January Check-In -- Fabriholics Anonymous

Time to check in.  January is almost over, and I am happy to report that I haven't purchased any fabric.   It has been extremely difficult for me, especially during this trip.  I have pinpointed my weak spots - loneliness and boredom. I tend to buy when I am alone at night after the kids have gone to bed and when my DH is travelling.  I miss him and don't have him there as a distraction from the buy now button.

And wasn't the Great De-stash on Instagram a pain?  For those of you with the willpower and fortitude to actually just de-stash and not buy, all the power too you.  I don't have that discipline, and was sorely tempted every time I opened Instagram.  I had to turn it off to survive.

While on my trip, I have really struggled too.  My body has clung to West Coast time and after I leave Gram and go to my room, I am up for hours trying to make myself sleepy and what am I doing?  Surfing the internet of course.  I try really hard to stay away from the actual online fabric store sites, but catching up on my blog reading is almost as bad since many people are sharing their latest purchases or projects with new, fabulous fabric.  I've also been making mental lists of all the projects I want to get started on when I get home, some of which may need some supplemental fabric (or not).  I am literally starting to twitch a bit thinking about it.

Then of course, there is the fact that I am a total CHEATER.  I pre-ordered some fabric back in November, before I signed up for this challenge, and it arrived the day before I left.  Lovely, new, beautiful fabric that I can't wait to cut into when I return.  I am hoping that the promise of doing just that will help me make it a few more days.

Ahhhhhhh! (twitch, twitch)  If you are imagining me sitting at the computer twitching and gnawing at my fingers as if to free them from an invisible trap enclosing them, you might be accurate.

In other news, I have also managed not to buy any more Craftsy classes, and have even been watching some of the ones I already have late at night while I try to settle down.

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Travel edition - Building Blocks Tuesday

Hi everyone.   Welcome to the travel addition of Building Blocks Tuesday.

As I mentioned in my last rambling post, I am in Connecticut at the moment visiting my grandmother.  She is imprisoned (or so she tells me) in a rehabilitation facility for a few more days.  She can't wait to break out, but I must say that I am really enjoying just sitting and talking with her.  It is a marked change from my life at home which is really just running around from one activity to another.  My only quiet time, which I value and hoard, is my sewing time.  Here, in rural New England, it is a different way of life, especially so for the elderly.  It is quiet and slow, not frantic.  My DH would have totally gone bonkers by now, but I am soaking up every blissful minute of relaxation (being kid-free may have something to do with it too).

The weather is a bit different here too, which is fun for me (probably because I get to leave it in a few days).  This is the view from Gram's window.

Snow, lovely snow.  I packed up all the winter gear I never get to wear at home - my nice wool coat that I bought several years ago for a one-off trip to NYC in winter, my snow boots that I wear for 1 week every year when we go skiing, and two long scarves, one of which I bought over 10 years ago and it still had the tags on it!  But check it out, isn't a cool scarf (prepare yourself for a rare photo of me (selfie!))?

I know those of you who live in colder climates are probably rolling your eyes at me right now.  I imagine by late January, you are sick of this weather and feeling a bit of cabin fever, but I've been tramping through the snow every morning, loving the enormous foot prints I leave (mine are the only ones out there too).  I may even make a snow angel one morning when no one is looking.

As you may have guessed by now, I have no new blocks to show you.  I brought my hexagons with me and have been basting a few here and there while Gram is in therapy, but other than that I haven't been doing much but chatting.  I'm always interested in what you have been working on though!

So, what blocks have you been working on?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

Inspirational Sunday (18) - via the 2013 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

As promised, this week's selection of quilts are all about color!  You may want to grab some sunglasses.

Starting off with this quilt called, "Pixelated Color Wheel" by Kati Spencer of Taylorsville, UT.  It is machine pieced and quilted.

She says, "I used approximately 150 different colors of solid cotton fabric.  My initial intention with this quilt wasn't to perfectly recreate the color wheel, but rather to place fabrics in such a way that created interest while providing the overall view of the color wheel.  The design itself was very organic as I simply began with the central white squares and began arranging all other colors radiating from that point, moving from light to dark.  The use of color, quilting and solid fabrics create a simple yet interesting piece that has become a well-received quilt in the modern quilting community."

I'm not sure if I have 150 different solids yet, but I like the idea of creating a quilt using her method.

The next quilt is called "Circus Stars" by Teresa Justice of Rock Hill, SC.  It is machine pieced, big stitch hand quilted.

