Tag: Latifah Saafir

“Sunny” is Happening!

Turkey Tracks: December 2, 2021

“Sunny is Happening!”

The dark grey/light grey BIG long cabin top is done and will go on Innova next.

I bought a 108 wide backing and ordered a king batting, and I will bind with a medium grey solid.

”Calm” is a handsome quilt and has been claimed by my DIL Tami Enright, who also runs The Bee Cause, which has a Facebook page you could check out. This organization is dedicated to preserving bee habitats and to providing hives. Tami now has hives in all 50 states. Many of these hives are demonstration hives in schools and public places, so people can learn all about bees.

There was some drama while this top was still on the design wall: another chipmunk got into the house, the second one this year, and s/he appeared while I was watching nighttime tv and handsewing with AC doggie dead asleep next to me on the couch. When I shrieked, AC leapt up in a flash and trapped the chipmunk in the quilt room—where I shut the door to keep her/him in there. Unfortunately, when AC caught and shook the chipmunk, a spray of blood went across the bottom of the quilt.

What followed was a lot of soaking and blotting the spray with salt, salted water, and OxiClean spray. Finally, the blood all came out, but it took a long time. The blood, even so fresh, was very thick and very red—it was much denser than human blood. Later nurse and quilter Betsy Maislen told me that hydrogen peroxide would have taken the blood right out and would not have harmed the fabric. Good to know. Which is why I’m telling this story.

The fabrics on Innova’s roller bar are for the first project of this season’s online class hosted by Sewtopia, The Color Collective. Designer Tara Faughnan has given us a really fun and colorful “Sunny” block for this first project of the 4th season.

Here is where I am as of this morning:

I followed Tara Faughnan’s method of keeping the reds and oranges to the sunrise and adding neutrals to make the quilt lighter. I added Kona Snow and a Kona soft grey which I think maybe is Quicksilver. Sometimes it is hard to tell exactly from the fabric swatch cards I have.

BUT, I’ve seen some folks in the class using the red and oranges for backgrounds—and those blocks are awesome. I will make some of those when I am done—just because. Maybe a pillow? Maybe just blocks for the parts department bin. I never know when I start down a road like this one. Whatever, making them will be fun, and fun and play should always happen. And a quilt with all darker backgrounds would be so pretty too.

Of course this block can be used to make circles or other intriguing patterns—in that it is like “Tenderoni” the last quilt we made last year, designed by Latifah Saafir. Remember my version?

I pushed all the curved blocks together, whereas Latifah Saafir spread them out by including plain fabric blocks—which made for a beautiful, airy quilt. Maybe this could happen along with making blocks with a darker background for a small wall hanging or table runner of some sort.

Today is a rainy day! Yeah! That means sewing time for me, and all my household ”to do” tasks are done for the week—except for a quick trip to the grocery store today—mostly just to get AC out for a bit. Otherwise he ”dogs” me until we do something together.

It Was A Nice Week

Turkey Tracks: November 7, 2021

It Was A Nice Week

Today, Sunday, emerged as sunny and as cool as the rest of the past week. But I have not had a hard freeze yet.

I set the clocks back late last night, so when I awoke in the dark at my normal waking time, I turned over and went back to sleep until the clock and the sun said it was time to switch over the body clock and get out of bed. What was 6:30 am on Saturaday morning was now 5:30 am. And that meant ”no,” just ”no.” I woke again at 7:30, which was really 6:30, and so it goes for a few days. Or, longer.

The past week was busy, but easy. Monday meant an EARLY trip to Rockland to the Toyota Dealer for ”Girlie’s” first checkup and the installation of snow tires while there. Girlie is a Rav4 Prime plug-in hybrid acquired at the end of April. She plugs into the 110 volt outlet in the garage. I don’t think I’ve put even 3 full tanks of gas into her in the past 6 1/2 months. I use the gas feature when I get out on a highway, but otherwise she stays in her electric mode. And, no, my electrical bill has not risen.

