Pot Holder Pass

I've joined a group on Flicker that is exchanging pot holders, this time they are including reusable grocery bags.  I've had a lot of fun with this project and I'm looking forward to the next one.  The other stipulation this time around was, the potholder cannot be square.  The bag was really fun to make, quick and easy, I'll be making several more for myself.  It fits right into the grocery bagging station at the store where you get the plastic bags.  The pattern I used is here:  Keyka Lou Grocery Bag

This chicken was fun to make, you can get the pattern here:  http://tipnut.com/chicken-pot-holder-vintage-pattern/

Red and Green Stack and Wack Quilt

This is in progress and I'm not sure how I want to proceed next.  Each of the center squares is different.  I like the design and may take it out further for a throw.  I like the secondary design that comes from the addition of the modified snowball block.  I had some old paisley fabric that I have had laying around for years and so I decided to cut it up and try a new technique.  By reversing some pieces of the fabric you can obtain a mirrored image which give you new possibilities.

The original paisley fabric

Some of the block combinations

Color Theory

Natures Palette is a great place to select colors

Here is another natural color example

I loved my box of crayons as a kid and this appeals to me.
All the different options!

Little reminders for me.

This is a wonderful link full of information on color and is a useful tool to anyone who loves to quilt.  I am putting it in my blog as a link for myself to utilize.   Link:  Color Wheel Basics

Catching Up and Turning Twenty

I have taken a break from the "Little House" quilt over the holidays and due to illness, but will be resuming the project this weekend, along with others.  This is my most recent quilt.  One of the little girls at church is being baptised in a couple weeks, so I worked on completing this simple "Turning Twenty" quilt.  The top flew together and was in my draw waiting for a special someone.  It's an easy pattern, very suitable for a beginner quilter.  I have a Handi Quilter rail system which will allow me to machine quilt easily.  Takes a bit to set up and about an hour to load a quilt properly.  Advantage:  Only cost $500. when I bought it about 10 years ago.  Drawback:  Only enough space to quilt what will fit under your machine, which in my case is about 6 inches...which, shortens to less as you take up the quilt.  But I am not complaining, it gets the job done and I am leaving it up

for the time being so I can get inspired to finish some more quilts before I take it down.  It is living in the living room right now.

This is a photo of the quilt hanging from our front porch, I did not have the binding on it at this time, but the light was right to get a little photo.  I have embroidered her name on one of the patches, which I think she will enjoy.

This photo is taken at night with the quilt fresh from the dryer after a quick wash and dry.  You can see the binding and the detail of the quilting.  This is one of those patterns that, as you are making it up, you think...hmmm, not sure I really enjoy this one, not much of a challenge, but when you get it quilted, it shines like the comfortable little quilt that it is.

This is a photo of the back of the quilt which I pieced.  More of that story below.  During this quilting experience I ran out of thread.  I know, hard to believe.  Well, I rummaged about and found a thread that I thought might blend.  After one row, as I was taking up the quilt...to my dismay I saw that the tension was way off with the new thread and I had not checked it before merrily stitching along...my bad.  So, off to the store to get a sharp new seam ripper to pick out all that thread and while we're at it, let's just get the right thread.  Done and done.

Picking thread is not my favorite task, but it can be rather zen like.
Here is the finished quilt with the binding on.  The binding was another episode.  Where was my head?  I'm stitching along and after getting a quarter way around the quilt, I notice that I am stitching the folded edge to the raw edges.  In my 35+ years of quilting,  I have NEVER done that.
Oh my, where is that seam ripper again, have a seat girl, you're not done yet.  The weekend of quilting was a comedy of errors!

The rest of the story...Looking for backing fabric, I had this large, perfectly sized piece, one problem, there was a miss dye in the middle of the fabric run that looked like someone had spilled a bottle of bleach right down the middle.  So I cut it out and replaced it with a piece of floral fabric and used the remaining bits to make the binding.  I think it turned out well, considering all the little challenges that came along with it.  Below are some links for the Turning Twenty quilt if you want to make one for yourself or a friend.  Again, beginner easy, and QUICK!  Also a link for the Handi Quilter frame if you want one for yourself.
Handi Quilter II with 48in.-125in. Frame

Turning Twenty Around The Block (Turning Twenty)Turning Twenty - Just Got Better (Turning Twenty Book #1 New Edition)Turning Twenty...AgainTurning Twenty Feelin Groovy (Turning Twenty Book 4)Turning Twenty Pick-a-B: Four New Patterns: Still Fast, Easy & Fun! (Turning Twenty, 7)

Little House Quilt slide show.

Photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

Little House Quilt - Landscaping #7

Click on the photos to open and see the whole picture

I hope you are having fun, sorting through your fabrics and finding creative ways to landscape your Little House Quilt.

This page of the blog will update several times today so that you can see my process.

The photo below is the beginning of the rough landscape, I am playing right now so things may change as we move along, you'll have to check back later today to see. Remember, you will not be ironing down any of your pieces yet...we might want to move them around, you are just setting them on your lot to see if you like them.

I want a waterfall, we don't have one, but I want one, so I have created a waterfall feature in my imaginary landscape. We have big Ponderosa Pines out here; you can see the trunks, I have not yet cut the needles. I'm still playing with placement. The leafy fabric that is currently directly behind the house had some pink flowers in it and looked out of place, so I simply clipped a bit of the fabric and placed it right over the pink parts.

Click on the Photos to open and see the whole picture.

So, I hope you are working along on your Little House Quilt, this is one of the "fun" parts for me. Don't get hung up on being precise, enjoy your process, you can lift it off if you don't like it, but you'll never know until you cut it and put it into place. It just might be perfect! See you in a few with some more pictures. By the end of today, we will be ironing in place our base landscape!

Told you I'd be back with more.  So here is an example of an easy way to get rid of an element in the fabric that you may not want.  Remember the pink flowers, now you see them...
 And with a few quick snips, now you don't!  These leafy bits are going to be the madrone and oak forest  behind my house.

I have a big helper this morning.  This is Beatrix, aka Honey Bee.  Her very important job its to make sure that none of the bits gets away.  You can see, she is very intent on doing her job this morning.  What are quilts without cats, right?  I am at a pretty rough stage right now, but liking it so far.

Okay, back to the quilt, see you in a few with some more photos!  Clip, clip, clip...and remember, let the fabric do some of the work for you.


I have added in some darker rocks to create depth and now I am working on the branches of my pine trees.  I have moved things around a bit and will probably move them again before I'm happy.  But things are coming along nicely.

Slideshow of the Colfax Quilt Show 2010

A picture slideshow by Smilebox

Another Ribbon from The Colfax Quilt Show!

Well here I am early in the morning, next to my entry. It was a nice little show, fun to walk the sidewalk and look at the beautiful quilts.  There was a broad array from beginner to advanced.  The back lighting on this picture doesn't help show off the colors, but when you were there in person, it was lovely to look at.

The local officials and local businesses, purchase ribbons to present to the quilt they like the best.  It's all very subjective, but that is the fun of it.  The first year I entered I received a ribbon from a local business, the second year I received a ribbon from California Department of Forestry, this year I received a ribbon from The City of Colfax.  It's fun to hear people comment on your work as they walk by, I could sit there all day and listen, but John would not do well, so off to Bob's Dogs we went for a celebratory lunch.  If you haven't been to Bob's Dogs in Colfax, you have to go!  And take your appetite with you.  At this point I didn't know if I had a ribbon for my quilt yet, so we were just celebrating the fact that it was in the show and people were making nice comments as they strolled by.  At 3pm I took off with Suzette Cowperthwaite to the Relief Society Women's Conference at the Stake Center in Auburn.  As our evening there drew to a close, I called my husband, because the anticipation was getting the better of me.  At first he wasn't going to tell me, said I would have to wait until I got home ( he wanted to see my face) but after a short bit of pleading on my part he spilled the beans!  Already planning the quilt for next year.

Here is the ribbon I received from The City of Colfax.

Colfax Quilt Show, Colfax, California

The annual Colfax Quilt Show will be held tomorrow, September 25th.  Quilts will be displayed outside between the posts along the sidewalks of this historic Gold Mining and Railroad Town.  This will be my third year with an entry and I am excited to be displaying my quilt which I have titled Miner's Peacock.  The show is one day only and is an absolutely delightful event.

