get a better photo.  I was backed against a huge snow bank and had maybe 4 feet between myself and the quilt.

When I piece I do leader and ender experiments at the same time.  I never know just what I'll end up with when I start these.  One such experiment was to piece nine-patches that would finish at 1.5 inches.  It didn't take me long to decide this wasn't something I wanted to continue.  It demands precision piecing which is NOT one of my strong points. But, I wasn't about to waste the little blocksso I pieced them into four patches using 2 inch squares from my stash of scrap squares.  This is destined to become a pillow.

I am still working with my scrap squares and expect to have another posting in a couple of days.

See you then.

Plugging away, getting things done slowly

I have been back in the quilting saddle, but my horse keeps turning me away from the blogging station.  (Gotta blame something!)  I've been busy with several projects, among them some finishes!

Finishes: 

Crumbs and Behind Bars were quilted just before I left Michigan. I finally got the bindings done.
I backed the crumb quilt with a piece of red seersucker and narrow strips of floral fabric. I brought the backing around to the front as binding.  

Crumbs.  queen futon.

detail of Crumbs.  Note: six inch ruler for scale.

Crumbs backing

Behind Bars has a rather plain creamy backing and striped binding.

Behind Bars

detail - Behind Bars 

Marilyn Lange did all the quilting. I am happy with both of these quilts.

Off the wall and waiting for further action...

You gotta listen to your quilt.  I made this red /green liberated medallion before I moved and planned on adding to it. This fall I put another border on it.  I thought I'd be adding more borders, but everything I tried just didn't work.  The quilt said, "STOP".  So I did.

this quilt said STOP!

Nine-patch rejects revived

Last month I was going through one of my boxes and found a lot of nine-patches that were from an exchange I participated in many years ago.  I decided on a whim to use them up (now or never).  Of course, this was supposed to be a quick project.  Not so fast! More than a few of these blocks were cut smaller than the needed 3.5 inch dimensions, or were sewn crookedly.  At first I un-sewed a few and put them back together. That was a chore.  Then I remembered Gwen Marston's mantra,"If it is too small, add on; if it is too big, cut it off".  Bingo!

9-patch detail. Note strips added to the red/green square

 3 inch 9-patch 

I am so happy to have an empty design wall.  I get to play again!

Wishing all of you a pleasant holiday and a Happy New Year!

Play time keeps me sane

Sorry I have been absent for so long. Since October I've been cleaning, polishing, packing.  We are in the process of selling our home for a move to Maine.  That is a long time dream and for us it is move now or never.  We know where we want to live, but won't own a house to go to until after we get there. This makes for some challenging packing decisions...what to bring... what to pass along to others, etc.

Anyway, we are finally at a point where we haven't too much to do and we can now breathe a little.  Breathing a little means time to play with fabric!  I've packed a lot of my larger stash, but scraps are still accessible.  I've challenged myself to play with solid scraps.  I have a library of Gwen Marston's books and look through them regularly.  I'm sure you'll see the influence of her work on mine.

A Small Study   10" x 10"

Liberated Square in a Square  9"x9"

Another liberated square in a square that morphed into a "stripe in a square".  12" x 12"

Liberated Log Cabin   I didn't like this very much, so I kept one block and cut up the others

Log Cabin Medallion.  The cut up blocks made one border

Log Cabin Medallion as it is now.  22" x 22" .
 Ran out of fabric!  I'll add to it when I get to Maine and unpack my stash.

Liberated Medallions 2

For my liberated medallion project (at the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen Marston), I chose to challenge myself with solids.  I have not used solid fabrics often and wanted to begin feeling more comfortable using them.

Here are my two efforts:
Number 1

30" x 30"

I made the center prior to the retreat.  I showed it to you in this post.  I added a few more skinny strips to the original block.   I also had to resort to using marbles, because I ran out of truly solid grays.

Number 2

Here the challenge was to use a HUGE (for me) center block (the ochre center) and go from there.  I had several consults with Gwen during the process, trying to find a focus for what I was doing. First I thought I'd try for harmonious colors and found myself back to using relatively skinny strips.  So I started focusing on shapes.   It took a lot of effort to insert fabric wider than 1.5 inches and make it interesting!   The little inserts and color changes (not clearly visible here) help.  The renegade red square was suggested by Elisa, one of my buddies at BIQR.

Gwen said "working big is not easy".   She is right.

20.5" x 20.5"

Going forward, I'll be doing more solids work!

Liberated Medallions 1

Liberated Medallions was the topic for Gwen Marston's 2012 Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.
One of the neat things about this style is that there is no formula. These quilts are built one row at a time.  The resulting quilts were as varied as the attendees.  I did not get capture photos of all the quilts, but I'll show you some I did get. I apologize in advance for any blurriness.  These were taken during the last day's show and tell.  There was hardly time to photograph or get close enough for a good shot- hence the angles.  Enjoy the show. (These are from the 5th week of the retreat.)

