Moving Right Along

Some of this past week was spent keeping up with Amy's Creative Side Comfort Quilt QAL. Today begins week 4, and I was happy to complete the week 4 assignment on Saturday, during our Central Florida MQG Sew-In. Once a month, our group uses the library community room from 10 am to 6 pm. But as everyone had to leave early (by 2:30), I left too... and continued sewing when I returned home, so as to finish these plus blocks.

Week 4 - 15 large blocks; 25 small blocks.

Cumulatively, I've pieced 38 6" X 6" blocks, and 58 3" X 3" blocks toward a twin-size quilt.

I also pieced backing for the foundation paper pieced quilt top that I'm testing for a designer, and that I can't share until July. I was glad to use up this Amy Butler yardage that I had thought to sew into a dress. The yellow is a bit lemony-bright for clothes, but will be great as a quilt back.

The rest of sewing time was spent hand appliquéing the center circle of my Spin Art quilt to a white background.

I will appliqué these 32 pieces onto the background to get the real spinning effect of Spin Art. I'd prefer to machine appliqué them in place, for expediency, but those points may be a bit tricky. Hand appliqué might look better.

Spin Art, approximately 68" X 68"

A neighbor down the street had his house painted. The workers covered the lanai screens with paper, as protection during painting. I appreciated seeing their message on the paper - a bold proclamation in this cultural climate. I love it!

Linda

Movin' Along

This week I completed steps on a couple projects.

This hand appliqué design was given to us at last Saturday's Central Florida MQG meeting. Beth, our program presenter, designed it à la Carolyn Friedlander. Beth demonstrated several appliqué techniques, but I opted to appliqué mine using my favorite back-basting method. Are you impressed that I fussy-cut Australia in the circle? This is the first time I position the country right side up! You see, I decoupaged the same fabric on my desk (see it to the left of the knob?) and Susan (from Australia) pointed out that I'd positioned it upside down! Then, she allowed that Australia is, after all, "down under." :-)

My "Building Fun" quilt top is complete, so far. The quilt top is 41" X 53" at this point, and the pattern calls for another 3-inch border. I'm still unsure whether I want to add it. I like this quilt, though I'd hoped it would look less child-like. I'll probably give it to a child.

Speaking of child... our six year-old grandson, Tay, who's a kindergartner, participated in a special event at an Overland Park, Kansas high school. The 2016 graduating seniors held a graduation event last Friday morning, and in attendance as special guests were selected kindergarteners from the elementary schools that feed into the high school. Tay was chosen to represent his elementary school because his big sis, Celina, is a junior this year, and next year little brother Aesa will represent the same elementary school for Celina's senior class.

Anyway, they put the kindergarteners on stage, in front of the seniors, and asked each one of them a question about being in kindergarten. Tay was asked what advice he would give to seniors, and his response was, "Stay out of trouble." Good job, Tay!

I can't believe he's going to be among the class of 2028! That sounds like the distant future, doesn't it?

And speaking of graduations, Aesa celebrated his pre-school graduation. Adorable.

I haven't mentioned Hogan lately, but he's doing well!

He has completely surprised us - and our neighbors who know him - by making a full recovery from his December bout with a serious subcutaneous skin infection and bronchitis, compounded by a large lump on his chest that was identified after surgery as soft tissue sarcoma. The vet said she couldn't remove all the sarcoma because it was so invasive, so we expected Hogan's slow decline. Such is not the case! He's been almost acting like a pup again, running around with his dog pals, briskly walking, and insisting on us playing with toys with him each evening. You wouldn't guess he's 12-1/2 years old.

This pic simply shows the odd behavior he's displayed for years... tucking his head under something for security. He does this often, sometimes against a table leg, or my knee, or alongside my hip when I'm sitting on the floor with him. He's awfully precious to us.

Most of the week I've been quilting. Dr. Q.'s quilt is coming along nicely and I expect to finish by Friday. Five spirals of various sizes and overlaps were quilted first, and I'm now custom quilting to fill in the rest of the open areas.

My Pfaff Grand Quilter is mostly working well for quilting. I've had ten unexpected thread breaks on this quilt - does that seem like a lot? - but the skipped stitches are fewer. I talked with a Tampa Bernina/Pfaff dealer for about 25 minutes and he gave me three suggestions for preventing skipped stitches. The two I've tried are: 1) set the machine speed on slow, and then quilt with the pedal to the metal. That seems to be a steadier quilting speed than setting the machine on high speed and trying to keep the foot control speed in the middle range; and 2) use a size 90 jeans needle. When I put in the jeans needle, I immediately had more skipped stitches, so I lowered the needle about 2mm, and screwed it in tight. Better now. His third suggestion is to quilt with cotton batting. That will be in the next quilt.

