Tag: NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND

Turkey Tracks: Cotton+Steel “Slopes” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  December 21, 2019

Cotton+Steel “Slopes” Quilt

It’s finished, and I love it.

The design is by Amanda Jean Nyberg in her book NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND.

I used all Cotton+Steel fabrics.  (They are now Ruby Star Society and released their first collection under a new manufacturer last August.)

See the little row near the top of small solids, which are not C+S.  Nybeg’s “Slopes” is made from solids, so her inclusion of this little row stands out more than mine.  Still, it’s kind of a cute surprise when your eye lights on it.

The backing and binding are also Cotton+Steel.

Here are some close-ups of these fun, often quirky, delightful fabrics:

One of my favorite fabrics is the one of bears.  And here you can see the little row of solid squares.

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: How Many Ongoing Project Are There?

Turkey Tracks:  March 4, 2019

How Many Ongoing Projects Are There?

Some of stopped sewing long enough to count up ongoing projects we’ve started.

1.

I was in pretty good shape until I got involved in Sewtopia’s Color Collective project with blocks and solids designed by Tara Faughnan.  (Amy Newbold owns and runs Sewtopia.)  For heaven’s sake, google “Tara Faughnan quilts” and you will be blown away, as I was.  She works in saturated color and solids.  (Tarafaughnan.com)

The first month’s block was the circle; the second, the cross.  I combined them as clearly I got obsessed and couldn’t stop making them.  Note the two projects at the top of the design wall.

This top is done now, and I absolutely love it.  I’ve found, in my stash, a backing I like a lot, and I will buy a binding.  I’m thinking of doing some hand qulting with size 8 pearl cotton.  Here is the top all together.  It glows.

2.

Above the big project on the right is a row of 14-inch blocks, made using scraps from the solid projects and from my solid stash. I saw this block used in a quilt made by Then Came June called “Checkered Garden Quilt” and using Alison Glass bright fabrics in the Road Trip line.  I fell in love with it.  (Here is a picture: https://thencamejune.com/products/road-trip-checkered-garden-quilt.)  This block has been called “part Trip Around the World,” part “Granny” block.

Here’s the next block cut out and ready to go and waiting in the adjacent bedroom—sitting atop my Traveling Quilt.

3.

Above left is the start of the “Slopes” quilt by Amanda Jean Nybery of Crazy Mom Quilts.  The book is NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND.  I am cutting the dark Cotton+Steel fabrics—a few a day—for this quilt.  I’m using leftover 1 1/2-inch blocks combined with leftover solid pieces for the row of “little” pieces near the top of the quilt.  I might do more than one of these rows.  Who knows?  Not me.

4.

I have a bird quilt project going and have made three of the big blocks and one of Jen Kingwell’s “The Avenue” of trees blocks.  I’ve been saving bird fabric for several years, but I’m choosing only the artist-types for this quilt.   I want to use in an improv style.

The 9-inch tree block is bigger visually than I thought for some reason.  Inspired by Tori Manzi’s recent tree blocks on our Mt Battie “Bee Inspired” project, I’ll probably group these in lines and make them in seasonal colors.  This one would be “spring.”

The I’m thinking this will look like a MUCH BIGGER version of this little quilt I made in a Timna Tarr workshop.

5.

My Sunday Morning Quilt is done and getting its binding.  Cheryl Arkison is the designer, and it’s in the book she did with Amanda Jean Nyberg called SUNDAY MORNING QUILTS.  The thread color I ordered arrived.  My go-to grey just didn’t work well on the backing.  This quilt is the “cool” to the “warm” herringbone quilt I finished not long ago, designed by Victoria Findlay Wolf and in her delicious book MODERN QUILT MAGIC.  See previous blog posts for that quilt.  Both of these quilts are LUCIOUS!  And both are totally Cotton+Steel low volume fabrics.

 

6.  My “Wild and Goosey” quilt is once again on the back burner.  Bonnie Hunter designed the block.  I have all the sashing cut, and the design I want to do for it all planned.  I’m sure I’ll need more of the little blocks though.

