Roundabout

This little quilt is also making it's way into Fabri-Quilt's Quilt Market booth in Houston in a few weeks.  It's title is Roundabout.



This little quilt was a lot of fun to make.  I used the six-minute circle method to make all the dots you see.  They take me longer than six minutes, so don't feel bad if you try it and they don't go as quickly as you hoped.  I made each of the 25 circles on a separate block and stitched them together to make the quilt top's center.  It went pretty easy even if it took longer than 6 minutes for each block. 


I tried trapunto to puff up the circles.  The rest of the pink background was quilted in a simple stippling pattern on my domestic sewing machine.  I even stitched in the ditch along the blue and orange borders since my husband thinks I need to learn how to do it. 


I really like the way the cirlces bubble out from the background.  I think it turned out really bright and fun. 

Quilt stats:
Pattern Title: Roundabout
Designed by: Me
Pieced by: Me
Quilted by: Me
Size: 48"x48"
Fabric: Calypso by Paintbrush Studio

Square Dance

I just dropped this quilt off to Fabri-Quilt last week.


This little quilt is about 48"x48" and was made to head to Quilt Market in Houston in a few weeks.  I titled it Square Dance.  Doesn't it look like the geese in the center are dancing in a square?

I haven't done a lot of this sort of quilt before... there's only 4 blocks in the center.  The majority of this quilt is made from the borders.  I think it turned out pretty fun. 


I quilted it on my domestic sewing machine.  You can see a little of the quilting in the last photo.  I used orange thread and just did a random overlapping rectangle pattern.  It took way longer to quilt than I thought it would. 

Quilt stats:
Pattern Title: Square Dance
Designed by: Me
Pieced by: Me
Quilted by: Me
Size: 48"x48"
Fabric: Calypso by Paintbrush Studio

Boxed Breezes

This is another one of those quilts I made a while back and forgot to blog about. 



This one is titled Boxed Breezes.  It was made for Fabri-Quilt using Paintbrush Studio's Cape Cod fabric line.

I think this one turned out pretty cute.  I think this is basically a Bento Box pattern, but I'm not sure.  It was nice and easy to put together, but was rather time consuming to cut all of the parts and piece the top.

Quilt stats:
Pattern Title: Boxed Breezes
Designed by: Me
Pieced by: Me
Quilted by: Me
Size: 60"x60"
Fabric: Cape Cod by Paintbrush Studio

Seismic Shift

I made this quilt a while ago, but forgot to blog about it.



This quilt is titled Seismic Shift.  I made it for Fabri-Quilt from Paintbrush Studio's Color Explosion fabric line. 



The back of it turned out pretty cool.  I rented time at Jackie's shop and traced a pantograph.

Quilt stats:
Pattern Title: Seismic Shift
Designed by: Me
Pieced by: Me
Quilted by: Me
Size: 58"x58"
Fabric: Color Explosion by Paintbrush Studio

Quilts on the Quad

Last Saturday was the KC Modern Quilt Guild's first quilt show, Quilts on the Quad.  It was a lot of fun & I think we can call it a success.

We had a lot of fun quilts.  How cool is this Mario quilt?



We had a steady stream of traffic the entire day.



Don't you just love that bright Dresden Plate quilt on the left? 



We had almost all of our quilts hung on clotheslines throughout the quad on UMKC's campus. 



All of them except for these ones that were draped on the fountain and a few other large ones that were draped over a wall.  Isn't that fun the way they are just hanging out there?



I had my own section.  All the quilts on this line are mine. 



I had fun hanging out under the tent with the other KCMQG ladies.  It was a beautiful day to be out in the sun enjoying the quilts and the fall weather.

Windy City Quilt

About a month ago, I made a quick block to be included in a quilt for our (now former) guild President, Jacquie who is deserting us to move to Chicago with her husband.  :(

A few people were hard at work over the last month, making it possible for us to present this beauty to Jacquie at last week's guild meeting. 

You can see the block I made in the above photo.  It's the one three from the top left corner.  It kind of looks like a cross over a white square with an orange square in the middle of it. 

