Design Wall Monday

This last week at our local quilt guild meeting, there were lots of block lotto entries. I had done four blocks, so thought maybe I'd have a chance, but I knew others did that many too.

Well, actually at least the two I know had four blocks in the drawing, each got our name drawn, so we split the blocks kind of based on 'cream' vs. 'white' neutrals used in the blocks. The count must not have been accurate, as I thought I was to take home 12 (my name drawn first) and the other gal would get 10 (as instructed by the organizer). Well, at home I counted 17 blocks. So this is what I've come up with, and think that some sashing and setting triangles w/a border should work out.

I've got a 'light' star too many, and need a 'dark' green star, so maybe I can swap with the other gal...depending upon what she might be designing, or just make another one myself (see fabric below). I also feel bad since her four blocks were in my pile, so have offered to give 'em up if she's yearning for them, but I had told her at the very beginning that I absolutely loved the fabric in her blocks, so I don't really want to give them up!

Another friend suggested using some pine needles and pines cones fabric to unite these blocks. I liked the idea and believe I have some fabric in my stash I might be able to use. This would make it not overly Christmas'y'.

Far left...the first two might be the extra star block I need to make, the light background pinecones the setting triangles on the sides and top (maybe need more of the next one instead); the dark green in the middle the corner triangles; the all pinecones the cornerstones; and the far right green w/pine cones the sashing.



Here is my EQ7 draft. Don't have the exact fabrics....but a rough idea. An outer border could be added too if I found some more fabric.

I've got one more client quilt that needs to be done 'before Christmas'. Hoping to wrap that up today and then get on to some of my own goals to finish before the end of the year. The biggest is to move my studio, but I also have several things to quilt.

More Design Walls indexed here.

WIP

Finished
2012-#15 - McCall's 2012 Mystery v.1  - this version is being called "Spring Fling"

2012-#16 - McCall's 2012 Mystery v. 2 - "Razzle Dazzle"

2012-#17 - "Home Sweet Home" - This will be given to the Walla Walla Children's Home Society for their Sweetheart Auction in February. Blocks were made by "Just Us Quilters" Facebook group members. Thank you to all who participated.

2012-#18 -- started and finished yesterday. We needed some sort of window covering for the back door in our temporary residence. Based on the fabrics I happened to have already moved, this was what I chose. I wanted it doubled, and the print is fairly strong, so skimped a bit and seamed it together so that the pattern matches front to back. Although it should have a nice overhang to the left and right of the window, I would have needed another whole length of the window to make it appropriately. So...it is JUST to each edge. Better than nothing! My DH will get it correctly hanging once he gets home. For now..it is propped on top of the dowel holders.


Progress

Alaska 2007 Shop Hop, Block #9

 

Started - Jelly Roll Race (used as a sample for a class I taught in Arizona last week).

No Progress

• Out of the Darkness -- ready for block #10
• Honeymoon Storm at Sea
• Oddie’s Wild Nature (O.W.N.)
• Snowflake BOM win/Blizzard quilt
• Fall Wallhanging

Ready to Quilt

• We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler
• Rose of Sharon Bird Block Wallhanging - 'Rose of Hope'
• Irena Bluhm - colored pencil class project
• WWVQG 2006 Basket BOM

2012 WIP Stats:
Completed: 18
In Progress: 11

Check out other WIPs at Lee's Freshly Pieced Linkup. Click the WIP button in the righthand column.

Design Wall Monday

The saga continues as we wait on logistics for our move. This week I forgot my power cord for my sewing machine, so not much to show you today.