7.

Right now I am working on the “parts department” improv quilt.  See the earlier post on this quilt project.

8.

There is the EPP “36-Ring Circus” project.  This one is slow as there is a big learning curve.  That’s ok.

9.  There are more pillows from a method shown by Anna Graham of Noodlehead projects (HANDMADE STYLE) in the works.  This project is one of two from Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild.

10 and 11.

There are TWO blocks to make as part of the Color Collective class.  The fabric for the first one is all washed and ready to go.

12.

Here are the FIRST blocks for the Mt Battie Modern Quilt Guild’s challenge “Bee Inspired.”  These blocks were made for Donna Strawser, whose prompt was “Mid-Coast Maine.”  You can see the individual blocks better on the Mt. Battie Facebook page or on Instagram.  Thirteen quilters each made one of these blocks for Donna, and she made one for herself, so 14 blocks.  Mine is the white winter birch trees at dawn.  Tori Manzi made the four trees at the bottom, by season.  They really need to be seen lined up together, a you can on FB or IG.  Donna will now set these blocks into a quilt and will bring it back to show us at some point.  I will need to make a block for our next Bee Inspired event in April:  “Dark and Light” for Vicki Fletcher.

I really, really loved this block I made and might do another version for one of the pillows:

13.  I am gathering bits for a Rice Bowl bag or two.  See earlier post, but the designer is kzstevens and the pattern is in her Etsy store.

14.  I want to make a little sewing folder like friend Megan Bruns showed me the other day.

So…

That list is not actually too bad.  In any case, I’m having so much fun, even though I’m not getting as much time as usual, due to the needs of my boyfriend, AC Slater, who will be 1 year next month.  He’s a crazy man and has me visiting the dog park daily, as the snow and ice are pretty risky on the wood paths.

Turkey Tracks: Clue 5 and Quilty Play Time

Turkey Tracks:  December 28, 2017

Clue 5 and Quilty Play Time

I finished Clue 5 yesterday.

The pile of units is looking healthily large:

I will be interested to see how my colors will work in this mystery quilt, “On Ringo Lake,” by Bonnie Hunter.

Instead of working on the LAST THREE blocks of the big star quilt…based on my design from Amy Friend’s Improve workshop and her book IMPROV PAPER PIECING…

…I played.

I think it is really important to have play time with sewing.

And, like many quilters, I have the ongoing battle of using scraps so as not to waste too much fabric.  Plus, I like scrappy looks in a quilt.

I pulled out some old blocks–because I wanted to see how the very modern fabric I chose for their sashing would actually work with these blocks.  The blocks are a riff on Bonnie Hunter’s “Nine in the Middle,” from her ADVENTURES WITH LEADERS AND ENDERS.  Instead of the 9-patch middle, I am using “made fabric.”  The sashing fabric came from Rebecca Babb-Brott’s Etsy store, Sew Me A Song.

I like it.  I like, too, the neutral block.  I have A LOT of neutral scraps, so will kind of dot those around this quilt like polka dots.  I will use colored squares on most of the neutral centers.  The all-neutral one is a bit stark.

We learned in one of Bonnie’s mysteries, to use the Companion Angle ruler to cut the big triangle in the outer block.  With a 2-inch strip, one can line up on the 4-inch line so as to get the top of the triangle cropped off.  This technique would combine with the Easy Angle ruler for the outer triangles.  No waste that way.  You could also use the new corner cutting ruler and lay a 2-inch square over a rectangle and cut.  More waste, though.  And, of course, Bonnie always shows how to draw a line on a small square, lay it over the rectangle, and sew a scant seam.  So many ways to make a unit.

Friend Linda Satkowski is making these “made” fabric blocks by using the same colors, like all the reds, all the blues.  I think that’s very interesting too.

Right now I have TWO leader ender projects:  The above and this one:

Garlic Knots, from Bonnie’s QUILTMAKER magazine column:

I THINK Bonnie made this quilt, and I suspect it is in her upcoming new book.  Here’s a picture. If anyone knows where this quilt appeared, let me know so I can credit it??

