Guild Fun

 It has been kind of a random week of stitching, jumping from one project to another. As I was thinking about what to blog about today, I realized there was a theme to some of the projects: Guilds. 

Narragansett Bay Quilters Association is having a show in April, which means a fabric challenge was issued. Members were able to purchase some of the challenge fabric- Kaffe Fassett's Millefiore dated 2012. I've had that piece of fabric for several months, waiting for inspiration to strike. Early this week, I scoured my Pinterest boards and found this lovely little piece by Bryan House Quilts. Rebecca's wildflowers measure about 7", so my whole piece will be about 22".

I fussy cut the Millefiore and selected some coordinating prints from my stash. Everything is cut and ready for nighttime EPP TV stitching. In three days, I was able to finish three blocks. I'm planning to make nine blocks, and I hope to be quilting this piece next week.

Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild is on the second round of postcard swapping. Recognize that heart fabric? My swap partner is also a member of NBQA, so I hope she gets a kick out of the guild crossover.

 

 

I recently received a couple of postcards from RIMQG. Leslie sent me the sweet orange lollipop flowers because one of my Christmas postcards got lost in the mail. Thank you, swap angel!

Lisa sent me these cool seaside stitches! Yes, fabric postcards go through the mail, but it seems like they pick up ink/dirt from the postal machines in the same spot. Bummer.

 

 Ninigret Quilters is having a three-month swap of lifesaver blocks. Here's my haul from January. 

I'm going to try to finish something today. Stay tuned!

Woven Sunset

 I wonder why I was drawn to work on these warm colors on a cold, snowy day? 

This project started almost a year ago, during a retreat weekend in March 2015. Carole Kenny taught a workshop of the Sunset pattern by Julie Popa. It looks complicated, but it goes together quickly.

 The quilting was done over the course of three days. There were lots of starts and stops and thread tails to bury which gets old fast. I need to break up jobs like that into bite size pieces.

The quilting was done with a pale peach 50 wt Superior So Fine thread. It blends nicely with the warm strips and shows up nicely on the background.

I "marked" guidelines for the orange peel quilting with a bone folder. If you look closely, you can see some creased lines. They will disappear with use or during the first washing. The orange peels aren't perfect, but I love the overall effect.

I picked up the yardage for the backing when my local quilt shop had their retirement sale. I picked a red from my stash for the binding.

 You can see the straight line and serpentine quilting in the woven strips and the border. That center border was pieced from leftovers from the blocks. No waste!

#husbandsholdingquilts

Woven Sunset

55" X 70"

Started 3/13/15

Completed 1/23/16

Disappearing Orange Peel

 This is my attempt at Modern Traditionalism. I started with a traditional orange peel design with scrappy orange prints hand-appliqued on a scrappy low volume background. 

I replaced some of the peels with ghost shapes that are hand-quilted with perle cotton. 

 

I machine quilted with a cream 50 wt Superior So Fine thread. I left the peels unquilted, but I considered quilting some orange fill designs in the ghost shapes. 

  

I thought I had started this project early last year. When I searched the blog, I found this post from 2012! This was supposed to be my Tangerine Tango project. I completely changed direction from my original plan which shows how my quilting style has evolved over the last four years.

For the back, I had a perfect tree print in my stash from Central Park by Kate Spain. The orange dot from Oliver + S is the perfect binding.

 

I have to say I really enjoyed all the hand stitching on this project- from the applique to the perle cotton quilting to stitching down the binding. I was able to finish it up in just a few days. Gotta love those minis!

Disappearing Orange Peel

Started 1/27/12

Completed 1/21/16

16" X 16"

 

 With a snowstorm on its way, I'm flashing back to these cuties. She started her final semester of college this week and he left for his first overseas deployment. Wish they were here to play in the snow (and do the shoveling!)

Christmas 2015

 It's a little late to be blogging about Christmas, but I just finished my new Christmas quilt. I had hoped to finish it in time to cuddle up under on Christmas Eve, but it wasn't meant to be.

I used 2 charm packs of Flurry by Kate Spain plus about 1.5 yds of Kona white cut into 5" squares. I also bought some yardage for borders and binding. The pattern is Jewel Toss from the Moda Bake Shop, but I modified the construction quite a bit. I cut up the white on 12/22 and pieced the whole top on 12/23. I made 4-patches from one charm pack and half-square triangle units from the other pack.

 

I finally had a chance to get it basted and quilted yesterday. The backing is another Kate Spain print from her Jingle line. Funny story about the quilting. I forgot to drop the feed dogs before I started the free motion quilting. I didn't realize it until I was ready to attach the binding and went to set the machine back to normal. oops! Turns out it didn't make much difference.

I used Superior So Fine! 50 weight #401 for the quilting. Gladly, I didn't have any trouble with thread breakage. Last winter, I was having trouble with that thread. We thought maybe it was the dry air, but maybe I was using the wrong needle. For whatever reason, the stars aligned, and all went well.

It was such a joy piecing and quilting this beautiful fabric.

Christmas 2015

started 12/22/15

completed 1/16/16

51" X 75"

interface

My first new project finish for 2016 is interface. When we quilters think of that word, fusible interfacing comes to mind. This is a much different interface.

