Category: Quilting in Maine

Quilting, mine and others

Turkey Tracks: Two Granddaughter Quilts: Yellow Bird and Wise Bird

Turkey Tracks:  April 5. 2016

Two Granddaughter Quilts

Wise Bird and Yellow Bird

I have two granddaughters (3 and 5 years) who are now sharing a bedroom.  They have a new baby sister, so bedrooms needed to be rethought and renovated for the long haul that will involve, eventually, three teen-age girls..

For the new living arrangement and the new bedroom, I made them each a quilt–with the hope that these quilts are not the same, but go together.  And I wanted something that would interest them for a long time.

What emerged after a LOT of piecing and a lot of fun for me was “Yellow Bird” and “Wise Bird.”

“Yellow Bird”:

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“Wise Bird”:

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“Yellow Bird” has a yellow bird in the border fabric.

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“Wise Bird” has a backing of owls, and this granddaughter LOVES owls.

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“Yellow Bird” has a Kaffe Fasset fabric for the background.  I think this one is called “Roman Coins.”

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“Yellow Bird’s” organizing block is Bonnie Hunter’s “Carolina Chain,” which appeared in Quiltmaker magazine’s March/April 2010 issue–in Bonnie Hunter’s “Addicted to Scraps” column.  The pantograph is “Check and Chase” by Lorien Quilting.  I used, as I recall, a soft rose thread.

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I am so loving the interesting neutrals–or “low volume” prints–on the market today.

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“Wise Bird’s” central block is Bonnie Hunter’s “Criss Cross” block–from her “Addicted to Scraps” column in  Quiltmaker magazine’s September/October 2915 issue.

This quilt center started with me just making a block or two for fun one day–and I got hooked.

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I surrounded the center with rows of different quilt blocks–many of which came out of the “parts department” where I keep blocks I’ve made from leftovers of other quilts.  (The term “parts department” has come from Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston’s book COLLABORATIVE QUILTING.)  And I used lots of the polka dot fabrics I have acquired.

The pantograph for “Wise Bird” is also “Check and Chase” from Lorien Quilting.  I quilted with a soft limey green.

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I did make the flying geese and the larger “primitive star” outer border for this quilt.  I like this primitive star a lot.  And of course I had to make some blocks to add to the ones I already had in the parts department.

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Here’s a view up and down the length of the quilt.  I am certifiably crazy about polka dots.  I really like how the orange/green polka dot on the binding came out.

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Baby girl will get a quilt that blends with these two completed quilts.  It will be made from Bonnie Hunter’s “Wild and Goosey” block–which also appeared in her “Addicted to Scraps” Column in Quiltmaker magazine, May/June 2013.  This block is Foundation Pieced on paper, and since it appeared, it has acquired a large and solid fan club.  I succumbed this winter while using up my “crumb” bag–which is not used up at all, but growing like mad with all the quilting.  AND after taking Bonnie Hunter’s class at Craft Online University–which I highly recommend.  (One of the cool things is seeing five or six quilts at the end of each segment–each using a block in a different way.)

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These blocks will sit on a soft grey polka dot, and it brings out all their vibrant colors and works well with the black and white sashing.  I’ll use a 3 1/2-inch sashing in the setting–which will give me a 3 1/2-inch corner stone of some kind.

 

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Four More Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  March 27, 2016

Four More Farmer’s Wife Blocks

I’m learning so much with these foundation pieced blocks.

I’ve tended to pick fabrics I like together, but they do not always work well together with tiny pieces in this block.

The brown fabric should be much lighter in value.  Close up you can see they are bow-ties, but…

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I like the blue/yellow part of this block.  The green/pattern, not so much.  Would have been better with a light aqua.

I’ve decided I’ll redo the green side when I get home from Charleston.  It won’t take that long.  Maybe a reverse of the yellow and blue?

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Better.  But yellow is hard in quilting.  I should have reversed the yellow polka dot and the bright blue fabric.

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Better…  If this block is installed “on point,” the star works better.  But some blocks “hang” better flat.  Still not sure how to lay out this quilt.

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This has been a great learning project.

I’m not going to redo these blocks–there will be 99 of them in the end and these will just blend in.  I’ll take what I’ve learned and move forward.

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s “Quilt-lets”

Turkey Tracks:  March 27, 2016

Katja Marek’s “Quilt-lets”

Here’s my first “Quilt-let.”

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The idea is make these little beauties “on the go” and to sew them together into a completed quilt.

