Stolen Moments for Stitch & Play

Vintage Log Cabin...Again

I am still plugging away at this quilt. I have to be in a special frame of mind to work for long periods, but I've determined to finish it this summer. A little bit each day brings good progress, and maybe I'll have it done before I've had it a whole year.

When my husband needed to do some work far out in the country, I grabbed my project gear, and off we went. Cell phone service is good in town, but once you get into the hills around here it's hit or miss--mostly miss. I was the safety in case there was an accident. Poor me! I had to just sit there and quilt.

Kaleidoscope: Quilts at the Kentucky Museum

The Kentucky Sun Quilt

My husband and I made a whirlwind trip to the Kentucky Museum last weekend on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green, KY.  The Kaleidoscope exhibition opened earlier this year featuring 30 Kentucky quilts, and the first public viewing of the spectacular Kentucky Sun quilt. I had seen pictures of it before, but nothing could take the place of standing there in front of it. I was overwhelmed. This quilt was made nearly 140 years ago, and it was old yet so amazingly modern, and I couldn't stop staring. To put in in a chronological perspective, it was made 15 years after the Civil War ended in the time of Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and the O.K. Corral. It's funny how it puts me in the mind of the western frontier, and I wonder if that had any influence.

The Kentucky Sun Quilt has a fascinating story behind it, and was on the cover of the Kentucky Quilt Project's publication. Read more about it through the link. The Kentucky Quilt Project was the first of all the quilt documentation projects in the U.S., and organized in 1981. 

Mermaid Baby One Patch Finish

Mermaid's Song

Song

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

Or who cleft the devil’s foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy’s stinging,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

~John Donne, 1613

Check out the rest of the poem, and a brief analysis at Interesting Literature. If you've heard bits of this without knowing the rest, it will make much more sense.

Mermaid Baby One Patch Quilt

"Mermaids & Seahorses, Oh, My!"

Way back in January I ran a post called 27 Quilt Finishes in 2017. I spoke up for fewer commitments to free myself up. This has been good. I've really plowed through my Pile of Unloved Projects. I would say half are done. That gets a quiet little woohoo from me to myself. I'm staying on track with my goals. 

I also said, "Make what you love, and use what you have." So in the midst of pulling out fabric for my last class, Chain Piecing & Webbing, I happened upon this piece of mermaid fabric, and a bit of Mendocino seahorses. Not from the same designer or even stylized the same, but I still liked them together. Golly, I don't think any fabrics in this quilt came from the same company let alone designer, but the variety was interesting. 

Chain Piecing & Webbing Class Available

Trips Around the World

By the end of last week I had several quilts finished, and more pulled out to resume. There has been a good deal of pushing this year to finish up the old, but I've also dropped a few new projects into the line up when I could. I had The Sewing Group coming to the studio Monday for a class on my unique method of chain piecing to webbing to accurate block construction, and we were using the Trips Around the World quilt to learn the process. Many of these quilters had never made a TAtW so we had a lot of ground to cover in a short time. 

A Veteran's Quilt Finish & Panto Problems

Ready for Delivery

There are two things to talk about today. One is obviously a finished quilt already in the hands of its new owner, but the second is a big failure that forced me to grow. 

A Veteran's Quilt & Making Pantographs

Dave's Quilt

Several months ago I was asked to make a quilt for a friend of the family. We'll call him Dave. 

Dave's had two requests for his quilt. The first would have made the quilt non-washable so we scrapped it, but the second was for it to be big enough that his feet not hang out. Now that I could do!

The Farmer's Wife 1930s: Blocks 3 & 4

"Ann"
The Farmer's Wife 1930's Block No. 4

If you go missing too long around here, people will ask, "Did you fall in?" And my reply today would be, "A little bit." Busy has new meaning. The grass is growing by the minute. Three college diplomas were earned in the past months by a few of our children. Two of those were just this week, and were master's degrees. I am a proud mama! Kids have moved in, moved out, and buying a real moving van would have been a great investment years ago. My role as a member of a large family is changing, and there are daily adjustments. No worries. It's all good, but different. As spring settles herself down to a manageable pace, I'll be more regulated, and my posts as well.  Your comment went unanswered, you say? My deepest apologies. Just bare with me until I can catch up. I'll dig my way out of the email pile, and I'll have lots of goodies to show you, too! I keep sewing to stay sane through the chaos.

Change or Transformation: The Endeavourers

Id. Ego. Super Ego.

This month's challenge prompt for the Endeavourer's art quilt group is 
Change or Transformation. 

How do you interpret change or transformation with cloth and thread? 

Art is meant to appeal to your past experience, emotion, and senses. An art quilt is simply art made with fiber transformed into cloth and thread, and a batting sandwiched between the layers. How does one convey the meaning of something so abstract as change or transformation through fiber?