I think I would NOT do a border…???  I seem to be in a borderless moment.

Finally, I played around with Amanda Jean Nyberg’s idea of making birch tree trunks from scraps.  She made a small block, starting with a 5-inch square and making thin tree trunks–for a pincushion.  I started with a 7 1/2-inch block and used 1-inch trunk columns.  It so does not work:  the block-size math isn’t right, it isn’t square, and I don’t like how the trunks lean.  Will continue to play around with this one though.  Clearly the beginning block size needs to be much bigger.  Meanwhile I’ll throw this block into the Parts Department box and will probably frame it somehow to make the math work with other blocks.

I had a fun afternoon and emerged relaxed and ready to enjoy dinner and, later, to watch tv and sew “Valse Brilliante” English Paper Piecing blocks (Willyene Hammerstein, MILLEFIORE QUILTS).  I have quite a lot of those blocks now, but that is a story for another day.

Turkey Tracks: Coastal Quilters’ 2017 October Retreat, Part 4

Turkey Tracks:  October 24, 2017

The Coastal Quilters’ 2017 October Retreat, Part 4

Coming Home

This girl was waiting for me when I got home–reminding me that it’s nice to go away but even nicer to come home.

Betsy Maislen’s flowers were still beautiful.  Betsy stayed with me between voyages on the J&E Riggin, a windjammer out of Rockland, Maine.  Betsy volunteered for six weeks in September and October this fall.  She LOVES to cook with Annie Mahle and to be on the Riggin.  She also loves to get her clothes washed, to sleep in a real bed, and to be recharged and ready to go out again.

And she made and sent me one of the cards I was kitting up for our retreat group to make–as a little gift for those who came.  Amanda Jean Nyberg (Crazy Mom Quilts) designed this card project.  You can find directions in her WONDERFUL book NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND.  I did a recent blog entry on these cards.  Didn’t Betsy do a great job?  Don’t miss the little owl on the right.  I loved getting this card from Betsy.

Betsy was at our May 2017 retreat and is planning to be at the May 2018 retreat.  She retired this past June and is discovering that she loves to quilt.  Rhea Butler introduced her to the Lucy Boston paper piecing blocks on the Riggin this summer–during the Slow Sewing cruise–and Betsy fell in love with them.  She’s just finished her second one now.  Pretty, huh?

***

NOW, here’s a challenge for those of you who choose to accept it.  Some of us are challenging the Coastal Quilters to make Jen Kingwell’s pattern “Long Time Gone,” starting in January.  This quilt is an improv form and uses a lot of different blocks, so it is a terrific learning project.  Besides it’s just fun.  Betsy is going to do it with us from Vermont!

I’ll post pics of your finished quilts here on the blog.

Let’s have some fun!

Here’s a version.  To see others, google “images” for the pattern.

 

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern September Show and Tell

Turkey Tracks:  October 6, 2017

Mt. Battie Modern September Show and Tell

We had fun at our September meeting.

It was fun to see Joann Moore, who worked all summer.  She brought two quilts with her.  She’s a new grandmother, so there is a fun baby quilt.

And her version of a quilt in Amanda Jean Nyberg’s book NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND called “Happy Rails.”  Love her use of the blue background and the bright fabrics with it.

Vicki Fletcher has been working on this English Paper Piecing large hexagon quilt.  She is enjoying this project and loves the old-fashioned fabrics.  They are special, and so is she.

Tori Manzi showed us a new bag she acquired from an internet “swap” friend.  Wow!  Great bag.  We examined it in detail as we are, most of us, bag crazy.

Paula Blanchard showed us this small quilt from Amy Friend’s Improv workshop with us last spring.  Amy’s blog is “During Quiet Time,” and the method is in her book IMPROV PAPER PIECING.  This is a “wow” quilt, isn’t it?

Karen Martin has her Tula Pink blocks not only done, but put into a top.  Didn’t it come out gorgeous?  These blocks are a challenge for Coastal Quilters, but Karen is the first person among us to finish a quilt top with the blocks.  We finish making the blocks in December.  I have about 40 more to go, but will catch up soon.  The book is 100 MODERN QUILT BLOCKS, and they are all about the fabric.

