A Friday finish - Flipping the Orange Birds

At the last meeting I attended of the Las Vegas MQG, we had an "orange" swap in honor of the Year of Tangerine.   Anyone who wanted to participate brought a yard worth of 2 1/2" strips in a Ziploc bag (or multiples) for exchanging.  We laid out all the strips in piles and re-sorted them into 1 yard of assorted strips per bag, and gave them back to the participants. 

I took two (or maybe three) yards and came home with this:

A couple of months later, I added some additional pieces and this book:

...and went to the Bernina store for a class with Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio on the "stitch and flip" technique from the book.   

I used 6 1/2" white squares and used the orange strips for the 'flip' triangles. As usual, I didn't make a plan before I started, so I cut the fat quarter of  Aviary fabric into strips and then decided to use it for a focal print.  I was unaware that it had become out of print and hard to find so I ended up paying $20 to an Etsy seller for a half yard before it was all said and done. 

 Add wasting money to time and fabric by skipping the planning stage... 

This was where I was at the end of the workshop:

When I put it up on the design wall at home (some weeks later, after the design wall was created and installed) I wasn't sure I liked the 'diamond' effects so I turned them around and made stars.  I finished the top last fall and set it aside with some of the remaining orange strips for a scrappy  binding.

When I went to the Closet of the Unfinished, this week, having the binding already made clinched the selection. And this week - it's a finish!

The quilting is not dense. I used a pattern from a skill builder panel for the star nine patch sections and used an orange peel design for the rest.  I briefly considered trying Elizabeth Hartman's 'no marking' technique, but I was afraid I would not be able be consistent, so I made a little half circle template and marked the quilt lines. 

Since I have a bit of a heavy hand with the marker, I tossed it into the washer when it was complete.   It came out snugly soft!

As usual, lots of technique refinement happened in the process of finishing this quilt  Also,  I discovered a new binding superpower tool that I will post about tomorrow.  You probably already know about it, bit I think it may have changed my (binding) life!

I'm linked!
Finish it up Friday

Some Excitement, Some Disappointment

 I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!

I am finding the year end clearance sales a challenge this week!  So many tempting bargains!  So far, I am sticking to my plan to sew from my stash though.  I think I will try to track the fabric that I use in 2013.  It might be more hassle than it is worth, but I will try it and see how it goes.  My goal is to use 50 yards of fabric in 2013.  That might prove to be unrealistic,(maybe too low, maybe too high!) but I will revisit it after the first few months and adjust, if I want to.

This week's disappointment:
I was notified today that the two quilts that I finished in November and submitted to the Quilt Con show were not selected.  I really didn't think that they were contenders for any prizes, but I thought they might have a chance to get in.

Silver lining:  I finished them!  I am not sure they would be finished yet, without the deadline.  I surely do get a lot more accomplished under pressure!

The Excitement :
The third quilt that I submitted was selected!  

Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild 2011 Charity Quilt

This quilt was entered into the "Group or Bee Quilts" category.

It was made by the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild as a charity quilt in 2011.  We took the inspiration from a wonky log cabin quilt in the book "Block Party" by Alissa Haight Carlton and Kristen Lejniekes.  

The quilt in the book was designed and put together by Alissa with blocks created by all 12 bee members. 

The guild decided to use a similar color palette and  guild members went to their stashes and brought red, blue and grey fabrics to a meeting along with sewing machines, and we put together most of the blocks in one evening.  A couple of folks took home some strips to make additional blocks and others took the completed blocks home and sewed on the sashing.  We passed on the completed blocks to someone else who sewed the top together and then on to the person who did the quilting and binding.  The blocks finished at 20", which made a nice big quilt!

The finished quilt was donated to the Mesquite Club, a Las Vegas philanthropic organization for their holiday dinner and charity auction.  Since the LVMQG donated an item to the auction, the guild received two tickets to attend.  The Mister and I went to the auction with the intent on bidding on the quilt.

We had made the decision, but had not told anyone, that I would retire in the spring and we would be leaving Las Vegas.  I wanted the quilt as a memento of the guild and the friends who made it.  

The Mister outbid the other interested parties and the quilt came home with us.  (Thankfully, the Mesquite Club membership has a more traditional aesthetic, or the bid might have gone much higher than we were prepared to pay!)

While it is not a quilt that I made, it is a quilt that I helped make. And, since it belongs to me, I think it is fair to say that one of my quilts will be in the show!