I think Jacquie really liked it.  She started wearing it as a cape after it was presented to her.  :)

Thanks, Shea, for letting me steal some photos of it.  :)  Jacquie, we wish you all the best on this new adventure.

Jay McCarroll Habitat Challenge

The Modern Quilt Guild is putting on a challenge once again.  There are the four challenges that have been going throughout the year, but there have also been a few fabric company sponsored challenges, too.  We had the Robert Kaufman No Prints Allowed challenge featuring KONA Solids that finished up a few months ago.  Now, we're just getting started on the Jay McCarroll Habitat Challenge.

In Kansas City, anyone who wanted to participate got a little bundle of 6 of the fabrics in the Habitat line in the Earth colorway.  The challenge is to make a finished quilt of any size using each of the fabrics we received.  We can add more of the Habitat fabric from any colorway and as much solid fabric as we wish. 



I am having a hard time figuring out where to start on this one.  This youTube video gave me a little bit of an idea about what the fabric line is intended to represent.  It's about nature & organic sort of things colliding with city living.  Kind of urban meets rural.  I love that idea.  It's nice to find a little bit of green living in the big city.  Currently I'm thinking that trying to design a quilt that has the same focus on green urban living is how I'm going to go.  I don't know how I'll do that or what I'll end up with, but it sounds like a good starting point, doesn't it?

Sixty Stars

Jason and I are headed to Wisconsin today to celebrate with much of my family.  What are we celebrating?  It's my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary! 

My mom and I decided months ago to collaborate on a quilt to give to my grandparents for their anniversary.  My mom had some star blocks from a bee she participated in that we thought made a good starting point for this one.  We used Kona Snow (I think) for the background and civil war prints for all the stars. 



It turned out that my mom made pretty much the whole top of the quilt.  The only thing I can claim is cutting a few of the pieces and ironing about 18 of them while she sewed them together the day my parents came to my house so my dad could go check out a vintage bike rally.



Why do I get to claim to be part of this quilt making team?  Well... I quilted it.  I visited Jackie at A Quilting Place Omaha and spent about 5 hours quilting this one.  I chose a variegated tan to light brown thread  that blended nicely with the top.  Can you see the quilting in either the above or below photo? 


I chose to do a pantograph called Come Dance With Me.  I thought this pattern was the right density for this quilt and the shape of the design complimented the fabric choices we made.  It was elegant without being over the top frilly. 

Hopefully Gramma and Papa will like this quilt.  We named it "Sixty Stars".  The 60 stars are meant to represent the 60 years of their marriage.

How was your weekend?

Did you have a good holiday weekend? I spent part of the weekend up in Omaha with my family and the other part back here in Kansas City with my hubby. 



That quilt up there is what I did with some of my time in Omaha.  My grandparents are celebrating their 60th anniversary towards the end of the month, so my mom and I collaborated on this quilt to give them.  I cut the pieces for about 18 of the 60 stars.  Some of them came from a bee my mom participated in a while back.  The rest of the quilt top was put together by my mom.  So, what was my contribution?

I took the quilt over to A Quilting Place Omaha and rented a few hours on the long arm.  I chose a variegated tan/gold thread and a pattern called Come Dance With Me.  I think it turned out beautifully. 

I've finished burying all the threads and will be spending some time binding this quilt. 

I'll  be sure to share a better picture of this one when it's all finished up. 

I'm in a magazine!

Actually... I'm in 2 magazines!



First one I'm in is a total fluke that I even know about it. My mom bought Potluck Magazine on a whim and turns out, they have a little photo and blurb about one of my casserole carriers.



I have a few of these carriers left for sale in my etsy shop just in case you're interested in purchasing one.  They really are great.  I just used one of my own yesterday to carry some bad day brownies to my hubby at work.  They keep things nice and warm until you reach your destination and are really stinkin' cute. 

The second magazine I'm in I've known about for months.  I've been keeping it a secret since January.  I sent the quilt off just after the new year.  That's a really long time ago! 



