A Few More Favorites

Above my computer, I have these four small quilts on the wall:

The upper left was made for me, by Judee Koda, 2012, in a Doll Quilt Monthly swap I was in that year. I love the simplicity of it, the turned edges with French knots for embellishment. Simple, decorative machine quilting adds just the right touch. It is 18" x 24".

The small log cabin at the top right I made with silk from Sari ribbon bundles bought in Houston in 2012.   It's 13" x 13". I need to make more  of these. Here are the bundles of silk, I have many:

The small landscape quilt on the lower left I made in 1992 after taking a class with Dottie Moore. It would be fun to make another of these, so many years later. It is 14" x 12".

The largest one, on the lower right, was made for me by Margaret Rosenbrook in 2012, again from the Doll Quilt Monthly swap I was in that year. I love the simplicity of this one, too, gentle curves of fabrics, simple curving straight line quilting. I had intended to make one like it but haven't yet.  It is 20" x 23". 

You never know what you will get in a quilt swap with strangers. Even when the "rules" are well-defined, there are sometimes surprises. These two quilts from that year-long swap were totally worth the effort of the 12 quilts I made and shipped off that year. And they are the only ones from that year I kept. The rest were sold or given away.

Once I get home from Houston, I am going to post a bunch of quilts to sell, most small like these, but a few bed-size ones as well. Nothing wrong with my supply chain!

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Starts and Finishes

I worked at it to the exclusion of all else last week so I could count this one done:

It is the Block by Block quilt made for the Patches & Stitches 40th anniversary. It uses 40 fabrics and has 40 blocks. The first 40 to bring a completed quilt to the shop wins $40 and I was determined to be in the top 20. #17!  Photo of the top here. Quilted on my Bernina Q20 sit down longarm, I enjoyed doing the big loopy designs across the top. I chose 4 different designs for the borders. Finished is better than perfect.

Time for a new start. My Favorite Things is a new quilt/class I am designing that will run for 6 months, from June to December, 2018. It will feature my favorite blocks and students can either make a small quilt each month or make "parts" that will be combined at the end into one large quilt. It's a lecture/demo class, no machines to drag to class, just learn several blocks each month, different ways to make them and ways to use them in quilts. More about the class here.

My fabric pull for this project:

Where did this palette come from? How about the chickens of Kauai?

I often save photos that feature colors I love together. This has been saved since 2006 when my husband and I made a trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 30th anniversary. This will be fun.

The beginning class I teach at Patches & Stitches finished last night--only two students attended the last of 5 sessions but had great quilts to show for their efforts and both are hooked on quilting now, always my goal:

Sharon, her top is complete

Tricia, made 30 blocks and still has two more borders to go. She plans to lengthen it a bit.

They both enjoyed seeing my Block by Block and decided to try that next. I love when students get excited and say "What can I make next?"  Both of these women have their next bed-size quilt projects picked out.

From time to time I participate in online swaps. Lori of Humble Quilts has done a doll quilt swap for several years. I received this one from Judith B along with a pin cushion and photo of her Featherweight machine which she used to make it,  a great touch:

And I gave this one, to Katy S:

It's fun to share small quilts with like-minded quilters.

Time to get a few things done so I can play with My Favorite Things.

Let's Quilt.

Barbara

Long Time Gone

Long Time Gone is a Jen Kingwell pattern I saw in Houston 2016 and liked. I found a Block of the Month on Homestead Hearth and ordered it, receiving fabrics each month over the course of a year--that started in February. Then I found a blog working on it, one block a week, Gnome Angel and decided to use my own fabrics for the first one. This top will be finished in July. Here is what I have so far:

The sashing between these sets of blocks might be gray, or lavender, or something else entirely. Still on the hunt for the perfect background color.

Yesterday I received my swap quilt from Lori's 4th annual doll quilt swap :

This came to me from Jan H, in Markesan, WI. She hand quilted it, very lovely.

Here  is the one I sent to Danice, only about 75 miles west of me:

I finished a small  quilt the other day, part of the samples for my "Work Faster, Not Harder" class:

My free-motion feathers are getting better, practice makes perfect, so they say. I would forget the direction I was going so some of the feathers are not headed in the "right" direction but some baby doll won't care.  The X blocks are 3" small, the instructions can be found on my Tutorial, here.

