Louisiana Traveling Quilt … Coming Home

Our guild, NELA Modern Quilt Guild, has run a 10 month/ 10 member traveling quilt bee that is now coming to a close.  It has been such fun and more challenging than I expected.  Many of us were at a standstill as we tried to get started on blocks for the quilts of the other members.  We really had to get out of our comfort zone and try new things.

Some of us set themes, or color schemes, and some were ‘anything goes’.  Mine was a Louisiana theme and my quilt top made it home just this past weekend.

 

Starting at the top left corner, you can see St Louis Cemetery (New Orleans), piano keys (think jazz),  Who Dat Owl for LSU (because who doesn’t know LSU football?!), raindrops (and I love the rain!  :-D), there is a paper pieced crawfish and alligator, a turtle, farms and catfish ponds, Louisiana state block (flying pinwheels), an oil rig and in the center the very first block, a map of New Orleans!   And the quilt is so much prettier in person.  The colors are brighter.  There’s Essex Linen in some of the squares that look awesome.  It is such a fun quilt and I’m so proud to have it home.

Kelly started my quilt with the map of New Orleans and included these cards for everyone to write a note.  This was awesome!  They included notes or backstories on why certain blocks were created which just made them more special.  They also included my name and address.  That helped everyone remember whose quilt they were working on.  Very helpful!  I definitely want to include that idea for next quilt bee we do.

A huge thank you to everyone in this bee.  It has been so much fun to watch everyone’s quilt come together.  And it has definitely made me exercise my creative muscles.

If you would like to see the other quilts as they are completed, go to our Pinterest board.  I’m loving the quilts coming in!

 

 

Snapshots Quilt Along

Have you seen the Snapshots Quilt Along sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop in 2015?  It’s been popping up over the last couple of months, teasing our interest.  It appears it’s about to go live.  I just received notice the introductory video is going up today.  Just in case you’re interested.  ;-D

Honestly, I’ve told myself I’m not picking up new projects for the first half of this year.  I’ve got a lot of unfinished projects still in the works and I have at least two projects planned and prepped.  I SO do not need another project!!

But I’ve caved.  The blocks in this quilt are precious and, while I love the colorway in the mockup, I will probably choose to go more retro and low volume.. we’ll see.   In all honesty, these patterns may be stockpiled for a project later in the year, or next year, or whenever.

What really pushed me over the edge on this one was the opportunity to donate to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital. And to sweeten the pot, FQS and Moda Fabrics have committed to match all donations up to $10,000 that are made through this project.  See the donation page for details.

I’ve known more than one person who’s been treated through St Judes’s, but my earliest and dearest was a childhood friend battling leukemia.  She fought hard and eventually lost the battle.  I remember Beverly as being so kind and generous, one of those truly good souls.  We weren’t from an affluent neighborhood and I know her family would have been bankrupt from the treatments if not for St Jude’s.  I’m forever grateful for all St Jude’s does for these children and their parents.

My donation is made in honor of my three, healthy, beautiful girls…Jamie, Katie and Betsy.  I’m always grateful for the blessings God has given me, but for you three, I’m most grateful of all.

A big thank you to Fat Quarter Shop and to Moda Fabrics for sponsoring this event and matching donations!  What a wonderful gift.

Constellation Quilt in the Making

This is a quilt in progress… actually perhaps in prep stage may be more accurate.  I have absolutely no business working on this right now because there are far too many projects ahead of it, not to mention the Christmas projects I should be working on.  But I couldn’t help myself, I had to at least get it ready to go.

This is inspired by a quilt at Haptic Labs.   If you follow that link, you will see a New Orleans map that is calling my name.  My daughter mentioned that her better half would really like the constellation quilt.  Of course, I thought it needed more detail (because I’m stupid that way) which initiated a search on the internet for another image.   I like that this one has the center and outer circle, the blue ‘grid’ lines (that remind me of parish/county lines), as well as the constellations themselves.

I then changed the image size to approx 30″ x 30″, saved the image to a PDF file and printed as a tiled image.   The print settings would be “Poster”, “Tiled”, and check “cut marks” to allow for easy match ups.  I wanted a thin paper I could quilt through and tear away once complete.  I bought tracing paper (the most transparent block shown in the image), a lightweight vellum, and the inexpensive lined 3-ring binder paper (the lightweight almost newsprint version, not the crisp white version).  The vellum felt too stiff in comparison, and the tracing paper had the most blurred image.  The loose-leaf lined paper printed well and should tear away relatively easily so that is what I went with.

