Black and White Block Exchange

Back in 2009, our Covered in Threads quilt guild organized our very first block exchange. One of our members had participated in a block and white block exchange with another group of quilters so we thought this would be a great way to get started on what has become an annual challenge. Here are the blocks I completed for the exchange.

We all chose two blocks to make and then we got together and did the exchange. Ten people participated so we left the meeting with a total of 20 blocks, measuring 12.5 inches. I even blogged about some of the other blocks our members did. Check out one of those posts here. But despite my excitement about the exchange, it took me a while to do anything with the blocks. I finally added wonky sashing and put them together during the 2012 January Quilt Camp.

Eventually I added a red print border that I found on sale at Jo-Ann's. But I didn't like the geometric print against the sampler blocks so the quilt top sat in my unfinished project tub for quite a while. Finally this spring, I pulled it out and was talking with my mom about it. She suggested we finish the quilt for my cousin who had recently graduated from college. She agreed to change the borders and pin the quilt if I would do the quilting. She would then finish with the binding. It was a great deal for me, especially since it meant I would finally be able to cross this quilt off my to-do list.

We finished the quilt this weekend.

I'm glad we fixed the borders!

Baby Quilts Part 2

I get significant pleasure with making quilts and giving them away to joyful recipients. This is especially meaningful when A) the recipient squeals with joy or ooh's and aah's when seeing it the first time, B) the quilt shows up in a photo shoot, and C) when I find out the quilt is actually being used. So I thought I'd do a quick recap of some of my quilts in the every day world.

I was sent this photo of Hippo-tastic:

Elephunk showed up on Facebook recently.

And Ryleigh's Quilt often shows up on her parents blog.

My friends seriously have the cutest kids ever! They make me almost want to have another myself. (Not really but I'm happy to get to spend time with theirs.) At least one of the children in these photos will soon have a new sibling so it looks like I better get going on another baby quilt!

Floating Squares

My dad and his wife recently built a new house on their property at Crooked Lake. It's beautiful and along with the new house, they furnished it with a lot of new furniture. Including a new bed for their master bedroom which happened to be a California King. (In case you don't know, California Kings are HUGE!) So for Christmas, I gave them a personalize coupon for my quilting services.

(Yes, it's like being 6 again. One coupon = free hug.)

But I knew how much a quilt would mean to them and I wanted to make them something to match the decor of their new lake home. They were very excited about the present except that my dad stressed he wanted the quilt to be big. To fit his big bed. Like big enough to hang over the edges of the running boards and tuck his pillows in.

The largest quilt I've ever made was queen sized, about 115 X 110. But armed with my trusty new sewing machine (with 10 inch harp space!) I was confident that I would be able to quilt this monster of a quilt - all 130 X 120 inches of it. My dad's wife picked the colors and pattern - Floating Squares from the Piece of Pie Layer Cake Friendly Quilt Patterns book. Luckily I had access to the pattern and though I didn't have layer cakes, I had lots of brown and green scraps to make the quilt. I only had to purchase fabric for the borders and backing.

I always wash my quilts before giving them away. I love the crinkly look! With this quilt being so big, it took several cycles in the dryer so it's extra crinkly for now. Those wrinkles will smooth out soon. Usually I have someone hold up my quilts for photo opps but this quilt was so big and heavy - I can't believe how heavy it is! - that I ended up just taking photos of it on the bed.

Here's a close up of the decorative stitch I used in the borders.  I should have taken some photos of the quilting in the top; oops, I didn't think of that.

I like the decorative stitches - and my fancy machine has over 250 - but I probably won't use them very much. They are pretty small and don't show up well. But it's still fun to play with them every once in a while. The quilting I chose for the top was an overall continuous right angles. The chevron border has zig zag quilting. I was nervous about quilting such a big quilt but it went really well. I would estimate that the top (without the borders) only took about 6 - 7 hours. Not bad for such a big quilt!

I did have to piece the batting which wasn't fun - there was so much of it. Laying it out to baste proved to be a difficult. I felt like it was too big for my kitchen table. And the thought of pinning it all over was dreadful. (Because it's so big!) So I decided to use 505 basting spray that I learned about in Rachel's Stitched in Color Blog. Only I didn't have any place in my house to lay out the quit. (Because it's so big!) So I took it to work with me one day and commandeered a conference room. Some friends helped me lay it out and we were able to baste it in less than hour. I will definitely use the basting spray for other quilts but luckily, my next few projects are baby quilts and wall hangings.

Blue and Green for Mike

My husband loves the classic blue and green combo. No teal, no aqua, no turquoise. Just blue. And green. A few years ago, I had such fun making my Kaffe Fasset inspired Sunburst quilt that I decided to make another one for the Polack, using blue and green scraps. (I tried to talk him in to letting me include a teal but received a sharp no.) As I began putting it together, I liked it less and less. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I'd already done the pattern or maybe because I didn't love the fabric I used. I finally finished the top - minus borders - and I promptly folded it up and put in my stack of unfinished projects. Fast forward to last fall. I hosted a quilt camp retreat for some friends and brought out my unfinished projects. Everyone commented on how much the loved the blue and green quilt. I had always looked at the top with disdain, not really seeing it for it's beauty.

