Time is Up - Project Quilting challenge 8.6

Time is Up - an apt theme for the final challenge in season 8 of Project Quilting.

The first thing that came to my mind was Ted Allen on Chopped calling out the countdown and then declaring "Time is up.  Step away from your stations."  But I couldn't immediately figure out how to translate that into a quilt.  So I had to come up with a Plan B.

I thought about literally making a clock by doing a circle of flying geese and adding real clockworks to it.  But I had set a goal for myself when the challenges first started to use only supplies I already had on hand and not to buy anything new.  Clockworks is not something I have lying around the house.  ;-)

The next thing I thought of was the traditional hourglass quilt block.
 But I wanted something just a little more stylized, so I went from the hourglass block to the peaky & spike (aka tri-recs) block.  Put two of those together point to point and it definitely suggests an hourglass.

Next step was to play with my new EQ7 program to see what kind of layout I could come up with.  To highlight the hourglass look, I figured a minimalist/modern approach would be the way to go.  After a few tries, I came up with this.

I have literally made hundreds of the peaky and spike units using the tri-recs tool, but since I'm still new to EQ7 and I knew I could use it to create foundation piecing patterns, I decided to give that a try.

I loved making the units that way.  Perfect results every time.   Since I only needed 6 of them, I had the quilt top finished in no time.  I soon had it sandwiched and ready to quilt.

Then the quilter's block hit and indecision reigned.  I reached out to fellow challenge participant Mel Beach for suggestions.  Her ideas were similar to one of my not fully formed thoughts, so I jumped on that one and after quilting tiny pebbles in the pink areas of my hourglasses, I quilted a diamond grid all over the background area, leaving a few areas unquilted to create additional "ghost" hourglasses.  When it was all done, I stepped back to admire my masterpiece and......I was underwhelmed.  It was kind of boring.  I outlined the ghost hourglasses with lime green thread - one of Mel's suggestions.  It was a small improvement, but not enough to bring life to the quilt.

So then I added additional quilting to parts of the grid, trying to bring more interest and excitement.  Again it was an improvement but I still wasn't satisfied.  I needed more help.  I posted a picture and a cry for help to the Facebook Challenge Quilts group.  

I got some really great feedback from that talented group.  I added even more quilting to the grid, but still left some of it open because as Trisha F. says, variety = interest.  Then I beefed up the green outline of the ghost hourglasses.  Laura P. suggested I add tiny pebbles to the ghost hourglasses and my hubby agreed so I did that too.  

The last thing left to do was to quilt the "empty" yellow/green areas of the hourglasses.  And again inspiration eluded me.  I tried continuing the grid hoping for a transparency effect.  I didn't like it and ripped it out.  I tried a sort of V shape hoping to imply the movement of the sand.  I didn't like it and ripped it out. I decided to leave them alone since they were supposed to be empty after all.

Final touch was adding the yellow/green border and I had a quilt I could be proud of.  I took pictures ready to post my entry but when I looked at the photos, I realized the empty yellow/green areas looked sad and saggy.  Some quilting just had to be added.  So I went back to my grid idea but this time I only put lines in going one direction.  Better but it needed more.  So one more set of lines between the first set and I was FINALLY happy with it.

Thank you to everyone who gave me input and encouragement!

I'm calling this 

Going, Going, Gone

For Project Quilting Time is Up challenge - March 2017

Size: about 20" x 20" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

Round and Round

My friend Anne Carr came up with the pattern I based this quilt on.  She calls it Round and Round since you start with the center strip and then keep going around and around it with additional strips.  She wrote the pattern to be used with a jelly roll, but I just cut my own strips from scraps and leftover yardage.

It was fun playing with my new ruler foot to make the straight lines in the unpieced sections of the border to mimic the piano key piecing in the rest of the border.

This quilt measures about 60" x 48".

The Well Dressed Man - Project Quilting challenge 8.5

This week the theme for Project Quilting is Well Dressed Man.  I was initially stumped.  I had only the vaguest of ideas of where I might want to go with it.