Modified En Provence

En Provence: Tweaked

Bonnie Hunter is a favorite of mine. I love her books, her blog, and when her En Provence quilt along came around a year ago, I convinced a friend to join me. It was a mystery quilt along, too. Ooo-o-o! Exciting! So off we went collecting our fabrics. I did not choose the suggested palette, but used what I had the most of in my stash and scraps. Lots and lots of warm colored pinks, oranges, and violets, low volume background in a wide range, and navy-like blue. We sewed our little hearts out each week with the new clue, and it was fun to feel the camaraderie of the big group. When the big reveal came out, I thought, "Meh. My values are completely reversed." A little broken hearted at that point, I packed my thousands of pieces away, and said I would figure it out another day. (I'm lying. It just felt like a thousand, but there were a lot of pieces!)

Giant Rose Star Quilt Finish

Good Kite Weather!

What a blustery week we've had! Snow, thunder, rain, and even barefoot days. The weather blew in with heavy winds each time, and I was lucky to have a day with both sun and calm skies to get a picture outside. I wanted you to see the true colors of this quilt at least once. I was shocked at how hard it was to photograph the color violet inside, and this quilt has the full range.

Giant Rose Star Quilt

The Kite Shape:
Working with 60 Degree Shapes

The kite shape was never on my bucket list of "Have-to-make that!", but likely because I didn't know its capabilities. I hadn't had much experience with it, and needed to know how it related to other shapes in the 60 degree family. 

Did you know the kite shape is a combination of a hexagon and a small triangle married together at one of the six sides? Many of our first shape experiences are as children, and most of us did not encounter it. It's rarely included in shape sets or math books, and we have limited exposure.

Big Hapi Quilt Top Finish

Hapi Quilt

My design wall has been dominated by this large quilt for a few weeks while undergoing a slow design process. Slow design is just that at times. Slow. But when you do figure out what a quilt is asking for, you'd like it to happen right then--that day, and have it done! Unfortunately, big quilts take a long time simply because they're much bigger. This one finishes at 92.5" x 93.5". That's the same size as about 4 baby quilts. I asked myself how long 4 baby quilts might take to finish, and relied on patience.

Fussy Cuts Tips & Template Play

Machine Pieced 60 Degree Star in 
Digitally Printed Fabric

After my short experience with English paper piecing, I decided I needed a better method to achieve 60 degree piecing. See 60 Degree Shapes. Measuring with standard quilting rulers was successful with 60 degree diamonds, but my interest piqued in specialty templates for more complicated shapes. I was travelling light for a few days, but 2 new Marti Michell template sets, G & H, were small enough to pack in my carry-on. Both sets are based on 60 degrees shapes, but in different sizes. I'd bought them several months ago, but had no time to really spend getting to know them since. Now I had a weekend ahead wide open for play. Off we went!

Quilts, Groups & Little Dresses for Africa

Four Borders

This picture is turned on its side so you can get a good idea of the colors in all the border pieces. Nothing was sewn yet as I was moved things around to see how it all worked. I never know for sure until I see it from across the room.

Scrappy 60 Degree Hexagons

Adding More Blocks

Last week I played with some scrap blocks built around these 60 degree diamonds on Make It Happen Monday. I was curious if the diamond backgrounds were too busy, and how a solid would change the block. I had a teal print that read more like a solid in my scrap box, and gave it a whirl. I added 4 more blocks, and made some observations how they all worked together.

Exploding a Standard Block Setting

Flower Power Prints
 "Hapi"

The print is a past line named Hapi from Amy Butler. It's been on my design wall for a few weeks while I tried to decide what to do with it. I'm glad I waited.

Make It Happen Monday

My work is play.

I need some color play every day--especially those that the sun won't shine. Some 60 degree diamonds cut 2", and some 1" scrap strips made a few interesting tumbling block variations. I really like the look of the weave in the intersection. I'm not sold on whether they would look better with a solid for the block, or some value changes between the block and strips, but they were fun nonetheless.

How to Piece a 6 Pointed Star from Scraps

Harlequin 
Six Pointed Star Hexie

My last post 60 Degree Shapes talked about experimenting with these blocks, and many of you said this was something on your own bucket lists. It's opened the door to another world of quilts to make, and I thought you might want to join me.

This is a picture heavy post for those of you who need to know before continuing, but you'll know all my tricks from cutting to problem shooting by the end. Shall we do this?

*This tutorial assumes basic sewing techniques of a intermediate sewist.

60 Degree Shapes

Cut from 2.5" Strips

A 60 Degree Play Day

Today was a catch up with laundry and ironing. But when the stack of shirts was done, I switched over to some scraps I keep at the house. I've wanted to play with some shapes to make stars based on 60 degrees angles. Though I've made a 60 degree triangle quilt, I've never pieced with diamonds, and was curious how hard it could be. 

The Lone Star is based on 60 degree diamonds as well as many other vintage quilts I've been itching to make. See, I do have a carrot dangling out in front of me! As soon as those PUPs are done, I have big plans. Well, at least one good one.