Two Finishes!

Last Thursday was our KCMQG meeting and I took my quilt con entries for show and tell, so I thought I would show them here, as well. I don't know if they will be accepted, but I am not sure they would be finished, had it not been for that deadline

This is my Octagonal Orb quilt. I started it at the Las Vegas MQG retreat last February. I pieced three 'orbs' that weekend and cut the fabric for the rest.  They are a bit time consuming with 84 pieces in each block but also kind of 'zen' in the repetition.   I used a fat eighth stack of Lauren and Jesse Jung's "Flora" fabric with a little bit of their "Hideaway" line that I had left over from another project.  The block is from a tutorial that Elizabeth Hartman posted on the MQG blog during the 100 days of Modern Quilting series. 













The Mister left the desert a month ahead of me to take a pickup truck load of our stuff to our Kansas house and to get it outfitted with appliances, etc.  He took the TV, the computer and the car, which left me with only my sewing machine and IPhone for amusements.  The first weekend by myself, I used up the whole month's worth of the data plan on my phone watching videos, so after that, I sewed when I wasn't at work.  





























This is another quilt that I pieced last spring. I was inspired by a quilt by a guild member in the LVMQG who made a similar quilt.  Hers was a sample for a class that she taught at the lqs on using panels in improvisational pricing. I fell in love with the Suzy Ultman prints and made my own version. 

The quilting is a mix of three or four different patterns.

Such a cute print!

I have another panel of Suzy's fabric called "Critterville".  It is next in queue!

Reboot: A New Beginning, And Some Finishes!

Hello.

A lot has happened since I have spent any time here. I will summarize it this way:

I retired.

We moved to Kansas.

We had a wedding and 'reunioned' with family from far afield.

Things have settled down. 

Also, I joined the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild and I have been finishing quilts!

I made the top for this quilt in my "piece making basics" class three years ago.   

I practiced lots of designs and echoed the print in border. 

The fabric was a pre-selected kit for the class, and it didn't really 'speak' to me in the way that things do, sometimes.  It has hung in the closet with various other quilt tops of my own making and collecting since then.  It feels good to have it finished up!

A couple of months ago, I took a workshop on free motion quilting from Tia Curtis. Tia is a dynamic teacher and an excellent quilter.  Her passion is helping people get past their trepidation and jumping in to fmq. She also recommended Angela Walters' book which I had on my 'want list' already. 

In the workshop, we made these clever bags with our practice sandwiches. 

I have also been following the excellent year long series of posts and tutorials on fmq at Insights from Sew Cal Gal. Not stitching along, but reading along and saving the tutorials. Armed with Tia's encouragement and the other excellent resources at Sew Cal Gal, I started practicing on some orphan blocks and auction/estate sale partial tops. I finally got to the point where I felt that I could do some designs without 'ruining' a quilt top. 

And, I made a few more bags:

This is another low investment top that I put together with some 30's reproduction prints that I was hooked on for a brief minute. I practiced using my free motion foot to make straight lines. (Well fairly straight lines)  I am going to donate this one.

I have been working my way up to larger tops that I am fonder of.  

Here is just a peak at one that I am going to enter into the quilt show at Quilt Con.  The Mister said he wouldn't mind a trip to Austin in February if my quilt will be in the show! It is a juried show so it may or may not be accepted. I am going to keep it under wraps until I have it completely finished. Just so I don't jinx it, you know.  Maybe I can get on a wait list for a workshop or seminar!

The past two years have been full of change and transition, but I am finally feeling like I am back in the groove!  I have set some goals and one of them is to stay current here, if only for my own record, but I am always pleased to have folks stop by!

Jan

Retreat Recap

I spent the weekend at the first annual Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild retreat!

Nine members and two guests traveled to Southern Utah for the weekend. We stayed at a wonderful vacation home, surrounded by great scenery (we found the house through homeway.com) While we did venture out for various errands, lunch and shopping, mostly we stayed in the basement theatre/billiard room and sewed.

This is the theatre side of the room. The other side accommodated four more sewing tables, two cutting stations and a pressing table. It was perfect!

I worked on these blocks. They are made from Elizabeth Hartman's Octagonal Orb Block tutorial featured at The Modern Quilt Guild Blog (which was originally inspired by Heather Bostic's pillow). They finish at about 17" across, so I plan to make 6 more, if my fabric holds out. I used a fat eighth stack of Flora, by Lauren and Jessi Jung.

