Nann's suggestion

Another option I don't often consider is to place the blocks on point. Nann wanted to see what they looked like, so here they are. Of course any of the previous layouts could have been done on point. But my first thought was to separate the dark backgrounds for the border and use a darker fabric for the setting triangles. I didn't like any other fabric I had for that position. Leaving the blank space where it appears there would be a light and a tan setting triangle in squares is just one more option.

I don't usually consider diagonal sets cause I don't like sewing them together when they are on point. When I play with that setting in EQ I rarely like it. I do like diagonal design lines in the quilt but usually let the blocks do the work for me.

I have pretty much decided to not make any more blocks. These are the remaining fabrics. I don't like the greens and oranges with the others. The oranges I used aren't as intense as they look in the photo above but shown below they are too intense for my liking. Some might think they are the accent or zinger that the quilt needs, but I don't want it doing that dance.

Hopefully I can get started on assembling them tonight. There is room at Studio 3 if any of you local quilters want to join us Wednesday evenings. Give me a call.

For the Curious

I know some of you took some Process Pledge to enlighten others as to how you work and made decisions on your quilts. In case you are a new reader, this is a glimpse of how I often work. First I make a bunch of blocks that I like. Then I try various settings. So far I have made 13 of my Flying Geese blocks.

I tried setting them on the diagonal, but it does nothing for me. At least alternating with plain blocks. I don't think I'd like this with any kind of alternate block- light, dark, pieced or appliqued. Set straight either.

  Then I tried setting them with sashing. Surprisingly, I liked this enough to try it with a dark sashing, too.  Okay, maybe this is too dark.  I just grabbed some brown strips from my 2 1/2" strip scrap box.

I guess it's back to the original plan.  Not sure how big I want this yet, but I think I need to lighten it up a bit with the next few blocks I make. As much as I like this, I'm thinking like Nann. I'd like this just fine if it were in bright colors. Please someone do it so I can see how much better great it could look either way.

 I hope your International Quilting Weekend was productive, too. To see other settings I have tried for some of the other quilts I have made, click on "variations" under Labels.

My 3rd choice

I've made enough of each the nine-patches and the half-square triangles to make a twin sized quilt. Is that big enough??? Then, as usual, I tried the blocks in different settings on my flannel wall. I liked the stars, but I'm going with my original plan. I usually arrange them all on the flannel wall before starting to sew them together. Though it would be easier if  I make these units into four-patches first.  Give me a few days to think about it.

I'm still spending time outside. The weather has been perfect for enjoying the beautiful fall colors. Fall is my favorite season and I far prefer going for walks in this weather as opposed to summer or winter. There are lots of places around here for taking hikes: County park, State Natural Area at Beulah Bog, Prairie Preserve subdivision, bike trail, farm fields and the woods. Sue and I often hit the trails together.  Yesterday we went for a walk and I musta stopped to admire the trees too often cause I just about missed my ride with Judy to the quilting meeting in Oconomowoc (Easier to spell than pronounce at first). More later, Sew long.

This, That or Some Other

I finished the quilting on the comfort quilt Lois put together. I'm happy enough with it, but it would probably be even better if I'd slow down. I'm still practicing that, but the machine is so light and it moves quite effortlessly. It sure is fun though and I didn't bother to mark a single line. Can you tell? Oh, well. I took this quilt off the frame and put another one on right away. It's been nice and cool in the studio and right now I'd rather be nowhere else. I'm glad I finished it in time to take to church tomorrow.

Since I put a few more kits together and made the Crumb quilt, I've made a mess in the closet. So I spent an evening organizing that. I came across this floral print that I thought would work with these extra 9-patches of mine. It'd make a small quilt unless another round of 9-patches were made in different colors.  I have more of the same pink If I decide to go with that.

I'll tear this off the design wall and work on the cheddar Rolling Stone quilt  next cause my goal for the week is to finally put that quilt together and finish another quilt in the studio.The cheddar is cut waiting for me. Oh, to have the patience of fabric. I'm still practicing that too. Now to go check out a few other Design Walls.

