I'm BAAAACK!

Hello! It's been awhile since I posted! Over two years in fact. Long story short: two years ago, I was working part-time in an elementary school. My principal called me at the end of July, 2013 and offered me a job as a first grade teacher. I was thrilled to accept, but going back to full-time teaching kept me really busy! Everything in education has changed dramatically since I taught 2nd grade before my kids were born...20 years ago! So for the past two years, I have been too consumed with my teaching responsibilities (plus my family) to have much time to quilt, and if I'm not working on quilts, there's not much to blog about!

I've missed the quilt-blogging community, so here I am again. Although I can't promise to be very consistent once school starts up again next month. ;)

I have managed to do a bit of quilt-related things over the past two years. In January, 2014, my guild started a block of the month program. Different guild members designed or suggested blocks for the BOM. I decided to challenge myself to make each block improvisationally. Although I finished all the blocks last year, I didn't finish the quilting and binding until this month.

For the prints, I used some of the 2014 Downton Abbey fabrics. I supplemented with a few Kona solids. I offset the grid to add to the modern feel of the quilt. Here are a few closer shots of the various blocks:

For the back, I used some yardage of the Downton Abbey castle fabric, with a strip of the blue DA fabric on the side. The small square is my label.

Here's a close-up of my FMQ in the background. I did swirls and flowers. In each block, I FMQed different designs to go along with the block design.

My quilt guild is part of the Modern Quilt Guild, so last summer, I participated in their Michael Miller fabric challenge by making this wall hanging.

I received fat eighths of these fabrics, and I was able to add Kona snow for the negative space and (I think Kona azure?) for the binding. I enjoyed playing with asymmetry and deconstructing the square-in-square block. I FMQed the negative space in my favorite concentric circles design.

This summer, I've been enjoying some time off school to work in my studio. I'll catch you up to some of what I've been making soon!

Have a fabulous day!

Happy stitching!

Back to the Drawing Board with Fibonacci

A few weeks ago, I posted about this month's border requirements for the Fibonacci's Challenge quilt, which included making some Tri-Recs units with the Tri-Recs rulers. I had made up one sample block with a 4-pointed star. Susan at desertskyquilts commented that she usually makes the stars with the points going the other way. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that!

So I made a sample block of that version, and I really like this star. I asked my 11-year-old which version he liked better with the rest of the quilt, and he said this 8-pointed star. He is quite proud of himself for helping me make design decisions on two of the borders for Fibonacci! I would say he might be a future quilt-maker, but he is so full of energy, I cannot see him sitting still long enough to do any piecing. For now, he is my design consultant!

Of course, in the actual quilt, I will be using Christmas quilts to match the rest of the quilt! I've started cutting out the pieces, but haven't sewn any together yet.

See what others are doing at Judy's.

Happy stitching!

Design Wall Monday - April 8, 2013

This weekend, I picked up the instructions for the fourth and final border of my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. This border needs to be 12" wide and include some "Tri-Recs" units. This is a new unit for me! The finished unit is a square with a triangle inside, kind of like a flying goose that's been squished on both sides.

Included with the instructions was a coupon for the Tri-Recs ruler set, so I bought it to work on this border. It works in a similar way to the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers for making flying geese.

I experimented a bit with the Tri-Recs unit with some scraps (obviously not fabric that will go in my Christmas Fibonacci quilt!). The four points of this star are each Tri-Recs units. I'm not yet sure if this is the arrangement I'll use, but it's one possibility. Since I have 8-pointed sawtooth stars in the center and 2nd border, and 5-pointed stars in the 3rd border, I kind of like the idea of 4-pointed stars in this border.

I need to think about this a bit more before I decide what I'll do. Even if I make these stars, I'm not sure how I'll arrange the colors.

Judy has more design walls at Patchwork Times.

Happy stitching!

Design Wall on April Fools' Day

Here's what's on my design wall design ping-pong table today, Fibonacci's Challenge:

 

I have the stars on three sides of the third border appliqued. You can see the slight shadows under the stars on the left border; that's the side I still need to applique. I am doing the applique by machine. None of the sides of this border are sewn onto the center yet.

 

I hope to get this border finished up this week, so I can take it to the shop and show them my progress. Then I'll get my April border guidelines.

