The quilt shop Bee Block

I had so much fun making this block! In our bee, Cara wanted to make a house block quilt for a family with a baby in NICU as a hope for 'Home'. Click over there to see the other awesome house blocks.

I was inspired by the picture of Becket standing in front of a painted barn at the Quilt N Go shop in Michigan.  Started with the sketch Saturday night and finished first thing Sunday morning!

I pulled out some blank newsprint, cut it to 12" square as my usable area, and created a sort of paper pieced pattern for myself.

Cara's request for 'no applique' was taken as a challenge. I figured out how to make myself a semi-fluffy cloud. It was the only part of the block that was actually paper pieced. The rest of it was more for scale guidance.

At the painted barn, one of the quilts was made to look like the wind blew up a corner as they hung on a line. I wanted to add that detail, too. 

I initially planned to piece a little section of half square triangles, but realized it would break the pattern of the quilt front. So I braved it - did a mock up test - and actually inset the HST flip. Quilt Karma smiled on me for trying something new and tricky - I was pleased to see how nicely the wood grain matched all on it's own! I have a little pucker at the corner, but I decided it was a feature, making the wind rumpled fabric look realistic :)

It was so nice out, I rode my bike over and parked in under the overhang. Picked some wild flowers and fresh strawberries on the way.

That blue fabric Cara sent was perfect for a mini quilt!

I'm glad to think of a family loving this quilt, as I can hardly stand to send this block away. Would love to hang it in my sewing space!

House plans

The quilt shop has inspired a paper pieced house block....and I'm so excited to see if it works!

Planning......

Vacation fun

We found a fabulous shop in michigan!

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Pieced Backs

Pieced Backs are so much fun. Sometimes I think I like them better than the front - perhaps the fact that it's the back makes me feel more free to just do whatever. And going with the flow can be when cool, creative stuff happens.

Rebecca at Chasing Cottons is having a quilt back link party and it motivated me to gather a bunch of my backs in one place!

The Green one - sew and cut until done :)

Fibonacci sized stripes, some pieced, in Figgy Pudding

A paper pieced Harry Potter back

I used up a bunch of ends from the front for a simple strip of color

I wanted to feature the charm squares and I loved the result!

My first try at applique circles - fun to do new stuff on the back!

OMG It's me......

My purple hexagons peeking from the bottom corner.  And more inside!

The traditional quilt swap is being reinvented by Modern Quilters. Chrissie Grace and her contributors explore the different types of swaps with 10 different quilt projects. Each project is stepped out with clear, concise illustrated instructions on making the quilt as well as setting up a swap for that particular quilt. Each project features a photographed skills tutorial that will help the reader in making the quilt project, and will increase their skill set for use in future projects. The community aspect of quilting is brought to the book by the incorporation of popular swappers and bloggers insights into this exciting realm of shared art. 

I'm so excited that Chrissie invited me to be part of her book and can't wait to share the whole thing with you.  I had an awesome time making quilts with the group she gathered.

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon!

Green : Finished

'Green'

59" square

For Christmas I gave both of Becket's teachers and the preschool director fun, quilted tree pillows.   They all enjoyed them so much - and both of his teachers STILL have them out.  Even though it's long past Christmas.  (That's one of the reasons I knew I HAD to make them quilts.  The director already has one of my quilts)  

Random sew and slash stripes on the back - love them!

One of his teachers especially loved the pillow because of the lime greens I used, she said that was her living room color - and green is her favorite color.   It's also the favorite color of Becket and myself, so an Ode to Green was the perfect plan for her quilt!

Becket gasped when I pulled out that green wood grain and exclaimed he NEEDED some for his own.  Likewise, any trimmings disappeared from my sewing area.  The scraps of greens, along with the prints from my Symmetry quilt, are stashed in a little box in his room.  Fabric disease is obviously genetic.

These modern log cabins were inspired by Susan Beal's cover quilt.  And over Christmas I had just bought a stack of fun neutral prints - so they were the ones I ended up pulling for the plus signs.  I chose the letters on the top left because she's a big fan of nice penmanship. 

There have been so many cool quilts with just solids lately, I've been wanting to give them a try.  Although not all solids, I liked the thought of a green mosaic background and pulled five different Kona greens from my stash.  I used them at random as I made the individual log cabins.

The neutral logs around that center are the same natural linen and cotton/linen blend I used in the other quilt.  Two more Kona greens were pulled for the right (cactus) and bottom (green tea). 

