Blogger Girls Block of the Month: Month 4

Hi Everyone,

I'm back again with my version of this really fun project.  You can find this month's pattern on this page.  Monique has her blog post about the next block here.

Monique designed the setting of this quilt and asked each of us Blogger Girls to choose a block.  This month's pattern was chosen by Jodi.  I have loved all of them so far!

I went to work on this month's blocks by first choosing the fabrics I wanted to use for each version.  Then I looked over the pattern to see how both blocks differ.  I've said before that I get excited about these BOMs because of the manipulation of the same block to get two totally different-looking blocks.  This year, however, some of the changes are created not just by value placement, but also by turning some of the units in other directions or substituting a single square in place of a four-patch, etc.  Since I really loved the challenge of just changing the color/value placement, I'm sticking with that this year--how you create your blocks is up to you.

This is the first block I did:

The directions for the second version involved turning the "house" shapes that are shown in the block above in to the center so that the "roof" touches the center.  I chose to leave all the pieces in the same position.  This is my second version:

These two blocks still look fairly similar, so I can see why Monique turned the pieces--it allows for a very different look.  The fun of this project is that you can try your own manipulations and perhaps come up with another completely different look!  I love seeing everyone else's blocks and what they have done.

Speaking of which...

You can check out Sherri's blocks at A Quilting Life, Lissa's at Moda Lissa, Denise at Quilters Window, and Jodi at Pleasant Home

I also know that Auntie Em at Quilt Crossing is also working on this project.  She is using 30s repros.
If you are working on any I would love to share them, too.  Just email me.

I'm still spending my day at the military retirement class.  There is some good information, but more comfy chairs would be welcome!

Have a great day!
JoAnne

The Winner

Hi Everyone,

It was so much fun hearing the dream quilts that everyone wanted to make! We sure do know how to dream, don't we?

I did the Random Number Generator thing and this was the number chosen:

And the lucky number 42 was Sarah who said:  I would love to make a spinning star quilt but I don't know if I have the skills to do so yet. I am a new quilter without many books or supplies, and would love to win this giveaway. Thanks for the chance.

Sarah, I will be emailing you to get your address.

This is going to be a busy week.  My husband is taking a retirement class for the military.  It is mandatory for him and suggested for me.  I am giving 3 days as I am busy on Thursday and Friday is Bonnie Hunter!!!!!  I also have a bit of an attitude issue about having to go to a class to "learn how to be a civilian?"  I bet most of you know how to do it and never had a class! 

I have a new project on my cutting table too.  It isn't a quilt!!!  My ice skating niece needs a skating costume.  Yikes!  It will be interesting! Have any of you ever put a zipper into a lycra garment?  I'd love any tips that you can offer.

Have a great day!

JoAnne

Hook-ed

Hi Everyone,

Thank you everyone for your feedback on my post yesterday!  It was a fun day to read all of your lovely comments.  I will take pictures of my visit to the quilt museum and share them with you.

Also, don't forget that you have until midnight tonight to leave a comment on this post in order to have a chance to win the giveaway.  I will announce the winner on Monday.

This month's Schnibble pattern was Hook.


The pattern was announced during the big Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest.  I already had the pattern so I got it out to read and discovered that a 60 degree ruler would help make things easier and then I realized I didn't have one, so we went back to the show on Sunday so I could purchase one.

Sometimes I have a hard time choosing what fabric to use, and sometimes it is easy.  This month's choice was easy.  I opened up my drawer of charm packs, and Bakesale, by Lori Holt, was practically shouting "pick me, pick me!" So I did.  I have lots of solid white to put with the charms.

When I look at the quilt on the cover of Carrie's pattern, above, I see lots of white space.  I know that appeals to lots of you out there, but for some reason, it wasn't appealing to me.  Luckily, I had seen another version of Hook that Carrie made in which she chose to place another fabric as the plain triangle.

The idea of using another fabric appealed to me, and I knew just which one!  I had yards and yards of a Lori Holt striped fabric from a previous line, and it would coordinate perfectly with Bakesale.  So I got to work.  The way that Carrie instructs you to make and cut the pieced triangle star points is just brilliant!  I loved making them.  I assembled the half-block units and lined them up on my design wall.  I cut the alternate triangles from the striped fabric, and...   ... hated them!  The stripe is complex so it looked all chopped and busy.  I didn't really have enough of any other Lori Holt fabric to use and I still didn't want to use more white, so it hung out on the design wall for a while.