In our younger days, my husband's unofficial theme song was ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man.  And Tom still enjoys the chance to dust off his dinner jacket now and then, like when he went to a movie themed costume party as James Bond.  Maybe I could do something with that.  But nothing specific came to mind.

As I continued trying to brainstorm, I considered the different types of fabrics and patterns used in menswear, specifically suits, dress shirts and ties.  And I started to get a clearer picture of what I might be able to do with pinstripes and paisleys.  I was almost ready to run with that idea until Tuesday morning when I was checking out the posts on the Facebook group Challenge Quilts' page where many of us who participate in Project Quilting post the inspiriations for our ideas, pictures of our works in progress and finished projects.  Seeing the various takes on the theme from others in the group helped get me past thinking of this challenge only in terms of more formal menswear.

Since I wanted Hubby to be my inspiration, and since he now wears golf attire more often than not, I decided to base my quilt on the well dressed golfer!  From there, the rest came pretty easily.

I am not very good at creating a drawing of this type from scratch, so I searched the internet for clip art I could use as a starting point and came across this free pattern meant for stained glass.  Eureka!  It was perfect.  With just a couple of tweaks, I had my applique pattern ready to go.

I originally planned to add stitching to create the plaid and argyle looks I wanted but as I looked through my stash trying to choose fabrics, I noticed the leftovers from my previous challenge entry Night Flight still sitting out on top of a set of drawers near my sewing machine.  Wow!  Those prints were exactly right.

By Tuesday evening I had all my applique pieces cut out and ready to fuse into place.

On Wednesday I stitched the pieces to the background using my go-to applique stitch, the blanket stitch.  I decided to use a dark grey thread for most of the applique stitching because I wanted it to help define the various elements of the design.  I'm still not sure if either the stitch or the thread color was the right choice, but I'm not about to try to change it now.

Once all the applique pieces were outlined I added a just a little bit of quilting to finish it off.

Course Couture 

For Project Quilting - Well Dressed Man challenge - March 2017

Size: about 9" x 12" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

The Brighter the Better - Project Quilting challenge 8.4

I love bright colors.  My fabric stash is full of bright colors.  And the brighter the better.  So when this week's challenge for Project Quilting was announced as "The Brighter the Better" I thought I had it made in the shade.  But for some reason I was initially stumped.  Not good when I knew I'd be away from home for two days this week and had a few commitments that would eat into my sewing time on the other days.

By the end of the first day, I did at least have a pretty good idea of the fabric I wanted to feature.

 Malka Dubrawski is one of my favorite fabric designers and I had two charm packs from her last line with Moda as well as some coordinating yardage.  I also have a pattern for some quilted slippers that uses a charm pack.  The slippers have been on my future project list for quite some time now and so I figured if I didn't come up with an original idea soon, I would make those.

But before I could do anything, I needed to spend Monday and Tuesday in Tucson as one of the volunteers to help at the quilt judging for the Tucson Quilters Guild show.  Part of my job was to stand by the tables as the judges were going over each quilt and then move the quilt to the appropriate spot depending on if it was held as a contender for an award or released from further judging. Which means I got a good look at most of the quilts that had been entered.  There were several that featured arcs of flying geese in the borders.  Which gave me an idea.  I would make some free form curved flying geese.  I decided to only use the green, yellow and blue fabrics with a black background so they would really glow.  I even had the name figured out.

First thing Wednesday morning out came the freezer paper and I began sketching out my idea.  First I drew curved lines to outline the path my flying geese would take.  Then I traced those lines onto a new piece of freezer paper to use as my pattern to paper piece my geese.

After I got them all traced and the pattern marked, I remembered that using freezer paper for a foundation is not a good idea.  It is too thick and can be difficult to remove.  So I took my first drafts to my printer/copier and copied them onto regular copy paper.