As I was making it, I knew I wanted to quilt straight lines in the linen blocks and stipple the outside edges.  But I had planned on just a 1/4" in/out of each center plus.  I didn't want to disturb the mosaic green background.  But after I did all the neutrals, I was worried that I didn't have enough quilting to hold it well through the wash.  

After much hemming and hawing, I decided to stipple the green center with a variegated green thread.  I was quite happy with how it turned out, and also really liked that contrast with the unquilted centers of the pluses. 

We love green!

Symmetry in Completion

'Symmetry'

59" square

The first of two quilts I made as gifts for Becket's preschool teachers.

 

 

I LOVE this shoo fly block.  And it's even more fun making large and small ones.   Each of the big blocks are about 32" square.

All prints are the lovely, new DS Quilts, with one KJR tossed in.  I needed a solidish blue to balance my small set of four.  

The neutral areas are linen.  The darker is a heavy, natural linen.  The lighter is a cotton/linen blend.  Although easier to work with the blend for quilting, I actually preferred the heavy, 100% linen after it was washed up.

 

These are some of Becket's favorite prints, and it was hard to get him to let me use them!  Once I told him they were for his teacher, he was happy about that (didn't tell him too early, as I don't trust his secret-keeping skills).

Although, as I would cut large sections for the big blocks, he would look over what was left to make sure I didn't use TOO much.  You should have seen him when we were at the store buying it in the first place.  He kept telling the lady that we had to buy the WHOLE bolt.  I didn't, but talk about an enabler!

That blue and red print on the back is his very favorite.  His teacher guessed it right - it's because it reminds him of Hawaii.

I used some of the wonderful pearl bracelet for my label.  Such a fun way to label.

 

 

Deciding on the quilting took me a long time.  I thought about it, stared at it.  I felt the quilt needed just a little more contrast between the prints and the linen sections, so didn't want to all-over stipple.  I considered straight lines around the inside of the shoo fly shapes, but decided that would be too much quilt turning.  NOT a fan of quilt turning.  As it was, I did end up pushing it through my machine WAY more times than was fun.  But it turned out so worth the effort.

 

I love stipple quilting and it's just about my favorite part of the process.  I feel like it's meditative with a little thrill tossed in!  Straight line quilting - not so much.  But it looks so good - especially against other organic shapes.

I stippled the prints, straight lines in all the linen.  Becket loved what he called the 'pyramid' quilting.

  

He's known for his love or symmetry and creating with it in detail....a couple pictures his teachers took:

and from the top

Symmetry

Goodbye Hobson - Quilts complete

We love Hobson.   

Sadly, the school year is over and it was time to say goodbye.  Becket had to have a picture in front of the new sign they put up for summer camp - with the gift box he decorated for our Director.

The box actually had two fun banners in it.  Patrice had won my auction quilt last year, so I wanted to make her something that could be enjoyed AT Hobson.  Can't believe I didn't take pictures of them!

Now, his two teachers - Hobson has the BEST teachers - each got their own quilt.  I loved making the quilts for them.

I want to share details of each quilt in their own post, so for now, you can get a large view of each.  Styled and photographed by my resident director - Becket.  This one is called "Symmetry".

And this one is simply "Green".  Becket, his teacher, and I all LOVE green.

Um, Becket, the pictures don't work well when the camera is half upside down.  Give it back now, please.

"I just need to take one of me first, Mom."

Becket with his teachers in his favorite spot - by the building stuff on the Blue Rug

Thank you Hobson, for letting Becket explore and be little.  

How lucky we are to have had you.

Number two is out.....

Washed - crinkled - and ready for pictures.....

Don't you just love pulling a new quilt out of the drier for the first time!

One Down....

I can't wait to be able to show the whole thing.  Becket and I love this one!  He's an awesome 5yr old quilting helper.

It's hard to get stuff done sometimes....

I think I'll probably just clear out my unread Reader blogs in the next few days.  So if I haven't stopped by, forgive me.  I'll come by later after I zero it out.

It has been a tad weird the last little bit.

I'm on Facebook and generally use it to stalk my family and a couple friends.   Every so often trying to find an old classmate or two.  A few weeks ago (all I can call it is obsessed I suppose) I was strangely determined to find an old High School boyfriend.  Wasn't sure why I was looking and I just HAD to search, but it was REALLY hard to locate him and it took the better part of a day with no real luck.  Possibly found his home nearby, but not sure.... The other day he popped back into my mind again for no obvious reason, while I was sitting at the computer, so in his name and city went into goggle. 

