Turkey Tracks: “Allietore,” Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 Mystery Quilt

Turkey Tracks: January 6, 2016

“Allietore”

So, since I returned from Charleston after a splendid Thanksgiving with my children, I have been working each week on Bonnie Hunter’s “clues” for her 2015 Mystery Quilt, “Allietore.”

Just before New Year’s Day, I caught up with all the “clues.”

Could a quilt come from this pile of “clues”?

Some of the individual units were really interesting to make–and we used Bonnie’s two favorite rulers a lot in this quilt: Easy Angle Ruler and Companion Angle Ruler.

See those little red clips holding together the blocks on the right? I LOVE those clips and am finding all sorts of uses for them.

Here are pics of the individual units so far:

Bonnie “revealed” “Allietore” New Year’s Day!

What a gift!

Here’s her computer picture, likely done on EQ7.

Here’s her own quilt in fabric–note that she has scalloped the edges:

And here are the two blocks:

These are the COOLEST blocks. Thank you Bonnie!!! There are, really, just four main colors–red, gold, black, and grey–so these blocks are going to be gorgeous in loads of colorways. It has been so fun to see all the differing colors people are using on Bonnie’s Facebook quilt studio.

I still have to cut the red and gold block centers AND some red fabric for the corner and inner border treatments, but…

Unfortunately, I can’t get to this quilt until I get the second of the two granddaughters’ quilts off the design wall.

All in good time…but I got some fabric today for the gold inner border and the black outer border. They are currently in the washing machine.

That’s progress of a sort.

YOU can print out her patterns from her blog–go to quiltville.com and click on the blog button–for a bit more time. Then she will sell this pattern.

Bonnie meticulously explains each and every step for making one of her mystery quilts.

Turkey Tracks: THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT

Turkey Tracks: December 30, 2015

THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT

Fellow quilter Becca Babb-Brott brought this book and project to the attention of the Coastal Quilters in early December.

The Farmer’s Wife was a magazine in the 1930s for…not just farmers’ wives. Remember that America still had a largely rural population in the 1930s.

The book contains 99 classic quilt blocks from the 1930s–each with a name, like “Lola,”–and an excerpt from a farm wife letter to the magazine–often detailing life conditions in the 1930s.

We are going to try to make two blocks a week for 2016. The book comes with a CD that has directions to all the blocks, including foundation piecing if desired.

There are at least four of us who are going to participate.

Want to see some of the blocks all made up? Take a look at Katy Jones’s blog right now. She’s been making the blocks and has pictures of them on her design wall.

Source: Quilt Monkey

Katy Jones is a popular British quilter, and the blog is colorful and fun.

Turkey Tracks: Playing With Fabric “Crumbs”

Turkey Tracks: December 21, 2015

Playing with Fabric “Crumbs”

What do you do with small pieces of quilting fabric that are too small to use in something like a strip or a square?

I learned from Bonnie Hunter to call them “crumbs,” and to use them. Quilting fabric is now around $12 a yard and the width has shrunk from 44-45 inches to 40-42. (How greed can kill an industry.)

Like Bonnie, I throw these pieces in a bag and when it gets full, I start a project that uses them. I also throw in large trimmed pieces that have been already sewn together.

(At the very least, you could use these scraps to stuff a dog or cat bed…)

Here’s my ongoing “crumb” project:

Some of the pieces are larger, but would not cut into a 2-inch square. I don’t cut into 1 1/2-inch squares because they would be too bias stretchy. I use 1 1/2-inch strips to form small squares.

I played with making fabric from the crumbs–which was kind of interesting. And you could cut squares out of a piece like this and use the remainders to form more blocks. If you use those blocks as a center with sashings around–or as a center to a larger pieced block, you’d have an interesting quilt.

Right now, though, I’m interested in creating sashings. So here’s my growing pile of sashings:

I cut my large piece of “made” fabric into diagonal strips measuring 2 2/1 inches wide. I use a backing piece of paper to sew these sashings and then I trim them up on the cutting board. I can sew strips together to get the length I want.

I’m thinking of using these with this block, which you’ve seen before:

Stay tuned…

So, I warn you…

This kind of “play” is addictive.

Turkey Tracks: December 2015 Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks: December 8, 2015

December 2015 Quilty Update

The hexie project I took with me to Charleston, SC, for Thanksgiving is coming along.

Truth to tell, I’m addicted to it.

The center is nearly ready to sew together:

I’m should have let the teal stripe NOT line up, as the little doll head looks disembodied in the middle of a sea of strips.