It wasn't until I was ready to start sewing my first set that I realized I had forgotten to make my patterns as mirror images of my final design!  When you paper piece, the fabric goes on the back side of the paper, not on the side with the marked lines.  When you turn the piece to the fabric side, it will be a mirror image of the marked side.  So the marked side needs to be the reverse of what you want to end up with.  Which meant I needed to retrace the marks yet again on the other side of the paper.  Not difficult to do, but time consuming.

All of that took up most of the day so I was only able to complete one set of geese before it was time to pack it in for the day.   Thursday I was able to get the rest of the geese done.  My friend Sheryl says it looks like octopus tentacles now.

Next step was to add the pieced strips to the background.  My preference would have been to piece the strips into the background.  But that would have taken some figuring and probably a couple of test runs as well.  So with only two days till deadline I went with turned edge applique instead.  It looks a little rough with all that bulk at the edges but I was hoping the quilting would smooth it all out.  The next morning it occurred to me I should have used a reverse applique technique to reduce a lot of that bulk, but too late now.  Next time.  Lesson learned.

Once it was quilted, I decided to try a new (to me) facing method to finish it off.  I saw the method here on the We All Sew Blog about a week ago and I'd been wanting to try it out.   In this method, you use four squares folded on the diagonal to make triangles for the corners.  I started with 5 inch squares. Then cut four 2.5 inch strips a few inches shorter than each side of the quilt and press them in half lengthwise.  On the right side of the quilt, place one triangle in each corner, then put one strip on each side, aligning raw edges.  Stitch all the way around with a 1/4 inch seam allowance.  When you turn the facing to the back, the triangles will cover the ends of the side strips.  It was so easy and it turned out beautifully.  I'll definitely be using this technique again when I want to do a facing.

Night Flight

For Project Quilting The Brighter the Better challenge - February 2017

Size: about 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

2/11/2020
I also just added this quilt to Sarah Goer’s Show Me Something linkup challenge for February, 2020.   Sarah is hosting a fun little challenge on her blog where she asks us to post new or old projects that fit the theme.  This month is Show Me Something with Triangles.

Designing "Blessed Tiles"

Once the third challenge for this season of Project Quilting was announced, it didn't take me long to decide I was going to make a whole cloth quilt inspired by the ceiling tiles in my old church.  But bringing that vision to life was another story.

First I had to create the design for one tile.  I wasn't able to find any photos that showed the tiles in any detail, but cropping and zooming in as far as I could before it got too blurry on one of the pictures I did have showed me enough to get started. 

I began with a design grid.

 And used that to start sketching out various options for my tile design.   The grid lines helped me to keep the design elements consistent and evenly spaced.

I actually went through three different versions before I finally decided on a sort of hybrid between two of them.

Even though I used the design grid to draw my tile, I knew it wasn't perfectly symetrical and if I just made multiple copies as it was, not all of the elements would line up when placed next to each other.

So I had to redraw it one more time.  I used a technique I had seen demonstrated awhile back on an episode of The Quilt Show.  While I remembered how to do the technique, I can't remember who the guest was who demonstrated it.  Sorry.

As you can see, the design grid I used is made up of 8 identically shaped wedges.  So to create a symetrical tile, I really only needed to draw one wedge of the design and then trace that multiple times.

Using a piece of tracing paper, I drew a square the size of my tile.  Then I folded the square diagonally, taking care to make sure my lines matched up corner to corner.  Fold that in half two more times.  

When I unfold the paper, it looks like this.  Notice the fold lines are the same as the wedge lines on the design grid.

So now I can trace the wedge I drew onto a wedge of the tracing paper.  

Once that first wedge is traced, I fold the paper in half on the diagonal and trace the design onto the next wedge.  And now one corner is complete.  

I continued folding and tracing until all the wedges we filled and I had one full tile drawn.

The rest was pretty easy.  I made 4 copies of the completed tile on my home printer, cut them out and taped them together.  

I taped this to the table and placed my fabric on top and then taped the fabric to the table too.  Now I could trace the design onto my fabric without worrying about it slipping and having to line everything up again.  

