For Dave

Blogiversary post 3 of 10

Here's another quilt you haven't seen here yet.

My husband's brother is in a nursing home, so I made him a quilt. Anita's Arrowhead block is always the right choice! You can find it in Anita Grossman Solomon's book Rotary Cutting Revolution, available through her Craftsy class.

Dave's Quilt

Made in November 2016

Empty Nest Quilting

 Our nest is empty again. Bill and I helped Julia move into a new dorm room yesterday. There are perks to being an upperclassman, and she loves her larger room with private bath.

I've got a lot of projects to keep me busy. Last week was all about piecing. I love piecing! I love the process of cutting up fabric and sewing it back together. If the process involves some clever recutting and resewing, that makes me even happier!

Two examples from my recent sewing sessions:

Anita's Arrowheads for the back of my jelly roll quilt...

and Scrappy Mountain Majesties. 

This is my new stash project. As I come across smaller pieces of fabric, I'll be cutting 8.5" squares for this project.

 I pulled out this Philip Jacobs' geranium print for my New Year post. I couldn't resist getting right to work on this One Block Wonder. I'm sure I bought the book, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to wing it! It was a blast cutting and piecing this top. Now I need to figure out what to use on the back.

 I'll be focusing on quilting this week, starting with this mini for the schnitzel and boo swap. I'll tell you more about it when it is done.

 When I cleaned out my storage area, I found a basket full of Orca Bay parts from 2011. There were lots of HSTs and hourglass blocks. As I was piecing other projects, I pieced together pinwheels from the HSTs as leaders/enders. In no time, I had a new project to assemble. I put the last 2 borders on this morning making this a 40" square wall hanging. Now this needs backing fabric, too.

 And one more to quilt. My friend Ellie was working on this table runner and lost interest. I'll quilt it up and donate it to our guild auction in October.

 Let's sum up...

Ready for quilting:

Jelly roll/Arrowhead

One block wonder

schnitzel and boo mini

Scrappy blues

pink/yellow runner

Setting In Circles

 Last weekend, Julia and I worked on our retreat projects from last March. During the retreat, we made the jelly roll race tops. Pat Harrison's design had a lovely swirl of circles that were set in using Sharon Schamber's piece-lique method. Julia and I thought we could arrange our circles so the quilts would work together. I first thought of a yin-yang type deisgn. The heart was Julia's brilliant idea.

The original method requires cutting holes in the background first, then piecing in the circle. We reversed that and prepared the circles first by pressing under the seam allowance. Then we glue basted them to the background and cut away the inside of the circle from the background. Finally, we machine stitched the seam. If you've done any piece-lique, this might make sense. It's hard to describe, but it worked for us. Anyway, don't our finished tops look cool together?

When I went to my stash to look for a backing, I found my bin full of Anita's Arrowhead blocks and batik squares waiting to be pieced. About a year ago, I cut up my entire batik stash into squares for these blocks. I pulled all the yellow, orange, pink and green and went to town piecing blocks. I absolutely love making these blocks! Anita's process makes me happy! Now I have a pieced backing that will make this a two-sided quilt.

The binding is pieced from scraps leftover from my circles.

My top, backing, and binding are ready and waiting for me to buy some batting.

I set aside all the blues for Julia, but she won't be able to work on hers again until Spring break.

Craft Book Month

Craft Buds is hosting a blog hop and link up party for Craft Book Month. It's a fun way to see projects from favorite books. I'm jumping in to show you our projects from Anita Grossman Solomon's Rotary Cutting Revolution. It is a few years old, but I'm still being inspired by it.

My largest completed project from this book was a quilt for a friend made with Anita's Arrowhead blocks in April. I had great fun attacking my batik stash in search of the more manly designs.

The pretty pink blocks were my test blocks and certainly didn't fit the theme of the quilt, so they became a Spring table runner.

 

When my daughter Julia decided to make a quilt for her boyfriend, she chose the Old Italian block from the same book. 

 

 Her Army boy loves his new quilt! She gave it to him at his graduation from boot camp in July.

 Of course there are UFO's, too. When I bought the book a few years ago, I started collecting striped fabric to make Xcentric and Concentric blocks.

The stack had gotten too large to fit on the shelf, so it was time to start stitching! Don't tell Julia, but I bought another stripe yesterday. (She tried to cut me off!)  I have an idea for how it could be a fun border for this future quilt.

 

 When Anita visited our guild in August, she taught the Anita's Arrowhead block, so out came my batik stash again.

If you can't take a workshop with Anita in person, her Craftsy class is the next best thing. And you'll get an e-book version of Rotary Cutting Revolution with the class. That's a great deal!

 

Thanks for visiting. Have fun hopping around the Craft Buds party.

WIP Wednesday

 I was happy to make it back to my machine this week. I didn't finish anything, but I did start two new projects and picked up an old one.

With Anita Grossman Solomon in town, I made a pile of Anita's Arrowhead blocks. These won't all end up in the same quilt. That red and white block sticks out like a sore thumb.

