Quilting is in my Blood

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at QuiltCon 2024 last month in Raleigh, NC. The quilts below all caught my eye for one reason or another. I will at least write a sentence about each one. I have the photo of the quilts on the left side and the artist’s statement on the right. Click on the images to enlarge them.

The Quilts of Jacquie Gering

I am a huge fan of Jacquie Gering and had the opportunity to take a walking foot class from Jacquie in 2017 at the Hip Stitch quilt store in Albuquerque. It was hands down the best quilting class I’ve ever taken. I’m only including two of her quilts in this post, but every single one was memorable and thought-provoking. I had a very personal connection to the Missing Pieces quilt below as I have a family member who is currently suffering from memory issues.

The quilt below beautifully depicts how the COVID19 pandemic affected all of us.

Windham Artisan Cotton 2024 Challenge

In this category, I was very taken with David Owen Hasting’s Azami Thistle quilt. The quilting is phenomenal, and I loved the message, “when in doubt, take something out.” That’s wisdom I can apply to many areas of my life.

I really liked the organic quality of this Oysters quilt:

The last quilt that popped for me in the this category, is Pop! (pun intended 🙂

Improvisation

The front of the quilt below is awesome, but I was also taken with the back of the quilt.

Use of Negative Space

This Enough quilt is so elegant in its simplicity.

MQM Maximalism Exhibit

In stark contrast to the category above, this quilt had the most brilliant use of fabric selvedges that I have ever seen!

Group & Bee Quilts

I would have loved to gone to that quilt retreat in the Montana mountains!

Applique

I don’t think I will ever forget the quilt below.

Best Machine Quilting

I knew that Yvonne with Quilting Jetgirl had submitted her Cloudy Night Sky quilt to the QuiltCon Quilt Show, but I had no idea that it had won the award for Best Machine Quilting. Read her post about this wonderful award here. Below are four photos of the quilt. The first is the quilt itself, the second is Yvonne’s Artist Statement, the third is a shot taken with Yvonne, her best friend, Cheryl, with Meadow Mists Designs, Yvonne’s mom, and me. The last pic is of my friend, Laura, and me with this lovely quilt. Laura is not a quilter (though she is an artist who uses a variety of mediums), but she decided to join me in Raleigh for a nice long weekend visit. She lives in Philadelphia, which isn’t all that far from Raleigh and is much closer than New Mexico! It was so great getting caught up with her and being able to visit in a leisurely manner.

I had a successful and rather crazy February, mainly because attending QuiltCon and traveling took up several days in February. I still haven’t written a post about my QuiltCon experience and plan to work on that post in the coming week. Not in any particular order, here’s what I was able to get done in February:

I made Block 3 for Geeky Bobbin’s Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month. I am using Alison Glass fabrics for this BOM that is focused on learning new fussy cutting techniques. Block 3 was straight pattern match where I used two different colorways of the same fabric and matched the patterns of the fabric for a seamless look. I was moderately successful with this block.

I also made more progress with my version of the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 hosted by Quilting Gail. The four blog posts that I wrote in February about this project: Border 3, Border 4, Border 5, and Border 6.

I continued to be busy cutting up a lot of scraps for future projects including two of Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting’s patterns (The Cleo Quilt-Rainbow Version and Rainbow Modern Postage Stamp Quilt). I was definitely inspired by her Are You Ready for a Scrap Challenge post. Last month my plan was to make a twin size Cleo quilt for my bed, but I have since changed my mind, and I will share more about the project that has grabbed my heart below. So I have cut a boatload of 6.5″ squares, and now my plan is make the baby quilt size. The number of squares required for these two different sizes is significantly different–twin (252) and baby (64). Below is a pic of 237 6.5″ squares (some of the squares were actually two triangles cut using freezer paper templates for scraps that were smaller than 6.5″ wide as can be seen on the red fabric with flowers below).

I finished 15 more green modern postage stamp blocks that measure 6.5″ square. I will also have more of these blocks than I will need for a throw-size quilt, but they can be possibly be combined with some of the extra 6.5″ squares pictured above for future quilt projects.

