Thursday, June 23, 2016

Group Blocks, a Plus Quilt and a Log Lamp

I enjoy walking 10,000 steps a day, and doing some sewing and/or quilting every day. Having injured my knee recently, I've had to take a break from these. I do have some photos to share though.

My small quilt group met recently. Each month one person asks everyone to make her a block. This month was Laura's turn. She asked for a block by Bonnie Hunter called "Dawn's Early Light". It's a patriotic block and Laura's birthday is on USA Flag Day, so it was very appropriate.



 I started it at 3:30 PM on the day we were meeting. It ended up being a bit of a sweat for me, as it took nearly 3 hours to complete.



Here are 8 of the blocks from that evening. A couple weren't able to attend that night. There are 11 of us in the group, so there should be 11 blocks in the end.



After that experience, I made next month's block for Gail right away! Her block is called "Autumn At the White House", and she provided the creme-colored batik fabric for us to use.



We made miniature 9-patches for Sue a few months ago. We each made two of these larger squares. She made some more to fill in, and here's a photo of her completed top! It's beautiful.



Here's an antique quilt that one of our member's picked up recently, a lovely feathered star.



This is my own quilt top that I've been working on. I love "Plus" quilts! This is a pattern by April Rosenthal, called Flirty quilt pattern.  I made it from a jelly roll called Basic Mixologie by Moda. There is a Flirty quiltalong starting on July 1st, on Instagram. It's being led by happinessinthemaking and heritage.threads. I'll be quilting mine when my knee recovers a bit more.



And lastly, my favorite podcaster, Paula of Knitting Pipeline, talked about her favorite trees this week. One tree she talked about was the Burr Oak, of which we had many in the yard of my childhood home. Two of my favorite trees include the Ginkgo, whose leaves turn to golden miniature fans the first week of December, in Tokyo, and Weeping Willow trees planted along the riverbanks of Japan, especially when the leaves come out in the spring. They are like lace gently swaying in the breeze.

In one of my college art classes we were asked to make a lamp out of something found. So I turned a log from our firewood pile into a lamp. I was pleasantly surprised when my mom discovered it still there in the attic two years ago, and still in fine shape! I bought a new lampshade and we use it daily in our living room!



Grace and peace!

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

An Anniversary Quilt For My DH

My husband's favorite color is green. So when this quilt started taking a decidedly green turn, I decided it would be for him. The wedges are made using a 15 degree ruler from Creative Grids.  The gradated fabrics came from MassDrop. There are more colors in the set that I didn't use. We'll see how they show up in future projects.



The white background fabric is covered in mathematical figures and equations, including many different shaped triangles. Perfect for my hubby--he has degrees in both math and physics.



I custom quilted it on my APQS Freedom longarm. I love doing figure 8 quilting and did all the gradated sections with that first. Then I went back and quilted the background sections with triangle shapes, using a ruler. That part took A LOT longer than the figure 8s!



The finished size is 52" X 80". I used Quilters Dream Batting--Orient. It has both bamboo and silk in it. It's super soft, super lightweight and perfect for warmer weather--doesn't get hot. I have it on a roll that is 60" wide, so I make my throws between 50" and 55", to accommodate the batting width.



The backing is from a duvet cover--twin size, that I bought at IKEA. It's 100% cotton. I took out all the seams and ended up with enough to back this quilt and another quilt the same size. Plus I took the pillowcase apart and that is enough to back a tablerunner--20" X 68". The duvet cover cost $15.



It's a rather mod, interesting fabric.



I finished it on our wedding anniversary, June 14th, and gifted it to my DH that same day. It's our 30th this year! We're still having fun!!!



We also had our local quilt guild meeting on June 14th--Dakota County Star Quilters. As a gift to our out-going president, Sandy, we each made this cowboy boot block. It finishes to 7 1/4" X 7 3/4". I naturally made mine in Japanese fabrics. Sandy was our pres for 2 years running and loves to wear cowboy boots.



And lastly, we did a 2 1/2" patriotic strip swap at guild, also. Here are the strips I brought home. Looking forward to making something patriot out of these!



Grace and peace!

Monday, June 13, 2016

Happy Birthday, Bonnie!!!

Today is my sister's birthday! We are the best of sisters, friends and quilting buddies. For her birthday present this year I quilted two of her quilts for her:



This first one is a antique-looking wall hanging.