Once the fabric was marked, I layered it with my backing and batting and then used water soluble thread to baste around the tiles to be sure they stayed square once I started stitching.  I then stitched over all the drawn lines.

Then it was just a matter of stitching all the extra details. 

Blessed Tiles
For Project Quilting Tune in to Texture challenge - January/February 2017

inspired by the ceiling tiles at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks, Alaska

Size: 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Find my full blog post for the Tune in to Texture challenge is here.

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

Tune in to Texture - Project Quilting challenge 8.3

For the third challenge in the Project Quilting challenge series, we were asked to be inspired by texture.

When I think of quilts and texture, for me that means the quilting.  And where is the quilting more highlighted than in a whole cloth quilt?  The designs on many whole cloth quilts remind me of mosaics and tiles.  From there my mind went immediately to the beautiful pressed ceiling tiles in the church my husband and I belonged to when we lived in Fairbanks, Alaska.

I think all of this went though my head in less than a minute after I read the challenge post.  Inspiration rarely comes to me that swiftly, easily or completely so I was super excited to get started.


I thought I had some pictures from my wedding that were taken from the choir loft of the church and would show the ceiling tiles.  But I was not able to find them.  I still have friends who live there so I sent messages out asking if they might be able to pop in to the church to get some pictures for me.  My dear friend Lori W. took up the call and made a special effort to go that very day.  Unfortunately, by the time she was able to get there, the church was closed and locked up for the day.

Luckily Immaculate Conception Church is a historic building and frequently visited by tourists, so I was able to find some images online.  None of them showed the detail of the ceiling as much as I would have liked but I was able to use a couple of them along with my memory to make out the basic shapes/design of the tiles.

I have written a separate blog post detailing my process for creating the tile.  You can read about it here.

But basically I started with a design grid to sketch out the main elements.  Once I decided on the design I made a symetic tile by starting with one wedge of the design and then tracing it multiple times.  ,Then I made four copies of that on my home printer, cut the tiles out and taped them together.  I used that to trace the design onto my fabric.

After stitching all the drawn lines, I went back to the paper copies and sketched ideas for adding detail to the tiles before I stitched them out.

Referencing the church photos, I added an arched border to the tiles and then crosshatching beyond that to finish it off.

Because it was inspired by the church where my husband and I were married, this quilt has a lot of personal meaning to me and I am thrilled with the way it turned out.

Blessed Tiles

For Project Quilting Tune in to Texture challenge - January/February 2017

inspired by the ceiling tiles at Immaculate Conception Church in Fairbanks, Alaska

Size: 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

Seeing Stars - the scrap saga continues

This is another quilt top from my scrappy summer.  But this one is still a work in progress.

When my friend Maggie showed me this pattern, Starstruck by Amy Barickman I knew right away I'd be making it as part of my scrap reduction quest.  After reading the directions I decided I'd constuct my version just a little differently in order to accomodate using random scraps rather than yardage.

The pattern is made from all 4.5" squares and 4.5" half square triangle units.  So I pulled all the fabric pieces I had that were at least 4.5" wide and cut everything into 4.5" by however long I could get strips.  Using my half square triangle tool I cut both triangles and squares from each strip.  I let the length of the strip determine how many of each I could get out of any one strip.  I didn't really have a plan.  I just knew how many of each I needed and kept track of my totals as I went along.

Then I cut some 4.5" strips from my background fabric and again used the HST tool to make background triangles for all of the HST units.  I did not yet cut any squares from the background fabric, just the triangles.  After sewing and trimming all the HST units I brought those and my 4.5" squares of print fabric to my design wall and started playing with color positions within the star layout.

I was very surpised and pleased to find I had exactly the right number of HSTs and squares to create the two inner stars out of the orange, red and yellow fabrics, with the blues, greens and purples creating the outer rings.  After getting the center star and concentric rings in position on the design wall, I was able to determine the size of background strips I needed to fill in the space between.  For instance, instead of cutting three 4.5" squares and then sewing them together for a section of background, I simply cut a piece that was 4.5" x 12.5"

The only drawback to using larger pieces of background rather than all individual squares is that the quilt top could not be constructed with the simple rows and columns grid we quilters are most used to.  I had to sew it in sections to make larger panels that could then act as very large blocks to form a grid for final construction.

