Challenge Quilt - Wallhanging

This is my finished wallhanging for the guild challenge. It is called "The light side of the moon" and the perimeter turned out to be 77".

I enjoyed every part of constructing this quilt. These are some of my favourite things...

I had fun positioning the two owls as though they were peaking out from behind the moon.






The machine quilting process was really fun. I used the  walking foot and stitched wavy lines from top to bottom. Each path between the moon columns has two different colours of thread that  I tried to make look like ribbons. I enjoyed using a variety of pretty thread colours.




Even sewing the strange binding angles worked out okay. I made a two fabric binding with a predominantly white starry fabric on the left and a bold black and white stripe on the right.



What I didn't like was that in spite of trying to create variety in the background blocks, and checking the layout several times, I still managed to put two of the same blocks touching each other in the final quilt. Look at that!
Oh well, that's life I guess. Those moon just wanted to be together.

I can't wait to see all the challenge quilts hanging together at the show. It is always mind blowing to see what happens when you challenge a group of quilters with the same fabric and theme, and they create such a diverse range of quilts. The quilt show is at the beginning at May - here's the link. Hope you can come and see our challenge quilts. Don't worry, I will remind you again closer to the show date!

Challenge Quilt - Miniature

Yes... both challenge quilts were finished in time to meet the submission deadline! It was close, but I made it.

Here is the 34" miniature quilt (with the corners rounded to meet the size requirement of under 36") and it is called "The wisdom of friends helps survive the darkest night". I love the friendship star blocks around the owl centre block. The pattern is by Camille Roskelley. In the description of the quilt I wrote "Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know that they are always there."

I had to block the quilt to get it to lay flat, and thankfully this worked wonders in uncurling the corners. See all the pins in around the curves? I pinned it (after soaking it) to my June Taylor mat and let it dry overnight. If I would have known the edge was going to be rounded, I would have used a bias binding, and saved myself the hassle. Oh well, the remedy worked, and beading could commence.





I thought the quilt needed some sparkle, since it was a starry night quilt. The background purple beads with a tinge of gold were perfect, and I was happy with how they added to the quilt. 




I didn't end up liking the effect of the gold beads on the stars as much as I thought I would.
But a finished quilt is a wonderful quilt :)
I will write a post about the second quilt after I have my morning coffee.

The challenge becomes more challenging

I make a quilt in much the same way as I drive a car. I start out with a destination in mind, but don't pay too much attention to the details as long as the scenery is lovely, I am enjoying myself, and I am heading in the correct direction. I know I always get there, and trust that the way will become clear as I make all the decisions that must be made as I go along. It's a fun way to travel and to create, until the deadline approaches and I'm not near where I need to be! 

I have to hand in my guild challenge quilt on Tuesday, and the clock is ticking loudly ... tick tock, tick tock.
It's time to stop having fun and make some decisions!

My little HST blocks decided to become their own quilt, since they couldn't play nicely with the other blocks I had made. I used a Camille Roskelley pattern to make a small circle of friendship stars.

Then I machine quilted a free hand spiral that turned out okay.

But when I was ready to sew the binding on, I realized that this quilt is too big for the miniature category. Look at this... it would be one inch too big for the 36" perimeter rule!! Ugh. My bigger HST blocks are hopefully going to become something for the wallhanging category, so I had to size this one down to less than 36"


And so I did. I took a plate to trace a curve, and cut off two of the corners to make it a bit smaller. Shhhh...it's top secret that the corners were cut off to fix a mistake. Hopefully people will think I meant to do this from the start, and will consider it an endearing design element!

Now to try to get a straight cut binding on rounded corners!

The challenge of a challenge

My quilt guild is having a challenge for our upcoming quilt show. We were given these 2 fat quarters and a theme of "Nightscape".
The thing about a challenge is that it is ... well, it's a challenge. It is "a test of one's abilities or resources in a demanding but stimulating undertaking". It's not supposed to be easy, and sometimes it is really a struggle.