• I spray basted this quilt which was new to me.  This is approximately 44″ x 44″. and spray basting worked well.  I’m using Kona cotton in Nightfall top and bottom, with Quilter’s Dream cotton batting.
• Next, starting at the center, I laid out the constellation map matching the ‘cut marks’.  I pinned these with straight pins as I went.
• Once all pieces were in place, I loaded water soluble thread in the top of my machine and a cotton bobbin thread in a color contrasting to the fabric.  I quilted in a grid where the pages met using a long stitch length.

My plan is to dissolve that top thread once all quilting is done.  The bottom thread should come loose except where quilting crosses.   It’s hard to tell by this photo, but those intersections aren’t as many as you would expect.

You can see a few of the paper joins here.  It will be interesting to see how well this process works and I bet I will come back with a lot of ‘what not to do’ warnings!  We’ll see how it goes.  I keep telling myself this is an after Christmas project.  (I SO want to start it now!)  It is now rolled away so I can’t look at it.

A friend of mine started the world map by Haptic Labs and you can see a photo of the template laid out on her fabric here.  I am really interested to see how it comes out.  She is hand quilting which I think is so pretty on this type of quilt.  Not to mention, she does a truly lovely job on everything she attempts.

I have another map quilt in the works as well which is inspired by Shwin and Shwin, but that will have to wait for another day.

I certainly hope you are being more productive than I am with regards to Christmas presents.  There are so many on my sewing list!  Do you have any good ideas?  What are your favorite Christmas gifts to make??    I need to find some quick and easy, “wow, I love that!” gifts.  Not asking for much, yeah?

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Ramona

 

 

McCall’s Fall Into Fashion Challenge

You could say I’ve been pretty quiet around here lately, but honestly, I’ve just been too busy DOING!  Quilting projects, projects for the grandsons, projects for the husband.  Perhaps I’ll blog those one day.  For now, I wanted to share something fun.

McCall’s Pattern Company recently issued a challenge to create what I consider to be a Fall sewing plan.  Because I SO need a plan, I found myself neck deep in no time at all.  You can read the details of the challenge here.  I’ve created my Pinterest board and started some idea boards on Photoshop that I’ve pinned as well.  One thing that is confusing me is the requirement not to “show trademarked images and other brand logos”.  I’ve removed some Pendleton vintage plaid jackets I’ve had posted.  Hopefully everything else is safe.  Since posting inspirations are encouraged, there are some garments by brand names.  Hopefully that’s safe.

I’ll show you a few of my favorites….

Don’t you love this version with the pencil skirt??  Or maybe it’s just me?

Love the taupe/khaki pencil skirt and green plaid!

And this vintage pattern I purchased recently.  Great jacket and skirt!

I’ve promised (and promised!) myself to adapt a blouse that REALLY fits.  It’s past time that happens.  And I want a shirt dress as well.  No reason those can’t happen together.  Love the vintage Vogue pattern below and think the McCall 6696  below will work nicely.  I’m seriously thinking of moving those darts to mock the vintage pattern.  I’m looking at some lovely Italian cotton for both the blouses and the dress.

Shown below are fabrics from Mood and Emma One Sock.  That floral is seriously Gorgeous online!

 

 

In my search, I’ve stumbled across Farmhouse Fabrics in South Carolina.  They seem to have one of the widest ranges of Italian cotton that I’ve seen.  Yes, I did break down and make a purchase(s)!  I’ll let you know what the fabric actually looks like when I get it.  :-))

Here’s a shot of one piece that I purchased.  They have some nice bundles at great prices.  I bought a 3 yd bundle of a fine check (not shown) for $18.  Fantastic price per yard.

60′ Superfine Italian Cotton Shirting

Of course, I’ve chosen current patterns as well.  Some T-shirts are on the list.  That floral fabric pattern may be too large, but I just love it!  Fabrics shown are from Marcy Tilton.

Shopping for projects is so much easier than actually getting a project done.  I recently took a week off and barely made a dent in my sewing list.  It was very disheartening.  I need a better plan for sewing during the week (around a full time job!)