About a week later, I realized that I had some red solid.  One of the charms squares I used in making the star points was solid red, so I replaced those with some others and then cut red triangles and put them in place.  Oh boy!  The quilt started singing!!

Then the fun in the construction of this project came to a screeching halt.  It wasn't that it was hard, it was just that you needed to press seams open.  I don't enjoy that.  And then sewing the long rows together, I had to be careful to match the points.

Using fork pins helped.  But not much.  I ripped out a few places and redid some bits of seams to fix some problem areas, and slowly I got it all together.  After that, it was easy to piece the leftover strips in order to make an inner border and then the quilt was all together.

I love the bright, happy, vintage look to Lori's fabrics!  I did sneak in a few scraps of Sew Cherry (from another past fabric line.)

It would have been a great quilt to stitch in the ditch, but wherever the points meet up, there is quite a lump of fabric, so I just took the easy way out and meandered all over it.

I was able to use the striped fabric as the binding!

If you want to see more versions of this quilt, head on over to Sinta's and Sherri's blogs on the first!  They will also be announcing the pattern for April.

Have a great day,
JoAnne

It's Not Houston or Paducah, but I'm Still Thrilled

Hi Everyone,

Today I'm sharing a big announcement.  It sort of starts with this book.  Have you ever read it?

It is the first in a series of 3-4 books taking place in the Shenandoah Valley and they all have a bit of a quilting "thread" running through the stories.  This first one is about a family of women:  grandmother, mother, and daughter and how they overcome the issues going on in their lives and become closer.  The grandmother is a quilter and at the end of the book, the daughter and granddaughter decided to display her quilts in a show.  The big finale for the grandmother is that a woman from the Virginia Quilt Museum attended and asked her is she could exhibit her quilts there at the museum.

I mention this as it is the first time I ever heard of the Virginia Quilt Museum.  After our guild's show last fall, I got a phone call that a representative of the Virginia Quilt Museum was interested in one of my quilts--Omigosh--that I had hung in the show.  She was in the process of assembling a collection of quilts from the Virgina Tidewater area, where I live, and was interested in including my quilt!  I was thrilled to say the least! She explained that the show was focusing on the diversity and cultural richness of the area since it is home to a large military community, etc.  I wrote back that I was an Army wife and that I was sort of "known" for my patriotic quilts and shared a few pictures of some of my best.  She really liked my Star Vines Quilt and decided to include it, as well.

This is a picture of Omigosh--I've blogged about it, you can read more here and here.  The pattern is by Sue Garman, it was quilted by Linda Hrcka at The Quilted Pineapple, and I hand-dyed the colored fabric and border.

This is Star Vines:

I blogged about it here and here.  The pattern for it is called Seeing Double by Julie Hale and Connee Morris and was published in the Spring/Summer issue of Quilt Sampler (it is also on the cover of that magazine.)  It was custom quilted by Sandi Zuker.

The exhibit will be on display at the Virginia Quilt Museum all summer, from May 6 through August 23.  The museum is in Harrisonburg, VA.  (Just in case you haven't firmed up those summer vacation plans yet, ha ha!)

As if all that wasn't exciting enough, I got another call earlier this week.  A photo of Star Vines was included in the press package for the exhibit AND it will be published in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.  One other quilt photo was included and so I'm not sure how much of my quilt will be there (and remember, it will be in an advertisement) but I'm still really excited!!  I'm not sure of the issue yet, but when I find out, I will share.

I've come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to be a competition quilter (I don't want to spend so much time on one quilt) and I'm sure I'll never come up with an idea to get something published, so this is very exciting.  I know I'll be at the museum for the artist's reception on May 19th and perhaps one or two other times, so I will blog about the exhibit.  I'm excited to see all the quilts from our area.

Have a great day!
JoAnne

A Finish!

