Glitter Top Done

Glitter Top Done

What a relief to finish this top last week! Okay, I may have been a little sad to see it end, but only for a moment. I've never done any quilt with so many of the same block, and likely won't again for a long while.

Glitter Blocks Week 6: All Done

Glitter Blocks Week 6: All Done

Did you ever think I'd get this done ahead of schedule? I did not, and I'm surprised. It leads me to two possible conclusions: the vacation with bad weather or having a schedule laid out ahead of time--or maybe both. Either way they are done, and I've laid out all 162 to make sure they work.

The shocker when they were laid out was I wound up with close to the same number of light and dark backgrounds without planning. It wasn't a juggle to lay them out, and even if it wasn't a definite light or dark it was fine using value as a guide.

I'm hoping to get these together this morning, and just maybe while the snow starts falling this afternoon I will load it on the longarm. We are due 2" in the next 24 hours, and while it's not a lot life will slow down here. My goal is to have it bound by Tuesday for a show and tell Wednesday. It's good to have a plan, right?

Hope your home is warm and tight as we all buckle down for winter here in the U.S. I think it's finally coming.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Glitter Blocks Week 5: Christmas Vacation

Glitter Blocks Week 5: Christmas Vacation

I checked the weather forecast days before leaving for a break before Christmas. I had cut just under 50 blocks thinking I would have a back up in case there was bad weather, and thankful I was! It didn’t just rain—it poured! It looked like a movie set when you looked up at the streetlights. More like tropical storm strength than just a shower! There were spots of sunshine a few days, but still cool so much of my time was spent at the machine listening to podcasts. Here I had finished 25 blocks the first 3 days.

Glitter Progress Week 4: 91 Blocks & Counting

Glitter Progress Week 4: 91 Blocks & Counting

Fun stuff, right? I told you in another post what fun I'd been having pairing up fabrics I might not have used in another quilt, and these couple are good examples. It's just a fun quilt, and I'm trying out lots of combinations. I love the fabrics whether old or new, and am getting a kick out of some of them. 

This week's progress report is slower than other weeks. I'd say it's Christmas preparations, but it's actually been extra time spent cutting blocks to have ready over the Christmas to New Year's week. Hours. I will reiterate, I'm glad I have templates, though I'm only using those for the background and cones. 

Glitter Progress Week 3

Glitter Progress Week 3: 83 Blocks and Counting

I had so much help taking a photo today, but the light was great! How's that for a week's work? I went from 56 to 83, and that's averaging slightly higher than my 25 block a week goal! Honestly it was a lot of sewing, and I'm not sure I'll hit that every week, but I'm about halfway now. 

Glitter Quilt Progress Week 2

Glitter Quilt Progress Week 2

Sixteen blocks last week became 36 in a short while, then 18 more, and 20+ cut out, and ready to sew this weekend! See, I told you this was going to be a quilt to hold my attention!

I keep finding little short cuts that make this go faster, and I'm glad because I'm altering the quilt dimensions to suit my needs. I'll be making it slightly narrower, and a row longer. I thought that would reduce the number of blocks, but actually it adds 10 more.  I need to keep after it so I get it done on time, and don't burn out. Making the same block repeatedly isn't my strong suit so it needs to get done fast!

I'll have more pictures next week, but it's darn hard squeezing life in during daylight hours. We need that good light for pictures, don't we? Hope you are finding the holiday peaceful enough to have a good quilting project of your own. 

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Glitter Progress and an Organizational Work Plan

Glitter Quilt Progress and Plan

Ooooh, I like this quilt, and so far so good! This is a fun project to get me actively into my scrap bins, and I love how it allows me to mix those fabrics in novel ways. Our scraps are an amalgamation of everything we've created whether modern, vintage, or traditional, and mine reflect that diverse work. These blocks do too. We can get stuck with thinking a certain fabric can only go with other fabrics in the same line, or ones we've used them with before. It's hard to shake off what goes together. It's like when you wear an outfit. Those jeans go with that shirt and these shoes. This is shaking it all up for me.

Some of the vintage feeling fabrics are truly old, and others are remakes. Some are old shirts. A few were definitely the last bits of favorite prints that I even pieced the very end parts together to get one last square. I'm loving the using-it-up mentality in this work!

Photo Roll of Longarm Quilting by Julie Stocker

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts and More Quilts!

One evening as I sat contently reading a book, yes, about quilting, my husband turned to me and asked, "Don't you ever get tired of quilting?" I didn't think that deserved a reply other than the look I gave, but I did think about it for a few days. I never tire of the world of quilts. I love it, and I love what I do. I like old, torn, well-used quilts as well as crisp new ones. I love simple designs as well as complex, and all the technical jibber-jabber as much as talking about my favorite new fabric lines. How does one get sucked in this deeply? Again, a rhetorical question which should not be considered too deeply. I just accept that quilts chose me, and not the other way around. 

Enjoy the montage. Owners/makers and some information may be listed as I remember, but this is all for your eyes more than your brains. This work started sometime in late June, and doesn't include everything I've done. I've been busy, but very happy as my husband will attest to.