Today, on my way home in the golf cart from doing Line Dancing for Exercise, I saw this turtle just walking down the sidewalk. I parked the golf cart so I could take a picture. It's a very big Florida softshell turtle! Ugly too, isn't it?

I had just walked back to my golf cart when she decided she needed to cross the street. Yikes. I pulled into the golf cart lane to block traffic, and waved my arm to get carts and cars to slow down. Fortunately, another walker with whom I'd chatted about the turtle, called Community Watch. The Community Watch vehicle arrived almost right away with red lights flashing! Hopefully the turtle was moved to a nearby pond. I've been told this time of year is mating/nesting season.

I'm definitely not in Iowa anymore! Linda

Already a Fun Month!

Such exciting things are happening this month! Even more than the usual teaching, and activities in my guilds that include taking an all day "Modern Block Improv" workshop with the renowned Sherri Lynn Wood, which I will be doing next Tuesday.

I learned this week that the 15" X 15" quilt I made for the American Made Brand "Tiny Quilt Challenge" received a "third prize" award in the appliqué category. I designed this quilt, but haven't been able to share it on social media - a stipulation of entering a quilt in the AMB challenge.

My design was inspired by a 15-second ATandT U-Verse commercial seen on television last April when visiting my daughter in Kansas City! It was one of those quick, "oh look at that" moments when I tried to burn the design onto my retinas - moving, multi-colored circles radiating from the lower right side of the screen.

I started working on the design in August. Though I looked for the commercial online, I was unable to find it and I kept referring to the picture in my mind.

The background is improv-piece with several different colors of AMB solids. Then I raided my sewing room closet and kitchen pantry to come up with assorted-size circles to trace onto fabric.

Each fabric circle was hand-basted around the edge, and drawn up around a circle of template plastic. With the template still inside, each circle was hand-appliquéd to the background. Then, from the back I cut away the background to release the template - sort of like giving birth!  

Big stitch quilting is with #8 Presencia pearl cotton. 

Using the "no tails binding" method, I added yellow at two corners to emphasize yellow circles. 

AMB said 228 quilts were entered in this challenge. Forty were selected to be in an AMB exhibit at the Road to California quilt show (Upland, California) in January, with some of us receiving prizes. My prizes are 31 fat quarters of AMB solids, an AMB color card, and an AMB tote bag. Since I already have the latter two items, I'm giving away my new color card and new tote bag. This giveaway has ended.

If you'd like a chance to win, comment to answer my question: 

Have you ever made a solids-only quilt? Did you enjoy it? 

This giveaway is for US quilters only (sorry!). Two winners will be chosen Monday morning. Linda

This giveaway has ended.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

As I'm off to the AQS show in Paducah this week, I am happy to have progressed on my Flower Ball quilt enough that it's traveling with me. My goal was to get all the papers basted with fabric for traveling, and I did it!

When I first laid out the 118 pieces, every flower center was empty. I couldn't decide what color to put in the centers. I thought of, and rejected, navy, brown, yellow, and gray before finally deciding that the task of choosing was too difficult. That's when I emailed Anne, from Play-Crafts (If you don't follow her blog, you should!) who I found in the past couple months. Let me tell you, Anne knows about color! Her "Color Chat" blog posts are so informative, and she makes what she explains very pertinent by choosing fabrics from her own stash to emphasize points she makes with a color wheel. Anyway, I thought that if anyone knew what was the "right" color for these flower centers, it would be Anne. She graciously swapped several emails, and looked at my pictures. 

In this picture are some of the color/fabric options I came up. Option one was to make flower centers yellow and orange, putting whatever color in the center that would most contrast with the flower. Option two was either a gray print or solid. Finally, it was a toss-up between the yellow/orange and the lower right gray solid. 

Gray solid won. It was the color Anne liked best, and I am easily influenced enough to agree with her. Yay for help with making a decision! I'm very grateful. Doesn't the dimension just "wow," even when it's just laid out?!

By the way, those tiny spots in the center of each piece are sticky dots with the piece number written on it, so I can keep track, by columns.

The Flower Ball looks like this now, ready to travel. I pieced a few of them together with light gray Bottomline thread, just to make sure they're gonna sew okay. They will. Hoping to get a lot done during quiet evenings in my motel room... but that might be wishful thinking.

I've also had a couple other helping hands lately.

