Hand piecing

Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a hand piecing class with Mickey Depre. The class was based on the Castle Wall block and as it was one I had seen recently and admired I was happy to sign up for the class. Mickey is a great teacher and I learned a few new tips and was even able to complete my block in class.

It was really fun fussy cutting fabrics for this block and I am thrilled with how it turned out. This will be another block to add to my bright sampler quilt and I have even prepped another block as I had already cut a second set of the striped fabric in class. I changed my mind on one of the fabrics during class and decided that the stripe need to change too.

This is the set of templates we used for the class. It makes a 9" block and using them made the process very easy. We traced both inside and outside the template and cut on the outside line while the inside line was the stitching line. The templates are perfect for fussy cutting too.

My mind is now swirling with ideas for a full sized quilt using this pattern. Hmm, what fabric direction should I choose?

And speaking of hand piecing, here is a top that I hand pieced a few years ago. I am trying to work through my pile of UFOs and this top is screaming for a border.

 

 

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Progress

This week I finished a few more blocks for my Stonefields quilt. The Bracelet block.

This cute little flower block.

And a little hand pieced Sunflower block. I am machine piecing the rest of the blocks but figured I had a better shot with those points if I hand pieced this one. It was a bit of a challenge but I am considering making another as It is just so cute!

I also finished prepping My Poisies in the Valley. A few fabric changes were made along the way but I am pretty pleased with this layout and mostly I am pleased that I was able to clean up the table of fabrics that I had pulled for this project.

And finally, I prepped one more of the blocks from My Enchanted Garden. I am really hoping to finish prepping the rest of those blocks this week.

 

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Busy Prepping

Last week I realized that I had several opportunities to sit and stitch coming up but nothing was prepped. I get in a bit of a panic if I have no handwork ready to go so I spent some serious time getting things ready to go. First, I needed something to take to my Woolie group. I have been working along on a Sue Spargo BOM but I just wasn't in the mood to work on it so pulled out the book "My Enchanted Garden" by Gretchen Gibbons. The patterns in the book are to be enlarged by 200% but when I started to make the enlarged copies I realized that I didn't want to make something that big. I am really enjoying working smaller these days and decided to try and make the blocks just the size as printed. I am so happy I did. This is my first block finished.

And I have prepped 2 more blocks. I am using a mix of wool, cotton, silk and even ultra suede on linen. These are just so fun to do and at such a small size can be finished quickly.

My appliqué group has decided to work on a fun appliqué project. We are taking a Blackbird Designs pattern and reducing it to 1/2 size and several of us are making the same quilt. Thos is the pattern "Poisies in the Valley" from their book "In Full Bloom" which is now out of print. It will be fun to see how everyone interprets the same pattern. I had a few ideas of the direction I wanted to go but ended up doing version of my usual color palette as I think this will look nice in my livingroom. Next time I really need to do something different! Here are a few blocks prepped.

And a few more added to the mix. I even have a few stitched. You might notice that I have changed the arcs in one of the blocks in the photo below. This is why I love using my design wall, I can quickly see when something isn't working for me. The random fabrics on the wall are those I have chosen for the arcs in the last 4 blocks. Stupidly, I was not originally putting these on the wall as they were to be arranged in the quilt so I now must work to make sure I get the color balanced better.

I have also stitched a few more of the Stonefields blocks.

So right now I have a full design wall and my new studio is a mess with three separate piles of fabrics pulled to prep three projects. I think I need to get back to work so I can get this mess cleaned up!

 

 

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Some Quilt Show Inspiration

With apologies to those quilts I missed, here are a few of the other quilts at our guild show. There were many more great ones but the lighting made taking photos difficult. I forgot to take pictures of the credits but here are some quilts I enjoyed.

 

 

 

Finally Best in Show by Virginia Greaves. Sorry for the terrible picture quality on this one!

 

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I'm So Excited

And I just can't hide it. Last night was the Awards ceremony for my guild's quilt show "Georgia Celebrates Quilts". I was thrilled that my Whig Rose quilt won an award for Best Appliqué and Best Hand Quilting. I have shown this quilt before but here it is bedecked with the award ribbons.

Such pretty ribbons made by a quilt guild member who does a lovely job for each show making all the ribbons!

