Tag: Bonnie Hunter

Playing With The Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society Stash

Turkey Tracks: February 2, 2022

Playing With the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society Stash

I’ve had so much fun making this quilt. It’s a ”Pot-Pourri” of Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics—all in my stash.

It’s ”eye candy” for a child I think. And for me, apparently.

It’s been quilted now, and the binding is on and getting sewn down at night. Can I just say it is yummy to have on one’s lap. And this one is meant to be dragged around and loved and washed and USED.

Here’s the backing—again pieced from my stash. I lost the bottom green strip in the quilting. It’s ok.

AND I’m making a baby quilt with the Churn Dash block, which still ranks as my favorite. OK, the Radient Beauty block is also a favorite.

I started these blocks before Bonnie Hunter launched into making them as well. I was inspired by her making then ”scrappy” though. And I’m wondering how she will set hers.

I like they way these blocks look butted up to each other. The secondary pattern is interesting. BUT, one would have to plan to sew the seams so they will nest—so that is hard with scrappy blocks that get moved around before finding their permanent homes.

So, I am setting mine with narrow sashings and corner stones. I have no idea about what binding will work.

Today and tomorrow will be RAINY—on top of 18+ inches of snow. And on Friday, our temps will drop again and we will get more snow.

It is winter.

All my cleaning/laundry jobs are done for the week. There is some cooking to do today. What I thought was a small leg of lamb was actually a shoulder piece—which I realized after I roasted it yesterday and after trying to slice off the meat around the central bone—so there will be a broth made today to be used in a soup or stew. And maybe I’ll take a ride in the car so AC can get out for a bit. He’s not getting nearly enough exercise.

I mailed a baby quilt yesterday. So, more on that quilt after it arrives at its forever home.

Elvira Quilt Done

Turkey Tracks: September 23, 2020

Elvira Quilt Done

This quilt is a very different kind of quilt for me. But I have enjoyed the challenge of using these BIG blocks.

Gudrun Erla made this pattern available last winter for free some time as a way to join people together during the virus lockdowns. I liked the movement of the slashes that run through each block. I stood back and watched Bonnie Hunter take off with this project, then I dove into it.

I had fun just pulling these vivid pieces of fabric out of my stash and just letting everything roll along from row to row. Obviously, this quilt is a huge stash buster.

I pieced the backing, but it is mostly this purple fabric below. The rest of the backing is a coordinating magenta that you can see in the above picture in the second from the last row to the right. The big sun quilting doodling I did came from the backing fabric.

I really enjoyed this quilting. It was relaxing and fun—which is not usually the case for me as longarm quilting is my least favorite part of the quilting process.

I think this block would lend itself to coordinating fabrics—and I am especially thinking of baby quilt fabrics that I have in my stash. So don’t be surprised to see this block show up on this blog again.

There is a fat quarter version, and here is Gudrun’s web site and links to this pattern. She has a special ruler as well as instructions for not using the ruler—which I did.

https://gequiltdesigns.com/search?type=product&q=Elvira

Turkey Tracks: Self-Distancing Days

Turkey Tracks:  March 28, 2020

Self-Distancing Days

I hope this finds you all doing well.

I am doing fine.  Here are some recent pics from recent days.

I finished these two knit tops—the fabric was bought last spring and has been sitting in the garment pile.  The brown sweater is the Sew House Seven Toaster Sweater, version 2.  I made several tops from an earlier Simplicity pattern, 8529, that is this same idea.  Sew House, though, incorporated some really nice finishing touches, which makes the “boat” top much nicer.  The sleeve is more sleek in that it does not have a cuff.  BUT, the brown version was not as long as the Simplicity, and I liked that longer length.  So, I made the blue version longer and dramatically longer in the back.  It fits like a dream.

This knit dress is next in line and ready to go.  It’s the Caroline Out and About Knit dress from Sew Caroline.  My first version was made in a grey jersey—and I did some altering where the bodice meets the skirt.  I’ve incorporated that knowledge into the pattern—along with raising the location of the pockets.  We’ll see how this goes.  I love the grey dress, so suspect I’ll love this one too.

If the above project goes well, then I’ll cut into this EXPENSIVE organic cotton and repeat the dress there.

Finishing the olive knit dress will leave one more garment to make.  A summer rayon batik dress.  Then I WILL BE CAUGHT UP on purchased garment fabrics.  I am wondering if I can get a summer knit top with leftovers from the brown or blue strips.  But…that will be play.

Here are quilts all ready to be quilted.  The box of thread is Wonderfil’s GalMour, which is a rayon metallic thread that should just be wonderful in the top quilt, Galactic.  I started down that path after seeing what this quilt’s designer used—Tara Faughnan for The Color Collective.

Here’s the design wall at the moment.  The right hand project is Gudrun Erla’s quilt project, Elvira.  I’ve never made a quilt with BIG pieces of fabric, and I have no idea if I will like or dislike or finish this one.  There is something catchy about it though, and it is certainly a stash buster.  Bonnie Hunter did a version which you can see on her blog.  Getting the diagonal line installed was easy after all the 60 degree long cabin blocks I’ve been making with The Color Collective projects, as in the smaller ones on the left of the design wall.  The middle project is “Gumdrops” from The Color Collective, an English Paper Piecing project.

 

 

AC and I have been out every day.  Here are some recent videos of a walk in some nearby woods.  Listen for the wind in the trees—it was just roaring yesterday.

 

Turkey Tracks: I DID IT!!!

Turkey Tracks:  December 26, 2019

I DID IT!!!

On Christmas Day I met a friend with a dog for a super pleasant hour of exercise for all involved.  It was cold enough that the dog park mud was frozen.  Others came, the thrown balls bounced high and traveled far, and the dogs and people were all happy to spend this time together.

I came home, had a nice lunch, and…started my planned Christmas Day project.  In between I talked with various family members via Facetime.

With the help of a terrific video, I took apart my Brother 1034D serger, cleaned it, greased it, CHANGED THE KNIVES, changed the needles, and rethreaded it.

I had some trouble at the end with getting the thread on one of the loopers right, but this morning…

PERFECTION!

And now I understand EXACTLY how that looper threading works.

That serger is running like a dream!  The new knives made all the difference—and the lubrication and cleaning, well, the thing is running super smooth.  Now to make the knit garments I have stockpiled for winter sewing.  PLUS, I’ve realized I don’t have to take EVERYTHING apart just to change the knives.  But, cleaning this machine thoroughly may become a Christmas project yearly.

Here’s the very helpful video, and I had a lot of fun assembling the products this generous woman uses for this project.

Look what’s on the longarm today—Bonnie Hunter’s Wild and Goosey block is now in a quilt.  This one has been a LONG project—two or three years all told, off and on.  Many, many, many hours have been used in getting all these blocks done and into a quilt.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

And all my best to everyone for 2020 and beyond.

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild October 2019 Stay Retreat

Turkey Tracks:  November 3, 2019

Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild October 2019 Stay Retreat

It was fun.

A Stay Retreat means those who can’t travel elsewhere for various reasons can quilt for two days at our local Lions Club alongside other Mt. Battie Modern QG or Coastal Quilters members.

A Retreat offers a time for intensive sewing where projects can be finished while sharing time and projects with other quilters.

I finished the top of this YEARS LONG project:  a quilt made from Bonnie Hunter’s Wild and Goosey quilt block—an intense foundation pieced block that is fun, but time consuming to make.  Look at all those tiny, tiny pieces

I like how the neutral border came out—a light grey binding will stop the eye and the light border holds the quilt middle nicely.  Thanks Betsy Maislen for this idea.  I like, too, the bits of color in the neutrals.

This block can look very, very different in other hands—like Linda Satkowski’s.  Her quilt with carefully chosen colors and a darker background is so handsome.  She has been my quilting companion during this long, long project—for both of us.  At this retreat she is sewing rows together—I think there will be 7 or 8 rows.

I have a very cool backing for this quilt—again thanks to Betsy Maislen who found it summer before last and brought me a fat quarter of it.

I have the Slopes quilt top on the longarm now—from Amanda Jean Nyberg’s NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND.  Mine is made from Cotton+Steel fabrics—the dark colors, not neutrals—collected over past years.

Turkey Tracks: “Parts Department Party” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  May 28, 2019

“Parts Department Party” Quilt

It’s done!

And I really love it…

To refresh your memories, as I’ve been posting about this project for some time now, about four summers ago, Becca Babb-Brott, Linda Satkowski, and I decided to spend some of the summer “playing” with blocks and making enough to share with each other.  We all threw the blocks we made and that were given to us by each other into a bin we each called “the parts department”—following the work of Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston, who pioneered the idea of making fun blocks that would be ready to use when needed.

