First Show - Moonlight Quilters

Yes, it was only a local, non-juried, local guild free-for all.  But it was still fun to see my quilts hanging in public.  I didn't linger in front of them to eavesdrop on comments; didn't really want to know what people thought.  Other than being mine, they're pretty unremarkable.

I wonder if I could have done something different with the sleeve to make it hang flatter?
I don't see how, with this hanging system.

I was a little disappointed at how this one got wedged into a margin. 

This one looked nice. Wonder how much dog hair it had on it?  

Here are a few other quilts that caught my eye, for various reasons.  I saw this design displayed in a local shop and thought it was wonderful, and thought about trying to create one of my own.  Apparently it was a commercial pattern - here are two examples of it.  It is a nice way to showcase pretty Asian fabrics that lose their effect when cut up.  Pinning the descriptions on the quit was not a big deal on an all-over design, but really distracting when composition was an important part of the quilt.  

This black + batik one intrigued me.  The subdued palette was more sophisticated than many, and the way the pattern is created was interesting. Click the small photo to get a better look.  I'd be tempted to arrange them less randomly.

 The next one was my favorite of the show.  I sometimes have an urge to make a traditional sampler-style quilt, but many of them come out looking like a big hodge-podge.  The fabrics and design of this one really held it together.  I'm guessing that all the fabrics were bought from one coordinating line.  I always have the niggling sense that is "cheating," or at least missing out on the fun but risky process of putting together your own palette.  But it's hard to argue with the result.

The only thing that really stuck out (in a negative way) is that brown circle around the bottom block.

This was a beautiful display of traditional work.  Hand quilted, too.

The vast majority of quilts were very traditional.  The "art quilts" were mainly things like the seasonal ones in the second photo above.  There were a large number of one-block wonders, too.  Those do little for me.  I love the concept or technique, and have seen some fun results.  I tried it myself on that very first baby quilt.  But when the composition of the blocks is so random it doesn't do anything for me.

There were a few more art-y art quilts, i.e. beads, sequins, self-portraits, etc. etc. But absolutely nothing of the abstract type I've been studying, and Definitely none of the type I'm now making!  When I'm reading blogs on line, or studying the major art-quilt shows, quilt national etc. I feel like, there are SO many people doing this, I'm just one little tiny fish in a huge ocean.  But in this venue I feel like a complete outsider.  There have GOT to be more people doing art quilting in this town!  It's a very artistic community.  I just don't know where they are, or how to find them.  I guess I will try going down to an association meeting in Seattle, the CQA or Contemporary Quilt Association.  Or maybe I'll just stay in my basement and make art.

I WON SOMETHING! I WON I WON I WON.... Me? Really?

I'd forgotten all about checking back on the Brown Bag site... but was going to look for something on Flickr  and saw a new comment saying "Congratulations," and I thought hmmm, for what?  So I went to the blog, and there it was:  Simple & Sweet:  Participant #85  Sharon Robinson.   I didn't know there was a catagory for Simple and Sweet, maybe they just made it up for me, but I'll take it.  Wow!  How totally cool and unexpected!
My fabulous partner Andie also won - Judge's Choice.  Are we amazing or what?

Stolen Moments is Done!!

I was so busy trying to finish "Stolen Moments" in every moment of spare time, that I had no time for blogging.  Besides I'm starting to feel a little silly blogging away to myself.  I figure people will eventually come if I have anything interesting to say, but there are SO MANY quilting blogs out there.  I click "follow" whenever I see one that seems interesting, but there are now over 100 on my list.  I need to pare this down a bit.  Anyway, without further ado, here is the finished Brown Bag quilt, now officially named "Stolen Moments."

Greg was kind enough to stand on a chair and stretch his arms full length, but I still couldn't get the whole thing!  If the yard dries out I'll take it back out there tomorrow.  The indoor shots always have more of an orange tint to them than reality.

It's not as long as I'd expected, so it has to be folded down at the pillows. I guess I'll just have to make some matching pillow cases and curtains.  

Hard to photograph such a big thing!  Not to mention hard to quilt it.  Even though it's "done" I'm going to go back and quilt more inside the squares.

I was happy enough with the back, though there are a few wrinkles here and there.   This picture shows the left over 6x6 squares, I combined three colored ones with one white in each square, then put them together with the whites in the middle.  

The final bits of the four "gift fabrics" are on the right.

