Monday, March 25, 2013

Strings quilt and floating triangles top

First, here's a picture of the string top I used as the class sample for the class I taught Thursday:





This is a top in progress--I'm calling it floating triangles, though the official title is "Up, Up, and Away." The pattern is in the book _Sunday Morning Quilts_, an excellent book I bought in Bishop about storing and using every bit of your scraps.




I should finish piecing the top tomorrow.



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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Back from Bishop

We just got back from 10 wonderful days in Bishop. For those of you unfamiliar with California, it's a town about 5 hours north of here at the edge of the Eastern Sierras, known for its big Mule Days celebration and rodeo every Memorial Day. It's also the home of Galen Rowell, who was a famous rock climber turned photographer. There's a wonderful museum of his photography that I make sure to visit every time we go to Bishop.

We spent the first three days west of town on the Owens River at Pleasant Valley Campground. It's an Inyo County campground, has no hookups, and costs only $10 a night.


We like to take a spot on the south side of the river under the Chalk Cliffs, and usually we have the place to ourselves. We had some neighbors about 100 yards away - never a peep. Don was able to go walk the river every day, and I read, did some hand-stitching,  and made a couple of trips into town.

After 3 days with no hookups, and with cool weather, we moved into town just in time for the temps to get warmer. We went to Highlands RV Park, where I was able to have electricity and pull out the sewing machine. It was also nice to watch TV - I'm addicted to the Jodi Arias trial.

There's a great quilt shop in Bishop - Sierra Cottons and Wools - and one of the co-owners is Barri Sue Gaudet, who has numerous wool designs out under the Bare Roots name.  The quilt shop is right next door to the RV park, so I was able to walk over there several times. 

These are the store samples of two wool projects I'm working on - the first is a pillow, and the second is a block of the month quilt.


After 3 days at Highlands, we were going to go to Lone Pine for 3 days so Don could fish Diaz Lake in his float tube.  But the fishing was so good on the river (it's a wild trout stream, catch-and-release fly fishing only), that he came back to the trailer and announced, "I can fish Diaz Lake when I'm old. I won't always be able to fish rivers like this. Can we stay?"  I was glad to stay in Bishop for 3 more days, where I continued to sew, read, watch TV, and relax.

I finished 3 tops - all from charm squares. The top one is turned sideways!  It'll be bound in a black that has little tiny colored hearts on it - the black I used for the cornerstones.


This next one needs a border or two - and I'll be picking out some orange and gray soon for it. 


This next one is called Kylee's Kite - a pattern by Eleanor Burns, using a special ruler. It'll make a great baby quilt, won't it?!

Now I'm home, sewing away as usual, and here's my next big project: 


It's called Up, Up, and Away, and it's from the book Sunday Morning Quilts. It'll have 589 squares in it, and each square has a triangle in one corner. Turn the squares on point, and it looks like the triangles are floating on the background of white/neutral. I started sewing the rows together today - a pretty simple but tedious process.  I should finish the top in the next 2-3 days. 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Strings Class

Today I taught my first class at my local quilt shop. It was on how to make string quilts, like the ones I learned on Bonnie Hunter's site Quiltville.com.

This is one of the tops I showed them.




I showed them how to make the string blocks, and they went to town!








Each gal had different color palates--while I make all of mine in a random "scrappy" palate.

Janet made her blocks bright and bold:



Linda was using jewel tones:




Sharon had brought some lovely greens and pinks:




Diane and Peggy were using assorted colors--I forgot to snap a picture of Peggy's blocks, but here are Diane's:




All 5 gals told me they were really happy with the class, so I feel it was a successful day!


- Posted using from my iPhone

Monday, March 4, 2013

March 3 update

I've been busy!  Here are some March BOM blocks I've made the past couple of days:
Quilt Doodle Designs BOM - February

Rail Fence - Quilt Doodle Designs BOM - March
Forget Me Not - Sugar Block Club BOM - March

Ninja Star - Lucky Stars BOM - March - 12"


Ninja Star - Lucky Stars BOM - March - 6"


I decided I didn't like the colors I was using for the 12" blocks in the Lucky Stars BOM - I'd been using random scraps on a cream background.  I picked up a nice FQ bundle at Eleanor Burns' store a couple of weeks ago, and they are bright, cheery colors. I re-did the January and February blocks (below) and am making sure there is always at least one fabric in common from month to month.

Exploding Star - Lucky Stars BOM - February - 12"

Funky Star - Lucky Stars BOM - January - 12"/
Sisters' Ten BOM - School Girl's Puzzle

Sisters' Ten BOM - School Girl's Puzzle


Block Lotto
- January blocks completed
- February blocks completed
- March blocks completed
Block Swap Adventure
- January block completed
- February block completed
- March block completed
Modern Monday - all blocks completed
Pieceful Kwilter SAL - 7 parts completed, ready to start part 8
Quilt Doodle Designs BOM
- January block completed
- February block completed
- March block completed
Sew Bee Wonky
- January blocks completed
- February - It's my month, so I don't have to make any!
Sisters' 10 BOM - Gen X Quilters
- January blocks completed
- February blocks completed
- March blocks completed
Stash Bee
- January blocks completed
 - February blocks completed
Sugar Block Club
- January block completed
- February block completed
- March block completed
Traditional Tuesday - all blocks completed

UFOs (tops that need to be quilted or donated)
1. Lighted Forest - paper-pieced/batiks - at the quilter's
2. Batik New York Beauties - quilted, needs binding
3. granny squares on white - quilted, needs binding
4. 5 1/2" strings w/red border - quilted, needs binding
5. scrappy +x blocks
6. striped +x blocks
7. selvage strings w/white border
8. HSTs BOM
9. Sow-Along - 30's fabric w/white border
10. Bumblebeans large color challenge
11. Quatrefoil
12. cheddar bowties
13. 100-patch
14. crumby log cabins
15. green Bento box
16. Laurel Burch Christmas
17. 4 hearts/1" blocks

WIPs (tops in progress)
1. Boomerang blocks - turquoise
2. Block Lotto tall fly blocks
3. scrappy rag quilt
4. string quilt #4
5. Mondern Monday
6. Traditional Tuesday
7. bold stars on white
8. Bumblebeans small color challenge
9. Discontinuity

Making Quilt Kits

Last week and yesterday I spent some time cutting fabric and making some kits for 4 quilts. I plan to take two of them to Bishop with me on Friday - we're going up there for some fishing (him) and relaxation (me). There will be 4 days in Bishop and 2 in Lone Pine when we'll have hookups, so I'll take the sewing machine and get some piecing done. The 4 days we'll be without hookups I plan to do some hand work on a woolies project, read, and visit the quilt shop in town.


The kit on the right in the bottom photo is from this book, which I picked up at JoAnn.  I have a bunch of 5" charms, and need to start using them.


The two larger kits in the top photo are going to be quilts from this book, which I got at my local quilt shop (Cherry Berry Quilts). I had so many 2 1/2" strips that I think I can make every quilt in that book and still have leftovers.

The fourth quilt will be a small one, using a ruler and pattern I picked up at Eleanor Burns' shop a couple of weeks ago. It's going to use up 28 of my 5" charms.