Both Becca and Linda put together their “improv” parts department quilts this year, so I knew the pressure was on.  It took me a long time to get this quilt together because I had lots and lots of “parts” that needed to be sewn into something useful—like the black/pink stars in the border (made from bonus triangles from a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt one year) or the broken dishes blocks in the border, or the flying geese formations, and so on.  And on, and on, and on…   I had a LOT of “parts”—too many to work all of them into this quilt, which is actually pretty large.  You know what that means…  There will be more play with fun blocks and another improv quilt down the road.

I really like the Carrie Bloomston “newsprint” 108-wide backing and the striped border—an idea I’ve seen used often on the Red Pepper Quilts blog.  And I quilted with Anne Bright’s Simple Feathers pantograph, which I like and use a lot.  I just wanted to lay down an overall curvy pattern.

Here are pics of parts of this quilt—which contains so many memories of parts of other quilts, of gift blocks from Becca and Linda, and of fabrics I’ve used and loved:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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: “Absolutely Colorful” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  January 5, 2019

“Absolutely Colorful” Quilt

Here is the second quilt gifted to two local sisters (7 and 9) this Christmas.  They are the great grandaughters of a dear friend, Linda McKinney.  AC Slater likes to pose on quilts.

The block is Bonnie Hunter’s “Garlic Knot.”  And the setting with the little crosses in the sashing is also Bonnie Hunter’s design.  Bonnie did a more elaborate piano keys border than I have here, but my center is busier I think.  The block formations would be more graphic is I had used plainer low-volume setting fabrics, but I like all the more complicated low volumes we have these days.

I used this backing once before in the darker grey with turquoise.  It’s Cotton+Steel.

How cute is this backing???

Turkey Tracks: “Serendipity: Scrappy Surprise” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  January 5, 2019

Serendipity:  Scrappy Surprise Quilt

I had such fun making this quilt.  It was gifted to one of two sisters here in Camden, Maine.  The other sister’s quilt follows in a separate post.

Both Bonnie Hunter and Victoria Findlay Wolfe “play” with “making” fabric.  The center of this block is made from my crumb scraps—sewn on to 4 1/2-inch newsprint weight paper.  I worked in faces, animals, and fun images when I could.  These block centers were a leader/ender project for a long time.

I learned to make the other square from one of Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilts.  Celtic Soltice, maybe.  One uses the Companion Angle Ruler, but positions the top above the strip of fabric to get the wider cut of the square.   The small triangles were cut with the Easy Angle ruler.  (Bonnie Hunter has a combo ruler that combines the functions of these two rulers.) The rest of the block is my design.  And I particularly like the formation of the 9-patch between the block corners and the sashing.

Fellow Camden quilter Becca Babb-Brott (Etsy store Sew Me A Song) helped me pick out the sashing fabric—and this fabric, which I’ve had for 3 or more years now—was probably my first walk into “modern” fabrics and brighter colors.

I adore this backing.  It’s got a black cat, fanciful houses, but also chickens and hedgehogs and so forth.  It’s perfect for this quilt.

Turkey Tracks: This One’s Ready to Sew Together

Turkey Tracks:  October 27, 2018

This One’s Ready to Sew Together

This scrappy quilt is my own design.  I’ve been working on it for some time now.  I bought the sashing material from Becca Babb-Brott at least three or four years ago.  (Becca has the Etsy store, Sew Me A Song.)

The 4 1/2-inch block centers are “made” fabric from my smaller scraps.  Both Bonnie Hunter and Victoria Findlay Wolfe “make” fabric in this way.  Along the way I began adding in some novelty fabrics to sprinkle throughout the quilt.

I used the Companion Angle ruler to cut the flying geese—but in a novel way to get the top flat edge—which I learned from Bonnie Hunter while making one of her mystery quilts—the Italian-inspired one I think, Allietore.  I used the Easy Angle ruler for the flying geese small triangles.  And all pieces were cut from 2-inch strips.

 

I’ve got the cutest backing for this quilt, and I can’t wait to longarm quilt it.  That day is coming up fast now.  I’m not sure what I’ll use for binding yet.  I might use either the sashing or the backing fabric to bind.  The quilt has not told me what it wants yet.