Tag: Amy Friend

My New Sewing Area

Yesterday I SEWED in my organized and (mostly) ready-to-use upstairs sewing area. I say mostly as the design wall is “in progress” and the longarm arrives February 16th.

I love having my sewing machine right in front of these windows which look out to the neighborhood. (The Plantation Shutters were installed yesterday morning, and I love them. They control light so easily, with just a touch on one slat in each panel, and are so modern and uncluttered.) It is dusk outside, but I have plenty of light for sewing with all my portable lights.

My second machine is set up on the short wall behind me, with my bulletin board above it. This machine is set up with the walking foot for installing bindings or sewing a grid onto a smaller quilt. The hallway to the big room is to the right, and a closet is further to the right on the other short wall–so more storage for the bins I have with cut strips and blocks.

To the left is the wall that will become a design wall.

I began my new sewing adventure yesterday by making the 5th row on the Traverse BOM project designed by Tara Faughnan and hosted by Sewtopia. I have the fabric for three more rows and will catch up with those first thing. Sewtopia is shipping the rest of the rows in a few weeks in one package. Getting hold of the fabrics has been hard for Sewtopia this winter.

Here are a few finished blocks in a wide row that will use two rows to make its design. I am testing to see if my blocks are perfect as the row has to measure exactly to all the other rows.

***First, before giving you more pics of the upstairs, a blog reader asked me about the quilt on the downstairs couch. It is a “Sunday Morning Quilt” finished in March 2019. The blog post is as follows: https://louisaenright.com/2019/03/10/turkey-tracks-sunday-morning-quilt/

There is a search feature on the right sidebar of my blog.

The stairs to the upstairs areas stop at a landing where I hung this quilt on the right side. This area is filled with light.

This picture is too dark, probably from the top bar of the shutters, but there is a lot of light in this space. This picture shows the truer colors in this quilt–which I designed some years back in a class taught by Amy Friend.

There is a long wall flanking the right side of the walkway into the larger “game room” area where the longarm will live when it arrives on the 16th. There are blog posts on all of these quilts. The quilt on the far left is made from a block and fabric palette created by Latifah Saafir as guest designer for The Color Collective. The quilt on the right in an improv method designed by Tara Faughnan for The Color Collective. The “four season” quilts in the middle were inspired by Sarah Fielke in the book by Sarah and Kathy Doughty, MATERIAL OBSESSIONS 2.

The “game room,” which is dark, is next. The longarm will go here. To the left is a closet and beyond it the utility room that houses the ac/heating systems. All three quilts represent work done in The Color Collective seasons.

On the opposite wall I set up the serger, and there is a bookcase flanked by storage units that store items that will be needed in this room. The longarm is coming with an overhead light bar that will help with light in this room. The New York Beauty quilt is my design, and the diamond quilt is a smaller version of a quilt designed by Tara Faughnan in The Color Collective. The larger version is hanging in the downstairs hallway.

The hallway door on the left is a closet that houses my fabric stash and beyond is my sewing room.

I’ve been working hard in the last few years to whittle down my stash, and it all fits easily into this closet. The top right shelf on the right is filled with projects I need to make but have not started.

There is a very nice bathroom opposite this closet.

I brought the very comfortable queen blow-up bed with me, and it will be easy to set it up in the sewing room if I have overflow guests. There is the downstairs guest room, and the grey couch in the tv/sitting room is a queen sofa bed, but more privacy would be available for a guest upstairs.

So, there you have it–a tour of the sewing digs.

Modern Quilt Guild “QuiltCon” Show Winners

Turkey Tracks: February 20, 2021

Modern Quilt Guild “QuiltCon” Show Winners

This yearly show and celebration of modern quilts is taking place now, and this post arrived in my email this morning.

How fun to see that many of my favorite quilters were recognized this year: Maria Schell, Shawn Kimber, Amy Friend, and Tara Faughnan among them. This post contains links to others being recognized, like the link to modern log cabin quilts which features a log cabin quilt by Tara Faughnan.

http://frame.bloglovin.com/?post=7881340951&blog=3409670&frame_type=none

Additionally, Debbie at A Quilter’s Table’s blog post today shows the quilts she entered into the show.

https://aquilterstable.blogspot.com/2021/02/quiltcon-together-my-quilts.html

Enjoy!