I had a big helper today as I was finishing up some last minute stitching by hand on the binding.  Little Honey Bee so carefully holds the fabric in place for me, she is so gentle and seems to instinctively know when I am working on a quilt, she plops herself down right in the middle of it to make sure that none of the fabric moves.

She is quite effective.  Notice the placement of the paw, just so.  It's a technique that she has developed over several years.  You can tell by her face how very serious she takes this work.  More pictures will be forth coming tomorrow as the quilt show unfolds.

Little House Quilt - Selecting Landscaping Materials #6

Click on the photos to enlarge and see detail.
You are ready to put in some general landscaping.  WE ARE NOT FUSING ANYTHING TO OUR BACKGROUND AT THIS TIME.  Remember when you were a kid and the teacher had a felt board and she put things up on it and then took them down, or maybe you had one of those toys as a kid that would let you apply the plastic sticker to the background and then you could easily peel it up and place it somewhere else or remove it altogether?  We are going to do the same thing for right now.  Everything in our design is in flux.  We are like that boy in college that you thought you liked, not ready to commit.  You will be laying your pieces on the background to develop your Little House Quilt, but you will NOT be fusing them in place yet.
Just like the house, the fine detail can be done last.  This is a great time to go through your fabric stash, and that of your friends (share ladies, you know you covet her fabric...LOL).  Below are some examples of fabrics that would work in a landscape.  Think about making the fabric work for you, I plan some boulders in my landscape, so I will look at using some of the fabrics that have a mottled, hand dye look about them and mix it up a bit.  

The watery blue fabric in the center would make a great pond, or turned differently, a great water fall.  Leaves and ferns in the forest of course.  Don't rule out large print fabrics, you can fussy cut a leaf and it will become a shrub with delightful detail in your landscape.  One time I used cabbage leaves...they were great shrubs!   Think about how you want your Little House as you select fabric, are you going for reality, whimsy, ethereal, early American country...what ever you choose, it's your landscape and there is no wrong choice!  Let yourself explore all the possibilities that exist and then you can pare down to what please you.
Again, let the fabric do as much of the work for you as you can and don't think about details right now, you want a general flow, it's like, if you looked through a pair of foggy glasses, or squinted your eyes and just caught the general outlines of the trees, fences, shrubs, etc.  We are roughing it in.

When you have assemble the fabrics that you would like to work with, start cutting out some shapes and laying them on your Little House lot to see how they will look with your house.  It's okay to layer, we like layering, it's our friend.  Layering will give a sense of depth to your quilt.  Are there trees behind your house?  If you live in a big city, there may be other buildings or landmarks that would give your quilt a sense of placement.  Maybe you have a silver trailer with a pink flamingo in the front on some astro turf.   Do you live on a farm, think about row crops, bountiful harvest, the checker board landscape.  Maybe you live in the mountains, selecting a variety of fabrics and creating several ridge lines will give your quilt more depth and interest.  Do you live in the forest, like I do?  Well, your trees may be a mix like ours of madrone, a variety of pines, oaks, manzanita.  If you are going for whimsy or an early American folk country style, you can create conical trees, or circle trees with stick straight trunks.   Maybe you live on the east coast and the hills are ablaze with the glory of fall.  What about lavender fields, or beds of roses, maybe a trellis, poppies, tulips, daffodils...what's in your garden and what would you LIKE in your garden.   The point is to have fun with it and let your mind go.

If you have patience, I will be on vacation for a couple weeks and will return and post detailed instructions on finishing, along with photos. I will be returning September 20th.
********************************************************************
For those of you who just can't wait and want to get hopping on this...here are some basic finishing instructions.

Once you have all the basic components in place the way you want them, fuse them to your quilt.  Like that guy from college that you fell in love with, you both graduated, married and are now committed!

You can now start to place windows, doors and smaller details using the same technique of trying out different fabrics and then when you are certain that you like them, fusing them in place.

Next will come the detail stitching or if you don't want to stitch, you can embellish your Little House Quilt with a fine tip permanent marker, fabric paints, what ever your heart desires.  You can add crystals, beads, buttons, ribbons, yarn...think outside the box and have fun.

Layer your quilt with very thin cotton batting, select your backing, and then quilt your piece as desired.

Attach binding and a rod pocket if you wish.

You are ready to display or give as a gift.