Quilting – Page 15 – No Idle hands here

#Crazylikefox 1 instagram exchange.

My friend Raquel started an instagram birthday exchange called Crazy like Fox. So many people signed up she opened two groups. The idea is that one person per month has her birthday and everyone makes her something. Well, turns out that we are missing months and have 2 per month. We didn’t have anyone for January but both Libby and I are February birthdays. We posted our likes and dislikes and got to work on something creative. Libby is in my quilting guild, so we know each other, most of the others are completely new to me.I Libby likes red, and people were making her favorite requests already, so I figured, another project bag is always good. I used ByAnnie soft and stable. Which I had also used on my holiday gift exchange. I LOVE this product, can’t sing enough of it’s praises.This is the first time I’ve assembled a bag this way, don’t know if it’s any better, but it worked.The outer pockets have room to store.For example, a knitting project.Empty it stands well on it’s own and is very light.Of course I added other goodies in the bag, many items from Daiso Japan. True, most things only cost $1.50 there, but oh how quickly they add up!

I have received my gift from Libby already, but that is for another post.

Leah

Clamshell quilt

I’ve been wanting to make a clamshell quilt for a while, well at least since I bought the die for the accuquilt. Yoch has already made two quilts and one top.I’ve been collecting all kinds of floral fabrics.No question, I like scrappy quilts, the more combinations of prints the better.I started cutting my clamshells with the accuquilt, what a pleasure. Then I took a close look at Latifah’s instructions. I realized that using her templates for the top and bottom rows would make my life much easier.It’s so easy to accumulate a large pile with the right tool.The quilt is coming together quickly.It will end up being a bright colorful flower garden.

Leah

More quilts

Anaheim is changing, but more about that in another post. This is about quilts. Old ‘modern’ quilts. A wonderful exhibit at Muzeo in Anaheim. American Quilts in the Modern Age, 1870-1940 was created by the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Luckily my friend Becky heard about this and off we went. These quilts are from the early 20th century, but the colors – solids in bright colors, what today we call modern. Of course they predate the tiny calicos that many people grew up with. I must take a moment to thank Becky for showing me how to shoot photos indoors without a flash, I was doing it all wrong despite carefully reading the photography blogs. A close up.This is a traditional log cabin using the pineapple block. Wonderful use of both ‘low volume’ and browns. What an incredible layout, from the 1880’s. Here the quilt maker created standard log cabin blocks but divided each into dark and light. The dark blue, browns and background are all prints, the pink is solid, but what a vibrant pink it is. Also, the layout! Creativity is what drives women to quilt, and here we have a woman who’s graphic sensibilities would put her right at home now. Of course we fool ourselves if we think that 100 or 200 years ago people weren’t as creative as we are today.This is a crazy quilt with some very clear and definite stars.It also is a clear indication that Fussy Cuts aren’t a new invention either. I saw the spider and his web elsewhere on the quilt, but it looks like the red portion of the web is another fabric that was put in place. It may have been another color way or simply the quilter was extremely detail oriented and created this on her own.Of course I’m going to be drawn to hexagons and equatorial triangles. No doubt these were done with the English Paper piecing method. Notice how vibrant the colors are on the quilt on the right, that bright orange border was a sight to be seen.Speaking of tiny detail. This quilt is made up of more than 14,000 tiny yo-yos. Each about the size of a dime, or even smaller.If you look closely you can see the thread poking out of the centers of the yo-yos. And now to a quilt using the fabrics that would define quilting for many years to come. A Dresden plate made in the 1930’s-40 with the popular fabrics of the day. A couple things to note here. The fussy cut center. Also, the black outline in the center is what today modern quilters consider hand quilting. Not the case, the tiny fine almost invisible diamonds are the hand quilting, that thick black thread is a line of embroidery.

This show is small and wonderful. It is only up until Feb 15th, so I highly recommend a trip to Anaheim. Next post will give you other reasons to go down there.

Leah

Shipping back the quilts

Months ago Michele asked for volunteers to ship back the quilts from Road to California. I was thrilled to do so. On top of that , Michele offered me a hotel room the night before. So much easier than the 60 mile drive to Ontario on a Monday morning.Initially we were taping boxes, then some guys came in to do that job, we were responsible for checking the quilts and carefully packing them in boxes.This is a close up of the first place winning quilt, sorry, I don’t remember any of the names! We had 200 quilts to send back.The is the BACK of the quilt.This is a paper pieced mini, my close up didn’t come out. Second place, this is thread embroidery.Front and back of same quilt.Interesting modern.A quilt within a quilt.The inner quilt.Had to take this picture, 1/2″ English paper pieced hexagons!More hexagons, must larger than the previous one.Traditional applique.Baltimore style applique. I’ll never do this myself, but I do love this.Love the color combination.

Leah

Road to California 2015

Yesterday was just pure fun. Went with friends and my son in law to the quilt show, Road to California. Busy people all over the place as well as quilts, quilts quilts.

One of the best things about these shows is the market place, and yes I did some damage.The booths are as wonderful as the show, here is a Metro Medallion quilt by the Sew Kind of Wonderful sisters. I love their curved ruler and it’s always fun seeing the quilts out in the wild.The absolutely amazing Japanese fabric will become a shirt for me. I couldn’t get over how beautiful this print is.I bought other fabric, no the foxes don’t fit in with the color way, but then again, maybe they are what is just needed to pop the blues and yellows. Of course I have no idea if this will become a quilt or a bag.Speaking of bags, yes, I have bags on my mind, I bought the book as well as two patterns. Since discovering Soft and Stable by Annie, I am loving making bags. Annie herself was manning the booth, what a lovely lady. I also bought some more Olfa tools.