After I got the quilt top sewn together I just loved it!  My plan was to donate all of these scrap quilts to a couple of different charities, but I think I may have to keep this one.  So I will probably be more ambitious with the quilting.

Not sure when I'll get around to that though, so there's still time for me to think about it.

Carolina Lily - Project Quilting Challenge 8.2

1/15/17

The second challenge for season 8 of Project Quilting was announced today at 11:00 AM Arizona time and I was online to find out what it was by 11:01.  I had most of today free, but the rest of my week is incredibly busy so I knew if I was going to have any hope of completing an entry, I would have to get the majority of the work done today.  I was really hoping that inspiration would hit me immediately because I would need to get started right away.

So I was doing a happy dance when I saw the theme/inspiration for this challenge was the Carolina Lily.  Any other week, I might have tried to come up with something original featuring the gorgeous orange color of the flower.  But knowing I was under a serious time crunch, I had no time to think or plan.  Luckily for me, there is a traditional quilt block called the Carolina Lily and a version of that block is in the quilt (designed by Jinny Beyer for the Craftsy 2015 BOM) I just finished last month.  It has been my plan all along to make a couple of throw pillows to go with that quilt so this was the perfect opportunity.  I would make a pillow using the Carolina Lily block from the quilt!

I dug out the pattern, templates and fabric I used in the original quilt and found what I needed for this one block.  I was making my first cuts of fabric by noon!

By about 5:00 the main part of the block was done and I added framing strips and setting triangles to put the design on point and make it big enough to be able to make an eighteen inch pillow.

At about 6:00 my quilt top was done and my wonderful husband announced dinner was ready.  I was SO ready for a break.  His timing was perfect.

After a quick but delicious meal (thank you Tom 💖) I was back in the sewing room to work on the quilting.  No time to think about how to quilt it, so I used the same designs I used on the bed quilt.  Which is fine since they are meant to go together.

By 9:00 the quilting was done and I was completely done in for the day!  The quilting shows up way better on the back side.

I will be away from home for the majority of the day tomorrow and by Tuesday afternoon, my sewing room needs to make the transition to guest room in preparation for a visit from my sis-in-law, Lise who arrives Tuesday evening - flying in from North Carolina.  How's that for a coincidental tie in to our challenge?

Hopefully I will be able to find enough free time before then to turn the quilt top into a pillow.  Because Wednesday morning Lise and I are heading out to the Road to California quilt show in Ontario California and we won't be back until Saturday evening.  So I really need to have it all done before we leave.

Stay tuned to see if I make it.

1/16/17

As I expected, today was a crazy day with no down time at all until well into the evening.  Luckily I didn't really have that much work left to do.  Just put on the overlapping panels to turn the quilt into a pillow sham and then add the binding.  I probably could have saved myself quite a bit of time by sewing the binding completely by machine, but I've never been truly satisfied with the results when I do it that way so I stayed up watching late night TV and hand sewing the binding to finish it off.

Now it's done and just needs a name.  My husband named the bed quilt Electric Garden because of the way the flower fabrics glow against the black background.  So I think I'll call this

Electric Lily.

For Project Quilting Carolina Lily challenge - January 2017

Size: 18" x 18" 

I create in Casa Grande, AZ

Check out all of the wonderful and creative challenge entries at Project Quilting

My Year in Quilts - 2016

I finished up a couple of quilting projects in late December and it got me wondering about just how many quilts I had actually completed in 2016.  I try to take pictures of all my completed projects before they go to wherever they are destined for, and here, in no particular order, are all the ones for 2016.

Three queen sized bed quilts, one table runner, five wall hangings and five couch/throw quilts. It's been a busy year.