Having Fun

So I finished quilting Sea Glass on Sand - hooray! I'm now debating what to use for binding. I've narrowed it down to four options:

The solids are all Kona. Recall that I used Bone for the "sparkle" blocks in the project. Also noteworthy is that Baby Blue doesn't appear anywhere in the quilt, but Aqua does (triangles). I actually auditioned that mottled taupes print for the "sparkle" squares but it has a bit too much white in it. Not sure if that will be a problem for a binding which shows far less of the fabric at one time.

Opinions? Let's do a poll!


I'll leave the poll open for a couple of days. Thanks for your input!

Workshop Success!

Oh my, what a terrifically fun afternoon I had, teaching my Easy Going Modern workshop for the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild!

Just about everyone finished the day with a completed quilt top, so I achieved one of my workshop goals. The other was to make the experience fun and relaxing, and judging by the evaluations, I achieved that one too. Yay!

Here are some photos of the day (most courtesy of Holly):

Amy, arranging her low-volume blocks

Diane's version - kind of a "split Easy Going Modern" - she came to the workshop with it partially pieced, so we were able to get it basted during the workshop.

Me, overseeing Amy and Jo-Anne's progress.

Jo-Anne's finished top.

I stitched along with the class, so I ended up with a finished top too (Kona Chartreuse and Turquoise or possibly Caribbean).

I'm so happy to see all these beautiful quilt tops!

I think the best part for me was seeing all the different ways the pattern could stitch up. There were layer cake versions with both light and dark contrasting solids, a low-volume multi-print layout, an ombre version, a transparency version, one that featured prints and a near-solid repeating in the large squares, and one with many gorgeous hawaiian fabrics that played absolutely beautifully together. There were different types of linen, vintage/thrifted sheets, cotton and rayon used in the tops as well. So much inspiration, I couldn't sleep last night, I was so wound up!

I got some other fantastic suggestions in the evaluations including having everyone introduce themselves. I was so excited to get stitching I forgot about that - oops. Next time, I'll have a real-life sample available, and I'll give a quick rundown of the process before getting started too.

Thanks to all my workshop participants - I couldn't have done it without you all!

WIP Wednesday: Nothing to Report Edition

I spent the last 5 working days edumacating myself in preparation for some training that I will be delivering for work in the coming months. I took two courses on Instructional Design as it relates to facilitating adult learning. The experience definitely got me excited about further developing these new skills. As an added bonus, I gained a lot of insight into planning my first-ever quilting workshop (!!!) in which I will be teaching my (soon to be published in PDF) Easy Going Modern pattern.

In one course, we had to come to the first class prepared to give a short (five-minute) presentation on the topic of our choice. Since there wasn't much work-related that I could teach to non-bankers in five minutes (oh, darn), I decided to do something related to quilting (shocker!). My session was entitled "How to Make a Quilt" and I made up this mini sample that showed a quilt in various stages of completion.

Trust me, five minutes go really quickly, so I was only able to touch on the highlights - choosing fabric, cutting, stitching, assembling the top, layering the top with batting/backing, quilting and binding. It was very well-received.

Made Some Progress On...

Alas, the courses took all of my spare time and mental energy so nothing sewing-related got done except that I started work on the other pouch I'm making for the VMQG/PMQG pouch swap. That's some original Flea Market Fancy right there, oh yes it is. The green fabric is a really nice linen.

There will be some stitching around this lonely hexie to fancy it up.

Didn't See Any Action:

Everything else. That will change soon, though - I have another all-day Quilt By The Bay day retreat coming up (yay!). Much sewing will be done.

Linking up with Lee @ Freshly Pieced and Monika @ The Needle And Thread Network ('specially for Canadians - have you checked it out?). I love my Wednesday routine! :)

WIP Wednesday and Just Three Report

I've got stitching to report! Yay!

Finished

The Habitat Pillow Covers - woot!

The A-line dress (off-list, again). Had to get that project out of my system. Will tackle another one in quilting weight cotton (on its way from the lovely Sew Sisters).