I have changed my mind many times about what I would like to create. I have a lot of creative ideas spinning around, have discarded a few lofty ideas, had a couple of false starts, and have settled on one or two possibilities that might become a quilt that I could like. Last week I made some tiny HSTs and made some bigger ones this week, but still haven't decided yet how these blocks are going to fit together into a quilt. 

I have also made some circles using my favorite method of Karen Kay Buckley's circles, and liquid spray starch. That was really fun. 
And now I need to figure out what to do with the circles. Are circles necessary for a nightscape? Well, I was thinking of moons, and started out with yellow scraps, but somehow the oranges jumped in there, so now I'm not sure!
Stay tuned to see how this challenge turns out... or not!

May For Me - Sweet Treats

I must admit May is a hard month for me and when I saw the May for Me postings, I thought I was way too busy and too stressed out to participate in that. But then I thought..." isn't this exactly when I need to make time for myself a priority"?!? 

So I have been setting aside a few minutes every day whenever I can, to cut some pieces of dotty fabrics (because they are happy) to start some blocks for Judy's "Sweet Treats" quilt along. I am way behind in the quilt along, but I am slowly putzing away. I should have 30 of these blocks done for tomorrow, with a second round of strips sewn on, but that won't be happening.   I have no colour plan, or any idea whatsoever where this project is going, and am just focusing on enjoying any "minutes for me" that I can get. I think I need to add some more colours to this project...maybe some red?? or yellow??

I have also been gifted with several other "sweet treats" this month. 
First I received two ribbons at my guild's recent quilt show! My quilt "Spring Pinwheels"  won a 3rd place ribbon in the challenge miniature category. The ribbon is as big as the quilt!

And my quilt "Joy Spring" won a 1st place ribbon in the challenge pieced wallhanging category! I photographed the judges' comments, which made me smile, because they liked one of the things about this quilt that I disliked and struggled with! Can you see it?!  These awards were very "sweet treats" to receive and started my month on a more joyful note. 

Then I won three jars of scraps at the quilt show by correctly guessing (or being the closest guess) the number of scraps in the jar! Do I know my scraps or what?!? 





And if that was not enough treats, I received a book in the mail from Jo's Country Junction for participating in the crumb along last year!

Can't wait to start sewing some free-form blocks from this book! Thanks Jo! I am excited about a new direction for my crumb quilt and look forward to working on it over the summer.

Wishing each one of you lots of sweet treats!

Guild Challenge - Post #3: Mini Quilt

The second challenge quilt I made was for the mini category. In this category each quilt has to measure less than 36" around the perimeter, which means less than 9" per side. 
I decided to use my favorite "Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheel"  ruler again. I LOVE this tool and it is such a fun project to sew, I just couldn't resist making another one. I made my first twister in a tablerunner size (click here to see it) and it was so fun I decided to try it in mini size last October (click here to see it). I think I am addicted to these things! Funny that it hasn't occurred to me to make a large/bed size quilt though, eh?


Here is the start of my quilt with one of my favorite Kaffe Fassett paperweight fabrics for the border. It's bizarre that I feel so sad when I run out of one of my favorite fabrics :) LOL!




And here is my finished "Spring Pinwheels" quilt. I just did "stitch in the ditch" quilting because the piece is so small and has a lot of bulk from the seams. It measures 6.5" square and has 124 pieces. I was wishing I had put some yellow fabric in, and decided to sew a tiny golden bead in the center of each pinwheel. It's amazing how much more I liked it after adding the beads :) 

I can't wait to see all the challenge quilts hanging at the quilt show on May 4th and 5th. It is always amazing to see the creativity of quilters who make completely different quilts starting from the same inspiration of 2 fat quarters of fabric.These are the two challenge fabrics...can you see them in the finished quilt?