Turkey Tracks: Amy Friend is Coming to Coastal Quilters

Turkey Tracks:  February 22, 2020

Amy Friend is Coming to Coastal Quilters

We love quilt designer and teacher Amy Friend.

She has a new book out and is coming to Coastal Quilters for a workshop in mid March to teach us about projects in the book.  She was teaching this past week at the Modern Quilt Guild’s “Quilt Con,” where she debuted this new book.

I can’t wait to see it!

Beautiful Petal + Stem Aurifil Thread Collection

Turkey Tracks: Improv Inspiration

Turkey Tracks:  February 6, 2020

Improv Inspiration

When I’m stressed, I feel soothed when I am doing something with my hands.

Here’s what happened while the Impeachment process raged:

These blocks were inspired by our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild’s challenge “Bee Inspired”—which itself was inspired by the quilters who make up the “Bee Sewcial” improv project.  (You can see their work on Instagram and the blocks for each completed prompt on Mt. Battie MQG projects on Facebook.)

My prompt turn will not come around until next November, but I had a workshop with Amy Friend on foundation piecing curves this fall.  And, I have two books which I love and used to play with making these blocks.  Nicholas Ball’s INSPIRING IMPROV and Sherri Lynn Wood’s IMPROV HANDBOOK FOR MODERN QUILTERS.  I have specified solids with clear colors—though some of the colors above are darker than I specified.

Yesterday I made myself take my sample blocks off the design wall.  But between now and November I can’t guarantee that I won’t return to this kind of play again.  It is kind of interesting that my prompt does come in November…

I have returned to putting binding on two finished quilts, setting up the Galactic and Gumdrops projects for The Color Collective online class I’m taking, and finishing up making blocks out of extra materials left over from other projects.  More on that later.

Here’s what’s on the design wall now:  Then Came June’s Checkered Garden Quilt made from leftover solids as a leader/ender project.

The blocks are 14 inches.  I don’t know.  I think this one needs to be 5 blocks by 6 blocks (70 by 84).  Right now it’s 56 by 56.  Thinking on this…   Hmmm.  4 by 5 would be 56 by 70.  That’s a good lap size too.  Will try that next.

And of course I’m still moving blocks around…

 

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Sewing Projects, November 2019

Turkey Tracks:  November 7, 2019

Sewing Projects, November 2019

Winter is my intensive sewing time.

The bed is the bedroom next to my quilting room is my project staging area when the longarm holds a quilt.  On the bed there’s a finished quilt top and its backing and binding fabric all set to go when the longarm is empty again.  There are garments—saved to sew in winter.  And, all sorts of other projects, from an EPP project, to The Color Collective blocks, to my own inventions.

Here’s what my design wall looks like now.  The top blocks are meant to use up the solids acquired for The Color Collective projects.  The 14-inch block is from Then Came June’s Checkered Garden Quilt, and I’ve written posted about it before now.  It’s a leader/ender project from Bonnie Hunter’s method.  The big blocks below it are the 20-inch Radiating Log Cabin blocks from Tara Faughnan’s The Color Collective Season 1, hosted by Amy Newbold of Sewtopia.

To the right are various projects—to include just playing with shapes with ideas garnered from a workshop with Amy Friend (curved foundation piecing) and from Nicholas Ball’s new book INSPIRING IMPROV, which I high recommend.

I think there is a flying geese project in the making, done with 6” wide blocks and bright colors.  And the Jen Kingwell “Glitter” blocks are ongoing and will probably wind up in an improv quilt.

Below, hidden are the improv bird blocks I’m making off and on.

My quilting life is very rich I think.

I’ve moved blocks around and around below, but I think I like this arrangement, so will sew it together later today. L Then I have to decide if it is a 60-inch wall hanging or a lap quilt AND how on earth to quilt it.  Hand or machine, for starters.

The “shapes” blocks are fun.  I’m going to cut the teal blue/green block on the right in half and see what develops.  These blocks will go into my Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild “prompt” quilt where other members will make blocks for me as well.  But, my turn will not come up until NEXT November as there are many of us in this challenge.  So there is plenty of time to play with shapes and clear colors over the year.