I'm happy with it, and happy there was the pressure to actually finish it!  Now I can take it to the guild for show and tell next week, too!

Backing done

The weekend was not as productive, quilting-wise, as I’d hoped.  That was because it was productive with other things like yard work, housework, paperwork, etc.   I did manage to get the backing piece sewed together by about 9:45 last night.  Of course I put the last piece on backward from what I’d intended, but I doubt that anyone but me could tell – the whole thing was just and exercise in creatively using up scraps, anyway.   So I will not waste the time to redo it.     I hope that the Other will be able to help me prepare the sandwich this evening.  That’s the only way I’ll ever get it quilted by Friday.      I think I want to enjoy this process more than I want to rush to submit it...  I think.

The backing piece for the Brown Bag quilt has been pieced finally.

Notice the set of strips on the left, these represent the last remaining parts of the four gift fabrics.  Every time I look at them, I wonder why I didn't just do something simple with them?!?!   Nah.  I will love having this on my bed when it's done,  I'm sure!   The four leftover blocks are pretty obvious. though I added more leftovers to them to get them up to a 24" width.   On the right are left over six-inch squares from the block middles.  I arranged them into four-square units with one white piece each (that was just the way the proportions of pieces best worked out).  then I pieced the four-squares into 16-square units that were also 24" in width.   Next to the 16's are the remaining leftovers.  Anything that was big enough was put into a 6" strip.  remains greater than an inch were made into fabric that was at least 6", and added into the mix.   Then the left over strips that were about one inch were strung into a strip.   And there you have it!   The back, overall, was made out of 20" wide strips alternating with 24" wide strips, since that was most efficient to cut out of 44" wide fabric.

Finished Brown Bag (top)

The chances of me getting this thing sandwiched and quilted and bound by next Friday are pretty slim.  So I decided to take some good advice and get some photos of the top while it was warm, dry and not windy outside.  So - here 'tis!  I really want to give all due credit to Rita at Red Pepper Quilts, whose Sweet Daisy quilt was obviously an inspiration.  Although I didn't use her actual pattern, I designed the quilt based on looking at pictures of the sweet daisy.  Thank You!

Top is done!

I sewed the final seam last night, assembling the entire top.  I spread it out on the bed just to get a visual, but since Greg was also in it, I didn't take a photo.  ;)
I will this evening.   This morning in my stolen moments I continued piecing the scrap and leftover bits.  I spent some time on CAD drawing up a design to intersperse all the leftovers across the field of the back.  I abandoned that as too time consuming and not really attractive.   Instead I'm going to group them in larger fields -  I have seven 12" four-patches, and five leftover blocks.  If I border the blocks so that they are also 12" then I'll have 12 squares, that I can group together into three 24" squares.   There are 2-3 other leftovers that will be patched in, then I get out the Kona Snow white cotton and piece the back.  Then the sandwich.  I think I will use basting spray in addition to pinning, I have not tried working with anything this huge before, so I want to make sure the whole thing doesn't start shifting and bunching up.  Pics tonight, I promise.

Row nine sewed to row ten.

Halfway point

Stack on left -  first five rows assembled.  Each row contains nine blocks.
Stack on right - five more rows ready to assemble.

After that it's just hoping they line up nicely, row upon row, and stitching together the ten rows.  And the top will be DONE!  Maybe tonight??

(the blurry photo won't open or enlarge because I snapped it with my phone on the way out the door, and posted it via Flickr while waiting for coffee.)   I thought I loved technology today.  Then I tried to access my comcast voicemail.  I hate technology.

Taking Shape

I've finally laid out all the squares on the floor.  For an hour or so, I've been rearranging to get the colors distributed right....  I know there will be something I don't see until it's on the computer, so ....  here are some shots of the layout.

Milestone

Last night I submitted Cloister to the Sacred Threads exhibition.  I was not entirely happy because I didn't have time to properly finish the binding.   I had first done a pillowcase style binding when I did it for FFFC, and to do that I clipped the corners.  Now trying to put a straight binding on it with those corners clipped was not working.

I think this is the one I ended up submitting.

So it looks a little wonky.  I don't know what the standards are for this particular show, I just know I've heard it mentioned in several places.  Co-incidentally the church where it's shown is right down the street from my brother's house.   So if it's accepted I have to fix up the binding.  But I'm not holding my breath.