I was so excited that I did not even take any pictures of the other quilts so hopefully I will have the chance to do that today. With so many wonderful entries I am humbled by my award. If you are in the Atlanta area, it is a great show and is open today through Saturday at His Hands Church in Woodstock, GA. It is the largest show in Georgia and is a NQA judged and juried show with over 350 entries and some wonderful vendors, raffles and silent auctions. Should be a great weekend!

 

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A Stonefields Update

It has been awhile since I have had the chance to work on my Stonefields quilt, my other current long term project. I had to pack up all the fabric to move into the new studio space and promptly got distracted by other things - as usual. But this week I knew I needed lots of appliqué prepped for some stitching days away from home so I pulled all the fabric out and prepped 9 blocks for appliqué. They aren't all stitched yet but I have several ready to share.

First up is this sweet Owl and Pussycat block. This is one of the blocks that originally drew me into this quilt. Such fun.

Then these 3 circle blocks. I would love to do a whole quilt with these, hmm I feel a distraction coming on.

And another simple flower.

Yesterday I tried to catch up with some of the pieced blocks. There are no rotary cutting instructions for these as the designer hand pieced them, so I need to work out my own cutting and piecing instructions as I go. Usually that goes pretty smoothly but this in this set I made a mistake, lots of ripping out before I got things right!

These Ohio star blocks were much simpler. I love the little "H" for Heather.

This was another block that went together pretty well. I am not fond of doing square in a square blocks so I am always happy if it turns out ok.

I also finished up the 176 flying geese blocks needed for the border of the quilt. I made a few extras in case I need them for color balance.

My quilt guild's quilt show is this coming week. I am looking forward to seeing some wonderful quilts as there is such a huge amout of talent in the guild. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures to share with you soon.

 

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Rachel Meyer, block 9

I have finally finished another block for my interpretation of the Rachel Meyer quilt. There are 12 different 18" blocks, a large center block and appliqued border so I still have a ways to go but I feel like I am 1/2 way there now. This is the fish block that I used when I discussed my technique to prep blocks. Still not in love with that large fish but am happy with the finished block.

 

Thanks, for all the encouragement when I post these blocks. It really helps to keep me motivated to continue!

 

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My girly retreat and Quilty Fun Christmas top

So, I have shared my new quilting space with you and figured I should finish the tour. Originally, when we were house hunting, we looked for a house that had a basement that could accommodate my quilting. The plan was that we would just finish the basement for quilting only and would have tons of room. When we found this house and saw the basement we realized that it had lots of potential to be much more than that so we planned to finish it as more living space as well as quilt studio. So far only two rooms have been done as DH is doing the work himself and he needed to pace himself and our budget. This sitting room is my girly space which I use to host my appliqué group, house my quilting library, do handwork and display some of my quilts. I had all the furniture left over from previous homes and it is my special girly space decorated to remind me of a beach cottage. Here is my view from the sewing room. I am so excited to be able to use my antique wicker sofa again. I think this quilt needs to be the next one quilted. The center is Auntie Geeen's quilt pattern from an old QuiltMania magazine. I added my own borders using some left over bonus HSTs from another project.

Here is my sewing library, though all the boxes of books are not yet unpacked and the shelves are not fully arranged yet. That floral chair is so comfortable that I refused to give it up in this move and it became the jumping off point for the decor of the space. I love to sit in it and do embroidery or read. I love having a handy hubby. All those built in bookshelves were made from IKEA Billy Bookcases to which he added moldings to make them built in. So cost effective and perfect for this weird little space.

Here is a view behind the white chairs in the first photo. I love my thatched roof dollhouse and hope to share it with my granddaughter when she is older. The quilt is hanging to cover the opening into what will be the bathroom and linen closet area. An unexpected air conditioning replacement has put a pause to the remodel but at least hanging the quilt means I have something nice to look at. I don't know the name of the pattern for the quilt, guess I better get those last quilt books unpacked as I am sure it came from a book.

Finally here is the view into my studio. We needed to add doors so that I would be able to close it off from little people and perhaps hide the mess. That little chest with the wicker drawers holds my embroidery supplies and my EPP papers.

I did get the main part of the Quilty Fun top done. I love the little embroidered details and the three dimensional bows on the wreaths. I am not doing the border until I decide on how I am using the fabric for a bed quilt. Then I will use those scraps for this border. Hope to get it all done for this Christmas season.

 

 

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