Time to flip the calendar page

I flipped the calendar to May and the page features a bicycle!

 

 

It's already May. Hard to believe. The good news is I love May and planting a garden and riding my bike in good weather. So here I am. Flipping the calendar to a new month and there's a bicycle on the calendar. This could be the month I start a bicycle-themed quilt. After all I did get a new commuter bike that I think is pretty nifty. Sometimes quilters need a bit of motivation to get started or finish what they have started. So that is what May is about to me. I'll be sewing this evening. Finishing projects, even if it means sewing a binding or sewing a label. All sewing counts.

In the past few months I have been working on a block of the month type quilt and while I haven't finished that quilt, the blocks are complete. I will show that later when the quilt is complete  I recently spent the day sewing with a niece and we had a great time. We made a dress for her daughter. The niece had a pattern in mind and she picked through my stash for the perfect fabric. I must say she has great taste. Working together we finished the dress and it has already been worn. She has one lucky little girl.

The front of the dress for my 2-year-old great niece.

 

The back of the same dress.

 

 

I want to promote this new book by my favorite quilt author, Gwen Marston.

 

 

I want to let you know that one of my favorite authors, Gwen Marston, has a new book that is hot off the press. Minimal Quiltmaking is a great read. I just love Gwen's writing style. The photos of the quilts are fabulous and I find the book very inspirational. And I am so proud that my friend, Pat Isaman has two of her quilts featured in this book.

 

Happy May everyone. Enjoy the Kentucky Derby.  Joni

Last Minute Trip to Lancaster Pennsylvania AQS Show

The obligatory photo of  me with my second place Modern Quilt.





What a great surprise I had this month. It was the phone call every quilter would love to get, and a first for me. I entered my Modern Quilt "Flight Patterns" in the American Quilters Society Lancaster, Pennsylvania show and it won second place. So I did what any enthusiastic quilter would do, I jumped in the car for a road trip. Many thanks to my friend Penny for going along with me for this last minute trip and a really fun weekend.

 I had a great time being interviewed by Michele Duffy, editor of  the American Quilter magazine. It was a video interview and we talked about my second place winner "Flight Patterns."  It is  one of my quilts in what I call my "gray series" of quilts. We also talked about "Autumn in Boyle County,"  my quilt that is being displayed with an exhibit of Modern Quilts in each of the AQS shows this year. I was really excited to have two quilts on display at the show. I hope to see the interviews on the AQS website when they are edited.

 

 There was so much to see at the quilt show that we missed  the whole second floor of exhibits and vendors. But we did take in all that was to be seen on the first and third floors of the convention center and that included all of the quilts in the AQS contest. Needless to say, they were all amazing and inspiring. There are so many talented quilters out there. I love some of the new directions quilting has taken in the last five years. I especially love the use of solid colors and the quality and design of machine quilting. What will be next?

This  was taken during my interview with Michele Duffy.




Since the trip was a 10 hour car ride we took advantage of the location in Amish Country and spent a day in the small town of Lititz, Pa. We  toured the chocolate factory and the pretzel factory as well as poked around in all the cute little shops in town. This town really did smell like chocolate.



And for the first day of spring....

 

The first signs..,

Of spring.

My husband insisted I leave my responsibilities to take a hike this evening of the first day of spring.  Kentucky has had a long cold winter and we usually have a lot of yellow Wood Poppies blooming by now. There weren't any Wood Poppies but I did find a few brave wildflowers.  

Avoiding Needle and Thread Withdraw

Softies made on a recent trip.

I recently spent several weeks away from my stash and sewing machine. I had the opportunity to spend time in a much warmer climate in the middle of winter. It was an opportunity that was certainly good fortune. But I was concerned about what I would do in what my friend Cora calls "found moments." Being a quilter I did not want to have needle and thread withdraw.  I actually packed my Singer Featherweight and some fabric then changed my mind and unpacked the Featherweight and fabric. For anyone that doesn't know a Featherweight is a small mid-century sewing machine that comes in a small black case and weighs 11 pounds. It is perfect for travel or taking to sewing classes. It is famous for its perfect stitches.  I have several, but that's another story.

