Tag: Sew Me A Song Etsy store

Turkey Tracks: Becca’s Kitty and Becca’s First Longarm Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  December 23, 2016

Becca’s Kitty and Becca’s First Longarm Quilt

Friend Becca has two half-grown black kittens that are hard to tell apart–brother and sister.

They are adorable.

They are coal black, but the female one has a white spot on her chest.  I may have finally learned to tell them apart.

I was over there the other day to admire Becca’s FIRST LONGARM QUILT all finished–she did it here on Lucy the Longarm, and it will be on a bed by now–and the female kitty begged and begged to come into Becca’s Etsy store, Sew Me A Song.  None of the family’s pets are allowed in the Etsy Store and especially not half-grown kittens.

Then we looked up to see this:

Here are some pics of Becca’s quilt–it’s her version of Bonnie Hunter’s “Scrappy Trip Around the World”–which is a free pattern on Bonnie’s web site Quiltville.com.  I LOVE Becca’s fabrics–so fresh and exciting and fun and so NOT like my older traditional ones…  I’m slowly switching over, and that is a totally wonderful journey.

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Becca used a navy and white strip to bind this quilt and quilted free hand with a medium grey thread.  To see more of this kind of binding take a look at Red Pepper Quilts blog.

Here you can see Becca’s backing fabric and how nicely the grey thread is playing on both sides of the quilt AND some of the really fun fabrics Becca uses.  She had fun with this quilt.  She wrote names into it, made hearts, made all kinds of squiggles, and just played.

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Here’s a pic of the “trip” pattern–which is really, really fun to make.  The blocks, when put together, start forming diamonds.

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Here’s my “trip” quilt from a few years back.  It’s the difference of night and day:

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I love mine–all made from 2 1/2-inch strip sets precut from other quilts and put into bins.  Each fabric reminds me of a quilt I made for someone.  And this quilt gets used every day.  BUT, I love Becca’s fabrics more.  Change is always good, and this change is providing me with loads of new joys–which include learning new things.

Turkey Tracks: October Farmer’s Wife Blocks

November 3, 2016

October Farmer’s Wife Blocks

 

These blocks have been done since mid-October, but I have been…busy, busy.

No. 75, Nan

Cotton+Steel fabrics

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No. 76 Nancy

Cotton+Steel fabrics

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No 77, Nellie

Cotton+ Steel fabrics, but this one needed higher contrast in the pink fabric, which has some navy in it.  The center dark angles are not showing up properly.

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No 78. Old Maid

Tula Pink ladybugs and Cotton+Steel plaid

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No 79 Patience

Cotton+Steel

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No 80 Patricia

Cotton+Steel.  This one is subtle and probably could have used more contrast, but I like it.  I LOVED to play jacks when I was a girl.

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No 81 Peony

Cotton+ Steel

I was sailing along and then hit this block.  The hand piecing version in the book made much more sense.  In the foundation piecing organization, everything swirls around that tiny central square.  It was a nightmare to sew.  Half seams, y seams, odd angles, and so on.  I really think whoever did the foundation piecing for this book did not do a great job.  There are tons of needless difficulties and seams that do not abut, which makes the blocks too bulky in places.  I had to go back and toy with seams or clip into them over and over.

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No 82 Pharlemia

Here’s another very difficult block–needlessly made more so by the foundation piecing pattern.  I threw out the directions, but the way the pieces are combined in the foundation pattern is just plain ruthlessly difficult.

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Friend Becca Babb-Brott (Sew Me A Song Etsy store) threw her Farmer’s Wives blocks up on a design wall at the October retreat (more on the retreat later) to check out color choices.  These blocks just went up randomly to try to get some visual notion of what is going on with color choices.  She does not have them all “up” here, but aren’t they wonderful?  The grey background looks flat in this photo, but it is shimmery and lively in person and is wonderful with the blocks.  This quilt is AMAZING.

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Turkey Tracks: September Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  October 1, 2016

September Farmer’s Wife Blocks

 

There are actually a few extra blocks here as I wanted to finish all the “M” blocks.  AND I can see the end of the project, so I printed out all the remaining paper foundation piecing patterns.

 

No. 65 Mother:

Orange fabric is Japanese; others are Cotton + Steel.  I love the mix of these fabrics.

