DWM, QQ15, and misc. updates

Nothing new on my design wall today. I have to unpack from vacation and regroup. I took my travel machine and several piecing projects with me and made progress on all of them:

• Sashing parts made and rows assembled for my QF main block top.  
• Borders added & flimsy finished for QF alternate block top
• Parts cut and piecing started for Antler Dance

We pushed hard to get home in time for me to go to my guild's show opening. We left Pensacola at 6am Saturday, drove four hours to New Orleans, took an airboat tour, then drove 11 hours home, arriving at 2am Sunday. Way past my bedtime! But so worth it. I enjoyed the tour immensely, and I'm very glad we were able to get home in time for me to go to my guild's event.

The show is the Quintessential Quilt 2015 at the University MO public library, through October. Free and open to the public during regular library hours. If you're anywhere near the St. Louis area, I encourage you to visit the show. There are some awesome quilts in a great variety of styles, including traditional, art, innovative, modern, and embellished crazy quilting.

I'm thrilled that Gramercy & Friends won a red ribbon! Here's Gramercy hanging in the library:

Gramercy & Friends at The Quintessential Quilt 2015

The Quintessential Quilt is a juried & judged show with very limited space for large quilts, so the fact that Gramercy was juried in is already special. That it won a ribbon is icing on the cake, and due, I'm sure, to the inspired and excellent quilting of Jane Coons. I'll share the judges' comments with her when I get them after the show ends.

(Aside - Gramercy has to be the most un-photogenic quilt I've ever seen. I just cannot get a good photo of it that shows both the fabrics and the quilting. ...sigh... I'll have to keep trying.)

Our show opening yesterday was well attended, due to the lecture & trunk show by Bonnie Hunter. She's delightfully personable and down to earth. I'll have to edit photos to share the experience in another post later.

Meanwhile, the post-vacation to-do list awaits. Laundry, groceries, bills, housework, errands... no sewing for me for a few days, I'm afraid.
Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

September Stash Report & Goals Update

OK, so it's not technically the end of September today, but I have so much non-quilty household stuff going on that I don't expect to even get into the sewing room for a few days, so I might as well do the stash & goals report today.

The non-quilty stuff has to do with catching up at home because I was on vacation for two weeks. I was in Perdido Key FL (near Pensacola):

Yesterday we left Pensacola early and drove to New Orleans. A bit SW of New Orleans in Des Allemandes we took an airboat tour of a wetlands area including marshlands, bayous and swamps.

 

 

It was a fantastic tour and I highly recommend it. I made a new friend. Doesn't he look happy?

After the tour yesterday we drove all the way home to St. Louis, arriving at 2:00am, so I can attend my guild's show opening today featuring a trunk show by Bonnie Hunter. I'm so glad I'm not missing it!

Anyway, back to the monthly reports:

Stash Report:

September IN: 3 yards (Kona Bone for Antler Dance)
September OUT: 3-3/8 (1/2 yd for blue Wonky Stars; 1/2 yd inner border & 1-7/8 yds for outer border of QF Alt blocks top; 1/2 yd for red Wonky Stars;)
September change: 3/8 yard out

YTD IN: 128-1/4
YTD OUT: 116-1/4
YTD Net Change: 12 yards in
Still hoping to break even for the year. I just need some finishes.

Goals:

September Update:
1. Write tutorial for piecing a quilt top using my Fabri-Quilt block. Post on 9/4. DONE
2. Start prepping demo materials for teaching Cut & Shuffle workshop in October. Supply list due 9/4. Supply list done. Cut all the parts for new quilt "Antler Dance" using Block Mama method. These blocks will be demo blocks and step-outs for workshop. 
3. Piece QF Alt. Block top including borders to a finished flimsy. DONE
4. If time permits, piece sashing for QF main blocks and assemble top w/ borders to a finished flimsy. Made sashing components, sewed blocks & sashing into rows but still need to join rows together.
5. Keep up with bee blocks. DONE

Other: Made six Wonky Star blocks for Alycia's QOV block drive.
           Started piecing Antler Dance blocks.

October Goals:
1. Book signing at The Quilted Fox on October 4
2. Prep for teaching workshop
3. Finish piecing QF Main BOM Blocks flimsy including borders
4. Continue piecing Antler Dance
5. Layer and pin baste one WIP
6. Query from Quilt Pattern Magazine about submitting a pattern: Investigate their requirements and plan to submit something.
7. Sew Me STL retreat Oct 24-25
8. Teach Cut & Shuffle workshop Oct 24
9. Keep up with Bee Blocks

That ought to keep me busy!

Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times

Test Blocks for Antler Dance

Whoo-hoo! All the seams nest nicely!

Antler Dance test blocks

 

Also accomplished: more Wonky Star blocks for Alycia's QOV block drive:

Linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

 

Not in progress...

...can mean "lack of progress," or can mean "done," and I have both to share today.

Lack of progress:

Bad tension

 

This pile of block parts was chain pieced. Half a quilt's worth of blocks. When I started cutting them apart, I realized there was a tension problem. So, lack of progress, time out to unstitch and pull out the threads, and fiddle with the tension on my machine. Yeesh!

