August Block of the Month

The cream colored pieces mixed up a bit when I put together this blocks for this month. I decided the coloring mistake shouldn’t matter at all in the overall scheme of the finished quilt, and I like the variety it adds to the individual blocks.

The title of the pattern is called “Squares Within Squares”, which makes it sound a lot simpler than it actually is. The dozens of half-square triangles in each block made these blocks come together a lot slower than the other blocks of the month.

I like the secondary squares on point, which will show when a quilt is assembled from these blocks.

Block of the Month & Strip Quilting

This month’s block of the month for the Piecemakers guild was to be done in gold colors. I stayed with a relatively “safe” color scheme this time. Last month one of my blocks did stand out quite a bit from the others (I wonder if it will be used). I played around a bit with the arrangement in anticipation that I might go home with the blocks. Set together in straight rows and columns would result in a diamond pattern. Offsetting the columns by half a block creates some interesting possibilities. Someone else went home with a dozen or so blocks.

We played “strip poker” at the meeting this week. This involves no stripping, and it isn’t even really poker. Everyone comes with a set of 2½ inch strips of fabric. A very simple card game is played, which involves absolutely no strategy. Everyone has fun, and everyone goes home with an assortment of fabric strips.

I found a few strips from last year to re-play, and had to cut a few more to go with them. My daughter came with me this month, so I had to cut some strips for her also.

I decided to actually do something with my strips this year, so I began piecing some blocks. I found some more strips after I began, so I have quite an assortment of strips. I don’t know yet how big it will be. I will stop when I run out of strips, or I decide it’s big enough.

Redefining Red, White, & Blue

The block of the month at the Piecemakers Guild meeting today is supposed to be in red, white, & blue colors. I expect most of the blocks will be typical patriotic colors. I decided to try something a little different. I had fun picking out fabrics for the first block. My second block is made with “safer” colors, but still not traditionally patriotic fabrics. I hope they don’t clash too much with the other blocks that are turned in.

April Happenings

I've been taking a bit of a break from creating new textile pieces.

My current focus has been on updating my programming and web design skills to make myself more marketable in the job market.

I have been learning Java programming, and have been updating my HTML and CSS skills. My current project is redesigning and building from scratch the website for the Piecemakers Quilt Guild. This work in progress can be viewed here: http://www.piecemakersguild.org/new. I still have a lot to do loading content, and fine tuning the layout.

To make my post quilting related, I have two pieces juried into the "Images of California" art show at the San Leandro History Museum and Art Gallery:

320 W. Estudillo Avenue, San Leandro, California
May 14 to Saturday, June 27
Artist Reception: Saturday, May 16 from 1:00 am - 3:00 pm
Thursday through Sunday, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Weekend Quilt Show

The Piecemakers Quilt Show this weekend was a success. My featured artist corner looked really great when it was all set up. I displayed about half of the quilts I had available in my corner booth. The other half were shown during my presentations.




My pre-show jitters vanished, and I really enjoyed doing my short half hour presentations where I showed the other half of my quilts. Halfway through one of my presentations, my parents walked in the back of the room, and Dad said, “Hey, you think you know what you’re doing?” Everyone laughed, and the short interlude lightened the mood a bit. (Hi, Dad)

After I had planned which quilts I was going to take, my husband saw this small 6” quilt laying about, “Aren’t you going to take this one?” and he was insistent that I should find a place to show this one also. I had a binder of my work in clear plastic sheet protectors, so on impulse, I slipped it into the front of the binder, and added it to my price list. And this little six inch quilt was my big sale for the day, which was great since I wasn't necessarily expecting to sell anything.

Getting Ready for the Show in May

Two and a half weeks to the big show? It’s sneeking up on me quick. I have started gathering all my quilts in one place. I found these five that still need sleeves. Two need labels also. I will also need to decide which quilts I will hang in the space given to me, and which I will show during my short lecture. I will be talking about my first quilt, and my progression from traditional to art quilts. Detailed information about the show is on the Piecemakers website.

Sleeves are made for these quilts now, but not sewn on yet. I plan to take them to a Ladies Fellowship Craft Day at my church, and get all of my hand sewing done.

And so I though I would show you how I make sleeves and the easy way I have learned to put a bit of ease into them to leave room for the thickness of a hanging rod. I learned Robbi Joy Eklow’s technique for fully lined sleeves with ease for a hanging rod in a workshop a few years ago. Her technique is easy and the results are great, but I don’t like the extra layers of fabric behind a small quilt.

I started with a strip of fabric about the width of my quilt and six inches wide. Some shows require a wider sleeve, but a narrower one seems works just fine for me. And I prefer not to cover up a lot of the back of the quilt.

Hem the ends with a narrow hem. I like to stitch with a very narrow short zigzag which holds the edge of the hem down well so it doesn’t get caught on the hanging rod.

The trick that puts ease into the sleeve begins at the ironing board. Mark the center length of the sleeve by folding it in half lengthwise and pressing with a hot iron. Open back up, and fold the long edges of the sleeve to the center line, and press well.

Sew the long edges together (wrong sides together) with about a half inch seam (or 1cm, if you have a European machine marked in metric like I have). This will make the back of the sleeve narrower than the front.

Press the seam open. Make sure not to un-press the creases at the side of the quilt. You might repress the creases to make sure they are nice and crisp.

Center the sleeve on the back of the quilt about a half inch from the top and pin. Hand stitch the sleeve to the quilt using the creases as your stitching guide.

Two Quilt Guilds

I belong to the Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Newark. This guild has a couple hundred members, monthly meeting, and often has featured speakers. They guild also has a wonderfulCommunity Quilts program. Kits are made up and given to members to make quilt blocks. When the blocks are returned at the meeting, they are grouped together with fabric for sashing and borders for a new kit. Completed tops are put together with backing, batting, and binding. Some are taken to be machine quilted by individuals. Others are tied at guild sponsored tie-ins. The quilts are donated to local non-profit and service organizations who distribute the quilts and put them to good use. I will be a featured artist and speaker at the Piecemakers Quilt Show in May.

I brought a kit home containing completed blocks and fabric to make sashing and borders with instructions to complete the top. I decided to put the blocks together “wrong”. While I was deciding which way to orient the blocks, I noticed some of the blocks were “wrong” also. My way of putting it together disguises the “wrong” blocks, and the quilt is more interesting than if had been put together “right”. I wonder if there will be traditional quilters who look at it and think, “What was she thinking?” I added the small yellow squares between the sashing and the large blue corner squares, just because. I hope this quilt will make someone smile.

I spent this morning in Santa Clara at CQFA which is my other quilt guild. It meets every other month, and is geared more towards art quilting and anyone interested in more innovative techniques. We’re a smaller group, and less structured. But it’s worth going just for show and tell and see what everyone else has been up to. We usually have a small informal workshop presented by one of our members, and occasionally have a guest speaker. Today one of our members, Debbie Wambaugh, shared a technique she calls “blooming chenille”. Examples of her work can be seen here:
http://www.mountainartcenter.org/Shows/fibers_of_america.htm
http://www.mountainartcenter.org/Shows/form_and_function2005.htm
Debbie has a great color sense, and her pieces are full of wonderful texture.

I am lucky to be spending two days at a retreat with some of the CQFA members at the end of the month. We don’t have any planned projects, just time away to work on projects and a chance to get to know each other better.