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

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

25th Anniversary Quilt

 Bill and I are celebrating our 25th Anniversary today. We've added a few pounds and gray hairs, but we are still as happy together as we were in 1989.

My real reason for posting today is to show you the quilt I made for him. I was inspired by Thomas Knauer's code quilts. I started out by designing a Braille quilt, but I just wasn't feeling it. (ha!) I switched to Morse code because it is more meaningful to us as Bill is a communications guy.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen references to the super secret project. I couldn't really start until the wedding quilt top was done, but I did start prepping circles when I needed an applique break. The first photo is dated 11/7, but I'm pretty sure I started a day or two before that. The whole top was pieced in just two days, 11/17-18.  I knew I had to have the top done before Thanksgiving and our trip.

I decided early on that I could kill two birds with one stone and attach the circles with the quilting. I'm not a fan of raw edge applique, so the circles were prepared using Erin's method (without the stuffing) and then glue basted to the gray background squares.

 I used an assortment of blues from my stash, some leftover from Pete's quilt. The background is Kona Silver. I picked it out for the color without realizing how appropriate it was for a 25th anniversary!

I didn't leave myself much time for quilting. I only had 2 days to get it done before Christmas. I had originally planned something completely different to do something fun with the negative space, but it wasn't practical with limited time. Straight lines and serpentines had to be employed. 

I still needed to do some free motion in the blues to stitch down the circles. I used Aurifil 50 wt in gray #2600 and navy #2784 for the quilting.

The back was pieced from a big piece of Kona Medium Gray and a strip of blue print leftover from the back of the wedding quilt.

I had a small pile of dots and dashes leftover- just enough to spell out love for the label!

I presented the quilt to Bill at our anniversary party on Saturday. I gave him a Morse code key and made him figure it out! He knew what the first part said after just the first couple of letters.

 

It finished a little bigger than I planned. It covers the whole top of our bed.

Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. And Bill loves it!

25 Years!

66" X 77"

Started 11/6/14

Completed 12/23/14

P.S. If you don't want to take the time to decode the message, it says:

I only have eyes for you

Bill and Tina 25 years

A Friday Finish for My Valentine

I've added two new pillows to the collection on my bed.

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to finish Bill's Bee pillow. He joked about being miffed that I wanted to hang my T is for Tina quilt above our bed, so I started B(ee) is for Bill. We're goofy that way.

The paper piecing pattern is from Amy at Badskirt. When I pieced the block back in November I put the squaring up triangles on the wrong sides. I did not intend for the bee to stand up straight! So out came the seam ripper.

horrible cell phone photo

Then I started quilting and that was another fail. I tried a new fill and it looked horrible. Rip again!

Bill's little bee sat and waited a couple of months until I found him again this week. I pulled out another variegated thread that matched the greens and blues perfectly.

I quilted some Angela Walters triangle fills and my trusty loopy swirl.

While I was making and stuffing pillow forms, I finished the Clamshell pillow, too. I die cut the shapes at Karen's house two weeks ago. The rows are machine pieced but the top edge is hand appliqued to the aqua background. My Facebook and instagram friends chose the background color.

This one was hand quilted with a creamy Aurifil Mako 100% Cotton 12 weight thread. This was my first time using the 12 weight and I loved it! This pillow was inspired by Amanda's Riley Blake challenge entry.

The Pebbled Sea Glass pillow is still my favorite. Isn't my little Devil Dog cute? The bull dog is a Marine Corps mascot. I picked him up in Parris Island when we went to Pete's graduation. Pete is doing well with his training at Camp Pendleton. We get to talk to him on the weekends and he sounds great!

B(ee) is for Bill 12" pillow, started 11/7/13, completed 2/13/14

Clamshell 16" pillow, started 1/31/14, completed 2/131/4

Muddy Fun

I sewed! My last batch of three by three blocks is ready to go. I hope they aren't too late.


And a little gift for a new friend.


Bill took us on one of his "adventures" yesterday. It was actually my idea to go on a hike, so he brought us back to a trail we hadn't been on in 10 years. We hiked a lot when the kids were little, before soccer, softball and baseball took over our weekends.


It's a beautiful trail through a beech forest. Since last month was the wettest July on record, we had some mud to deal with.


Wildflowers are like gems in the forest.


On the way home, we stopped at a farm store for blueberries and pie.
Yup. We ate it right out of the box!


A perfect summer day!