Quilt Along Blocks and Nativity Trees

About 2 weeks ago I told Bea of beaquilter.com that I would join her and others in a quilt along. I would be using scraps and sewing the units as leaders and enders of the projects I am working on. Well, I had loads of scraps. This is going to be a very scrappy quilt. Here is what I have done so far. 

Oh, by the way, I could not simply sew these as leaders and enders. I went ahead and made 12 blocks at one time and then worked on the others. These are not necessarily the way I will put them all together. 

I also joined the Nativity in the Trees - Quilt Along which Polly is leading. I stayed up a little too late last night going through my scraps to find greens! I found some already cut into strips and others that can be cut in half for some of the widths called for. Of course, I had to start sewing some last night. Needless to say, I am running on no energy today. Might have to leave the sewing for a nap this afternoon. 

Are there some other sew alongs, you are particpating in prior to the holidays? 

2013 Autumn Animal Blog Hop Begins

Today begins the Autumn Animal Blog Hop 

hosted by Bea Lee from Beaquilter. 

The schedule is as follows: 

October 21st

Bea Beaquilter

Jane’s Quilting

October 22nd

Connie Freemotion by the River

October 23rd

Amy Sew Incredibly Crazy

SewCalgal

October 24th

Nancy Patchwork Breeze

Marian Seams to Be Sew

October 25th

Carol Funthreads

 "EQ Mouse" Electric Quilt

We each have used EQ7 to design an applique of an autumn animal, or something related to the season. I know Bea likes to design things with big eyes, so I designed some appliques with big eyes. 

My tutorial reveal will be on October 24; but I thought that each day, up until then, I would post the other designs I came up with.

So, today I will show you my turkey. I do not have a detailed tutorial for this design, but maybe you will be able to do something like this. 

And, if you don't have an EQ7 program to use, we have an announcement:

Electric Quilt Company is sponsoring this hop and is giving away ONE full version of the EQ 7 program ($189 value) to ONE lucky person.  It is easy to enter! 

Just comment on the featured blog(s) each day. From the combined comments of all the blogs, ONE lucky person will be chosen on November 1. The winner will be picked by random.org    

Now, I have my own special giveaway for ONE lucky person! In keeping with the Autumn theme: this lovely bundle of fat quarters.

I will mail this fat quarter bundle within the U.S. If someone outside the U.S. wins, I have a collection of PDF patterns I have designed to email to you.

You wonder how to enter? 

On October 24, my featured day, your comment will count as one of the entries for the EQ7 program giveaway. 

PLUS, I will count it as an entry for my giveaway. You can earn a second entry for my giveaway by returning here on October 25 and leaving a comment telling me which of my applique designs you could possibly use in a project. I will announce my giveaway winner on October 28. 

But, I must have a way to contact you. If you are a no-reply blogger, or do not have a blog, you must leave your email address in the comment. If I can't contact you, I will not be able to include you in the drawing. I do not accept anonymous comments. They go into my spam file! I will leave this contest open until 11:59 EST on October 25, 2013.  

Come back to see the next applique reveal tomorrow.

Progress on Projects

POP: That could be the acronym for this post.
I have a few photos of projects I have worked on in between all my other tasks. 
I finished four mug rugs for a craft show. I have quite a few other things to make before November 16. It is at the church and it is the first time I have considered having a table. I will see how it goes. While it is not a juried craft show, I would like to have a variety of well-made items.

I used some scraps for these, with the backs being pieces cut from yardage. These were the simpler ones. The slightly more elaborate mug rugs are in the next few weeks. And I hope to have our oldest daughter who is at home with us help out.

Quilt Guild Show is over

The Tall Pine Quilters Guild had a wonderful quilt show on Friday and Saturday. This was the first big show we have had in 11 years. We had 463 people come to the show. There are about 70 members in the guild and we had over 225 beautiful quilts on display, a quilt appraiser (one of our long-time members),12 vendors and raffle prizes every 2 hours. I was able to spend a few hours viewing all the quilts on Friday and worked at various jobs today. The committee that worked on this event did a fantastic job of organizing the displays, advertising, and laying out the timeline and schedules. 