I didn’t make any red modern postage stamp blocks since I won’t be including that color in my finished quilt, but I did quickly sew up a red dryer sheet block:

In February I participated in two Project Quilting challenges: Inside Out and Hourglass.

I also did a little secret sewing in February when I made Stand and Stow bags for my friend, Laura, who met me at QuiltCon, and my niece, Mary Frances, in Michigan. I didn’t take photos of either bag, but Laura shared a pic with me that shows a glimpse of her bag.

I did not get any HSTs sewn for my Star Pulse quilt-along project in February, but they are now complete, and I will share a progress pic later this month.

What’s Up for March?

• Make 16 purple postage stamp blocks
• Make a purple strip-pieced block
• Make more progress on my Star Pulse Quilt Along project hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.
• Make the March Fussy Fuel block
• Share my finished SAHRR 2024 quilt top at the parade on March 18th
• Possibly participate in the final Project Quilting challenge this season.
• Write a post about my experience at QuiltCon last month.
• Make a Mod Modern Mosaic Covered in Love block.
• Pull fabric for the project that has grabbed my heart. While at QuiltCon, I visited Violet Craft’s booth and absolutely fell in love with her Rainbow Cheetah quilt on the wall behind her, and of course I bought the pattern. THIS is the quilt that I want on my bed sometime in 2024 with additional background fabric to make it about 60″ x 80″.

Linking up to:

Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday

When I saw that Challenge 5 of Project Quilting Season 15 was Wearables, I immediately thought of all the wonderful quilt apparel I saw at QuiltCon last month. There were jackets, coats, sweatshirts, and even shoes. I was extremely tempted to try affixing and stitching a quilt block to a plain grey sweatshirt, but I don’t have a quilt block made that I would like to use (but I have one in mind that would look great, the Double Woven Star Quilt Block by Joe, June, and Mae). I’m still getting caught up from my trip to Quilt Con, followed by a trip to see my niece in Michigan, so I needed to pick a quick project for this challenge.

I absolutely love visible mending but also couldn’t come up with something that I wanted to visibly mend. Then I thought about some plain light blue gloves that were still in my backpack from recent travels that could look quite cute with a few lines of sashiko stitches. I pulled out some pretty blue Perle floss and threaded a long sashiko needle. I thought I could mark lines on the knitted gloves with a Frixion pen, but my marking didn’t show up at all, so I decided to wing it and do three lines of organic stitching on each glove.

I had to go to Santa Fe for a medical appointment on Friday, and we drove down the day before since snow was forecasted (and living 6400′ in elevation in Northern New Mexico makes for dangerous morning driving when the roads are snowy or icy). So I worked on these gloves while in the hotel room Thursday night and took a quick pic Friday morning at Santa Fe  Quilting amongst the pretty blue batik fabrics. 

I’m still thinking of enhancing my plain grey sweatshirt with the Double Woven Star quilt block. I think it would be fun to wear next month when I go to the AQS Quilt Week in Paducah, Kentucky. That’s right! Since I retired in June and can do many of the things that were difficult to do while working full-time, I have booked several trips in 2024, including finally making it to Paducah. It’s a place I’ve wanted to go for a long time. Back in the 1990s, my mom, sister, and Aunt Lois went to this quilting mecca, and now I will be able to walk in their footsteps (maybe not literally, but who knows!?!)

 

For my future reference and also for anyone else interested, below are some links to two tutorials for attaching a quilt block to a sweatshirt, one is quilted and the other unquilted. The third link is to some beautiful wearable fashion by @florawestdesign on Instagram. I’m really tempted to make a Sawtooth Star with hand-quilting either in addition to the Double Woven Star Quilt Block or instead of it.

 

Quilt Block—Quilted

https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/using-quilt-blocks-for-wearable-fashion/

 

Quilt Block—Unquilted

https://www.southernsewingco.com/post/how-to-attach-a-quilt-block-to-a-sweatshirt

 

Flora West Design

https://www.instagram.com/p/CswxTPnSzIK/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing gave us our sixth border assignment. She challenged us to use numbers and/or letters in our final border and then to share how we interpreted this border prompt.

