Bloggers’ Quilt Festival

There is an amazing event going on in the Blogosphere right now – the Bloggers’ Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side!  Seriously, you need to go over there and check out all the amazing quilts being entered!!!  I’m just stunned at them all =^..^=

Now, you know me, and you know I have to join in, right?  So here’s my entry….

Easter Sonrise is a Judy Niemeyer design called Hawaiian Star that I first saw in a magazine back in 2007.  Let me just say I was stunned the first time I saw it and thought to myself, “If I could ever make a quilt like that, I will be a *real* quilter!”  I was a fairly new quilter, still in my first year and not quite yet dry behind the ears :*D  But I had taken a paper-piecing class and loved it, so I jumped at the chance to take this 3-day class with Judy herself at Quilter’s Attic when she came to town. 

I got my first clue about what I had gotten myself into when I went to pick up my kit at the shop and saw that it required 22 yards of fabric and the pattern was in a BOX!!!  A THICK box!!!  Uh-oh!!!  Then I got my second clue when I began to cut out the pieces to prepare for class.  It took me THREE DAYS to cut out the pieces!!!  By this time, I was pretty concerned that I was in way over my head, but I packed up my stuff and headed into class, hoping that somehow I would be able to keep up.

Well, Judy was a perfect teacher!  First thing, she amazed us with a magic trick.  One of the girls had not had time to cut her fabrics before class.  Well, Super Judy took her fabrics and layered about 20 of them on top of each other and sliced and diced until she had cut out that entire quilt in about 15 minutes!!!  Yes, the same quilt that had taken me 3 days!!!  Yep, we were totally enthralled with her!  We knew we were in the presence of a *real* quilter =^..^=

Judy 'n me!

She explained everything so simply that before I knew it I was cranking out these marvelous lone star points and curved flying geese, just like everyone else :*)  She kept saying, “Now, just have fun.  Remember, there’s no mistake you can make that I can’t fix, so go for it!”  Dummy me, I believed her LOL!!! 

When we got to the part where we were making the curved flying geese, I got my first one done and took it to her to make sure I was doing it right.  She took it, looked at it for a minute, and said, “Oh no, you’ve ruined it!”  At first, I thought she was kidding, because hadn’t she said she could fix anything?  But no, she was totally serious.  I had cut off the seam allowance from the inner curve!!!  Yikes!!!  

After a minute though, she smiled and said, “Listen, don’t worry about it for now.  Go work on the others and we’ll come back to this one.”  So I did, making VERY sure that I didn’t cut off any more seam allowances :*)

The next morning I came in to class, and what did I find?  Judy presented me with a new curved flying geese unit that she had sewn up for me herself the evening before!  Was that sweet or what???  Yep, I loved her! =^..^=

It took me several months to complete the quilt top.  I held my breath with every Y seam.   But it came together beautifully .... and then it sat on a shelf in my quilting closet for another year while I practiced my quilting skills.  I didn’t want to ruin all that hard work with slipshod quilting!  And I really didn’t want to send it off for someone else to quilt it.  I wanted to say I had done this quilt – all of it!

This was the first large quilt I ever quilted on my domestic machine, a Janome 6600P.  Here are some of the pictures of the quilting.  

I’ve learned a lot since 2009 when I quilted it, but I’m still happy with how it turned out and wouldn’t change a thing.  The quilt has earned the Overall Color & Design Award and 1^st Place Blue Ribbon in it’s class at the Tennessee State Fair, as well as 2 other Blue ribbons in other quilt shows.

I have such happy memories associated with this quilt!  We became a little group of Judy fans at Quilters Attic and for a while we met there to work together on our quilts.  Fun times! 

The original quilt kit called for alternating star points of green and orange.  But I really didn’t like the green.  I thought the orange points looked like a radiant burst of light, much like what must have burst forth when Jesus rose from the dead (hence the name!).  When I said that I would have preferred all my points to be orange, Pat (the first lady on the left in the front on this picture) said she rather liked the green ones and would trade with me if I liked.  I liked!!!  Pat has since passed away.  She was a wonderful quilter and a really lovely person, and I wouldn’t take anything for having gotten to know her and all of these other amazing ladies through this class.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk down memory lane with me.  It was a bit longer walk than I had anticipated when I sat down to write it, but sometimes the memories just come up and make us smile, and we just have to share, right?

Have a lovely Sunday & enjoy all the blessings our sweet Lord has given us!!!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

What Will it Be?

Have you been joining in the fun of the NewFO Challenge over at Cat Patches?

I love this challenge because it gives me the freedom to start new things without guilt!  Yep, I love being guilt free!  So what did I start this month?

Well, I started (and finished) my niece’s graduation quilt, Raney Days & Mondays….

And I also had a blast starting my Twister Trees projects, which are completely pieced but not yet quilted…..

Now I’m trying to decide what to start in September for the Challenge, and it’s really hard to decide because there are a couple of quilts calling my name!

Let's see....Will it be Hawaiian Sunset? 

I just love the colors in this quilt, but I’m not sure I want to start on something so piecing intensive right now.  SoScrappy - who is NOT starting hers yet – sure is tempting me!  She’s already stitched up a block – just to make sure she’ll enjoy working on it of course.  But she’s not starting a new project yet… she’s really not … *wink*  And Jo over at Jo’s Country Junction has started working on hers too, and is inviting us all to join her.   What an enabler!!!! =^..^=

Or maybe I’ll start this….

Oh my gosh!!!  Have you seen these Butterflies by Debra Gabel?  

My fingers are itching to start this quilt!!!  I think it would be great fun to stitch with a group – maybe we could have a quilt-a-long?!?  Oh yeah – that would be FUN!!!  If you're interested let me know.... I’m ordering the patterns, but not sure if I should start it just yet….  Hmmmm….

And then again, I may just start something small and sweet, like the September Calendar Quilt…..although I have to say this is not one of my favorites of her quilts and I may skip this month and just try to finish up the August quilt instead (which I like much better) :*)

Oh dear, I just can’t decide!  I’ll be plenty busy this month working on my Dots on Dots blocks. But I’m taking a week off to go on to Runaway Quilters Retreat too, so plenty of sewing time there – yippee!!!!

Are you thinking of starting something new in the coming month?   Join the NewFO Challenge fun and share it with us at Cat Patches!

Linking up with ......

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=

Design Wall Monday - Sept 10, 2012

My design wall has been getting quite a workout lately :*)

I couldn't wait to start on my Hawaiian Sunset blocks, so I jumped right in - these colors are so much fun!  Here is my first block ...

This block has visual impact like nobody's business!!!  I had a group of friends over to sew together Friday, and as each one arrived and glanced over at the block I had laid out for them to see, they ooooo'd and aaaaaa'd like crazy!  It's a big hit with everyone.

Here it is with the sashing laid out.  I'm absolutely in LOVE with the look of the navy blue alongside the pinks and poison greens :*)

Of course, I won't sew the sashings on yet, I just wanted to get a good look at the overall color scheme to be sure it was working.  Um, yes, I think it is :*)

Basically, this block is made up of bubble-gum pink wings on the flying geese with scrappy "bodies", and poison greens for the cornerstones.  Then the nine-patch and sashing around it in the middle layers are all scrappy.  I'm using reds, bold yellowy-golds (pattern calls for chrome yellow of which I have NONE!), bright blues to add sparkle, some darker greens, and browns.  Of course most of my fabrics are not reproduction prints, just current prints in colors that pretty much fit the colors in the original quilt.

I really appreciate Angela at SoScrappy who said she had drawn up a paper-piecing pattern for her flying geese.  Wow!  What a time saver!!!  These little puppies go together so easily & a group of six is done in a flash.

I'm pretty sure I fried a few neurons or electrons or whatever it is there in the brain that gets burned up when we expend too much mental energy.  Math has never been my strong suit, and I always count my results several times before I act just to be sure!  The pattern for this quilt is adequate, but there's a lot that's not provided, such as the finished size of each block component.  So even though I was given the size of the base piece for one flying goose - 1-3/4" by 3" - it did not provide a measurement for the completed set of 6 geese.

Now, to my mathematically minded friends out there that may not a problem because they just pause a minute, add it all up, subtract the correct amount for seam allowances and Whamo! they've got the correct measurement.  For me, it takes a little longer and a lot more mental gymnastics, not to mention some written calculations and even a few drawings LOL!!!  There are two things about myself I've learned to NEVER trust - my math results and my directional sense LOL!!!  =^..^=

So imagine my delight when my first set of geese from this hand-graphed pattern worked perfectly!!!

This block was so much fun that I can't wait to work on some more :*)  

However, this weekend I had to work on some other things that were calling for my attention.  Such as my Dots on Dots Blog Hop block! :*)

Click HERE to see the schedule!

My day will be the 17th, which is next Monday and I am excited about showing you my block :*D  Here is a sneak peak at some of the fabrics I had to choose from....

