Catching Up (again)

Happy New Year! Despite the long pause in postings, I did actually complete a few more sewing projects in 2014. 

January 2014 - Drawstring book bags for Allie and Cate's birthdays

February 2014 - Robert Hughes baby quilt

(I really need to consider taking a "how to photograph your quilts" workshop:)

quilted with stars and spirals

May 2014 - Amy Becker's HS graduation lap quilt

Amy picked out fabrics at Fabric Depot during her Portland visit, Christmas 2013. I supplemented with a few fabrics I found at The Stitching Post and at Kapaia Stitchery during a trip to Kauai (always looking for an excuse to fabric shop).

The blue batik with butterflies was the first fabric Amy chose. 

Other colors were built around that.

quilted with vining flowers and leaves

                                                                                     

Now Amy has this nice warm lap quilt - perfect for her college years at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She assures me that it does get cold there, especially when the air conditioner is running.

November 2014 - New curtains and duvet set for the Sisters house

After 20 years, Stefanie and I decided it was time for a change in the upstairs bedroom in our Sisters house. We found some curtain fabric at IKEA (seen below in the medium-sized pillows). After a futile search for a coordinating duvet cover I decided we just needed to make our own. Not as cheap, but so much more fun!

                On the bed in Anna's old room at our house (tempted to keep it here, but...)

Had to add a border piece as it was just a bit too small. 

Found a fun coordinating fabric at The Stitching' Post.

Shams and throw pillows. The quilting in the shams mimics the print in the curtain fabric.

All set up in its new home. 

On to 2015...

January 2015 - Jeanne's lap quilt

This quilt was made for my good friend and fellow swimmer, Jeanne. She will be out of the water for a bit, recuperating from surgery, so of course this called for a quilt! 

My daughter, Anna, suggested the colors - perfect for a swimmer. Another swimmer friend, Jenn, joined me for a shopping trip to Fabric Depot and also helped with part of the sewing.

Sandi and Jeanne 

The design incorporates over 60 small blocks with names of some of Jeanne's friends.

Next Up????

• cityscape art quilt based on a photo of Roussillon, France
• art quilt based on our Croatia travels last September
• flower/plant themed art quilt for the Hardy Plant Society Hortlandia Plant Sale in April 
• hopefully taking Hilde Morin's Bowl Art class

Three finished projects to start off the new year!

Project #1:  Hilde Morin workshop - January 16 & 17

Six of us - Marti, Janet, Ann, MJ, Hiromi and I - gathered at Hilde Morin's beautiful studio in her home in the Portland area for Hilde's "Curves & More" workshop. 

Lunch break on Day 2

This shows only about 1/3 of Hilde's studio space.  We all left with "studio envy".

 Over the two days Hilde skillfully shared her design and construction techniques for creating her curved pieces. (Thanks to Hiromi for the photos!)

Getting ready to cut a curve through my piece

Hilde suggested using yarn to layout the curve

Starting the cut

The finished curve. Now what should I put in there?

By the end of the two days each of us had produced the top for a small wall art quilt. Here are the results of our efforts prior to quilting.

Ann

MJ

Hiromi

Janet

Marti

Here is my piece after quilting and facing. Thanks to Janet and Hiromi for giving me the perfect fabrics to finish my piece.

Finished size: 21" x 26-1/2"

Quilting detail

The pieced little ladder

Hilde showed us a great method for making the facing.

Project #2: Rainbow Trout

In an earlier post I shared the fabric collaged fish that I created in Susan Carlson's workshop in September 2013. I had it mounted on a collaged background but just wasn't happy with it.  After Hilde's workshop it got me thinking I could piece together a curved background that would help add some movement to the piece.

Before

After - Finished size: 29 1/4" x 17 1/2"

The border is from some batik fabric that Marti found at Fabric Depot - thanks Marti! This piece will eventually be hung in our Sisters house.

Detail 1

Detail 2 

Project #3: 'Painted Hills Units'

The third completed project was from Jean Wells "Journey to Inspired Art Quilting" workshop in September 2013. The colors in the piece were inspired by a photograph I had seen of the Painted Hills in the John Day Fossil Bed Monument in Eastern Oregon. After the workshop, Mark and I visited the John Day area where I took lots of photos in hopes of getting inspiration for another piece or two.

Finished size: 18 1/2" x 27 1/4"

Detail 1 - Added some hand stitching here and there

Detail 2 - quilted in a metasequoia - the state fossil of Oregon

Detail 3

I think this piece will eventually end up in our front hall entry as it is best viewed close up.

Next up? Currently I am in the process of finishing baby quilt # 6 for baby Roberto due in early March. The top is all pieced - just trying to figure out the quilting. Need to get that done before March travels to California and Kauai.

Catching Up

The quilting production slowed a bit in 2013 due to travels, family changes and shoulder surgery. But I did manage to find a bit of time to complete a few projects.

Anna's Bed Quilt - Completed Spring 2103
While we were in Sisters during Christmas 2012 Anna chose this Valori Wells quilt pattern and fabric for a double bed quilt. 

The quilt provided a good opportunity for me to get some more practice with free motion quilting.

Connie's One Block Wonder Table Runner - Spring 2013
My sister-in-law Connie had created a table runner using the One Block Wonder technique and asked me to do the quilting. For a novice quilter, Connie did a great job on the piecing and arranging of the hexagon blocks for the final design.

 I like the way the quilting shows on the more plain areas of the piece. 

Using leftover equilateral triangles, Connie sewed matching triangles into strips and then pieced the strips together for the backing. Too bad I didn't get a photo of the overall backing design.

Ava Hughes Baby Quilt - September 2013
Ava's quilt was the first chevron quilt I made. The colors were inspired by some hedgehog fabric I saw at Cool Cottons. The lighting was not right when I took the photo so the colors are dulled somewhat.

For one of the chevron stripes I pieced the fabric to help unify the design. 

the back

This detail shows a bit of the hedgehog fabric from Cool Cottons along with the flannel aqua elephant backing (also Cool Cottons) . The gray dog fabric was also used in the sleeping bags I made in 2012 for Ava's brothers, Brett and Davis.

The label. This time I quilted an animal alphabet. Using animal outlines from different free online sources, I printed them out to the desired size and pinned them onto the quilt. Using the shapes as a template I quilted around each shape. A little constrictive but it did insure that I would be able to fit all 26 of the animals onto the quilt.

After completing the quilting I thought it would be a good idea for Ava (and her two brothers) to have some way of helping them identify the various quilted animals (what is a zorilla anyway?). I created three coloring books for the kids utilizing the same animal outlines I used for the quilting.

 And here is little Ava catching a nap outdoors on her new blanket. 

Attended two workshops at The Stitchin' Post - September 2013

• Journey to Inspired Quilting with Jean Wells

Here's what I put together in the workshop. Hope to get it finished in Jan 2014 (quilted, backed and edged). I have an idea for another piece based on what I learned here.

• Susan Carlson workshop

It was an interesting process - collage with fabric - and a great way to utilize all those itty bitty leftover scraps of fabric. Not sure just yet where I will go with this trout from here. It is looking very static. I need to spend some time thinking about a way to add movement to it (not easy when it looks like a stuffed and mounted fish).

Maybe I should cut it apart and rearrange the pieces. Hmmm......

Anna's 24th Birthday Lap Quilt - December 2103
Anna liked Ava's quilt design and colors so much that I decided to make a lap quilt for her. 

New projects on tap for 2014:

• Hilde Morin January quilt workshop with friends
• Baby quilt for Roberto (grand-nephew #4 due in March)
• HS Graduation lap quilt for niece Amy