My Cotton+Steel “Slopes” quilt from Amanda Jean Nyberg is on the long arm now.  I quilt until I get tired, then stop and play with other projects.  It all gets done.

The winterizing outside is DONE, so it’s time to move into my winter sewing in earnest.  And we may get SNOW tomorrow.

I love the change of seasons and enjoy each and every one.

Turkey Tracks: Changing Fabric Tastes

Turkey Tracks:  March 22, 2019

Changing Fabric Tastes

Back in the day when I first started quilting, I used dark, intense colors.  That’s what was in the market in the 1990s.  And they were beautiful.

I also used traditional patterns, where blocks, when put together, formed internal, secondary patterns—like strings of little colored squares all lined up in diagonal rows.  Traditional patterns, I think, are much like the intersecting interactions of a community—where the whole is made from the intersections.

Here’s a favorite from some years back—a Bonnie Hunter pattern, “Narragansett Blues,” which can be found in MORE ADVENTURES IN LEADERS AND ENDERS.

Here’s another, showing the use of dark, rich colors.

But something happened to my fabric “tastes” over the last five or so years.  I found brights, low-volume neutrals, and whimsical fabrics.  I also found all the greys—down to deep charcoal colors.  And English Paper Piecing with its intricate blocks.

Many of my quilts still have internal secondary patterns—I do love that effect—but many now also have stand-alone blocks, each an individual feature in a matrix of surrounding cloth and other individual blocks.  So, now, in some forms of modern quilting, the individual blocks form a community in the quilt, but one made up of separate individuals.

Look at this pile of quilts, all made in recent years.  They are VERY different from my older quilts.  (The dog is different too.)

Here are two completed EPP projects.

Here’s the charcoal I love, but the stars are low-volume Cotton+Steel.  The internal patterns (see the dark fans) are just…different than a traditional quilt.  (This one is my design, made from a workshop with Amy Friend of the blog During Quiet Time.)

I still love Bonnie Hunter’s patterns, but now I use brights and low-volume to construct them.

And grey:

And, oh my goodness!!!  Look what’s happening now.  Solids!!  Drenched intense color, yes, but very different patterns.

And the journey continues…

Turkey Tracks: “Cool” Selvage Quilt Finished

Turkey Tracks:  July 20, 2018

“Cool” Selvage Quilt Finished

Summer is a busy, busy family and garden time for me.  So I have not posted to the blog as a result.

Still, I have had some time to sew.

I finished the selvage quilt I’ve worked on off and on for about a year.  I chose the “cool” colors–and love this quilt so much that I will make it again in the “warm” colored selvages I have collected.  I have LOTS of those now.  I might make it a bit bigger too since I like it so much.  Who knows.

I enlarged the block size from Amy Friend’s “Circuitry” quilt, found in her INTENT

IONAL PIECING.  And I used patterned fabrics around the selvage parts of the block rather than more subtle fabrics.

I quilted with a light grey t40-weight hread (Signature) and tried the McTavishing style of quilting.  I was really, really not sure I would like McTavishing as I spent four nights drawing on paper to try to get the scale bigger than one might do on a domestic machine.  I have to say that I really love the texture.  As I went along, I got more proficient AND I got braver about filling in open spaces.  I can’t wait to McTavish again.

I chose this Cotton+Steel fabric for the backing because I’ve always loved it and got a really good price for it on Amazon, via fabric.com.  This fabric is an older one, so I was lucky to find it.  And I figured any problems I created with the quilting would not show so much on the back.

My intent was to make this quilt a functional, washable quilt for, maybe my bedroom, where Penny tends to lick herself and leave spots.  But, for the moment, here it is:

You can see along the bottom where my McTavishing was more tentative, leaving lots of space.

Can’t wait to make “Warm.”

Turkey Tracks: The Coastal Quilters’ 2018 Mothers’ Day Retreat, Part 4

Turkey Tracks:  May 21, 2018

The Coastal Quilters’ 2018 Mothers’ Day Retreat, Part 4

 

Jan Corson’s “Stained Glass” quilt, which is her own design.  It’s foundation pieced and came out of a workshop with Amy Friend on IMPROV PAPER PIECING, from that book.