"Using a traditional Kaleidoscope block, I wanted to create an explosion of colors on a black and white background.  The colors, movement in the stars and illusions of white and black rings all brought to mind the traditional American circus.  I designed a border that reminded me of circus tents and added quilted rings to the border representing the three-ring circus format."

If an explosion of color is what she was going for, I think she attained it.  Isn't it just "WOW"?

This next quilt is called, "The 48 Pound Quilt" by Tanya Finken of Saratoga Springs, UT.  It is pieced and free-motion quilted.  The modern cross or modern plus sign inspired this design.

She says, "This was my quilt for the Kona Solids Challenge.  We were given a Kona Brights Charm Pack and challenge to use these and other solids to produce a quilt.  I have had  the pound symbols in my head for a while, so I chose to make my quilt with these.  I call it The 48 Pound Quilt because there are 42 pound symbols on the front, and six more hiding on the back."

Well, good thing it didn't weigh 48 pounds, right?  I doubt many kids now days would know what she meant by "pound" symbols since they call them hash tags" now thanks to social media.

This next quilt is called "Intersections" by Diane Melms of Anchorage Alaska.  It is an original design and machine pieced and quilted.

"In life we intersect and encounter many people and ideas.  This convergence makes our life richer as we learn from new experiences and input.  The choices we make color our life and create a patchwork, which becomes our life story."

I wonder what the patchwork of my life would look like.

Most of the quilts today have been rather "Modern", so the final quilt today is a bit more traditional, but still colorful.  It is called, "Spring Garden" by Susie Andersen, Margie Lambeth, and Margaret A. Phillips of Cos Cob, CT.  It is machine pieced and free-motion quilted.  It uses 16 patches and Sawtooth Stars for design.

The quilter's statement says simply, "This is the latest in my series of large quilts exploring color while using traditionally pieced designs."

Who knows what next week's selections will be?  Do you have any suggestions for themes?

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

Random ramblings

It has been a crazy week!  My head is still spinning, and technically, the week isn't over yet.

I'm actually writing you today from 30,000 ft!  I left my sunny and 75 degree weather and am headed to the frigid Northeast.  It is about 9 degrees on the ground.  Luckily, it is not snowing again yet.  I might have a chance to get to my grandmother's place before it starts up again.  Either way, I am enjoying some peace and quiet for the next few days, and boy do I need it.

Monday was a holiday, so I packed up all 3 girls into the car and we headed down to Disneyland.  What was I thinking?  The park was only averagely busy, but we ran into friends and ended up staying much, much later than I anticipated. The girls had a blast, but the day completely exhausted me!

Wednesday was another exhausting day as I chaperoned 3 kindergarten classes on their field trip to the zoo.  The animals were running, jumping and climbing all over the place, but at least the zoo inhabitants were well behaved (har, har).  I actually got assigned a pretty good group of kids, the only one that didn't listen was my own daughter.  We went, we saw, we survived.

Yesterday was spent at art training for a project on Monet that I will teach to the kids in a couple of weeks.  It was fun.  I had a few hours to spare afterward and I considered driving out to Ontario, CA to see the Road to California quilt show.  After all, I love having pictures of quilts to share for Inspirational Sunday, but I just couldn't do it.  I hope you all will forgive me (because Road2CA is usually such a good show), but I chose to pack and prepare for my trip instead.

So far traveling has been an adventure.  I actually think I might be cursed.  Whenever I travel without my kids, something always goes wrong.  I suppose I should just be happy it doesn't happen when the kids ARE with me.  Today, we had only been in the air for about 40 minutes when they paged for a doctor.  We had to make an unscheduled stop in Oklahoma City due to a medical emergency.  The airline was really great about facilitating everything involved.  They were even nice enough to give us an update on the woman's condition once we were back underway.  I missed my connection to Hartford, but was quickly put on the next flight.  As I still need to find my luggage and get a rental car, I don't want to jinx myself, but I am crossing my fingers that the rest of the journey today goes well.

I am really looking forward to visiting my grandmother.  She is getting out of rehab soon - people in LA gave me rather funny looks when I said that, but there are other kinds of rehab besides substance abuse ones - she is in a physical therapy rehab center at the moment.  I can't wait to just SIT and visit with her.  I did bring my hexagons to baste, and I really can't think of anything better than just hanging out with her and basting away.

