Tag: Jen Kingwell

Turkey Tracks: The “Parts Department” Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  March 3, 2019

The Parts Department Quilts

Linda Satkowski has finished HER parts department quilt.

You may recall (see earlier posts) that these quilts began two summers ago when three of us (Linda, Becca Babb-Brott, and me) started just playing with blocks and making them for ourselves and each other—with the long-term goal of making improv quilts.  The original idea for creating a bin of “parts department” blocks that are made and can be used in quilts came from books by Freddly Moran and Gwen Marston, who encouraged constructing “funky” blocks as part of the mix.  Along the way we made Jen Kingwell’s improv quilt as part of a Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild challenge, and that helped us enormously in thinking how to piece together these “parts.”

Linda has partly hand quilted and partly machine quilted.

Becca finished her top first, and that lit the fuse.

Now the pressure is on for me.  I dragged out the parts department bin and cleared off my design wall.

Hmmm.  Doesn’t look too full.

Oh my!

And that’s not all of it.  There are piles on the cutting table sorted into “like” blocks, with space left for cutting needed fabric.

And blocks being combined in some, hopefully, intelligent and interesting way.

I actually really like this kind of play.  The block on the left is made from 8 blocks leftover from some quilt or other.  I cut them in half on the diagonal and recombined them into 4 blocks.  I could put them together in many ways, but I think this way is visually interesting.  Who knew?  And that’s the fun of play.

The pale green block in the middle on the right came from leftovers from a quilt.  I took the two blocks I had, took off the solid part of the half-square triangle and sewed the two pieced parts together.  And then sarted surrounding it with a set of pinwheel blocks.  Something will go on the left side, but I, right now, have no idea what.

Let the play begin!

Turkey Tracks: Friends’ Projects

Turkey Tracks:  January 31, 2019

Friends’ Projects

Becca has finished her traveling quilt top:  “The More I wonder, the More I love,” from as I recall Becca saying, THE COLOR PURPLE.  WOW!  Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild is going to show our Traveling Quilts to Coastal Quilters in February.  The Traveling Quilts were a two-year project where eight women worked on each quilt, and each finished quilt is amazing and wonderful.  Our next group project is “Bee Inspired” and EVERYONE in the group is participating.  You can read about that project on the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page.  The first blocks will be coming in at the Mt. Battie February meeting.

Becca, here, is backed by her developing selvage spider web quilt and is quilting her “Long Time Gone” quilt—a Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild project last year—designed by Jen Kingwell.

Lynn Vermeulen is making this strip-pieced quilt from solids, from a Timna Tarr quilt with which she fell in love.  If you have not looked at Timna’s gallery online, it’s a treat.  I love her use of saturated COLOR.

Karen Martin is workin gon the rail fence riff in batiks.  Yummy.

Karen gave me this gorgeous little pouch, and Lynn game me a glass she ETCHED (oh my) with Sip and Sew.

Tori Manzi, as always, has so many inspiring projects.  The top right is a Modern Quilt Guild mini-quilt swap, which will be finished and sent off soon.  The recipient wanted hand-dyed pink fabrics.  The foundation-pieced color-wheel circles are going to be so interesting.  And the pear block is as well.

This quilt is a gift for someone who is fond of the tv show “The Who.”  (I think I have that right.)  There is no end to Tori’s creativity.

Such fun projects!

Turkey Tracks: Linda Satkowski’s Recent Quilt Tops

Turkey Tracks:  January 18, 2019

Linda Satkowski’s Recent Quilt Tops

Well!!  Here is the SECOND improv quilt made from our “parts department” bin.  The pressure is on ME now as I have not even started mine.

To recap, Linda, Becca-Babb Brott, and I spent time two summers ago making blocks for each other, which we put into our “parts department” bins for a future improv quilt.  You can see Becca’s in an earlier post here.

Isn’t this a fun quilt?  Linda did a great job of putting these blocks together.  I am doubly daunted now.

Here’s LInda’s finished “Long Time Gone” quilt top, Jen KIngwell, designer.  Love her colors.  This quilt was a challenge for Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild last year.  You can see updates on what we are doing now on our Facebook page.

 

Here is Linda’s finished Traveling Quilt top.  Wow!!  As with mine, nine women have blocks in Linda’s quilt.  Her theme was “houses.”

Turkey Tracks: The Color Collective: Circles!

Turkey Tracks:  January 7, 2019

The Color Collective:  Circles!

I am taking a 6-month online “class” with Tara Faughnan, from Sewtopia.  The project is called “The Color Collective.”