Will I go back and take out tiny, tiny seams and restitch. As much as I am a perfectionist, no.

This project is scrappy and is using my 2 1/2-inch squares and strips.

The missing unit is greens and is now ready for the neutrals. And the project gets quite a few neutrals around this center. You can see pictures in an earlier post. The design is from Edyta Sitar.

Once again, the Sewline fabric glue pen is to English Paper Piecing (EPP) as a rotary cutter is to quilting. Holy Cow what a find!

One of the bright scrappy quilts is on Lucy the Longarm:

Love the bright coral backing:

I’m using a dusty rose thread. And this is a Bonnie Hunter block, as you can see from earlier posts.

I’m caught up with Bonnie Hunter’s second clue, released last Friday, for the 2015 mystery quilt, Allietare.

I wonder if we will get the gold fabrics next Friday?

Love the neutrals in this quilt. Many are from Cotton + Steel fabrics. I have some lovely posts on that group of fabric-designing women here on the blog. Such an interesting story. Use the search button on the right sidebar to find that story.

I am also working on the other bright scrappy quilt–it’s on the design wall and getting some more borders. More on that later. It’s cute!

Turkey Tracks: My Hexie Project

Turkey Tracks: November 16, 2015

My Hexie Project

The moment I saw Edyta Sitar’s book AND this amazing quilt last year in Houston, I knew I wanted to make the center of this quilt. (I am completely intimidated by Edyta’s applique–but it is so beautiful, isn’t it?)

I so enjoyed talking to Edyta as well. She is so pretty and so, so nice. What a treat to meet her, and I have admired her quilting for some time now.

I got as far this fall as buying a 1,200 pack of paper piecing templates. (I’m using 1-inch hexies, not the 7/8-inch Edyta used. My goodness they are…small.)

I could not decide whether to use the more traditional colorway Edyta uses or to go for brighter colors with more whites and the wonderful white printed neutrals out now.

When I realized I could use my 2 1/2-inch squares to make the hexies, that cinched the decision. That box is full and needs to be emptied. And it is filled with more traditional colors.

Here’s a close-up of that cover:

I have one of the diamonds completed. And I’ve cut and counted out the 532 neutral squares I will need and will take them with me to Charleston, SC, this week as a hand project while I am traveling and am away.

I had started sew/basting the neutral hexies.

BUT, guess what!!!! You can glue them instead.

I like the Sew Line glue stick–and I got lots of refills…just in case. (I tried another brand of glue stick and hated it–the glue was gummy and thick.)

And purchased some new straw needles, as I like the long, thin, flexible needle for hexies and bindings:

Best of all, while getting the glue stick at Alewives Quilting in Damariscotta Mills, Maine, I saw this GORGEOUS book.

Turns out there are quite a few tricks to English Paper Piecing. I quickly discovered better ways to cover difficult shapes–like the diamonds with which I am also working. (You leave the little flag/flaps in place and sew around them!)

Also, take a look at Leah Day’s video on sewing hexies together. I really like her method as it does not EVER show the tiny stitches between the hexies. That link is on this blog–search for Leah Day and hexies on the right side bar search button. But, you could also just search her web site.

I’d like to say that this will be a winter project, but…hexies are slow for me…so who knows???

Turkey Tracks: Allietare: Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt 2015

Turkey Tracks: November 15, 2015

Allietare:

Bonnie Hunter’s 2015 Mystery Quilt

I’m ready!

I leave for Charleston, SC, to be with my family for Thanksgiving, but my fabrics are ironed and ready to go.

Allietare, writes Bonnie, is Italian, and means “joyful,” “abundance,” etc. Bonnie, in her introduction at quiltville.com (the quilt’s instructions are on the top tabs), says this quilt was inspired by her recent trip to Italy. She will post the first clue on Black Friday–so I will be a bit behind the starting gate as I will get home on Monday. Guess what I’ll be doing first thing December 1st…

Here are my fabrics:

The colors:

The grey will be constant in the quilt. The rest, in true scrappy fashion, I will mix up as much as possible.

And the neutrals and paint cards that serve as a guide:

Turkey Tracks: One Quilt Top Finished

Turkey Tracks: November 3, 2015

One Quilt Top Finished

I got the final borders on this quilt last night–and the pics here do not do it justice. The border fabric is so cute with this quilt, for instance.

I have loved working with these bright prints and these so-fun neutrals. (You can see part of the other/companion quilt hanging over the bars on Lucy the Longarm.)

I’m going to call this quilt “Yellow Bird,” after the repeating bird in the borders.