I voted on Tuesday, and the referendum that interested me most was refused by the Maine voters: the building of a pipeline through Maine forest that benefitted Canada and Massachusetts and not Maine. Once shrinking wild forests are cut, they can’t really be replaced. Our Maine energy company is not American; it is foreign owned. Time for some changes there I think. And that possibility is simmering.

Friday saw AC doggie and me headed to Augusta for AC’s 3-month checkup for the Lyme infection he got. He was totally cleared, so the herbal tinctures worked. And his urine was also healthy. I’ll use up what is left of these tinctures as the ticks have been really bad this fall. His bloodwork will go to a bigger lab to make sure there aren’t any other issues. You may recall that AC reacted to his 1 year rabies booster so that he could not eat any meat protein without terrible allergic reactions that caused himto chew at himself constantly. The holistic vet in Augusta was able to stop the reactions—and we put AC on a fish diet. His favorite fish is the local farmed salmon (ugh!), but it goes on sale every 3 weeks, so I buy it then and freeze it. The next step in terms of diet may be trying some hamburger.

There was time for late afternoon quilting this week. Here’s the log cabin quilt now—it will be 8 rows square, or 96 inches—so I am getting right along with it. I will move around blocks to balance out the more dramatic fabrics before sewing blocks together.

The fabric palette on the longarm bars is from the first project from The Color Collective, season 4–a quilt designer Tara Faughnan is calling ”Sunny.” Resisting making more and more of these blocks is hard—so I’ve limited myself to making two a day and cutting out two more. LOL, I now have 4 cut out and ready to sew. But I need to get the log cabin off the design wall before setting up ”Sunny” there. And that is why my quilting is always endlessly engaging for me.

I’ve added the soft grey and Kona ”snow” to the mix in the fabric palette. I’m not exactly sure what the Kona grey is…Lighthouse maybe. Part of the joy of this project is seeing how different fabric combinations work out visually—and then how they work in the quilt when near other blocks or how they work in the overall quilt. The prepped blocks involve the darker navy and the soft lavender—in part—so then I will have used all 12 colors at least once.

The blocks can be combined in many, many ways of course. In that way, ”Sunny” is like the ”Tenderoni” block Latifah Saafir designed for last year’s guest designer project in the 7th month. Tara set her blocks like the red and pink blocks in the picture above—like rising ”suns” made with half circles. And her quilt is…Sunny…so lively and bright.

Here’s “My Tenderoni” quilt—which is very different from Latifah Saafir’s—and that is what is fun about The Color Collective. The creativity that emerges from people is just awesome.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

“Offcut Circles” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: August 29, 2021

“Offcut Circles” Quilt

I finished the scrappy wall hanging I have been making from the “offcut” quarter circles left over from the last project of this year’s The Color Collective season. The 7th and final month’s project this year was designed by Latifah Saafir. I loved her block (Tenderoni) and also loved her color palette.

I hung “Offcut Circles” at the entrance to my quilt room, opposite from its parent, the Tenderoni block wall hanging I’m called “Fractures.”

The small quarter circles in “Offcut Circles” comes from the way the small circles are cut and discarded from the Tenderoni block—replaced by a larger quarter circle that makes the math in the Tenderoni block work.

For both quilts, I quilted a grid with Sulky 12-weight cotton thread in many different colors related to the palette. You can buy this thread on small spools that cost under $2 a spool. They have plenty of thread on the spool for most projects where one wants lots of different colors. I get them from Red Rock Threads and order online.

I used the rusty dark brick color for the binding. The backing is just made from whatever I had in my stash that would fit. This time a warm paisley.

I made the circles using the template method Tara Faughnan taught us in our very first The Color Collective project in Season 1 and appliquéd them to the backing square. You know, in thinking about what I did, I don’t think I trimmed out the back of the background block after sewing down the circles. ???? I must have been resisting creating MORE CIRCLES that I would find hard to throw away.

Here’s the very first circle quilt from the very first project in season 1 of The Color Collective. I combined blocks from the first and second months.