Hi Everyone,

Well, it was a long day yesterday, but I finished a project!  Do any of you remember that last July I won the "Block of the Month" at our guild?  I know many guilds do a program similar--sometimes called "Blottos," etc.  The way our guild does it is that they sell a block kit for $2 each.  You can buy as many as you like, take them home and make them, and then bring them back.  For each one you bring back, you get a chance to win all of them.  This block was red, cream, and blue, thus I really wanted to win them, so I bought 5.  I also suspect that some of my friends did a block, but put my name on their ticket (because quilt friends are THE BEST.)  Anyway, much to my surprise, I did win them.  There was a nice amount, too, around 25--plus some unfinished or never-started kits.  They also give the winner the extra fabric.  I brought them home and blogged about it, but I knew that sewing them together was not going to be a lot of fun because it is a fairly complex block.

This is the block--this is how it should look.

I noticed that several of the blocks were not quite right, but I figured I could fix them.  Anyway, I put the whole thing away as I wasn't in the mood to work on it at the time.  

For some reason on Sunday while I was in the middle of making the flower blocks, I got the urge to get them out and look at them.  (By the way, I had a few comments asking me about the flowers.  The petal squares are cut at 5", the background squares are 2.5" and the center square is 2."  When you sew 4 of them together, the block should measure 9.5" and thus finish at 9")

So I got out the blocks of the month and counted and sorted again.  I had maybe 23 completed blocks, but 6-7 had issues.  

Again, this is the correct block.  It looks complex, but really, it is just a nine patch made of 3 different units!  The center of the nine patch is a blue and red pinwheel, 

the four corners are a funny combination unit featuring a strong diagonal with a little red "wing," 

and the 4 remaining spots are filled by a square in a square unit. 

 If you examine the square in a square, you will see that three of the triangles are blue, and one is red.  

Some of the "problem" blocks had mistakes like these:  

This one looks great except that the combination units are wrong--the little "wing" is blue, not red.  To fix it, I would have to rip off those units and then rip those down to the 4 HSTs and then resew them.

This one looks easy to fix--at first look, it seems like she just sewed the bottom row onto the rest of the block upside down, however, the square in a square is correct (see how the one red triangle in the square in a square aligns with the red pinwheel to form the LeMoyne star)--so I needed to take off the bottom  2 combination units, and then sew them back together correctly.  

There was one with the bottom row on upside down and it was easy to fix.  Problems started occurring when I would tear apart some of the units. 

The four squares in the top row made up one of the combination units.  They should be 2.5" HSTs.  The square at the bottom is a 2.5" HST.  As you can see, the pieces in the row vary greatly and some are not even squares.  I'm pretty impressed that the maker of that block got them to fit together and into the block, because I couldn't.  I discovered that I had to remake or "rehab" quite a few of these combination units.  A few of the square in a squares had some issues, too.  

I was prepared for the blocks to differ a bit as some quilters have slight variations in their quarter inch seam allowances, but I wasn't expecting some of these other issues.  I found them to be pretty fun to work on--it was a bit challenging, and luckily I did have some leftover fabric to help out.  Some blocks I could fix, some I had to toss, and I completely made a few more.   In the end I had 26 blocks ready to sew together.  (I would use 25 and if there was a block that "wasn't playing nice" I would have an extra.  I needed it, too!) 

Normally when you have a "group made" project like this, it is much easier to sash the blocks--that way the differing sizes are easier to deal with.  In this case, the blocks made a stunning secondary pattern when sewn together, so sashing was out.  As I put the blocks up on my design wall, I found some that seemed quite a bit larger than the others.  I ended up arranging those larger ones diagonally through the quilt to help disperse the size difference.  One of the valuable skills that I learned as a beginner/novice quilter was how to fudge things together that aren't perfect or the same size!!  I used those skills here.  One tip:  the feed dogs can be used to ease fabric, so if one block is larger than the other you are sewing it to, you can put the larger block against the feed dogs.  I fudged and pinned and played and manipulated until I got them together.  Don't get me wrong!  There are some "problem" areas where points don't meet or pinwheels have funny centers, but I decided that those would be part of the charm of this quilt.

See the wonderful secondary pattern?  I love it!  The little red "wings" of the combination unit come together to make those darling red pinwheels!

The left edge of this picture is how the edges of the quilt were when I sewed all the blocks together.  I decided I wanted to add a strip all the way around to complete the red pinwheels, so I sewed more red and cream HSTs, and then made blue and cream flying geese (to form the blue points) so that the finished edges look like this:

I think it made a huge difference!