Friend Becca Babb-Brott carries the Japanese fabrics in her Etsy store, Sew Me A Song.  She puts together reasonably priced “bundles” of fabrics in all sizes, so you can experiment with these new designs without breaking the bank.

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No. 66:  Mrs. Anderson

Yellow daisies are Japanese; not sure about the squares.

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No 67:  Mrs. Brown

Mustard cherries are Japanese.

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No. 68 Mrs. Fay:

Red is Japanese; neutral is Cotton + Steel.

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No 69:  Mrs. KellerThis one was SUPER HARD.

All fabrics are Japanese.

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No. 70 Mrs. Lloyd

Fabrics are Cotton + Steel.

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No 71:  Mrs. Morgan

Aqua fabric is Japanese; rest are Cotton + Steel.

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No 72:  Mrs. Smith

Orange fabric is Japanese; other fabric is Cotton + Steel.

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No 73:  Mrs. Taft

The mustard fabric is from a new Cotton + Steel collection inspired by designers trip to Portugal.  The neutral is from Cotton + Steel.

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No. 74:  Mrs. Thomas

The cats are Cotton + Steel.  The purple reads “solid” and comes in a variety of yummy colors–Hoodie Crescent for Stof Fabrics

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On to No. 75–TWENTY FOUR blocks to go and three months to do them.

What a fun trip this has been.  I alway, always finish projects, but I’m not sure I would have finished this one if I had not been working with a group.

Turkey Tracks: Instagram Traveling Quilts and Foundation Piecing

Turkey Tracks:  August 30, 2016

Instagram Traveling Quilts and Foundation Piecing

What fun!

Megan Bruns joined a group of people that formed on Instagram who are sewing on “traveling” quilts.  There are several groups.  There were rules about fabric quality, what each person would do on each quilt (like two borders only–maybe it was one?), and about when each quilt would ship back out again (a specific date of the month).  If you want to see some of these quilts “in progress,” the Instagram hashtag is #travelagentMaggie.

The quilt Megan has now is a Halloween quilt; the one she will get next is a blue and white quilt.  The group forms into a virtual circle, so the same person ships to Megan each month, and she ships to the same person each month.  And quilts are each shipped with a little memoir book started by the originator and commented on by each quilter as the quilt travels around.

Megan wanted to make a “boo” as part of her border on the Halloween quilt, so friend Becca Babb-Brott printed out some foundation patterns for her.  Megan came over Saturday and learned how to do foundation paper piecing.  The “b” was daunting for a newbie, but she did it, and it’s so so pretty:

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The MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember about foundation paper piecing is to start that first piece WRONG SIDE TO WRONG SIDE OF THE PATTERN.  A bit of fabric glue for that first piece is also so, so helpful.

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We thought that the letters would have to be closer together, actually:

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So one could cut back the pattern width right away.  Live and learn…

Here’s the quilt in progress.  I wonder what else Megan will do with her border(s) and where she will put the “boo.”  The half-square triangles on the right are three dimensional–very clever.  Love the pumpkin, too.

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So, this project gives a quilter a chance to try a lot of different creative ideas in the course of  some months–nine if there are nine in the group.  And, to see a lot of new creative ideas.  Love the blocks in this Halloween quilt.  Those pin wheel blocks may be Japanese fabric???  Aren’t they pretty?

I can’t wait to see the blue and white quilt that will come next.

Turkey Tracks: Quilt-let Update

Turkey Tracks:  August 19, 2016

Quilt-let Update

I have only 12 blocks left in the “quilt-let” quilt–with blocks designed by Katja Marek in THE NEW HEXAGON.

The remaining twelve are cut, glued, and organized, and ready for me to sew.

I think the half-square blocks are going to work fine at the upper and lower borders.  I’ll leave the sides “wavy.”  I still don’t know if this project will be an actual quilt or if it wants to be a wall hanging.  Remember that each quilt-let is a finished piece that is ready to be sewn to other quilt-lets.

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It’s been such a fun project.  Who knew that a hexagon could be splintered into so many other geometric shapes?

I have another packet of materials for this project, so will make the blocks themselves and link them with triangles–for a quilt top that does get quilted.  For that one I’ll likely coordinate fabrics a bit more???

Here are some of the recent individual blocks:

Love this black and white fabric.