 

Go check out more design walls (or design floors or design ping-pong tables or whatever) at Judy's.

 

Happy stitching!

 





Work on Fibonacci's 3rd Border

I've taken a bit of a break from my laptop this week...it's been a nice change of pace. But I have been working on my 3rd border for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. The four border sides are each sewn, but not attached to the center part yet. The quilt is on the ping pong table, so there's actually some green that's not part of the quilt.

I really like the way this border looks as it is, but one of the requirements is that I use the challenge fabric in each border, so I am currently working on appliqueing 5-pointed stars onto each side. Once I'm done with the applique, I will sew the borders to the center.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Happy stitching!

Starting Fibonacci March Border

I think I've decided what I'm going to do for my March border of my Fibonacci Challenge.  The rules for this month include:
1. Use some of the challenge fabric.
2. Incorporate strip-pieced 4-patches or 9-patches. They can be even or uneven 4/9-patches, and they can be set straight or on point.
3. Use a new fabric.
4. Border should finish at 8".

After thinking about different possibilities over the past week, I've decided to make 4" red 4-patches, alternating with 4" green squares. Over this background, I will machine-applique stars using my different creams and golds, including the challenge fabric. The stars will be assorted sizes.

I wasn't planning on doing applique on this quilt, but this just feels "right" for this border. I will be continuing the star motif that's in the center block and in the second border. Since I'm appliquing these stars, I can scatter them randomly to create some movement.

Since some of my reds are getting depleted, I pulled a few more red fabrics from my stash. This one is actually a marbled red, but it shows up solid in this closeup. It feels so good to be using up fabric that's 17 years old. LOL

Here are some of the red 4-patches that I've made so far. The fabric on the lower left of the left 4-patch is the marble fabric from the first photo.

See more quilt projects at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Happy stitching!

Fibonacci Border #2 finished

Last night, my son's basketball game was cancelled due to a snow storm, so I got some extra time for sewing! I finished making the corner stars for Fibonacci's Challenge, then I sewed the three strips together for the rest of the border. At this point, the quilt is 28 1/2 inches square, including seam allowances. Starting March 1st, I can take this to the quilt shop to show my progress and I'll get the directions for border #3. I can't wait to see what they have us do next :)

 

Happy stitching!

Starting Fibonacci's Border #2

Things have been busy around here. Last weekend my in-laws came to visit. This week, my older son had an indoor track meet an hour away and my younger son had 6 basketball games (four of them were at a tournament over the weekend). Plus I've been fighting some sort of head cold, which means I haven't spent much time sewing.

Yesterday I did get started on my second border for my Fibonnaci's Challenge quilt. The requirements for this border are that you have to use at least one half-square triangle (HST) in the border. You can use more than one, and they can be different sizes. This border needs to finish at 4" wide (like border #1), and you have to use the challenge fabric somewhere in the border.

After sketching out some different possibilities, I decided I wanted to make 4" sawtooth stars for the four corners. The sides of the borders will have three stripes: the gold scrollwork that was the smaller star in the center of the quilt, the green that was the larger star in the quilt center, and the marble challenge fabric.

Here's one of my corner stars. Each star will have a different red fabric. As you can see, I used HSTs to make the red star points that have the challenge fabric background. Since these HSTs finish at 1 inch, I decided to use Thangles triangle paper to help with precision piecing. For the green background star points, I made flying geese instead of bothering with HSTs.

I have to mention that my 11-year-old helped me with a design decision for this border! I showed him two mock-ups, and he said if I wanted it to be boring, I should go with the choice on the right. So I decided to go with the choice on the left.

You can see what's on other people's design walls over at Judy's.

Happy stitching!

Fibonacci border #1

I got my first border all assembled and sewn onto the center block for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. I will go back to the shop either Saturday or next week after school one day to get the instructions for the February border.

Here's a closeup of two of the blocks in the border. The green is the same fabric as the center block (that's one of the requirements for this 1st border). The lower cream/beige fabric inside the red frame is the "challenge fabric" that I had to buy from the quilt shop for this challenge. All pieces of this first border have to be rectangles (another of the requirements for the challenge).