This class is more “trouble” found by fellow quilters Becca Babb-Brott and Tori Manzi, who are also taking the class. We all signed up for 6 months and will decide on more or not at that time.

Tara Faughnan is known for her use of color—and solids.  Take a look at her quilt gallery—she is amazing:  https://www.tarafaughnan.com/home

And Sewtopia has its own web site and Instagram site:  Sewtopia.com, I think.

One gets a new block design and method each month and a selection of fabrics with which to make that project—all chosen by Tara Faughnan.  I signed up for getting half yards rather than fat quarters, and I’m already glad I did that as I have other solid-fabric projects in the works.

January’s block is these circles—and extensive instructions and on-line videos help one be successful.  While waiting for my fabrics to come, I practiced by making this little quilt out of my solid stash.  I am now totally obsessed with making these circles.  I particularly like the secondary pattern where the blocks come together.  I’ll bind in a soft grey, which I got Saturday in Belfast at Fiddlehead Artisan Supply.  I found the perfect color in Size 8 perle cotton to hand qulit a grid on the little quilt above—a soft, rose/almost salmon.  I am so happy they are carrying some of this lighter weight perle cotton.  And I’m marking lines with a Hera marker, which is working beautifully.  I just mark one line at a time.

Here are the fabrics Tara/Sewtopia chose and sent.  I’ve washed and ironed them, cut into them, and am now making circles with them.  Pics to follow in a bit.  I am champing at the bit to do more today, but also have the Traveling quilt on the long arm, so have to make myself spend time there as well.  There is a deadline for the Traveling quilt as Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild is going to show our Traveling quilts to Coastal Quilters in February.

But, aren’t these colors luscious!

Here is the block for January or February—I’m not sure which month since I just started—and the fabrics are in the mail now.  It’s foundation pieced.  Will I get obsessed with this one too?  Hard to tell yet, but at the very least I’ll make 4 and put them into my “parts department” bin.  (See earlier posts on the “parts department” project some of us started a few years back.)  Both Becca and Linda Satkowski are putting together their improv quilts from their “parts department” bins as I write.  In essence, we three made blocks enough to give the other two what we were making—and we had such fun just playing with blocks.  Making Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt helped us understand how to group blocks into an improv quilt of this kind.

 

PS:  The Traveling Quilt is OFF THE LONGARM.  Now to bind it.

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Show and Tell, November 2018, Part 2

Turkey Tracks:  November 17, 2018

Turkey Tracks:  Mt. Battie Modern Show and Tell, November 2018, Part 2

Tori Manzi took an improv class with Kristy Daum last summer, and this quilt top is the result.  Rules included choosing a color family (blue here) with light and dark representations AND a “pop” color (bright pink) AND using solids with a specified minimum number of printed fabrics.  (Daum’s web site is stlouisfolkvictorian.com)

Tori has agreed to lead us in an improv workshop one day soon to try out this process, which she says is very interesting and freeing.

During the summer three years ago Becca Babb-Brott, Linda Satkowski, and myself decided to create “parts department” blocks for a future improv quilt.  We each made blocks and make enough of each block type for each other.  (The “parts department” idea comes from improv books by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, and I’m pretty sure I blogged about making some of the blocks that summer.)

Becca raided her parts department box recently and put this quilt together.  Linda and I had so much fun seeing the blocks we made in this quilt.  We three agreed that we learned a lot about how to make this kind of quilt from doing Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt this past year.  And LInda and I agreed that we really wanted to get into our own parts department boxes this winter.

AND, this kind of project could make a viable project down the road for Mt. Battie Modern.

Anne Bargetz made this jacket in our recent “Stay Retreat.”  It’s the “Women’s Kimnono Sleeve Jacket” from shopwiksten.com.

Anne used a Cotton+Steel print for the outer jacket.  She says it is warm and toasty and that she is using it a lot.  Several members said that they wanted to make the jacket as well.

Turkey Tracks: Becca-Babb Brott’s Latest Quilts

Turkey Tracks:  October 16, 2018

Becca Babb-Brott’s Latest Quilts

Becca’s “Long Time gone” quilt top, designed by Jen Kingwell, is done.  This quilt was a challenge in our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild.  Note that Becca used a variety of neutral strips to piece her blocks together.  She is not going to add a border.

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Becca took an improv piecing class with Denyce Schmidt this past summer at Alewives Quilt Shop in Damariscotta Mills, Maine.  The quilt top emerged the other day—all finished.  It’s colorful and fun, and Becca really enjoyed the process she learned.  Denyce Schmidt’s web site is as follows:  http://dsquilts.com/

I am really intrigued by quilts made with the gorgeous solids on the market these days.  There is one in my future for sure.