Here’s a link to the original post about XOXO.

https://louisaenright.com/2019/04/27/turkey-tracks-xxoo-quilt/

Here’s a link to the quilts I made from the first season of The Color Collective:

https://louisaenright.com/?s=Season+1+quilts+from+the+color+collective

“Fractures” Quilt

Turkey Tracks: July 28, 2021

“Fractures” Quilt

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.

Some Cool, Sweet Days

Turkey Tracks: July 4, 2021

Some Cool, Sweet Days

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.

Enjoy the long weekend!

The Design Wall, June 26, 2021

Turkey Tracks: June 23, 2021

The Design Wall, June 26, 2021

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.

It’s Monday Again

Turkey Tracks: June 14, 2021

It’s Monday Again

Funny how Monday rolls around each week.

One thing about time, it is always moving forward.

It was a quiet weekend here, as most weekends are. I worked in the yard mostly and was too tired to sew in the late afternoon. Plus, I did something to my right foot with all the outside work, so there has been pain. And now I really need to stay off of it and let it heal. Nothing serious, just something to slow me down a bit.

So, the good news is that now I will have time to finish sewing this quilt top together.

Reminder: This year Latifah Saafir is the guest designer for Sewtopia’s The Color Collective, season 3, month 7. This “Tenderoni” block and the color palette are her design. Members of The Color Collective this year are making some really interesting quilts using this block. I got intrigued with all the shapes and patterns that can be made by keeping the blocks close together. I’m calling it “Fractures.”

I’ll call this one finished. It will be a wall hanging. I’ll bind with the dark red in the fabric palette, and I found a paisley backing in my stash that will work really well. I may grid quilt it, but I don’t know if I’ll do that by hand yet or not.

Plus, I am playing around with the discarded quarter circle pieces that arrive when the block pieces are cut. I’ll need to redo this trial one as it got itself off-center while being sewed. And maybe I’ll machine stitch it down with a tiny blanket stitch done in invisible thread—as Tara Faughnan taught us way back in the first project of Season 1. I don’t mind the hand stitching though. I suppose those choices will depend on how many circles are available from the scraps.

I had fun this weekend discovering more gardening by Mother Nature.

She planted this Kousa dogwood some years back—when facing the garage, it is on the left, just down a very steep hill. I don’t have any dogwoods, nevermind Kousas, so this tree is so fun.

AC is DELIGHTED to have one of his old balls available for play OUTSIDE. It is now living in my work tool bucket.

I throw garden refuse along the top edge of that hill, both to stabilize it and to see what might start to grow. It is always amazing to see what begins to grow there. Right now there are some wildflowers, including some orange daylilies, some Joe Pye weed, some Bishop’s Weed, and look what else just emerged in the rocky ground.

Three white Fox Glove plants. I also found two more along the driveway over by the rock wall. (Yes, I know they are poisonous for dogs, but AC doesn’t really chew at plants unless I weed and throw them for him to chase, and I won’t be doing that with these plants if by chance they get weeded.)

I was able to mow yesterday, but it got hot again so I came inside. By then my foot was saying “enough.” When it is better, I’ll finish the last two beds on the far side of the house that need massive weeding. One is almost done and the other is small.

And here we are with another week of Maine summer to enjoy!

Design Wall June 2021

Turkey Tracks: June 3, 2021

Design Wall June 2021

I’m having fun with quilt projects these days.

The design wall is full of fun.

Here’s the “funky” wedding ring block found in FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS by Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston—and also made recently by Debbie Jeske of A Quilter’s Table blog. I’ve wanted to make this block since I saw Debbie’s modern version. Two blocks are together, but I’ll leave the other parts loose until all are made. I see some already I’ll be wanting to move. And, of course, I’m using up both solid and print scraps in this project.

Here’s Debbie Jeske’s version, which I love. Note that she begins to incorporate some printed fabrics in her half-square triangles at the bottom right. I really like that touch. She has such a great design eye.