2012 Raffle Quilt

I guess my wall needs to be a bit bigger! I put this quilt top on the frame today. It's the raffle quilt for St.Peter's Fall Festival. I need to get it quilted in the next week so Rita can get the binding on and we can get it on display.  I'm afraid I'll run out of thread before I'm done with it so I better go order some more.

If you recall, this is the same block I used for my block exchange, shown here. It sure was a good choice for a group project. Floating the star allowed all the blocks to be trimmed to the same size so adding the sashing was a breeze.

My crumb blocks are done. I made them 12" instead of 10", so I ended up with only 20. I hope to sash those next.

Welcome to everyone that's stopped by through Judy's blog. She has a great thing going with her Design Wall Mondays  where you share  a link with her.  But I guess you already knew that. Check it out if you haven't.

Seeing Star Points Again

I'm back from a great trip to Indianapolis. I drove it -  SW to Beloit first, then east past Bloomington, IL. The route had very little traffic, especially compared to around Chicago (the alternate route). The guild meets at a beautiful old church on the North side of the city. Shoulda taken a picture. As it was I had only my cell phone to take pictures with and they weren't very good. See?
 

These are the only photos from the Thirtysomething workshop that were worth showing. The gals in class were lots of fun and I was so glad that they were all willing to play with their Thirtysomething pieces to see what designs they could come up with. It will be interesting if they finish their assignments and send me a picture someday of their finished top. Some say the class should be advertised as a mystery class cause they don't even know what they will end up making. However, I do give them one detailed pattern they could follow. I am sure some have a hard time deciding in the end. I did need to remind them they could always make another one.

 
 This trip was a bit unusual because not only was I there for a guild lecture and workshop, but also a visit with my sister. She joined me from Pennsylvania. She attended the guild program Thursday and the next day while I was in class she went to the Indy Speedway track and museum. Sat. morning we went to the Garfield park conservatory. Now I know what kind of vegetation Lucrecia gets to enjoy in Panama. Very unusual flowers.
I also brought her a few of mom's things and she brought me a few things, too. You'll see.

Tomorrow is church quilting. We are planning to work till the next raffle quilt top is done. HA. If I quilt at all this week, I will be surprised. Lots of catching up to do.

Smoky Mountain Getaway

My trip to the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina for the Quilt Symposium was uneventful. Thank goodness the grief began on the way home with a storm in Atlanta that delayed my trip 6 hours. Good thing I really like Airports. I think I get it from having grown up near one. We would often walk up to the park to watch the planes land.

  The symposium itself was wonderful. Over 300 beautiful quilts, 20 vendors and a few hundred quilters.  I was lucky to get these three pictures from my Thirtysomething class.  My camera has been acting up for a few weeks, so I will be getting a new camera in the near future.  I hope I have these projects identified correctly. The one above was by Kathi Culler.

The next one is by Judy  Slater. And the bottom one by Diane Berdis. I really liked that the gals chose some of the options I presented. I like to think of my designs as suggestions. There was alot of talk in both classes about "the next one I make like this" So with any luck they'll send me jpegs.
Students promised to send me pictures from the Infinite Stars workshop, too. Some of the gals stayed up till midnight finishing their stars.
After 5 days, it was good to get home. I have been watering the gardens all day today, it's been so dry. Otherwise things are the same as always. Love it.
 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a quilt.

My Birds-in-the-Air quilt is moving right along. I finally decided what I wanted to do with it. One of my thoughts was this arrangement, but I thought the variety of colors I used made it look too busy.

 I will use the plan I showed in my last post, but I'm going to arrange the colors randomly.  I organized the pieces I made and took notes on what else I have to cut and sew. Motivated by my new big mattress, I decided to make it bigger after all. The additional pieces I need to cut will be in brighter colors.
 