One uses Marek’s designs from her book THE NEW HEXAGON and buys the EPP pieces from paperpieces.com.  You can buy a package of all 52 blocks in the 3-inch size or buy, in increments, the 4-inch block pieces during the year.  Marek is doing the 4-inch size.  I’m doing the 3-inch.  You can also buy templates to cut the batting and backing in the right size.

You can also just make these blocks and hook them together with other pieces that geometrically work, like a triangle.

I’m thinking, though, that I might anchor that central block with one line of stitch-in-the-ditch sewing on the machine.  I hate stitch-in-the-ditch sewing though…  Maybe “peck and stab” by hand with a matching thread???  Maybe just in the middle???

Turkey Tracks: Hexie Project Update

Turkey Tracks:  March 24, 2016

Hexie Project Update

Last night I sewed several big pieces on to the mother ship.

Here’s what the hexie project looks like now:

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The pattern is from Edyta Sitar’s HANDFULS OF SCRAPS.

Seems like I’m more than halfway done now.  I started this project back in mid-November 2015.

I’m going to float this main piece on wide borders and applique it down.  Then I’ll remove the paper pieces.

I am really liking this quilt, and I love the hand work at night.

The fabric is ALL from my 2 1/2-inch square scrap bin or from 2 1/2-inch strips.

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s EPP: THE NEW HEXAGON

Turkey Tracks:  March 23, 2016

Katja Marek’s EPP:  THE NEW HEXAGON

Katja Marek has designed 52 hexagon blocks, each of which has been split into interesting shapes.

AND, there are many ways to use these blocks.

AND, there are many ways to make these blocks.

First, you can use other shapes to combine the hexagons into a quilt, like the triangles on the cover.

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Like THE FARMER’S WIFE books, each block has a female name.

You can draw your own templates.  Or, you can go to English Paper Piecing LLC and buy the pieces for each block.  I bought the whole package to make all 52 blocks.  AND/OR, you can buy a set of acrylic templates that help you fussy cut and/or make your own paper pieces.  (I’m going to try to make my “fussy cut” pieces by tracing pieces onto template plastic.)

 

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BUT, BUT, BUT, what I discovered in the past few days is that Marek is ALSO making these blocks into finished tiny quilts that you then sew together to make a quilt.  They are SO CUTE!  Each has a neutral low-volume fabric border.

Here are some pics from Instagram:

A single “quilt-let”:

And several in a pile:

I’m going to do this latter project BEFORE doing a project linked by the triangles.

These blocks, without the neutral border, have three-inch sides.

The English Paper Piecing LLC site has materials for BOTH Marek’s projects:  the Millifiore quilt I’m going to do AND these little “quilt-lets.”  The book has the three-inch blocks and the English PP LLC site also has a four-inch project.

Turkey Tracks: Alewives Fabrics Low-Volume Monthly Fabric Club

Turkey Tracks:  March 21, 2016

Alewives Fabrics Low-Volume Monthly Fabric Club

Friend Megan Bruns did a monthly fabric club with Alewives Fabric (Damariscotta Mills, Maine) that she truly enjoyed.  She’s using those fabrics in her Passacaglia Millefiori Quilt.  (See earlier posts.)

Alewives is doing a low-volume version, and I just signed up.  I LOVE the low-volume fabrics the market is putting out now.  This club starts in May and is already filling.  They will limit membership as they are a small shop.

Here’s the information:

Source: Alewives Fabrics: Fabrics

In the newsletter message I got from them, they included the prettiest picture of an English Paper Piecing project from Tracey Jay Quilts–called a “Morning Star” block.  I just ordered that for $6 too.

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The block is in the center, and the pattern forms through color manipulation.  The package comes with a blank coloring plan.

Isn’t this gorgeous.  Low volume prints and brights.  Heaven must be made of these colors!

Fussy cutting could add a whole new intricacy to this idea as well.

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Tami’s Table Runner

Turkey Tracks:  March 21, 2016

Tami’s Table Runner

DIL Tami came for my birthday this past weekend.

What a terrific gift.

It was a win-win as her birthday is in mid-February, so I helped with her trip up, and she came for my birthday.

We went flat out for four days–and, of course, had non-stop talking and catching up.

We never get this kind of time together in any large measure–and Tami has such a rigorous schedule with four kiddos and lots of school drop off/pick up, that the break away was good for her.