Hopefully my visit will also include a Friendly's Peanut Butter Sundae.  It was a tradition when I visited my grandparents as a child that we would go to Friendly's for enormous sundaes.  Granted, they might not taste as good when it is 9 degrees out as they did in the middle of summer, but I am determined to put on my sunglasses and pretend if necessary.

Does anyone else cling to certain childhood traditions like that when travelling to a specific area?

Thanks for reading my random ramblings today,

Jen

Little log cabin pincushions - Building Block Tuesday

After some technical difficulties this morning, my Internet is now working and I can post today's Building Blocks Tuesday!

I still haven't been making many blocks.  I've been rather busy with some small sewing items and lots and lots of cutting.  I despise the cutting stage of quilting, but I do love starting a project with all my stuff ready to go, so I keep cutting.  More on what another day.

I made a few cute little log cabin blocks with some scraps from my Swoon quilt.  These are rather tiny, only 3.25 inches unfinished.

What do I do with them?  I thought they would make cute log cabin pincushions of course!

I might have overstuffed them.  I think they are cute.  I used the same basic principal in construction as the Prettified Pincushion in the Patchwork, Please! by Ayumi Takahashi.  Her's are a little bigger though.

What blocks have you been working on?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

Inspirational Sunday (17) - via the 2013 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

The quilts this week all have a similar color scheme, or lack of one, and yet are beautiful and interesting.

The first quilt is called "The Eternal City" by Kate Stiassni of New York, NY, quilted by Jackie Kunkel.  It is machine pieced and stitched.  Her design source was Ancient Rome.

She says, "Traveling to foreign cities and looking at buildings has been a source of imagery for a  number of my quilts.  The Eternal City is based on my explorations of the Roman Forum, a vast area that was the center of everyday life for Romans.  Soaring columns and outlines of foundations are ruins, and thus shadows of their former selves, but they communicate the magnitude of the original city.  I love being able to walk around them, imagining ancient civilizations.  The fact that these traces of the past coexist side by side with modern Italian life makes them that much more intriguing."

Another quilt inspired by architecture is called, "Building Bridges" by Jacquie Gering and Sheryl Schleicher of Chicago, IL.  It is improvisationally pieced, and matchstick quilted.  The design was inspired by bridge/trestle structures around the city of Chicago.

"Building Bridges was made after my move from Kansas City to Chicago.  I was starting a new phase of my life in a new place and this quilt reflects the challenges of a significant life change.  Building Bridges is my attempt to illustrate the need to connect my old life to my new one, but also to move forward in a new place."

I love how the absence of quilting in this area spells out Kansas City, as if it is a ghost of the past.  That matchstick quilting must have taken forever!

The next quilt is called "Gone" by Laura Bisagna of Winchester, CA.  It is hand appliqued, machine pieced and machine quilted.

Her statement, "After being evacuated from our home for about a week due to the thread of wildfires, I began searching the internet for any clues that would tell me whether or not our home had survived.  That's when I found an aerial photograph of our neighborhood that was taken after the fire had passed through.  I quickly discovered that our home was indeed gone.  This piece is an interpretation of that experience.  The plaid houses are made of material from matching pajama bottoms that my sister gave my husband and me for a wedding gift and which we packed in our suitcase upon evacuation.

I noticed this next quilt, and thought to myself, "I know I've seen that quilt somewhere before."   Sure enough, it is in the Quilting Modern book by Jacquie Gering.  I really enjoyed seeing it in person.  It is called, "Shattered" by Jacquie Gering and Angela Walters.  It is improvisationally pieced, and is an original design inspired by shattered glass.

Jacquie says, "Shattered was inspired by a break-in at my home.  A window was shattered, but still intact.  The shapes formed by the shatters inspired the design and my anger at the act is reflected in the dark colors I chose for the quilt."

Evidently man made structures and loss have a very bleak color scheme.  So, if these quilts have you down, good news....next week is all about color!  I hope you will join me next Sunday to see them.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

Friends and Quilts make life more colorful - a finish Friday

Another finish!  I am super excited to share this one, because I've been wanting to work on this for months, but only got a chance to after the holidays.

The center block pattern is by Better Off Thread.  It is called NY Beauty Circle of Flying Geese, and you can get it in various places including HERE at Craftsy.  I added pockets, a thread catching bag, a loop for scissors (per request) and some loops at the top.  My swap partner can decide if she wants to use it as a wall hanging in her studio or as a sewing mat, similar to the one I made for myself HERE.