Made Progress On

The Memory Quilt (on my WIP list!). I am very pleased with this one, but far less pleased with the terrible photo. It's been rainy and dreary here so avert your eyes if you're easily offended by horrifying indoor nighttime photos.

The border fabric was used for my friend's daughter's bedroom décor when she graduated to a "big girl" room. It's since been changed (she's a teenager now) but Anne asked me to make a quilt with the leftovers as a keepsake for Heather. I'll be adding some large flower appliqués in the centre patchwork area using the scribbly stitching I did on the preschool quilts, and fabrics that draw out the colours in the border.

(Unsanctioned Project)

A VMQG/PMQG pouch swap pouch. My playing last week translated into this:

The pouch's dimensions didn't turn out as I'd hoped (though it's not wonky in real life like my photos suggest). This size isn't going to work for my partner. But that's okay - I have another recipient in mind. I do like the design and I learned a few things about linen (hello, lots of fraying!), so the next one should work out fine. I hope.

Just Three Reckoning

May's Just Three:
1. Complete the I Spy Quilt. Check.
2. Complete the Habitat Pillow Covers. Yup.
3. Piece the Memory Quilt. Oh yeah baby.

June's Just Three
1. VMQG/PMQG pouches.
2. Memory Quilt finished.
3. Teacher gifts (3).

I really like Tracey's Just Three - choosing three projects helps me break my longer list into more manageable chunks. Would you like to join in? Please do!

Patiently Waiting for Attention
Charity Quilt 
Stacked Strips 
New Wave
Kaleidoscope
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese) 

Latest Stats
Completed Projects - 1 (+1 unauthorized)
New Projects - 0 (not counting pouches)
Currently In Progress - 7

What's everyone up to over at Lee's and Monika's? Go see!

Habitat Pillow Covers

Yippeee! I'm so pleased to have these all done. I think I say that about all my projects - what can I say? I get bored very easily so pushing through and seeing projects to the end makes me incredibly happy.

I started these pillow covers during Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's Habitat Challenge in late Summer of 2011, and around the same time, promised them to my sister for using on her brand-new dark brown leather couches (hence the choice of background colour). Not quite a year later, they're all done. Here's a collage* featuring them all, front and back:

*new feature in PicMonkey - I think I prefer Big Huge Labs' Mosaic Maker because I don't have to settle for a square arrangement.

There are two main themes in the designs - strips and wonky stars. I settled on two quilting designs, and used both for each theme. Aurifil 28wt in dark brown (5024) was my thread of choice.

Radiating lines from bottom corners

Random diagonal lines

Radiating

Random

The pillow covers finished at about 18" square. The backs used up nearly all my Habitat scraps plus a variety of browns from my stash. They also feature flaps to cover the zippers. I loosely followed this tutorial but basically worked out my own method which creates a flap with the fabric used for the top half of the pillow back. 

Rather than batting I once again used Pellon Fusible Fleece (TP971F Fusible Thermolam Plus) - it is wonderful for pillow tops.

True story: I only have one 20" pillow form, so I had to remove the Crane Star cover and dress it up 4 different times to snap the photos on my upper deck (I love our view best when there's still some snow on the mountains).

I'll be delightedly linking up this finish to Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday, Fabric Tuesday AND Ellison Lane's Summer Sewing Contest as well (all buttons/links in sidebar). 

WIP Wednesday

Did you know I'm doing a giveaway of 5 BasicGrey patterns? It ends tonight (Wednesday) but there still time to enter. Go here and check it out.

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Hooray! It's the First Day of Spring! We had hail yesterday! Woot! (sarcasm)

I have chugged along on my 2012 Project list.

Finished

March's block for Amy in Stash Trad Bee - a traditional block called Winged Square. Tutorial here. She asked us to select a centre fabric that reads two-coloured, then to use scraps to carry those colours out in each "wing" of the Winged Square. Neat, eh? The background is Essex Linen in Natural.

Folks, this bee is chock-a-block full of keeners and over-achievers, many of whom have the block finished before the month even starts. I've had to up my game and relinquish my position as President of the Last Minute Club, at least where this bee is concerned.