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I should have oriented the deer to one of the hexagon points–didn’t see it, not going to fix it.  There are lots of blocks here with swinging orientations.

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Had fun with the one, but the swirling pinwheel bars don’t show up.  Maybe I should have moved the small triangle color around to different colors.  Still a nice block though.  Color placement is very important in these blocks for how the block looks.

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Love this one.  But who knew when I started it that it would be so cute?  I didn’t.  It’s something about that brown and white fabric…

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The green fabric is one of the Japanese fabrics.  See Rebecca Babb-Brott’s Etsy store “Sew Me A Song” to see more of these prints.  They are not easy to find.

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Turkey Tracks: July 2016 Quilty Update

Turkey Tracks:  July 19, 2016

July 2016 Quilty Update

The design wall craziness is getting bigger–which means some projects are close to being finished.

I still have not quilted the blue/neutral quilt on the long arm.

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Amy Friend’s design–“Tell Me A Story” quilt–is ready to have the block papers removed, the blocks sewn together, and the border attached.

You can find this pattern in Amy’s book INTENTIONAL PIECING.

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The block count that four of us are making for a fall “improvisational” quilt that will include blocks from all of us is growing.  Here are some of my recent blocks.  We are each making four blocks of anything–one to keep and three to give away.

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Here’s one of Becca Babb-Brott’s set of blocks.  (She has an Etsy store, “Sew Me A Song.”)  She made these when we sewed on Monday at her house.

How fun are these!!!

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The summer is going by sooooooo fast!!

But I’m SEW HAPPY.

Turkey Tracks: Becca’s Feed Sack Bags: Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle

Turkey Tracks:  May 16, 2016

Becca’s Feed Sack Bags:  Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle

Becca hit the tri-fecta with this project.

She’s Reusing, Repurposing, and Recycling Feed Bags.

The bags came from Susan McBride and Chris Richmond’s Golden Brook Farm, which is just above me on “the hill.”

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Becca came to the Coastal Quilter’s Monthly All-Day Sit and Sew with feed bags in hand.

“I’m going to make bags,” she said.  What? I thought.  Cool…

And make bags she did:

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Soon she had this one done:

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And I went home with this one:

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Thank you Becca!!

 

PS:  Coastal Quilters:  save your bird food bags for Becca?

 

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Coastal Quilters Monthly All-Day Sit and Sew

Turkey Tracks:  April 18, 2016

Coastal Quilters’ Monthly All-Day Sit and Sew

My favorite day of the month may be the Coastal Quilters’ monthly all-day Sit and Sew.

We start at 9 a.m., and many of us bring our sewing machines.  We sit and sew, but also we share, we talk, we laugh, we eat lunch, we make coffee and drink it.  The day flies by every month.

Here’s Becca Babb Brott’s ongoing project–the big central English Paper Piecing medallion designed by Katja Marek for her millefiore project–which is her 2015 challenge.  As I’ve been discussing in other blog posts, this information is under “projects” at the paperpiecing.com web site AND on Marek’s web site.  Marek’s blocks are bigger than other millefiore project–so lend themselves to seeing bigger pieces of great fabric. Becca’s fabric choices are modern and…FUN!  (Becca has an Etsy store online:  SEW ME A SONG.)

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Becca trades blocks and ideas online with other modern quilters, and during this Sit and Sew session, she brought them all along to try to figure out innovative and creative things to do with them.

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I have been in love with house blocks for about 20 years now.  Aren’t these funky, modern versions fun?

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I especially like the one with squares along the right side.  I like that star just below the house block as well.

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Megan Bruns worked on her millefiori quilt, which has very tiny pieces for the most part.  Here fussy cutting is the name of the game, and Megan does it so so well.  Megan is working on “La Passacaglia Quilt” from Dutch quilt designer Willyne Hammerstein’s book MILLEFIORI QUILTS.  (That’s my machine to the right of Megan, and I worked on Bonnie Hunter’s “Wild and Goosey” block with my scrap bag.  You can see more of Megan’s project on Instagram.

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Maggie Schwamb worked on quilting a GORGEOUS string quilt–which I need to see better as I’m now seeing a pieced border.

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Linda Satkowski layered a lap-size quilt–using the new foam roller system a recent speaker taught us.  Very ingenious.  Then Linda worked on a low-volume hexie project that is going to be a table top for, I think, a bedroom chest of drawers.