It seems my quilts suffer from being from the midwest where the colors are often dark. Or so I am told.  It doesn't help that my nearest quilt shop handles country/primitive styles. I like it all, but often find that I prefer the darker colors, and I definitely like high contrast. My printout from EQ6 shows a navy blue border, but I haven't made a decision yet. You'll probably help me make that choice. TIA

It's not a Bedspread

I  was saving this picture for when I didn't have any of my own quilting to show.  Dotty Huckaby made this using the pattern "Bosom Buddies" from my book Save the Scraps. She has made several quilts from that book. I like to hear that and I like to see that! It sure is neat to see how she limited herself to just a few fabrics instead of scraps. I sometimes like a design enough to want to make it several different ways. Makes it nice for lectures and workshops to show the possibilities. Thanks Dotty. It turned out great.

I am a little frustrated today because I ordered a new mattress. They sure do make them thick now.  I can't say I wasn't warned, but WOW. The new thickness will make some of my favorite quilts too small  - to use as a bedspread. And I have to emphasize that because everytime our church group makes a raffle quilt, there is at least one that whines that we are not making the quilt big enough for a bedspread. SO??????????

So just scanning my scrapbook where I have noted the sizes of each quilt, I see that I have plenty that will be big enough to cover the top mattress (including the sides), and some that will cover both mattresses. I know I don't want to make the others bigger, but that reminds me of bedspreads we had when we were kids. Back then a bedspread covered the pillow, included extra for a pillow tuck and reached to the floor all around the 3 sides. The only part that was quilted on our bedspreads back then was the area on the top of the mattress and pillow. The "drop" on the sides were just matching fabric that was gathered. Interesting how styles change. Anybody want to change some back with me???

Flying Geese ARE Birds in the Air

We had snow Tuesday so quilting at church was cancelled. I spent the day straightening up in my sewing room and the studio downstairs. Then I cut triangles for the 4" half-square triangle units for the Birds-in-the-Air quilt. I sewed them together and started playing with them again. First I came up with this.

The bigger it is the less I like it. Maybe I will use the leftovers in a border. I planned to put a Flying Geese border on this one.  Lisa came over and suggested I arrange them in groups of color, so we played with that. I am not convinced I like that. Lisa loved it, Mark thought there was too much purple and I didn't like the red just in one corner. Sure glad I don't have to please anyone but myself, still I like to hear their opinion. It bothers me more when they don't say anything.

I'm a little tired of it now so will go downstairs to quilt.

four-patches found a home

I played around with the four-patches I made and decided to put them in the corners of scrappy stars.

Then I tried this arrangement too.

Let's see, what else can I come up with. Oops, I can see I will need to be careful that I turn the four-patches the same way in each block.

I don't keep quarter-square triangles precut and waiting from scraps, so I had to cut those. I am making 12" blocks, so using 3 1/2" strips and the companion angle I cut 4 triangles for each star. Anytime I use the companion angle, I always cut a half-square triangle from the end of the strip first, otherwise that scrap is wasted. Here I am using the Omnigrid 96L ruler (The Easy Angle ruler works the same). I will finish the strip cutting half-square triangles too. If the scrap isn't big enough, then I will cut a smaller triangle or square. Those get filed  for a future project.

I'll get these large flying geese units sewn up quickly. I want to get back to the Birds in the Air blocks.

Birds in the Air

 I played with my Birds in the Air blocks yesterday. I usually find this sort of activity very soothing but lately these puzzles have left me feeling frustrated that I had another decision to make. In other words, I've made over 100 of these little blocks, I need to decide what to do with them next. Here are a few of my options.

 My first thought was to arrange them as shown to the left.Then I tried a few more arrangements. The only decision I made was to make some large half-square triangle units to play with them.   And then again, maybe I can use all these ideas in one quilt.

I decided I didn't need the stress right now and put them away and got ready for the meeting with the church ladies today. I just took in the two quilts I quilted and the two blocks I made for Mary and Rita for the block exchange.There was little other show and tell and all we did was put together kits for the next raffle quilt.

