Just a small project…

It’s not really a surprise. I’ve known about her pregnancy for the past six months. I just wasn’t thinking that I would make anything…and then I had second thoughts. It might be nice to make a baby blanket. You know, it’s a small project and I seem to be able to finish smallish projects these days. So, why not! It’s only a couple weeks before Christmas. I’m not busy! Heh.

Here’s my starting fabric:2014BabyQuiltFabric

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My Amish Muse

A call for entries to the local Modern quilt guilds went out earlier this summer. It seems an Ohio Amish Quilt Exhibition is coming to the SJ Quilt & Textile Museum in November and the idea for a juried Modern show, Amish: The Modern Muse, is planned.

Hmm, where to start? Perhaps a loose definition of the typical characteristics of an Amish quilt might help. Besides being made by someone who is Amish/Menonite, these quilts tend to have a strong geometric design in either muted (browns, greys, olive, rust) or single color, often black, with vivid color combinations.

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Carpenter’s Wheel: Indigo Mandala

With furious sewing and quilting over the past few months and weeks, I finished the 2014 Hoffman Challenge. True to form, I ran into some strange issues I didn’t experience previously.

Unlike the Magenta version, the Indigo fabric has colorful orange/pink filigree in the background, instead of subtle purple or blue. Thus, I spent much more time fussy-cutting:

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My BAMalot Block: A New Direction

The County Fair is just around the corner and I’ve been working to finish this project to enter as part of a group exhibit.

Back in July, I began a Round Robin journey with the Mod Quilt Guild I’d recently joined. Thus, I’ve posted the other blocks I’ve worked on in Aug, Oct and December. It was much fun and now, my own block has returned and it’s taken on a New Direction!

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Back in Tie-Land!

For this Marin Autumn Retreat, I took another weekend trip to Tie-Land.

Working with the last blue shirt and two-dozen ties, I used the ‘string block’ method to make a four blocks for the pillow top and plan four solid blocks out of wool trousers for the backside.

My goal is to complete 8 pillows, so I’ll need to cut the last 23 ties very judiciously to make this work. 2013TieLandPillow

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Moment of Truth

It’s one thing to enter a quilt in an open exhibition, quite another to enter a judged show.

Before the San Mateo County Fair, I’d spent a couple more weeks of hand quilting. Finishing the top of the hearts, I decided the squares on point could use a little attention. I’m ambivalent about quilting another zigzag around the burgundy border; the squares will turn into diamond along the top and bottom, so maybe I’ll just leave it for later.

The tricky part is quilting the internal hanging sleeve. Luckily, I find a flat mirror from my kit that just fits and I set to work quilting the front, then flipping it over to mock-quilt (there’s no batting) the striped side. Easy peas-y!

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Funny, I thought I was finished

I’d entered my heart quilt in our biennial quilt exhibition this Spring. Of course, after a month of deliberation and trying to fix my pesky prairie point border, I gave up and took it apart the week before it was due. Spent an evening cleaning off all the little bits of thread. Fun!

Once I laid everything out flat again, I set the points to the correct depth, pinned them on, and pillow-topped the border again. This time, all went as planned and I could begin quilting.

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Preparing for the SCVQA Quilt Show Spring 2011

A flurry of quilting activity since the beginning of the year has culminated in two entries into a biennial quilt exhibition March 5 & 6.

First, I’ll finish the Shirt Pocket Quilt. Since it’s a pillow-top border, it’s easy enough to smooth it flat on the living room futon for handwork. Besides, I don’t possess a proper quilt frame. I stitched a simple 1” border and quilted stitch-in-the-ditch along each shirt block. This ‘easy’ part took me about 28 hours.

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