If you are noticing a pattern that looks similar to the weekender bag, yup, I like the size and shape. Do not like the bag itself. I took it for a trial run to the show. I think I have mentioned that it is very heavy even empty. It didn’t hold up.The straps tore off with the weight, so I came home and used embroidery floss to fix them. So no, this bag isn’t going to Quiltcon with me. I had fun making it, it will get some use here and there, but on the whole – no this wasn’t a win.

So what about the quilts themselves??? Tomorrow I go and help pack and ship the quilts back to their owners, I hope to have some pictures as well as a fun story to tell.

Leah

#LAMQGBOM2015

Finally, a project I can share! Although you will have to wait a whole year until it is finished. My quilt guild, the LA modern quilt guild has decided on a BOM- block of the month. Each month another member will design the block – which means that I will end up with something very interesting since each designer will put their own stamp on it. No, I’m not designing, it’s not my thing.Last year I won a pack of fat quarter Birch Fabrics at one of our meetings. I had also bought another one at Road to California. I hadn’t decided what kind of quilt I’d make with these fabrics.I also bought some solids, so I pretty much have my palette.And here is January’s block. These are the fabrics the guild chose. If anyone who isn’t a member of our guild wants this amazing block, then go to Liz Harvatine’s shop. The pattern is only $4. and she shows a mini quilt she already made with this block.At our weekend sew, I cut out the fabric, then went home and sewed the block together.Some of my solids are very flimsy, but I will deal with that when I’m finishing up this quilt – 12 months from now. Right now I’m just happy to have found a project for these fabrics. The guild will end up putting together all of the sample blocks as a charity quilt.

Linked at: WIP Wednesday

Leah

Quilt is home

Noah on his quilt, he is happy. And as you can see, he has a lot of growing to do before he outgrows it.

Leah

Noah’s quilt – finished

Glue basting the quilt, went easily and quickly.Simple quilting, shadowing the shapes and quilting straight lines. I’ve been experimenting with rulers. Like everything in life – it takes a lot of practice, I am getting better at this. Of course there is no reason for perfection.Very pleased with this quilt, graphic, bright and colorful.Here is an example of the straight lines, not bad.Hand embroidered label. Also, since this is a baby quilt, it has been machine washed and dried. Who knows what will happen, it’s going to a baby after all. It needs to be easy to care for. Having been washed and dried, Mom needn’t worry about throwing this in the laundry.

And now, off to the post office and off to NY it goes, luckily all the holiday lines at the post office are over!

Leah

Quilt for Noah

I have a friend who’s baby was due in January, so of course I took my time. Surprise, surprise he showed up 6 weeks early and I hadn’t done more than choose some fabrics.Yellows, blues, oranges, at least I started gathering the fabric but hadn’t really thought about a design.

With my library card I can download a few quilt and knitting magazines through Zinio. It’s fun to look through them. Although I’ll be honest, I’m something of a snob, inspiration is one thing, but I can find ‘better’ ideas for a quilt. Guess what, it’s what you do with the quilt that makes it special – not the inspiration source.I saw this quilt Alpha Bits and Pieces, and thought perfect, I wasn’t interested in the alphabet border, but the fun scrappy look would be perfect for a baby boy.It really pays to take pictures as I go along, not just for the blog. There is something about a picture that highlights ‘issues’ that I might ignore otherwise. I like scrappy, but this lacked any cohesiveness. So I eliminated some of these prints and narrowed down my fabric choices.It wasn’t just the colors, clearly florals weren’t going to work here, this was going to be a more graphic quilt.Here are all the fabrics, enough contrast to make some blocks pop. I am using the Inspiration quilt as a guide line, not as a perfect template.Here is the finished top. Larger than a baby quilt, so Noah will be able to enjoy this for many years. I’m pleased with how the colors and intensity are spread across the quilt in a pleasing manner. Now on to the quilting. He might just get this around his projected birthday.

Leah

LAMQG Weekender Part 2

And the bag is all done. Sewing through all the layers was a challenge, I won’t lie.The end result is lovely, I’m very happy with this.View from the top, you can see how those invisible magnets are holding the front pocket closed. I used a yellow zipper, but the only thing you can see is the pulls. It’s a zipper designed for bags, the dual pull is a very nice feature.Side view.I added a zipper pocket in the lining, with a bright pop of yellow. All the exterior pockets are nice. I’m thinking this can be travel and purse at the same time and I really like an interior zipper pocket.Bag in action, yes, we do have ‘fall’ here in Southern CA, in December. From the frontFrom the back.

My only issue is that empty, the bag is very heavy. It has a lot of layers of cotton and any fabric made from plant material tends to be heavy – thanks to the cellulose in plant cells. Rayon and bamboo avoid this issues since the pulp is so fine and the yarn is extruded – like polyester. Although wool is warmer than cotton, cotton is a lot heavier.

If I ever make this again I will forgo the canvas, the batting (I could have used Polyester, but I had leftover cotton batting) and will use Soft and Stable by Annie, this is a wonderful product that gives real structure to a bag, can easily be used for quilt as you go and doesn’t add weight.

That said, I’m very happy with my bag, it’s going on vacation to Mexico with me and of course to Quiltcon in Austin in February.

Leah