It doesn't look like I got very much accomplished, but I feel like each of the completed blocks was eight blocks in one! I also cut pieces for 3 more orbs and I made some progress on embroidering some of Ruby McKim's Roly Poly Circus blocks for a quilt for Dearest Sister's grandbebe number five (another girl!)

Sharon brought a tiny pieced block as challenge/gift for each person. The pieced block was about two inches square made of tiny half inch squares.

These were some of the challenge projects. Clockwise from the top left: Andrea's beer pong cozy, Cindy's pot holder, Bev's coaster, my pin cushion, Maria's tiny cushion to protect the bed of her featherweight when it is folded up, Tracie's tissue cover and Darlene's iPhone purse.

We all had a great time and by Sunday morning, the discussion had turned to how many days we should add to next year's retreat! We drove home under rainy, overcast skies, but that was kind of a nice change, as well.

I am looking forward to seeing some finishes at show and tell next month!

The Year of the Dragon! And Other Stuff!

We are just a few days past the Chinese New Year which is a big holiday here in the desert. Since the January new year is long gone, I decided to use the Year of the Dragon as a re-starting point for getting my blog mojo running again.

The last six or seven months have been spent waiting for this year, which is shaping up to be a great one! In 12 weeks I will retire and we are going to leave the desert to return to the middle of the country. Most all of our belongings have already moved. The Mister and the kitties will move first, in about 7 weeks, then he will come back for me and the Isetta a few weeks later. We. Can. Hardly. Wait!

The thing I will miss most when we leave, is the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild.

Since we formed the group just over one year ago, I have been building my quilting skills through inspiration, challenges and deadlines.

Although I usually stay away from table runners and wall hangings, I have finally seen the appeal of small projects. Generally I think of quilts in terms of bed linens, so doll quilts seemed like the perfect small project for learning new skills. A quick finish, new techniques learned and possible hand made gifts! Win, win, win!

During a late night of Internet Christmas shopping last fall, I ordered several books from Amazon (for me). This one has 24 small quilt projects.

Pretty in Patchwork - Doll quilts by Cathy Gaubert

After flipping through it a hundred or so times, I settled on making this one:

Probably not the best choice for a person of my rudimentary skills. I foolishly thought that improvisational curves might not be so hard. The last little curved seam was ripped and re-stitched until the pieces started to fray, so I finally decided finished was better than perfect and called it good.

And, I had something for show and tell at the January meeting!

The next project was more straightforward:

Dream Doll Quilt - Pattern by Aneela Hoey

Detail of Dream Doll Quilt doll and bunny

Tiny half square triangles are a bit more challenging that they looked, so don't look too closely! The pattern had a template for a little doll and teddy bear, but I used part of a panel called Appleville by Suzy Ultman. Also the original called for applique clouds, but I decided to do embroidered ones, instead. I used flannel instead of batting on this one.

Next weekend, about 10 from our group are headed to Utah for a quilting retreat! I have my machine all packed up with everything (and more, I am sure) that I need. I had a very hard time deciding what to work on so I packed several projects to take, including some embroidery.

I am starting to feel like a real quilter!

Kona Challenge Reveal - Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild

This is a guest post that I wrote for the Robert Kaufman blog - Swatch and Stitch.

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Hi! I'm Jan and I am the Vice President of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. We began forming our group in January of this year and we were very excited to participate in the Kona Solid Challenge.

We selected the Classic Palette charm pack and distributed them to members at our April meeting. The 'rules' were to use at least a bit of all the colors in the charm pack, adding as much yardage as desired of two additional solid colors. Of course, we knew that rules are meant to be broken, so our judging categories were: Best Large Quilt, Best Small Quilt and Best Rule Breaker.

Although, some of the challenge participants were unable to be at our July meeting, nine members 'revealed' their projects.

All members in attendance voted for the winners in the three categories.

Back left: Patty won in the category of Best Large Quilt. Next to Patty, Tracie holds her winning entry in the Best Small Quilt category. Carolina is kneeling with her winning Rule Breaker Quilt. (Carolina traded the 'warm' colors in her charm pack with another member for more 'cool' charms.)

You can see all the entries here.

The Kona Solid Challenge was a great experience and we appreciate Robert Kaufman Fabrics for sponsoring the event!

Finishes! Finally!

This weekend, I checked some things off my list!