Vintage Feathered Star Scrap Quilt

Clean and Fresh

A friend of mine has a passion for antiques of all kinds. He's always on the trail for interesting textiles worth saving too. So when he called me about a local quilt he'd found, I first asked what the pattern was. He hadn't a clue. When I finally saw it the next day, he asked me. I hadn't a clue either. It was so scrappy, and so dirty, it was was hard to see the pattern. We could make out a star here and there, but what were the alternate blocks?

Things That Can Go Wrong Do

Quilted

No, I did not cut a hole in my quilt or spill coffee on it.
Almost anything other than those things can be fixed. Almost.
I'll show you another screw-up I worked through.
(I should be famous for this kind of post by now.)

Yellow & Black Baby Quilt

A Baby Quilt to Donate

My scraps are like rabbits. They have had offspring, and are on at least a third litter by the looks of it. I decided to squeeze one baby quilt for charity out of the lot of them before sorting. 

Hurricane Stars on the Long Arm

New Name to Be Announced Soon!

While summer officially blows in today with cooler air, I am still trying to beat the heat while working in my second story studio. The pale, blue setting triangles above are getting some free-handed, ferny feathers.

QST Scrap Quilt

A Second Chance Quilt: 
Scrap Blocks and Stash Borders

One of my favorite quilts ever is my 'Chicago, 2007' QST Quilt--Entry for Blogger's Quilt Festival 2015. There is such a good story behind it, and it was the first I ever long arm quilted. While combing my shelves for old projects, I came across a box full of extra blocks I'd made for it. These were too good to waste! These dark winter days needed a charge of happy colors so I set right to it.

Roman Stripe Improv Art Quilt Finish

Roman Stripe: Variation I

I laughed a little when I typed the name above. Variation I. I wrote I because there is already a II in the works. I need this kind of work in my life to balance me. It makes me whole. This play on a traditional pattern that I would call an art quilt. Very traditional scraps spun into something that begged for stitching. Stitching that took on a life of its own. My fingers knew. My head did not. 

Give Me a New Name for Hurricane Stars

 Hurricane Stars a.k.a. Insomnia Block

This top is done. I worked steadily on the sashing and connecting 9 patches Wednesday afternoon, and started back early Thursday a.m. Around 2 p.m. I had sewn on the last corner. Big quilts can take a long time to sew together. This was the first time my design wall had been empty since October, and I was reluctant to put it back up even for pictures. 

Scrappy Quilts, Comforters & Free Pattern

The Scrappy Hurricane Quilt

While hurricane Irma hit the southern U.S., I sewed nine patch blocks from my table scraps. There was so much going on in the scrappy hurricane blocks I felt the quilt needed somewhere calm to rest the eye. I laid this up on the wall during a sewing day here in the studio, but have since rearranged several times. I allow layouts to hang, and switch blocks around over many days until I like the feel of it. If time permits this week, I will make the sashing from 3 strips: white, cerulean blue grunge, and white. I am also considering an outer border, but will be happy to just get the blocks assembled at this point.

Jenna's Most Glorious Scrap Quilt Finish

A Legacy Quilt Finished

The details about this project can be found at Jenna's Most Glorious Scrap Quilt. I must add that it has been an honor to be involved with it through quilting. This quilt is simply beautiful to behold. It glows with every color of the rainbow. But perhaps it's more because of the nearly century-span of fabric that passed from person to person through decades waiting for the hands that stitched love in to it. It's one of those pieces that makes you stop and take it all in. It's one woman's legacy quilt.

Quilt-As-You-Go Chinese Coins

Chinese Coins
A Roman Stripe Variation
Also Reminiscent of Amish Bars

Moving right along with the theme of Roman stripe or Chinese coins, and adding a dash of scrappy goodness in both fabric and batting, I whipped up this delicious, little baby quilt! It took only a few days to complete, and not only did I have a top, but a completed quilt using the Quilt-As-You-Go Method. 

*In full disclosure, I am using the term loosely as I have never read the actual method, but seen a few You Tube videos using a  similar method. I blended everything I saw with my own ideas, and made it up as I went along. It was far easier to do than I had imagined so if you have time to experiment yourself, I highly recommend it. 

Reaching the Summit of Scrap Mountain

The Insomnia Block:

Four Patch Scrappy 

Friendship Star

May I introduce to you my friend, Insomnia. She has been visiting quite often this week, and I am ready for her to go home! I need to sleep. The only good thing about being awake at 3 a.m. is the email flying back and forth with my good friend and prolific quilter in Australia. Check out her great scrap ideas (and incredible paper piecing) on Instagram @sewsurprising

Jenna's Most Glorious Scrap Quilt

Almost Too Pretty to Say Scrap

A very dear friend was making a quilt for her granddaughter patterned after one she had seen hanging in a local restaurant. (Yes, in this part of the country we are surrounded by quilts even in restaurants. Most definitely works of art.) She first studied the quilt, searched for the pattern, then modified parts of it to make it her own. And as the Queen of Scrap, this project would make good use of her vast kingdom of scraps.