Made Some Progress

I'm really close on my Layer Cake version of Easy Going Modern. She's all quilted and just needs to be trimmed and bound. I found the perfect fabric for binding in my stash. Stay tuned for the full reveal and you will see it!

The backing is a thrifted IKEA duvet cover. I quilted the same wavy lines as on my original Easy Going Modern but I used a few different threads. Again, more detail in the full reveal post when it's all bound, washed and crinkled.

I've also finally pieced the top for G's I Spy quilt!

I began this one in a quilt-along approximately 1,000 years ago and I'm so pleased that it's close to being done. The backing has been selected - that just needs to be pieced, then I'll be ready to baste and quilt. See what I mean by chugging along? I'm a regular old Thomas the Tank Engine here, people!

I also worked on my Stacked Strips/Books quilt but ran out of Kona Snow. I got out on the weekend to pick some up, then came home and found the 2 metres I already had set aside for the project. Whoops. When I start doing dumb stuff like that, I can tell I have too many balls in the air. Or as I like to say, when there's too much in my mind, some stuff falls out. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

No Progress
Habitat Pillow Covers
Kaleidoscope (on hold)
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese) 

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 0 (the bee is ongoing)
New Projects - 0 
Currently in Progress - 10 


Quite happy with my forward movement on various projects this week. Thanks for stopping by for WIP Wednesday - please do go see what everyone's been up to at Lee's and Monika's.

WIP Wednesday

Because I got so much done on retreat on Saturday, this is a combo retreat report and WIP update. I haven't had a WIP Wednesday post in a while because I really haven't had much to show. Not so this week!

Finished

The Crane Star pillow, blogged here. I am so, so happy with this project!

Progress

I Spy Quilt:

During the retreat, I was annoyed to discover that I hadn't cut enough of the black inner framing strips for 3 of those white-bordered blocks so I had to halt production on this project and move on to other stuff (you can see the blank spots in the layout where I was thinking the blocks could go). They're now pieced, and I've made some great progress on assembling the top since the photo was taken.

Habitat Challenge pillow covers:

Oh brother - am I ever kicking myself for choosing this interlocking star layout for the pillow. The design itself is fine - I really like it. What I didn't think through was that there are 81 darn squares in this layout, MOST of which require the little star points to be added to them. Yes, they're wonky, so they don't require precision, but they're still time-consuming. I managed to finish off all of the star points (forgot to photograph!), and the pieces are ready to be pieced into the pillow front.

I also basted Easy Going Modern (the LC version) as planned, so it's all set to get quilted. Soon.

New Projects

Stacked Strips:

New project alert! I was so inspired by the blocks that I won, I needed to put them together right away. I got as far as piecing the blocks into four columns of varying heights. They look like stacks of books, don't they? I'll finish the rest of the top with the Kona Snow background including a strip between each stack so that I don't have to deal with all of those seams coming together. Plus, it will add some girth to the quilt to make it a more useable size. I'm aiming for 3" strips between the columns and perhaps along the outside edges as well. That will make the top finish at around 60" wide, which is a nice lap quilt width. Height will be 70" ish, I think. Depends how much Kona Snow I've got!

No Progress
Kaleidoscope (on hold)
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)

This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 1
New Projects - 1
Currently in Progress - 10 (why doesn't this number ever seem to go down?!)

Whew! That was a long one - I think my Project List has been caught up nicely. What's everyone else doing over at Lee's and Monika's? Go see!

WIP Wednesday

Let's get right to it, shall we?

Arkansas Traveler: 1, Felicity: 0

It's Lee's month in the Stash Trad Bee, and she requested an Arkansas Traveler block in beachy tones.



Looks nice, you say? What's this about losing this round of the battle, you say? Take a closer look. I've taken the liberty of adding some explanatory graphics and text:



As you can probably tell by the stitch marks and loose threads, I have already unsewn and resewn some seams. Looks like I need to try again. Third time lucky, I hope!

In better news, check this out - it's Easy Going Modern in a Layer Cake version.



This one, I'm happy with. I used a Terrain Layer Cake. The photo was taken at a local beach - we've been having beautifully sunny weather the last couple of days. A nice surprise during a season that is usually exclusively rainy (not that I'm complaining - you don't have to shovel rain!).

