Quit progress and Boston prayer flags

Progress on my star quilt! I remade my first 4 stars, using this gorgeous chartreuse floral for the center background. I love it now, and am inspired to really work on it as much as I can.

Full view of this gorgeous fabric! 

Detail - another great Kaffe fabric. (sorry blogger flipped this picture on me)

Remaining pieces cut out and ready for completion. I'm sewing in the guest room, as we have house guests near my sewing room right now.

Did you hear about the Boston prayer flags, sent to the people of Boston last year (after the marathon bombing) by quilters worldwide? They have re-nstalled the flags in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, commemorating the one year anniversary of the bombing.
There is also a Pilgrim Roy quilt exhibit just opening at the same museum, which I will be able to see on our trip up there next month.

I brought my pansies inside for a couple days of (more) cold weather.  But spring is coming, should be 70 degrees on Easter Sunday.

Fabric Audition!

So - I decided about a month ago, to try and complete a quilt in two months, for my daughter's graduation (getting her MBA from Boston University!).  I was inspired by the book, Adding Layers by Kathy Doughty. 

Kathy is a master quilt designer - she has a keen eye for just the right mix of color and print, which I love.

In the book, I decided to make this quilt, called Follow the Sun.  I chose it because of the (mostly) simple construction, and only 12 blocks to make.  I simplified the center of the star blocks which, I realize, takes away from a big part of this quilt's cool factor - but I am on a time limit, so I decided to go for it.  I started great, with an acid green and dark violet combo, and a blue (paperweight) print (Kaffe) for the middles of the stars.  But I still needed a background (Kathy used the black/tan mini dot), and I found a plummy/white floral. I was set, right?  NOT!!! I still didn't have something to be the sashing and outer borders.  

So off I went, to my local fabric shops - we have lots of them in the western suburbs of Chicago, and I have visited many!  How tough could it be? I KNEW what I wanted, a big splashy print, darkish in tone (NOT lots of which), perhaps printed in long horizontal bands of viney flowers, to use as borders. Easy. Nope.

 I laid my "finished" block (I am falling out of love with my block, stay tuned) on various fabrics to try out.  (these options are in no particular order)

Choice 1 - blue circle print. I like how it pulls the blues out of the paperweight print. But otherwise, it sort of sits there.

 Choice 2 - Plum and blue floral "bees knees" print, which I do love - it has that "hippy dippy" vibe I am going for, prints that speak to each other but don't have to actually match. Shown with more of the dark violet as perhaps an outer border or binding. Not wild about how that acid green jumps out at you.

Choice 3 - A nice mauvey print with some blue, like how it blends but not matches. Very hippy-ish too.  Still not liking that acid green - the color yells at you, plus the print is so modern.

Choice 4 - Redo the middle with this totally yummy chartreuse print (wish I could give credit, is it Kaffe?) as the middle background, with this black dotty/spotty print. Hummm, maybe we're getting somewhere.

Choice 5 - shows that chartreuse middle with a mockup of the middle fabric (just folded under, sorry), and the mauve print as sashing. Could be?

 Choice 6 - Swapped out the middle background for the mauvey print, and now chartreuse print as sashing. Me likey. Also, using the dark violet to create smaller stars at the intersection of the sashing strips.

 Choice 7 - Not really in the running at all, but I'm showing it anyway. It's the "type" of print I was searching for, with long bands of some sort of design. The colors are great, dark blue, plus, and lime green, but way too much white for me. I toyed with fussy cutting and appliqueing it on another color - stop, way too much time involved!!!

 Choice 8 - My original block on the plum bees knees print.  Not terrible, but not balanced. The dark violet and acid green are stronger than the other more muted prints.

Choice 9 - "That" chartreuse floral print (which is so beautiful, I love how it introduces aqua and orange to the mix) as sashing with the original blocks.

Choice 10 - Chartreuse sashing with the dark violet corner stars. (spell check does not understand the word sashing!!!)








So, friends out there in blogland - thoughts? I do think I will redo my star middles with a different background square...I am also toying with using TWO different sashing fabrics. maybe one for the vertical and one for the horizontal, to hippy it up a little more.

Cooking up a storm - and what to do when the dog eats your quilt!

When I cook, I like to make a BIG AMOUNT, so I don't have to cook again for several days.  It saves a lot of time! I call it "cooking up a storm", and there was a storm in my kitchen on Monday night.  First, I made a big batch of Salsa Chicken (you can find the recipe here).  The original recipe calls for couscous, but we like it with brown rice.  Also, as you can see, the cook enjoyed a lovely margarita, too!

I needed to bring a salad to work on Tuesday, so I made a double recipe of Summer Tortellini Salad (recipe here).  Quick, easy, and really delicious!

So, this is our favorite couch quilt, and one of our dogs decided to see how it tasted, leaving several chew holes.  What to do? I found this fabric in my stash - an old Alexander Henry with these gorgeous leaves - that I thought blended rather well with the quilt. A few minutes and some zigzag stitching, and the quilt was ready for more service on the couch.

Back side of quilt, had to patch both sides of course.

Another successful patch!