Elizabeth at OccasionalPiece generously sent me a parcel with scraps and pieces of Kaffe fabrics leftover from her Lollypop Tree quilt project. I didn't have one Kaffe fabric in my stash, and I'm determined to get these 15" won-in-a-blog-giveaway hand appliquéd blocks made into a quilt. I had fun auditioning Elizabeth's fabrics. Every one of them will work! I'll have to get out graph paper to work up a design... or maybe EQ7 for the Mac will be available.

Susan at PatchworknPlay sent me a belated birthday/Easter and happy-whatever package from Australia. What an unexpected surprise! This little banner hung for about a week, before Easter. The package of sticky notes have already come in handy. 

And that cute Matryoshka doll? It's an unpicker! I already know I'm going to have to keep an eye on it. Last week, my stitching friends were looking at it just a little too closely... 

My bloggy, Instagram, quilty friends bless me! I'm feeling grateful, and singing along with the Beatles: "I get by with a little help from my friends." Linda

Miscellaneous Monday

It's the usual variety of doin's around here.

After teaching a selvages workshop last week, I am on a selvages kick again. Another small bag pattern I've been wanting to make seemed like just the right selvages project. I've gotten no further than sewing selvages to the foundation bag shapes. The large piece is the bag body. The two small pieces are outside pockets. When it's finished, it will be fun to use because if I've learned anything about carrying a selvage bag (I already have two of them), they're a sure-fire conversation-starter.

I have four new LED lights in my sewing room. Since there was no overhead light, and the kind of light kit that could be added to the fan couldn't provide adequate illumination, this was the way to go. I was pleased that the electrician knew enough about the subject to understand my request for lighting that would let me to see the true colors of fabrics in my stash cabinet. These LEDs are 3500 kelvin; not the typical 3000 kelvin used elsewhere in a home. It means they emit a more natural, bluer color (less yellow). An added bonus is that LEDs don't produce heat (important in a west-facing room in Florida!) and because LEDs don't have bulbs, they're expected to last 30 years.

I know, I know. The room looks almost too clean. I had to give it a thorough cleaning after the electrician drilled holes in the ceiling, layering everything with drywall dust. The design wall is empty, awaiting my next great project. Ha!

This is a picture I took a few evenings ago from the front of our house. We face west, so it's the same view I have through the bay windows of my sewing room. We're blessed with some pretty spectacular sunsets. This one was exceptional.

On Wednesday I'm welcoming a house guest! Edith is a special quilter-friend, from Switzerland. She's coming to stay for ten days. We're old friends. She visited me three times before, the last time being in 2008 when we still lived in Iowa.

How Edith and I met is a pretty cool story, if I do say so. We met through the Internet, back in its early years - 1994. At the time I was working at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. The Internet first blossomed in colleges, and employees were encouraged to use this new technology. I found a quilting chat room called Kaffee Klatch, and while sharing brief conversations with quilters I "met" Edith, thinking I'd found someone with whom I could practice my rusty French. Instead, I learned she was from the German-speaking part of Switzerland (east), but with a common interest in quilting, we became fast friends. When I graduated in 2000 from Drake University (as an employee, I took advantage of the opportunity for a free education) with a journalism degree, my May celebration included a visit from Edith. I'll admit that we were both nervous about our first face-to-face meeting. After all, we were committed to her spending ten days with me! But we very quickly learned our fears were ungrounded.

2000 - R: Edith; L: me

Since our first meeting, I visited her in 2002. This is us in Ste Marie-Aux-Mines, France, attending the European Patchwork Meeting.

2002

Edith also visited in 2004 and 2008 with the last visit planned so we could attend the AQS show in Des Moines, where both of us had quilts juried into that show!

So for the next couple of weeks, the little sewing I expect to do will be on my Riley Blake Challenge piece. I'm hand appliquéing.

Speaking of hand appliqué... I regularly follow my Instagram feed, and I was excited to see pictures from quilters attending quilt market. Several of them were impressed with the hand-appliqué of one particular modern quilter who is doing what she calls "slow sewing" - Carolyn Friedlander. This is her modern hand appliqué piece.

I'm really interested to see what she's introducing to younger quilters. Is the latest trend heading toward hand appliqué? I'm also hoping my LQS will be stocking Carolyn's latest fabric line from Robert Kaufman: Botanics. Love it!

Also, as an admirer of Emma Jansen's designs, I'm hoping her new fabric line, the pretty Terra Australis, makes its way here too. I will always have special feelings for that country, having been able to visit and spend a total of four months there. Love the country; love Emma's patterns and fabric designs.

