Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Stitching on Paint Block 5 and Some Thoughts

I've missed a few posts lately!  It's been crazy busy around here.  The end of the school year is always like this.  Add in that as a teacher, my district has still not settled it's contract with us teachers (333 days I've worked without one now....) and the picketing (never though I'd do that, let alone do it twice!) and other union events and blogging has gotten away from me. 

I am committing to be back at it today.  Quilting is good for my soul.  It calms and relaxes me even when I'm totally overwhelmed (like now).  We have 8 days left in the school year as I write this.  I can do it.  Then my body and soul get to unwind and I can relax a little...with my two boys running around?  Okay, maybe not, but it'll sure be a nice change.  I'm ready for summer and swimming and spending time at the lake.

I managed to finish my last entry for International Quilt Festival Houston and get it in two days before the deadline (yay!) and I'm feeling a bit lighter having that accomplished.  I'm ready to get back into some projects like this one....

This block so reminds me of fall.  It has those classic leaf colors.  



This orange area was a little darker than I wanted it to be.  What to do?  I decided to try using a lighter color thread instead of my usual darker color thread.  I love the results.


I did an echo to help add visual space and then did a bubble trail down the center spine of the leaf with an echo around it.



For the central frame I did a series of arches.  First the outside and then teh inside.


It creates a nice secondary pattern of curvy stars in the middle.



And the back.


Here's the back side of the whole thing!



I hope you get to quilt today and thanks for listening!
Suzy

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Island Batik Ambassador's Playful Pillows!

When I saw the theme for this month's Island Batik Ambassadors challengeI decided to have some fun with a block I created for a fellow Island Batik Ambassador's Pattern by Jen's monthly color challenge.  I let each of my children pick out three fabrics from my lovely stash of Island Batik Fabrics.  Here are my younger son's picks.



He's quite happy with his pillow...


He insisted on the black and yellow fabric for the back, but there wasn't quite enough so I added some yellow strips.


Here are the fabrics my older son picked.  I love this color combination.



He's quite happy with his pillow too!


It was such fun to make something that they were so happy about.  AND I actually sewed a side zipper into the pillow for the first time!  They both slept with their new treasures last night.

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Wish Upon a Star Blog Hop!

I am SEW excited to be a part of the Wish Upon a Star blog hop with Just Let me Quilt!  What quilter doesn't like stars?  I wanted to create something new for this hop and I was in the mood to paper piece so I designed this block in Electric Quilter and got to work.  I wanted it to appear 3 dimensional so I used two different shades of orange to create that effect.  I also like the way it appears to spin.



I started with three solids from Micheal Miller's Cotton Couture solids collection.  They are my absolute favorite solids as they feel like batiks (go figure...I love batiks!).  I paper pieced the sections of this block.  I'm quite happy with how they turned out.


I started by drawing the white lines you see above.  I then filled them with elongated pebbles.  I used a slightly lighter gray to make these pebbles stand out.


Next, I stitched the same pebbles in the spikes.


It was an interesting challenge as the space got smaller.  I ended up with curvy lines at the very tip.


Next I had to stitch the rest of the backgrounds.  I added some sprays of feathers in the corner.  Then I stippled the center, did swirls in the skinny strip between pebbles and repeated the stippling in the corners.  I did this quilting in a darker gray to let the bubbles stand out.  All of the thread used is my favorite Aurifil 50 weight.



This picture is more true to life in color.



And the final quilt!


Be sure to check out the other amazing quilters on the Wish Upon a Star blog hop!

May 21

May 22

May 23

May 24

May 25

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild

My friend Ann is a member of the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild so I decided to tag along and see what it was all about.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into!


I went Thursday and the evening was a donation quilt challenge event.  We worked in teams of 3-4 and had an hour and a half to sew a minimum 24 x 36 baby quilt top.  We were given solids to work with.  There were challenges along the way and prizes (no one but the winning team can cut for the next 5 min, or sew for the next 5 min, etc).  It was a blast and all the quilts came out amazing.  

My team decided on doing one large log cabin block.  Here's the start...


Here's my team and our finished quilt.  So you want to know why there's a tiny 9-patch in our quilt?  Simple.  At about 45 minutes we had to draw a new fabric we had to add (it's our thin pink strip) and a block we had to include (the 9-patch).  We decided on a mini one and eventually ripped part of that corner to insert it.  I love the sparkle it adds!  Hmmm....next month's Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is modern....hmmm.....


Here are the other six quilts that were created:
This quilt's surprise block was appliqued on.




This group didn't want their surprise block to show so they pieced it out of all gray!  Smart.





It was really fun and something I've never done before.  

I hope to go back again soon.

AND I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Friday, May 18, 2018

Free Motion Friday - Stitching on Paint Block 4

I know I've said this a few times before this week, but I LOVE stitching on paint!  For this block I stitched 1/8 inch in from the edge of the pink  Then I went back and did a zigzag down the middle.  I love the texture it creates!


It's a little easier to see the zigzag on the back.


Here's the back with the gold stitching added!  I am in love with how it turned out!


I decided since this area of paint on the gold was so big to divide it into a bunch of smaller areas.  I continued the zigzag theme here.  This is also one of the few places where the thread I used was lighter than the paint.  I think it makes this shape glow.  I chose to do this because the fabric right next door was almost the same color and I wanted a bigger differentiation between them.  I am pleased with the results.


Here's the finished block.  This picture is a tad yellow, but I love this block.  I love the batik with the pink squares.  It's so much fun to see them start out big and then get smaller.  I have fussy cut so many pieces out of this batik.  The other day I found more when I was out of town and bought another yard.  It's a go to favorite fabric for me.


Check out the other two posts about stitching on paint!
Block 1
Blocks 2 and 3

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy