Happy National Quilting Day!

Though I haven't written for a while, I really have been busy at the machine when possible.

Here is what I'm working on this week.  It is a super secret project, so am only showing you wnat is under my needle.  It is further along as I finished the all over quilting on 2 of the sections this week.

I've also made a few of these Foster Care Bags that our church ministry called Seams of Love has been working on.  Foster kids often leave their homes with their belongings in garbage bags if they even have anything they can take with them.  These bags will help them carry some of their essentials and give them a bit of dignity!

It is purely coincidental that both of these projects have a lot of blue and red in them!

Next time I'll tell you how these came to be and where I'm going with them.

You may remember that I started a 4-patch project at last year's Friend's Mini Retreat.

I'll tell you about my tumbler leader ender project then, too.  Here is a preview.

Hope you are having a super National Quilting Day and, yes, that is an actual day and it is always the 3rd Saturday in March.  Happy Quilting!

Until Next Time,

XOXOxoxoXOXO

Lois

Thousand Pyramids - The 30 Year Wonder Qluilt

According to my research, the Great Pyramid took about 20 years to build.  This quilt top took about 30 years from concept to last row joined.  Hmmm, maybe not so bad considering there are actually 1,175 pyramids in this charm quilt.

I think there were five of us who did an exchange that took about 18 months.  We had 4 templates (2 people used the same template).  We planned to exchange 10 fabrics a month in a particular color family.  Each of us drew around the templates and cut out the shapes with 1/4" seam allowances for hand piecing., Fifty quilt pieces were made and exchanged each month.  We were loose on the color families - red meant anything from deep burgundy to the lightest pink, blue was navy to pale blue, etc. Colors like rust might fit in either the orange or brown category.

The templates included a half-square triangle which was used by two quilters.  One (our East Coast native) used a clam shell, one shape was a diamond and then there was mine that was a pyramid shape.

I moved cross country during the exchange and found that 10 of the fabric shapes could be sent in a #10 envelope for the price of a first class stamp, so each month, I continued to send my shapes to each of the others and they sent theirs to me.

A little Amish Influence.

All types of fabrics were exchanged.  There are a few that probably  aren't the best quality and maybe should have been left out, but our stashes weren't as big back then.

Christmas fabrics including a fussy cut Christmas bear were exchanged.

Even a vintage Holly Hobby fabric made it into the top. Notice that it is next to an Irish clover leaf.

There is even an "A" for Arnold in the top.

There may be a point or two that need to be "fixed" or maybe they will be left in even if they are slightly off.  Maybe it's more important to have this quilt done and quilted than it is to have it be perfectly pieced after 30 years or so!

One of the neatest things about the fabric is that even though the original exchange was with a small group of dear friends in Iowa, as I was finishing the quilt, I needed more fabric to make it large enough.  Of course, I used some of my newer stash, but I still needed unique fabrics in some colors, so asked two of my dear Arizona friends if they would contribute the colors I needed and they did!  So this quilt includes fabrics from not only over time, but from more friends than the original group.  

Isn't that part of the culture of quilting?  Neighbors exchanged fabrics, friends contributed fabrics to fill a need and relatives shared their stash.  Today just like in the past, these traditions continue and I'm very happy they do, aren't you?

Here's to Quilting Traditions!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Celtic Solstice Top - Finally!

Every once in a while someone will ask me how long it takes to make a quilt. The answer is usually, "as long as it takes."  Some projects we have tunnel vision and work on exclusively from start to finish, but others take longer as they are put aside in favor of things with a higher priority at the time.

Celtic Solstice was started the Friday after Thanksgiving 2013 and just now the top is done.  The parts and pieces are in this post. This was a Bonnie Hunter Mystery. She has taken the instructions down, but her blog is worth reading here. She posts regularly and has a mystery that starts every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

I changed a couple of things on my version.  The first was size.  The mystery clues were given for a smaller version and a king size version.  I wanted a queen size quilt, so had to wait until all of the clues were in to determine just how many of each unit to make.

I also changed the orientation of the pieced border units. and added a corner unit to make the corner turn.  The unit used was the same as in the block nearest the corners with the pinwheel in the center.

I used the colors given in the mystery except that I used blue for the final border.  The original instructions called for green. I just like blue better, that is the only reason.

This is a scrap quilt, but I did purchase the blue for the border and a couple of greens and oranges because I did not have enough variety.  

And still, try as I might, sometimes the same fabrics were close together or next to each other.  It just works out that way sometimes. It doesn't bother me when it does.

It is a bright and cheerful quilt, don't you think?

My version is 101.5" square.

It won't fit on my design board.  The board is only 96" x 96".  Sorry the photos do telescope.  