Tumbler quilt done, first finish of 2014

First finish of 2014! So much love and anticipation was sewed into this baby quilt (sorry picture is so dark, it was quite overcast).  My nephew, Nathan, and his wife, Miranda, are expecting their baby in mid-May, and the shower is this coming Saturday! I won't be able to attend, as they live in Virginia, so I wrapped it carefully and sent if off today via UPS.  Fingers crossed for a safe journey!
I had an idea of what type and color fabrics I wanted, but I had trouble finding them at my LQS.  Several that I bought turned up finding a home on my stash shelf, but not in the quilt, and others from my stash joined the new fabrics just purchased.  

Here you see my starting point - the new fabrics purchased, and my inspiration: two quilts made by a blogger friend in Sweden, Margreth! "It's a small world, indeed!"  Check out her lovely blog here.  

My original plan was to add a wide border of all white, but I ended up just using tumblers and sashing.  I found the free pattern, here. While the pattern calls for both horizontal and vertical sashing, I used vertical only, similar to Margreth's gorgeous pink quilt.  

One little tip - as you sew your tumblers to your sashing strips, make sure to alternate them - wide at the top, narrow at the top, and so on.  You need units of both shapes as you assemble the quilt.  You also need to leave at least one inch of white sashing between your blocks, so that when you press your seam to one side, and rotary cut your segments apart, you will be able to make your cuts accurately.  The directions in the link are very clear and detailed.

All pin basted, ready for my machine quilting.  I had a piece of Hobbs Heirloom Wool batting, and I must say, I loved it! It quilted easily, and has a lovely soft draft and nice loft, too.  Another thing I noticed, as I had it on my lap, hand sewing the binding...wool batting is toasty warm!  After it was all done, I machine washed, gentle cycle, and tumble dried on low just a bit, then air dried to finish.  

This high chair goes way back in my family - my children, me, my mom, and my grandma, too.  

This child's rocker just might be my most prized possession - golden oak, hand-caned seat, and it was my grandma Myrtle's when she was a little girl, around the turn of the century.

GREATFUL!

Scott's birthday cards. Scott got lots of attention, cards, gifts and facebook messages. He loves attention! 

Does he look 64? What a great guy!

Tumble quilt is basted, ready for quilting. Baby shower is soon! (great niece or nephew) Happy event, fun project for a cold, snowy weekend.

More snow this weekend - are we grateful for that?

As much as people complain about our long, cold and snowy winter, I guarantee - spring is on the way!

Mug Rug Photo Shoot!

Santa's elves were busy right up until Christmas Eve, making a mug rug for everyone who opens gifts here on Christmas morning.  It was a fun project for me during the busyness of the holiday season, and it was fun watching everyone pull them out of their Christmas stockings.

I got the idea from a blogger friend Kelly, over at pinkadot quilts, who had a great tutorial on making cute but simple mug rugs - you can see it here.

I decided to make each mug rug somehow personal and different.  This is for Emily, in pretty blue scraps (all mug rugs were made from my scrap bin, including the backings...did I even need to say that?).
I wish I had posed all of them for a group shot on Christmas morning, didn't think of it. Pretty soon everyone had taken theirs home, or to their offices, so I had to beg for some posed photos.

Genevieve's arty glamour shot, I love it! They have a lovely view of a forest preserve from their apartment. Her mug rug was vibrant reds, with some dogs (they have two pups) and some hearts.

This one belongs to Matt, Emily's boyfriend.  I had previously made him some coasters of these earthy batik prints, and he loved them, so more batiks showed up on his mug rug.

Here is Nick's - Nick is Genevieve's boyfriend, and I chose red, white, and blue for him because (a) he was born on the 4th of July, and because (b) he loves Captain America! Love this photo too.

Scott's mug rug - you'd think it would be easy for me to get a photo of Scott's, but he had taken it to his office, where he uses it every day.  He brought it home so I could snap some photos.  I chose brown prints for Scott - coffee colors, his favorite color and beverage!

Danny, Hannah's boyfriend, love the Chicago White Sox, so I chose black prints (you always wear black to a Sox game!), and did some fancy stitching in red, to mimic that done on a baseball. This one was fun.

Hannah's cute mug rug - I tried to include soft, Hannah-like colors in hers.  Also, the strip of a heart print in the center was also used in a Valentine quilt I made for her.
There you have it, 7 mug rugs completed in about 2-3 days, right before Christmas.  I guess I usually work best under pressure!

More snow! and a sewing play date!

Lucky us, we are getting more snow today - they say, 6-10 inches by the time it's done. This morning, we woke up to about 2 inches, so Scott wanted to clear it off right away, especially the sidewalks.  That Minnesota blood (our homeland) runs deep, must keep those walks clear! That's Minnesota pride!

Doggies watching and waiting until Dad comes back inside.  Or, maybe they are supervising?

I must work this morning (piano teaching), but then I get to play this afternoon! Bought some new fabric this week, for a tumbler pattern baby quilt (my nephew and his wife are due in May, so exciting!).  Not sure if the stripe and other prints on the right will play nicely with the others I just purchased...may search my stash for others as well.  Gotta love a scrap quilt!  But - I don't have a tumbler ruler, so I drafted a pattern with paper, ruler, and pencil, and cut a template from template plastic! I really had to search for that, bet I haven't touched it in over a decade. (note, the quilt photos above are from another blog, quiltstudio22, her work is lovely!)

I also might work on this project - this is just a teaser, don't want to show the whole thing as I am almost done! This project has been a long-time brewing...started summer of 2012, I think.  I can see the finish line, though, so stay tuned!
It's a new year, and a new month, and I have challenged myself to blog on a more regular basis.  Good luck to me!