Return on Investment

My scanner didn't do this handmade card justice, but you can probably see that there's a sewing table and dressmaker's dummy complete with a very stylish dress in the works on the front.  This was the first thing I saw when I opened the envelope from Miss S. who now owns Birthday Bubbles.  She was pretty excited about it - as you can see in the photo below where she's MODELING the quilt!

Below she's showing the quilt:

 

There is just no greater return on the investment in quilt making than this.  I hope it keeps her cozy for many years to come.

One more of the 24 quilts is finished!  

I took this one along to a retreat two weeks ago and finished up the applique work.  One of the gals there has a granddaughter who's birthday is coming up and I managed to get it quilted and sent off in time.  Hopefully she'll enjoy it for several years.

I just love this backing fabric, it seems so appropriate for the back of a quilt given as a gift.

 

Pink and purple aren't usually my thing at all, but I did enjoy working on this quilt because of it's odd beginnings and serendipidous finish.  Names for my quilts usually pop into my head while I'm working on them, but all I could think of for this one was Babs' Birthday Bubbles which seems kinda lame.  We'll let Stacy decide on a real name when she gets it.  :)

Memorial Day 2012

It doesn't matter whether it is during war or peace.  It doesn't matter which bigwig had which plan.  What matters is that some individuals care enough about all of us, stranger, friend, or family to put their lives on the line so we don't have to.

To each of you past, present, and future, thank you.

3 of 24

Bland is finished!  This was a super fun quilt - it was way too easy to piece, and since I decided to Zentangle quilt it, the time just flew by as I quilted.  It had to come off Terpsichore before it was finished so a few customer quilts could be worked, but a few days ago I put it back on the machine and finished up.  Binding was finished around midnight last night and here she is!  The quilting detail is visible if you click the pictures of the whole quilt (front or back), but in the blogpost size, not so much.  Pictures of the front and back are of the same areas.  I tried using just a little bit of colorful sparkly thread for the floral cameos that line the winding path that runs through the quilt.  I liked the results alot!

Zentangling needs to be at least a little bit spontaneous, and I just could NOT think up anything for the section below.  I revert to writing my thoughts down when I get stumped, and in this case it turned out well.  Some rows were written forward and some backward so the effect would be similar from either side of the quilt.

Black TATW Finished

The circle in the left border is just a lens flare.  I had to dump so much light into the room to get a good picture of a black quilt - well.  You don't want to hear it and I don't want to tell it.

This is one of my 24 Quilts.  I made the top while on retreat a few months ago and it came off Terpsichore two days ago.  I managed to get it bound today.

I love black fabrics.  There is only one drawback to making a black quilt.  Quilting it.  Unless you use something like lime green thread, you won't be able to see the quilting when it's over.  In fact, it's pretty hard to see the quilting while you're quilting it!  I've made a few black quilts in my day, so I didn't obsess over high detail in the quilting on this one.  It was a fun quilt from start to finish, and the season is still young, so I'll probably get to use it on my bed this winter.

24 Quilts Reloaded

My computer went KABLOOEEE!  all my photos of darling wonderful super cuddly granddaughter, all my browser bookmarks, all my eq6 work and every picture of every quilt i've made or am working on.

G  O  N  E

Sorry.  I'm trying not to snivel about this, but it is SO unfair!

A few weeks ago, basically right after this crash, I went on retreat.  Just me and Beth, a very tiny retreat in Tyler, Texas at a place called Memory Lane Inn.  It's really a scrapbooker's retreat house, but since the tools and space requirements for both crafts are so similar and because the place was SPECTACULARLY gorgeous, we went anyway.

Indicative of the thought that went into all the interior design in the house (which is about 100 years old), this collection of frame within a frame miniatures hangs at the staircase landing.

This is a closeup of the moulding detail in the dining room!

Four beds in Miss America's Boudoir suite - you can see two in this picture.  This is the room we stayed in.

Just look at that fireplace surround, will ya?  :)

There were only five scrappers there and us.  It was so relaxing!  Beth has already posted about all the great stuff she got done there.  The scrappers were all very nice people and the synergy of taking breaks and looking at eachother's work was inspiring.

One of my 24 Quilts is this black TATW.  I pieced this one over the first day and a half.  Came out well, and I can hardly wait to quilt it since it'll be going on my bed.

It is covering the entryway for one of the gorgeous gazebos in the back yard.  There are two or three different areas outdoors with tables, chairs and electricity!  You could sit OUTSIDE and quilt/scrap if you wanted to!  It was just a little too cool for my tastes that weekend, or I'd have been out there the whole time!

Another of the 24 Quilts, I have no idea what to call this one, I just refer to it as Huge Purple Flowers for now.  Easy to piece.  Fun to lay out.  Got everything but one edge of the border pieced on days two and three (only because I didn't bring enough fabric for that inner plain grey border.  doh!).