We went to Alewives–Tami loves Alewives–and I do too.  We came home with fabrics for a table runner for her looooonnnng farm-style dining table.

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We copied Rhea Butler’s idea of combining light and dark 3 1/2-inch light/dark squares into blocks.  Rhea used 5 blocks, which works better in a quilt.  We used 7 to get the width Tami needs for the table runner.

Here are some of the other fabrics we chose:

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The next day we spent about 5 hours sewing and cutting and organizing a long, thin batting, and the time flew by.

Tami got all the blocks cut and into baggies, so she just has to sew the blocks together into the big blocks when she gets home.

She left with the math done for the backing and binding and what threads she will need.

I am going to Charleston next week, so we’ll finish it up then.

We could not get everything into her suitcase, so the package is going into the top of a box of two quilts that I am mailing to two of my son Bryan’s daughters.  I was to mail that package today, but will when the hill I live on gets plowed.  I’ll post pics on those quilts when the girls and  parents have seen them.

Turkey Tracks: Kathy Dietz Pesce’s French Braid Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  March 21, 2016

Kathy Dietz Pesce’s

French Braid Quilts

Today is the first day of spring AND we are having a snow storm here in Maine.

(That’s not unusual.  And I probably caused it because I switched out my winter cords/sweaters/wool socks/mittens/hats for spring clothes.  I had to retrieve some of my winter gear.)

Anyway…

This morning was lazy–a catch-up day after a terrific weekend with DIL Tami, where we went flat out for 4 days.  Along the way this morning, Kathy Pesce and I traded some FB messages, and she sent me her “snow day” and weekend quilting, a beautiful little French Braid quilt in shades of rose/pink/garnet.  That led to more sharing, and I thought you might like to share her beautiful quilts with me too.

Here’s the rose/pink one:

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The border fabric is Japanese–up close it has the most wonderful texture.

Kathy is trying to use up her stash, like me, and loves small pieces of fabric, like me.  And, like me, she’s found Bonnie Hunter’s stash management system and scrappy quilt projects.  She’s made more of Bonnie’s mystery quilts than I have.  The florals in her quilts are an effort to use up stash.  And, like me, these days she is more drawn to the brighter and low-volume fabrics, but has a lot of fabric from earlier quilting eras.

Here’s another French Braid that is using florals:

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Gorgeous!!  I did not ask her if she does her own quilting…

Love the quilt admirer on this quilt too.

Here’s a French Braid where Kathy has really gone scrappy:

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This one has set my brain into project planning!!!

Thanks so much Kathy, for the connection, the sharing this morning, and these beautiful quilts.

Turkey Tracks: “Crayon Crumbs Box” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  March 16, 2016

Crayon Crumbs Box Quilt

I have been obsessed for much of the winter with making use of the small leftover pieces from my quilt projects.  These pieces are too small, for the most part, to cut into a 1 1/2-inch strip or a 2-inch block.  so, I started making 2 1/2 inch wide strips with the “crumbs” (as Bonnie Hunter calls them).  I use a flip and sew method–and trim from the back when I am done.

I used these strips as sashing for the cheddar version of Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine‘s four-patch challenge.

My four-patch blocks came from my “parts department”–so named by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston in their excellent book COLLABORATIVE QUILTING.  Remember that I spent a lot of time last summer making four-patches from my two-inch bin of squares–cut from leftovers from finished quilts.  I love this idea of having a “parts department.”  Bonnie Hunter also amasses and uses blocks from her quilt projects–like the small triangles one can salvage from making half-square triangles by laying a square over the corner of a rectangle or larger square (as with a snowball block), sewing from corner to corner, and trimming.  Bonnie Hunter uses a template to also mark a sewing line for this smaller triangle.  For more info, see her quiltville.com web site and click on tips/etc. at the top of the page.  Right now I’m getting about 400 2-inch half-square triangles from a snowball block project–using Bonnie’s method.  (They’re going into a border on that quilt.)

So, here is the finished quilt:

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Red-orange (or cheddar in quilting terms), teal blue/green, and violet magenta form a triad on the color wheel.

The backing and binding bring in the violet purple/magenta:

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You can see the quilting–an soft rose colored thread from Signature–on the border:

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The rose color “knocked back” the brightness just a bit.  I like it.

The pantograph is “Whirlwind” by Patricia Ritter.

Here are some pics of the quilt top–so you can see the way this block and the sashings work together.

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And one showing a secondary pattern:

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I have loved every minute of this project!!!