Saturday AQS in Nashville

I went to Nashville on Saturday to enjoy the AQS quilt show. My quilt was there as a group entry with my guild. We went together on a bus and it was fun to be there with my quilty friends.


While there one of the vendor was giving away a free quilt block, it uses Eleanor Burns' fusing technique. Once I had it ironed down I could take it to another booth and try out a Baby Lock sewing machine to sew it down.


While there Eleanor Burns herself showed up! So I asked her to sign my block and pose in a picture with us. She was so sweet and nice and more than happy to hang out with us.


What a fun day.

I only purchased on 1/2 yard piece of fabric. But I did stock up on six more spools Superior Threads, my new love...

Storm at Sea is going to Nashville!

I just read my email as saw that our group project has been accepted to be shown in Nashville AQS show in August!!! Eight of us are in our group, under the category of a "The Ultimate Guild Challenge Quilts".

Stashbusher Topic of the Week - What kind of quilter am I?

Since I've discovered how to free motion quilt I've become a free-motion-junkie! I look for ways I can free motion my quilts, I am especially good at that meandering stitch, it is such a rush! I am getting better and better with each quilt. I've even begun to experiment with little leaves and flowers in the quilting too. I like to sketch out my idea in my sketch book and wing it on the quilt. Maybe not precise, but a whole lot of fun!

See Storm at Sea for some of my sketches

I made a point of getting better at doing my own quilting when I realized that any quilts I entered into shows would have to credit the quilter who quilted my quilt. Being rather selfish I wanted all the credit to myself since my quilts are my own designs.

Some technical notes...

PS, I didn't actually stitch through the tissue paper, I used it to "trace it to memory" a few times before I stitched the real thing. I also had a practice piece that I do a few warm ups on before I got started each time.

Upper Left is an overall sketch, Upper Right is the nub I would practice sewing on, Below are the tissue drawings of how I wanted to quilt.

Storm at Sea Pictures

Overall it still looks the same, but you can see evidence of beads and a binding. The centers of the Daylilies and Cosmos have Gold beads. The Rose has Clear beads and Crystals on the petals to represent Dew. Everything was free-motion quilted except around the main structure, those were stitch-in-the-ditch.

Storm at Sea is DONE!

I am adding the last beads and still have to come up with a label (oh, why do I always whimp out on my labels???) I plan to hang it up tonight before I go to bed so I can see if first thing in the morning... with all its sparkly beads! Wow, I embellished something ... what next ... raw edge piecing??? Never say never!

Oh dear, and I got out my bead box, and looked at all the bright shiney beads I've collected over the years.... I feel a beading fest comming on, something I've resisted for a long time. But it will be okay as long as I resist buying new ones.

Final Push

The only parts left on my Quilt are

-Quilt the Corner Blocks
-Quilt the Cosmos Blocks
-Quilt the Daylily Blocks
-Quilt the Center Rose
-Embellish above with some clear and gold beads in the centers
-Sew sleave on
-Print & Sew on Label

some sketches of my quilting ideas:

Please, Just a Few More Minutes

Like most kids I would beg for a few more minutes of sleep before getting out of bed and going to school. That all changed when I was in college, I gained a nagging sense of responsibility and would wake up at odd hours with the undying obligation to get things done. It hasn't changed.

And it is why I feel like this has been finals week. I feel like I've worked all semester and now am cramming for the big exam. Putting extra hours into my final project before submitting it for the big critique. I went to Art School, so my finals were projects and often all nighters. Not staying up all night anymore to finish a project, but sewing until midnight most every night (no sleeping in, either) sure feels pretty close now that I'm older! Especially when I am trying to stay alert at work....

Deadlines at work, deadlines for my quilt! Busy, busy, busy!

Okay, about my QUILT! Stipple quilted the background areas, only the blocks of flowers left to do. Sewed on the binding and just moments ago put my final stitch in on that. Deadline is Tuesday, March 27th, and all with out calling in "sick" to work either (that's cheating!)

Binding Making Progress:

Free-motion Quilting in background:

Only part to quilt are the flowers:

Doesn't It Look Better?