I looked around my sewing room/studio/boys bedroom and spied Jodie Rackley's book, Happy Stitch. I purchased this book several months ago. Jodie was one of the first people to "follow" me when I joined Flickr several years ago. She was posting and selling really cute felt ornaments and dolls that were embroidered and hand sewn. Her line, Lova Revolutionary, is also her Flickr name. My friend Kim also found her and gave everyone in our quilting group one of her bird ornaments a few Christmases ago. Jodie blogs at lovarevolutionary.blogspot.com  

Needless to say, I was drawn to her work and now was my turn to give some of her patterns a try. The day before I left for my trip I went to the print shop and had the patterns in the back of the book for the Softie toys enlarged to 400%, as suggested. I packed felt, needles, thread, scissors and pins and was on my way and ready for a bit of hand sewing.

As you can tell the Fox was my favorite and after running out of orange and tan I started making them in other colors that I had with me.  The blue fox is a favorite. There is a bit of fabric on the belly of the Softies and I chose Robert Kaufman's Fox and the Houndstooth fabric by Andie Hanna. It was perfect and I had the fabric from a recent shopping spree.

This was a fun road trip project. I used felt for the eyes instead of buttons since these will be gifts for one-year-old nieces and nephews.




The Foxes were my favorite and I didn't stop at one color.

 

Owls

 

Nesting Dolls

 

 

JodieRackley's Book, Happy Stitch.

Flight Patterns, my latest Modern Quilt, will be in the AQS Lancaster, PA show

Flight Patterns will be in the AQS Lancaster, PA Show.

Flight Patterns, my latest Modern Quilt, has been accepted in the American Quilters Society show set for March 12-15, 2014 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The quilt will be in one of the newest AQS divisions, Modern Quilts. It is a semi-finalist with 173 other quilts spanning five categories.

I want to give a shout out to my son, Sam, who came up with the name, Flight Patterns, for this quilt. Sam is part of my computer support team for this blog because I have a better understanding of quilting than computer technology. So Sam and Daniel, my oldest, are often wrangled into helping with photography and other blog glitches that I will experience. Thanks guys.

While helping me enter the AQS contest Sam called me a "Hipster" because my quilt has fabric with birds on it. Sam said Hipsters put birds on everything and that birds are very popular right now.  Since then I have had to research exactly what being a "Hipster" entails. I have discovered that it is more than putting birds on things. It is what was once called "cutting edge, counter culture or off-beat." Okay Sam, I'll take that as a compliment.

The truth be told I started designing this quilt with the Japanese fabric bird print in the middle because, yes, I do love birds and I was attracted to the aqua color. From there the pattern evolved one round at a time. I stopped and re-evaluated before adding each round. I have added some close-ups of the quilting because this is the first time I have ventured into using a bit of metallic threads.




Metallic threads were used in the flying geese.

 I also used a variegated thread on the gray background that gave the quilt a dimensional look. The metallic threads were used in the flying geese designs as well as highlighting the birds in the Japanese fabric.

 

Close-up of the quilting.

 

I used my home sewing machine for all the piecing and quilting. The quilt measures 63"x63", a size that makes it easier to get the quilt under the throat of my machine.

 

 

The 16-patch has a quilted flower design.

 

 

 

For each quilt I make I always try a new technique and Flight Patterns is no exception. I find that each quilt I make is a learning process.

 

 

In January I have had time to get some UFO's completed as well as complete some gifts for nieces and nephews. I have several baby quilt tops that are in the "to be quilted" pile. After that I hope to create some more fun quilts with original designs.

 

In February want to feature quilts I purchased at  the three generations quilt auction in November. As soon as I get a good photo shoot day and some helpers to hold the quilts I will make that post.

 

 

 





A New Year. Time to drag out the UFO's

My pile of UFO's awaiting completion... or not.