 I would love to add another 2" border of blue all the way around, but I don't have enough fabric, so this is how it ends.  I'll get it quilted and then bind it and call it done!  I do like how it came out--problem areas and all.  No two of these blocks is just the same--just like no two of the quilters that made them are the same.  When I look at it, it so reminds me of the wonderful group of people that make up our guild.

In case anyone is interested, the block is free online.  You can find it here at The Quilter's Cache.

Finshing this quilt really wasn't on my radar or plan for this month, but I've found that sometimes you just have to work on things when they strike your fancy!  I'm really glad this is done. 

Today I need to clean off my cutting table.  I will finish the flower blocks and put things away.  It is time to work on my next Blogger Girls BOM blocks, so maybe I can get to them.  And there is a Schnibble this month--never fear!  It is done and waiting for me to share, too!

Have a great day!

JoAnne

A Current Project

Hi Everyone,

I'm really enjoying hearing about the dream quilts that you would like to make one day.  If you didn't see yesterday's post and want to enter the give away, you can find it here.

Although I haven't been blogging much this month, I have been working on things here and there.  At the moment, I have a couple things going and I seem to be jumping from project to project with no rhyme or reason--just quilter's ADD.  I find it fairly frustrating, as I normally start and finish something so I can keep my focus.  I'm not sure what is going on with me lately.  I suppose I have lots on my mind and am stressed more than usual with my husband's impending retirement from the Army and having NO IDEA where we will end up this summer!  Yikes!

Here is one project:  the Bee that I'm in has decided to do some exchange projects this year.  One of the projects is to make some flower blocks.  We who are participating will each make 16 and then swap and come home with 16 others.  The rules are that the flower fabric must be a floral--any type of floral fabric--and the background is white or white-on-white.  One of our members donated yellow for the centers, so they will all be the same.

They are fairly easy in that the construction is complex.  Each petal block begins with a square of floral and then smaller squares are used in the "flip corner" technique to give the shape to the petal.

Two larger squares of background are done like this, pressed and the "waste corner" is trimmed away.   (Yes, I'm keeping the corners and sewing them into half square triangles.   Whether they ever become anything remains to be seen.) 

A smaller yellow square is applied in the same manner for the center.  Then all 4 petals are stitched together to make the flower.  While the techniques are pretty "easy," we are all finding that keeping everything square and the correct size is more challenging.  I am taking my time at each step to make sure I'm keeping everything right and also utilizing a more "scant" quarter inch seam allowance than usual.  

Here are some of my first set.  We will be exchanging groups of 16 three times over the year.  I only have 3 more to make for this group but I got interested in something else!  I'll show that tomorrow.  That project is why I'm posting so late today.  Do you know the feeling when you get interested/excited in something so much that you hit the floor running with it in the morning? Anyway, knowing how distracted I am lately, I'll probably be onto something else later this afternoon. (If so, hopefully it will be finishing these flower blocks!)

Have a great day!
JoAnne

A Giveaway!

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I'm still here!  Life has been so busy lately but hopefully it is calm for a while.  At my last post, I promised a giveaway, and I'm here to deliver!  Late last year, I wanted to make a project from this book:

I wasn't sure that I had it so I did a quick scan of my quilt book shelf and didn't see it, so I ordered it.  Two days before it arrived I found the copy that I already had and missed!  So, I'm giving this away.  

Also I have a bunch of Schnibbles patterns.  Most of these I have made--the ones I haven't are duplicates as they also appear in Carrie's books.

I'm doing some clearing out, so it could be that some other things make it into the box!  If you would like to win, please enter by leaving a comment by midnight Friday/Saturday on Eastern Time.  I will ship it internationally!  If you are a "no reply" commenter, please include your email address!

As to the subject of the comments, I would love to know the one "dream project" that you would love to make.  Maybe you are already working on it or maybe it is really a dream?

For me, it is probably purely dreaming, but I would love to make one of these:

An exquisite, highly detailed, Baltimore Album quilt.  And since I'm dreaming?  I would design all the blocks myself!  How about you?

Have a great day!
JoAnne

Blessings of Blogland

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a good weekend.  It was gorgeous here--in the 70s and then the weather changed yet again and we had rain, freezing rain, and even a few flakes of snow yesterday.  Each time this weather changes so drastically, I'm hopeful it is the last time and maybe Spring will finally be here to stay.  Meanwhile, I know many of you are buried in snow and are even more anxious for Spring than I am.

