Block of Whenever Quilt Update

My "Sad No More" quilt issues have been resolved. I took the quilt to the area that I plan on hanging it, and decided that one row less would be a better size for that wall. So the top row came off, I pieced the back and am now ready to have it quilted.

In the meantime, I pulled out a play piece that I call "The Block of Whenever Quilt".
I work on a block whenever I feel like it. The blocks on the design wall are just randomly placed there. I would like to see more light color in this quilt, and will probably use sashing to accomplish this. This is the most traditional fabric I own, and I was curious as to whether I would like it. My palette generally has a more contemporary feel, but I learn something every time I push the envelope and play with colors that don't come naturally to me.

I'm going to finish two more blocks I think before putting this puppy away for a while.

Hmmmmm....maybe I am still a little too sad!

Sometimes I can see design flaws with a camera that I can't see with a naked eye.
After I really studied my quilt, I wasn't so sure that I liked the top row. Here is a
picture of it without the top row. Do you think it looks more balanced this way too?

And now I'm really "SAD NO MORE"!

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I finished piecing my "sad no more quilt" and now it's ready to be quilted. It really has brought out the "wild child" in me.
I shared with you that I got many of these fabrics on a trip to Maui, but the really special fabric is the multi-colored hand dye that was sun dyed with the guitars. There is a place in Maui where the wind surfers go...sort of a hippie throwback type place,and there I found some beautiful hand dyed sarongs, that I eagerly grabbed for unique quilt fabric.
The fabric did turn out to be a little problematic though, because it was thinner than the standard quilting cotton. As a result, I had to use fusible interfacing on all of the pieces- another added step. The circular piecing wasn't too hard to learn when doing the big circles. But those little half circle round bastards had me using language that would make a sailor blush!
I really do love the look of circles...so contemporary with plenty of movement. I will be doing more work with these this year.

Bring it on!

Was I a good girl today? Did I finish my circles and curves piecing so I could start on a new project. Never. It just isn't in my DNA. I spent over 4 hours playing with fabrics and putting them back thinking I just didn't like them for this particular project. It is the Old red Barn quilt along that I spoke of in my last post.
I'm going to be combining crazy patch blocks, strings, and circles, so I needed to have fabric that could be flexible to those requirements.
The first batch I pulled were some blue and whites that I was going to mix with a burnt orange red, but decided that they would look much better in a traditional type of quilt.
Then I went and got out dozens of batiks and hand dyes. They would have worked I guess, but just didn't get me excited about working with them on this...and you all know what that means. Another UFO. Finally, I remembered these fabrics I had set aside to make a multi sized hole in the barn quilt jazzed up a little bit, and after I pulled them out I knew that these would be fun for this project.
I am getting smart enough though to realize that I don't want to make another bed size type quilt. So this will be a larger wall quilt.
Our first instructions for blocks comes on Monday, and we will be doing the crazy nine patches first, which are probably the easiest ones to do.
And as Scarlett said "Tomorrow is another day." And maybe the stars will align tonite to give me the final push I need to get the damn thing done!

A lazy few weeks

I thought I'd better pop my head up and say something since people were thinking I was either in the hospital or even worse..dead! I haven't blogged for three weeks which is unusual . I haven't completed too many things of late, and nothing really noteworthy, but I have been working on some charity pillowcases. These will be filled with both Christmas treats and practical presents that our soldiers in Afghanistan have requested. I hoped the lizards would put a smile on their face.
I have also piece my first "Jelly Roll" quilt, and need to get fabric for it's border.It will probably also be a charity quilt, unless I decide to applique a fancy border and use it as a table cover.
I would like to finish the strips and curves quilt this weekend, since The Old Red Barn is having a Quilt Along #4 using a strips and curves type pattern that also involves crazy nine patches and string blocks, with extra circles appliqued on top. I have blue and white fabrics that I have been collecting for some time to do a quilt like this, and my accent color will be rust. I'm hoping to get a bit of an Asian feel from this piece. I think we will be starting to make blocks this Monday, so getting my "Sad No More" done will at least give me some feeling of accomplishment.
I'll share my 56 fat quarters that I need for the Old Red Barn Round 4 quilt soon!

"Sad No More"

It was a cold, wet, grey, windy, nasty day today. And it was for this reason that I worked on my Strip and Curves quilt that I named "Sad No More". Many of these fabrics were Hawaiian prints that I purchased on a trip to Maiu. And they sing a strong song in this quilt, almost as if vitamin D was emanating from the cotton!
As you can tell, there are still two blank spaces where I need to add blocks. Plus, I have one more row above to finish before I can begin sewing the blocks together. I love circles in quilts, but the sewing can be painfully slow because of all of the pinning. The little "Minnie Pearl" tags you see on each piece contains the row and column number of that piece. Since these take a little finesse to design correctly, I don't want to sew them in the wrong order.
This is the time of year when I finish a few WIPS before starting new quilts for the year, and this one has definitely been WIPPED around for several years and needs to get done. I currently have three that I expect to have finished in a few weeks. But in the meantime, I am also on a purse kick and will be sharing some of the purses I've been making with you.

