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.

Loose Plans for a Bed Quilt

At the CQFA meeting last weekend, we had a time scheduled to work on individual projects. A few years ago, I started a bed quilt with a very loose plan sketched out on the computer, and had made about 60 blocks. I grabbed it to work on at the meeting, since I didn’t have any newer projects in progress. I made a handful of blocks on Saturday, and made another few today. It’s a great project to play with color and value, and doesn’t require any planning. I plan to get out my bag of green and orange strips and small scraps occasionally and make a few more squares. After I have made about a hundred more, I will see how I can fit them together. I figure in about 20 years, maybe I will have a quilt to show.

I also got the sleeve put on my “Whisper Challenge” quilt today, and now I have a bright new quilt hanging above my sewing machine. Still can’t show the full quilt yet for a few months. Maybe if I get ambitious, I will make a hanging slat which is the right size.

Learning to Machine Quilt

I was a featured artist at the Piecemakers Quilt Guild show in May, and gave a short talk to a few groups of people that weekend. I was surprised and pleased to get an email today from Chris Crawford who came to here me speak. She says I gave her the inspiration to try some new things. Take a look at Chris’s blog to see some of her early attempts at free-motion quilting. It’s looking great Chris.

I did a lot of hand quilting, and some quilting with the feed dogs down for about 10 years before I got brave enough to try free-motion quilting. My problem was that I didn’t think I could ever make my quilting look as good as the expert examples in books and magazines, and I imagined that it would be very difficult. And then one day I saw a quilter demo a free-motion feather design. She made it look so easy, I decided I would try it on a small sample and see what I could do.

My first attempt at free-motion was on a small piece of fabric about eight years ago. I quilted a free hand feather design and then filled in the empty space with stipple quilting.

The first bits of stippling were very jerky, but the time I finished stippling the whole piece, I had the rhythm down and it was becoming easier.
I finished it as an 11 x 16 doll quilt for my then one year old daughter.

The progress I made on the first piece made me realize that I could do free-motion work, and that I could get better with practice. I decided it was good enough that I could tackle a larger piece, so I put together the blocks from the Piecemakers’ Block of the Month drawing that I had one into a 46 x 75 quilt, and free-motion quilted an allover pattern.
This is a well used quilt, as it is the perfect size to make just my side of the bed a few degrees warmer.

Looking Back - My First Quilt

I have been sewing in one form or another as long as I can remember. Quilting was something that had appealed to me, but I was always hesitant to start such a big project.

Then about 1990, a woman from my church gave a short quilting presentation to a small group of us, and I knew I wanted to try making a small quilt.

I was still hesitant, and didn’t know quite where to start. I began by reading lots and lots of books from the library, while I tried to figure out where I wanted to start.

I was drawn to the simplicity and vibrant colors of Amish quilts, and chose this quilt form The World of Amish Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman as my inspiration. The pattern seemed simple enough for a first try, and I liked the way the pink squares lined up in diagonals.

I decided to make my version of the quilt a baby quilt, so I wouldn’t get overwhelmed by size. I replaced the brown with my favorite Amish green, and chose a dark purple in place of the blue.

I had all of my patches cut out, and my husband insisted that the dark purple was too dark for a baby quilt. And so I was persuaded to return to the fabric store in search of something that would coordinate with the pinks and greens I had already selected. I ended up with a small print calico which made my “Amish” quilt very un-Amish, but I liked the results. This quilt has been hanging on my wall since 1991.