After 9 days of his visit here, I took this guy back to the Portland airport for his journey home:
I started missing him before he even left!
He is heading into his 18th birthday and his senior year in high school, which includes all the stressful college applications and worry about “what next.”
It was delicious to have 9 days to one-on-one time with him as I had not seen him (or any of the other family members in Charleston, SC, for two years).
While he worked on summer school assignments, due very soon now, I did get in some sewing. And what a fun, fun project this wedding ring quilt by Tara Faughnan is!
I am sewing together the the last block on the right in the upper row later today and will join it to the others. Each is 20 inches finished—so the quilt will eventually be 80 by 80 inches. Of course I am moving around colors—nothing is set in stone until I actually sew it, and the color ideas have already changed from this picture.
The garden is at that late August messy stage. EVERYTHING needs mowing or dead heading. But it is so hot and so humid that one gets drenched with sweat in short order outside. I did mow yesterday, but that was enough for one day.
Some of the trees are starting their fall colors. And the hummingbirds will be leaving very soon now. And the light has already changed rather a lot as the seasonal wheel starts to turn.
He is 18 next month, a rising high school senior, and my oldest grandchild.
I am so touched that he wanted to come and spend NINE days with his grandmother.
I have not seen my family for two years now, and this grandson is now taller than anyone in his family.
Plus, he is a sweet as a summer day is long.
The Aurifil blog posted an interview with Edyta Sitar, whose work I’ve always admired. I met her when I made my solitary trip to the Houston Quilt Show years ago. She was so gracious and lovely, and I so enjoyed meeting her.
I’ve been really tempted by her house quilt—and there is a scrappy version in this post. Her original one was in the blue fabrics she so loves.
It is so lively and so full of good energy. And I have not named it yet.
This is just a quick and dirty picture—and the quilt is hanging over another quilt in progress, so things look lumpy.
A reminder that this block comes from Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS. I mixed printed and solid scraps in the blocks and am happy with how that evolved.
And here is what is going on BEHIND this quilt:
This quilt is designer Tara Faughnan’s “Wedding Ring” quilt.
It is so fun to make!
I have a busy day but can’t wait to spend some time today making more of the scrappy rings.
I finished “Fractures” last night and hung it outside my quilt room this morning—after retiring one quilt and moving another.
I am really happy with this quilt.
Latifah Saafir was the guest designer for this year’s 7th month in season 3 of The Color Collective. She called her block “Tenderoni.”
Latifah spread out her block by using blank pieces of her fabric palette (which I really love), but I wanted to play with how the block worked when all were together without interruption. Latifah’s version, though, is a very handsome quilt and a better choice I think if one wants a bigger quilt.
I hand quilted with 12-wt cotton Sulky thread in various colors—using a Tulip Saskido needle.
I can’t pass them without stopping to eat some—and most of the time, I eat all the ripe ones on the spot.
It’s what raspberries and summer are for, right?
In any case, my raspberry bushes are just in their first year, so production is not overwhelming yet. The ripe berries each day just fit into my palm. For the most part…LOL.
Yesterday, in the midst of mass production of the scrappy centers for the “Funky” wedding ring quilt—I needed 40 more—I paused to play with some of the scraps.
And I can say this improv session was fun. And took a fairly long time as this kind of sewing is intense.
This block trimmed to 12 inches, and I can see that it needs to be much bigger in order to work in the strips with short pieces. And it needs to have funky sewn strips, not these nice neat ones.
I’m going to draw a pattern on freezer paper to use for trimming as my triangle rulers aren’t big enough. I can use my big squares to get the pattern right I think. The blog needs to be 16 to 20 inches big to allow for funky strips and additions of the little stripe strip in various places.
I’ll take this prototype apart and make the pieces bigger.
My inspiration is a quilt Maria Shell made
So, here goes another project—but I’ll put it on hold for now and get back to the “Funky” wedding ring parts that need to have their triangle pieces installed.
Betsy based this quilt on Bonnie Hunter’s Idaho Square Dance Block—but Betsy designed her own setting and borders.
Isn’t it pretty?
Enjoy, and thanks for sharing Betsy.
This quilt is a gift, but Betsy is making another version for herself now. Pictures of possible fabrics with which to surround the Idaho Square Dance block are flying to Maine now.
