The Endeavourers Art Quilt Reveal

Today is the The Endeavourers' Art Quilt Reveal 
for the 3rd quarter 

of our first year as a group. 

The theme for this challenge was Spirals. 
Visit our blog to see all the designers' projects.

I find the internet so helpful in getting my mind started on a project. In my teenage and college years, I would have been visiting libraries and checking out books or magazines to research a topic. As the Yellow Pages phone book advertised: Let your fingers do the walking...." Well today, my fingers walk the internet!

As some of you know, I interpret topics in the literal sense. Spirals are mathematical. I took a strolled down memory lane.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZdu663Dag)

In high school, geometry meant learning theorems and formulas, writing proofs, and taking nerve-wracking tests! I didn't see where any of this knowledge would help me out in the world. (I was a teen in the 70s, before Title IX we gals were limited to 3 or 4 career choices which didn't include engineers, drafting, and such.)

I wish teachers had related geometry to quilting, I would have done SO WELL! Application would have been very beneficial. (I wonder how many quilters now see geometry as fun!?)

HERE is the website I found that helped me learn how to draw spirals beginning with a certain number of points. A straight line is 2 points, a triangle is 3 points, a square is 4 points, and so on.
I chose to begin with a 3/4" square. I knew I had a button that size to put in the middle of my art quilt.

Later I found THIS video showing how to draw a 2 point spiral. I was very interested in the virtual compass, pencil, and protractor/ruler that he used in the video!

Shown HERE, spirals can be drawn using the Golden Ratio! I have a curved design ruler for making clothing patterns that could be used to make this spiral.

But I digress.

I divided the spiral into 4ths, using the 4 sides of the square to delineate the areas of the color. I chose to use batiks in shades of 4 colors. I cut the sections of the drawing apart to use as templates for the batiks.

I wanted to define the drawn line of the spiral and knew a cord or ribbon would be easily manipulated. I had a silver cording with little loops off each side. I sewed a gold cording onto the silver cording to give more bling! Then I applied the cordings by machine to the raw edges which was the spiral line.

With the leftover cording, I sewed the small tight spiral separately from the background, then appliqued it onto the background. As you can see in the photo above, the background was a bit short on this particular side. I had to add some fabric as you will see later.  

I hand sewed what seemed like a gazillion beads for two reasons. First, the raw edges were not totally caught in the stitching of the cording. (You can see how the middle pink has some fabric covering the silver loops near the seam.) Second, I had to give more sparkle to my spiral line! You see in the middle, the square hole, which is where my initial 3/4" square in my drawing was located.

 And now. . . 

my completed art quilt titled:

SPIRAL BLING! 

Here is a list with links to all the members' own blogs:
Catherine

Janine

Nancy

Carol

Barbara

Ruth

Gwen

Martha

Julie

Maureen

Kay

Fiona

Eye Spy Quilt Tops

In June, I signed up to participate in the Eye Spy Swap hosted by Val's Quilting Studio.

I put together 20 bundles of novelty fabrics for the exchange and sent them off. 

A week ago the exchanged bundles arrived in the mail. 

Val included a little magnifying glass to use with the squares. 

I worked for the past 2 days sewing the squares into 16 patch units,

adding sashings and finishing 3 quilt tops for toddlers. 

I used a brick print fabric for the sashings and borders. 

I have some cute kids' prints to use as the backings and 

look forward to finishing these quitls soon. 

I have been listening to books on CD as I sew. 

Presently I am enjoying

the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache book series written by Louise Penny.

I like doing two things at once. 

Twin Quilts Tuesday Archives

I'm linking up at Val's Quilting Studio this week where the theme is Twin Quilts. 

I went through my past posts and pulled out the sections telling about a few of the twin quilts I have made. 

I hope you like seeing them. 

This is my Christmas Crystals quilt. I took the "Crystals" pattern designed by Anna Laura Reidt and redid the color scheme. I made this in 2007 or 2008 (correct, no label is on the back yet) at the time, the pattern was out of print. I found THIS LINK where it is sold. I really was pleased at how the colors changed the quilt's appearance in the original blue and yellow scheme. How do you think the color change looks? Original post HERE.

This past January (2015) I participated in the Merry Mayhem Mystery Quilt.  It was called Regatta and I named my quilt Scrappy Regatta. I changed the colors on mine. Here is the link to my post about the quilt top.

The triangles in the center form sailboat masts and the background was to have been light blues for the water and sky. The triangles were suppose to be darks. I am happy with this and it will fit a twin bed. 

Original Post HERE.

Thank you for visiting. I'm off to look at the other twin quilt posts linked today. How about you? 