While in Arizona last week visiting my parents, I was given the opportunity to teach a group at the Apache Junction SDA Church that regularly meet on Monday mornings to assemble 'Bags of Love'. Each bag includes age/gender appropriate items and a quilt and are given to local agencies, including Child Protective Services, to be given to a child when they are removed from a home for whatever reasons. This bag is then the child's very own bag to keep with them. I showed the ladies how to make quilts with Jelly Rolls, i.e. 1600 Jelly Roll Race. I compiled many examples that I found online to inspire their creativity and they cut scraps from their stash in order to create a Jelly Roll. If you've not made one, just google 'jelly roll race quilt' and you'll get several tutorials. Basically about 40 strips of 2.5" x Width of Fabric strips or the equivalent from your scraps. If they are all the same length, cut the first one in half (roughly) and return one half to your stash and then get going. Sew them end to end in your desired method (straight or diagonal), add a separator if you'd like with a length of your choice (i.e. choose a zinger from your stack). One they are all end to end, fold and sew lengthwise together. I found sewing from the folded end easiest so it will untangle at the other end if that is an issue. If you are neat and tidy you can fold it carefully, but remember you're folding two lengths of 800"! A challenge for some ;-). Do the fold and sew lengthwise a total of 5 times. Border if you like.

This is the one I whipped up before showing them how it is done. I won this Jelly Roll from a Quilting Gallery weekly themed contest earlier this year. The fabrics are by Deb Strain. In my stash at home is also enough backing from one of the fabrics.  A white background with red print (9th row from the bottom, not counting the border). The border was made with the 3 strips in the Jelly Roll that were tone on tone red, cut in half lengthwise.

Since I did put separators in (the red with white print ~ 5" cut strips) I'm wondering if any applique would be appropriate or not. I was thinking a heart bouquet type of idea, one friend has suggested, do nothing more. Want to weigh in on this? I'd love your feedback. Perhaps if I had not put separators, applique would be more appropriate.

Does it need another border?


Here is the one I did during our session. I used a 20 piece jelly roll that I won as part of my McCalls Design Star 2011 participation and added another ___ fabrics that coordinated. Chose the chartreuse as my zinger which got cut in different directions inadvertently-ah well, and had a couple of different lengths in the stash collection. I believe there was enough in their stash to back and bind with the dark turquoise used in the border. The top and bottom 'border' are really part of the race strip, so just added the two on the side. I must admit that when I originally finished this one (without the borders) I did take a couple of strips apart and switch a few rows around to get this exact effect. I thought the zingers helped to make this look like a huge "S".

Below is a photo of some of the tops. There were a total of 10 sewing that day. Three of these (2 on the table and the far left) got to this point during our session. The other 3 in the back row were finished later and brough back a couple of days later to be included in this photo. They all seemed very excited to have something so simple to do that they can talk while they are doing it and quickly get quilt tops put together with the mostly donated fabrics that they have received.

They are now strategizing how they can trim them to the size they normally make (48" x 60") and utilize the scraps for the pockets on the bags so that they coordinate.

You can see the door is open (far left) to their well organized stash closet. And the items hanging in the background center and right are up as part of their craft sale. They are open each Monday in the first weeks of this month and their proceeds go to pay on a loan for the school building that the church supports. Very popular items include the World and US map quilts and the purses that they make with lots of pockets, are self-closing and have an adjustable strap. I gave my mom some really nice red leatherette embossed fabric and we found some cute lining at a shop while I was there so that she'll make me another one. I think I got her enough of the leatherette she'll be able to make herself one too (red is her favorite color!). I think she'll line it with the gorgeous iceland poppy fabric I brought to her from a special sale. From all of their production of goods, they have raised quite a bit of money. Maybe my mom will comment on this blog post with their efforts. It really is quite amazing what some (mostly retired) industrious souls can get up to!

The day I returned later in the week to take this photo, our primary reason for meeting was to learn how to use a Handi Quilter frame. Their main challenge now is to find a machine with a decent throat size so there are more than 3-4 inches of quilting space. But...we got it all working, so hopefully they can have fun perfecting their new skill.

Although I have no power cord to sew, today is a big milestone for us. Later we'll sign the closing papers on new commercial property that in the near term will house my long-arm machine quilting service.  I hope to get the renovations done by the first of the year. On Wednesday, I'll post a 'before' photo!

More Design Wall's at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Milestone -- 200 followers!