The paper piecing in the pattern is pretty straightforward, but matching up those inner curves was a bit trickier!  As you can see from the picture below, my black circle is a little wobbly.  I hope my swap partner will excuse these areas.

Friends and quilts really do make life more colorful!  Wouldn't you agree, Benta?  I hope to get this in the mail to you on Tuesday.  Thanks ever so much for all the wonderful things you sent me!  I use my iBag everyday.

Thanks for reading,

Jen

Linking up with:

I love mail! - DSQ14 received

For quite a while, my opinion of going to the mail box was rather low.  I mean, people don't really write actual letters to friends anymore.   And unless it is your birthday or a major holiday, cards are few and far between.  So that just leaves bills and junk mail.  UNTIL, I started swapping and participating in bees.  The experience has changed my whole outlook on the trip to the mailbox.  I might not be exaggerating when I say it has put a spring in my step!

And why not, when there may be a package waiting for me with such goodies as these:

I received ALL this from my fabulous partner Katie in the Doll Quilt Swap 14!  She blogs over at Karma Willow Designs, show her some love by checking out her wonderful blog.  Go on, I'll wait.

In addition to the gorgeous doll quilt you see above, she also included a few goodies for my girls (or were those my little ponies for me??), some wonderful heart and seahorse fabric (which I adore!), washi tape (always handy), chocolate (some of it disappeared before my eyes before I was even done photographing), and an adorable owl bucket full of some much needed charm squares (darn fabric diet)!  She also sent the most genuine note, I just loved it and will treasure it.

I mentioned in a thread in the swap that I was working on a project that required some red w/white squares and some white w/black squares, and just look how many she sent me - there are at least 70!  And not one of them is a repeat of something that I already have!  I am over the moon, Katie.

Just what do I need these for?  Well, they are turning into these......

My new hand project involves hexies and lots of them!  I will actually be using several colors but the red and the white ones are the ones I am starting with.  I must say, Katie's charm squares are such a blessing.  I almost have enough red ones (now, with Katie's additions), but I am seriously lacking in the white w/black category.  This fabric diet is already testing me!  Luckily, this new project involves enough hexies, that I will probably still be working on it in 6 months when the diet is over.

By the way, day 16 of the diet and I haven't bought a single scrap of fabric or a Craftsy class.  I have walked out of Joann's with $200 worth of "stuff" but no fabric, and bought several new crafting books and patterns.  What can I say?  Spending habits die hard.

Thanks for reading today (and an extra big THANK YOU to Katie!),


Jen

Too yummy not to share - WIP Wednesday

Is it Wednesday already?  There are days that simply vanish from my mind sometimes.

Today's "work on what I want, when I want" project was just starting to look to yummy not to share another little sneak peak for WIP Wednesday.  I hope to have it finished up on Friday.   I have a bit of quilting left to do, and I want to hand bind it (which I do not do quickly). I hope you will come back then to see the entire project.

I really enjoy the actual quilting process.  I get almost giddy when things are starting to take shape.  But I am starting to notice a trend in my work -- I prefer to quilt the negative space.  Now, in this project I think it is OK, since the triangles are so tiny anyway, but I've got a few tops, like my Swoon quilt, that will need quilting soon and I have no trouble envisioning how to quilt the negative space, but am completely clueless how to quilt the actual block.

Does anyone else have this problem?

As always, thanks for reading,

Jen

Linking up with

 

The Return of Building Blocks Tuesday

Announcing the return of Building Blocks Tuesday.  I don't know about you, but I've missed it.

I am making one big change, in that I am leaving the linky open for the whole month, but I will repost it each Tuesday.  In other words, the linky and pictures will carry over from week to week until a new month begins.  Since often my linkers are working on blocks for a particular project from week to week, I am hoping that it will give us all a chance to see some progress shots along the way.  If we don't like it, we can always change it back.

Now what have I been working on?  On Saturday, I participated in the Lazy Bum Global (Cyber) Retreat.  The Lazy Bums is a Flickr Group I joined last year with the focus of working through some UFO's.  Each month has a particular focus that is supposed to inspire you to finish one of the UFO's on your list.  I admit that sometimes it helps when someone just tells you, "Hey, work on the UFO that has the most triangles in it".  Taking the thinking out of the, "what should I work on?" question helps sometimes.  And if you complete your monthly challenge, you get points and prizes.