The importance of a blog schedule:
While searching for information on how to add a comment counter to my blog (which I still have not really been able to find or understand), I found a blog telling of the importance of a consistent posting schedule. It gave me something to consider. I know my schedules change from day to day and week to week depending upon the needs of others. But I now understand how those of you who follow my blog (or any blog), and those who I hope will begin following it, come to depend upon consistency in posting. So....

This coming week, the establishment of a regular schedule will begin with (Drum roll....):

the Autumn Animal Applique Blog Hop. I participated in one of one of  Bea's other blog hops, and this one I know will be enjoyable. There is a grand giveway from EQ--an EQ7 program for the one lucky winner who visits us during the week. 
But I want give all of you a chance to win a giveaway that I have. I will announce it on Monday, with a photo, and all the details on how to enter for a chance to win the Patchwork Breeze giveaway. So stop back at Midnight (EST), October 21!

New Fabric Aquisition: 
The quilt show clean-up was complete. I left and took a side trip to The New Ewe (one of the show vendors and the store where I teach) to see what might be new. Well, I spotted a bolt of fabric I had not seen. But the date shows it has been there for months. Where it was hiding I do not know. I have a hankering to work on another Stack-N-Whack quilt. So I bought enough to do an 8-layer Stack N Whack. Of course, I had to find something to go with it because, like many of you, I just do not have the right colors in my stash to work with. Here is a photo of what I bought. Blue is my favorite color. I realized that years ago, when I sorted my fabrics by colors and my stack of blues was 3 times more than any other color?!

Do you have a favorite color, or a favorite technique or block? Leave a comment and let me know. Do you EQ? Send a pic of a block you designed with your favorite color(s) or pattern. I would be happy to see it. 

Art Quilt Genre Gets Big Boost

I will cut to the chase. Ann Loveless won the $200,000 Art Prize Award for her stunning art quilt! The public had 10 finalists to vote for as their choice for Grand Prize Winner. I quote my friend, Leslie's, Facebook post:

"More than 49,000 people cast 446,850 votes over 16 days, 

divided into two rounds of voting, 

to pick "Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore" its favorite 

among 1,524 works of art in ArtPrize 2013. It is amazing!"

Her work is amazing. She has entered the ArtPrize twice before. Guess "3rd time is the charm."

MSN News has a report here.
A local story shows more photos of the mural.

Ann taught a workshop for our guild a year ago, which I was able to take.  She is an amazing artist and a wonderful teacher. It was so easy to follow her instructions and leave with a great landscape quilt. Unfortunately, I was able to visit ArtPrize only one day and did not get to see her piece.

I am going to be participating in another Blog Hop sponsored by EQ and headed up by Bea from Beaquilter. I look forward to designing another cute fall-themed applique to share with you. Mark your calendars for the starting date of October21. 

I have finished the last of the Persian Star blocks for the swap. Well, I still have one of my own blocks to finish, but those that had to be mailed are done and sent. I wish I could have gotten better photos, they do not show the actual colors. 

While sewing the paper pieced blocks for Beaquilter's exchange, I discovered a way to get the seams to nest on two units making the alignment of the fabrics come out nearly perfect. 

Here is what I did: 

On the paper piecing pattern paper, I re-numbered the sections that will be joined first. By doing this, the seams on one side will be sewn going in an upward direction and the seams on the other side will be sewn in a downward direction. When I pinned the seams at each line intersection, the seams nested because they were laying in opposing directions. This made the points and lines on the block look nearly perfectly matched. 

When sewing two of these joined blocks together, I removed the paper from the stripes on one corner and pressed the two outside seams toward the center. This allowed me to match and nest those seams much easier. I was not able to press the seam of the longer strip toward the center because it created just too much bulk. 