I sure think it does, it was worth the time and not a frustrating as if first seemed. I am glad I stuck to it and did it right. Yeah!

Set Right

I sewed the two side panels on correctly and now have it back up on my design wall, I need to figure out my quilting strategy, make the sandwich and get started. Most likely this weekend when I am rested and focused.

Argh! Too Much Un-sewing

I was so happy yesterday because I had finally gotten my Storm at Sea top put together. I had spent the morning ripping out stitches from the center so that I could add the center corner blocks. Once it was reassembled I added the two outer sides, checking to make sure that the center was upright. I ironed it and pinned it up on my design wall to step back and admire my work. (I thought, "oh, goodie I can pick out my backing and binding now!") But, NO! What did I see? I had sewn the to outside panels on upside down! Bleah!!!



So instead, I spent the rest of my evening ripping stitches so I could set them right. I know that many viewers would not know they were upside down, but I would! I can't believe I didn't double check them before sewing.

In Living Color Quilt is DONE!!!!

Put the last stitches into the binding last night!!!! Yeah! Now I need to focus on my Storm at Sea project...

Center Rose

The center is still bugging me, I may end up taking it appart to change out the light blue completely, but into what I don't know. I did put one of the dark blue squares in the center, but am still not happy with it. It was also a bit awkard to put in because I was trying to avoid taking the whole thing appart, so I sewed it in with a "Y" seam, and it shows. So, now I am setting it asside for a while to marinade, and give myself time to contemplate it.

I worked most of the day to finish the outsides pieces. The four courner blocks were crumb-pieced with the corresponding colors, I am really happy how they came out.

Break Time!

Almost done, but I don't like how big the blue corners are in the center, love how the outside corners came out. Means some stich ripping (un-sewing) if I change the center. In the mean time I pinned what might work in the center in the second picture. Better with less light blue, I think, but even better after a late lunch.
Quilt Top as it is now...

What it might look like with the center changed...

Bloggimacation

I keep learning new things about these blog formats that lets me do mre sophistacted things with my pages.
My UFO pages are becoming more of a Diary of each quilt's progress, much better than if I just sat down and tried to remember everything.

My Storm at Sea challenge will get the most journaling since I am working on it while I am learning about blogging. It is certainly a blog baby!

I am so excited about blog pages that I am thinking of converting my Professional Portfolia to a series of blog pages. Not sure yet, but my web pages are so antiquated.

Oh, and I discovered LABELS ... !!!!

Daylily on the right is done

A Lily is Done!

I complete one of the Lilies to my Storm at Sea this week. I had cut it out before Christmas and am finally getting somewhere with this top. I need to cut out the pieces for the right side and decide how I am going to finish the center.

My goals for February are:
Finish this top
Prepare for my presentation at guild at the end of Feb.

WIP-ish Wednesday

I can't say that I have anything new but am continuing to work on two important projects:
"Storm at Sea"
"New Timon"

My WIP will really occur on Saturday when my first day off starts, but I keep basting the pieces to "New Timon" each morning and evening, three to a dozen pieces at a time, while I drink my morning coffee and breakfast, or evening TV.


Storm at Sea is top of my list since it MUST be complete in March. I am currently working on the Lily sides


This morning I unearthed a few more UFOs that I need to evaluate as to what I want to do them:



1/27/07 Note:
The leaf pattern was from a Quilter's Newsletter in the mid-nineties, and I sort of made it up from there. The leaf pattern is pretty common, here is one pattern that I found....
LEAF

The acorn I saw somewhere and drafted it to fit the leaf. All was made a long time ago using templates

Storm at Sea

I got an idea for our challenge using the "Storm at Sea" block; to make the block the size of the quilt. Spent the last weekend playing with it. I drafted the left and right sides to look like Day Lilies, the top and bottom are Cosmos. These were modified from Ruth McDowell's book "Pieced Flowers". Not sure what I will do in the corners yet. Would like to put a hummingbird in there somewhere too. I have until March to finish it.





This is what the block looks like....