Off to the finisher....

I just completed Jim Wurth's Dodecagon Coronation Ornament. I changed it a little bit from his original by adding beads in the middle and at the points of the Flyr de Lis.
I plan on having it finished as a Christmas Tree Ornament as I did the other Jim Wirth piece I completed. These pieces all use a lot of Jean Hilton stitches and have a string
art kind of look.
You'll see the final piece when I get it back..

A well deserved Needlepoint Award

Click on the photo to have an opportunity to really see the beauty of this canvas design.

When Amanda started this piece, she was a newbie stitcher. She had less than one year stitching experience and she had a natural knack for stitching. We took a class in Albuquerque at ANG with Ro Pace and Jean Hilton. It was a memorable class, and I will never forget what it felt like to be taught by this powerhouse "tag" team. The piece was for the advanced stitcher and was quite complex if you had not worked many Jean Hilton stitches. It truly was a formidable challenge.
Amanda came home and quickly finished the inside piece. Shortly after, she got married, so needlework was put aside for a while. When I told her Jean Hilton died earlier this year, she went after this project with the intensity of a light beam. At one point she even offered to give me this piece since she thought it fit better in my decor than hers.
My other needlepoint friend looked on her remarks with horror and said "You don't give away a piece like that. You MAKE a place for it in your home." She was right of course, but it was too bad for me!
We urged her to enter it into the American Needlepoint National Guild Competition, which was held in Milwaukee this year. She almost didn't make it in since it was a few days late as she was still finishing up the needlepointed part of the frame in June.
She took it to Gary's framing in Middleton and since the custom frame was complex, he was also working against the clock to get it done in time.
She won the "Milwaukee Award" for the piece and it is a stunner. And yes, sigh, I have pulled out my Venetian Delight piece and know it will be finished someday. And I already have plans on entering a piece at the state fair this year. Enthusiasm is contagious!

Fabric Mania...Vicki wins the prize!

While in Phoenix, we did our own version of a quilt shop hop, visiting The Quilted Cactus in Surprise, which had greatly expanded their inventory since my last visit...almost 4,000 bolts. They also added a knitting section. The owner has a wonderful eye for good neutrals, black and whites, and blenders, so that is what I picked up there.
Then on to Sun City Quilting, where I bought some bali pops and the Eleanor Burns line of fat quarters. Beautiful store with lots of extras for crzay quilters like silk dupioni, velvets, and beautiful ribbons.
On to 35th Street Sew and Vac which has so many fabrics it boggles the brain. 15,000 bolts is what they claim, and I saw many of my old "friends" there, as well as new ones. This is the store I would go to if I ran out of a certain fabric and wanted more.
They have a deep inventory that includes fabrics from several years ago that are classics.
Lastly, we went to Three Dudes Quilting, which was a smaller store with a wonderful staff. I ended up buying the fabric we used in our Quilts of Valor border there, and it really made the piece. The owners there were gracious, eager to share, and had great classes and community outreach programs. And I loved their book selection-all titles I would happily take home.
I must admit, I was on sensory overload after that trip. All the fabric started to look alike.
And then I came home. And there waiting for me was a little package. It was the hand dyed fabric I ordered from Vicki Welsh's etsy site. And all I could say was "WOW". I have bought a lot of hand dyed fabric in the past, but I consider this bunch to be my favorite. I have it up on my design wall to just stare at. It says "blow your socks off art quilt" to me, but now I have to figure out what that means.
Even Ricky Tims would want these glorious pieces. And they are all mine!
Thank you Vicki for your glorious creations. And just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that little package in the mail versus all the shop hop chasing I did reminded me that there is no place like home!

Quilts of Valor Guild Project

It's been a while since I have posted. I spent last week in Phoenix and was way busy taking care of "life" before I left.
Our quilting bee from my guild got together today to piece the last of our Quilts of Valor quilt. We were happy with the way it turned out. I did my squares on September 11th- it seemed like the right way to spend the day. We had 4 people working on the project, so we had about 8 squares each to finish since our last meeting. We have three long arm quilters in our guild that have offered to quilt these, and they will be on display at Ben Franklin in Oconomowoc over the next few weeks.
This was my first "group" quilting project and I learned a lot from it. Now I'm anxious to get to my other quilt projects, but with the new "House" and "Castle" season starting tonite, I think this evening will be devoted to finishing a needlepoint ornament that I almost finished in Phoenix.