Quilters Make Good Neighbors

 You may recognize this quilt as being made using the "Village" pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. It was a lot of fun to create each little house using five inch charms from my stash collection. 

My favorite houses have fussy cut windows or doors with fun surprises like bunnies, a mushroom, a flamingo or even a goldfish, to name a few.  I quilted it with meandering wavy lines and bound it with the same black/white dot used in most of the roofs.

The builder went on strike before the entire village of 132 houses were constructed, so my village is more of a hamlet, I guess, with 64 homes. As written, the quilt would have been quite a bit larger if I had kept going and made spaces between my buildings. 

This size perfectly fits the wall at the end of a hallway in my home. Each time I see it, I am reminded of the enjoyment of building the houses along side my sewing buddy, Vicki. I named it, Quilters Make Good Neighbors because, they really do!

Do You Doodle?

That's the first question that Sherri Lynn Wood asked of the class last Friday morning.  After an interesting and entertaining presentation by Sherri Lynn to the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild the night before, I could hardly wait to take her workshop on Doodling with fabric the next day. Here's the project that I made...course, I've got more doodling to do before it's finished...crazy, huh!

With only six quilters present, our class was a small one, so we had room to spread out and got close-up-and-personal input from our attentive instructor. I especially enjoyed the evaluation exercises spread out over the day. Here's our small beginnings, all grouped together, awaiting input from the class. 

Several hours later, our projects had grown in size and we were beginning to feel a flow to our work. Some of the questions that we were to ask ourselves included: What surprised me? What did I discover or learn? What was satisfying and dissatisfying? We gave each other constructive feedback and it felt like we were truly creating modern art!

Here's Sherri Lynn showing us one of her completed Doodle quilts. It looks pretty in the photo, but believe me when I say that, in person, it is even more  beautiful and happy!

Sherri Lynn's first book, detailing her methods for improvisational piecing, will be available for purchase later this month, but our guild was privileged to get to purchase it early. Of course, I snatched one up!

 The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is a gorgeous book full of beautifully photographed quilts and tons of detailed pictures of the techniques used to make those quilts. I own several books that describe improv piecing but this one is, by far, the most stimulating how-to. Here's a glance at the table of contents...

 Reading Sherri Lynn's book from cover to cover will be a delight and I already have a good start! In her book, she outlines 10 different scores (Her term for deciding a set of rules or limits to work within as you create an improv project.) to help the quilter jump into this exciting and modern way of creating a quilt. 

Honestly, I don't know when I've ever taken a workshop that was more fun or purchased a quilting book that has gotten me more excited to try new things!

In fact, I'm seriously considering going through the book, chapter by chapter, and creating a project. Anyone game to join me? Get the book and let me know!

Pop Stars

The sun came out and the temps are warming. It is so exciting that I grabbed my latest finished quilt and went to the park for some photos.

 Because I did not add batting and backing to the muslin foundation pieced top, I love it from the back as well as the front!

The bright scrappy spider-web quilt will be used as a table cloth so I decided not to add batting to the already heavy top. It is long and narrow: 63"x105".

 The seams were top-stitched down from the back to keep everything nice and flat. I'm looking forward to picnicking on this cheerful table top!

 A black and white striped binding is one of my favorite finishes to a bright color scheme. This time I attached the binding to the back first and then machine stitched it down on the front.

 My friend, Vick,i and I worked on the web blocks together over the course of about a year. I showed you her quilt top here and will show case it again when she gets it all finished.

 The pattern for Pop Stars can be found in Material Obsession 2, by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Felke. I love so many quilts in that book!

 This type of finish would work great for a summer weight bed quilt also. Hmmm...do I really want to use Pop Stars as a tablecloth?!

Either way, it won't be boring, that's for sure!

Diamonds and A Girl's Best Friend

 Oh, happy day! I have another 'Finish' to show you today. It's a real jewel and a long time coming!

 The pattern was a free one by Tula Pink and, although I can't seem to find it available anymore, it looks an awful lot like this one on Craftsy. Be warned, though, that because of the piecing method, each diamond might turn out to be a different size and need to be trimmed before setting the quilt together. I'm just sayin'.

 Back in 1980, I took my very first quilting classes along side my bff, Jan. Since then Jan and I have sewn many quilts in tandem, this Gypsy Diamond quilt being our last collaboration. Many of the fabrics were purchased off the flat-fold tables from various small town Alco stores in Kansas.