This past week I was 'tagged' by Carla over at "My Life..a Little of This ...a Little of That", in a blog tag game. One of the bloggers hopping around, Suzy from "Sunshine and Lollipops"stopped by my blog and became a floower, putting my follower list at 200! I offered her one of my patterns and it is now in the mail to her. Thank you Suzy for stopping by and for becoming a follower!!

So Here are the rules:

• Every tagged person has to tell 11 things about themselves
• The person who tagged you asked 11 questions, answer them
• Ask 11 questions for the 11 blogs you're going to tag (the people you tag should have less than 200 followers)
• Mention the blog that tagged you, but don't tag them back.  (see above)

Things about me

1. I grew up on the California Central Coast. I really miss the ocean where I'm at now.

2. I traveled extensively in my early career as a financial engineer/project manager. I enjoy staying near home most of the time now, but venturing forth every couple of months or so.

3. I've been married for the first time, for 3.5 years. Love him!!!!

4. Have belonged to a Gourmet Club for the last couple of years. Really fun to experiment with new foods every month selected by the hostess and shared with good friends.

5. Feel very blessed at the amount of doors that have opened in my new industry.

6. Learned how to quilt while in middle-school from a neighbor. Didn't do anything else with 'quilting', but made plenty of 'clothes' taught to me by my mother, until our church started an outreach program with a quilting class after 9/11. It fast became a hobby and I started teaching it within a few months.

7. I've been professionally long-arm machine quilting for 3 years.

8. Won a 2nd place ribbon for Machine Quilted, Pieced, Solo at the most recent Washington State Quilter's - Spokane quilt show.

9. I'm an EQ Artist

10. I've self-published several patterns -->see link in the right margin to purchase at patternspot.

11. I grew up in a family of teachers. Although I felt I didn't have the patience like they have to make it a career, I've taught at the college level and it is always nice to see the lightbulbs turn on when you are teaching.

 

Here are the questions posed:

1. What time of the day or evening do you do most of your crafting? I always seem to gain creativity at night. 
2. If money was not a concern, what would be the next machine or toy you would buy for your craft? An Embroidery Machine.
3. What is your favorite craft/hobby? Quilting.
4. Do you have a special room or designated place to do your hobby? If so, what do you call this space?  Yes, but no specific name.
5. What is your favorite TV show? Oh..Oprah isn't on any more, so Bachelor/Bachelorette maybe? I enjoy looking at human relationships.
6. What was the last tool you bought for your craft/sewing room? Plastic Snap applicator
7. Do you prefer to read a physical book on use an e-reader device like a Kindle? Probably either, but typically neither. (HA!)
8. What was your last purchased tool?  (See #6)
9. If you could live anywhere, where would you live? With my husband not too far from a city, but somewhere with land.
10. Do you EQ? YES!!! I'm an EQ Artist too.
11. What is your favorite season? Spring.

 

11 questions for the 11 bloggers I'm tagging....

1. What time of the day or evening do you do most of your crafting?
2. If money was not a concern, what would be the next machine or toy you would buy for your craft?
3. How long have you lived in your current city?
4. How many states and/or countries have you resided in?
5. Do kind of pets do you have (if any)?
6. What is your favorite TV show?
7. Where is your favorite place to vacation?
8. Do you prefer to dine-in or go out to eat?
9. What is your favorite recipe you like to prepare? 
10. What did you eat for breakfast?
11. Do you set aside time weekly to craft/quilt or just do it whenever you get a chance?

And who is being tagged?

1. 3DogDesignCompany
2. A Creative K
3. AndSewForth
4. And Sew It Goes
5. BeaQuilter
6. Capitola Quilter
7. Confessions of a Serial Quilter
8. Fabric of My Life
9. Quiltin' Grandma's Blog
10. Solar Threads
11. Turbo Quilter

 Enjoy meeting some new people!

3 Years of Long-arm Quilting as a Business

Today is the anniversary of receiving my Gammill and getting started with my own long-arm machine quilting service, KISSed Quilts.