Guild Challenge - Post #2: Finishing the Dresden Plate

In yesterday's post I wrote about the beginning of a challenge wallhanging (click here if you missed reading that). Once I had the Dresden Plate attached to the quilt, I decided that I didn't want to applique the outside edges of the plate to the background fabric, as is traditionally done. I really liked the points having a more 3D look, so I decided to tack down each point with a bead instead. I love that feature of the quilt!

That is when the title of the quilt came to me ... "Joy Spring". That is what quilting is to me, and I felt so much joy working with these fabrics and trying a new technique.
I then decided that the background quilting needed to be a free motion design to reflect energy and joy flowing out of the plate/fabrics. I was nervous about overquilting the background since I hadn't done much quilting on the dresden plate, and I wanted the wallhanging to lie flat. But after the quilt was done, I thought I probably could have made the quilting design on a smaller scale and I would have liked it more. I very, very rarely remove quilting stitches... once it's done, it is done, and when I know I tried my best, I move on, no matter what the outcome! 

Here is a close up of the center of the dresden plate, and there is a little crystal heart right in the center. I added a few purple sequins and some black twisted bugle beads (they cover up where the seams don't meet up properly, but don't tell anyone!).
I finished up the wallhanging with a bright scrappy binding using leftover strips.

In the end I didn't love it, but it was fun to sew. I have an idea for beading the background area but ran out of time before the challenge submission date. I wonder if doing that beading might help me to like the quilt more?
Tomorrow I will post the mini quilt I made for the same challenge.
If you like Dresden Plate quilts and want to see more, hop over to the Quilting Gallery and vote on your favorite. Also, to read an interesting history lesson about the Dresden Plate pattern, click here.

Guild Challenge - Post #1: Making a Dresden Plate

The first quilt I ever owned was given to me by my mother-in-law and is a dresden plate - you can see it on this blog post. I love that quilt and have used it for almost 28 years now! I have always thought about making one, and when Anne from Bunny Hill posted about a Scrappy Plate Club, I was really tempted to join in. But I just could not allow myself start another quilt project (demonstrating amazing self restraint for a quilting addict)!

Then I found Lurline's tutorial for a scrappy dresden block and decided that I was going to try "just one" block for my guild's quilt show challenge. 

Here are the two challenge fabrics that were to be included in each quilt. I decided it would be fun to challenge myself to try to make these challenge fabrics play nicely with my bright Kaffe Fassett scraps.

I had a great time cutting out scrap squares and laying them out from dark to light in groups of 4 to sew into blades like Lurline did. 

I didn't have the ruler that Lurline recommended, but I had one that looked similar so I tried it. It didn't work out as well!  On Lurline's block she had 20 blades, and on mine I needed 36 blades to complete the circle...whoopsy, a slight math miscalculation! So I made 16 more blades and sewed them together in pairs to see if that would make a complete circle, which it did. But then there was a very large hole in the center of the plate. So I sewed an extra black piece on the bottom of every blade pair and that worked. 
What to do next?!? I picked a background fabric, pin basted the plate to it, sandwiched that to the batting and backing,  and then quilted on the straight line seams to fasten the plate to the three layers.

Then I appliqued a circle (which ended up to not be very round?!?) on top of the hole in the center, and added some beading to sparkle it up a bit.
What did I do next?!?
This post is getting long so I'll write about how I finished the quilt in tomorrow's post.

Celebration Giveaway

The first day of the quilt show is over and it was a great day! This show is really the best one I have ever seen from a quilt guild, and I'm not just saying that because it's my guild! The wide variety of styles of quilting was amazing, the workmanship (workwomanship?) was outstanding and it was a delightful feast for the eyes! I was so proud of my quilting friends for organizing such an inspiring array of quilts and I am just thrilled to be a part of this creative group of women. It was also great fun to meet a few of my silent but dedicated blog stalkers (who apparently get a little bitter when I go on vacation and don't blog regularly LOL).  If you have time to come by and see the show tomorrow, click here for the guild website and then click "Quilt Show" for the location and hours. I am doing a 'beading on quilts' demo at 1 pm so come on over and say 'hi'.
One of the special displays at this year's show is bra purses. We were challenged to made a purse out of a bra for a fictional character to take to an event. Here is a small sample of the purses...they were spectacular! A dollar will buy you a vote for your favorite purse and all money raised goes to the Breast Cancer Support Program.

