Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Bunnies, Blocks and Snakes - Building Blocks Tuesday/Wednesday

A day late and a dollar short.

I barely had time for sewing much this Tuesday, but luckily these guild blocks were super easy and quick to whip up.

Untitled

I was hoping to get a little more sewing done this morning before heading off to the DMV (oh joy), but I spent the morning putting together the guild newsletter.  It doesn't take too long, but obviously, if I am sitting at the computer, I'm not sitting at my sewing machine.

In other news, we have really had some interesting experiences around here the last couple of days.  If you remember, last summer we moved from the beach to the outskirts of the suburbs of Orange County.  It is more "country" here than the beach, as evidenced by this guy startling me as I was planting some raspberry bushes near the house.

Untitled

He is just a gopher snake (I hope), but you better believe I let out a good screech when I saw him slither about a foot away from where I was kneeling.  He wasn't tiny either!  About 5 feet long and looking well fed in the middle.

And then this morning, Reagan was playing with this little guy.

Baby bunny

This poor little guy was in complete shock.  He had an injured leg - not sure if the dog did that or if he found him that way.  The girls were delighted to hold him for a few minutes, and then we had a short talk about "nature's course".   I don't want to sound completely heartless, but a vet trip and adoption were out of the question.  I put him back outside where I know the bunnies have a den and he did crawl inside. I wish him the best of luck, until he starts eating my vegetables that is!

What blocks have you been working on this week?  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.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram 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





Sunday, April 24, 2016

Inspirational Sunday (7) - via 2016 QuiltConWest

Welcome back to Inspirational Sunday.

Today, I will be finishing up the Modern Traditionalism category by sharing some very interesting quilts.


First up, is the winner of the People's Choice award.  This quilt is called, "Mr. Swirl E. Bones" by Victoria Findlay Wolfe of New York, New York.  It is hand appliqued, machine quilted on a frame, machine embroidered, and uses improvisational piecing.  (Only four dots are appliqued, the rest is pieced.)


"Mr. Swirl E. Bones" by Victoria Findlay Wolfe of New York, NY.


I love the quilting in this one.


close up of "Mr. Swirl E. Bones" by Victoria Findlay Wolfe of New York, NY.


Whew, all that fussy cutting is amazing too.

Next up, is "Thoroughly Modern Ginny" by Diana Vandeyar of Oakton, Virginia.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted without a frame.


"Thoroughly Modern Ginny" by Diana Vandeyar of Oakton, Virginia.


I like how the background makes parts of the block disappear, almost like she was sticking diamonds on her design board and took a picture before they were all in place.

The next quilt is called "Bursting Blues" by AnnMarie Cowley of Hillsboro, Oregon.  It is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and machine quilted on a frame.


"Bursting Blues" by AnnMarie Cowley of Hillsboro, Oregon

I really  liked the triple stitched quilting on this one.  I am trying to incorporate a bit more triple stitch into my own work, but I had not seen an entire quilt quilted this way.

close up of "Bursting Blues" by AnnMarie Cowley of Hillsboro, Oregon


The next quilt constantly had a crowd around it!  "Pine Burr Quilt" by Tara Faughnan of Oakland, California.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted without a frame.


"Pine Burr Quilt" by Tara Faughnan of Oakland, CA

Isn't it stunning!

close up of "Pine Burr Quilt" by Tara Faughnan of Oakland, CA

I can only imagine how heavy this quilt is.


Next up, "Otaru Winter" by Cynthia Vogt of Kennewick, Washington.  It is machine pieced (paper piecing), machine appliqued, and machine quilted on a frame.


"Otaru Winter" by Cynthia Vogt of Kennewick, Washington

This quilt is a bunch of log cabins with metallic bars appliqued on top.

close up of "Otaru Winter" by Cynthia Vogt of Kennewick, Washington


Finally, here is another log cabin quilt, "Whimsical Logs" by Letitia Chung of San Francisco, California.  It is machine pieced, machine quilted on a frame, and features hand Sashiko.

"Whimsical Logs" by Letitia Chung of San Francisco, CA.  Quilted by Laurie Grant, Sashiko by Letitia Chung.

This quilt won 1st place in the Modern Traditionalism category.

close up of "Whimsical Logs" by Letitia Chung of San Francisco, CA.  Quilted by Laurie Grant, Sashiko by Letitia Chung.


I find it interesting that so many quilts in this category have modernized traditional blocks just by mixing up the color placement.


Which Modern Traditionalism quilt was your favorite?