I knew I wanted to incorporate more of the green fussy-cut snowflakes from my Maywood Studio Christmas Night Green Patchwork Snowflake fabric and decided that I wanted to make four-patches for this final border but wanted to construct them on-point to make them into diamonds rather than squares. Below are my left and right sixth borders that I have not yet attached as this work-in-progress has a little issue.

The middle of the quilt is about 29″ in length and my fifth borders are 30″ in length. I need rip out the white sashing strip between my fourth and fifth borders and correctly calculate the length of the sashing strip and then recut and sew that sashing strip. I will also take out the print fabric at the ends and center of my fifth border and resize those pieces as needed.

I plan to have the quilt top completed by the March 18th Finished SAHRR parade.

Linking up to Kathleen McMusing: SAHRR 2024 Round 6 Linky Party.

I originally wrote this post on 2/21/24, the day before I left for QuiltCon. It’s now 2/2724, and I will write a post soon about my QuiltCon experience, but I’ve also decided to share this post as my Favorite February 2024 Finish.

I was so excited to see the Project Quilting 15.4 Hourglass Challenge. It is such a classic design, and in the past couple years, I’ve developed quite a fondness for quarter-square triangle blocks. I knew right away that my project needed to be small as I will be on an airplane on my way to QuiltCon tomorrow. I drafted a simple paper-pieced hourglass in EQ8 and pulled out some turquoise ombre Fairy Dust fabric. I cut a six inch strip of fabric and then subcut sections of it from dark, medium dark, medium, medium light and light. I chose to use a grey Fairy Dust ombre fabric for the background. It went together fairly quickly, and then the quilting gods were smiling on me as I didn’t have any trouble lining up the left and right sections. That tends to be my Achilles’s heel when it comes to paper piecing. It confounds my mind how two sections sewn together being off just 1/32″ can look SO terrible!

I quilted it with diagonal straight lines in variegated turquoise thread (Aurafil 4663 Baby Blue Eyes) and a favorite grey thread (Aurafil 2620 Stainless Steel). Then I machine bound it using another strip of the turquoise Fairy Dust fabric. My Brother sewing machine with the walking foot was acting up, so I used my Brother sewing machine with a regular piecing foot, and the machine binding is a little rough, but hey, I got it done! I can’t tell you all how often I have to remind myself that “Done is better than perfect!”

This finished mini quilt measures 6″ square, and I have to say that I really like it (as my sister would say “warts and all”).

Linking up to Project Quilting 15.4 Hourglass Challenge. I am also linking up to Favorite Finish February 2024 Linky Party hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.

Gail with Quilting Gail gave us our fifth border assignment. Gail gave us a lot of leeway with this border. She wrote:

“My choice for this round is “4.” You can do whatever you want – but it needs to have an element of “4” in it. You can choose 4 colours, 4 different blocks, 4 of one block … it’s YOUR choice.”

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to interpret this prompt, but when I read Kathleen McMusing’s 2024 Round 5 post, I decided that I wanted to make Two by Two blocks, and only added them to the left and right sides. I made 32 blocks of these blocks fairly quickly as I was able to chain piece the units and then I interspersed pieces of the same Maywood Studio Christmas Night fabric as I used in the center block to make the border long enough. My SAHRR 2024 project now measures 30″ x 37.5″.

Kathleen McMusing will be giving us our final border assignment next Monday! Once again, I have loved being a part of Stay at Home Round Robin.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR2024 Border 5 Linky Party.

Brenda with Songbird Designs gave us the fourth border assignment which was a square-in-a-square. I drafted a 5″ finished economy block in EQ8 to paper piece that had a 2.5″ finished center that could accommodate the 3″ fussy cut larger snowflakes from my Maywood Studio Christmas Night Green Patchwork Snowflake fabric. The economy blocks are separated by 1.75″ unfinished strips of fabric cut from the same generic white-on-white snowflake fabric that I used in the third border. This project now measures almost 30″ square.