You saw me beading my bra purse edging on this post .  And here is the finished product...a handbag for Little Cindy Lou Who to take to Frosh Week! Fun fun fun!




My challenge piece (you can read about it here and here ) won 1st prize for the miniature category, but don't be too excited...there were only 4 entries, which was disappointing for a mini quilt lover like me.  It was hard to see because it is up high, but there it is, with it's new ribbon, which is conveniently colour co-ordinated with the quilt!

To celebrate our successful quilt show I am having a little blog giveaway. Leave a comment (don't email me you blog stalkers!) on this post and I'll enter your name in the draw. I am giving away a little assortment of goodies I picked up at the vendors mall ...adorable titanium thread snippers, Bead Gravy, my favorite Nymo beading thread, and hand dyed thread and fabric from one of my favorite vendors Dye-Versions.

Challenge Finish

Once the 3 rings were pieced together, I machine quilted every other seam line from the centre to the outside. Then I realized that with the seam allowance on the outside plus the binding it would make the quilt too large for it's category...oh no!

 So I had to turn the seam allowances under and bead the edge, which also meant unstitching the quilting and requilting. That was definately  a low point in the process! It was very challenging to keep the curve on the edge and I don't think it looks nearly as cool as with the jazzy striped binding fabric I had chosen...however the size was correct.

The next problem was the hole in the middle. I decided to applique a little yellow circle over the hole, sewed on a red button and then beaded over top of the hole...problem solved. I ended up really liking the centre and I think it actually looks like I meant to do it that way, so don't tell anyone!

Then I beaded the seam intersections and the flying geese points just to give it a little more sparkle evenly around the quilt. Then came the label, for which you need a title. I asked my family what they thought I should call it and my creative son named it  "The Internal Sun", which I think is a perfect name!

The theme for the challenge was "What makes me smile" and when submitting the quilt, you had to describe how your quilt relates to the theme. This is what I wrote:

“The Internal Sun”

What Makes Me Smile…

Hours of dreaming & creating

Hours of selecting colours

Hours of sorting scraps

Hours of drafting a pattern

Hours of cutting fabric

Hours of paper piecing

Hours of hand piecing the rings together

Hours of machine quilting

Hours of hand beading

Every minute spent in total bliss.

Quilting makes me smile.

Challenge beginning

I admit that I am powerless and weak and unable to resist a quilt challenge. This coming weekend is my guild's 4th quilt show and I have participated in the challenge for each show. This challenge piece started with a piece of freezer paper and my garbage pail, which was the exact size of the miniature category size limitation...I have very complex design tools! I traced a plastic lid and a plate to make 3 rings. And then I folded the circle into lots of sections. Here is a shot of the 2 challenge fabrics and my finished pattern. I decided to only use the warm colours of the challenge fabric and eliminated the blue, green and purple sections. 

Then I started the piecing. I started with the smaller flying geese ring and it was fun, fun, fun! I got a lot of use out of my Clover mini iron which I really like for piecing minis. You can get a sense of the scale of the pieces in this photo. I was able to use up a lot of tiny scraps.

Next step was piecing the inner circle, which I had cut into 2 parts. It was tiny and frustrating and I was unable to get the 2 halves pieced together and laying flat. What's a quilter to do but cut a hole in the centre?!? Then it layed flat but I had created another problem for myself which I decided I would figure out at the end.Then I pieced the outside ring and hand pieced the 3 rings together. Tune in tomorrow to find out how I fixed the hole in the centre!