Our guild program the other night was about "creative backs". Years ago I made a back that took almost as long to make as the front did, but I was determined to use up as much of the fabrics/parts from the front as I could, to NOT put anything away in the closet. I really like this back but didn't have a photo of it. So here is the Front of Purple Plus!:

And here is the Back:

And, wonder of wonders, Delta fixed my suitcase, this came home the other day:

They ordered a replacement pocket and fixed it--no more rip. Who knew they could do that?! It's ready for its' next trip in just a few weeks, to Spring Market in St. Louis, home of my grand-girl, Stella:

                                               

I am eager to do  more ruler work quilting on the Ohio Stars quilt. I got lots of great information in classes in Chicago. Stay tuned,..,

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Sneak Peek, A New Finish and the End is in Sight

I've been busy writing instructions for the Sew-A-Long.  Doing  my own photos really slows down the sewing process.  Here' a sneak peek;

I still have to quilt both samples, make binding for both, add the bindings, sew both, and takes photos of each step along the way.

Guess what?  There will be a Link-Up party and a Giveaway after the five blog posts have appeared--get your top done and be entered to win a cool gift!

Recently, I got this doll quilt done, using blocks I got in a swap.  They were sewn on interfacing instead of paper so I could not use them with all the other blocks I received in the swap so they had to play only with themselves:

Stella's Splendid Sampler is moving right along and the end is in sight, only 8 more blocks to go, so four more weeks.  Here are the last two blocks, #91 and 92.  For 91, I substituted a 6-pointed star and embroidered the title of the quilt on it--I just was not going to do another hand embroidery block at this stage:

So far, on the wall:

Now I know what my border treatment will be and I'm eager to start working on that.  I also have several new class ideas brewing and want to get samples started of those.  And Ruffled Roses is calling my name, and a gift quilt for a friend, and...  So many quilts, so little time.  Only non-quilters ask me how I spend my time now that I'm "retired"!

And here is why I am making this Sampler, the amazing Stella:

Daddy has a sense of humor

Christmas 2016

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

The Latest Progress

While my husband is working hard on the garden beds, I've got other kind of beds to work on.

I finished The Scrapbasket Sampler, by Cheri Payne, provided on her Quilts by Cheri Friendship group on Facebook. These are 4" blocks:

26" x 46" 

As usual, I made some changes.  Her applique' on the top border was very primitive and some people did it in wool, it was perfect for that.  I used one of my favorite sayings and did a machine buttonhole stitch with thick black thread.  It was pretty fast as I used Steam-a-Seam 2 so I could draw the letters correctly and then reverse then when putting the fusible of the back side of the fabric.  On the bottom border I kept the basis design put thought to add my initials and the year on the bottom sides.  I love seeing words and dates on quilts so this was fun to do.  Some people used different fabrics for the four borders but after I agonized so in selecting the setting squares, I kept the borders all the same, a lovely mocha brown I bought in Chicago.

Today we got the 20th block from The Splendid Sampler.  Here are the first two rows assembled:

So far I have changed or eliminated three of the blocks--my goal is to get this done fairly quickly each day--new blocks are provided each Thursday and Sunday--at the end of 50 weeks we'll have 100 six-inch blocks.  There are over 80 designers so some of the blocks feature embroidery or other hand-stitching I don't want to do on this quilt.

I'm also keeping up with Circa 2016 from Temecula Quilt Co.  Each Friday there is a new bit of  instruction.  See my center here.  Fortunately, there are only small blocks to do right now, two a week.  But as we will need 120 half square triangles that finish to 1.5" at the end, I'm working on those now--they make the perfect leader/ender project:

Now it's time to get Rajah Revisited caught up before the May instructions appear.

And I'll end by sharing the doll quilt I received this week from the swap hosted by Lori at Humble Quilts. It came to me from Kim A. in Kansas City, MO:

20.5" x 24"

This is a great collection of reproduction fabrics--I found it amazing that Kim only used one fabric I have in my stash, a purple print--odd, since I have a substantial stash of these kinds of prints.  Thanks, Kim and Lori!  Here is the one I sent to Roni H. in Tarpon Springs, FL:

20" square, I think

It's fun to share this little quilts with others in different parts of the country and world!

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Another Finish for 2016

After the fast quilt I had to make last week, I took time to finish hand-quilting and binding this doll quilt:

It is 17.5" x 21.5".  This was a travel project for a while, English Paper Pieced diamonds from my scrap stash.  I used a wool batt which is so lovely to hand quilt through.  In between big quilts, I like to create these little ones, just for fun, and sometimes they become class samples.

My Lifetime Quilt is so bad--it's like Doritos--I cannot STOP!!  As I cut up scraps for projects, I cut some of these baby HST (half square triangles), in pairs, right sides together, ready to piece.  I find myself making more and more of the 10" blocks.  Here are the 8 that are done so far:

That's 40" x 20" though these eight 10" blocks are not sewn together yet.  Since I add more and more fabrics I figured it best to wait until the blocks are done so I can mix the fabrics all over the quilt.  My plan is to make at least 64 of these blocks so this is just a good start.  I love 'em!