I've been wanting to write this post for a while now.  It seems that lately I have been the recipient of so much kindness and generosity and I want to share.  Becoming part of the quilt blog world has been an incredible experience.  There are so many lovely people out there!

This first package arrived from Regan at Floating on a Quilted Cloud.  If you remember, we were to meet up for a day here in the area, but the weather decided to intervene.  She mailed these to me as she had made them to give me when we met.  I think she had me in mind!  I peeled back the tissue and found these incredible, teeny tiny quilts!

They are actually magnets and now reside on my refrigerator.   The workmanship is excellent.  Can you see the bead trim on the edges?  

  Back several weeks ago, Minick and Simpson were having a give-away.  They had received enough of an older fabric of theirs to top their Stars and Bars quilt pattern.  Because of this, they assembled one kit and gave it away.  Some of you saw that and alerted me to the opportunity.  Thanks!  I had seen it but passed on the chance for the best reason:  Miss Jean was the kind lady to send Minick and Simpson the fabric, and she had enough for another quilt that she kindly sent to me! She is hoping that I will make a retirement quilt for my husband (he is leaving the Army this summer) and I am planning to do just that!  

This is the wonderful bunting fabric that Miss Jean sent.  I can't express how awesome I find this fabric and how sweet it was of Jean to think of us!  I'm so touched!

A couple months ago, I recieved a bag at one of our guild meetings.  It was from Susan, the same charming lady who filled me/us in on that spectacular Marine quilt from Midatlantic.  She came across this fabric and thought of me!  It is dated 1991 and I've never seen it before.  It is full of possibilities. 

Recently one of my Bee friends went to the Carolinas for a visit.  She treated herself to a stop at Mary Jos.  I'm sure many of you know it.  I had the great pleasure of visiting it in 2001.  For those that don't know, it is something like 30,000 square feet of fabric--a little bit of heaven.  She saw these fabrics:

And brought them back to me.  

Needless to say, I'm feeling extremely spoiled and undeserving as well as completely blessed by the kindness of fellow quilters!

To show some gratification, I am going to have a giveaway.  I will get some things together and the next post I write will announce it.  

Have a great day!  I hope you are feeling some Spring!

JoAnne

Vendor Goodies and an Update

Hi Everyone,

The first thing I want to share is an email that I got from a fellow guild member here who also reads my blog.  She is a charming lady that I had the pleasure of getting to know while working on the quilt show.  She wrote to me in regards to this Marine Quilt that I shared yesterday.

To ensure that I didn't make any mistakes, I'm going to cut and paste her email:

Hi JoAnne,

I was looking around misc quilt blogs tonight and saw your post with photos from the Quilt Show.   I just wanted to tell you that I happened to meet the lady that made the Marine Quilt.   She was there with her husband, who happened to be using a walker.   She made the quilt for her son (and his wife), and she said that the only thing on the quilt that was done by machine was the letters United States Marine Corps which she did on machine and then hand sewed them on the quilt and the binding.   Everything else was done by hand.  Her husband told me that she hand embroidered all three verses (stanzas?) of the Marine Corps song on the quilt.    Also I asked her how long it took her to compose this masterpiece and she said "30 months".   She wanted her son and his wife to put it on the bed and use it.   She was just a delight.   I agree with  you that putting it on a back wall without proper lighting was a disappointment.

Thank you Susan W. for the great information about this spectacular quilt.  I wish it had been possible to photograph it better!

Finally I'm sharing some of the fun things that I decided to purchase at the show.  Believe me, I found lots and lots of fun things, but one can't get everything!  I actually had a list of things that I wanted to look for--I don't know about you, but I get distracted by all the fun things and then can't focus.  The list really helped, too.

At the top of the list were these scissors by Karen Kay Buckley:  the small "Perfect Scissors."  The micro serrations on the blades are wonderful.   When I was paying for them, the vendor asked if I knew about her pins.  I didn't and so she showed them to me.  They are so thin that they seem more like a strong fiber than a piece of wire.  Last week Pam Buda discussed both of these on her blog.  