The largest part of my business is quilting client's quilt tops by adding the batting and backing into a sandwich and stitching through all layers to 'quilt' it.

Customer Quilts
Last night I finished Customer Quilt #187 since receiving my Gammill. That makes 65 customer quilts during year 3. Photos of each are at http://www.facebook.com/kissedquilts in the album 'Customer Quilts v.3'.

I also did 4 commissions. One was of embroidered blocks that were already done; another was a large scale version of my Elephant's Play pattern; two were memory quilts using shirts of the deceased. I have several in my queue, so I better get on with those in year 4!

 

For Charity, I collaborated with Barbara Bohlman and between us we got 12 donated to local charities through Walla Walla Valley Quilt Guild. I challenged myself with all of them to do them without my stitch regulator. I'm very pleased with how they turned out and hope that each person who uses them recognizes the love intended behind the spirit of making them. Photos of all are at http://www.facebook.com/kissedquilts in the 'Practice' album.

Our local quilt guild also makes quilts for members who have had a life altering event occur. This year I contributed many blocks, helped with the design, and quilted this lively 'hearts and flowers' quilt for Victoria. Our 'Hearts and Flowers' committee has been great to work with through the years.

I also quilted our Habitat for Humanity quilt and one of the wedding quilts we created for two young members of our guild who got married on the same day!





























I really liked adding a block to the backing and making it the spot everyone could sign. This was a Buggy Barn pattern, but it sure looks different in 'brights'!

I also made several blocks for charity and donated them through the 'Just Us Quilters' Facebook group.


My red/yellow Baby Bud block ended up in this quilt.

This same group donated to my charity of choice, Walla Walla Children's Home Society. I'll be presenting this quilt to them shortly to use at their Sweet Hearts event in February 2013 as an auction item.









New Patterns that were published include (available at Craftsy):

Hugs and Kisses

Mi Amore

Charmed Network

Also created an additional sample of Zoe. This version is called 'Summer School', using the 'punctuation' line of fabric by American Jane for Moda.

Quilts in contests or made it into noteworthy shows included:

'Spinner' which won the Electric Quilt (EQ) BOM Layout Challenge; was juried into Pacific West Quilt Show (Tacoma, WA) and won a 2nd place ribbon in the Machine Quilted, pieced, solo category at Washington State Quilters-Spokane quilt show. It was also featured as a 'noteworthy' quilt in Machine Quilter's Unlimited magazine. I wrote a tutorial which has now been looked at over 10,000 times. Thank you to EQ for helping get the word out.


'My Olympic Connection' was also juried into MQX-West (Portland, OR). This photo is taken from the backside and flipped in photoshop so that the colors of the rings look correct (HA!)

















Fall Trends (an industry only event at EESchenck), '1892 Rondure' won the Judges Best Technical Choice.

Quilting Gallery hosts weekly (almost) contests. I had several entered and won/placed as follows:

January 9 - New Beginnings - "My First Journey"
February 13 - Be My Valentine - "Mi Amore"
June 11 - Quilts for Dad - "Jinny's Garden" (I quilted this one that was made by my mother)
August 6 - Modern Geometric - "1892 Rondure"

In our local Walla Walla Valley Quilt Show, there were 13 client quilts in the show that I had quilted. So grateful to have such wonderful representation of my work.


In the past, this bird block was selected to be part of Nine Patch Media's DVD as a result of the Rose of Sharon EQ block challenge. I have finally made it up. Hope to get it quilted soon.













Teaching
I had the opportunity to teach a couple of times this year. I taught 'Charmed Network' at Stash in Walla Walla, WA and I taught the Basics of EQ at Discount Sew & Vac in Pasco, WA.

The Country Register continues to be my muse. Every other month, for the past two years, a new article has been published in the local edition. This year several other editions picked up my articles, so you may have seen it in various editions across the country.