My husband has worked in a Navy lab for 25 years and has become an expert in the air-water interface. It is his job to find or develop new technologies to help submarines communicate through that interface- no small task!

On our way home from the Gathering and a wonderful exhibit of the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild, I asked Bill how we could represent his work in a minimalist quilt design. This is what we came up with. The blue is the water, gray sky, a sliver of red represents the interface. The yellow thing could be a UUV or a buoy.

The quilting tells the story of a signal coming from a submarine and being relayed by the UUV. Bill assured me that when this quilt is hanging in his office his colleagues will immediately recognize its significance. For us quilters, I hope it is just a cool design.

It was quick to piece, with just two seams. Granted, it is not easy to piece an accurate 1/8" seam, and this one is not perfectly perfect. It looks good from a distance, though. The yellow UUV is appliqued.

I quilted along the red first, then started the echo quilting from the red line each time. That was a lot of tails to bury, but I think the effect was worth the effort.

Bill purchased the print on the back many years ago on one of his working trips to Hawaii.

Even though we designed this quilt in November, I didn't start stitching until a few days before the RI Modern Quilt Guild solids challenge deadline. You know how much I love a deadline! I brought it for show and tell to Ninigret last night, too. Thanks to Catherine for holding and Pat for taking the picture.

interface

24" X 36"

Designed 11/8/15

Pieced & appliqued 1/6/16

Quilted 1/7-8/16

Bound 1/8/16

Kona solids: silver, navy, tomato, grillow and black

Aurifil 50 wt: 2600 Dove and 2784 Dark Navy

First Finish of 2016

 There were a few small table runners that didn't get quilted before the craft show a month ago. I really didn't want them to sit in the UFO pile for another year, so I pulled them out yesterday. They were already pin-basted and the binding was cut, so it only took a few hours to finish them up.

Can you tell I had fun playing with my stash of Christmas prints? I was in use-it-up mode!

 

I love that blue and green one.

Fun prints on the back, too. I'm getting better about remembering to include my printed labels.

The two larger ones are about 12" X 36" and the three small ones are 6" X 18".

Miscellaneous Crafty Catch Up

In keeping with the end of year catching up, here are some crafty projects I was working on. I'm tired just looking at it all! I honestly don't know how I did it all in two months.

I was really pleased with my craft show set up. Don't look too closely at the prices. I already know they are too low. 

The princess totes went to Abby & Olivia in Denver. The 2 mug mats were commissioned. I like that they are similar, but different. The two pillowcases were for Mollie's new pillow.

 My niece asked for collars and leashes for her girls' doll pets. Lily's dog is wearing the new collar, but Anna wanted to put hers on her new unicorn. It's a good thing I made them adjustable!

I liked the NYB postcards so much, I put them in tow blog posts! I spent one night in front of the TV making origami stars for a small Christmas tree. I need to get my paper folding fix from time to time! The brownie trees were my go-to party contribution. The candy cane bow tie is for my super cool son.

 

Twelve key fobs made from my father's ties were gifted to all of his kids and grandchildren.  Some people cried. Mission accomplished.

In addition to all the crafting and quilting, I did take a few breaks to cheer on my kids. Pete participated in the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps birthday ceremony. He's on the 45 yard line on the left, 6th from the front. (Julia and I watched the ceremony live streaming on line.)

That's Julia, number 11, playing in a rugby tournament that her team won. We also went to her Christmas concert to hear her sweet solo. She has the most beautiful singing voice, but can throw a mean tackle!

 

 There was some beautiful color in the house: birthday roses, pretty poinsettia and anniversary roses. Someone knows my favorite color!

Quilty Catch Up

I'm so sorry that I've been away from the blog for almost two months! November and December do seem to be the busiest months of the year, what with all the holidays and partying. Here's what I've been up to on the quilting front.

 

Two of my quilts were accepted for exhibition at A Quilters' Gathering in New Hampshire at the beginning of November. Engineer's Wife was awarded a codirector's ribbon from Kate Sussman. She liked the Morse Code anniversary quilt, too.  

  

During the same weekend,  the Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild presented an exhibit during the Fine Furnishings Show in Pawtucket. Three of my quilts were included: Diamond Party, Sugar Wave and Picture Perfect.

 I had an opportunity to meet Mary Fons! 

  I quilted up an old WIP/UFO before to fill out my craft show booth. It was made from a really cute collection of Debbie Mumm lighthouse prints and coordinates. I think I pieced it in 2008. It can be a baby quilt of small lap quilt, perfect for a beach house.

Finished size: 48" X 54" 

 Another pre-craft show finish was the scrappy pyramid quilt. I really like this fun collection of modern scraps. The green binding works because green goes with everything!

Finished size: 48" X 64"

Started 2/22/15

Completed 12/2/15

While I was in a free motion quilting mood, I quilted up a guild quilt for a Habitat home dedication.

 The RIMQG hosted a postcard swap in November and there were the 2 fabric postcards I sent out. I bust out a paper pieced New York Beauty whenever possible!

On December 23rd, I decided I wanted to make a Christmas quilt for our cuddling up on the couch on Christmas Eve. Well, I got the top done that day and haven't taken another stitch since. I hope to quilt it this coming week. I used two charm packs of Flurry by Kate Spain and two yards of solid white Kona. Yummy!

And there you have it!