Since it is a new year I felt compelled to drag out my UFO's. In case you don't know, UFO stands for Unfinished Objects in the quilting world. These Unfinished Objects are also called WIPS in other parts of the country and Canada, which stands for Works in Progress. Whatever you want to call them, you don't have to be quilting long to collect these great fabrics and patterns that are intended to be finished ........ sometime.

After looking over my UFO's last week I gave myself permission not to finish them. What has happened along the way is my style and taste changed and to work on these projects would no longer be exciting to me. So I am moving on. I am going to cabbage the fabric and it will become part of my ever grown stash of fabric. That way the fabric may find its way into a project down the road, just not the original purchase project.

My New Year did begin with finishing a few UFO's that needed completing. I took the advice of Radio Personality Dave Ramsey. Dave advises people on financial matters and suggests listing debt smallest to largest and then attack the debt in that order. So I listed my projects smallest amount of work needed to largest amount of work needed and my attack has begun.

First I sewed labels on two quilts then finished blocks for an on-line block swap. That worked out well. Three projects complete in less that two hours. Then I moved on to finishing a baby quilt top. Next week I hope to finish some birthday gift projects and do some quilting. I'm already feeling better about my projects for the new year. Happy quilting to all in 2014. And don't forget to give yourself permission to rethink your list of UFO's.

It's time to search out all quilting UFO's.

My Modern Quilt, Flying Kite Tails, will be taking a road trip

Flying Kite Tails is a semifinalist in the AQS Phoenix Quilt Show.

I received word last week from American Quilters Society that my quilt, Flying Kite Tails, has been accepted in the AQS quilt contest in Phoenix, Arizona.  The AQS Quilt Week and Contest is set for February 5-8, 2014 at the Phoenix Convention Center.  Needless to say, I am delighted and humbled by this honor. The quilt will compete in the Modern Quilt division.

Flying Kite Tails is an original work that began because I love sewing wonky flying geese, I love bright color,  and I love working in a Medallion Quilt pattern. The design for this quilt started in the center with the colorful rows of varied triangles. I never know exactly where the designs in my quilts are going when I work in this manner. I find this a great method because it allows me to just start sewing without having to do a lot of planning or design forethought.

This quilt was my project when I arrived at Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat in October 2013. I have attended several of Gwen's retreats and love bouncing ideas off the other quilters in attendance. Special thanks to Kathy of Michigan who suggested the red dot in this quilt. And special thanks to Gwen for filling my head with the phrase, "Don't Commit Too Soon."

And there's more. Flying Kite Tails will be joining its sister quilt, Autumn in Boyle County,  that will be on exhibit at the Phoenix show. Autumn in Boyle County was a contestant in the AQS show in Des Moines, Iowa in October 2013. It was picked to travel with the AQS Modern Quilt Challenge exhibit that will attend all seven of the AQS shows in 2014. My quilts will have more travel miles than me in 2014.

Autumn in Boyle County is part of the AQS Modern Quilt Challenge exhibit.

Birthday Dresses for Little Nieces

Front view of the birthday dress.

Back view of the dress. It has two covered buttons.

Being the Mother of boys it's not very often I get to make girl clothes. But now I have little nieces that are helping fill that need. Recently I pulled out my clothing construction skills to make this cute little dress. It is one that my soon-to-be 2 year old niece can wear all year because the fabric has the number "2" all over the print. These prints by Jone Hallmark for Free Spirit caught my eye and I had to have one in each age. The line is called ABC's and 123.

In my stash I have fabric for ages 2,3,5,6,7 and 8. (The store was out of age 4.) So it is no surprise what fabric I will be using for each birthday to come. The dress pattern I used is Macy Giggles. I purchased the pattern at my local quilt shop and the pattern includes instructions for sizes 2 through 14. The pattern is an Izzy and Ivy Design. The instructions are easy to follow but I think the sizing runs a little big.

My stash of birthday prints.