Other than the iPad case and the pouch, I didn't sew too much this last week.

Go see what everyone else got up to!

WIP Wednesday

I kind of really love WIP Wednesdays - I always get so inspired when I see everyone's projects!

Finishes

Hmmm. Not much, actually - just the bee block.

Progress

I started a Layer Cake version of Easy Going Modern using a Terrain Layer Cake. So far, so good - I love chain piecing! I also love a lot of these prints.



One exception to the "so far so good" - I've never used a Layer Cake before and the only charm pack I've ever used, I chopped up for my Kona Solids Challenge quilt. Are the cuts always this off? The white rectangles are cut 10" long, and Layer Cakes are supposed to be 10" squares. I have found there to be a significant variation. Just me?



Some Progress

Kaleidoscope benefited from some Leaders/Enders action so I'm slowly getting it pieced. No photos yet.

No Progress
Rainbow I Spy
Habitat Challenge Pillow Covers
Heather R memory quilt
Charity Quilt
New Wave
Bee quilt (Jewel Squares)
Bee quilt (Circle of Geese)


This Week's Stats
Completed Projects - 1
New Projects - 0
Currently in Progress - 10


Linking up to Lee's and Monika's!

Friday Felicities #15

This FF post is the Late Edition! But no less full of happy.

What has made me happy today is that we have a "sister" Modern Quilt Guild - the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild. "Greater Vancouver" covers a pretty significant area, and people who live in the suburbs to the east of Vancouver found it really challenging to make it to the VMQG meetings. So they started their own Modern Guild!

We are winding up our very first inter-guild activity: a potholder swap. VMQG members received the name of a FVMQG member (and vice versa). We had a very short questionnaire to complete to give our partner some ideas of our tastes and preferences. Our potholders need to be in the mail by the 30th of November.

Mine have been done for a while (what is with me these days, finishing stuff before deadlines??) and I was waiting to show them off at the VMQG meeting last night. Now I can mail them to my lovely partner.

A bit of process for those who are interested....I knew I wanted to do a wheel with wonky/uneven segments. I traced a mixing bowl, and then drew randomly-sized pie pieces. Using that as a foundation, I used my scraps sewed down each segment in turn. I pieced a couple of the segments using some strips to amp up the Scrappy. I got a little flummoxed at the last segment, but managed to figure it out/fudge it. I realized after piecing BOTH potholders that I should have made two half-circles and sewed them together. Next time!

The centre circle, I made using this fabulous tutorial by Krista - Poppyprint. After fusing it on, I zigzagged around the outside to secure it.

I consulted a few different online tutorials and ended up choosing to line the potholders with one layer each of: Insul-Brite, canvas and Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting. Backing and binding (bias, of course, for these circles!) are from a thrifted IKEA duvet cover. Quilting was in grey, in a spiral pattern, simply using the outside of my walking foot to keep the lines more or less even.

I'm really, really pleased with how they turned out, and I hope my partner is too.



Have a great weekend!

Edited: I'm linking up to Sew Modern Monday and Manic Mondays at SewHappyGeek (see right sidebar for buttons).

Friday Felicities #10

What's making me happy today is...something that doesn't start with F! Amazing!

Today's felicity is that I will be going on a quilt retreat tomorrow! I'll be sewing my little brains out from 9 am until 10 pm at a gorgeous locale just 45 minutes from the city, together with fellow members of the VMQG *and* FVMQG. Sqeeeeeee! I am very, very excited!

Have you ever been on a quilt retreat? They're usually weekend-long things, and you stay at a hotel or a B&B or a church-affiliated retreat centre. This concept of Krista's is very cool in that you don't have to commit to a full weekend OR stay overnight, which is especially helpful to those of us with smaller kiddos.

A retreat is a chance to work on whatever you want uninterrupted except by chatting, checking out others' work, chatting, eating (someone else cooks!) etc. etc. - just you and your sewing machine. In other words, quilter-style bliss. If you ever have the opportunity to go on a retreat, TAKE IT. You won't regret it.

