Visiting at Christmas

I got to see grandies last week when we visited Memphis.  We missed Stefan as he was at work.

Bonnie Hunter's En Provence - part 4 is done.

I'm loving the progression.  It is fun to have components to play with and I'm sure the reveal is going to be something I haven't considered.  To see the progress of other quilters click En Provence

Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Part Three

I am using blue where she has purple.  I am loving the color intensity of these four patches.

and I am hoping we will be making stars

This is such a fun project.  To see other quilter's progress click En Provence

Little Selvedge Quilt

I found this green fabric and thought it would make a really cool background.  So I made selvedge and fabric strings churn dash blocks.  The top is done.  I am thinking I will just quilt it in the ditch because I don't want to take away from the background and bind it in a magenta.  It might become a table topper for my little kitchen table...I am not sure.  I am not sure if it needs borders and or anything else.  It will probably hang on my design wall for awhile as I decide.

Bonnie Hunter's En Provence Msytery Clues 1 and 2 done

This is always such a fun time of year. 

Scrappy Trips - Top Done

Scrappy Trips is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern.  I finished the top today.  56 blocks the quilt measures 90 by 102.  I added three inch borders in a light print.  I wanted the border to not contrast strongly and am happy with it.  Photos aren't the best, I didn't have a holder available.  Very happy to have this top completed.

Scrappy Trip Around The World

I like variety and don't often make the same quilt twice but I decided to make another one of Bonnie Hunter Scrappy Trip Around the World.  Pattern Here  Inspired by this photo pretty   and this discussion  quilting board

I'm enjoying it very much and I just need 13 more blocks to make it 84 x 96.  There is a nice rhythm working on a pattern the second time.  It just goes so smoothly.  When I get to this point - I lay the block out then press the rows one up and the next one down so seams nest during construction.

Because of my cats, I have to keep joining blocks as they go on the design wall...otherwise they get mysteriously scattered about...

Picking Fabrics for the next Bonnie Hunter Mystery

I really enjoy doing the Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilts.  She posted the colors on her blog    http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/en-provence-mystery.html

I am looking forward to the mystery this year.  It will be the first one I can work on since I am no longer working and I don't have little children under foot.  Last year I used the same colors as Bonnie because I wanted to use up some red fabrics.  This year I am changing the colors because I want to make a dent in my tub of blue fabrics.

I think I usually do well in selecting fabrics.  Bonnie's intro suggests using Joan Wolfrom's 3 in 1 color tool.  I read about it and decided to buy it.  I think it is a good tool.  I wanted to be careful because when I switched colors on the Celtic Solistice mystery.  I did brown, purple, turquoise, and green.  The purple and brown didn't have good contrast - as you can see in the border of the quilt at the top of my blog.

Where Bonnie is using purple and lavender, I am using blue and light blue.  Where she is using green I am substituting orangeyellow.  She has yellow and I yellowgreen.  Finally for her constant she is using magenta and I am using purple.

 Because there needs to be contrast between my orangeyellow and yellowgreen, I decided to make the orange yellow a constant.  I thought of using a rusty orange but decided it wouldn't be a strong contrast with my greens.  It is hard to discern in the picture, but the orangeyellow fabric is a pinstripe and I think it is going to pop against all the blues in the quilt.  My constant is purple and it is a shot cotton and very pretty.  I got 30% off for purchasing the rest of the bolt which was only an extra 1/2 yard.

My thinking is that in Bonnie's colors she seems to have two sets of contrasting colors (according to the Ive's color wheel)  purple and yellow green  also  magenta and green.  So I have chosen blue and orangeyellow and purple and yellowgreen.  Bonnie's post shows pictures that were her inspiration and she will have used lots of different fabrics in each color but this is how I interpreted it when trying to chose mine.

I won a $25 gift card at a community sewing day put on by members of my guild in September.  We worked on getting tops that were made quilted.  I quilted 6 on my sewing machine and brought one home to do on the longarm.  I picked these two fabrics as constants and purchased them with my gift card but then decided they wouldn't work well with the blues...I will use them is something else.

The other shopping I did was Quilter's Select Rulers and cutting mat.  I'd been looking for a local shop that carried them and found it today when I was out and about so I decided I needed and early birthday gift.

Edit:  I've decided to change the purples as this one will give more contrast from the blues.

Trick or Treaters

Not the best photo but I sure have some cute grandies!