I'm using my travel machine (my Bernina is at the spa) and it really likes Connecting Threads 100% cotton 50 weight thread. It doesn't like finer Aurifil 50 wt. thread so much, as you can see, without a major tightening of the upper tension. So, several sample seams later and about an hour wasted with no progress to show for it, I finally got to the point where I could begin chain sewing these seams again with good tension.


Done:

My book Cut and Shuffle Quilts is finally published!

Cut and Shuffle Quilts is now available from AQS or from Amazon. I haven't seen it in print yet - I'll get my copies next week - but I'm excited it's finally published!

Start with a simple square called the Block Mama. Cut it into pieces, shuffle the parts, and reassemble them nine-patch style. Create easy, unique blocks with endless creative possibilities! Cut and Shuffle Quilts features the Block Mama, four blocks, and six quilts made from them. Complete instructions are given for the blocks and the quilts. For added creative inspiration, all the quilts are illustrated in additional fabrics and colorways. Cut and shuffle your way to creatively satisfying quilts using the easy Block Mama method.

So even though these projects aren't technically "in progress," I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

DWM: More QF BOM quilt progress and starting Antler Dance

Regular readers may recall that I'm using the 2014-15 Quilted Fox BOM blocks for two sofa-throw quilts rather than one ginormous 105" quilt. You can see the blocks and the plans for these tops here. Since I finished the flimsy using the alternate BOM blocks last week, this week I'm working on the other project using the main BOM blocks.

Here are the main blocks, not in any particular layout:

QF Main BOM Blocks

I'm working on sashing:

Sashing strips in work

 

And cornerstones:

Pile of itty bitty nine-patch cornerstones

Next up: joining the blocks with the sashing into rows. Here they are on my design floor. The sashing strips are attached to the sides of the blocks but they're not joined together into rows yet.

It's slow going - those little nine patches took a lot of time! I'm hoping to get the top together this week, ready for borders. The borders require some planning to miter the corners and match the paisley print, so I may not get to them this week.

 

Also this week I need to start working on the blocks for Antler Dance, a new quilt using my Block Mama method from Cut and Shuffle Quilts (see yesterday's post below). I'll use the blocks as class samples for a workshop I'm teaching in October. Here's the plan for Antler Dance:

Antler Dance rendering from EQ

 

That should keep me busy for awhile.

 

Look for more quilty inspiration over at Patchwork Times.



Stash Report and other stuff, 9/20/15

IN this week: 3 yards
OUT this week: 2-3/8 yards (1/2 yd inner border & 1-7/8 yds outer border for QF Alt. BOM top)
I'll tally the totals & net stash change at the end of the month.

One of my goals this month is to prepare to teach a workshop from Cut & Shuffle Quilts in late October. So I decided to start a new project using my Block Mama method (in the book) to make the blocks. I can use them for workshop samples. The new project will use the fabrics below. The dark print was from stash, but I didn't have enough of the light solid, so I had to buy three yards of Kona Bone, thus my yardage added this week.

Fabrics for Antler Dance

 

The dark print actually has tan in it which shows up better in real life. It just looks grey in this photo.
The name of the new quilt will be Antler Dance. It was in the book proposal but wasn't included in the book due to space. It's another tessellated design like the aqua one on the book's cover.

Speaking of Cut and Shuffle Quilts, I'm thrilled that it's actually - finally - published! I haven't seen it yet in print but my copies are scheduled to arrive next week. Meanwhile, it's available through AQS.
Their description is horribly inaccurate so here's a better one:

Start with a simple square called the Block Mama. Cut it into pieces, shuffle the parts, and reassemble them nine-patch style. Create easy, unique blocks with endless creative possibilities! Cut and Shuffle Quilts features the Block Mama, four blocks, and six quilts made with them. Complete instructions are given for the blocks and the quilts. For added creative inspiration, all the quilts are illustrated in additional fabrics and colorways. Cut and shuffle your way to creatively satisfying quilts using the easy Block Mama method.

Cut and Shuffle Quilts, now available from AQS

Anyway, back to the stash - does the print I'm using in Antler Dance look familiar? I used a little of it in Gramercy & Friends. It's in the block on the left in the photo below, and in a couple of other blocks.

 

Gramercy & Friends will be hanging in The Quintessential Quilt 2015 show at the University City MO public library beginning next Saturday and through October. If you're in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend you check out the show. It's free and open to the public during library hours.

This is the only photo I have of Gramercy & Friends finished. It shows off the quilting well, but the colors look too grey and it's a lousy photo. I'll have to get a better photo later.

So that's my exciting news for now....
Check out the stash reports and other quilty news at Patchwork Times.

It's published!

One of my readers, Libby from Life on the Hill, visited the AQS Chattanooga show and saw my book Cut and Shuffle Quilts in the booth. Libby sent me this photo; there it is, front and center:

Cut and Shuffle Quilts at AQS Chattanooga,

photo courtesy of Libby from Life on the Hill

I haven't actually seen the book in print yet (my copies are scheduled to arrive next week) but it's so exciting to see that it's finally published.

Thanks, Libby!