The first three returns were his obituary.

Having died suddenly, a little more than a week before.

It has all kind of freaked me out on a couple levels.  First off, I'm none too pleased with the turning 40 thing and getting old, but we are not old enough to have our peers die yet!

But even more so, why was I suddenly urged to track him down about a week before he died?  Was I supposed to call him.....Yikes, it's been over 20 years since I last saw him.  Hi, remember me from a lifetime ago?  Just calling for no apparent reason.  How's it going.

His mom and dad still live in the same house and now I really want to talk to them.  Calling THEM would be super strange.  A condolence card I suppose?  They did a nice job with the obituary though - really made me want to hear more about what he has been up to the last 20 years.  There are 24 pictures posted with it, too.  The boy in the senior picture is the one I remember (I gave him that crazy pleather-shouldered sweater for Christmas.  Late 80's, what can I say.  We dated jr and sr year of high school.)

Yep, weird.  I hate weird.  And people I know dieing (knock on wood, I'm lucky that I've only ever lost a couple people).  And it's hard to do other stuff when your brain is trying to make sense of it.  In this age of instant and 24/7,  never is seriously weird.

Rapture would have been easier.


11:11 Drew

Ugh

Quilting WAS going well. Until I caught this edge. Time to pick some stitches - booooo.




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Symmetry

A top completed in DS and linen.  I am on a big linen kick right now - I love it!

HUGE shoo flies (about 32" each) and four smaller ones.  I love that block.

{Oh, and from a comment on the last post - for the no-reply - Mark took those pictures with his digital camera.  It's a Sony A700 with some kind of big white lens on the end.  I can get more details if you like.


And I love that the Badger people stopped by.  How cool - thanks!}

Making Gifts!

 May is insane with the end of school and the start of summer...with spring lacrosse tossed in!  I stand around in the cold wind watching boys pummel each other most days.

I'm working on a couple of big quilts, but had a chance to make a quick, fun gift last week.  This would be a perfect teacher gift, too!  I called it a "Summer Gardener's Aid".

Using the tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! I made a rice heat therapy sack and a reusable cold pack.  A nice, heavy linen makes these super cozy.

For the cold pack I found buckwheat groats and a yummy essential oil at Whole Foods.  The buckwheat groats were only $2.99 a pound and well worth the special trip.  The bag feels so nice with them inside.  I used a sweet orange oil as in the tutorial - I stood at the huge rack-o-oils at whole foods for quite some time sniffing everything.  A few made me gag, and I always went back to the orange, so that was it.

The rice in the heat bag was from the regular grocery store - no need for special jasmine rice inside the bag!

I tied it all up with some muslin and a couple badger balm tins (one for rough hands, another for after sun exposure).  Overall, a fun use for some favorite fabric scraps.

I'll end with a few lacrosse pictures, since that's a majority of my life right now!

From Blue to Green

I hope to get this quilt sandwiched tonight, but with the rainiest March in decades followed by the cloudiest April in 150(!) years, I had to jump out in the sun for a couple shots today.  Seriously, it's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon and all next week.  I am SO ready for 80's and sun - DONE with spring.

The wood grain should really be on the left, but it was windy and we were crazy busy today with Kenton going off on another weekend away for lacrosse, so I wasn't going to have Mark flip the quilt top around.

See, it's the plus shaped log cabins inside one BIG log cabin.  The cream round of logs are two different linens.  LOVE linen in a quilt.

I like the back as much as the front!   Loosely following Kati's fun tutorial, I only sliced vertically, and was able to use up a bunch of the solids left over from the top.  And I was feeling kind of twitchy without any white in a quilt, so two big strips ended up on the back.

I can't wait to quilt this - I'm going to change up my standard all-over stipple a bit!

May Bee for Me

It's my month at the {Sew} Beautiful Bee and I finally made a block decision.  I'm going to let my bee mates decide!  Mean, I know....hopefully they all have fun doing it, and don't hate me or feel too stressed about that.

   

Long ago I favorited one of AmandaJean's bee quilts, a wonderful one all in reds.  I liked both the monochromatic color plan as well as having a real piece of each bee member with their own block creation.  

So I sent out packets of blue solids and prints to my bee buddies today, asking them to make a block they love - that is Them.  I can't wait to see what comes back!