When I got home, I peeled off 30 quilts  that were spread out on the twin bed upstairs and folded them with 3 folds each. My sister helped me put them on the bed a year and a half ago and I found it wasn't a good way for me to keep them.  It was very difficult to pull one out to use when  there were not only those quilts on the bed, but also a big pile of smaller quilts folded on top of them. I also reorganized the remaining quilts and tops. It was getting a little out of hand up there. I was looking for a few in particular. The wool quilt to finish, a top to quilt for my daughter, and another two to put on my bed. I like to swap those out every few months.

I will be back up there in a day or two because I have some tops down here that I want to move upstairs and already I need to get ready for a lecture on Jan 2nd!

Then in September

As usual there were lectures and workshops on my agenda this fall. I spent one day with members of the Oshkosh guild. I arrived the evening before and then met my hostess for breakfast. There were over 20 ladies in class and they were really spread out.  I was relieved when they found a microphone for my use during the workshop because I was developing a good case of laryngitis.

 One of the members brought this quilt of my design to the meeting. I love it when they do that. Actually another gal also brought a quilt from the same pattern. Somehow I forgot to get a picture and I was even holding the camera!

Also as usual, I was teaching a Thirtysomething workshop. And I believe it was the same gal mentioned above that found this free pattern with the Thirtysomething technique on my website. What a surprise when instead of making the blocks as suggested, she produced these 9 different blocks from the same elements. I love it when that happens! Do you ever play with the pieces for a block to see what other designs you can come up with?

Challenge progress

Hello everyone in blog land,
Progress has been slow with the challenge fabric from Pam. I have finally made a decision and it is almost together. But I wanted to show you, with the aid of Electric Quilt 6, what my favorite mistake would look like side by side versus what I intended. So here they are. Note that I did not take the time to add all the variations between pink and yellow. Yes, I mean orange. At one time I thought I would arrange the stars from yellow to orange to pink. So if you are wondering what I decided, it won't be long now.


I wasn't able to put as much time in the garden last spring as I would have liked so I've been putting in lots of time out there this spring. Sometimes it is a toss up, which I'd rather do, quilt or garden. And of course May is prime time to work in the flower beds in Wisconsin. Thank goodness I didn't have any quilting that HAD to be done. Even though I will be glad when this top is finally done.

I'd like to focus on machine quilting next. If it is hot, humid, rainy or dark this summer I will spend time in the lower level quilting. Well some time anyways. Mark works nights and I always had energy till midnight to work in the sewing room so I am hoping to do that. Besides tv is all reruns, isn't it? I know that's the way it used to be. Please don't tell me if it has changed. I wannna quilt.

However, I will have to wait a while longer yet. My annuals aren't all in yet. We get late frosts here sometimes so I wait till the end of May to plant the tender ones. AND Tomorrow my Page Proofs are due from the publisher for book8. Don't you love life?
So, enjoy your gardens or your quilting and life! Sew long,

oops, I did it again

The lecture went pretty well last night. It was well attended by the guild of over 220 members. I have been to this guild several times in the past so it was great to see so many friendly, familiar faces. I was reminded that the very first time I taught a quilting class was for this guild at their retreat 15 years ago. There were 32 in that class and it was not an easy project. Boy was I nervous. I knew my material, but didn't know if I could teach. Well, that was then, this is now and I wasn't nervous at all last night- till I realized I forgot my notes! But apparently I don't need them. Guess what? I know the material. It was a fun group with lots of show and tell and as usual I forgot to use the camera. They have a show coming up May 16 & 17 at Rock County Fairgrounds. If I am around I will plan to attend. Maybe I'll think to use the camera then.

Forgetting to use the camera isn't the only thing I did again. I have this tendency to make a quilt and then rearrange the values and/or colors and make it again. Okay, I do it deliberately - usually, but not this time. You saw the start of this a week or two ago. This blog may be just the motivation I need to get that pieced border done sooner rather than later. Oops. I see that I have a quarter block in the wrong orientation. Aren't photos great for showing mistakes?


The black with hand-dyes I call "Wish on a Rainbow". Look closely and you will see that both of these use the same piecing. I must have 15 pairs of quilts where I have made a second version. That sounds like the start of a new program for a guild.
Well, I better get sewing. Sew long.