Crazy Quilt Journal Project

I delayed the start of my crazy quilt block for the 2015 Crazy Quilt Journal Project until mid-January, but finished it. I have never worked on any crazy quilt blocks in all my years of working with fiber arts. So for me the simple rules of the project were easy: "The CQJP is about promoting the art of crazy quilting and expanding the participant’s individual artistic creativity and technical knowledge." 

I am planning each month's 8" block in a different color, reflecting the holiday or season associated with that month (in Michigan, USA). I will incorporate the 12 blocks into a wallhanging. 

I have a large supply of various embellishments, fibers, threads and yarns to use. I have not done hand embroidery work for over 20 years (pillowcases and crewel embroidery pictures) and getting back into the swing of it was not as easy as I thought. I also want to include in each block a picture printed to fabric with my inkjet printer. The one in this block is from a Dover book collection. 

Next month I will be thinking Valentines! Come back and see what I have done and how I might have improved. Thank you for visiting. 

Tuesday Archives with Val

I am condensing a few of my blog posts into this one Tuesday Archives at Val's Quilting Studio today. The theme this week is Modern Quilts. 

Now, I subscribe to the newsletter for the Modern Quilt Guild; but I am still trying to wrap my head around the concept. I look forward to the local guild meeting where we will have a speaker talking about What is Modern Quilting. But in the meantime, I am doing a few quilts that I think fit the modern look.

In December I finished my Rings Quilt. The idea came from Missouri Star Quilt Company's video. This was a very easy pattern to work up and I am so pleased with the colors. Michelle did a fantastic job on the quilting with pebbles in the centers of the rings and swirls in the blue rings and the border. It is just a bit larger than a lap size.

I would put this Quilt of Valor into the category as well. I began this a few years ago. It is finished and only needs a label. Our guild gathers the Quilts of Valor at a showing we have in July and then we send them to the organization.

And the final quilt that I will call "modern" is my 12" x 12" Urban Lights quilt.

It was made for the November 2014 challenge reveal of the Four in Art Challenge group to which I belong. You can read about the process HERE.

Thanks for visiting. Be sure to check out all the other quilters who linked up this week for the Modern Quilt theme at Val's. 

I am always happy to read your comments. I try to respond to them as soon as I can, so feel free to leave one. 

Valentine Tote and Potholders

On Saturday I finished 4 potholders embroidered with the applique of the state of Michigan. I still have to get a Christmas present to my brother and his wife. They live out of the state and I am sure they will like one or two. Not sure yet who will get the others. (I make 4 at a time by folding 1/3 yard cuts of fabric into quarters and cutting 10" squares. It is so easy to sew up 4 and then I have some for gifts any time I need them.)

I also finished a little Valentine's Day tote. I wanted to try stitching the Tree design I got from CuteEmbroidery.com. (You can find it HERE.) I was very pleased with how easily it stitched on the felt.

I used decorative stitches on my sewing machine to attached the felt to the outer bag fabric. I wanted to have the lining of the bag show around the top outer edge of the tote but it doesn't extend as much as I wanted. I will try another tote and cut the lining even longer. But I am happy with my first attempt. My next tote will also have a different look to the handle. The solid pink will show 1/4" on both edges of the handle front. 

What have you been working on over the weekend?

It's Finished

Val posted about Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday and I had to post the one quilt I got done this week.

My sister started this quilt for a gift. She had sewn the triangles and asked if I had ideas on finishing it. Since we live 3 hours apart, I took it home and worked on finishing it. I sent it to her on Tuesday and she got it on Thursday. Her text said, "It is amazing." 

Medallion Quilts on Tuesday Archives Linky

Medallion quilts are the feature of Val's Quilting Studio Tuesday Archives Linky. 

I looked through my past blog posts and found that the few medallion quilts I had written about were scattered like leaves over the Patchwork Breeze Blog; so I have condensed them here. 

I start with the 9/1/14 post of the quilted pool table cover I designed in EQ7 (find the EQ link HERE. 