I look forward to seeing what Gail of Quilting Gail has chosen for our fifth border.

Linking up to Songbird Designs: SAHRR 2024 Border 4.

When I read the Project Quilting 15.3 Inside Out Challenge I thought it would be a good opportunity to play with raw edge applique. I’ve paid for and have wanted to start the Seaglass Quilting Class by Allie of Exhausted Octopus, but I’ve prioritized other projects. On Wednesday I pulled out my turquoise and teal scraps and started freehand cutting some petals in blue turquoise, green turquoise, and teal fabrics. In the interest of spontaneity, I opted not to use fusible and instead used white glue straight from the bottle to adhere the petals to a piece of white-on-white shell fabric. I still don’t feel comfortable free motion quilting, so I used my walking foot to quilt around the edges of the petals which worked okay but not so well with the inner circles of the flowers. I also quilted a couple of white curvy lines to add a little movement to the piece. I machine bound it using a pretty teal blender fabric from my stash.

This was a fun little experiment. I will have an opportunity to practice raw edge applique in a much more planned manner when I take Kitty Wilkin’s Watercolor-to-Quilt class at Quilt Con in a couple weeks.

Linking up to Project Quilting 15.3 Inside Out Challenge.

Emily with The Darling Dogwood gave us the third border assignment which was to use any kind of triangle we wanted to use. I chose to make isosceles triangles (2 sides of equal length) drafting a 2.5″ finished block in EQ8 to paper piece. This project measures about 19.5″ square now.

I look forward to seeing what Brenda of Songbird Designs has chosen for our fourth border.

Linking up to The Darling Dogwood: SAHRR 2024 Border 3.

I’ve had a busy January working on several quilting projects. My favorite finish of January (and my ONLY finish!) was the Kite in Purple Sky mini that I made for the Project Quilting 15.2 Sky Color challenge.

I also made two 6.5″ squares for Geeky Bobbin’s Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month. I am using Alison Glass fabrics for this BOM that is focused on learning new fussy cutting techniques.

I’m also participating this year again in the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 hosted by Quilting Gail. I’ve written three posts so far about this project: SAHRR 2024 Center, SAHRR 2024 Border 1, and SAHRR 2024 Border 2.

I have been busy cutting up a lot of scraps for future projects including two of Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting’s patterns (The Cleo Quilt-Rainbow Version and Rainbow Modern Postage Stamp Quilt). I was definitely inspired by her Are You Ready for a Scrap Challenge post. I’ll share some pics of these scraps next month.

For the first time, I’m also going to participate in So Scrappy’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2024, but in a very small and doable way. The color designated for January is bright and dark green. On the last day of January I made one green Modern Postage Stamp block (I need 7 more) and a small 6″ x 8.5″ strip-pieced block. When I went to a recent quilt guild meeting, I saw a lovely rainbow quilt made using old dryer sheets for the foundation for strip-pieced blocks, and I thought it would be very doable to make one a month, and maybe I’ll make a table runner with the blocks at the end of the year.

What’s Up for February?

• Make seven more of the green postage stamp blocks
• Start sewing some HSTs for the Star Pulse Quilt Along hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.
• Make a red strip-pieced block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2024
• Make the February Fussy Fuel block
• Make more borders for my SAHRR 2024 project
• Cut a lot more scraps for my rainbow Cleo and Modern Postage Stamp quilt projects
• Possibly participate in another Project Quilting challenge
• Attend QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC and take a Watercolor-to-Quilt class from Kitty Wilkin
• Some secret sewing

Linking up to:

Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish January 2024

Scrap Happy Saturday

Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday

As a side note, I want to apologize for my lack of commenting on posts for many of you who use the Blogger platform. I read quilting blog posts almost everyday, and I do like to give positive feedback to quilt bloggers who share so freely about their amazing projects. But I’ve had a heck of a time being able to comment on Blogger posts. My comments either seem to go into cyberspace or show up as anonymous. I’m still trying to make this work, so please bare with me.