I revisited the Quilt of Frustration and now it is the Quilt of Snugly Goodness:

Before washing:

After washing:

I am really pleased at how it turned out. My goal was to practice machine quilting with the walking foot. I did get some practice using the foot, but didn't really practice quilting patterns. I have another idea that will allow me to practice on another project.

I also finished a pin cushion project that I started a few weeks ago. The one that I had been using was about 30 or 35 years old and quite dirty. My mom stitched it up from some scrap wool and stuffed it with hair clippings collected for her by the beauty shop. It had a halo of hair sticking out all around it and was pretty tacky. I didn't really notice how tacky it was, until I took it with me to a quilt guild meeting and saw it in another 'setting'.

So, I decided to make one from some wool that I picked up at an estate sale. One of these days I am going to do an embroidered wool quilt, so I thought I would try my hand with a small project.

I decided on kind of a sampler design, but I didn't think my usual method of hot iron transfer would net a good result, so I basted in some guide stitches and kind of went free hand, but with a guide.

You can see the light tan basting stitches in this photo.

I outlined a square in pencil, then made marks outside those lines at intervals and ran basting thread all around and connected the intermediate lines.

This was my pattern guide.

After I finished the embroidery, I quilted it with some batting and a lining for stability and stitched it up. I stuffed it with batting and fabric scraps, but it just didn't have the same 'grab' that I was used to, so I opened it back up and pulled the stuffing out and replaced it with some wool roving. The roving was just the ticket and now I have a new favorite pin cushion!

Plus, I learned a new stitch, the Colonial Knot. I don't think I will ever need to do another French Knot, again!

I also finished a Christmas gift - unfortunately, it was a 2010 gift, that is now horribly late, but better late than never, I think! And, I finished up a couple of pillow case dresses that I hope are the right size for two little girls that live near the mountains.

All that, just so I could get started on the blocks for a challenge that we kicked off at the last meeting of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. We handed out charm packs at the meeting (generously provided by the Robert Kaufman Fabric Company) with the challenge to use every color in the pack (41 different ones) and only add two additional solid colors in whatever quantity required.

I have been searching for some inspiration for the last few weeks and finally decided on a design. I Sketched it out on some graph paper and made four blocks today. I was pleased and a little surprised that they turned out pretty much as I envisioned them. I am going to set a goal to get at least eight blocks done each weekend in order to stay on track for our July 'reveal'.

I feel good about wrapping up some loose ends today! Not as good as the President probably feels about finding Osama Bin Laden, but pretty good, just the same....

Stars of Valor Blocks

I am taking these blocks to the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Thursday to be sent with other blocks to Moda Fabrics as part of their "Just One Star" project. You can read more about it and how to join in here.

They are shown hanging from my sock 'chandelier'. A laundry day 'must have' for small spaces and wool socks!

I am not sure why, but I am having difficulty taking sharp photos these days, so you can't tell that one of the reds is a tiny stripe and the other is a tiny dot pattern. The blue has little swirls and tiny gold dots that kind of remind me of a starry night. (Kind of a star in a star thing.)

It was a good exercise for me to follow the instructions for cutting and piecing. I think that I finally have gotten the hang of a consistent seam allowance, as all three blocks turned out the same size. The star points are not all perfect, but there is really no overt wonky-ness!

I didn't have very much cream 'tone on tone', just a couple of small pieces from a scrap bag that I got at the lqs. I supplemented with Kona 'bone' for the large triangles.

I also finished up my name tag for the meeting this week. I am not thrilled at the result. It looks a bit like a coaster on a string, since I made it to hang around my neck. It is essentially a very tiny quilt and pretty stiff since I got carried away with the quilting. Another good learning experience, though. I think I will make another and use the first one for a luggage tag on my sewing machine case.

I am looking forward to the guild meeting this week. It is so inspiring to see what everyone else is working on!

Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild

At the second meeting at the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild, we had a mug rug swap. (I showed off mine here) Everyone who made one drew a number out of a cup. I drew number two, so I picked second.

And, this is what I picked!

No surprise, the red and white one called my name! This one was made by a very experienced quilter, so all the points point to where they were intended to point.

We had a great time and in my enthusiasm, I volunteered to be an officer of the club. Vice President, I think, but maybe still to be determined, as there were a couple of positions 'open'.

Maybe now that I have an 'official capacity' I can convince The Mister that I need use my vacations to travel around the country visiting other chapters of The Modern Quilt Guild. You know, as a mission of good will...