When it is quilted and bound, I will take a photo of it hanging on my quilt display stand -- just don't hold your breath, I don't quilt that fast. LOL

This is the first mystery quilt I've participated in.  It was fun, but I do like doing my own designs.

Until next time,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Celtic Solstice and Hexie Progress - slow but sure!

Are you a slow stitcher or a fast one?

Do you get things done really quickly or savor the process?

Do you work on one project until it's done? 

Or are you like me with several things going at once?

Here is where Celtic Solstice is today.  The left portion is all stitched together.  The right portion is webbed and ready for the horizontal rows to be stitched together.

I showed you the first two borders here. The final border is a bright blue.

The pieced border is only stitched into "twosies" at this point.

In addition to Celtic Solstice, my evening hand stitching project is hexies.

When the diamonds are added, they will fit like this.

Of course, I have to add some more neutral to the final points before adding diamonds.  And, I'll have to make 5 more diamonds, too!  I cut more neutral fabric this morning for more hexie variety.

Then, there is the pyramid project that I showed you here.  All of the setting triangles are stitched now, so it is just a matter of sewing the diagonal rows and deciding if a border is needed. 

I need to take a photo of the pyramids now that all of the setting triangles are done.

So which are you? Fast, Slow, one project at a time or working on many projects?  I'd love to know so leave a comment below.

Until next time,

XOXOxoxoXOXO

Lois

Mini Retreat and Progress on Celtic Solstice

It took a bit of planning, but a couple of weeks ago, friends Diane, Joyce and I got together at Joyce's cottage for a mini retreat.  Coordinating schedules can be hard!  But, Diane and I finally got to escape the heat of the valley to go up to see Joyce for a couple of days in the cool mountains!

Here is the view from the deck early in the morning.  Can you believe we did not sleep past 6 AM any of the days?

In no time, we had our machines set up and were sewing!

It is a good thing we went when we did.  Last week Diane took a bad fall on her roller blades and has several breaks in her right hand and fingers plus scrapes and bruises on the rest of her right side! It will be a while before she will be able to do much sewing!

Diane was paper piecing the blocks for a flying geese quilt.  It is going to be stunning!

Joyce was stitching corners on units for a quilt with some bow tie units as her "leaders and enders".

I was finally putting together the units for the star blocks of the Celtic Solstice quilt a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt started last November.

We all made quite a bit of progress in addition to laughing, talking, eating and just enjoying being together.  We are planning to something special for our 30th Friendiversary in 2016.  We met in 1986 when we all joined the same chapter of the Arizona Quilters Guild and became fast friends.

Since our mini retreat, I've made a bit of progress on the Celtic Solstice quilt blocks.

All 40 of the star blocks are completed.

The star blocks alternate with blocks that have a pin wheel in the center.  Two are shown above.  Now all I have to do is make 39 more of those blocks, stitch the pieced border and add two more borders.  Yeah, it will be a while before the top is finished, but progress is being made.

So what are you working on?

Until next time.......

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Celtic Solstice Parts and Pieces

Have you ever participated in a mystery quilt?  I had not until last November when Bonnie Hunter posted her Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt.  I liked the colors, but at the time had no idea what the quilt would look like.  And so I began collecting stash fabrics and purchasing a few to fill in.

Once the clues started being posted, I cut some of each clue each week.  This was happening between Thanksgiving and Christmas, folks!  Too busy to make a lot of each, I just made a few.

My project lately has been to finish all the parts and pieces.  Here they are grouped in bundles of 10.

This sure doesn't look like a queen sized quilt, does it?  But it is!   All but the borders are here!  Well, actually one border is here.  The blue and orange units on the upper left are a pieced border yet to be assembled.

These are the two blocks that will be alternated in the rows.

While Bonnie gave the instructions and number of pieces for two sizes, one was just 75 x 75 inches and the other was a whopping 111 x 111 in. king sized quilt!

Enter Electric Quilt to figure out a Queen Size!

I also took liberties with the color of the outside border and the placement of the orange and blue pieced border.  Of course, this could change - it's not done until it's pieced!

I think I'm going to love it.  Thank you Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville!  If you have not been to Bonnie's blog, jump on over there - she has a ton of good information and is an avid scrap quilter!

Next week, friend Diane and I will travel to our friend Joyce's cottage for a mini quilt retreat.  These parts and pieces will be going with me and there will be a lot of sewing going on!  Three friends, lots of scraps and parts and pieces, laughter, fun and food!

I'll report back to let you know the progress of my queen sized Celtic Solstice!

Until next time,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Celtic Solstice Update and Christmas Projects

Hope you all had a marvelous Christmas!  We had a house full with lots of love, laughter, wrapping paper all over the place and food, too!