Lynn Vermeulen worked on this top, but also on one of the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild’s traveling quilts, which will have another “reveal” next Thursday.  (We can’t wait.)  And she worked on her Long Time Gone blocks, where she is using solids.

Becca Babb-Brott got this big hexie top together.  She is going to hand quilt it with pearl cotton.

And she played with making some curves.  Wow.  I really like what she is doing here.  She is also working on another spider web/selvage quilt.

Here is Vicki’s newest project, being made for a young family member.  I love this block and its colors.  They shimmer in the light.

Vicki also got borders on her EPP hexie quilt.  How fun to see it finished.

Linda Satkowski and I are both working on Bonnie Hunter’s “Wild and Goosey” blocks.  Linda’s are on the left.  We were sharing a design wall for a bit when this picture was taken. You can see some of mine on the right.  I’ll post more info on what I did at the retreat in a separate post.

 

 

Turkey Tracks: “Winter: Dawn Trees” quilt

Turkey Tracks:  May 8, 2018

“Winter:  Dawn Trees” Quilt

This quilt is my own design, and I really love the way it came out.  I am a bit fixated on winter trees anyway, and, also, on the amazing Maine winter dawn light that coats the earth with a marmalade color that I love.  Winter in Maine is, actually, very colorful.  I chose the purple of the trees based on the purple shadows that appear over the snow in winter.

The quilt started in a workshop with Amy Friend (blog:  during quiet time) that used her newly issued book IMPROV PAPER PIECING.  I drew the three blocks on what was then EQ7.  I have since upgraded to EQ8.  (The other quilt that came out of that workshop was a big star made with Cotton+Steel fabrics–see below and see an earlier blog post).

Right now the quilt is hanging in my quilt room–which is a bit messy as I’m packing for a weekend quilty retreat.

Sarah Fielke’s “The Seasons” in the book she co-authored with  Kathy Doughty:  MATERIAL OBSESSION 2.

I also have a bare trees pattern designed by Carolyn Friedlander which I may start next winter.  I love the pattern.

Here’s the Cotton+Steel Big Star Quilt:

Amy is a marvelous teacher, and the way she teaches her students how to design their own patterns is…wonderful.  And surprisingly easy.

 

Turkey Tracks: April 2018 Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks:  May 2, 2018

April 2018 Quilty Update

“Winter:  Dawn Trees” is now sewn together and is being quilted–with a grid pattern on my domestic Janome 8900.  This quilt is my design, inspired by Amy Friend’s workshop and book, IMPROV PAPER PIECING.  I drew the three different blocks on EQ7 (now EQ8) and had that system print out the patterns.  I started with ALL tree blocks lined up in a traditional pattern of rows and rows–until after the workshop.  Then I put them into a more “modern” arrangement.  I really like the quilt and will post pics when it is totally finished, which won’t be long now.

Thanks Amy!!

Here is an EQ8 picture of what the quilt would have looked like if I had not added the fractured dawn light block and just lined up the trees.  Pretty, but not as interesting I think.

The main part of top of “Valse Brilliant” is done.  I’m now picking out the English Paper Piecing papers–at night while watching tv.  It’s a slow process, of course.  VB, as those of us doing it in Coastal Quilters Maine call it, comes from Willyene Hammerstein’s book MILLIFIORE QUILTS.  (I did not do WH’s border treatment.)  My “rules”–setting rules comes from workshops with Timna Tarr–were simple:  brights and text in every block.

I’m going to put some wide charcoal Essex Linen (blend) borders.  Right now, this quilt is not big enough, really, to be lap size.  The border fabric is washed, but NOT ironed yet.

Here are my monthly blocks for our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild challenge to make Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt.  It’s an improv type quilt.  I am using all Cotton+Steel.  Roxanne Wells gave me the idea of using the more formal quarter log cabin style to get stripes, and I like how that came out.  The courthouse step blocks started out being blue, green, and pink/red done in ombre, light to dark.  Then I decided I liked them mixed up better, so put all the darks together, all the mediums, and all the lights.

Here are my May blocks.  Yes!!  I am ahead now and have all of May to catch up with other projects.

Here’s what all my blocks look like now.  I’m really liking how they are going together.

And here is a reminder of what Long Time Gone looks like: