Vacationing with Grandies!

Visiting family in Michigan and also went to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

I saw this variation of Sunset Ridge Quilt (Moda Bake Shop) Crafty Mummy  blog.  The original quilt is by Chrissy Lux  Sunset Ridge Quilt 

I have this jelly roll that I probably got on sale, since I don't buy them often.  I think I was going to make a tote with it.  I used some of it when I made the floor mat.  See below before it was trimmed.

 I like the fabrics but .....  I think the remainder of the jelly roll would linger in my stash.  So when I saw Crafty Mummy's blog post I thought I would use up the fabric in a similar quilt.

I considered making it as a leader/ender but it quickly had momentum and only took one hour for a row to be completed.  Will post pictures after vacation. 

Grace Errea Workshop

Quilter's Guild of Plano hosted Grace Errea as a Speaker last week.  She is a great speaker and teacher.  Here is her website http://www.amazingquiltsbygrace.com/

I would have taken both workshops that were offered but had a recital to attend on Saturday.  I hope to take more classes from her in the future.  Pictured below is part of my project.  The class was cutaway or reverse applique.  I have a couple more stems and a few more leaves to do before putting it onto a background. 

Nothing like getting sidetracked when there are projects I want to finish, but I am very happy I learned these techniques.  I will finish this soon, I hope.  I am cleaning the sewing room today.

Willow 2 (second landscape)

I was stalled on the quilting because of machine tension issues but now the sky is mostly done.  I may make it taller as I have about 4 more inches of fabric above what is cropped in the photo.  I need to quilt the foreground then adjust the tree and stitch the tree down.

Progress on Row by Row

I have been cleaning and organizing so less sewing in the last week.  Today I added 9 inch Monkey Wrench blocks to the row by row design wall.  I used the technique Anita Grossman Soloman taught in her newest Craftsy class and they go quickly.  I wanted to play and I have been thinking of how I will set the quilt.  I have a couple more row kits - actually 4, but I think I will only use two.  One kit has vinyl and I think I will pass that to someone at guild.  Another is water themed, but longhorns, cattle ranch style and I will pass that to a friend if she wants it.  I just don't think they will go well with what I am planning.

It's a very rough plan and I wanted it to keep moving.  If I overthink it I will stall.  I want to make a new couch quilt.  I need it big enough to cover a 6' 2" grandson.

So this is what my design wall looks like:

This row is from Minding My P's and Q's in Denton, TX

This row is from Quilt Among Friends in Arlington, TX.  It is from Edyta Sitar accuquilt shapes.  There are cut outs to add chicks under the umbrellas and fabrics to give them boots but I haven't done that part because I am wondering if I want to use the umbrellas individually or vertically rather than a row.

Last are the blocks I made.  Just playing and having fun.

The Monkey Wrench blocks could go together as a horizontal row as most of the rows are 9 inch finished.  I am also wondering about a row or two of flying geese...

Landscapes - changes, new one

On the original landscape I cut the sky to layer it like Gloria Loughman has us do in her Craftsy Class.  That didn't work well because I had used cheap muslin to paint the sky for the first Willow Tree landscape and it raveled a lot.  I tried doing a blanket stitch with clear monopoly thread but still didn't like how it looked.  I painted three pieces to applique on top of the gap and they worked somewhat.  I quilted it in rows matching the size of the additional pieces.  I like it, but....it needs more work...but with adding paints (watercolor crayons) I can tweak forever and it will still be off.  So I am stopping for now.  It needs a facing or binding or more ???

So I have more of most of the fabrics so I am taking what I learned and making a second Willow landscape.  Below is the fabric for the tree.  It's feathers but I don't know the manufacturer.  I found it at a quilt show and bought the fat quarter from a vendor.

I painted a couple new sky panels, and things are going quickly for this second one.  I need to add more to the tree, but I am liking this one.

More Rows

I have completed a couple more rows from 2015 Row By Row kits.  The top one is from Minding My P's and Q's quilt shop in Denton, TX.  The second one is from Quilt Country in Lewisville, TX.  I particularly like the jelly fish fabric.  I think it was a great choice of fabric and the kit included the small amount of yarn, also.

I have to add eyes to the fish and turtle on the bottom one.