Moran and Marston pioneered modern funky blocks, which they often made and put in what they called their “parts department” bins so they would have blocks ready to use. It is always fun to go back and revisit their work.

Guest designer for the seventh and last project from The Color Collective, season 3, is Latifah Saafir. “Tenderoni” is already taking many forms as members of the collective work with the block. Here’s what I have now. I’m thinking 5 by 7 rows, but who knows if this design of mine will hold. I could expand it with insertions of plain blocks of fabric. But I’m kind of liking the “windmill” that is taking shape—and of course all the fractured “parts” of a circle.

This next block designed by Abbey Lane Quilts for Issue 22 of SIMPLY MODERN magazine is called “Monkey Business.” I thought it might work to whittle down my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics. The block is way fun to make, and I’m having such fun combining fabrics in each block and then making some sense out of where to put each block.

Abby Lane Quilts did a lap size of 4 by 5 blocks, so with a 13 inch block, that’s a nice lap size of 52 by 65.

I’m in no rush on any of these projects. It is just nice to have “play” time on the design wall.

I’ll likely get to the light grey/dark grey big log cabin later in the summer. And I’m looking forward to making it.

I heard this morning that my new longarm is coming in late July! The log cabin will be the first quilt to be quilted on it I think.

Two Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Challenges

Turkey Tracks: June 22, 2020

Two Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Challenges

We have held our last two meetings via Zoom.

It isn’t ideal, but it is vastly better than nothing. And, the Zoom meetings have meant that we can continue our progress on our current challenge: Bee Inspired. Each participant lays out what s/he wants, and other participants strive to make something creative within those parameters.

In the Zoom meetings those who are participating in “Bee Inspired” AND who were on the Zoom meeting revealed the blocks they had made for two members.

SARAH’S CHALLENGE

Sarah wanted us to make “circles and sticks,” and she did a great job of giving us color samples that would provide what she wanted, including gifting us with the shades of background greens she wanted. Here’s what a “stick” block looks like—and I am not sure which member made this one. Sarah plans to alternate the “stick” blocks with the “circle” blocks.

You can see some of the blocks we finished on the Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page. When Sarah has all the blocks, she will decide the layout, how to trim blocks, etc.

I chose to make circles, and I had a lot of fun experimenting with different circle forms. The top, yellow circle is 8 inches, and I made it with Latifah Saafir’s “The Clammy” ruler. This ruler is very nifty—and comes in various sizes. One cuts the backing as well as the circle, in two different cuts, and Saafir has videos to show one how to sew the circle into the hole created in the square. I left this piece big as Sarah, if she uses it, may want to trim it so the circle is off-center. Of course, LOL, when one cuts out the yellow circle, one has a yellow square left over with a hole in it, which begs for being used. AND a green circle left over from the green square cut, which begs to be used. It could be a never-ending process. Especially for someone who likes to use up leftovers…

One thing I found is that it is hard to find methods to make LARGE whole circles. Although I suppose that the cardboard method Tara Faughnan taught us in season 1 of the Color Collective would work, now that I think about it. And, the reverse machine applique method Irene of Sugaridoo used recently in her Bernina Quilt Along (we are now on row 8 of 12 rows) could work as well.

There are MANY circle of geese patterns online, and many are free. I saw this one from #jeliquilts on Kelly Lautenbach’s #itsjustsew Instagram gallery. She was using it for a temperature quilt where each circle has geese representing temperatures for the days in a month. Tia Curtis just recently posted pictures of Kelly’s quilt while she was quilting it. I really love this block. I was able to use four of Sarah’s blue choices to make the circle.

The purple circle on the right is, I think, 10 inches. There are all sorts of sizes of Drunken Path rulers online. And I was able to find the magenta/purples Sarah wanted from my stash.

The bottom two blocks are probably so NOT what Sarah wanted, but I had fun trying to hand cut the Drunken Path forms and then sewing them. The encouragement came from Sherri Lynn Wood’s book THE IMPROV HANDBOOK FOR MODERN QUILTERS. AND, I am getting much better at sewing free-hand curves on the machine. They are fun.