"Our next stop was about 30 miles away in Paradise, Michigan, the Wild Blueberry Capitol of Michigan and the gateway to Tahquamenon Falls. We had our lunch packed so we stopped at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River to eat and enjoy a view of Lake Superior. We were off to Village Fabrics & Crafts. 

The shop has many woodsy and nature fabric selections as well as flannels and fun children's prints. There is pine paneling inside and so many quilts on display. They have a nice room for sewing and lots of embellishments for the artistic quilter. I could not pass up the Row by Row kit of a bear and moose in the blueberries. I also bought fabric for a blueberry muffin table runner and some Angelina sheets.

It was here that my husband found a fabric panel a few years ago when we stopped that he asked me to make into a cover for his pool table.He really likes and appreciates it.  This is how it turned out. (Hard to get a full photo of a large cover like this.)

From my 4/22/14 post I have 3 to show: 

Another quilt I designed has hearts as the border. I wanted it to have the appearance of a postage stamp.

I designed this footprint baby quilt to use the bear
fabric as the outer border. I have the pattern for sale
at Patternspot.com

The final quilt for today is my 30s Reproduction
fabrics with a center panel of kittens in a basket.
This was for a guild challenge using 30s prints.
While I thought it was great, there were others
even more spectacular.

Thanks for visiting, visiting the linky blogs and we all like to read comments, so don't be shy, say hi and tell us what you think. 

Mystery Quilt Top Finished

Over the New Year's weekend I sewed the Merry Mayhem 2015 Mystery quilt top. Of course, with a mystery, one never knows what to expect. The name of the mystery was Regatta, which gave a bit of a clue--big ships on water. The background was to be light blues, which I had very few of in my stash. I chose to go with beige colored fabrics for the background and hit my scraps for the darks and mediums. (And I have thought of calling this Desert Regatta.) I sewed nearly 200 half square triangles before the mystery clues began coming. 

Between celebrating a belated Christmas with our daughter and her boyfriend, dinner, etc. I was happy the top was completed by the end of the weekend. It then took me a week to get a photo of it. I really don't have a great place to hang a twin sized or larger quilt top, which makes hanging a top with beige borders on a beige curtained slider a poor setting for this quilt. But here is the photo of my quilt top, which I will deliver to my longarm quilter in a few months. 

Do you have a favorite mystery quilt you have done in the past? I'd be interested to know, leave me a comment. 

Tuesday Archives: Machine Applique

I have to admit that applique is not particularly my favorite quilting technique. When Val posted the theme for today's Tuesday Archives, I had to search hard and deep into my files so I could blog about the few items I did make with applique. 

I will say I used fusible webs on all the applique quilted items I made. I used the lightest type I could buy. I do not like having the thickness of the heavy fusible make my quilts feel like cardboard. The most recent quilt I made is called "Tree-Mendous Possibilities" and is a pattern I designed for Cut Loose Press. It is actually two different quilts made from this one pattern cutting. Here is a photo of it:

I used "Sew Lazy Fusi-Bond Lite Fusible" for this quilt because at the time Steam-A-Seam was re-working their product. I do have to say that after washing the quilt, the Sew Lazy Fusi-Bond Lite Fusible was very soft. 

(I see that the new Steam-A-Seam products are on the market now. I will have to make a comparison project to see how it has changed. I heard it was the bonding, not the suppleness of the fusible they re-worked.)

The circles and letters - Anna - are raw-edge appliqued. After the circles are cut out, the leftover fabrics can be used to make the circle quilt pictured below, which is also raw edge appliqued.  



It does not have to be made like mine. I have included many ideas for variations on how to make this quilt. One of my projects this year is to make it in one or two of those variations.

 

This pattern (#CLPNAM002) is available at your local quilt shops through Cut Loose Press.

And, just so you can see those other few items I made with applique, here are the photos:

A small landscape made in the workshop with Ann Loveless.

Ghostly Haunt wall hanging about 24" x 30".

28" x 28" wall hanging "Love You" made for my daughter.

Winter Trees wall hanging from Wavy Panel Pattern I designed.

Some of my other patterns can be found at PatternSpot.com
by searching for Patchwork Breeze.