Inspiration

Ninigret Quilters spent the day setting up our quilt show.  One of my friends commented that she really liked the setting I used for the 9-patch swap blocks. I told her it was from a book, and I rarely do anything original. With that in mind, I'd like to share my inspirations for the following quilts.

Chris and Jamie's Wedding Ring won a few ribbons...

1st Place Exemplary Piecing

1st Place Exemplary Applique

1st Place Exemplary Use of Color

1st Place Exemplary Machine Quilting (by Pat Harrison)

Exemplary Edge Finish

and

Best of Show !!!

 All the credit and many thanks go to: 

Judy Niemeyer for her spectacular paper piecing pattern,

Erin Russek for her lovely applique patterns,

Kate Spain for her glorious fabric,

Pat Harrison for her amazing machine quilting,

Sharon Schamber for her youtube videos on how to stitch a scalloped binding,

and my friend, Maria Lage, for suggesting insisting on the scalloped binding!

Oh, and I should thank my nephew Christopher and his wife Jamie for patiently waiting for this quilt to be completed, 9 months after they were married!

If that were not enough ribbons for one person, a few other quilts were recognized.

Mod Bento earned a ribbon for 3rd Place Exemplary Scrap Quilt. Many thanks to all who participated in the Mod Bento Swap including my RI friend Jodi.

 Sugar Wave earned 2nd Place Exemplary Machine Quilting, Domestic. Thanks to Melissa Averinos for her awesome fabric line, Sugar Snap, and to Elizabeth Hartman for her New Wave Pattern.

Emerald Selvedge Spiderweb earned 1st Place Exemplary Scrap Quilt and Exemplary Innovative. Thank you to Karen Griska for creating my obsession for saving selvedges, and to Chris Bagley for teaching this workshop at our weekend retreat in March.

 

As quilt show chair, I'd like to invite beg you to visit us this weekend.

A woman with a plan! (to scale)

Ninigret Quilters present Stitching Stars

Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am-4pm each day

Westerly Armory, Westerly, RI

If you live within a 90 minute radius (and beyond) of Westerly, it is worth the trip!

Festival of Strings Finalist!

 My Emerald Selvedge Spiderweb is a finalist in the Festival of Strings being hosted by Stitched in Color! This was such a fun quilt to make, and I'm really excited that other folks like it as much as I do. 

 If you have a minute, please hop over here and vote.

Thank you for voting, and thank you to Rachel for choosing this quilt as a finalist!

Blogger's Quilt Festival- Scrap Quilt Entry- Emerald Selvage Spiderweb

 I chose my Emerald Selvage Spiderweb as a Scrap Quilt entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

The selvages were pieced on a foundation of painter's masking paper that comes on a roll in the hardware store. I just cut it to the sizes I needed for the blocks and borders.

 The green is Kona Fern, that I thought was pretty close to this year's color of the year, Emerald. A few more selvages were used to make the back large enough.

 I really had fun quilting this!

Motifs in the green spaces and mums in the spiderwebs.

This was my first time making a double sided binding.

This is my favorite quilt of 2013, so far!

Amy has done an amazing job of coordinating all the prizes and setting up the linky parties for all the categories. Head over to browse and vote (next week) and send Amy some love!

Enjoy the Blogger's Quilt Festival! 

WIP Wednesday

 I have had a super quilty week! I finished projects, started projects and went to a fabric shop sale with a friend.

Finished:

Emerald Selvage Spiderweb. Read more about it here!

Low Volume Mini. Inspiration to completion in 4 hours!

New:  As if one low volume project was not enough for one week, here's another! I kept looking at the remaining low volume charms trying to decide how to use them up. The Bright Hopes block came to mind (although I didn't know that was its name).  The top came together so quickly! It is 36" square right now. Border or no border? I hope to have it quilted soon and get back to the UFO pile.

In Progress:

I underestimated how tedious it would be to hand stitch the back of the binding on the raffle quilt. I can finish one side a night while watching TV, but some nights I'm just not into it. I'll get it done this week. I'm really looking forward to taking this quilt on location for a photo shoot!

On the near future list:
Fabric box tutorial
Swap Soup- quilting (backing already pieced)
Three by Three- fix borders
Friendship Star Mini - quilting

Time to link up!

Emerald Selvage Spiderweb

 I celebrated Worldwide Quilting Day yesterday by finishing my Emerald Selvage Spiderweb!

I started this quilt two weeks ago at my guild's quilt retreat. Our instructor, Chris Bagley, did a great job inspiring us with several samples with different flavors. I'd like to make another spiderweb someday, without selvages, and include some fussy cut centers. Can you see the orange pinwheels in the centers of the spiderwebs? That's my nod to 2012's Tangerine Tango.

The piece of Kona Fern I had left over was not quite wide enough for the back, so I pieced a strip of long selvages to add a few inches. I had intended for the stripe to run horizontally across the back so you could read the selvages, but I laid out the top wrong. I didn't realize my mistake until I was ready to add the sleeve. Oh, well. At least it is not completely upside down!