This is all the blocks lined up like Rockettes on the ironing board preparatory to assembly.

Here it is hanging in my backyard completely assembled.

Day four was just a half day, so I finished preparing circles for this quilt, packed up, and headed home.

This retreat wasn't just a chance to unwind and quilt.  The serenity of the surroundings, even the ambiance of the town, all contributed to a rejuvenating and creative long weekend.  I'm definitely going back in the spring!

Had a little spare time over the past few days so I kitted up the pink-n-purple 16 patch and pieced it yesterday.  Over the next week or so all these dots will get appliqued to the border.

Embarrassingly Easy

Meh.  It's bland alright.  Maybe a 2" neutral border?  I'm looking forward to quilting this one.

Weekend Quilting Projects

The easy rainbow stripe top and back went together super smoothly.  Today I'll be piecing my all neutrals quilt which I'm sure you'll all agree is appropriately named Bland.  So I will be turning this

into this

which should be another very easy top.

Bright Stripes Starts

Oh yah, lots of easy sewing for me today!  Gonna whip out a top AND a back today!

One Down 23 To Go!

Here's Americana laid out on my Design Floor.  There are a few last minute reorganizations to perform right before sewing it all together, but nothing major.  I'll shuffle through my leftover neutrals and find something good for a two inch border and then it'll be ready for Terpsichore.  Anyone else working on this one?  

I'd love to see pictures of any of these quilts as you make them up.  It is always fun to see someone else's interpretation of a quilt.

Simple stripes are next.  After all those triangles something easy will be most welcome.

It's Orthogonal to be Square

but it takes forever!

Fortunately I have one more day this weekend!

The Only Problem...

 

...with designing lots of HSTs into a quilt is that Someone Has to Sew Them! There are at least 260 HSTs and about 40 QSTs in my Americana quilt.  Squaring up is next.  Guess what my next complainy post is going to be about?  :)

Instructions are Up

You can see the instructions HERE or by clicking the picture of the quilt in my original post HERE.  Remember, I only have instructions posted for the four quilts for which I pulled fabric recently.  More as I can get them uploaded.  I've already received a few questions about these quilts.  I'm happy to answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.  If you spot an error in my instructions please oh please let me know!  I try really hard to keep it simple and accurate, and appreciate any constructive criticism.

In an unrelated note, I recently finished  Leftover Butterflies.   It was fun to quilt.  I made a whimsical butterfly in each block and tight loops in the sashing.

Pulling Some Fabrics

My sleeves are rolled up and I am ready to start churning out these quilts.  I've had a look at my stash and a look at the list of quilts.  This morning I'll be pulling fabrics for half a dozen quilts just to get ready.

First the Americana quilt I think.

 

I think that will work out pretty well. I'm trying for an antique look to the quilt and so will be using neutrals instead of whites.  IF YOU WANT TO PLAY ALONG choose 8 to 10 each of red, white and blue prints in a variety of saturations, but only one hue.  As long as you have about a 6" strip worth of fabric, it will be useable.  There won't be any hard and fast rule about which blue to use for which block for instance, so just aim for hauling out about 2 yards total on each color.


Next I want to select fabrics for the Easy Color Strip quilt.

My brights stash isn't beefy. This was hard work for me!  IF YOU WANT TO PLAY ALONG choose a light, medium, and dark fabric from each of the following colors:  magenta, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and a black and a white.  I'm using kona black and kona white.  As long as you have at least 7" strips of your colors you'll have enough.  Remember too that if you want to use a random color scheme, or if you'd like to use a monochromatic scheme (or an all 40's feedsacks theme or whatever) all you have to do is substitute the 24 fabrics of your choice in place of the rainbow I've selected.

Onward... to Bland quilt!

Wow. It sure seems faster in a blogpost than it does in person. I agonized over this selection for quite some while. The only way I know to do this is pull a bunch of things from your stash that you KNOW are neutrals. Then start adding colorful things to the group that you suspect might be neutrals. Step back once in a while and look at them all together. Yank out the ones that really stand out.  I had one fabric in there for a while that ended up looking like bright teal when i stepped back.  0.o  IF YOU WANT TO PLAY ALONG choose as many neutrals as you can find in your stash.  If it is at least 3" x 4" you'll be able to use it.  Shoot for collecting at least ten fabrics and at least 6 yards for a queen sized quilt.

I'm all tired now, so the last quilt I want to choose fabrics for today is my TATW.  mmmmmm!  Blacks.