Do you have any suggestions??  I hope you’re being more productive than I am.  Have fun!

Ramona

 

Threading on the Charm

I had planned on quilting today.  There’s three quilts waiting to be finished.  Instead, I spent the morning trying to find threads that worked on my Gammill Charm.  Unfortunately, the threads that worked were the wrong color for the quilts I’m working on.  So, instead, I played with tension and threads trying to find what works with this machine.

Just to give you an idea of some of the limits I went to, the top tension was lowered and raised, the thread path was modified, the bobbin tension was checked and modified, the needle size was changed from a size 12 all the way through a size 18, and the last thread track before the needle was sanded in case there were burrs.  I ended up using a #90/14 needle for most samples and had Aurifil #40 in the bobbin (only because that’s what I started with).

At the end of this morning’s session, the result was

• Aurifil #40 – broke at the needle despite multiple tension and thread settings.
• So Fine #50 – Worked well
• Fantastico – Worked well – thread is more visable (see the tip of feather in lower right of photo)
• Rainbow – Thread shred and broke despite tension changes.
• King Tut – Thread snapped at needle much like Aurifil.

I’ve tried Masterpiece and Magnifico in the past.  Masterpiece broke, but Magnifico worked well and the thread showed beautifully on the quilt top.  It is not a thread to use if you want the thread to disappear into the quilt top.  All of these but the Aurifil were ordered through Superior Threads.

I ordered Glide and a few other types of thread from BobbinCentral.com (Fil-Tec) that I’m waiting to try as well.  That’s for another day.

If anyone has a suggestion for using Aurifil on the Gammill Charm or other longarm, please let me know.

Happy Birthday to Me…

My birthday rolled around the way it always does and it was pretty awesome.  I thought my husband and I would do the dinner and movie thing.  But my family had other plans.  After moaning and apologizing for not being able to come into town for my birthday, my daughter walks in the door that afternoon.  What a great surprise!  But that wasn’t enough.  The whole family showed up as well and cooking a wonderful dinner.  The best way to spend a birthday.

And today, this shows up in my email…

How totally awesome is that?!  Thank you, Craftsy!  You know how to make a girl feel special.

If you’ve spent any time at all on this blog, you know I’m a huge Craftsy fan.  The biggest problem I had was choosing only one class!

I’m currently taking Suzy Furrer’s, Patternmaking Basics: The Bodice Sloper, and have Kathleen Cheetham’s, Adjust the Bust and have enjoyed them both for different reasons.  Suzy Furrer’s classes are focused on creating custom patterns using actual measurements, while Kathleen Cheetham’s classes are focused on adjusting patterns to create a better fit.

I’ve had my eye on two classes by both of them:

In the end, I just couldn’t decide… so I flipped a coin!  The Skirt Sloper won.  But honestly, the other class will make its way into my cart sooner or later.   It’s just a matter of time.

Craftsy, if you’re listening, a men’s tailoring class would be fantastic!   Video instruction for men’s tailoring is pretty tough to find.  I’ve found quite a few good texts on the subject, but it isn’t the same as watching the techniques being performed.

For now, I have plenty to keep me busy…and happy!  Craftsy, thanks so much!  Just another reason to love you.  😉

 

Quilts for the South

Quilts for the South

I saw this post on Bonnie Hunter’s site, Quiltville’s Quips and Snips, and wanted to share with my quilty friends.  This is a call for quilts to be distributed to those affected by the recent tornadoes.  Please see the link for more information.

I’m thinking through my WIP’s to think what I can finish and add to the effort.  Hope you can join me. 

Craftsy Sale Extended

Anyone who has followed me at all, knows how much I love Craftsy classes.  The do an awesome job and have a wonderful platform.  Right now they’re having a huge sale.  It’s not going to last much longer.  Go check them out if online learning is your thing.  They have some amazing teachers!

Quilty Bucket List

Stacey at The Tilted Quilt put together a Quilty Bucket List Blog hop.  

It’s a fun and easy blog hop that is just a wish list.  We aren’t required to make these in a time frame and there’s no due date.  Great for me right now.  

I found it interesting to think about what might be on my to do list.  One thing that occurred to me during this process is that the fabrics and the colors are a huge influence in my favorites, as much or more than the patterns.  