As always, I told Sarah to use or not use whatever she wants, to cut up blocks, to discard them, etc.

JAN’S CHALLENGE

Jan’s challenge was “squares.” We just did this Zoom meeting last Thursday, so these blocks are not yet up on our Facebook page. Jan received some really nice blocks, and it will be fun to see them again online and to see what Jan does with them.

Jan asked for blues and greens, with one other added color of our choice. And, we could use neutrals if we wanted.

I made her Tara Faughnan’s Radiating Log Cabin block from season 1 of The Color Collective. I chose the blues and greens and had my favorite color pop of a warm coral. Then I noticed that I was not stopping to make the blocks because I could not figure out the color order. I wanted the coral to be the center square and radiate outwards, but it was just so not working. When I switched to a softer purple, which I knew Jan liked, I was able to cut and sew the block.

I made some smaller blocks in the colors I chose so she could spread the color around if she wanted. Again, I told her she could NOT use whatever did not work for her, cut up blocks, trim them back, or whatever.

I love how these blocks came out, and it was fun to make them. Tara Faughnan’s use of this Radiating Log Cabin format makes a really handsome block.

Our next challenge reveal will be in September, so I guess I better start thinking about it.

Turkey Tracks: The Maine Modern Quilt Guild Show

Turkey Tracks:  April 8, 2018

The Maine Modern Quilt Guild Show

Two carloads of our local quilters drove over to New Gloucester, Maine, Saturday, to view The Maine Modern Quilt Guild show.  To the best of my knowledge, this guild and our Mt Battie Modern Quilt Guild are the only modern quilt guilds in the state.

We all had such a good time.  The show was wonderful, and we went home with all kinds of new inspiration bubbling in our heads.  My apologies up front to all quilters whose quilts do not show up here.  I could have taken a picture of every quilt there for sure.  Each quilt was draped over a church pew and had one corner turned so viewers could see the backing fabrics.  And I should have taken a picture of all the church pews with their quilty occupants.

Our local quilt groups (Coastal Quilters and Mt. Battie Modern) challenged ourselves to make Tula Pink’s 100 modern quilt blocks last year.  We have all set our blocks differently, but none of us thought to surround blocks with internal sashing.   I particularly like the use of different sizes of the white sashing in this quilt.  Notice the lower left block.  I had a lot of trouble squaring up these blocks, and this solution would really have helped.  I missed the number on this quilt, but by process of elimination I think it is Sandy Johnson.

Sue Duval’s quilt–more internal sashing:

Jane Hann Morey’s quilt:

Solids, made stripes, funky in places–this form is showing up a lot these days, and I love it.  The go-to designer is Maria Shell, from Alaska, and she has a new book out:  IMPROV QUILTING, which teaches how to make your own stripes and shapes and then how to use them.

Ann-Marie Schechtman:

Ellie Fellers:

Ellie Fellers, I think:

Betsy Cannan:  from a pattern by Amy Garro.  Amy Friend’s work is also similar to this quilt.

Carmen Dickinson:  inspired by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen

Clam shells:  Sharon Provost and Rose Oleksaiak (no. 12).  All three inspired by Latifah Saafir:

Carmen Dickinson, inspired by Elizabeth Hartman.  Look at the machine quilting by Betsy Cannan in this quilt.  Lovely.

Evelyn Landry:  inspired by Mary Thomas.  Love the modern colors in this quilt.  Each block uses solids and ONE patterned fabric.

Innovative courthouse block form here.  And I can’t read the name…  Sorry…

Ann-Marie Schechtman:  inspired by Stephanie Dicola:

This quilt was hanging in an adjoining room and had no attribution.

Demonstrations included foundation paper piecing and working with pearl cotton.  Isn’t this piece lovely?

And this one too.

Karen Martin bought this little zippered bag/pouch.  We loved the way the wedges were cut for the front.  Clever use of scraps.

Yes, we had a nice time.