When I'd had my fill of arrowheads, I started playing with stripes. I followed Anita's instructions for Xcentric and Concentric blocks.  (More about Anita in yesterday's post.)

I dug out an old WIP last weekend. I finished hand appliqueing the letters (V-Z), then assembled the top. I must have started this quilt about 10 years ago to have a hand work project for baseball games. Each letter is cut from a novelty print. A is for Alphabet, B is for Balls, C is for Crayons. I don't know what will become of this little quilt.

 

At the top of the to-do list, this nine patch top needs to be quilted for the Ninigret Quilters' show in October.

 

I might spend some time with Pete's quilt today and tomorrow while he is attending motorcycle riding class. He wants to get his motorcycle license before he ships out so he can buy a motorcycle as soon as possible. We figured that riding a motorcycle will be the least dangerous thing he'll have to do in the next few years. God, help me!

Spend some time today surfing the WIP Wednesday links. It's worth the trip!

Anita!

 I finally had the opportunity to meet my quilty idol, Anita Grossman Solomon. I'm sure I've mentioned more than a few times how much I love her books. And how I think she's a genius. She has a knack for seeing block construction in new ways.

At Aunt Carrie's, enjoying clam cakes, chowder, fish & chips, and key lime pie.

I was thrilled to spend two short days with Anita when she visited Ninigret Quilters last week. Julia couldn't wait to show Anita the Old Italian quilt she made for Fred. They were so cute together. Anita loved hearing Julia's Girl Scout camp stories over dinner.

I made a few Anita's Arrowhead blocks during the workshop on Wednesday, then went home and made more. And more. And more.  If you don't have the opportunity to take a class from Anita in person, I highly recommend her Craftsy class, Traditional Blocks Made Simple. As a bonus, you'll receive an e-book version of Rotary Cutting Revolution included with the class materials. No joke. It is revolutionary!

I needed a break after three days of arrowheads, so I busted out the striped stash.  

This is the result of just a few hours of work using Anita's technique for making Xcentric and Concentric blocks. Aren't they fun? I must make more!

Random fact: Bill and I both have sisters named Anita.

 

While I was sewing, Bill and Pete went on a canoeing adventure that started on this glassy pond. That was the easy bit. Off in the distance is the entrance to a small river that they hoped to paddle down, but it was blocked by many, many downed trees. They climbed over, snuck under, portaged around, and slowly worked their way downstream. Our 15-year old (now leaky) canoe is being retired.

 

Back to the machine. Will it be more arrowheads or more strips?

Blogger's Quilt Festival- Throw Quilts - Batik Arrowheads

 My entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival Throw Quilt category is Batik Arrowheads.

I started this quilt in late March as a class project from Anita Grossman Solomon's Craftsy class, Traditional Blocks Made Simple. At about that same time, a family friend was hospitalized and in need of love and prayers. This quilt soon became his.

I really enjoyed diving into my batik stash to find the most guy-friendly prints and colors. We shuffled the blocks around several times before settling on this warm/cool arrangement.

 

The backing is nothing to write home about. It gets the job done. The quilting is simply straight lines in the ditch. I loved how it looked on the back of my brown sofa.

 

My mother tested out the quilt at a Marine Corps function for enlistees. 

 

Again, many thanks to Amy for making this all possible!

 

Settle in with your favorite drink and enjoy the show!

Mini Arrowheads

 I haven't had time to do much sewing for fun this week. I did start playing with some Kate Spain charms to make mini Anita's Arrowhead blocks. The large prints don't work very well being chopped up so small, but I love making these little blocks! I stumbled upon this one by Karen at Breezy Point and had to give it a try.

I made a batch of paper pieced lapel pins for a special order. I'm lucky to have good friends who sell them for me. Kate is a talented basket maker, so I provide an assortment of basket designs for her customers.

Today, I'll be preparing for a guild outreach workshop. We provide a quilt for every bed in South County Habitat for Humanity homes. We're getting low on kid quilts, so I'll have fun digging into the novelty prints.

WIP Wednesday

 It has been a pretty good week here in Rhode Island. The weather is finally warming up and feeling like Spring. Daffodils are blooming and the forsythia is hot on their heels.

Finished: Batik Arrowheads. Read more here.

In Progress: RIMQG Crayon Challenge. My crayon is magenta. Blocks are done and laid out on a flannel-backed tablecloth on the floor. If I need to move it, I can roll it up and the blocks stay in place.

Modern Stash Bee. March was my month in the Mo Stash Bee, Three Men and a Baby Hive. The last two blocks arrived yesterday after a little coast to coast detour. Many thanks to my hive mates for contributing to Pete's boot camp graduation quilt! You can find my tutorial for this block here.

I need to add lots of labels to finished quilts, so I printed a bunch on a sheet of printable fabric. Now to cut them apart, border them and add them to the quilts.

Also in progress, the making of a future Marine, which apparently requires lots of protein and mud!

In the near future:
April blocks for Modern Stash Bee
Quilting Mod Bento
Quilting Swap Soup
Starting Bloom Bloom Pow Quilt Along

Time to link up!