Thanks for reading today,


Jen






Tuesday, April 19, 2016

More paper piecing - Building Blocks Tuesday

Oh dear, I nearly missed Tuesday.  How is it already Tuesday?

More paper piecing!


I only have one block to share this week.  This one is from the paper piecing class I taught on Saturday.  I thought I would change up the colors a bit, and I am a sucker for red, white and blue.

What blocks have you working on this week?  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.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram 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





Friday, April 15, 2016

100 Day Challenge Finale


Welcome to the FINALE for the 100 Day Challenge!  How did you do??

This challenge started as a way to jump start New Year goals by having a shorter time frame to finish them.  I don't know about you, but I definitely felt the surge of motivation, more so than if I had a whole year to finish.

As a group, we had all kinds of goals in this challenge - from writing a quilt book to starting a blog, finishing a baby blanket to finishing up some hand work; we had quilting, knitting, crocheting and cross stitching!  So many goals!  But was it enough time?

Just over 3 months seems like a long time, but life has a tricky way of distracting us.  For me, some distractions were fun - getting my vegetable garden up and running was hard work, but also therapeutic.  And I hope I will get some veggies out of it this summer.  Some distractions I could have lived without - several courses of the flu through the house, and a little one who broke her wrist.  Those were NOT fun.  I know life for you guys has been equally distracting.  Some of you took trips, some of you had family members that got ill, and some of you were distracted by bright shiny new projects (and that's OK).

Life happens, but hopefully your life included a few quilty/stitchy things during the last 100 days too, and we want to hear about them!

So how did I do on my 3 goals?

1) Finish Lazy Bums blocks - there were a lot of these!  The pic below is just one set for one bee mate, but I think I had about 17 blocks to make and ship off.  I finished them all up in the first 30 days, and it felt fantastic to have one goal done!  Equally good, to have the guilt of being so late in delivering them lifted.

Geese in the Forest for Lizzie

2) Blog - get back to blogging twice a week - overall, I think I have done an OK job with this.  Building Blocks Tuesday is a given, I also had some Inspirational Sunday's and a couple of Finish Friday's mixed in.  Going forward, I want to start linking up to Cath's "Design Board Monday" at Bits 'n Bobs more frequently.


3) Finish (including starting) Technicolor Galaxy - Well........I started it!  The center block (Block one) is complete including quilting, and I've pieced and quilted all 12 of the Block Two's (the spikey ring).  But, that is where I fizzled out.  The next ring of blocks includes a bunch more paper piecing and some machine applique.  I love paper piecing, but I can usually only do it in spurts.  This past month I've spent my "spurt" preparing my samples for a paper piecing class I am teaching tomorrow.  When the next spurt strikes, I will sneak in a few more blocks for this quilt.  Mark my words, this quilt WILL be finished by the end of the year!  Preferably, by September so I can enter it in our local quilt show.

Technicolor Galaxy in progress

That's it for my goals.  Time to link up yours!





I know several of you have asked, "what's next?" and "will you do another 100 Day Challenge"?  For me, what's next includes a tutorial for the Ho, Ho, Ho and On We Sew series over at Celtic Thistle Stitches.  I'm sharing a tutorial in June and I need to get going on my project so I know that it "works" before putting it out there for everyone else to try.  I also have a couple of new projects that I want to get started.

As far as having a new 100 Day Challenge goes, I do want to have another one, but not right now.  I love the 100 Day time frame, it is easier for me to focus on.  However, here we are in April and starting in May we have a ridiculously busy family schedule which continues through the summer and goes pretty much until the kids go back to school in September.  I even usually take the summer off from blogging because there is just no sewing or quilting going on around here.  So personally, the next 100 days is a wash for me.  I keep my expectations low so if I get anything done it is a great surprise.  However, the last 100 Days of the year are important to me.  Those 100 Days are leading up to the holidays, and I always have a dozen projects I am hoping to finish up.  So, the next 100 Day Challenge will be at the end of the year.  I hope you will join me again then.

"But Jen, I need motivation now! I need a challenge."  I hear ya!  I highly recommend joining Heidi over at Red Letter Quilts for her OMG (One Monthly Goal) challenge.  Just pick one goal a month and link up.  She even has sponsors....just saying!


Now then, thanks for reading and please visit the links for the challenge participants above.  Give them a virtual high five for challenging themselves and hopefully, accomplishing what they set out to do.


Jen
















Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Prairie Queen blocks - Building Blocks Tuesday


Prairie Queen block for Pam

Tuesday has become my sewing day.  I can't seem to get into my studio any other day during the week.