Triangle Possibilities

It's been a busy month and I am behind in posting.  My sister and her husband were here visiting for a week and we had lots of fun.  My brother and his wife came also for a quick visit.

Our guild had Lynn Roddy Brown as a speaker in October. She is a good speaker and showed lots of examples.  I took her Triangle: Endless Possibilities Workshop and it was lots of fun.  She gave great  information and ideas.  This is her website -   www.lynnroddybrown.com

Quilting Border

I got bogged down when I went to quilt the borders for the practice quilt.  Since it is being put together QAYG (quilt as you go), I could line up all borders on the longarm and that seemed like a perfect way to get a uniform design.  But, I couldn't decide on a design.  Feathers seemed too formal compared to the rest of the quilt.  I ended up just doing random designs, experimenting and improvising.  I think these will work well

The border fabric is a green.  It is woven one way green and the other orange.  I quilted it with the orange.  Colors don't show up really well in some of these photos.

Joining Quilt As You Go Blocks

I am still working on the practice piece from RaNae Merrill's group on Quilt Mastery.  I've never done the joining of a quilt as you go project so that has been an interesting experience for me.  Somehow I made two sashings too wide so I had to do some seam ripping, but I hope to finish this little quilt this weekend.

Screen Printing Class

Ginny Eckley spoke to our guild on Thursday.  This is her website  http://www.fabricpainting.com

There were workshops Friday and Saturday.  I attended Silk-Screening The Easy Way on Friday.  It was a lot of fun.  She is a good teacher. 

Pictures below are mostly the pieces I did though the shot of the floor show some of my classmate's work also.  I especially liked playing with multiple colors.  I am not sure what I am going to do with these pieces of fabric after I heat set them.  I do have most of the screens (except for turtles and large leaf sprigs) from the class kit.

Quilting

I didn't have the longarm set up for almost two years.  Why did I wait so long??? I love using it and it makes finishing projects so much easier.

RaNae Merrill http://www.ranaemerrillquilts.com/  of spiral quilt fame offered a 30 day Free Motion Mastery class to her email list as a trial for an upcoming book.  She has some really good exercises and ideas.  So I jumped at the chance and I am really glad I did.  I feel like I am back on top of things and I have learned some new tricks.

My practice quilt should be done in a few days but I don't know when I will be able to show the full quilt.  Here are some pictures of it:

Wallhanging from the Silent Auction

I picked this quilt from the silent auction at the guild show.  There were several I liked but I was looking for something that would look well in my downstairs bathroom which has a strange color wall.  The pattern is one taught by Gail Garber  her website   I wasn't able to attend her lecture or workshops when she visited the guild but it looked like fun.

Quilting! and a Surprize Ribbon.

I lived without my APQS Millenium set up for almost two years after I moved.  With the longer work commute then the children living with me it was on the back burner.  All spring I have been tentative about getting it operational.  Finally I called my dealer, Connie Keller from Lewisville, TX and within two hours I was completely up and running.  I am so pleased!  Connie is so sweet and helpful.  I am just kicking myself for not calling her sooner.

So, I am quilting.  See picture below:

I'll explain more about what the project is in a later post.

Quilter's Guild of Plano quilt show is this weekend.  I went in on Friday for my volunteer shift and was delighted to see that Willow II won a ribbon.  I didn't know the silent auction items were going to be judged.

Back From Vacation

Brandon and I are back from an 11 day vacation.  It was lots of fun.  We first went to Tacoma to visit with my brother and sister-in-law, then traveled to Las Vegas for 5 days.  My sister and her husband plus my other brother were with us in vegas. 

Lots of beautiful scenery and ideas for new landscapes.  Pictures are from Mt Ranier in Washington and Red Rock Canyon in Nevada.

In Vegas, Brandon and I went to see the Blue Man Group.  It was an excellent show.  I also won a a little money.  It was a great trip

I Won A Raffle Quilt

This post is very late.  I was actually notified in December 2014.  I meant to post pictures in 2015 but that is a year that got very busy quickly for me. 

December of 2014 I was in a hotel room in Detroit MI, having traveled there for work.  I got a call that I had won the Arlington Quilt Guild's raffle quilt.  It was especially nice because the call came on my birthday.  They wanted to know if I could come to their meeting to accept it.  Since I was not in town we arranged for me to accept it at their January meeting.

I bought a ticket at Rally Day in July 2014.

It's a beautiful quilt with excellent workmanship.