I haven't really done anything on Easy Street this week, but I did get the black fabrics pieced for my CQJP 2013 project. You can read about that here.

Go see what others have on their design walls over at Judy's.

Happy Stitching!

Design Wall Monday ~ MLK Day

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I've got a few things on my "design wall" this week.

First, I finished my top for Quilts of Valor. It's so long that you can just barely see my husband's toe peeking under the border! I used the free pattern that Judy gave out on her blog, but I eliminated the middle 1" border. Although I had plenty of scraps for the main part of the quilt, I did go buy some yardage for the two borders. And I had some leftover to add to my patriotic fabric bin :) I've had such a fun time making this quilt. Red, white, and blue is one of my favorite color combinations, and it was a joy to use many different patriotic fabrics. I know this isn't much, but I hope this quilt will help a soldier to know that we do care; we appreciate what they are doing for us; their sacrifices do not go unnoticed.

While I added the borders to the QOV, I made some more units for block A of Easy Street as leaders/enders. The 4-patches sewn to the double bricks are rotated from the ones I made last week, since you need some of both for this block.

After finishing my QOV, I got to work on the 1st border for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. Here's some information about that quilt. After laying out some fabrics for my border, I decided I didn't like it, so I revamped my plan.

Since this border can only have rectangles, I sewed two 1 1/2" strips of creams and golds together, then cut into 2 1/2" pieces. Then I framed them with green 1 1/2" strips. So the finished width of each piece will be 1" and the finished blocks will be 4" squares. I will be alternating green and red blocks; here are the 8 green blocks I have made.

I'm hoping to finish this border later on today, since I'm off school for Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday.

You can see what's on other quilters' design walls at Judy's blog.

Happy stitching!

Hello, Fibonacci!

So, I've started a new quilt project. Yes, I know, I'm in the middle of my QOV quilt and Easy Street. Not to mention a few other things that are sitting on the back burner. But I have a good reason for this new one!

Many years ago, I made lap-quilts for my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, using Christmas fabrics. There were 6 other relatives I wanted to make Christmas quilts for. One is finished, but not given to the person because I wanted to give them all at the same time. I cut out the fabrics for one before I got pregnant with my 3rd child. (He's in middle school now, so you know this was awhile ago.) I am in various stages with 4 of the 5 that still need to be made. My Easy Street is one of these 4. My goal is to finish all these quilts for this Christmas. I think I will need all year to get them done LOL.

So when I heard that one of the local quilt shops is having a challenge called "Fibonacci's Revenge," I decided to try it with Christmas fabrics in my stash. It is based on the Fibonacci number sequence of 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13... You add the previous two numbers to get the next number. Apparently this number sequence shows up in nature a lot.

For this challenge, you first have to start with a 12" (finished size) block of your choosing. I love using a star motif in Christmas quilts, so I thought the Rising Star would be an appropriate center block. For the inner star, I used a gold scroll fabric and the outer star is a beautiful green Bali. The background is a light cream tone-on-tone that doesn't show up real well in the photo.

One of the requirements for the challenge is to buy at least one yard of their "challenge fabric." There were three neutrals you could choose from. The other two choices were a bit too Civil War-ish for me, so I went with this cream and tan Moda Marbles fabric. It's a bit darker than I would have chosen, but I guess that's part of the fun of a challenge, right?

So, each month you go to the store and get your directions for the month. We will be adding a border each month to make a medallion-style quilt. If you bring in your progress from the previous month, your directions are free. If you do not have any progress, you have to pay $3.00 for that month's directions. Hopefully this money incentive will keep me on track. 

For January's border, you need to make a 4" border using only rectangles (squares are allowed in the corners if necessary). You have to use some of the challenge fabric, plus at least one fabric from the center block, plus add at least one fabric color. I will be adding red.

I stayed up later than I should have last night, sketching out different border possibilities. I think I'm going to go with the one on the left side of this photo. I was inspired by one of the quilts that Judy from Patchwork Times made and sent to Alycia for Quilts of Valor. Alycia showed a photo of the quilt at this post. 

I'm planning on making this a "controlled scrappy" with Christmas fabrics. I will probably make the borders my leaders/enders while I finish up my QOV. 

Happy stitching!