What's your favorite combination out of these?  Wondering what I chose for my block?  You'll just have to come back on the 17th to find out ;*)  I know, I'm such a tease!!!

I'm also plotting and planning my first Butterly block - the patterns came this week!!!  I'm so excited because they are even prettier than I thought they were :*)  The series is called In Flight.

Right now I'm just at the stage of pulling fabrics for the monarch butterfly.  I'll keep you posted on further developments on this project :*)

What's on your Design Wall?  Join in the linky party over at Judy's Patchwork Times and see what others are working on.

I'm also linking up with these fun blogs.....

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

Slow Stitching & Stash Enhancement

It's a beautiful new Sunday, and you know what that means....  a wonderful day to reflect on our many blessings and spend some sweet time with the Lord =^..^=  Today I am especially grateful for the rain we are getting here in Nashville - boy did we need it!!!

For me, Sunday also means a lot of sports on TV which I love!  Today on the agenda is the Golf Playoffs and maybe some preseason football.  One of the things I love about Sundays & sports is that I usually get a lot of relaxing hand work done :*)  

Here is my progress on the 8th block for Promises & Borders BOM.  Jenny  just released the latest block pattern today, so I am now officially 2 blocks behind :*)  There is only one more block to be released - it's unbelievable how quickly time has flown this year!

Please go by and visit Kathy at Kathy's Quilts to see her gorgeous Slow Stitching finish!!!  And you can link up to show us the slow hand work you been doing also =^..^=

Yesterday was a great day for Stash Enhancement!!!  I was invited to join a couple of great friends on a day trip to Franklin & we had so much fun!!!  It had been quite a while since I was able to visit some of the quilt shops there, so I jumped at the chance to go :*)

In my last post I shared my dilemma about what to start for my September NewFO (you can read about it HERE).   So I’ve made a decision…. ****Drum Roll***     I’m going to do BOTH!!!  Well, at least I’m going to start both LOL!!! Yep, I can’t help it – they’re both calling my name =^..^=  And of course, the objective of the NewFO Challenge is just that you START a project, you don't have to get any further than that.  Just sayin' :*)

Several blog friends are either already working on Hawaiian Sunset or plan to start soon, and it will be great fun doing it together! 

Besides, I have the perfect dark blue on my shelf for the sashing – is that a great omen or what?!? This is a Jenny Beyer fabric.  The blue is a bit more navy than this picture shows.  I will have to fill out some of the other colors, especially the pinks, so I can’t work on it too much right away. But I can start playing with the flying geese and the four patches for the fun of it, right?  They will make great leaders-n-enders!

And then I simply have to start this Butterflies quilt! I’ve been in love with them since I first saw them a few months ago. The patterns are ordered and should arrive later in the week.

I picked up these batiks yesterday for backgrounds and sashing/borders – aren’t they just scrumptious??? YUM!!!  The deep blue fabric on the bottom of the stack is for the sashing & perhaps an outer border.  The others are backgrounds for the various butterflies.  The black & white dot is PERFECT for the Monarch’s wings ....

                                              ............  am I right???

A few readers have questioned whether the Butterflies are applique or panels. They are applique! The designer is Debra Gabel of Zebra Patterns. You should click on her name and check out her site sometime – oh my does she have some amazing patterns!!! I plan to do these using Beth Ferrier’s Hand Applique by Machine technique. She came to the Music City Guild a few years ago and taught us this technique, and this project will give me the perfect opportunity to practice it. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some of that with you as I work them.

As for the Stash Report – I have a HUGE amount of fabric to count in my “Used” column from all the destashing I did this past week - YOOHOO!!!  You can read more about that process HERE. I was frankly shocked when I added it all up and saw the totals…... Wow! So here’s my report for this week:

Stash Enhancement Report - September 2, 2012 

Used/Destashed this week: 93.00 yards

Used/Destashed YTD 2012: 195.75 yards

Stashed this week: 12.50 yards

Stashed YTD 2012: 192.00 yards

Net Used for 2012: 3.75 yards

Woohoo - finally in the black!  And even though I did not sew up all that fabric, I did accomplish a much needed reorganization of my stash to make it more workable for me and the projects I want to focus on in the future.  I'm a happy camper!!!  Have you done any stash enhancing or destashing? Share it with us by linking up with Patchwork Times!

Happy Labor Day holiday everyone! Stay safe & keep a lookout for flying geese :*)

Also linking up with the following really fun blogs! ......

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=