Love the sashing fabric with the different intensities of black dots.

Here’s Karen:

Mt. Battie had a challenge to make a “minimalist” quilt, from directions and discussion in the MIGHTY LUCKY QUILTING CLUB 2016 WORKBOOK–“Minimalist Improvisation” by Season Evans.

Here’s Becca’s:

Here’s Paula’s:

And here’s mine:

I am enjoying these exercises.  I am making and using bias tape in both quilts and clothing now.  And I’ve found that I’m thinking differently about quilt compositions all at once–along the lines of the creativity that can come with constraint.  It is freeing somehow.

On to the next challenges–which will make the next two months more interesting.

Turkey Tracks: Making Greeting Cards

Turkey Tracks:  October 6retreat, 2017

Making Greeting Cards

 

I love Amanda Jean Nyberg’s NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND.   (Her blog is Crazy Mom Quilts.)

Greeting cards made with bits of leftover fabric scraps are one project in the book.

I loved them at first sight.

Now I have some!

This project is sheer play AND uses up scraps!

Turkey Tracks: Play: Making Little Quilt Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  July 18, 2017

Play:  Making Little Quilt Blocks

I seem to be “playing” with making 3 1/2-inch quilt blocks.

I am in the process of sewing the next 10 Tula Pink 100 modern quilt blocks–which are all about the fabric.  Some of these involve triangles–which have “bonus” triangle possibilities, so this happened.

Here’s a fun one.

This one, too.

Here’s the collection so far.  The mini 9-patch is from NO SCRAP LEFT BEHIND, Amanda Jean Nyberg, of Crazy Mom Quilts blog/instagram.  It is actually 4 inches finished.  These are FUN to make.

These will likely wind up in the Parts Department quilt, but who knows.  That box of blocks is getting full.  As soon as I finish a few other projects, I’ll open it.  And, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of Works In Progress.

Turkey Tracks: Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild’s “Traveling Quilts”

Turkey Tracks:  June 5, 2017

Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild’s “Traveling Quilts”

This month’s meeting was our THIRD round with our traveling quilts.

We are so enjoying this project.

To remind, each of us is able to say if we want additions connected or not, what colors we like/dislike, and so forth.

Here’s is Becca Babb-Brott’s addition to Vicki Fletcher’s quilt:  “Cherish What Is” and linking up completed parts into a whole.

Here’s Tori Manzi’s additions to Gus Bruns quilt–gorgeous and fun ROUND log cabin blocks.

Nancy Wright and Gus Bruns added to Margaret Elaine Jinno’s “village.”

Joanne Moore added to Tori Manzi’s quilt–the scattered flying red geese.

Vicki Fletcher added to Nancy Wright’s quilt.

Look at the “Singer” fabric Vicki found.  Love these bright funky squares.

Lynn Vermeulen added the spectacular circle of houses to Linda Satkowski’s quilt.

Wow!  Just wow!

Margaret Elaine Jinno is still working on my quilt AND had an operation on her hand this week.  The five coffee cups represent my sons and DILs.  Get well ME, so you can SEW again.

Linda Satkowski added the left and top portions to Joann Moore’s quilt.  Love the top frame and the red circles.  Both additions are so graphic and compelling.

I added to the first four of Becca’s words–using fabrics and themes she likes.  I needed an intervention to STOP ME as I was having so much fun.

I found this little lady in one of Becca’s quilts and took a surprise picture when she wasn’t looking.

So that’s where this funky lady came from.

Here’s my label–an idea copied from Amanda Jean Nyberg’s Sunday Morning Quilts.  I’ve fallen in love with this book and with Nyberg’s No Scrap Left Behind, which was just released.  Making the triangle was a fun project.

 

Warning to Joann Moore:  I’ve just had to make myself STOP working on your quilt!!!

(We are missing one quilt this month–it will get moved along nevertheless, so pics next time.  And we are skipping June, so the next pics will be in July.)