It's 28" X 31". The quilting shows up great on the white backing.



I used one of my favorite antique-looking edge to edge designs called Feathered Curls.



And her next quilt is a modern dresden plate. It's 50" square.



I did custom quilting on this one.



The border quilting idea came from Angela Walter's newest book, Shape By Shape Collection 2. Angela calls it "Nested Swirls" and it is super fun to do!



Freemotion quilting, plus some ruler work on this one.



Beautiful quilts, Bonnie!!! Happy birthday!




Grace and peace!




Sunday, June 12, 2016

My Quilt Won a Ribbon!!!

My "Tsukubai" quilt won an Honorable Mention ribbon at the Minnesota Quilters Quilt Show!!! Actually, it won two ribbons: one for me, the piecer, and one for Angela Walters, who quilted it for me!



My description reads: "My arrangement of 100 modern blocks is inspired by an old Japanese coin with kanji reading: 'All I have is sufficient for me'."



I entered it in the Modern category. Here are the other Modern category winners.

This was 3rd place, pieced and quilted by Renelle Kunau, of Maple Grove, Minnesota:



Second place, Modern category, pieced and quilted by Sylvia Satermo, of Athens, Georgia:



And first place, Modern category, pieced and quilted by Rebecca Smith, of Rapid City, South Dakota:



I had two other quilt in the show, although not in competition. The following is my Minnesota Quilters 2015 Paint Chip Challenge. We drew an envelope with three paint chips in it and created something quilted using those three colors. I used Denyse Schmidt Modern Solids, that I bought from Massdrop. The design is called Copper Boom by The Cozy Pumpkin. You'll find her free tutorial here. You can see my paint chips at the bottom of my quilt. I custom quilted it--figure 8 quilting is one of my favs!

 

I made this baby quilt for the 2016 Minnesota Quilters President's Challenge. Martha Eaves, our president, asked us to make a baby quilt with a butterfly theme, using butterfly fabrics, butterfly blocks or butterfly quilting. I used Sew Kind of Wonderful's Urban Abacus pattern, minus the sashing, and some of the many butterfly fabrics I have. These butterfly baby quilts will all be donated to community baby showers for those in need. There were over 90 quilts made!



And this colorful butterfly baby quilt was made by my Quilting Cousin, Sue Weiby--she used Chenille By the Yard for the body of the butterflies, and fabric designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg, aka Crazy Mom Quilts:



Grace and peace!




Saturday, June 11, 2016

Three More Quilts For Jan

On May 25, 2016, I posted about a Christmas Cactus quilt I custom quilted for Jan. Here are three more quilts I just finished quilting for her:


The first is a pinwheel design.


This edge to edge design is called "Oma's Garden".


I love how random this design looks. The pattern is shifted with each row, so the repeat is every 52"!


Backing fabric is from Quilt Cove, where I work part-time. Quilt Cove is said to have the best selection of extra-wide backing around.


Another pinwheel quilt:


This edge to edge design is called Windy Meander. It's also a shifting pattern, so the repeat is every 52". I love doing this pattern.



Backing fabric is pieced--chicken wire!


And Jan's third quilt here is a wallhanging. She said they were leftover blocks from a mystery quilt that she had made smaller than the instructions said.


Quilting is Feathered Curls.


Backing is pieced and shows off the quilting in Lilac colored thread great!


Thanks, Jan, for letting me quilt for you!!!

Grace and peace to all!

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

A Quick Snowball Tablerunner

Here's a tablerunner I finished recently that goes together very quickly.



I made it from a charm pack--42-5" squares. The fabric line is Flow by designer Zen Chic. I was able to use all 42 squares with this layout, 3 squares X 14 squares. I love the bright pink squares in there!



I snowballed every corner with a 2" square of Kona grey. The Folded Corner Clipper eliminates one step while making snowball blocks. It makes the process go faster, so I love using it!



I quilted it on my longarm with figure 8 quilting, made popular by Denyse Schmidt. She has many of her quilts quilted in this pattern. I love quilting this design--it flows so smoothly.



The backing fabric is designed by Tula Pink. It was some leftover bits, so it is pieced together. But I do appreciated extra wide backing when longarm quilting--108" wide.



The binding is words for different colors, on a white background. I got it through Massdrop.


The finished tablerunner is 14" X 62", just right for our dining table.

Grace and peace to you!

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