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My little 3-block Saw Tooth Star hanging is done! I’ve been waiting to put up a post, waiting to get my camera back from repair. It’s going to be a few more days, so this post has some pretty poor photos-Duct Tape Nikon and my i-phone are all I have.I finished my Saw Tooth Star 3-block hanging as a study for my larger piece. I’m glad I did the little study as I learned a lot from my choices on this one. I do like the finished product, but I see things I would have changed-I’ll incorporate this learning curve in…
Am I the only one? Why is it impossible for the Lyon’s to put on a good Christmas display? As an example, here’s the tree: Yes, I am aware it does not look like a tree-it’s one third of a pre-lighted tree. Here is the yearly drill: Stuff the tree through the tiny little munchkin door of the attic-it’s kind of like giving birth. Plug in the pre-lighted tree to see how many lights have gone out since last year. Load it into the car to have the store fix the lights. Pick up the tree and begin decorating. All of…
It’s been a long time since I have done precision piecing! This has been increasingly obvious as I have worked through my Saw Tooth Star piece. Saw Tooth Star-how hard can that be? It’s one of the easiest blocks to piece! I’ve been making new blocks for my Saw Tooth Star because I’m not happy with some of my really poorly pieced old ones-many were misshapen and, I wanted to refine my color choices a bit too. So now I have TWENTY FOUR orphan blocks, just waiting to be used….where?So here’s my confession: it is taking me 80 minutes to…
After seeing Jan Soules’ work in last week’s River City show, I was inspired to retrieve these colorful Saw Tooth Star blocks from my dusty UFO pile. I pieced these oh-so-imperfect blocks about 5 years ago. They are um, widely varied in color shall we say, and a difficult mix to make into something cohesive. I took them with me to a recent meeting of a great group I am a part of: “Sisters In Stitches” ( SIS). My SIS friends looked at them and Helen Hardwick suggested the striped surround for the blocks and my friend Laura Rylander suggested the chalky lavender…
I love going to quilt shows! The River City Quilt Guild’s show was this weekend-I go every year and I think this is the best show they’ve ever done. Jan Soules was the featured quilter and there must have been 30 pieces of Jan’s work in the show. Jan has won many Best of Shows, Best Use of Color, etc and many of her quilts have hung in international shows throughout the country. Jan masterfully uses color, value, design and unusual fabrics. This quilt, “Sunrise, Sunset”, quilted by Deb Lopez, is in the American Quilting Society’s Annual Engagement Calendar for 2012. Talk about moving the…
Okay, I’m done! I figure there were over 7 hours of ripping on this one. One Big Take-Away: Each design decision takes on great impact in such a small piece. The margin of error was tiny-one bad thread color, one little motif decision and the entire piece was diminished. I am NOT a perfectionist! Yet I spent a lot of time removing stitches because the wrong thread or motif just shouted on this piece. The piece is 15″ square-it’s a study for a larger piece I want to make.I started to “wing it” on the parallel lines on the outside of the border and had…
Based on the hits over the last few days from my blog post of my latest debacle, I would guess that you enjoy seeing me struggle-ah, I see how it is… As I begin working the border, I am totally surprised at what the fabric is doing to the thread-it’s just engulfing it! The fabric is silk noil, so it’s nubby and bumpy. Plus, it’s set upon 2 layers of batt: Orient on the bottom for stability and wool on the top for puff. That combination just seems to swallow any thread I put upon it. I haven’t documented all SEVEN threads that I tried,…
I am committed to showing my learning curve on this blog. You don’t always get what you want (Rolling Stones in the background, giggle)! Case in point, I began working on this piece and ran into some…issues. It’s based on a childhood memory I have of Lilly of the Valley surrounded by ferns in my childhood home. I’m making this piece for a purpose but it’s also kind of a test for a much larger piece. The center is wholecloth and my thought was to really focus on the puff of the quilting to tell the story, not the thread. Well, just a few choices got…
I visited the Pioneer Quilters Guild Show and Boutique on Friday. I made quite a haul at the boutique-did I get any Christmas presents?? Heck no, but I got some great stuff for…me! Right when I walked in this quilt caught my eye. It’s a great mix of Kaffe Fassett, batiks and other colorful fabrics. This king-size quilt hung dead straight, no wave-a rare sight. Great collaboration between Mary Hammarin and quilter Lana LaPlante.This sweet quilt by Diana Meier combined appliqued yoyos and 4-patches, a combination I have not seen before-charming! What a riot of color and flowers-you can’t help but…
Warning: If you are not interested in Free Motion Quilting, skip this post! I wanted to pass on some of what I learned in the class I took from Diane Gaudynski, “The Adventure Continues” at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky last week. The class was created as an offering to the experienced free motion quilter, so it was challenging. Any photos I took in class were allowed for personal use only, but you can see Diane’s work here. The photos I have included here are of the work I did in class (samples). I learned several beautiful, useful motifs,…