Then I went back to working on the brown bag. I thought I had 90 blocks.  I decided to make 10 more.  I got 6 done, then counted again and I only had 93.  So I dunno.   I'm just gonna make 5 more white blocks then start trimming and laying it out.  After Planning Commission tonight.

Now it seems I have 96 blocks.  I guess I was just too tired to count last night.  I'm trimming them all down from what was supposed to be 10.5 to an even 10 (rough - 9.5 finished).  I was not very exact in my cutting or sewing I guess.  I decided tentatively to make it 9 x 10 blocks - so it should finish at 85.5 x 95 inches.  A good double bed size.  If I get there and it seems like it needs a border, that would be fine too.

I've trimmed about 40 of them tonight, should be done trimming tomorrow, and start assembling it over the weekend.  It will go together fast - knock on wood.

90 squares done!

Even though we had the family here all weekend, I was able to get the remaining squares assembled yesterday and today, 90 of them, that is.  Now I have to decide if I'm doing 9 x 10 or 10 x 10 or 9 x 11.  I designed it based on the squares finishing at 10" and now it looks like I'll be cutting them all down to 9.5" (finished).  Which means instead of 100 x 90 it will only be 95 x 85.5.   Company Store quilts are 90 x 80 or 96 x 86.  Pottery Barn's are 92 x 88.

I think I'm going to make the extra ten squares because I want to even out the color distribution anyway.  Then I can decide if I want that added row or not.  I'm going with 10 squares wide, regardless.  I want to cover the ugly box spring.

When can I quit my day job?

I'm SO unmotivated to get to work, or to do work.  Especially when there are stacks of fabric calling my name.  Last night I worked on putting a new binding on the Cloister piece so that I can get it into the Sacred Threads show, which is due on Monday.   And now that we're having grandkids Friday night and at least half the day on Saturday, my weekend is not looking good.

I did manage to finish 15 blocks last night, bringing the total completed to 46.  There are 15 more at the halfway point.

I really want to start creating patterns to sell on Etsy.  I have bought 2-3 patterns at shows and on  line, and there really isn't much to them.  With the ability to draw everything out in Autocad it should be a no-brainer.  The main obstacle is that I need to actually MAKE the quilts so I know that it works, and so that I can show a photograph of what I'm selling.  Which means, making my own designs, not copying other ideas.

Stolen Moments

I think that is what I will name the quilt, because that's how I'm getting it done.  I rush to get dressed and showered so I can put in 20 minutes before work, I zip home during my lunch hour, after working on the rental and eating dinner at 8:30 pm I run a pile through the sewing machine, then take the pin cushion to bed to pin the next group.   THAT could be dangerous!

Anyway,  the next group of blocks is the prints with white borders.  29 of them.  This is a bit short, but I'm waiting until I do the layout to see what I need to add to balance the colors.  So I am almost half done with this group, I'm doing the short side first, and have about 4-5 more to do before I start pinning long sides.  Might get this done at lunch if I'm lucky.

Tonight I have to wash drapes at the laundromat before I can come home and sew.

Woo-hoo!

Twenty squares done!  Here's how they look:

I'm happy.   If they seem a bit jarring or garish, imagine them separated by lots of squares with white centers or edges.  I'm pleased so far with the lights and darks, as well as the mix of green, blue, range pink...  I think it will be a happy spring time update to my bedroom.

Sneaky Sunday

I've completed about 12 squares now, and have five more at the halfway point.  I think I've done most if not all of the "fun" ones, meaning the ones that involved matching up a print and a solid color.  If I follow the pattern/design, most of the rest will be prints with white.  But I might not follow the pattern.  Although I realize the white is the key to making this work with all the different patterns, my matchy-matchy self just wants to make more pretty pairs of fabrics.

It's sneaky Sunday because I know I should be getting over there to help G. at the house, I just couldn't resist sewing together that little pile that was all pinned together and ready to go.

Pretty Piles of Pieces

Here are some goodies! The strip pile, the white pieces, and the squares.  And in the foreground three of the test blocks I have created.   Love them!  (Don't love the unmatched stripes, those may have to change.  I thought I was smart at least cutting them in the same direction, but....  :P)

Here's another pretty pile:   :)

Cutting like a fool

I've been a slicin' maniac the past week.  I thank the quilting gods for inventing rotary cutters.  I cannot BELIEVE that up until 1980-something people made quilts with scissors.  I remember getting blisters from cutting through so much fabric...
Anyway, I've been doing a little bit each day.  First I finished all the prints, then last night the solids (much fewer pieces).  This noon I got about 1/2 of the white cut.  The white is Kona "Snow" and I love it.  It's not pure cold white, but it's just so slightly warm that it doesn't look wrong with cool-toned prints.