So I decided I HAD to finish it.

And that's just what I did...

Gray and Yellow Brick Road

I completed this quilt in December or January but never got around to posting about it. I had several fat quarters of some beautiful gray and yellow prints that I combined with the lovely Lotta Jansdotter Echo fabric bundles I purchased during a trip to purl soho in New York City. I wanted a pattern that would be fairly quick to put together (I had several other big projects I was working on) and would show off the Echo prints so I chose to make a Yellow Brick Road. I loved how it turned out.

Cancun Sunset #1 and #2

I have a dear friend who has always admired my quilts. In fact, she bought my Charmed Stars quilt that I donated to a silent auction and it's now hanging in her daughter's room. When she moved in to a new house two years ago, I promised to make her something for her guest bedroom; she wanted a wall hanging to match the room's new bedspread and pillows. But time got the best of me and it took over a year for me to get back with her about the quilt. By the time I did, she had moved on from her new guest bedroom colors and decided she wanted something for her living room.

Our deal... She continued to insist that she pay me for whatever creation I made her. I cut her a deal instead, saying that if she bought the fabric, I would give her the labor for free. (Some people will go to great lengths to increase their stash!) I suggested she look at my Pinterest Quilt board to pick out a few that she liked. She poured through the pins and even had her husband look through them. They found a few they liked but there was one in particular that they were drawn to. Of course, it happened to be the most beautiful, and most difficult, quilt she could have picked:

This quilt is gorgeous, isn't it? It is a work of art, containing hundreds of hand dyed pieces. I decided to go for it; deciding I could imitate the effect with several different batik cuts. I had no batik's in my stash but I've been wanting to make a batik quilt for quite some time. This was the perfect excuse. I told her I couldn't replicate the quilt but it would serve as inspiration for whatever I made for her.

The improvisational piecing didn't really worry me. I used the method I came up with for my Starburst quilt which basically means putting together a bunch of wonky blocks and laying them out and making more blocks to go in between. 

It takes a long time and it requires a lot of re-arranging and cutting and sewing. And the layouts vary based on the mood I'm in. But it's always fun and interesting. So I really enjoyed the process.

The photo above is version 1 of this quilt. That's right, I made two different versions. After finishing the version #1, I wasn't completely satisfied with the end result. It was a beautiful quilt but it didn't follow the pattern of the original inspiration. The yellow sort of ebbed and flowed throughout instead of making a line through the quilt with the blue along the edges. And since I had so much fabric left over, I decided to try again, thinking I would let my friend pick her favorite and I would keep the other one.

Here is version #2.

I did some very heavy quilting in it.

Version #2 ended up looking closer to the original quilt but my friend liked version #1 better so that's the one she picked. She made a great choice - it was my favorite too. Cancun Sunset #2 is still awesome though and it's currently in my sewing room waiting to be hung up. 

I'm so glad I challenged myself with these quilts. I spent hours and hours on them but I love the way they turned out. It will be a while before I tackle such an ambitious project again but I can't imagine making another quilt that is as beautiful as these.

Here is the photo of Cancun Sunset #1, hanging in my friends living room. It's beautiful, eh?

Covered in Threads Quilt Camp

I usually spend a weekend in January at Quilt Camp at Camp Tecumseh. I've done this nearly every year since I started quilting in 1999. This year, my guild decided to forgo Camp T and organize our own weekend instead. Some of us have had trouble getting in to Camp T (the camp fills up fast!) and others didn't want to spend the money. Instead, Betty, one of our members, invited us all to her house for the weekend. We had 13 quilters!

I meant to get a photo of everyone working but I forgot to do that. I did snap a picture early on Saturday morning before the work room got too busy. There were sewing machines, irons, and cutting mats set up everywhere.

Betty lives in a house overlooks the city and she has some gorgeous views from the work room. 

Our guild challenge in 2012 was to create a quilt made entirely of solid fabrics. I loved this challenge and in the end, most others did too. We all brought our finished (and almost finished) projects for show and tell. Some people even made a second quilt top for the back.

All the projects were awesome and I loved seeing everyone's creativity. We've done other challenges before but this was my favorite. Once, we all made blocks with white and black fabrics and then we exchanged them so that we had about 20 different blocks. Everyone put their blocks together differently. (Someday I'll finish that project. The top is done, I just need to quilt and layer it!) Another year, people were assigned a month and could decide what kind of block they wanted the rest of the group to make. That's the year I received a bunch of blue and lime green blocks that I put together for my blimey quilt.

Over the quilt weekend, we also decided on our next project. We made a list of suggestions and then everyone voted for their top two.

Third place was a quilt using hues of two different colors. Second place was a string quilt using foundation backing. And the winner..... a polka dot quilt. We've decided that our 2013 quilt will feature polka dot fabric. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up.