I’ll post the two finished quilt pictures when she is done with this second version as they will illustrate different design looks.
My quilt room looks like a bomb went off in it as there are color-coordinated piles of fabric everywhere as apparently I am working on four projects at the same time.
(1) Here are the strips for the log cabin, all cut—with two blocks organized on the right. I am using the Creative Grids 12-inch log cabin ruler for this project—which makes log cabin blocks super easy and fast to make.
I fell in love with Tara Faughnan’s Wedding Ring quilt the moment I laid eyes on it a few years ago. [Let’s face it: I’ve fallen in love with so many of Tara’s patterns now, having been introduced to her in The Color Collective (Sewtopia, Amy Newbold) three years ago.] This past spring I got as far as buying her pattern, and last week I photo copied the 10-inch versions on to freezer paper and thought I’d “just make a trial block.” Yeah. All of you quilters know how THAT goes. Here’s where I was by last night:
I’m finding it takes a lot of cutting to get started on this project—but that it is gobbling up solid scraps like mad.
The “funky” wedding ring quilt top—now a leader/ender project—is coming along. I will make it 4 blocks wide by 5 blocks (14-inch blocks) so it comes out 56 by 70. That will be a nice lap size. Previous posts cover the origin of this project for me. The block is by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston and is in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS. And I am indebted to Debbie Jeske (A Quilters Table blog) for making the block without sashing which makes it much more modern.
And here’s how Maria Shell’s “Rattlesnake” zig-zag pattern gets formed with light and dark isosceles triangles. I used Tri Rec rulers to make mine, but Maria Shell shows how to free-hand cut these triangles in her book IMPROV PATCHWORK. I love the scrappy nature of this project.
I’ve cut a lot of strips while going through solid scraps, but have put this one on hold until I get the “funky” wedding ring top off the design wall.
It’s a totally rainy day today, so it will be a lovely sewing day for me—with breaks to console AC doggie.
It started with seeing Debbie Jeske’s triangle quilt from a class she took with Alaskan quilter Maria Shell at this past year’s QuiltCon virtual (during covid) 2021 meeting—where Maria Shell also won a major award.
I am a big fan of both of these quilters.
Here’s Debbie’s quilt—which is based on Maria Shell’s “Rattlesnake” quilt—and which is on Debbie’s blog, A Quilter’s Table. Among her many workshop class offerings, Maria Shell teaches workshops on dynamic triangle quilts.
My heart started beating the minute I saw Debbie’s quilt. I pulled out Maria Shell’s book IMPROV PATCHWORK, which I have really wanted to start exploring during quilty “play” time, and reminded myself of her “Rattlesnake” quilt, which is featured in her book and in her workshop class list.
I am noticing now how Maria Shell’s triangle lines form a zig zag with her manipulation of the dark colors. Hmmm…. Flashlight! That’s the snake. I can be so dense sometimes when I get overwhelmed with pattern and color. No wonder this quilt is longer rather than wider. I’ll probably have to try this idea down the road. And I am also seeing how the side pieces to each triangle can be different dark colors, but also have some light “pop” colors thrown into the mix.
Anyway, I had an unused palette from this year’s The Color Collective, Tara Faughnan designer, for a project I couldn’t get my head around. (After 3 years and 20 projects, having only 2 projects that didn’t draw me in is an awesome record for Tara Faughnan.) I put the palette and Shell’s book and a picture of Jeske’s quilt in the “to-do play” pile until I had time to get to it.
And that happened this past week as a quilt top on the design wall got finished (“Monkey Business”) and there were several rainy days. Here’s my mostly finished top. There is one block on the far right that is too dark, so I’ll take few minutes to replace that one dark green patch today with the light green and call it a day.
The big challenge was balancing the colors. I did add the pale orange to the original palette. You would think that having 12 colors would be enough, but I really needed one more light color, and I think the orange addition was a good choice.
It will finish at 34 long by 45.5 wide—and I have absolutely no idea how I’ll quilt it. I’ll bind with the dark green, use whatever fabric in my stash that fits the back, and set it up as a wall hanging.
Amy Newbold and Tara Faughnan are going to do a season 4 of The Color Collective. I really feel like I have grown so much as an improv quilter due to The Color Collective, so likely I’ll continue this part of my quilty journey.