Here is the 7th block I have finished for the block exchange:

An Internet Tip on Using the Ladder Stitch to Close Seams

While exploring some websites and blogs, I found a tutorial on Melly and Me that showed how to sew a seam closed on a stuffed animal. This could be used anywhere we have an opening from turning 2 sewn fabrics right sides out. I found the way she started the stitching with no tied knot to be very nifty. I am going to use non-tie knotting technique when sewing seams. 

Thanks for stopping and have fun sewing.

August's Summary

August has been a busy month for me. My husband and I took a trip for our 30th anniversary to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Penninsula via the cruise. It was spectacular. I took many photos thinking I would incorporate some into quilting projects. I don't know what those will be yet, but I will let the creative juices simmer for a few months. 

AQS Show Grand Rapids, MI I attended the AQS Show in Grand Rapids, MI, on August 14 -16. I took two classes with Bill Kerr which were spectacular! The first was "Rediscovering Your Stash." He has us looking at our fabric collections now in a new light. I am so pumped to use his methods of combining fabrics in new ways that my previous idea of shedding some of my untouched fabrics from a few (cough, cough) years back may not happen. 

We all brought fabrics to class and chose one to bring to the circle. Bill paired two fabrics and those two people had to work through the stashes they brought to come up with a palette.  The first photo below shows the palette my partner and I developed. Bill is pointing to the fabric I brought to the circle. My partner's contribution was the fabric in the bottom left corner. The next 3 photos show how my partner and I combined the palette to each make a sampler quilt. 

Bill Kerr discusses our choices. 

My peices cut for sewing.

My quilt sample.

My partner's sampler.

Samples from all the participants as we discuss them.

The second class he taught was "The Role of Color in Your Quilts." I have tried to learn about color in the past: color wheels, etc. but never could understand how to work with it in quilts. Finally, I get it! The way Bill taught really helped me see how to use, choose and work with colors in quilts. He is a wonderful teacher, very interactive, gets the students discussing, talking, doing!

"Thirty-Nine & Holding"  was the class I took with Klaudeen Hansen. She taught us her "fudge factor" piecing and the blocks we made were quite easy to make. Sharing fabric with others so we all had a great variety was fun. 

HEXIESI followed the Hexie Queen blog hop during August.  In fact, out of necessity, I began sewing hexies about a week ago. I had a bout of vertigo and could not use my sewing machine or bend my head down to rotary cut fabric. I got out a small box of fabrics, scissors, needle, thread and the new Fiskars Hexagon cutter I bought on my way home from the quilt show. (Thank goodness they were all in one place so I could get to them without much discomfort.)  I was able to work with them while sitting on the couch. I am not sure what this is going to become, but here is what I made so far:

CLUB EQ CHALLENGE

I designed a quilt for the Club EQ Challenge for August. This is the link if you'd like to see it: Stars All Around Quilt. I actually think I will try making it. (Can't believe I am saying this after making two-colored blocks similar to these for my daughter's queen-sized bed 3 years ago and having a doozy of a time sewing them.) But I do like the quilt, so I have to give it a go. 










Quilting: Cheaper than Therapy
I saw the quote above on the Quiltmaker website. I think they have some very cute quotes. And as of today, I am using my my machine again! Sewing makes me happy. 

I am working on a star block exchange through Beaquilter's blog.  I have 6 of the 12 blocks completed. They are paper pieced. After making a few of them, I discovered something that made it easier to align and match the intersecting strips in the 8 pieces. I will blog about that tomorrow. Here is a photo of the 6 I have done. Each of the 6 participants gave their color preferences, so we are working with a number of colors.

Paper Piecing for Block Exchange

I signed up to participate in a paper piecing block exchange which Beaquilter posted a few weeks back. It is now closed but she has a good tutorial on the paper piecing of this block. 

Those of us who chose to participate told of our color choices for blocks. I chose bright colors-pink, turquoise, lime, yellow and we are all using the same Kona white for the white section.

I thought I would work on my own blocks to begin with to make sure my machine was working well and to see that the pattern made the correct size block. So far I have 1/4 of my block made.

I am going to work on this block to complete before it gets too late.