Sally's Zebras

Jean's Parrot Tulip

Sylvia's Blue on Black

Denise's Baskets

Charlotte's "Spot"

Sue's Portrait

Elisa's Lady of Guadalupe

Kyra's  Framed Applique

Sue's Kaffe Medallion

Pat's Cherrywood Beauty

Karin's  curious Kitty (made from floor scraps)

Close up of Karin's Kitty

P is for...

Progress # 1

The wedding quilt top is coming along.  I've made three more "blocks" since my last post.  Five more to go and I should be able to start cobbling this baby together.  As I begin to see the end of the project, I have to remind myself that no matter what... it will take time.  The last laps seem to take the longest;  I've never run track, but I imagine that it sometimes feels that way.

(Teotihuacan- Pyramid of the Sun)

mosaics - note the diamond

Progress #2


The triangles galore quilt now numbers 21 bocks.  I'm shooting for 35! I'm gonna run out of room on the design wall.

Parts


Quilt "parts" are one of the ideas that Gwen Marston and Freddy Moran have advocated in their books, Collaborative Quilting and Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again.  They found that making basic pieces such as HST's or nine patches, or piano keys, or spikes, in advance of their meetings made the designing process a lot more efficient. Each of them put together a stash of parts using their scraps and with no set quilt pattern in mind.

I've been making parts, too. I have no set plans for them, but I know I'll use them somehow, someday.    I always sew together HST's of the cut off triangles from the corners of flying geese or snowballs (even if they are tiny).  I sew together elongated triangles left over from the Triangle Galore project which will make skinny spikes or divided rectangles. I sew these pieces together in the Leader and Ender style of Bonnie Hunter... I have a stash of pieces by my sewing machine.  As I start a series of sewing, I will begin the process with one set of the parts and then when I come to the end of the project, I'll sew another together.  These leaders and enders take the place of the bit of scrap that is often used at the start of a seam so that fabric and thread don't make an annoying birds nest or jam into the "hole" in the machine.  (Sometimes I forget which project I am really working on and end up sewing several parts in a row before I remember they are supposed to be the leader and ender.  LOL)   Here's just a wee handful of my parts.  Those HST's measure 1.75 inches square.

Play


The Bloggers BOM for this month was designed by Amy of Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts.
These are my four blocks.

The New'Bee made-fabric bee over on 15minutes play.com... Beebee asked for this star of made fabric and a bright solid around it.  The solid fabric is really a lot brighter than it appears here.  My made fabric was made from tiny scraps, so there is lots of variety.

Parcel


Look what arrived in the mail all of 40 minutes ago!  Gwen's newest book!  Published by AQS.

It is FABULOUS.  No matter what your quilting style is -  modern, traditional, scrappy, applique, wonky, liberated, amish solids- there is something of interest in this book.   It holds lots of fun and inspiration and how-to hints!  Gwen shares the spotlight with a number of BIQR students.   I highly recommend this book.  I'm looking forward to taking a really good look at all the quilts.  I'm going to Gwen's retreat in October and Liberated Medallions is the focus.  So excited!

Leftovers

In my sewing room, fabric leftovers rarely get thrown away.  I usually find a use for them in some fashion.

Here are two more small studies that were made from leftovers.

Gimme an A!

'Gimme an A' was made from two hand pieced sections (above and below the orange line).  When I made them I really didn't see a way to put them together effectively, so I stuck them back in the box and took them with me to the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.  While there I realized that all I needed to tie them together was to introduce some diagonal lines.  Taken with the orange line those diagonals make an "A"!  The A became the focus and the chopped up pieces of fabric make a background. It was one of those quilts that just happen.  No pre-planning here.

Bright Lights

This small study, also made at Beaver Island Quilt Retreat, started with a preconceived notion.  Bright colors against black, hence Bright Lights.  The chartreuse and green strips were the left overs I started with.  I decided not to piece any new color combinations, but to use striped or patterned fabrics to achieve the appearance of pieced fabric.

I like the black and white dotted triangles. Gwen actually suggested that fabric to me.  She has an eye for the unusual.  I wasn't thinking Christmas, but they do look like a row of densely lit trees with a few gifts tucked beneath.  Surprises!

Small Studies with Gwen Marston

The week before last I went to Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat (week 5).   Each year Gwen generously shares her skills over a five week period,  each week working with about 30 quilters, many of whom return yearly for their "Gwen fix".  This year the topic was small studies.  It focused on  practicing techniques for make various elements and subsequently using those elements to design small quilts, or sketches as Gwen called them.  Gwen recently published a lovely book, 37 Sketches,  showing her small quilts and the thought process behind their creation.

During the retreat, we played with color and sewed skinny curves, spikes, free pieced log cabins, overlapping curved strata, inserts of tiny specks of color, checkerboards etc.  We learned not to be afraid of using little pieces of fabric and to let ourselves experiment with abstract designs. We explored colors we don't often use in quilt making.  We were challenged to think out of the box.

I had a wonderful time exploring and trying new things. I made the following small quilts:

Color Study:  Blue and Green

Color Study:  Brown

 Trees and the shore - made with spikes

I made one more piece, but it isn't quite finished, so I'll save it for another day