And a new start, Circa 2016:

I know I shouldn't but I'm a Temecula Quilt Company junkie, I love each free project they offer. These little blocks are the first two installments of their little Circa 2016 Medallion sampler quilt, 48" x 55". These blocks finish at 2.25". Some blocks will be 3" finished. Simple instructions post each Friday--find out more here:  Circa 2016.  

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Doll Quilt Swap

Lori D of Humble Quilts recently put together her second doll quilt swap for interested people, using Civil War repro fabrics.  As that is right up my alley, I signed up.  It helps that it had a short window for completion and I had an appropriate small quilt almost ready.  Today I received mine:

31" x 24"

 And the quilt came with gifts--an 8 pointed pin cushion stuffed with crushed walnut shells and a sweet little "church doll"--I can just imagine a little girl being still and quiet in church as she plays with her "church" doll.  Thanks, Danice G, of Homespun Hannah.  Even more fun, Danice lives in Florence, AL, about 75 miles from here.

I sent my doll quilt to Lizzy of Gone to the Beach.  She will retrieve it from the post office today:

This was almost done, I only had to add some hand quilting in the perimeter triangles.  I hope it enjoys its' new home on the NY coast--I love the beach too so I'm glad it has a coastal home.  This was fun and easy--thanks, Lori!

My other completion is this String Swap Block quilt:

The 36 larger blocks in the center came from 6 members of the Education Team who come to work the Houston show.  The smaller blocks on the outside borders came from several members of my guild Quilt Show committee.  I practiced free motion quilting, I'm still not very good at all at that, but it's OK and at least I know what speed works best for me, moderately fast.  This will be a sample at Open Studio in Portland, OR in August then it will hang in the Education office in Houston this fall--hopefully, the other 6 people will get theirs done so we can have a good display.  It helps our big office look more inviting with a quilt display.  I've posted about the choices the others made here
and here.

My husband had some surgery last week and is surprised he's not feeling 100% yet.  He intended to go back to work today, but that's not happening.  I leave very early tomorrow morning for Spring Market in Minneapolis.  So our eldest son, Joshua Black Wilkins, came down from Nashville yesterday to stay a few days.  Today he got put to work cleaning the porch cleaning--a hot, dirty, wet job.  Thank goodness for sons who work cheap!  He is a photographer by day and a musician by night and we were just lucky we caught him at a good time, he is out of town a lot. 

Yesterday was Mother's Day and besides having my eldest here I received flowers from my grand girl to be, Stella LeAnne, and her terrific parents, my younger son Andy and his wife Lauren. 

My husband listened when I gushed about this beautiful dish garden at Lowe's last week and it appeared as my gift from him--so pretty!  I hope you all had an enjoyable Mother's Day too.

Off to pack for Market--I hope to blog some from there to show you what's new and exciting.

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Tax Season

Ok, it's tax season, and you would think that after 33 years in this business I would know I cannot do it all from January-April.  Right?  But I still try.  Tax season is half over but I'm just getting really busy and it will only increase the next 7 weeks. 

The other night at the monthly guild meeting my friends said they missed my posts and I needed to get busy!  So here is a look at what I'm working on as time permits:

The first 26 blocks of Grandmothers' Choice.  I am keeping up with this project. 

I love these Antique Rose Star blocks!  Hand piecing can get done at night, in fact, it helps keep me awake after a long day at work.  There are 72 pieces in each star--cutting them out takes time even with the lovely little template.  In the morning, before leaving for work, I can cut out a few and eventually I have the whole set of 72 in a Ziploc bag. 

And here is one of the little Abundance quilts I got done--the other is ready for the binding to be turned back, tonight's Oscar project.

So, you see, I have been busy but haven't taken time to show you.  And I didn't take time to crop the photos either--sorry, maybe next time.

This week I'm at work all day Monday, off Tuesday which means I'll take the car for servicing, get a haircut, and teach my beginning class Tuesday night, getting home about 9 p.m.  Wednesday I work 9 am-8 pm.  Thursday I'm off until 4 pm when I go to the quilt shop to teach a new class: Tumbling Blocks the Easy Way--5-9 pm.  Friday and Saturday--9-6.  Sunday is my "do everything else" day. 

How about something just for fun?  Here is a shot of my photographer son, Joshua Black Wilkins, with someone you might know.  His caption was "I win" and I said "She wins too"!

He was working a photo shoot with her this past week. 

Let's quilt!