My Mind's Eye November Challenge

For this month's challenge, all the products I used are from the "Lost and Found Two" collection. Love those! The background paper looks black in the photo, but it's really a dark brown. I used some crocheted trim from L&F2. You probably can't tell from this photo, but the tree in the picture is covered in frost. I thought the pearl swirl added just the right touch to the frost. Thanks for looking:)

Back to Roma

When I went to Archiver's the other day, I absolutely fell in love with the new collection from My Mind's Eye, Lost and Found Two. It had the perfect paper for this month's MME challenge sketch from their blog. The stickers for "Back to" are from Creative Memories; the glittery "Roma" stickers are Thickers; and everything else on the page is from the Lost and Found Two collection.
Journaling reads, "Tradition says that if you toss a coin over your shoulder into Trevi Fountain, you will return to Rome someday. It worked for us in 2006. Now we'll see if the coins we tossed in 2010 will bring us back to the Eternal City for a third time..."

Here's a closeup of my brad cluster in the lower left corner. You can also see the glitter in the border of this paper.

How far?

Here is my layout for Shimelle's "Grid It Up" challenge. The July/August issue of Creating Keepsakes has an article about using grids in your layout, and I based this one on a layout by Jane Morton. All the patterned papers and stickers are from the Stella and Rose collection by My Mind's Eye.

In July, the website Another Mother Runner asked the question "How far have you run?" I posted a comment, and realized that it would make a great layout. I've had the journaling saved on my computer until I was ready to make the page.

Boys will be boys

Here's my take on the red, white, and aqua challenge that Shimelle issued, "Colour story challenge." This one was hard for me. I didn't have a lot of aqua paper, so I had to make do with that 12 X 5.5 piece. I decided to use some Adirondack cranberry color wash to mist on white cardstock. I have to admit, although I like a lot of the layouts I've seen on Shimelle's blog for this challenge, I'm not real impressed with my own. Oh well, it was a good experiment! Funny, this could have also gone towards her half page challenge, but I've already done one for that.

we LOVE the amazing race

This is for another of Shimelle's challenges, the From the Heart challenge. You're supposed to have a title of either "I love" or "I heart" something. Hopefully I won't get disqualified, because I did "We love" instead! When I saw these pictures, I just knew I wanted to scrap them. It's such a tradition for my younger two kids and me to watch "The Amazing Race." The title "I love" didn't make sense, since all three of us love this. I figure I'm going with Shimelle's intention of making a page about something I love.

Patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye; an old Valentine's Day collection. I think it may be called "Adore."

4th of July Parade

This is my entry for Shimelle's Stickery Challenge. Create a project using stickers from more than one collection. Although banners are all the rage these days, this was my first time making a layout with a banner.

The banner stickers are from Jenni Bowlin. The flag is an old Creative Memories sticker. The fireworks are from Mrs. Grossman.

My dark blue pen is drying up. The journaling reads: "We sat with the XXXXX during the parade. We saw lots of bands, the Shriners, the Jesse White Tumblers, and the Precision Lawn Chair Dads. Ladies from the library even rolled book-carts down the street. The kids' favorite, though, is collecting the candy! ~July 4, 2010"

What's so Funny?

Here's my layout for Shimelle's Half Page Challenge. The challenge is to only scrap on half of the page, and leave the other half as "breathing room." Because I love My Mind's Eye paper so much, I used it on this layout, too. The large shaped paper is Penny Lane, and the stickers are Lime Twist. Cardstock and alpha stickers are Creative Memories.

Dance

This weekend I discovered a few places that have scrapbooking challenges. This layout applies to two different challenges: Shimelle's "Signature Accent Challenge" and My Mind's Eye challenge #26.

For Shimelle, you have to make a layout featuring a product or technique that you use frequently. I have recently fallen in love with butterflies, and they've been appearing on several of my pages. I thought they were very appropriate for this layout of my DD dancing with my dad. I used an EK Success punch for the butterflies, and I mounted them with pop dots to add some dimension.

The My Mind's Eye challenge is to use their sketch, and make a layout using at least 80% of their products on the page. All my paper, stickers, and diecuts are from MME. I used products from the following lines: Laundry Line, Lime Twist, and 29th Street Market.

Thanks for looking!