I took this photo Friday when I took AC doggie to chase his ball at the Snow Bowl athletic field.
I love what I think of as “soft days” here when rain or fog is around and the clouds sit lie down on the mountain tops.
I’ve been thinking off and on all day that John and I made our first trip to Camden in July 2003 and were here for the 4th and that it was this some sort of cool weekend that we have this year.
It has rained yesterday and today, and much to AC’s distress, we have not gone anywhere. And it has been “get a sweater” cool, which I so love about June in Maine. And it is a joy to see the garden and grass so happy.
I’ve sewn a lot these past two days, and the design wall is, once again, changing.
The small circle top is done, and I sewed it together and stay-stitched the edges this morning. I think I’ve found really good color placement and movement in this little top, which will be a wall hanging. I’ve organized a backing and the batting, so will put it on the longarm tomorrow to baste it. And it is now off the design wall. I’ll probably hand quilt it.
You may remember that it came from the “off-cuts” from the last project in this year’s The Color Collective—the “Tenderoni” block Latifah Saafir designed. My version is layered and basted, and I’ll start hand quilting it tonight with 12-weight cotton thread.
The triangle top I’m exploring has been inspired by Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog—after she took a class with Maria Shell at this year’s Quilt Con—The Modern Quilt Guild’s annual show. I’ve had Maria Shell’s book IMPROV PATCHWORK for a few years now and have wanted to try my hand at one of her amazing projects. Debbie Jeske’s version pushed me further along that road, so here I am.
I’m using one of the monthly color palette’s designed for a project that didn’t draw me in enough to make it. Out of 20 projects over three years, that’s a great record for The Color Collective’s design work. There are 12 colors in one of the monthly fabric palettes, and I’ve added a pastel orange to go with the pale green and pale pink. Given what develop’s in the next rows, I may add other colors, but it is a creative challenge to stick mostly to the original palette.
And likely you know the “Funky Wedding Ring” block by now from this blog. It’s coming along as a leader/ender. This project is also inspired by Debbie Jeske’s “redo” of an older “funky” block designed by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston.
I spent a fair amount of time ironing and cutting strips for all the dark grey fabrics I’ve collected for the new 12-inch log cabin I planned months ago. I had lots of light greys from the blue/grey log cabin made this winter—but I did augment and reorder some of the greys, so I ironed and cut those as well. I’ve begun making those blocks as leader/ender blocks too as I’m near the end of the Funky Wedding Ring project—which would make a really nice baby quilt I think—but I may make it a bit bigger. I never know how inspiration will strike.
The “Tenderoni” quilt top is done, layered, and basted via the longarm basting. I’m almost certainly going to hand quilt it with a 12-wt. cotton in the honey color in the quilt. The binding (the darkest red in the quilt) is here and washed—I’ll cut it this week. I’m calling it “Fractures,” and I’m really pleased with the movement in this quilt. It will be a wall hanging—30 by 42.
Latifah Saafir designed this block and chose the color palette as a guest designer for this year’s The Color Collective (Sewtopia, Amy Newbold). And it has been really interesting to see what other people made with this block.
So with “Fractures” removed, the design wall looks like this now:
The “Monkey Business” blocks are all done. I may still move some blocks later today, but I’ll sew the blocks together after I try one more move with some of the blocks at the bottom. Basically this quilt is a “sampler” quilt of Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics. As such it is fun. And I loved making the blocks. Abbey Lane Quilting designed “Monkey Business,” which appeared in Issue 22 of Simply Modern magazine. The blocks finish at 13 inches—so it will be a fun lap size quilt.
The leader/ender “Funky” wedding ring scrappy top on the left is coming along as well. The pattern is in FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston. Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog made a quilt top recently where she took out the sashing Moran and Marston used, which made the top even more modern. I’ll probably wind up with a lap size top as I don’t see my version as a wall hanging—and I’m liking having fun making this block and using up both solid and printed scraps.
The little round circles are being made from the off-cuts from the “Tenderoni” block.
I thought about moving the circles into different positions on the background block—both sideways and up and down, but when sketching it, I couldn’t make the design work in a coherent way.
There is something really pleasingly “glowy” about this fabric palette as it appears with these little circles.
And now, as we had a good soaking rain yesterday, I need to go and weed! I’m rounding the final corner of the house now.
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