I'll be working on - what else? - those 3 preschool fundraiser quilts I committed to. I am surprisingly ahead of the game on this project (I know, who are you and what have you done with our President? says the Last Minute Club). I've got one top just about done - the details such as the bird's beak and legs, as well as the sun's rays, and the flowers' leaves etc. will be filled in with that scribbly appliqué technique:

As I was naming the image file to save it, I realized Kindergarten means children's garden! Yay, me!

And another one underway:

The AM and PM preschool class quilts will be mirror-images and together will form a full tree, diptych-style!

I'm having a lot of fun with these quilts - they are designs I've had floating in my head for a while, so I'm delighted to be able to let them out.

Have a great weekend!

Wonder Wheel

This quilt was a long time in the making! I joined the Big Fat Dresden Quilt Along over at Lily's Quilts back in March (gah!), got the top done in relatively good time. Then I got distracted by other things (ooh, shiny!), basted it, and then it stalled again.

I began to feel like I was drowning in WIPs, yet I was (happily) starting yet more projects, and it was stressing me out.  Plus I didn't know how I wanted to quilt it. More stress. This hobby isn't supposed to be a source of stress!

So I just went ahead and finished it. Of course, it took like two evenings to quilt. Isn't that always the way? We think a project or task is going to be yooooooge and it isn't.

Three cheers for Wonder Wheel!

Hip, hip, hooray!

Hip, hip, hooray!

Hip, hip hooray!

The Child "helping" with the photo shoot.

Details:

Size: about 35" square
Pattern: Dresden Quilt Along, Lily's Quilts
Quilting: straight line with walking foot using 28 wt dark brown Aurifil thread.
Fabric: mostly Wonderland by MoMo for Moda, with a couple of extra prints thrown in to round it out. The solids are Robert Kaufman Quilters Linen in (I think) Chocolate for the centre circle and around the Dresden Wheel, and Kona Coffee for the borders and binding.

I still adore Wonderland, and I've got some more to play with (but maybe not til the new year, says the woman with a massive To Do list). In any case, this one's staying with us!

Linking up everywhere I can again - {Sew} Modern Mondays (on the 17th), Manic Mondays, Fabric Tuesday (links all over there on my sidebar), and a new linky party over at pieceful life for little quilts on Mondays, the works!

Friday Felicities #5 - For the Love of Solids

Felicitous news, Followers! This Friday's Felicity is that I have a FINISH to share! (Aside: why do so many of my Friday Felicities involve the letter F? Such fortuitous alliteration!!)

I swore off swaps and bees.....and promptly joined a swap and a bee. Whoops. Anyway, this swap was really interesting - all solids! My collection of solid fabrics isn't that impressive (mostly limited to white, off-white and 3 shades of grey) but thank goodness I'd just put in an order with Brenda from Pink Castle Fabrics for a rainbow of Bella Solids (Moda). Pretty!

I browsed my secret partner's favourites, and it looked like she'd enjoy a New York Beauty mini quilt. I mulled and mulled. And mulled some more. Printed out a foundation piecing template. Mulled it over some more. Then, inspiration struck when I was leafing through a Kaffe Fassett book at the library and I switched courses slightly to a pickledish quilt.


The mini quilt came together quickly after that. I foundation pieced some arcs.

Then I needed to choose a background, and ended up with door #1: Kona Coal.

Then I had a quilt top in need of quilting.

I asked for -- and got -- some great advice from my Flickr posse and here's the final result. May I introduce, "In a (Solid) Pickle."

The centre really isn't that floofy - it's from being folded up and I photographed it at work (on the shipping deadline day) so no pressing available.

Looks kind of New York Beauty-ish, doesn't it?

It's 20½" square and I am really proud of it!

I used 5 different colours of thread to quilt this. Grey for the echo quilting, and then a different colour in each of the 4 different arcs. You can see the colours a little more clearly in this photo:

And the quilting on the front, in detail:

All in all, a solid (geddit? HAHA I crack myself up) effort, I'd say. I hope my partner agrees!

One more photo? OKAY!

There is another little goodie that was in the package; I'll blog about that in a couple of days. Patience, my lovelies! Have a great weekend!