 The first class that Karen and I took at MQX in Providence in 2010 was with Pam Clarke. I use Pam's concept of "quilting inside the lines" all the time, including in the green between the webs. The motif was machine quilted, free hand, so it is not perfect. All I marked were the diagonal lines. I used a chalk roller, so by the time I was done quilting, the lines were mostly gone. You can just see a hint of that gray line.

 

In the spiderwebs, I quilted a mum-like flower. You can see it better on the back. I quilted the Celtic  outer border from the back because it was easier to mark the grid on the solid. This is becoming a habit for me!

 

I knew I wanted a green binding on the front, but there was too much green on the back, so I tried a two-sided binding for the first time. There are several tutorials online with various cutting dimensions. This is a good one from the Pattern Basket. It's a cool idea that I'm sure I'll use again.

I'm so happy to have another quilt finished!

Emerald Selvage Spiderwebs

Started: March 2, 2013

Finished: March 16, 2013

42" square

Tutorial Here

Inspired by This Quilt

WIP Wednesday on Thursday

It was a super busy day yesterday, so I missed posting my WIPs. Humor me with WIP Thursday!

Finishes:
Sugar Wave is done! After languishing in the WIP pile for 2 years, it is so nice to have it complete.

The Madrona Road saga is complete. My quilt returned home from QuiltCon with some lovely gifts from Michael Miller.

 I scoured the Instagram feed from QuiltCon and this was the only glimpse of my quilt that I could find. Amie's daughter gave her the puppy to keep her company at the show. How cute!

In Progress:
The Emerald Spiderweb top is done. I was getting bored stitching selvedges, so I stopped at 9 blocks. This size fits nicely on my kitchen wall.

I can't wait to get it quilted, but I need to tear all the paper off the back first. I've been using masking paper for foundation piecing, and it works great! It comes on rolls of various widths in the paint department of hardware stores, near the masking tape. I use the roll that is 9" wide and 180 feet long and only costs $2.50 at Home Depot.

Also in progress, I'm finishing up the binding on our guild raffle quilt.

In family news:
We drove to Springfield, MA, to visit Julia at a basketball tournament. She's wearing her cute pep band shirt. Her boyfriend Fred (on the right) and their friend Mike came with us. (Pete was playing in a dodge ball tournament.) It was a fun night and Siena beat their rivals, Marist.

Last night was the swim team banquet and senior celebration. I'm so proud of Pete and the fantastic job he did as co-captain. He was wearing his new Marine Corps Recon t-shirt. It's so intense! It seems like such a contradiction to my smiling, happy boy.

I picked up my last cookie order from the warehouse yesterday. Ever! I've really enjoyed this cookie coordinator job, but it is time for me to move on to the next chapter. I have a feeling I will be joining a Marine Mom group soon!

Habemus Papam! My mother, Julia and I were crying tears of joy as the white smoke rose and we received a blessing from Pope Francis via TV!

It's too late for me to link up, but you can still hop over to see what everyone else is up to.

Happy Pi Day!

WIP Wednesday

 It was a very quilty week, but I have no finishes to report.

New: Emerald & Selvedge Spider Web. This was our retreat workshop on Saturday. It makes me so happy! The Kona Fern is the closest I could find to Pantone Emerald. The selvedges play so nicely off that color. Can you see the tiny orange pinwheels in the center of each web? That is my little nod to Tangerine Tango from 2012.

 Progress Made: I worked on my Sugar Wave quilt on Friday night. I finished the quilting in the gray stripes and figured out what to do in the lava lamp shapes. I tried a feather and it looked horrible. After I tore it out, I did this horizontal loopy thing and it works.

 When I flipped it over so you could see the quilting better, I realized that it would be easier if I quilted it from this side, too. I'll be trying that later. I think I will try marking parallel guide lines to keep the loops evenly spaced. Winging it is fine, but neater will be better.

I also made two more album blocks for Pete's quilt. Retreats are a great place to get stuff done!

No Progress: Everything else is listed on my Works In Progress page.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced!

Getaway Spiderwebs

Our Saturday workshop at the retreat last weekend was a spiderweb quilt. Christine Bagley taught the workshop and provided inspiration in three beautiful samples. She gave design credit to Beverly Dunivent from a Quilters Newsletter Magazine article in the December 1996/No. 288 issue. You can also use Bonnie Hunter's pattern here. Chris calls her quilts Web Sights.

Although there were 57 ladies in attendance, not everyone participates in the workshop. We had a high percentage of participation this year, though. Take a look at the variety of fabric choices!

 

Rose & Sally

Norrene, Sue and Fran

Diane & Jessie

Nancy & Carol

Me & Suzy

Pat & Judy

Serafina & Pat

Marilyn, Pat & Amanda

Barbara & Rosalie

Elvia & Lynn

Carole

I ended with Carole Kenny because I love her fussy cut centers and she will be our instructor for next year's workshop.

Stay tuned for Saturday night Show & Tell!