Clearly not everyone will want to make this quilt in blacks. Regardless of what the color is you choose, if you choose12 to 15 colors you'll do fine.  The only tricky part for me was getting the gradations right in all those black and white fabrics.  Sometimes when you stand too close you end up getting some of them in the wrong place.  IF YOU WANT TO PLAY ALONG choose at least 12 fabrics for your gradation.  For the fabrics that appear in the darkest band on my quilt you will need at least five 4 1/2" strips of each color.  For the fabrics on the corners you will only need about 16" x 4 1/2".  Guesstimate for the ones in between for now.

Ok.  It will take me a day or so to work up all the cutting requirements for these four quilts.  I'll show pictures of my kitted up quilts with links to cutting charts on the next post.  Good luck!

24 Quilts

Welcome back! My summer has had very little to do with quilting so my blog has been really boring. Thank you all for checking back in from time to time anyway. Please spread the word that we're up and running again.

I'm starting a new series of posts. I have chosen 24 quilts from my eq6 stash of quilts - these are quilts I've seen elsewhere and ginned up my own version, or things I've just dreamed up myself, or things friends have suggested. All of them have gone into the "really want to make this one" stack. While paging through these quilts (there are really more than 300 quilts in the stack) I realized that if I was going to get any of them made I would need to start immediately. So I whittled the stack down to just 24 MUST MAKE quilts. Today I will post only the eq6 pictures of each quilt with a brief description where appropriate. Over the course of the next year I will step through the entire quilting process from fabric selection to piecing to quilting and binding for each quilt. Each time a new quilt is introduced I will make the pattern available online for anyone who wants to quilt along with me or just use it later, and I'll make fabric choices and yardage requirements available too.

I've never made an americana quilt before. Gotta do it sometime.

The block above is called simple spider web. I really like the secondary patterns that result from colorplay. This one might get tweaked a little before I start building.

My buddy Babs started the quilt above. This is her fault. :D

I can't for the life of me remember where I first saw this one. Maybe at a quilt show? It'll have a black background on one side and white on the other, but the color strips will be the same on each side.

The quilt above is made up of blocks modified from trading cards I first saw on Mary's blog a few years ago. Here's her post and here's my original block design.

Yes! Trip around the world! My very first gift quilt was a TATW that I made from real scraps (and believe me, it looked REAL scrappy!). This time it will be in my favorite colors, black and grey.

I've been considering neutrals alot lately. What makes a color neutral? Gonna spend a lot of time contemplating that very idea when I choose fabrics for this one.

Chinese butterfly prints have always really grabbed my attention. This quilt will mostly be an excuse for elaborate "scribble" quilting.

This quilt will be made from scraps and leftovers of these fabrics, which makes it a leftovers leftover quilt. Maybe I should call it my leftoverture.

My own designs on hex blocks above. The real quilt will probably be made in two families of coordinating fabrics rather than this hodge-podge of random brights.

Both above and below are my own cube designs.

Yup, classic double wedding ring, gotta make it in black and grey!

Going to use up some scraps on this one. The eq6 version isn't as cool as the real one will be. More on the story when I get to it. But if you plan to do this one with me, start saving your dryer sheets now. :)

Above in miniature and colors, below in a larger format. I have loved the circle of geese idea since I first saw it.

Saw this one in a fairly recent magazine and of COURSE I can't remember which one now. If any of you recognize it, let me know so I can credit the 'zine. EDIT: found it! January/February Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting Magazine. It was on the cover. The picture above however, is my own eq6 adaptation.

Not even sure why I want to make the quilt above. This is the only one that might get cut from the list.

Who hasn't wanted to make a New York Beauty? This one will be in batiks.

The basic idea here came straight off someone else's blog. She's a fellow long armer I think and this pattern was from a customer's quilt. I'd like to credit it if I can find the post.

This is a variation on a single wedding ring quilt. I'm going for a spinning centers look and think I'll need to do a little bit of playing around with this to achieve the dizzying effect I want.

This block has been around for a while. It first caught my eye at the Dallas Quilt Show a few years back. I'm still collecting red and white fabrics for it as red has never been my strong suit in the stash. Good thing it's pretty low on the list. I have found out that this pattern is published in a book called Livin' Large by Heather Mulder Peterson. You can purchase it HERE, but I just eyeballed the pattern at the show and sketched it when I got home, so who knows whether my construction technique matches hers.

This one is my own version of a pattern I saw on a blog - everyone's work was just at the block or top stage in the post's pictures. Anyone remember where it was? The one I liked best from the post was in browns.

Colorful corn and beans blocks. :) I want to go with scrappy neutrals in the background, but the contrast on them is pretty high in eq6. I'll be trying for a more uniform range in the actual quilt.

Ok, there it is. A pretty darned ambitious list, but I believe it's doable. My goal is to get them all done in twelve months, but if it takes a little longer than that I'm not going to kick myself over it. The real point is that life is short. Make quilts while you can!