Design Wall Wednesday

Can you believe that I've completed 7 entries for our quilt show!  Last week was a quilting frenzy as all of them had to be turned in on Saturday - no exceptions.

So after that frenzy, now what shall I work on???  I know, I'll get to work on the OHO quilt I saw in a recent edition of Fons and Porter Magazine.  I kept going back to it and finally decided that if I was going to look at it that many times, it was meant to be made by me.  So, here's where I am so far.

I printed out the templates and glued them onto template plastic to cut out.  I thought I'd use my rotary cutter to cut them out, but that didn't work so well - I kept cutting into the plastic.  Once I had two blocks completed, I discovered that there was significant printer stretch, so the blocks weren't square like they need to be.  Arghhhh.  So, I added a quarter inch to the side template and moved forward.  That little bit extra will give me some room to trim when I square them up.  It's interesting how some of the blocks slant a bit, so blocking is going to be a must here.

I think I'm going to love it.  I'm using fat quarters and left over yardage from another batik quilt I made last year, just mainly pulling from my stash.  Hopefully I won't have to buy much to finish it.  I know I have enough of the background fabric - it's the other I'm a bit concerned about.  I only have about 78 more blocks to make, so back to my quilting studio.

Happy quilting.

Quilt Show Preparations

Did I mention that I'm chairman of my guild's quilt show in April? This week has been filled with working on many of the items on my to-do list that have to be done by now.  Just keeping up with the lists of things yet to do is an accomplishment.  We're past the date for entry forms to be turned in, and are trying to hold the line on not allowing late entries.

Having been chairman of a number of international conventions for organizations I belong to, I've got a lot of experience with keeping and checking off lists.  My DH says I'm the world's best list maker - I have lists for everything.  Those lists go into notebooks.  I have notebooks for every organization I belong to, sometimes multiple notebooks, depending on what I'm doing for that organization.  And those notebooks are stored in tote bags so they are easy to carry to each meeting.  What I haven't figured out how to do is store all of those tote bags with their notebooks between meetings!  I mean, some of those notebooks are 2-3 inches thick! 

Anyway, back to the quilt show.  Yesterday was spent at the venue for the show, measuring for booths again and deciding where to put booths, depending on what their function is.  One exciting part of our show is a display of Liz Porter's quilts. We got the list of quilts she's sending this month, so now we've got to get busy working on the booth layout so they can be best displayed.  One of the quilts is at the studio as it is the featured quilt on one of the Love of Quilting programs to be released later this year.  How neat is that! 

Today I worked more on the lists, then sent all of the information to the company that is going to do the poles and drapes.  Not only do you have to provide the height, depth, and width of each booth, you have to give them the list of who goes where, and a list of lengths of poles that the quilts are hung on. We have our own chain, so that part is easy - assuming we have a sufficient supply.

I'm LUCKY. LUCKY. LUCKY to have members on the steering committee who have done this before, so answers to questions I had about putting a quilt show together were readily available.  I did tell one of the members that I wasn't even sure what questions I needed answers to at first.  Everything seems to be coming together, though, so I'll let you know after the show how it went.

Happy quilting.

Getting Ready for the Quilt Show

So, I've entered seven, yes SEVEN, quilts in our guild's quilt show.  What was I thinking???  But, surprising myself, I've actually completed five of them and am on the home stretch on the sixth one.  I just have to figure out what to quilt on the borders, something I've been struggling with for about a week now.  I know, I posted this one last week with the same problem. Sigh.

The seventh is ready to sandwich and quilt.  I discovered that the backing I bought isn't large enough, so I'm trying to find enough of the batiks and yellow fabric to piece it to the right size.  Then the big question will be - how to quilt it.  I watched the Ricky Timms video the other day, "Great Finale," and got some really good ideas to try.  We'll see how that works out.

I do know how I'm going to do the Mariner's compass, but I'm thinking I need to do something with the center - maybe a smaller compass to make it more interesting.  Or, maybe I can make the quilting in the center do that for me.  This quilt is entered in the show theme category.  I designed the logo for the show and knew immediately that I needed to quilt it.

Flower Power

Happy Thursday.

I took a Karen Kay Buckley needle turn applique class at the International Quilt Festival here in Houston in 2011.  This is her Garden Melody pattern.  We learned how to do smooth curves, wonderful points, and perfect circles. This project ultimately required a bit of everything - circles, reverse applique, and embroidery. What a fun project.