Magnolia Mystery Quilt Finished

Last year I worked on the Meadow Mist Magnolia Mystery Quilt. Cheryl Brickey designs such lovely quilt patterns. I won't hesitate to participate in any of her Mystery Quilt Alongs!

I enjoyed working on the units for each new clue every few weeks and was very pleased with the lap quilt I made. I chose the fabrics from my stash of batiks. Some from the Island Batik fabrics I had, and the blue background I bought as a remnant at Hancock's of Paducah one year. They all worked well together. On Sunday, I sewed the binding on and the label.

I took the quilt to Pam at Creative Loop. Friends had praised her work. Last year at a quilting retreat, she made a presentation about longarm quilting and the types of battings to use. She showed some of her work. I was so impressed with her knowlegde and skills, I decided I wanted her to quilt this quilt because there was so much background space in it.

I was not disappointed. I think the recipient of this quilt is going to ooh and aaah over it. I am giving it to her as a thank you for all the hospitality she has shown me over the years when I visit her town.

(not sure why this blue color is so off)

Thanks for visiting my blog.
If you are interested in a mystery quilt along coming soon, Merry Mayhem is hosting one on Aug. 12, 2018. It is a one-day event where clues are given every hour. Download the first piece of information (fabric and cutting) from the website HERE. She is calling the quilt, TWINKLE. Wonder if it's for Christmas, hmmm.

Maltese Cross Block Re-made

Last week Electric Quilt posted their Block Spotlight tutorial HERE.
They were showing EQ users how to get creative by changing the colorings or adding another block with it in the quilt.
I played with using just 2 colors and then redrew the block to make it easier to construct in my quilt.

I am thinking of making this quilt, but maybe in blues for a snowflake effect.

Or maybe using bright colors. 

The ease of changing colors to determine what fabrics I might use is one of the reasons I like using my EQ program. And that I could redraw the block to make it easier to assemble is another reason. 

What fabrics would you use? 

Lap Quilts Revisited

Today I am joining Val's Quilting Studio in the Tuesday Archives HERE. This week's theme is Lap Quilts.

I have been vacationing for the last week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was the start of my 4th week of healing from foot surgery and great to go somewhere. I'm not driving yet, so I am dependent upon others. I just relaxed and it was GREAT.

But, I'm back and thought I would put together a post condensation of some of my blogs where I showed lap quilts I had made.


I chose  to donate a lap quilt I made, called Flower Boxes, for the church raffle this coming weekend.  My DH took this photo, not the best, but it is the only one I now have. It is much prettier than the picture indicates. I quilted it this past fall on the Sweet 16 at the art studio using Sally Terry's Leaf designs. I see on her website that she has refined the technique and calls it SHADOW RHYTHMS. I took her class at the AQS show this past August. The technique is very easy to learn and the quilts look great. Click HERE to check out the video on her website for more information. You can find the entire blog post HERE. 

I began this quilt after taking Susan Purney-Mark's class "Give and Take" 2 years ago at the AQS Show in Grand Rapids, MI.  I quilted it using techniques I learned in Sally Terry's class at the same show. I put the bindings on this past October at a quilt retreat. And now it is on my couch as a lap throw. The entire blog post is HERE.

I am sure every quilter has been asked to help someone out with a quilt project.
My sister asked me to help with finishing the quilt she had started for her son. 

How can one say no to a sister?

This is a photo of the finished quilt. 

She purchased plaid and plain wool suiting pieces. 

When I got the top, she had the pinwheels sewn. 

Below, you will find what I did to finish the quilt. 

My sister has not made many square patch quilts and wasn't sure of the quilting process. She did not have much of each fabric and had already cut them into squares. I suggested she cut them diagonally to create more visual appeal. I never thought to suggest fusible interfacing for stabilization, so there was S-T-R-E-T-C-H.

After sewing the pinwheels together she asked for help with sandwiching and binding. She had purchased a felted wool for the backing. We thought including batting in the quilt would be much too hot. I suggested it be sewn as a self-binding blanket. (You can see Jenny Doan's demonstration HERE.) I thought large hand sewn quilting stitches to hold the layers from shifting would be cool. So, I took the project home and went at it.

You can read more about what I did HERE.

HERE is a top that was finished by my friend and longarm quilter, Michelle.  

This lap size Hunter Star quilt that I made quite a few years ago. The original blog had the finished photo, but the link is broken. I will have to search through my files for the photo.

Thank you for visiting Val's Quilting Studio and my blog. 

Have you made lap quilts for special people or to donate? 

What size do you like to make them?