Barbara

December Doll Quilt Swap

Denise and I swapped doll quilts at our annual guild Christmas party last night. Because we are friends and see each other at least each month at guild meeting, this was a great way to swap without going to the post office and to see the other's reaction to our quilts.

Here is the great Shoo Fly quilt Denise made for me:

Isn't it terrific? She used beautiful metallic thread for the quilting and all the fabrics are super. It's 16" square, with 6" shoo fly blocks. Thank you, Denise, for a great Christmas quilt I will use and enjoy for years to come!

As she had posted a few "hints" on her blog earlier, I had a suspicion about her quilt design for me. So I made her a little shoo fly, as an extra Christmas gift. The white and red fabrics were leftovers from my Just Takes 2 Red and White quilt I just finished:



Mine is 8.5" square, with 3" shoo fly blocks--I love shoo fly blocks, so cute and perky!

The quilt it is sitting on is the 12 Days of Christmas quilt I made for Denise as her December swap quilt. There are 12 blocks, each has the number of pieces in the 12 days--1, 2, 3, etc., all the way to the 12th day which has 12 pieces. The pattern came from Temecula Quilt Co, December 2011 posts. 

I've a made a couple other little quilts this week but can't show them until tomorrow...

Let's quilt!

Barbara

Design Wall Monday November 26, 2012

It was a lovely Thanksgiving weekend--since I wasn't cooking much or hosting, I had lots of time to sew and there are almost no leftovers in the refrigerator.

I made these 2 little doll-size quilts as gifts:

These 4 patches are my "leader-ender" projects so I have many of those.

12 Days of Christmas, pattern from Temecula Quilt Company

 

Then I got to working on the Just Takes 2 Red and White blocks--I'm a bit behind.  I did the easy ones and now have to get to those more difficult ones:

Also made a Grandmother's Choice block--one more of those and I'll be caught up on that project too.

We went to see "Lincoln" on Friday--excellent movie!  The acting was terrific and the politics was interesting--it's the story of how the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, was passed by the House of Representatives.  As I watched it, I was reminded how young our country was in 1864--less than 100 years old, democracy still considered a "test", perhaps.  It's worth the time to see this one.

Be sure to check out Judy L's design wall blog to see what other's are doing. 

Have a good week and let's quilt!

Barbara

Creativity and Recovery

Today is 3 weeks post-op and I continue to do well with my knee replacement recovery.  I do my therapy exercises twice a day, and the therapist comes here 3 times a week to increase the exercises/weights, reps etc.  I am able to walk through my home with no cane or walker and feel stronger each day.  The  only annoying issue is I'm still not sleeping as well as I'd like.  My husband says it's because I'm sitting around all day, not being very active.  He hasn't seen me in the studio.

This past week I've gotten several things done.  Here are 3 more doll quilts:

 These are from the Temecula Quilt Company blog.  The blocks are their summer stars sew-a-long.  I've enjoyed their quick, easy patterns. 

 

This Bricks quilt is the larger version of Tiny Bricks I made in January. 

 

I saw this on one of the blogs I follow, Taryn at Repro Quilt Lover and thought it was sweet. It was also tiny. Those bricks were cut 7/8" x 1 1/4" and finish at .375" x .75".   Then I  cut out 61 more bricks, almost four times that size, cut 1.5" x 2.5".  Look how much larger the second one is!  The small one is 6" x 7", the large one 14" x 16".   

 

 

Then I started on the X Block Swap blocks for the group I put together.  There are 7 of us and each person will make 2 sets of 6 blocks for each person, using their preferred theme or colorway.  Each person decided if she wanted wide, narrow or middle-of-the-road X's--this determines how you cut the fabrics.  Each set of 6 starts with six 10" squares of fabrics, sorted light to dark more or less.  They are cut, then the pieces are scrambled--very fun to see what you get!  Here are Rhonda's blocks:

 

 

This pattern is from Sharyn Craig's book Layer 'Em Up and she has a great little video showing the process:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ5tIj6g3tg    It takes me less than an hour to make a set of 6 blocks and we are doing 2 sets for each person.  My plan is to do one set a day for the next 10 days and I'll be through with this project--until I receive my 72 blocks and get to play with a new quilt design.

 

While I'm piecing, I work with Leaders/Enders--using pieces at the beginning/end of piecing to create other small blocks as I go.  For quite a while I've been making 2" finished four-patches and must have hundreds of them by now.  Here is the latest layout to use some of them up:

 

 

Don't know what this will become next, but it tames some of those four-patches. 

 

I'm linking up with Judy L's blog--check it out to see what others are up to. 

 

Time for therapy then I can quilt!  Have a great week, all.

 

Barbara