 The outside border, however, is an Amy Butler fabric called Gypsy Mum that I purchased after the diamond blocks were finished. Although I wouldn't call that particular print a favorite, I love the way it incorporates the colors and lends a sort of autumn feel to the quilt. A trip through the washer and dryer turned my all-over leafy quilting into pure crinkly delight!

 The quilt is a large one, 88" x 98". The blocks were finished in 2009 and set aside for about 5 years out of frustration with the size discrepancy. Finally, about a year ago, I got the top finished but took another year to get it quilted and bound. Sheesh!

 The quilt is backed using an extra wide blue batik purchased as a flat-fold in Delta, Colorado (my hometown growing up). The perfect binding was found among my stash treasures: a blue/grey square design by Aneela Hoey.

Last March, I wondered who would get the top quilted first....Jan beat me by a month or two. I'm happy to have at least caught up, finally!

On the Fence

 Two years after it began, Juicy Fruit is finished. And she's a cheery darling!

 With excellent help from members of the Mid-Century Modern Bee, Juicy Fruit is made of 200 six-inch churn dash blocks, 5 twelve-inch blocks and one large 18-inch churn dash. I collected them on two different occasions when my month as queen of the bee rolled around in 2013 and, again, in 2014.

 Starting out with red, pink and orange, I'm super happy that I added yellow and white to the color combination in 2014. Square Elements, in black, made a great contrast for the binding on the queen size quilt.

 With all the seams making up the quilt top, I decided to go with a 108" wide backing this time. The neutral grey/white polka dot tones down the front a bit. (If that is even possible!). I top stitched some extra six-inch blocks and the signature blocks onto the backing before I quilted.

 The postman was kept busy delivering pretties from as far away as Australia and Canada, as well as Florida, Washington, Texas, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Ohio. I'm so privileged to be a part of this group of excellent quilters! Thank you, ladies, for helping with this wonderful project.

 My quilting is never fancy. I call it utilitarian, actually. This time I free handed leaves and vines all over the top thinking that leaves went well with the "Juicy Fruit" name.

 As I quilted, I again admired all of the bright fabric combinations included in this scrappy style quilt... my favorite kind. Oh how I love it so!

 On a cold winter day, with not a green leaf in sight, it brought much sunshine to my soul as I snapped photos of this white fence near my home in the country.

 Now, I just hope that the bright color scheme doesn't actually glow in the dark and keep us awake at night!

Marathon Sewing

 What fun I have had the last two Saturdays as I sewed all day, and into the night, with quilting friends from two different quilt guilds.

 My good friend, Vicki, sat across from me this past Saturday creating darling Christmas quilts for her grand-children.

 Meanwhile, I worked away on dresden blocks for a quilt I've had in my head  for awhile now.

 Nikki stole my phone and snapped this photo of me hard at work. Do you see my leader/enders all lined up so neatly, ready to sew, as I stitch away on the dresden blocks? Nikki thought that you should see how organized I am! (Sometimes.)

I'm planning on using the grey dots as my background. Any thoughts on what to do for the centers of each plate? Every block will be a different assortment of fabrics in the same color combination of pink, yellow, aqua, orange, green  and lavender.

 I also managed to finish up another block in the blue color-way for my Soul Searching quilt. These blocks are really large at 24 inches square!

 This one puts me at the halfway mark for a twin size quilt when I'm finished.

 Anne, from my Mid-Century Modern Bee, requested that we all make blocks in grey and lime from an original pattern that she's trying out. The layout is a secret. Four blocks were sewn up fast during my sewing marathon Saturday!

 Much slower and intricate sewing was needed to create this paper-pieced block for Elizabeth, a member of the same MCM Bee. I'm happy to have that one behind me....isn't it pretty!

 I wish that I could spend every Saturday sewing all day, but with the arrival of autumn weather, there's lots of yard work calling me to stay home!

And, besides, I'd miss my new little buddy, Moose! He keeps me busy, too!

Aqua

 I had such grand plans in the beginning. I'd make one block each month in a different color. Well......let's say I skipped a few months along the way. But, back at it again....here's aqua.

 Now I have five finished. Seven more to go.

 The pattern is called Soul Searching and is by Kathy Doughty in her book, "Making Quilts." 

 I've pulled the fabrics for my next block. It will be the blue one because I've been wearing a lot of K.C. Royal's Blue lately and it just seemed the right thing to do. 

 As I write this, game seven of the World Series is about to begin and I'm getting nervous! If you are a baseball fan, you know what I'm talking about. The last time that our team was in the Series was 1985 and we really, really want to win. Kansas City has Royal's fever right now and our family is not excluded. Look at these cute shirts that Lula designed and her mother made!

Go Royals!!