Prairie Queen block for Pam

So, this morning I whipped up these 3 Prairie Queen blocks for Pam in the We Bee Canadian bee.  You can find the block instructions HERE at Tales of Cloth.

Prairie Queen block for Pam

I am actually not 100% certain that these colors are what she expected, but I hope they will be alright.

It was nice to have a block this week that wasn't tedious or complicated.  I've been feeling like my life is a bit tedious and complicated at the moment.  I know it just because I've been pretty busy of late, and everyone's schedules are a little hectic to keep up with.  Deep breaths.  This too shall pass.

Don't forget to pop back by on Friday for the finale of the 100 Day Challenge!  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone was able to accomplish.

What blocks have you working on this week?  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.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram 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





Tuesday, April 5, 2016

To be named later NY Beauty block - Building Blocks Tuesday

Hello Tuesday!

This post is going up a bit late today because I really, really wanted to have something new to share.  But, I didn't have time to sit down at my machine until this morning. This is about as far as I got on my new blocks for the week.

To be named later block

Unfortunately, last week did not go according to plan.  If you will remember, the kiddos were on Spring Break and I was hoping we would have a nice mix of restful (sewing) days and some fun day trips to places the kids would like.  Neither of those happened.  I was sick all week.  And by sick, I mean unconscious most of the time, with a lovely flu/strep combo.  I couldn't do anything all week.  I just didn't have the strength.

But, I am now back on my feet and starting to get my house back in order and get some things done around here.  This week, I need to focus on my class sample for a class I am teaching next weekend, Paper Piecing Round 2.  The ladies that took my last paper piecing class wanted more, so this time I thought I would challenge them with a little New York Beauty action.  So, I whipped up this version in EQ7.  It kind of reminds me of a sunflower.  What do you think?  Next, I need to quilt it and make it into a pillow.  I'll post my finished project as soon as I get it done.

Also, don't forget that the final check in for the 100 Day Challenge is quickly approaching!  April 15th is right around the corner.  If you haven't completed all your projects, don't despair.  How about just working on the one that is the closest to completion for the next week so you can link up?

What blocks have you working on this week?  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.


Quilter in the Closet

Rules:

1) Please link up only to the page in your blog showing your wonderful blocks, not just the blog homepage.  Flickr and Instagram 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





Sunday, April 3, 2016

Inspirational Sunday (6) - via QuiltConWest 2016

Welcome back!  Today, we continue with the Modern Traditionalism category.


First up is "Etude" by Bailey Pike of Pittsburg, Kansas.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted without a frame.


"Etude" by Bailey Pike of Pittsburg, Kansas.

Check out that tight matchstick quilting!

close up of "Etude" by Bailey Pike of Pittsburg, Kansas.


I liked how quiet this quilt was.

Next is "Churning" by Jean Larson of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted without a frame.


"Churning" by Jean Larson of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I can't believe that this is just a churn dash block!  Can you see it?

close up of "Churning" by Jean Larson of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I also really like the wavy line quilting.  I learned how to do this in Jacquie Gering's first Craftsy class, "Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot" (***affiliate link).  I still highly recommend it and her follow up class, "Next Steps with Your Walking Foot" (***affiliate link), which is currently on sale!

Speaking of Jacquie Gering, this next one is called, "Twisted Tulips" by Jacquie Gering of Kansas City, Missouri.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted without a frame.


"Twisted Tulips" by Jacquie Gering of Kansas City, Missouri


Here's one that utilizes my favorite quilting motif, spirals!  It is called "#ImOnABoat" by Allison Chambers of San Antonio, Texas.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted on a frame.


"#ImOnABoat" by Allison Chambers of San Antonio, Texas

She used some of my other favorite designs too, like the wood grain for the hull of the boat.

close up of "#ImOnABoat" by Allison Chambers of San Antonio, Texas


Finally for today, one of my favorites in the group.  This one is called "Tree of Drunks" by Dorie Schwarz of Mason, Michigan.  It is machine pieced and machine quilted on a frame.


"Tree of Drunks" by Dorie Schwarz of Mason, Michigan.  Quilted by Lynn Carson Harris.

This quilt was inspired by the Temperance movement.  I love how simple the quilting is, yet very modern looking!

close up of "Tree of Drunks" by Dorie Schwarz of Mason, Michigan.  Quilted by Lynn Carson Harris.


That's all for today!  I think I have one more week of Modern Traditionalism including the winner of the category and the People Choice pick, then we will move on to another category.


Thanks for reading today!

Jen


***This post contains affiliate links.  If you purchase something after clicking one of my links, I may be compensated.