The King

 This magnificent lion is finally off the WIP list and onto my living room wall.

 Way back in February, 2015, Juliet at the Tartan Kiwi asked for pattern testers for her new paper piecing pattern. Since we had just been on safari two months earlier, I practically begged to be a tester! My first post to Instagram was this spectacular eye!

At the end of a single long day of piecing, the king was born. I remember Julia and Fred coming in and out all day, checking on my progress.

After waffling for 18 months on whether or not to quilt him, I gave in (gave up?) and ordered a frame. Without removing the paper, I trimmed him to size to fit the frame. Five minutes.  Done! 

To be completely honest, I was not quite done yet because I did something stupid. There was a lot of lint on the front of the plexiglass. I grabbed a lint roller, the sticky tape kind, and rolled it over the glass. It left lines of sticky residue all over! Nothing I had in the house could remove it. A week later, I picked up some Goo Gone with a JoAnn's coupon. Just a drop of that miracle liquid cleaned it all up. OK. Now it's done!

The King

24" lion pattern by The Tartan Kiwi

Pieced 2/24/15

Framed 6/17/16

Mark & Heidi's Wedding Ring

 It's time for the big reveal...

Last June, I invited my nephew Mark and his fiancee Heidi to a quilt design consultation party. We looked at patterns and took a field trip to the LQS. We didn't find the focus fabric we were looking for, so we jumped online and found Kate Spain's Sunnyside line. Heidi wanted blues, and Mark wanted a bit of orange (note the Syracuse hat). I happened to have a mini charm pack of Sunnyside in my stash, and we decided on the main print from that 2.5" square!

Quite a few of the other prints in the quilt are from Sunnyside, but I needed to add in more blues for the gradation. I think I traveled to five or six quilt shops until I was happy with the fabrics.

If you've visited my blog before, you know I love paper piecing. Judy Neimeyer's patterns just make me happy! I love her methodical process and perfect patterns. This was my third time making a wedding ring star and I just love it. 

It's hard for me to complete a pattern without making some modifications. This time, I designed a border to echo the curve of the rings and added some simple applique. It took some time and consultation with my friend Maria to figure out a process for adding the scalloped border with bias edging. (I love Maria! We speak the same quilting language.)

The backing fabric was Plan B. My first purchase was a white on white that was just boring. I love this more modern option. (If I find the receipt, I'll add a link to the shop.) Oh, the binding! I cut up a whole yard of fabric into 2.25" strips. Overkill. I have extra, so you'll be seeing it again! I spent a few nights on the couch watching listening to TV while I hand stitched.

I'll step back and let the machine quilting by Pat Harrison speak for itself...

The queen size bed in Pete's room is dwarfed by this massive quilt.

My brother put me in this photo for scale! The portable quilt rack is just barely big enough. We had to bring it out on the deck for photos because our ceilings aren't high enough.

Mark & Heidi's Wedding Ring

Started June 2014

Completed April 2015

Working Time: 140 hours

Size: 112" square

Machine pieced and hand appliqued by Tina Craig, Seaside Stitches

Professionally machine quilted by Pat Harrison, Ocean Waves Quilting Co.

Bali Wedding Star Pattern by Judy Neimeyer, Quiltworx

Original border design by Tina Craig

Process blog posts:

Fabric selection

Block 1 and mockup

Piecing Arcs

Progress

Melons

Piecing done

Border applique

Top done

Binding

Awards:
Ninigret Quilters, October 2015:
Best Large Pieced Quilt
NQA Certified Judges Ribbon
Vendor Choice-Bob's Featherweights

Narragansett Bay Quilters Association, April 2016:
Best of Show
1st Place Exemplary Machine Quilting- Track
1st Place Exemplary Use of Color
2nd Place Exemplary Piecing

Cactus Flower

 The Cactus Flower table runner that I started in a class with Jackie Kunkle in May is now finished. The pattern was designed by Judy Neimeyer and is available in Jackie's shop.

 The four units that I completed in class have blue centers. I wasn't sure if I liked them, so I tried some pink. Better! 

I finished the piecing on Thursday. Paper piecing makes such a mess, but it is totally worth it!

I'm getting my money's worth out of this quilting stencil from Patsy Thompson designs.

 

I probably did a lot more starting and stopping than necessary on this piece, but I was in no hurry. I stopped to bury threads after each section.

 

 The border fabric is a Riley Blake print that I fell in love with on someone else's blog. I liked it so much, I bought it in red and orange! The orange went on the back.

I used a variegated Auriful thread for most of the quilting- 50 wt #4657.

 

Photographing table runners isn't easy!

 

Cactus Flower Table Runner

Started 5/14/14

Completed 7/11/14

Designed by Judy Neimeyer

Class taught be Jackie Kunkel

Fabric: Flutter by the Quilted Fish for Riley Blake and Kona cotton solids

Size: 17" X 50"

Just Keep Swimming

 I guess Saturday is pillow-making day! I finished Julia's Dory pillow this morning, so I could ship it to her today. She forgot to pack a few things for school, so she will be receiving a very large box in a few days.