Fun, huh?

No Prints Allowed.

In one of the KCMQG meetings a while back, everyone who wanted to participate was given a charm pack of one of the Robert Kaufman Kona Solids color palettes.  I chose the dusty palette.  I didn't feel sorry for it like some other members mentioned.  I was drawn to it.  The muted, yet vibrant colors just called me. 

Our challenge was to use each and every color in the pack to make a quilt of some sort.  We could add any fabric we wanted; as long as it was a solid color.  Easy enough, right?  I decided I didn't want to add another charm pack to my scheme and I didn't want a lot of another color.  I also wanted it to be big enough for a smallish person like myself to snuggle under.  That's where things got tricky.

To accomplish the not adding another charm pack, I figured I had to cut into the charm squares as little as possible.  Well that simplifies things, doesn't it?  I even decided to keep it super simple and not mess with the color order of the palette.  I just sewed the pack one square next to the other in the order they came!


I was thinking a grey or a black for my "neutral background" color, but when I got the store to buy that fabric, I spotted this plum. Doesn't it just sing?


This is definitely my most modern quilt yet and it accomplishes everything I wanted it to: big enough for me to snuggle under, one charm pack, minimal neutral fabric.  Now, I just need to figure out what to do on the backside and how to quilt it.

Thanks Robert Kaufman for providing the KCMQG with Kona charm packs for our challenge.

Party Animals.

Jason and I had a VERY busy weekend.  We were MAJOR party animals.  My grandma turned 80 last week and Jason's grandmother turns 85 this week.  On Sunday we went to my grandma's party and Saturday we went to his grandma's surprise party.   



Oh boy was she surprised.  She thought she was going dress shopping for an upcoming wedding. 



I love the look on Uncle Tom's face here.  He looks so afraid that cousin Jenna is going to dump all those candles on his lap. 



Uncle Tom is turning 60 sometime soon, so he also got a pair of cakes.  One 6.  One 0. 



Grandma Vrooman, Jason and I. 



Jason and I had made something special for Grandma Vrooman's birthday.  This is her opening the box. 



The label I made for the back using my mom's floating eight-point star tutorial.  Thanks mom!  It was a breeze to whip this one together!

Jason made fun of my use of commas, but whatever... I like my punctuation to be correct; even if only on a quilt label. 



This is the full quilt draped on my bed.  It turned out ENORMOUS and really heavy.  The neutral I used is a fabric called Osnaburg.  It has a beautiful texture to it and I really like the way it looks, I just didn't like the way it handled.  It was an experiment, so we'll chalk it up to a learning experience.  The Osnaburg stretched and skewed and frayed.  I had several spots I had to repair before and after quilting because the seam allowances had disintegrated.  Even though I really like the way it looks, I don't think I'll use it again.

The quilting on this one seemed to take FOREVER.  I used a pantograph by Willow Leaf Studio called Whirlygig in a pretty gold thread.  I thought the design was just the right density of quilting for this one.  Unfortunately, I had a few issues with thread tension, borders, and stretching fabric and it took me 7 hours to finish!  Phew!

I had a bit of help from Jason on this one.  He did about a 1/3 of the hand sewing part of the binding.  Without him this quilt would have taken forever to finish.  I forgot to measure it when it was all said and done, but I think it was about 98x115.

Sadly, none of the pictures I snapped at my grandma's party turned out well enough to share with you.  Maybe next time. 

Look what ended up in my mailbox!

These little ladies turned up in my mailbox yesterday. They will join the other blocks in my Christmas quilt from the KC Scrappy Bee.



I'm pretty excited to see how this quilt turns out.  I'm loving all the blocks I've received so far. :)

Modern Quilt Guild Challenge No. 1

Here's my entry for The Modern Quilt Guild's Challenge No. 1.  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  My intention for this quilt is to hang it in the dining room with a pair of spurs from Harold's collection, a cowboy print we picked up at an art walk, and a copy of a newspaper advertisement from when my great grandfather sold off cattle and machinery from their farm to move back to Iowa.  I think these few pieces have a common thread that would make a nice dining decor and make us smile from time to time. 