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Mary Bishop and Margaret Elaine worked on Foundation Paper Piecing blocks from Laurie Aaron Hird’s THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT book.  Mary was trying out the Foundation Piecing and thought it very slow.  Margaret Elaine has at least 34 blocks completed (we are doing 8 a month) and every single one of them is so, so pretty.  April’s blocks were intricate, slower to make as such, and often tedious. That’s how intricate Foundation Paper piecing goes though.  You like it, tolerate it, or…don’t.

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Jan Kelsey was working on prepping a backing fabric when I took this picture, but she had other projects with her as well.

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Other people came and went during the day as well.

That Becca has gotten me hooked on the French and Brawn Italian sub sandwich–half for lunch/half for the next day–with potato chips!!!   I start thinking about eating it again as soon as the Sit and Sew Day is over.

Turkey Tracks: My “Allietore” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  March 26, 2016

 

My “Allietore” Quilt

The Bonnie Hunter 2015 Mystery Quilt

Here’s my “Allietore.”

Bonnie Hunter, in my humble opinion, hit this one right out of the ball park.

The directions on her web site are down now, but she will be coming out with the pattern soon.

(For those of you who do not know, Bonnie Hunter does an end-of-year mystery quilt each year.  She releases the color way she is going to use in late October usually.  And the first “clue”–a unit in the quilt–is released on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  She gives us a new “clue” every Friday morning until the units are completed.  She then “reveals” the completed quilt sometime between Christmas and New Years.

This is my third Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, and I wish I had been on board for such quilts as “Roll, Roll Cotton Boll” and “Carolina Christmas.”  I’ve done “Celtic Solstice” and “Grand Illusion.”

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Bonnie was inspired by her trip to Italy for this quilt–and, indeed, gold, red, taupe, black, and grey are seen in buildings all over Italy.  I was watching the first episode of the documentary CHEF’S TABLE, which was set in Italy, and was amazed by all the gold buildings.

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I learned so much with this quilt.  The scalloped edge, of course.  I’ve never done that–and Bonnie made it so, so easy.  I’ll never be afraid of one again.

And look at the border construction with those large neutral rectangles, each with a grey square in the right side so that it helps make the triangle pattern.  (We laid those in and then trimmed them to the border.)

We could use the Companion Angle ruler to make the red/neutral/black units that surround the gold squares.  Easy Peasy with Bonnie’s instructions.  Ditto the neutral/red/grey units around the red squares.  I’ve already been playing with those units in other quilt blocks.

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Friend Becca Babb Brott (Etsy store, Sew Me A Song) helped me pick the light grey Carolyn Friedlander fabric for the back.  The pantograph is “Marmalade” by Patricia Ritter and Leisha Farnsworth.  I love this pantograph!!!  Thanks, Bonnie for introducing this one to me.

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Many of the neutral fabrics are from a collection by Cotton & Steel fabric designers.

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What’s been really fun about this pattern is all the different colorways people have used to construct their quilt.  One of my favorites involved lime green, a green/blue teal, a darker teal, grey, and neutrals.  One of those may be in my future…   Right after “Carolina Christmas” and “Roll Roll Cotton Boll.”

THANK YOU BONNIE!!!

I can’t wait until Thanksgiving 2016.

Turkey Tracks: Katja Marek’s Millefiore Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  March 21, 2016

Katja Marek’s Millefiore Quilt

I finally found a good picture of Katja Marek’s Millefiori Quilt:

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I have 5 of the “rosette” packages for the English Paper Pieces.  You can get them at the English Paper Piecing Web site.  And there is a “club” of people doing a rosette a month, or something like that.  Once you have a package in hand, you go to Katja Marek’s web site for refined instructions.

The large rosette in the middle left of the quilt (rose/yellow/green) is the starting point.  I have TWO of these packages as I want to do one with baby fabrics and use it as the beginning of a medallion quilt.

These pieces are larger than some of the other millefiori quilt patterns–so I think this quilt will be more accessible to more people, including ME.

My thanks to friend Becca Babb-Brott (Etsy store:  Sew Me A Song) for introducing me to this Katja Marek pattern.

AND to friend Megan Bruns, who has been a trailblazer in this whole millefiori quilt knowledge base.  (You should see her finished rosettes–and I will ask her for some pics when I get back from Charleston.)