Floating Squares

My sewing time has been limited lately, but this week I carved out a few hours to recharge my batteries and finish up my project for the KCMQG Quilt-Along using Sherri Lynn Wood's new book on liberated piecing.

 Sherri Lynn led a workshop for the KC Modern Guild a few month back and some of us got hooked on her fun methods! We enjoyed ourselves so much so, that we've decided to work through the book, one chapter at a time, and challenge ourselves to make up a project using each of the 10 Scores included in her book. Floating Squares is up first.

Lately, I've been drawn to fabrics by Kaffe Fassett and have managed to accumulate a nice collection. I've decided this QAL was a fine spot to start using the fabrics instead of just collecting them. For the floating squares method, you only need three fabrics. Here are my choices, cut into various square shapes without using a ruler...

Using white as a filler fabric, I began by sewing a couple of squareish shapes together...

...

...until I had formed a section like this. In the beginning, I had planned to join together several sections made of different fabrics.

But, it just wasn't doing anything for me so I continued on with the aqua, pink and white original choices until I had used up most of the Kaffee print and pink Cherrywood solid. 

Once I squared up the edges, the top measures about 24 inches by 26 inches. Since the fabrics are sometimes not joined on the straight grain, I sewed along the edges to keep everyhing from stretching out of shape. At this point, I'm not certain if I will create a small quilt from my effort or join other "scores" to it to make a larger quilt top. 

There were around eight of us that came to the modern guild meeting last night with our first score ready to reveal. Heres' mine hanging out with friends!

We all agree that making our Floating Squares was a very enjoyable experience!

Thankful

We Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November every year. But no matter where we live, it's nice to remind ourselves of all that we have been blessed with. As I make my mental list, I count blogging friends among my many pleasures! One in particular comes to mind today. Her name is Anna and she lives in the San Francisco area.

Anna and I don't correspond frequently, but when we do, I am always blown away by her sweet spirit and generosity. Last spring, she told me about a project that she was heading up to make quilts for some special ladies. She wondered if I would mind if she used my Liberated Cross tutorial as the basis for the blocks and the quilts that she had in mind. Of course, I was thrilled. If you are new to my blog, or don't remember (most likely!), this is the quilt that birthed the tutorial, Anniversary Crosses.

I

I had intended to use Anna's own words to tell you what she did with the 1250 cross blocks that were made by her and her friends and collected between April and October, but I accidentally deleted them! Ack! So, instead, I will direct you to the website for Freedom HouseSF. org. 
And here are the 24 beautiful quilts that were given to the Monarch house and newly opened Nest (for minors) to be gifted to the survivors of human trafficking as they endeavor to rebuild their lives in a safe environment. Thank you, Anna, and your friends for the love and hope that these quilts represent. 

Aren't they just gorgeous! These are not tiny quilts. What inspiration! My eyes well up.

I was able to find this final correspondence with regard to Anna's thoughts on the importance of this organization and it's mission, something most of us have little  knowledge of. Please read.

And now, thank you again for offering to post our quilts. As there are so many charities and needs to be fill in this world. The viewers have a chance to hear a calling to help survivors of human trafficking. If not in a direct way, they may look into and support an organization like FreedomHouseSF.org. We need to let the victims know, there are many of us in support of their journey to rebuild their lives. Sadly, we know there are so many more that are still held in bondage and cannot escape. For these fews escaped, may they find hope, encouragement and strength to rebuild.

I'm thankful for you, Anna.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Carla

Red Cross Pillow

It's Friday and I have a finish to show you! There's little explanation needed---only that I used Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman for the background and various reds from my stash to make the liberated cross blocks. It was my first project using the linen/cotton fabric....LOVE it!

Have a great weekend!

Popsicles

There's nothing better on a hot summer day than an icy cold treat...

...unless it's a new quilt in happy popsicle colors! 

It's so refreshing, don't you think?   

Blue raspberry, lime or orange creamsicle... what's your favorite flavor?

I don't know about you, but I like to eat my popsicle under a nice shade tree so that it doesn't melt too fast.

That's especially important after a long bike ride!

Ahhhhh....summertime...

...and the livin' is easy!

Wonky WIP Wednesday

Instead of working on more UFO's, I've been doing some patternless sewing...

creating a new wonky cross quilt...

for an upcoming workshop I'll be leading on liberated piecing.

Stay tuned!

LInking with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

Double Finish!

The salesman at the Bat Mobile dealership was pretty excited that I stopped by to ask if he'd mind letting me use the yellow vehicle for a quilt photo shoot. Beings that he was a bit worried that the quilts might scratch the paint, I assured him that they were nice and soft!  (That last sentence is the absolute truth!) I'm guessing he doesn't own any quilts himself.

 The bat mobile is certainly "perfect", but you really can't see the quilts that well. So onto something a little more mundane, but probably more sensible...a fence!

 I think of these fun quilts as fraternal twins: alike but different...

 I made this quilt first, adding random irregular pieces around the frames of each block. I like the "pow" factor of the wonky strips and love how well the method accents the Batman fabrics.They sort of look like comic book pages, don't you think? 

For the quilting, I tried a sort of honey comb (the top quilt below) and am not really sure that I like it that well, but wanted something easy, quick and widely spaced, making for a   cuddly quilt. 

 For the twin quilt, I chose four different greys for the background and shaded them dark to light. The batman fabrics are the same but I used a simpler frame and scissors to cut the strips so they are a bit more wavy than in the first quilt. The quilting is similar: flowing vertical lines (see the lower quilt above) which I prefer over the first.

 Leftover Batman yardage was used for the binding and I like the way that it frames the grey background. I forgot to take a picture of the backing but you can see it here if you're interested. My grandsons, Oliver and Ezra, have birthdays just 4 days apart in early February. I hope that they have many years of enjoyment cuddling with these quilts.

I know that I sure got lots of enjoyment making them! I'm also pretty excited about having two finishes in the month of January to start 2013 out right!

Today, I'm linking with Lily Quilts for the start of a Fresh Sewing Day!