In blog land, I participated in the We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler. As we got to the last few blocks, there were two in particular that 'Sewn by Leila' featured my EQ instructions in the tutorials. Jinny Beyer Studio picked up the Feathered Star Tutorial and sent it out in her newsletter. Thank you Jinny! It has now been viewed over 3,500 times.

Here is the result of my quilt. Still hoping to get it quilted before the end of 2012.
















I was also asked by SewCalGal to participate in the Fall EQ Modern Tools BlogHop. Here is the wallhanging that I drafted. All of my EQ tutorials can be found on the tab here on my blog.















This summer I was a tour escort to the International Quilt Festival of Ireland. I had the priviledge to lecture at the festival about Electric Quilt (EQ) Software and took 'Spinner' and my three McCall's Challenge entries from 2011 and explained how each utilized different features of EQ.








I got to work on some of my own stuff this year too, but will report on that in my Work In Progress (WIP) 2012 review at the end of the calendar year.

Although my totals seem less than last year, it was mostly interrupted by our own personal lives experiencing a change in job by my husband. He took a temporary position in California for 6 weeks, then was on unemployment and working on a project in our house for a while. We did take the opportunity to travel when we could. All good, in the journey of life. Now we're in the throws of moving to a new location with his new job. I'm hoping I can focus on the move in December and be ready to open my long-arm machine quilting service in a physical location outside the house in January. Stay tuned for those details.

Thank you for following along, your input and business throughout the year has been greatly appreciated.

{Sew} Modern/Design Wall/BOM's Away Monday

A couple of finishes for {Sew} Modern Monday's index.

This is a version of McCall's 2012 Mystery quilt. I used the Terrain, by Kate Spain for MODA, line of fabric.

The quilting is inspired by the motifs in the dark blue and hot pink fabric and was done as a continuous line free motion quilting. I was able to do approximately 2 rows at a time. This makes it easy to use the piecing seam lines as registration lines for the quilt design.

Razzle Dazzle ....check out the backside!

The backside is leftover pieces from this top and another one that I used the same line of fabric. I'll put my label or write in the white square in the lower right. The entire back was quite improvisationally pieced!

Another version of the same quilt --I'm naming Spring Fling.

And its backside too! Was happy with the matching of the motifs on the left side so that it looks like a continuous piece.

My Design Wall and BOM progress:

Click on the links to the right for other indexes in the {Sew} Modern Monday finishes, Design Walls at Patchwork Times and BOM's Away Monday Progress at WhataHootQuilts.

WIP

Finished
2012-#14 - Working with What You've Got (just needed the binding and it is done now!) The last photo taken was on a sunny day.....it will have to suffice for now.


Progress

2012-#15 - McCall's 2012 Mystery - this version  is being called "Spring Fling" -- quilted, just needs binding, but forgot half of the binding at home (I'm squatting at the rental at my husband's job site in order to get the internet/phone/tv hooked up).










2012-#16 - WWCHS - fully assembled, ready for quilting. Plan to do some fancy purple quiltings in the white corners of the border.


















Out of the Darkness -- block #9 - Poppy

Continued piecing the backing for McCall's Mystery--version #2; a bit of improv piecing of the leftovers from this quilt and another quilt that I used the same line of fabric. Lesson learned--using your walking foot to do regular piecing is NOT a good idea. This backing still needs an iron and then I can quilt it! I'll actually load it sideways based on how you are seeing it in this photo.



No Progress

• Alaska 2007 Shop Hop, ready for Block #9
• Honeymoon Storm at Sea
• Oddie’s Wild Nature (O.W.N.)
• Snowflake BOM win/Blizzard quilt
• Fall Wallhanging

Ready to Quilt

• We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler
• Rose of Sharon Bird Block Wallhanging - 'Rose of Hope'
• Irena Bluhm - colored pencil class project
• WWVQG 2006 Basket BOM

2012 WIP Stats:
Completed: 14
In Progress: 13

Check out other WIPs at Lee's Freshly Pieced Linkup. Click the button to the right.