Another item that I really wanted was a 15" Creative Grids Ruler.  My old Omnigrid 15" ruler has 3 chipped corners.  The one I found is actually 16.5" square, but that is even better.  The show ran from Thursday-Sunday and late Saturday this month's Schnibble pattern was announced.   In looking it over, I saw where it would be extremely helpful to have a 60 degree ruler.  I couldn't believe I didn't have one, so what other choice did we have than to go back to the show on Sunday to find one!  It was actually not that easy as several of the vendors who were selling these rulers were sold out.  We did finally find one.  Have you tried these Creative Grids rulers?  I love them.  They have spots of "grippiness" that grab on to the fabric and keep it from shifting.  

Despite the fact that I still haven't used some of the patterns I got last year, I couldn't resist getting more.

I can't wait to try these:  You use 2.5" strips like Bali Pops and fold them with interfacing and/or fusible fleece and then weave them together to make these bags.  The booth had a sample of that purse, and it was simply adorable!

And of course, I had to get some tiny projects, too.  

The rest of my purchases was fabric.  I actually got a fair amount this year, but I put it away before I took pictures and I wasn't sure I would remember it all!

It seems to me that there are two main categories of things at these shows:  tools and supplies.  I'm not too much of a "gadget" person.  While I do believe in using the correct tool for the job--I don't feel the need to replace every ruler I have because I like a different style better.  I am replacing them as need dictates.  I am the sort of quilter that would much rather have a package of 25 replacement rotary cutter blades for my favorite cutter than two or three other cutters.  I lean more towards the supplies:  I am totally a "stash builder!"  Fabric and patterns, oh my!  I can't say no to pretty fabric and fun patterns. What sort of consumer are you?

Have a great day!

JoAnne

Whew! What a Nail-Biter

Hi Everyone,

What an exciting morning!  When we lived in Alaska (2003-2007) we became big Iditarod fans.  The race always begins the first weekend in March and it was just won a few minutes ago.  Last night, things looked a lot different.  Jeff King, who is an "older" Alaskan musher was in the lead.  He passed by Aily Zirkle (a woman) to get there.  I went to bed thinking it would be another Jeff King victory (he has won 4 times.)  Well, I hadn't counted on the weather on the Bering Sea coast!  It was horrible conditions, with 65+ mph winds creating a dangerous situation.  Jeff King was just a few miles short of Safety (the last checkpoint before the finish line in Nome) when he got caught in the storm.  He stayed hunkered down with his dogs for a while but decided it was too dangerous and so he scratched.  Aily made it safely to Safety where she decided to stay out of the storm.  The third place position was held by Dallas Seavey.  He just had his 27th birthday (I know this because he and my daughter were born on the same day) and has already won the race once.  You may know him as he has been a participant on both seasons of Ultimate Survivor Alaska on the National Geographic Channel.  The storm didn't slow him down at all and he blew (literally) right through Safety.  I guess Aily wanted to try to catch him, so she set out in pursuit.  Dallas crossed the finish line first, winning his second (at 27!) and just two minutes later, Aily finished.  I like them both, but I really wanted a woman to win, as it has been 24 years since a woman has won.  (The first woman to win was Libby Riddles in 1985 and then Susan Butcher won 4 times in 1986, 87, 88, and 90.)  Anyway, it has been a very exciting morning!

I suspect, though, that you came looking for quilting stuff, not Iditarod updates.  So without further delay, I'm sharing  some more pictures from the quilt show.

This quilt was a stunner.  I'm not sure why, but it was hung way in the back of the show.  But maybe I'm just biased.  This is a quilt that was made for a Marine's Retirement.  I think a wife made it for her husband, but I'm not 100% certain--I was too busy looking at the details.  The Marine Seal is appliqued in the middle, complete with real cording around the perimeter.   She then embroidered different Marine saying around it and began to quilt.

It is hard to see, but across the top and bottom she quilted in his name and rank.

It was quite the quilt, and full of inspiration!

I've seen photos of this quilt from Road to California.  It is called "Jingle Bells" and won Viewer's Choice at Midatlantic.

That exhausts my better photos of the quilts.  I'll be back next time to show my purchases.  Did I say that yesterday?  I guess I mean it this time!  I also have some other posts to write about things I've been making, etc.  

Have a great day!

JoAnne