I learned a lot in that class that I've used on other applique projects, so it seemed only right that I get this one ready to hang. I originally had a different border on it.  Karen's pattern showed the same fabric as sashing between the panels.  I took the panels with me to my LQS to pick just the right fabric.  Once I got it home and sewed it together, I absolutely hated it. So, out came the seam ripper.  Once I had it in pieces again, I decided I didn't want different sashing between the panels, so carefully pieced together the odds and ends of left over background fabric to make sashing around each panel.  I like it much, much better.  Finally, it is ready to quilt. I'm thinking echo quilting around each of the flowers.

Before pinning that wall hanging, I started my morning by sewing a baby blanket together.  I remember when I was a new mother that one of my favorite blankets was a double layer of flannel sewn into a nice big square.  Houston is the world's most air conditioned city and the little one layer flannel blankets you can purchase are just too thin.  I know, you can layer two to create the same weight, but this one is a nice 40" square.  I hope my niece and her new baby boy like it.  It is in the same color way that the quilt I made for her is, so they'll coordinate well.

Over and Under and Over and Under....

I've reached the final quilting stage on my second Celtic wall hanging.  This was such a fun project - I really like how it looks.  The applique took me two days to get it ready to stitch, then another two days of hand stitching, before it was ready to quilt.  The applique pattern is my interpretation of the Wheel Around the Sun applique pattern from the book "Celtic Quilts" by Beth Ann Williams.

I'm having difficulty deciding how to quilt the borders. I got the center block quilted. This is my first time to use transparent thread for quilting.  I tried several brands before settling on YLI.  That didn't really surprise me, though, since YLI thread is my "go to" thread for applique.  I'm working on adding to my thread stash with their silk threads. I tried quilting the border with free motion sort of following the print in the fabric, but that didn't work for me so I unquilted it.  Luckily I had only done one side before making that decision so it didn't take too long. 

As you can see, the fabric is pretty busy.  It's from the same line of fabric that makes up the center design, so it coordinates much better than it looks in this photo.  Anyway, I'm still thinking it through.  Any suggestions?

Happy quilting.

Quilt for New Baby Done!

Saturday is a baby shower for my niece who is expecting a baby boy sometime in the next few weeks.  I got the top pieced last week, but kept putting off doing the quilting because I couldn't decide what to do.  Since it's for a boy, I didn't want to do any "girly swirly" quilting, so decided I'd just do straight line stitching. I just love, love the green circles so I used it for the binding.

Now to wash it and see how much softer it will be.

Working on Quilt Show Quilts

Last week was pretty productive.  I finished two quilts including the binding and labels and got two more closer to that point.  I have to take a break, though, to work on a baby quilt for my niece's baby shower.  She's expecting a boy in another five or so weeks, so I'd better get busy and get this one finished!

Bali Crossing

I finished this Celtic design.  The quilting on the border was a pain in the neck - I think I picked it out three times before I got it right.  If you look closely, you can see some remnants of white chalk that I haven't gotten out yet.  I got over anxious and quilted the center before I put the borders on, so I had to add them using the QAYG method.  

One of the other quilts I finished as our bee challenge quilt.  Each of the participants in my quilting bee got a yard of fabric and was to design a quilt to be entered in our 2013 quilt show to be judged. We had 18 months to come up with a design and get the quilt made.  The quilt was to be between 24" x 24" and 36" x 36".   The fabric was Le Petit Poulet by Moda fabrics and this is the fabric we got.  This was quite a challenge for me because it is nothing that I would have ever picked - doesn't go with anything in my house, etc.  

Le Petit Poulet by Moda

So, here is my interpretation.  What I didn't take into consideration in my very literal way was that I wasn't really locked into using the fabric as it came to me.  I might have done something different, but here is what I did come up with.

Red Hot and Blue

Introducing my Red Hot and Blue quilt with Reginald Rooster Applique Quilt Pattern by Florine Johnson Designs as the centerpiece. (I forgot to take a picture during the day, so this one is with my phone on the den floor at night.) After a long search, I found this rooster pattern that I absolutely love and could applique in the center.  I also got a charm pack of the fabric line and used it for the squares around the rooster and for some of his feathers.  I enjoyed doing the applique as I got to try a new technique that I had learned - raw edge applique.  

I've got to go work on the baby quilt now, so see you later.

Happy quilting.