How nice to have so many quilty things, and a quilty person's visit, to anticipate! Linda

Just a Little Update

It's been too long since I've posted to this blog, and a few of you have expressed concern about my silence. It's mostly been a matter of much to do and very little of it is related to quilting. 

So I'll make it perfectly clear. My lack of blogging has not been due to any post-radiation fatigue. Though I was told to expect fatigue one to two weeks after treatments ended, it just never happened! Perhaps that's due to following the radiation oncologist's suggestion to maintain strength by eating lots of protein. Not being much of a meat-eater, I made a concerted effort to begin every day with eggs and sausages. I also happily ate my hubby's wonderful, from scratch, refried beans which I eat like pudding. I guess it worked! Pretty much since April 12, when radiation ended, I've been feeling 100 percent my chipper self, full of energy and resuming usual activities. Oh, and for those who are curious, as an insurance policy against the return of the breast cancer, I'm taking a daily prescription drug for the next five years - Arimidex. Side effects include hot flashes and weight gain, among others. No one would be pleased about those side effects, but it in the big scheme of things, I'm not complaining.

My first happy obligation has been to make a couple blocks for Carla, our April quilter in the Mid-Century Modern Bee. She wants to make her own version of the Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt, so she left it up to us as to whether we wanted to make pieced or appliquéd blocks for her.

I chose appliqué, and designed this six-petaled flower on my Macbook using Pages software.

My favorite hand appliqué method is back-basting needle turn appliqué, because all the prep work is up front. It makes for a completely portable project.

back-basting, viewed from the back

The front, ready to be needle-turned appliquéd.

This flower is on a background of Architextures fabric. 

6" block 

I used YLI silk thread for the hand-appliqué so that's why you can't see any stitches. They practically melt into the fabrics.

This flower is made with Heather Mulder Peterson's Seaside Cottage prints, and one Anna Maria Horner print.

6" block

These went out in the mail this week.

That's not much sewing, but I have definitely have ideas, plans, and a long to-do list. In the meantime, these quilty-related doings are coming up:

• Representing myself as the instructor for "First Time Quiltmaking" at The Lifelong Learning College open house on Saturday, May 4. During the open house, I'll have a table of quilts and information to promote two series of five-week beginner quilting classes I'll teach in July and September.

• Making plans for and leading the next Central Florida MQG meeting on Monday, May 6. We're continuing a "Make it Modern," series and at the May meeting we'll focus on modern design.

• Working on magazine story ideas! I'm pretty excited because I've again been invited to freelance write for American Quilter magazine. That means I come up with story ideas, including photo possibilities; do some preliminary research; and then pitch ideas to the magazine's editor. If the topic meets with the editor's approval, I start delving deeper, interviewing, writing and re-writing. Since I pretty much thrive on everything related to quilting, particularly modern quilting, this opportunity is a no-brainer. I can't wait to pursue the ideas that are keeping me sleepless, from about 3 to 4:30 a.m., every day!

Yep. These days, everything is about appreciating and reveling in life, and digging into the things one loves. Linda

Slow-go UFOs

No new UFO finishes, but progress is a good thing.

Though I've stopped doing hand appliqué because it's such a slow process (for me), I've vowed to finish the hand appliqué UFOs I've started. This 20" x 20" Hawaiian appliquéd palm fronds piece was begun in 2008. Finished as either a wall hanging or pillow, it will find a place in our Florida palm tree-themed home.

20" X 20"

However, it will remain a UFO for a while because I've run out of the exactly-the-right color (894) Mettler #60 thread, and can't buy it locally. (sigh) I'm so weary of having to mail-order everything.

My UFO Bonnie Hunter "Roll, Roll Cotton Boll" (RRCB) mystery quilt was offered in December 2010-January 2011. I haven't touched mine since then, though I had even pieced the last border's parallelograms before putting it away! Happily, it didn't take long to complete the top that measures a whopping 86" x 101".

The weekend was spent rearranging my sewing room so I could pin-baste.

Besides RRCB, I basted this 55" X 70" UFO (no name yet) from 2011 when I was in the One Block Over bee. Would you believe... all my safety pins are now in quilts!

Because I had an I'm-tired-of-moving-around-this-pattern-and-fabric moment, I sewed this skirt one afternoon last week. The pattern was a bargain purchase (like $1) from Fabric Recycles, a Kansas City business that operates on the concept of buying, and then reselling, perfectly good sewing and quilting fabrics, notions and supplies. The store was the recipient of 70 quilting and craft books I divested myself of before moving last year.

My skirt was made from one yard of home dec fabric. Like it!

Now back to those UFOs and re-rearranging my sewing room for some time-consuming FMQing. Linda