Well, for January our challenge was to dust off a UFO that has a LOT of blocks to do, like a Dear Jane or a Farmer's Wife project, and to really motivate you to get some blocks done, we had a cyber retreat.  For 24 hours, you were supposed to devote as much time as possible to your January block project.  For every 10 blocks you completed, you got a point.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a Dear Jane or a Farmer's Wife project in process, but I did have a New York Beauty that I started very early in my quilting life that hadn't seen much action since the day I started it.  Since the blocks involved paper piecing and curves, I thought they would be time consuming enough to fit with the overall spirit of the challenge.

On the Saturday of the retreat, my DH had taken my two oldest girls away for a camping trip with one of the groups they are in, so it was just little Olivia and I at home.  I brought my sewing machine and supplies up from the garage and set them up on the kitchen table so I could keep an eye on her and sew at the same time.  You can see that I also set up our laptop right next to my machine so I could chat with the other participants as we cheered each other on.

When I dug around in my project boxes until I found the NY Beauty UFO, and found that I only had 5 blocks completed and a few partially pieced.  But in my favor, most of the fabric had been cut already!  I only had to cut out some more of the blue outer sections for the blocks.  There is no way I would have gotten many done if that fabric hadn't been cut up already.

Between Olivia's gym class in the morning and a dinner party I attended later that night, I only had a few hours to sew.  BUT, I did manage to finish up my partially pieced blocks and complete 10 more.  So now I have 20 finished, and only 16 more to go for the lap sized quilt I plan to make.

It felt good to participate in the Global Retreat and chat with the ladies along the course of the day.  I seriously doubt this project would have ever fit into my "Work on what I want, when I want" plan, but having an event to motivate me really helped.  Why wouldn't I want to work on this quilt?  While I love the look of the quilt, but I really despise the fabrics I choose way back when I didn't know anything about fabric.  Some are poor quality and others are great.   It makes for a really strange textural experience.  I would love to make this quilt again some time with new fabric.  But enough about me!


What blocks have you been working on?  I would love to see.  Link up your fabulous blocks.  You put a lot of hard work into them - show them off!  This free linky will stay open until the first Monday of next month, but I will repost it every Tuesday until a new month starts.

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr pictures are also OK.
2) Make sure to put your blog name as the description so people know where they are going or the name of your block!
3) Please grab my button and post it in your blog post or sidebar.
4) Visit other linky participants!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

Inspirational Sunday (16) - via the 2013 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

Today, I continue to share some paper pieced beauties from the show.  However, you won't see any New York Beauties or Mariner's Compass today.  Paper piecing is so versatile, it can be used by both modern and traditional quilters.

This first quilt is called "Trajectory" by Megan Dye of Portland, Oregon.  This original design is paper pieced and straight line quilted.

Oh, I want to make one!

The quilter's statement, "This quilt was inspired by the mid-century modern boomerang design motif.  For me, modern quilting is often a fresh interpretation of classic design.  The idea of a boomerang was appealing because it suggest this notion of coming full circle and returning to the original source.  The colors were chosen to reflect both a vintage and modern aesthetic and dense straight line quilting keeps the design simple and clean."

This next quilt is called "Bedazzled" by Lois Sprague of Oceanside, CA.  It is paper pieced and embellished.

"Based on a traditional Pineapple block, this quilt is considered a contemporary piece with its use of color, crystals and fabric beads.  My inspiration for this piece was the struggle to fit in and find my niche in the quilting world.  I realized I was neither traditional nor contemporary, but a combination of them both.

I bet most of us feel that way.

This next quilt is called "Carrie's Happy Birdday Quilt" by Phyllis (Peggie) Wormington and Russ Clelland of Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.  It features machine foundation piecing and machine quilting.  The design source is Margaret Rolfe's Origami Cranes.

The quilter's statement, "Our daughters Carrie and Tricia folded hundreds of these paper origami cranes when they were children.  When I saw this Margaret Rolfe pattern more than 10 years ago I knew I needed to make this quilt for each of them.  I redesigned the pattern for speed cutting and speed piecing and made two of these quilts in two months.  Carrie received this one on her 40th birthday."

I can only imagine how many different fabrics she used to make 2 of these quilts.

Do you paper piece?  Do you make traditional or modern designs? Or are you like Lois, and fancy yourself a bit in between?

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

Winner and a new free class for you too

Wendy Ramos?  Calling Wendy Ramos......I sent you an email recently congratulating you on winning my New Year's Giveaway, and I need you to respond in order to claim your prize.