Getting ready for Christmas certainly curtailed my stitching on Celtic Solstice, though I have made some of each of the clues.

I also had to prep 110 angels for my 2 and 3 year old classes. Here is the "grown-up" version I did for my own tree.

 

For the kids, a sparkly star sticker and chenille wire halo were used.  they attached a white cupcake paper for the wings.  On mine I used copper wire for the halo, painted a wooden star with copper metallic paint and used a heart shaped lace doily for the wings.

 

Then there were the "Jingle" pillows I needed to make.  They are Pottery Barn knockoffs.  I made red for the family room.

 

 

Blue for the foyer.

 

 

The other pillows were made other years.

 

 

We just needed a "Believe" pillow to join the Silent Night and Holy Night pillows in the Living room.

 

 

I will admit the "Believe" pillow did not get completed until the day AFTER Christmas.

 

 

And Miss Summer just had to have a tutu for Christmas.

 

So that's why my Celtic Solstice clues are barely started!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Here is where I am on Clue 1.

 

 

A lot cut and quite a few stitched -- but not done!

 

And Clue 2?

 

 

There are actually a few more than this done now, but they were not when I took photos.

 

Clue 3?

 

 

Ditto.  A few more are done than when the photo was taken.

 

Clue 4?

 

 

I actually have quite a few more of these done now.  Love making 4-patch blocks.

 

And Clue 5?

 

 

I think I have about 20 of these done now and more cut and ready to go.

 

So, I am really behind, but hope to catch up this week with New Year's Day off work!

 

 

 

A 3-ring binder helps keep the instructions in order.

 

 

The yellow post-it notes help me find the page I need quickly to check numbers or pieces to cut or units to make of each clue.

 

It is a lot of fun and I can't wait for the reveal when we get to know exactly how all these units will be joined into the quilt.  This is a challenge for me as I like to know where I am going on a quilt.  Hope you are having as much fun with this if you are doing Bonnie Hunter's  Celtic Solstice Mystery.

 

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and productive 2014!

 

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On The Design Wall Now

Hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving!  We had a house full.  Our number for holidays is always somewhere around 20 with 22 being the minimum.  Sometimes our grand kids bring friends and sometimes our children's in-laws come so it varies from holiday to holiday, but it is always a lot of fun!

Not much went on in the studio most of the week, but I had pulled out a really old UFO after the Vines and Stars came down off the design wall.  I cannot stand for it to be empty!  The UFO began a very long time ago when several of us decided to make a charm quilt.  A charm quilt, if you are not familiar with the term is a quilt that contains only 1 template piece, but repeated in 1,000 different fabrics.  Jo, Joan, Lorinda and Bonnie, remember those days?

We exchanged 10 fabrics each month in a designated color.  The rule was, for instance on red, it could be any variation of red from pink to burgundy and light or dark. We each had all of the templates and drew around them on the fabric, cut them with 1/4" seam allowances and gave them to each other according to the color of the month.  I made a move during that time, so mine were mailed each month.  All 10 pieces would go for a standard 1st class postage stamp.  Obviously, since I am still working on it, mine never got completed.

Here is what it looks like with 976 fabrics.  I do not guarantee that there are no duplicates, but that is still a LOT of different fabrics.  I am still hand piecing the rest of the missing pyramids.

 

 

The contrast is a little weak on the bottom row, so pieces will be moved around.  Each of the larger triangles is made up of 16 smaller triangles.  I have not decided how I will handle the half blocks on the two side edges.  If I piece them, I will need another template that is half of the original triangle or pyramid shape.

 

I have also decided to participate in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Celtic Solstice.  I have never done a mystery before, because I really like designing my own quilt and, if you know me well, you know I have a tendency to want to be in control of the design.  Not knowing in advance where I'm going with something is a bit unsettling to me.  Okay, I admit it, I'm a control freak!  There, I said it!  You may all laugh now, because you probably already figured that out.

 

The first clue was given yesterday on Bonnie Hunter's blog.  It will be a challenge to actually follow the rules, but at least I'm going to give it a try. 

 

Here are a few of the clue one pieces made using the Tri-Recs ruler set.

 

 

You can read more about the mystery on Bonnie's blog.  It is not too late to join in on the fun.  I do like the scrappy look of Bonnie's quilts, but usually decide on my own patterns rather than use a predesigned quilt pattern.  The few times I've tried to follow a pattern, I end up changing it so that in the end it does not look like the original.  It's more fun to put a personal touch on anything, don't you think?

 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!  Stay tuned for more on the progress of the pyramids and the mystery quilt.

 

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

 

 





Vines and Stars Quilt Top Finished - Finally!