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Turkey Tracks: My “ `Long Time Gone’ Cotton+Steel” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  October 9, 2018

My “ `Long Time Gone’: Cotton+Steel” Quilt

It’s done!

And it’s another quilt that has surprised me in that I really like it.

Jen Kingwell designed this improv quilt, which uses traditional block forms but in an improv setting.

I quilted with a light grey thread and “McTavished” it.  I really love the texture formed with this dense quilting method.

The backing is also a Cotton+Steel fabric.  I wanted something where the quilting would not show all that much.  A colored fabric just wasn’t working for me.  The first fabric I chose was orange (one of the big butterfly prints), and I didn’t like how the grey thread was looking on the orange.  I bound with the same backing fabric.

Here are some random pics of blocks on the front:

I like how the black and neutral fabrics are working in this quilt, which is another reason that kind of backing was better for the quilt.

 

Slater helps with everything I do.  Everything.

 

Turkey Tracks: “Long Time Gone” Challenge Quilts From September The Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

Turkey Tracks:  October 3, 2018

“Long Time Gone” Challenge Quilts From

The Mount Battie Modern Quilt Guild Meeting

Mt. Battie Modern challenged members to make Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt, starting in January 2018.  We set up a schedule to make the separate blocks and allowed enough time to put the quilt top together.  At our September meeting, quilt tops started showing up.  Each is different, and each is wonderful.  The makers really had fun with how they chose fabric for the blocks, and many makers changed Kingwell’s scrappy block format to something else.

Here is Karen Martin’s quilt top.  She chose a srappy format.  And note that her border features Kaffe Fasset “coin” fabrics.

Tori Manzi chose to use Moda’s “Grunge” fabrics.  And you can see that she had a whole lot of fun with her pineapple blocks in particular.  She is going to add a border, and we talked about what she thought she would do next.

Lynn Vermeulen’s top pieces are done, and she is sewing together the sections now.  We were able to lay it out though.  Lynn chose to use solid fabrics, and look how sparkly her quilt is.  Right now, Lynn is saying she’s going borderless.

My top is now off the long-arm, and I’ve got one more side to bind.  So, look for pics to come soon.  I used all Cotton+Steel fabrics and changed the border treatment to a piano keys format.

I’ve included a selection of blocks from various quilts to show some of the variety in the quilts.  Tori gets th eprize for altering pineapple blocks.

 

 

 

 

Becca Babb Brott is putting her quilt together now.

Betsy Maislen has been volunteering on the J&E Riggin windjammer for the past month and is off to a river cruise in Europe.  Her blocks are mostly done, and she will finish when she gets home.

Linda Satkowski is also traveling, so we will see her top soon I’m sure.

 

 

Turkey Tracks: “Long Time Gone” Top Done

Turkey Tracks:  September 19, 2018

“LongTime Gone” Top Done

I wrote this post last week as well.  I’ve since finished quilting this quilt and am sewing on binding now.  Pics to follow in a few days.

——————

Yep!  It’s been done since early September.

But as I said, I’ve been really busy.

To remind:  this quilt is “Long Time Gone,” a Jen Kingwell pattern.  This quilt was a challenge issued by the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild, and we started making blocks in January.

I did not use Kingwell’s border treatment, opting instead for the piano keys border.

The quilt is 100% Cotton+Steel fabrics, and I like it a lot.

I’ll likely get it on the long arm any day now, especially as I finally settled on a backing.  I had a backing that didn’t work with a light grey thread, which I need for the front I think.  That’s how that goes.  The discarded backing will find a new place.  And I’ll show the one I chose when I’ve finished the quilt.

 

Turkey Tracks: Creative Grids Ruler Pineapple Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  August 11, 2018

Creative Grids Ruler Pineapple Blocks

Heidi August taught me how to use the Creative Grids Ruler for Pineapple Blocks at our May 2018 retreat.  We are both working on Jen Kingwell’s “Long Time Gone” quilt—as a Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild (Camden, Maine) challenge that will end in December 2018.  This quilt calls for SIXTEEN pineapple blocks.

One needs the SMALL ruler for this project.  But I loved the ruler and the block so much that I bought the large one as well.  There is a quilt lurking in that large ruler.  Certainly there are blocks for the “parts department” that is getting big enough to try to put together a “improv” quilt.

Here are my finished blocks—with their cute fussy cut centers.