My inspiration comes from a photograph I took on the ranch of my husband’s grandfather, Harold, the day of his funeral. The barn depicted in the quilt is a simplified hybrid visualization combining the way the ranch looks today with stories and photos from Harold’s life. A 360 degree image taken from that photo’s vantage point would show the muddy fields, the small ranch house, a windmill, fencing, and cattle. The one thing I left out was the cold sadness of the day; instead I choose to illustrate warmer times.



I also plan to enter this quilt into JoAnn's Quilt Your Colors Contest.  Because of the rules for that contest, I have left out the ranch logo you see on the barn in the photograph.  I do intend to add the logo after the contests are over and there is no copyright infringement issues.

City News

My mom and I got to participate in Cherri House's class at Harper's a few weeks back.  The quilt we worked on is called "City News". 

Here's the fabrics my mom used for her quilt.


Here's the fabrics I chose for my quilt.


Isn't this pretty?  It's all the squares for my quilt stacked up in the right order.


The class was a lot of fun to participate in.  I think it will be a while before I get to finish this though...

Flower Power!

The Flower Power Quilt is made from the Flower Power! fabric line by Fabri-Quilt.  It's not out yet, but look for it soon.  It's absolutely adorable.  I think the main print would make a very pretty skirt. 

Once again, I recommend wearing winter gloves with the grippy fingers and palms while quilting.  Makes it so great to move fabric around!


What do ya think?  It's about 5'x5'.  I think it turned out pretty fun.  This one is pretty easy to do.  I used fusible web for the applique and zig-zagged around all the edges to keep them down. 


The back is a nice pink paisley from another of Fabri-Quilt's fabric lines.  I love paisley.

This one will be joining the Astral Summer quilt in the show in Las Vegas.  The project sheet for this design will be up here soon.

Quilts of Valor

Today seemed like an appropriate day to reveal my block for the Quilt of Valor my bee is working on. 

Nikki gave us each a pattern and a bit of the red fabric.  We were to make the pattern and use the red.  Here's what I made.



Look how perfect these points are! 


Head on over to the bee's blog or our flickr group to see what the other blocks for this quilt look like. 

A Quilt Block

I got to be part of a quilt for a special little girl who is the daughter of one of our members.  This little girl is undergoing some major surgery this summer, so my guild pulled together to make her a quilt.  The photo below is the block I contributed.

We all started with the Alexander Henry owl fabric in the center.  We were told to make a square in a square with any fabrics we thought went nicely with the owl fabric.  I think it turned out cute!

Happy Quilting Day!

So, I've heard rumors that today is International Quilting Day. I'm spending mine working on a quilt for the newest addition to the family, Bastille! Well, I really hope his name won't be Bastille. Jason and I are just calling him that because he's due on July 14th, Bastille Day. I'd stop and take time to photograph what I'm working on, but I'm kind of on a time crunch (the shower is next weekend). Anyway... off I go to start working on it for the day.

How are you spending your International Quilting Day?

Papa's 80th Birthday

I mentioned that my family got together over the weekend to celebrate my Papa's 80th birthday. I made him a mini quilt similar to my gramma's (see the post from Monday) for his birthday.

This is the photograph I started with. It's him in 1933 (see the license plate?).


I love old photographs. They have such a gestalt that just doesn't seem be captured in today's photographs. This one is one of my favorites.

I used pretty much the same process I described in the post about my gramma's mini quilt, but used fusible web instead of fabric glue. That seemed to be a little easier than tracing on freezer paper (I just traced onto the fusible web, ironed that on and cut it out) and lay a little more smoothly.





Here it is all framed up. I used an identical frame and the same fabric selections as my gramma's. I thought they would look nice as a pair.


I think Papa really liked it. He set it up on the table next to him at lunch and I could see him glancing at it occassionally. He said something like "I was a cute little devil. I had hair then, (pause) but I didn't have any shoes!"