To remind this quilt block, Carolina Chain, was designed by Bonnie Hunter for her “Addicted to Scraps” column in Quiltmaker magazine.

I am thinking that though I do have backing fabrics bought on sale that what these two quilts need is some sort of cream/black/neutral backings that match…

Not sure what I’ll do yet, so will finish the other top before deciding.

Turkey Tracks: Quilting: Coastal Quilters 2016 Challenge

Turkey Tracks: October 30, 2015

Coastal Quilters of Camden, Maine

2016 Chapter Challenge

This challenge is about exploring opposite colors on the color wheel.

We also had to include white, black, and grey.

The piece had to contain 16 pieces and be 16 by 16 inches.

Here’s mine–and trust me, it will pale in comparison with the creativity that some of the other Coastal Quilter members will devise.

I am, though, interested at the moment in how geometric shapes work together.

Purple and yellow are my opposite colors. The primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and their opposites (green, orange, purple, really a blue violet) create the biggest visual “pop”–and to me, the purple/yellow combo is the most startling. Red/green and blue/orange seem much more mellow to me.

One of the fallen petals is black.

In order to keep to 16 pieces, I used the background piece and the arrangements of the hexagons to make the center star.

Then I used pearl cotton to “quilt” the piece–and had to search to find the violet/purple color.

I left gaps in the stitching ini places to accent the dominate shape.

The buttons were in my stash of buttons and matched perfectly. Lucky find there.

Hexagons can be linked via diamonds–and three diamonds can work together to create the hexagon shape–which you can see when one diamond is removed from the hexagon. That manipulation of color–as you can see in the top right with the grey area–can make the “tumbling block” that is so interesting in a quilt. You would make a light “top” triangle, a medium triangle, and a dark triangle–and keep the color placement fixed.

The hexagon can also be fractured into parts using the kite-shape. Remember this quilt? My 100th, which I called “Centurion.”

See the block up close. The outer ring of neutrals is also made from the kite shape.

I am, at the moment, working with some large hexies in purple with yellow diamond joins–not sure how this study will develop, but it will be the last of my color studies.

Here, again, is red and green:

This is the Lucy Boston “honey comb” hexie being paper pieced.

And, here’s blue and orange–made with large Octagons linked with squares:

Turkey Tracks: “Garden Tumble” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: October 23, 2015

“Garden Tumble” Quilt

I don’t know…

This quilt is either the ugliest quilt I’ve ever made OR the funkiest fun quilt.

Bonnie Hunter’s current leader/ender challenge is to make a quilt with the tumbler patch. And there is something very sweet about traditional one-block scrappy quilts.

I had a 3 1/2 inch thick sturdy template bought years ago AND a lot of the veggie and fruit prints in my stash. So here’s what evolved.

Someone on Bonnie’s FB site for her fans suggested making a darker “self” border by combining dark blocks.

I like the darkish red binding…

And, here’s the backing:

Here’s a close-up of some blocks:

AND:

I quilted with a light fern green thread that’s nice on the back–using Debra D. Geissler’s 11-inch pantograph, “Deb’s Swirls.”

I think “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” with this quilt. It is funky and fun and just “is what it is.”

Turkey Tracks: October 2016 Quilting Update

Turkey Tracks: October 6, 2015

October 2015 Quilting Update

I seem to be working on about 7 quilts–three using the 4-patch blocks I spent the summer making.

The tumbler quilt is off Lucy the longarm and is ready to be bound.

The Coastal Quilter’s 2016 challenge quilt is ready to be bound. That’s a little guy–16 inches square, with 16 pieces, and using one set of opposites on the color wheel.

The two quilts that are emerging fast though are these bright and happy darlings–both using Bonnie Hunter blocks from Quiltmaker magazine: Criss Cross and Carolina Crossing.

Carolina Chain: I saw this quilt completed on the Bonnie Hunter FB site in regular, not bright, scraps, and I loved it on sight. I’ll make this one twin size. Love the bright happy colors.

Criss Cross. I think I want to make this a medallion quilt with these blocks as the center. I’m going to go to a border of white fabric with tiny dark blue stars next and then build out from there. Not sure which block I’ll use next. If it gets too wide, I’ll just extend on the ends???

I think these two quilts want to be companion quilts, and I know two little girls who are getting a new, shared bedroom in the near future. One of them does not have a “big girl” bed quilt from me.

Hmmmmm.

	celiamalm on Happy Birthday Soup
	celiamalm on Spring Garden Time
	louisaenright on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Tracy on It’s A Sunny Sunday
	Andrea R Huelsenbeck on Yeah! The Improv Quilt Is Off…

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