Back in April(?) I paper pieced this Dory block from a pattern at Fandom in Stitches. I had to make some corrections to the eyes because the pattern was missing a couple of lines. I finally did the embroidery last week, hoping I could finish the pillow before she left for school. Didn't happen.

 

The only quilting I did was some wavy lines in the borders with variegated thread. I could feel that something was wrong with the first round of stitches, so I loosened the top tension and the rest looks great.

 

 Julia is settled back at school. She had to say good bye to Pete and we didn't even cry. She won't see him again until his graduation from boot camp in December. He leaves in two weeks. Gah!

Just keep swimming!

Swap Top is Done!

 The top of Swap Soup is done! Well, I'm actually thinking about adding one more border to bring it up to twin size and to control the bias edges on those string blocks. Boy, do they stretch!

I listed the swaps and WIPs that are included in this quilt yesterday. Yes, I added the polka dot blocks, too! Those borders were a bit too long. What to do? Chop the ends off! Did I lose the points? Yes. Do I care? Nope!

 My husband and son really like this quilt. My mother knew I did a lot of swapping, but had no idea how many other quilters were involved. The whole family enjoyed reading the names and cities on the siggy blocks.

I'm hoping to get this puppy quilted next weekend at an all day sew-in. It's actually a craft weekend at a local hotel, but I can only make it on Sunday. I'll bring this and my unfinished scrapbook of Italy vacation photos. Think I can get both done in one day?

Scrappy Fun is now Swap Soup

 I'm back to my sewing machine after three days without power. It's nice to be creating again!

I joined Threadbias recently and immediately joined a UFO group. One of the projects I hope to finish was originally titled Scrappy Fun. I was hoping to use up stacks of random swap blocks from several different swaps.

The project was on hold temporarily while I waited for round 2 of the siggy swap blocks to come home. They arrived this week and I started playing!

Last night, I had this arrangement. 

 

After adding borders to each paper pieced block, I now have this! And a new name:

Swap Soup!

 

Blocks included (center out):

Teeny Weeny Paper Piecing Bee (3 months)

Basket Weave string blocks (Bonnie Hunter workshop- not swaps)

Crafty Blackbird's Siggy Swap (2 rounds)

Mini Scrap Basket swap (2 rounds)

This will get four (count 'em, 4!) items off my WIP list. Woohoo!!

I love how this is coming together! I'm compiling a list of all the quilters who made blocks for the label. Unfortunately, the TWPP group has been taken down from Flickr, and not everyone labeled their string blocks.

I just remembered that I have a box full of hourglass blocks that I made from polka dot charms that I swapped for. I wonder if there are enough to go all the way around the outside border.  Hmmm...

Friends

 Just a quick post before I head out for the day.

It was great to see Jackie this week here in Rhode Island! We met for a quick dinner on Wednesday, where we commiserated about daughters in college and guild politics.  Then my mother and I went to her lecture on Thursday night. Look how cute she is! (And not dorky at all!)

I was busy this week making some paper pieced lapel pins. I'm so lucky to have a friend willing to sell them for me. I'm a horrible business person. I'd rather just sew!

We have some fun weekend plans:

White elephant sale (older folks selling great vintage items!)

Quilt Show at Quilters by the Sea

Marine Corps band concert

Eagle Scout Court of Honor for Pete's best friend

It's time to get started!

Fun with Triangles

 Add another piece to the UFO pile! Here is the Tossed Triangle table runner that I pieced on Tuesday morning. Maybe I should call it "Tuesday Triangle Table Topper!"

It looks pretty cool on the end of Julia's bed.

File this pic in the "keeping it real" file. I'm trying to not completely overrun this room with quilting stuff, but there you go. Not too bad yet, but more than I need for today.

 

In the midst of multiple volunteer obligations yesterday, I managed to get some little paper piecing done. These will be turned into lapel pins later today. A friend of mine (Kate, a very talented basket maker) will be selling them in her booth at the Quilters by the Sea show this weekend.

 

I'm off to piece more pin parts!

P.S. and F.Y.I.  Don't put your laptop on top of your cutting board, especially if it gets as hot as mine. The heat will warp your board quite quickly! Luckily, mine flattened right out, but why risk it.

4 X 5 Modern Swap

My 4X5 Modern Quilt Bee blocks are done!

Actually, they've been done for about a week, and just needed to be trimmed to size.

Each member of our hive (#14) listed her fabric color choices. Then we chose a block pattern to make for each other. I chose the block Roads to Rome, because our family traveled to Italy this past summer and we all know that all roads lead to Rome! The fact that it was paper pieced was a bonus.

Now it's time to play "one of these things is not like the others!" I had a hard time with this color combination. I actually made this block twice. The first one was too pastel and looked like a baby quilt. For this one, after all the units were paper pieced, It just didn't look right. So I started turning things around, and this placement was more pleasing to my eye. Did you notice that the pink geese are flying in the opposite direction?


That brings up an interesting point. If the block is called roads TO Rome, why are all the geese flying away from the center? Shouldn't they be flying towards the center?

I had been thinking about taking a swapping break. If I do one more round of this bee, I'll have 12 blocks, which is much more useful than 6. If I do the full year, I'd have 24 blocks! If you want to play in the next round, sign ups start on October 1.