Primary colors and jewel tones really draw my eye.  A few of the quilts below have been done in very traditional fabrics, bright modern patterns, solids and neutrals.  For me the patterns totally change with the fabrics.  

If I had a quilty bucket list (and, honestly, don’t we all?  It may only be in the back of our mind, but it’s there.), this would be it.

Dear Jane / Farmer’s Wife samplers:

Instead of using the Dear Jane or other pattern groups, I plan to use a selection of patterns from BlockBase and basically create my own sampler.  I’m loving the colors in this sampler.

Economy Block:

I have been drawn to the Economy Block quilt lately.  

Triangle Quilt:

For a couple years now, I have wanted to make a triangle quilt.   I really would like to get some fabric together and make this happen.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

Wholecloth Quilt:

Top on my list is a whole cloth quilt.  There are a couple ideas for this one.  I’ve played with a design here:

And I’ve also created a larger version of Tula Pink‘s owl from Full Moon Forrest.  I fell in love with Tula Pink when I found this line..and of course it was already out of print.  I would love to use this owl as a center piece of a whole cloth quilt.  I would have to figure out a border and filler that would compliment this sweet owl.

Owl, by Tula Pink. Click photo to see source post.

 

So there’s my quilty bucket list.   And we haven’t even talked about my sewing bucket list.  I really need more hours in the day!!

If you want some inspiration, you should check out the posts so far.    Start here at The Tilted Quilt and go from there.

Have fun,

Ramona

Marfy Wishlist … :-D

Okay then!  Let’s see if this post works.  I’m pulling photos from Instagram and Pinterest and I will be interested to hear if the images are showing up for everyone.  PLEASE, if you aren’t seeing them, let me know (and let me know what browser you are viewing this in.)  Thanks so much!

So Marfy just released a few more patterns from their 2014 catalog.  It reminded me of the patterns on my wish list.  😦  I may break down soon and place an order.  Just saying…

Want to see some of my favorites???   😀   I knew you did!

Here goes ….

I love the simplicity of this next blouse.  Even busty, I think I may be able to get away with this style.  I may have to give it a try anyway.  Part of me says I can take a blouse that fits and create my own flounce.  Part of me says use the pattern that has been tried and tested.

http://instagram.com/p/k7DKDGM4qL/#

Don’t you adore the next suit?  Maybe it’s just me.  And Marfy is really choosing colors and fabric patterns that just call my name this season.  Have you ever noticed the difference it makes when a pattern is shown in a fabric or color that speaks to you.  I have totally discounted good patterns until I’ve seen it made up  differently.  The power of the psyche!

http://instagram.com/p/k7C9sPM4p3/#

The sleek lines in this jacket are awesome.  I’m constantly reminding myself that fitting a (way too) curvy figure causes disruptions in those nice lines.  Doesn’t stop me from wishing.

http://instagram.com/p/k7DGWlM4qE/#

This has been on my wish list a while.  It just looks like a comfy, knock-around jacket, doesn’t it?

http://instagram.com/p/k7DCF0M4p8/#

I Have Got To Have this next coat pattern.  I may need the plaid fabric as well.  Love, Love, Love it!

http://instagram.com/p/k7DOfSM4qQ/#

I’m looking for a pattern that is something like these two:

They appear to me to have kimono sleeves and an a-line silhouette.  (And the color of that teal(?) wool is absolutely awesome.  I’d love to find boiled wool in that particular shade.)  These next two Marfy may be candidates.  Modifications to the sleeve and/or collar may be needed.  What do you think?

http://instagram.com/p/k7DSqXM4qX/#

http://instagram.com/p/k7DZhjM4qn/#

I stop every time I look at this next coat and I have finally figured out it’s the fabric.  The fabric pattern and colors are fantastic.  I’m drawn to that blue and that oyster(?) color.  I definitely need to keep an eye out for something along those lines.

http://instagram.com/p/k7DWcnM4qg/#

And just because….I want to try a pair of Marfy slacks.  Really like the lines of this next pair.

Honestly, I have a few more on my list, but I think that’s enough for today!  Meanwhile, I may need to finish the projects on my table instead of dreaming up new projects.  What do you think??

Question:  How do you control the number of projects you have going at any given time??  I need to find a better solution.

Hope you’re sewing something awesome and having a blast,

Ramona