I've been calculating the percentages of each type of fabric to make it about equal to the model quilt.  But I ended up with WAY more center squares than I needed, just because it was easiest to slice up a whole row.  I don't want to reduce the percentage of white very much, because I think it's going to be really necessary to tone down all the bright prints.  So most likely I'll make some other sort of block out of them to use on the back.

Of course I couldn't resist stitching up a couple blocks to see how they will look,  and they are BRIGHT.  But that was the idea.  They are still coming out slightly small, like the friendship block did.  It's so hard to figure what I'm doing wrong.  Maybe the ruler is slipping as I cut, or maybe my seams are more than 1/4, though I test and test and test....   So I decided to just forge on and see what happens.  The worst case is that I will cut them all down  to 10" even.
I haven't taken time to snap anymore photos, but I will this weekend for sure.

Finally started the Brown Bag!

12:15  I got off to a lazy start today, sleeping and surfing, but I finally started cutting up the brown bag fabric following the idea of the Sweet Daisy quilt.  The only doubts I have are about the color scheme.  Maybe the original works so well because the prints are more pastel and have more white.  My prints are much more saturated colors and there will be a lot more contrast with the white....  but we shall see.  Maybe I'll use more solid accents and less white.    I've cut up all of one required fabric, and most of a second one.  My plan is to get the required ones cut up, then select and cut their partners, white or solid (or maybe a solid-ish looking print).   Then I can start to make some squares and see how they will look together....

1:50  Okay, all the required fabrics are cut up:

Enough for 1/2 of 42 squares.  So that means I'm more than 1/4 done cutting, right??  I think the rest will go slower, as I have to make decisions about which fabrics to pair together.  But if I follow the model, 70% of all the blocks have white, either border or center. Cutting that should go quickly, since there are no decisions to be made. But that's a lot of white....     I have up to 12 more fabrics to use, but I want to make sure there is enough repetition without getting boring.  I will probably use about 10 of them.  I'm also thinking of substituting some muted prints for the solids... like the orange at the upper corner of the photo above.

Anything over an inch wide I saved to use on some sort of strippy, scrappy back:

That leaves this pile of shreds to be "not used."  I'm pretty sure I'll be over 90% even without the back.  But I want to see how little waste I can end up with.

9:00 pm  Varnishing and working out, and going to dinner, took up most of the afternoon/evening, but I did complete cutting up my solid pink fabric, and one other print as well.   I think I may try a block this morning or at noon.

Back at the Brown Bag

Colors in this photo are not very true - the lower left is soft pink, the solid in the second row is magenta not red.  I'm going to do a square-in-square design, sort of like this one.  (I Love her quilt designs).  I hope I have enough white.  An alternative would be to go "crazy" like this one.  But I think that sort of thing works better with smaller fabrics. I like being able to "showcase" the prettier ones in the large squares. 

Required Fabrics

I think I will start by making blocks with the required fabrics in them, combined with one of the other options, or white.   Then I can decide how many of the others are used.   The model I'm following has at least 20 fabrics, but because of the white it seems to come together.  Hopefully mine will too.

A lot of the modern quilts I look at on Flickr harmonize beautifully because the fabrics are all selected from coordinated lines from one designer.   Somehow this feels like cheating to me.  Oh well.   More woodwork must be completed before I can quilt.  We have resolved to finish the rental house by the end of the  month.

In other news I've been given an extra week on the Secret Project, which is the only way I'd get anything done.  I boogered it up right before leaving on the trip and had to spend a lot of time ripping, and resewing by hand.  I tried several embroidery techniques but didn't like most of them and ripped them back out.  Last night I decided to rip out all the hand sewing, as it was a big mess.  I did some beading which I actually liked (!) 

but realized I probably should do at least a little quilting before there are too many beads in the way.   Sigh.  Maybe if I work on woodwork until 8 or 9 I can sneak in some quilting time after that.

Side by side

Just wanted to see these all together.