Design Wall Monday, August 9, 2010

I got to work bright and early on Thursday for the Quiltathon.  I had to stop mid-day and do some housework (sigh), but it was just as well.  My back and shoulders needed a break.  Still, I managed to get a fair amount of work done that day.  I got one more block done on my "Flip Flops" quilt:

This was the sixth of nine blocks.  And this is what I have done so far.

I'm getting close enough with this one that I think I will just finish it next time I work on it.  I have all the sashing pieces cut for it.  I have the cutest flip flop fabric to use for the back!  I'm hoping I have enough of that to put a border on too.  I'm going to put a border on either way, the question is whether I'll have to piece the back to get that accomplished.  I think I have enough for both.  And with my new-found courage about free motion quilting, I think I'll quilt this one myself too.

Next, I got the seventh of thirteen blocks finished on my Spring Sampler from the April Fab Shop Hop.  The block is called "Bed of Lilies."

I think this is going to be such a pretty quilt!  Here is what I have done so far:

And the final block I got done on Thursday was Block #2 of my "Peaches and Dreams" quilt.  Only, I'm calling mine "Orange Julius."  If you look closely, you can see some orange fabric (the fruit, not the color) in some of the blocks.

And here are the first two blocks on this one:

As I said last time I worked on this, I wanted to get more dark fabric in the mix, and I like the look of this block better than the first one.  This will be one that I'll have to study some when all the blocks are finished to decide on the orientation.  I think this will be an eye-catching quilt when it's finished.  Interestingly (or not), as I was building my stash, oranges were the most neglected color.  There were times when I told myself I could only buy orange while visiting fabric stores.  I ended up with some nice orange fabrics.  Most of the yellows are from scraps.  (And the colors most represented in my stash?  Reds and blues.) 

So then it was on to Quiltathon Friday.  I have to say I like this "Quiltathon" concept.  I've certainly had Quiltathon days before.  I just didn't know it.  It's always nice to know what activity one is engaging in while one is engaging in it.  Don't you think so?

By this time, George was getting pretty bored with sewing, and he refused to get off the fabric I was working on.

But that didn't work, and so he decided to rearrange my closet.  "Maybe I'll just get in here."

Or maybe here . . .

Despite George's help, I was able to finished the third block of my "Checkerboard Flowers" BOM:

This one is called "Irish Spring."  And here is what I have so far:

This next one is the block of the month for my quilting guild:

I can't say that I like this block very much.  I don't like that seam down the middle of the block.  Kind of a strange way to do this, in my humble opinion.

I was busy the first part of the week, and so didn't sew at all on Monday and Tuesday.  I took a landscape quilting class on Tuesday.  That was a complete waste of time and money.  What a disappointment.  I had already done some reading, and I had spent at least a year picking out fabrics for the picture I'd like to try to quilt.

  There were six people in the class.  The instructor took about a half hour out of a four hour class to talk about landscape quilting in general, and she handed out three handouts that gave me no more information than I already had in my library.  Then she went around to each person individually and spent a good twenty minutes to a half hour talking with them about their specific picture and what they might like to try.  Since I was on the other side of the room from where she started (last in line), it meant that I just sat for a good couple of hours.  Boooooorrrrrring!  I finally got up and went out into the store to shop.  (Makes you wonder if that was the point all along.) 

Finally, she got to me and essentially told me what I already knew.  She helped me pick the fabrics I had already picked.  And that was the end of the class--about 2 1/2 hours of a 4 hour class.  Then she left the room without any further instruction.  After a while she came back.  We were all sitting quizzically wondering what we should do next.  There is an additional class in four weeks from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.  She told us to go ahead and make our quilts and come back for the next class.  But what I want to know is:  What the heck are we going to do for 7 hours?  None of us had any idea.  Seven hours seems a lot of time for show and tell. 

I kept it on my calendar in case I get stuck, but I'm pretty disheartened by the amount I didn't learn.  I doubt I'll go back.  I'd really like a refund, but I doubt that will be forthcoming.  I'm learning that with classes, it's buyer beware.  And in most cases, I probably learn more just reading on my own.  I will say that I now know how to create my drawing, and I suppose that was worth the price of the class. 

I've decided to start first with another quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  At first, I was going to use this image from a Costa Rican butterfly exhibit at the Oregon Zoo a few years back:

I had written to Jean Wells to ask permission to use some of the pattern pieces from her book, "Portraits from Nature."  She very graciously gave it to me within just a few minutes of my writing to her.  Ya' gotta love email.  But now I don't think I'll need it.  In the same way I've grown bold with my free motion quilting, I just may have grown bold enough to give this a try on my own.

Then, after considering these images for a while, I got the idea to do a series of butterfly quilts.  I can do these from the same exhibit:

And I can include this one from Mt. Rainier.  I believe this guy is called a "Shasta Swallowtail."

I've made the $1,000 promise for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  This would give me four quilts toward that goal (of which I've only knocked off $45 so far).  And maybe if I list the first one as a part of a four-part series, people will be more likely to bid on it.  What do you think?

Then, on Sunday, I got to work on my "Spring Chicks" quilt.  It's a table runner for my walking buddy, Sue.  It's for her birthday in September.  She dearly wants to have chickens, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  So, she'll get her chickens a la table runner:

I finished this quilt several months ago, but it took me a while to get up the nerve to quilt it.  I'm only a beginner when it comes to free motion quilting.  Still, I was so emboldened by my recent success on my Downy quilt that I finally decided to just dive in.  I think it turned out okay:

I used one of my decorative stitches in the narrow border and I just followed the design of the fabric in the center.  There's a kind of heart pattern free motion quilting in the outer border that's hard to see--I planned it that way just in case.  It's still not as good as the quilting I've seen other people do, but it's not bad.  I need to do the hand work on the binding and make a label for it.  Her birthday isn't until next month, so I have plenty of time.  Oh yes, and I got the end of the continuous binding right on the first try!  Yahoo!!  By the way, if you like this pattern, you can find it free on the internet.  The design is by Pat Sloan, and here is the link.  You might have to scroll down a bit to find it.

Lastly, I finished the hand work and the label on my "Blue Moon" quilt.  I used my machine embroidery  module to make the label:

I have done labels several different ways.  Sometimes I make them by using printable fabric and using my laser printer.  That works well.  It's difficult to needle that printable fabric though because the weave is so tight.  The best way I've found to deal with it is to iron under the edges of it and then zigzag it to a piece of fabric from the quilt.  Then I sew the fabric to the quilt.  It gives a nice look.  I've also done it this way on my embroidery module.  If I don't have too much text, this works well.  If I try to put too much information on it, such as a quilty saying, it can get hard to read unless I make the label bigger than I want it.  I don't like my label taking up too much space on the quilt.  I've also used preprinted labels that you write on with permanent markers, but that is probably my least favorite way to do it.  People tell me I have good penmanship, but it never looks that good to me when I write on fabric.

So that's it for me this time around.  I'm looking forward to seeing what all of you are working on!