OK, now that is done, I wanted to remind everyone else about the FREE 2014 Craftsy BOM.  Did I mention that it is FREE??

I have learned a bunch of new skills in the 2012 and 2013 Craftsy BOM's (you can still access these by the way).  I am serious, those BOM's are chock full of good stuff, even if you don't make a single block.   And, I'm sure the 2014 BOM will teach me something new as well.  It looks like color will be a main focus, goody goody!

So go check it out.  And Wendy, please drop me a line soon.

Thanks for reading,

Jen

New Year, new WIP's - WIP Wednesday

Wow, it has been months since I've done a WIP Wednesday.  Might as well start the New Year off with a bang!  I've actually got several projects in the works to show you!

I've been making some pillow shams to match the commission quilt I made recently.  They aren't quite done yet, but they are getting close.

I paper pieced these half rectangles, so some of the seams were a bit thick.  So thick, that I didn't just break this needle, I shattered it.

So much for titanium.  Ah, these things happen sometimes.  Onward!

But wait!  There's more!  In keeping with my whole "work on what you feel like" thing, I started another small quilt project that I've really been looking forward to, and here are a few teaser shots.

This Wednesday...

Completed Projects:

• Commission quilt - a while ago.
• Doll Quilt for DQS14

On-going Projects:

• Star of Africa Bee - 3 blocks to do
• Blocks - zip, zero, nada, none.  As soon as I have some to share, I will resume Building Blocks Tuesday
• Whatever I feel like, when I feel like, which may or may not include:
• pillow shams
• Circle of Geese small quilt project above

As always, thanks for reading,

Jen

Linking up with

 

Time is running out for my New Year's Giveaway

Just a quick reminder that time is running out for my New Year's giveaway of a free quilting class from  Craftsy!

Craftsy is hosting the giveaway for me, but all you have to do is....Click HERE to Enter to win a Free Craftsy Class!  You will have to sign in or sign up for a free account, but that is basically it.

The giveaway will end in less than a day, specifically the evening of Monday, January 6th, 2014 when a winner will be chosen and notified by email.

Good luck!

Jen

Inspirational Sunday (15) - via the 2013 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

I've been working on a paper piecing project lately and it has inspired me to share a few paper pieced quilts from the show.

You can't really have a paper pieced segment without a Mariners Compass or a New York Beauty.....

This first quilt was a show stopper, and I'm not just saying that because these are my favorite colors.  I had to wait almost 20 minutes for the crowd to clear out enough to snap a few pictures of it.  It is called "Departure" by Kiyomi Takayanagi of Kitanagoya, Aichi, Japan.  It is hand and machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand embroidered, and hand quilted.  It won 1st place in the Traditional Pieced category.

It was an original design using Mariner's Compass; inspired by a Noriko Masui workshop.  The quilter says, "I made this quilt for my son.  He has a job and was about to marry when I completed this quilt.  I hope that they will be happy."

Check out some of that hand embroidery.

Just gorgeous!

This quilt is called "Sheila's Garden" by Tina Curran of Studio City, CA.  She machine pieced and quilted this New York Beauty pattern.  The outline of the spikes is inspired by the work of Karen K. Stone.

She says, "This quilt uses the time honored New York Beauty pattern, so called as the spires are reminiscent of the spires on the crown on the Statue of Liberty.  The background fabric in each block is green to suggest foliage.  All other fabrics in the quilt are florals, hence there are nearly 150 different floral fabrics used in this quilt.  That's quite a garden!"

That is one way to use up all those floral fabrics you might have laying around!

Here is another quilt that I am assuming had some paper piecing as part of the construction method.  It is part of the Hoffman Challenge, and unfortunately they don't provide the same level of information in the description of the quilts in the challenge as the rest of the show.

It is called  "Spilling Over" by Sharon L. Schlotzhauer of Colorado Springs, CO.  It won 1st place in the Mixed category.

I apologize for the following picture being a bit out of focus, but I wanted to include it anyway since you can see some of the tiny blocks she created in the center section pouring out of the cup.  You can spot the churn dash for sure, some flying geese, an economy block, etc.

I hope you enjoyed this week's selection of quilts.  I have a few more paper pieced wonders to show you next week that are completely different styles from the quilts above.  I hope you will come back and check them out.

Also don't forget to enter my New Year's giveaway of a free Craftsy quilting class!  Time is almost up to enter.

Thanks for reading,

Jen