At long last, the borders have been added and this top is done!  Great feeling!  As I told you, this quilt began as a demonstration piece for classes I was teaching on how to applique' vines and leaves.  There are a few tricks to making those sharp points on the leaves and having a vine stay even as it curves.  I used it as a demo at the AQS Show in Nashville way back in 2005 for the first time.  While it's been fun, I'm glad to have the top finished! 

 

Sorry about the telescoping of the photo.  The quilt is too large for the design wall.  It is 94" x 99". It will shrink some with the quilting, though.

 

Do you remember that I nearly ran out of the black background used for the applique strips and the 8-pointed stars? I told you about it here.  Well, I found what I think is the perfect solution for the borders.

 

 

The blacks actually match better in person than they look like in the photos.  Can you see the musical notes?  Originally I found a black with a treble clef, but it seemed too close to the other black and really didn't "pop" as a border even with the colorful striped inner border.

 

 

But this print seemed to bring it all together.

 

 

It works for me.  What do you think?

 

Sorry for the odd angles on the photos.  I was sitting on the loft rail and not feeling all that secure!  It is a rare rainy day in the desert, so the light wasn't very cooperative either.  I won't complain about the rain, though, we certainly can use the moisture even if it isn't an ideal day for taking photos.

 

Hope you have enjoyed the story of the vines and stars quilt.  Have an awesome day!

 

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

 

 

 

A Sew Day and What I've Been Doing

My sister called a couple of weeks ago or maybe more to ask where I've been.  She says she keeps up with what I'm doing mostly through my blog.  Yes, that means I'm not a very good correspondent and I rarely call anyone.  It's not that I don't want to, but we live across the country from each other and there is that whole time difference.  Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time, so half the year there is a two hour difference and half the year it's only 1 hour.  By the time I decide I should call in the evening, it's too late where she lives.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Seriously, I've just been busy with this that and the other.  Here are a few of the things I've done in the past few weeks.

First I was invited to a sew day at Evelyn's.  Evelyn had just returned to Arizona from Wisconsin where she spends part of the year.  She is not exactly a Winter Visitor as she has a home here, but it is just a lot cooler in the Summer in Wisconsin and she has a home there, too!  She and several others get together occasionally to sew and this time, they asked me to join them.  Though I was only able to stay part of the day, it was a great time and I got a lot done, too!

 

This is Evelyn busily stitching away.  Evelyn does mostly art quilts.  She is collaborating with a Wisconsin quilter and they enter quilts in shows together.  Her house is chock full of quilts on the walls and draped over furniture.  There is a LOT to see at Evelyn's house!

 

 

This is Judi.  She makes the most incredible miniatures you would ever want to see!  She was hand piecing the most amazing mariner's compass block.  And it was for Sue!  Judi's work is accuracy with a capital A! Tiny pieces with sharp points to die for!

 

 

Tari was piecing blocks. Her lamp is in the way, so we cannot see them.  I cannot remember what block she was working on. She kept her nose to the machine and worked away all day!

 

 

Sue was busy squaring up her applique blocks.  Sue also is a long arm quilter and probably produces more quilts or quilt tops in a year than anyone you know.

 

 

Here is a close up of one of the blocks Sue was working on.  There are pieced blocks in the quilt as well.  It is a lovely soft palette and will be beautiful when completed.

 

Also present was C.J.  She is Sue's cousin and arrived later in the morning.  Her name isn't really C.J., it is Judy.  Since there was already a Judi in the group and since this Judy is Sue's cousin, the group refers to her as C.J. which is short for Cousin Judy as it's less confusing that way.

 

And what was I working on that day?  Sewing the blocks together for this quilt.

 

 

Since that day, I have set the strips together and shortened the vine strips as the star block strips were not quite as long.  Remember I did the vine strips when I was teaching vine and leaf applique so the quilt had not been designed at that point.  I just randomly selected a length for the vine strips.

 

 

The first border has just been cut and placed on the design wall.  It is not stitched yet.  I really like the multicolored striped on the black for this inner border.  Stay tuned for what the outer border will be.  I also have a tutorial almost ready on how to hand piece eight pointed starts that will be coming soon as well.

 

In addition to doing that, I unstitched in excess of 1,200 inches of quilting in the border of another quilt.  I was just not happy with the way it looked so it had to go.  Here is what replaced it.

 

 

It is finally bound and ready to go.  As it is 100" by 100", it took a bit of time to do all of that picking out stitches and re-quilting! I cannot show you the rest of the quilt as it will appear in a magazine.  I'm still working on the directions for it.

 

So that sort of brings you up to date.  I will try not to take such a long leave from my blog again.  I really missed you and hearing from you.  You make my day when you leave a comment so please let me know what you have been doing or what you think about what I've been doing.

 

 

Until Next Time,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois