Pieces and Parts

Start-itis struck me this week, as usually happens when I clean up the cutting table. I had been doing a lot of organizing in the sewing room and, looking over my list of WIPs.  In June 2017 I took a class from Bonnie Hunter when she came to the Camarillo Quilt Association, for her My Blue Heaven quilt (a free pattern on her website).  I chose purple and green and named my two color version My Lupine Heaven.  The hills are covered with lupine just now. 

These are the only two blocks I managed to finish in the class, but pieces and parts aplenty were cut that day.  I guess I could call this Continue-itis!  I cut a lot more from the project box of all the different parts, which will make good leader-enders.  

Bonnie's Essential Triangle ruler saved a lot of fabric, using strips instead of large squares to make the quarter square triangles. 

Another quilt waiting its turn is from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book...

 

 

...but not the cover quilt, High Cotton, I already made that one :)  

This is the Twilight Hopscotch quilt, isn't it striking?  I made a pillow cover from stash cheddar fabrics a couple of years ago, and bought two greens and background fabrics for the quilt from Connecting Threads from their Oh My Darling line.  I planned to make the lap quilt bigger yet managed not to buy extra of the star block fabric.  Thinking myself clever, I used Bonnie's Essential Triangle Tool to cut triangles instead of squares for the star points.  Smarter folks than I can see where I went wrong...

I saved fabric but not time, as I did not think through what  pre-cutting off the corner instead of using a marked square would do to the assembly.  Very tedious job to align 64 of these star points.  You'd think I'd have learned a lesson about following directions for the next step, but just wait a sec...

I decided to cut the sewn and matched four patch strips into larger sections and cut after sewing on both sides, as I find pushing 1.5" pieces under the needle tedious.  However, this meant that the two resulting four patches spun in different directions, which I had also not considered.  Fortunately, that was unimportant for this particular block. 

Love these two green prints!  The background fabric is called "Kitchen Twine" and is a subtle ecru.  Many more pieces are ready to assemble and I look forward to more Twilight Star blocks piling up.  It's good to have more project boxes see the light of day. 

CQA show, Surprise Purchase and Lucky Win

It's Spring in Southern California and the hills are green, lupine and mustard and poppies are blooming, the sky is blue with fluffy clouds.  I love it. 

How is it that blooming Oxalis is so much cuter in my decor than in the lawn?

We returned from our Big Bear vacation on a Friday, leaving the whole weekend still ahead of us.  I hadn't realized what a great plan this was!  No dread of waking up to having to work the next day.  I'll have to remember that on future vacations. 

The Camarillo Quilt Association holds a show every other year, at our local Fairgrounds--I purchased the charming 30's prints mini quilt above some years ago at their show.  Our guild was graced a booth for more Thomas Fire kits to be picked up and info on our project by members.  Several generous folks brought finished quilts to turn in, many more took kits.  My sister and I met at the door and she immediately bought chances for some gift basket drawings.  We were also given door prize tickets with our show entry fee and popped those into the draw container.  It was great to see so many of our members at the show (a number of whom are also CQA members).  We were visiting so much that I didn't take a single picture of a quilt, but enjoyed many of the traditional pieced and appliqued entries--many from Bonnie Hunter mysteries and patterns.  There were also some modern entries from our guild members.  I had a lot of fun in the boutique section, the CQA members are so organized, everything labeled and arranged so well, at discounted prices.  I hope they made lots of money.  

Except for the right bottom two FQ, these were all donated/castoff fabrics.  I also bought a small needlework frame.  I think the green  Thimbleberries yardage on the upper left will look great as a backing for a quilt I have in progress.  The ladybug print coordinates were all in different bins but I snatched them up as I found them, so cute. The two Kim Diehl FQ were purchased from a new vendor, Rag Doll, and we happily chatted about Kim Diehl love for a minute or two.  She also sells punchneedle kits and plans to set up an Instagram account for her business soon. 

During the show, Kathy was called up as a door prize winner--but handed me her winnings, a wool applique kit from Bits & Pieces.  Having another engagement for the afternoon, I left my sister at the show.  She called me later to tell me I had also won a door prize!  They allowed her to pick it up for me.  I was lucky to get it, as she coveted it. 

This is a Big-Mat Rotary Cutting Surface mat.  The surface is renewable and included a resurfacing tool.  It can also be rolled up for storage.   Curiously, I had recently purchased a small off-cut of this mat type while in Big Bear, as I had forgotten a cutting mat.  The mat information advises to only use sharp rotary cutter blades to avoid damaging the surface. 

Kathy's other surprise was that she bought a Longarm machine at the show!  It is an older model Pfaff Grand Quilter sold at a discounted price, 18" stitching opening and 10' long.  While I pictured her having to sleep under the thing to get it into her room, her landlord opted to put it in the Craft Room of her house, being nearly as excited as Kathy.  Yesterday we drove up to Santa Maria to get some lessons on the machine.  It has computerized quilting as well and does all the scaling for you.  I can see this being very useful.  It was a lot of information in a short time and I'm sure I didn't get most of it.  However, Kathy is undaunted and can't wait to have it in the house to play with.  Delivery is next week.  

Meanwhile, this past week I've been working on the House Block doll quilt. I had so much fun making these from my scrap and fat quarter bins and vow to make some for myself next.  The pattern was from the APQ Calendar from 2009.

The doll quilt's all finished now, but needs a label and to be mailed off this week before the May 1st deadline.  I'll share more next post.

Bonnie Hunter My Blue Heaven Workshop

Scrappy quilts are my favorite and Bonnie Hunter is a prolific scrap quilter.  Hers was the first quilt blog I ever learned about and I became a fan immediately of her scrap user system.  I had never heard of leader-enders until I visited her blog, and use them often now.  Bonnie is a generous teacher and has lots of free patterns, tips, and hints on her Quiltville website.

Although I am not a member of the closest local traditional guild, primarily because their meetings are on a weekday morning that I could never attend, I learned through dual members of my modern guild that  Bonnie Hunter was presenting a workshop of her My Blue Heaven quilt.  This date had been two years' wait!  Luckily after a number of emails and text messages to two different ladies, I was able to secure an open spot and took the day off work.  

Blue is a color that seldom shows up in my quilts so I substituted greens and purples to make a three color version I'll call My Lupine Heaven. 

 Lots and lots of greens and neutrals from stash got cut up into 2.5" strips.

Purples were purchased during the Shop Hop to add to the small amount in the stash.  Cutting, cutting, cutting late into the night., using my GO cutter strip die.  I was fortunate to have a set of never-before-opened Companion Angle and Easy Angle rulers which Bonnie recommended in the class supply list.  Assembling a kit of cutting tools, mat, sewing supplies, machine and cords and doublechecking everything had me amped up the night before such that I found myself sorting mail at 1:30 a.m. just to simmer down.  The drive next morning to the meeting place seemed to take forever, but I managed to arrive relatively early.

After getting set up and greeting some folks I knew, I was approached by a lovely lady who introduced herself as a reader of my blog. I was so surprised and pleased, and thought it sweet of her to say so. Thank you, Maile!

Bonnie had us playing in our scraps before too long and machines were humming.  She used my fabrics for one of the demos, and in between demos to two large groups she was everywhere, providing individual instruction, praise, and talking about her new Essential Triangle tool and selling her books.  

Here's my Lupine purples in the alternate block. 

After lunch there was some show and share of many "Bonnie" quilts and I shared my supersized Rick Rack Nines quilt top.  Later I showed Bonnie my Grandma's oldest UFO finish, a yo-yo quilt she started in 1934 and had her church quilt group tie to a backing in 1997.  Bonnie was pleased to know I use and display this quilt coverlet. 

Here are the two complete blocks I managed to finish, though I have pieces and parts for a dozen more, primarily due to using cut parts for leader-enders.  The Companion Angle and Easy Angle rulers got a workout, and I purchased Bonnie's Essential Triangle Ruler and her book, More Adventures with Leader Enders.  

It was wonderful to spend the day with fellow scrap quilt enthusiasts and learn tricks and tips from an expert.  Bonnie took lots of photos and had two slide shows here and here for the Camarillo Guild as she did a trunk show the next day.  My blocks--and my back while seated at my machine!--made one slide show.  The Rick Rack Nines quilt share is in the other.  I'm hoping Grandma's yo-yo coverlet will one day appear as the background to one of Bonnie's Quiltville Quotes!   I'm sure to continue playing in the scraps for many years to come and hope someday to take another Bonnie workshop. 

Camarillo Quilt Guild Show 2014

My sister Kathy and I spent a lovely several hours at the Camarillo Quilt Guild show on Saturday.  This local show is put on every other year.  This year there were more vendors than ever, and more quilts than ever.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

What a great block this is--an expanding star of some kind.  Loved it. 

Look how the 9 patch in the center bursts out.  The quilter carefully constructed the directional print all going the same way.  I managed not to get a photo of the quiltmaker, unfortunately.

 Intriguing take on the One Block Wonder.  Another terrific quilt.

 How nice that her husband was the instigator!

A favorite color in this traditional quilt. 

Beautiful big quilt, too. 

Hi Lani!  Love your quilt!  I met Lani a couple of years ago as she is a local reader of my blog.

How about this interesting version of Storm at Sea?

I really liked her fabric choices, which was a surprise since blue isn't a color I'm usually drawn too. It must be the Asian prints, those seem to attract my attention often :)

I think I've bought some of that dragonfly print before!

Another blue Asian quilt that I loved.  This one is called Falling Pagodas.  See the sashing?  It is not a print. 

The sashing is hand-embroidered with a feather stitch and about one bazillion french knots.  Amazing!  Really great to see so much variation and individuality on many of the quilts.  And then there was a little shopping...

These batik 1/2 to yard cuts will be used for a quilt for my sister in law who's having a big birthday in a few months.  Lots of additions will be made to this pile, however, before any cutting and sewing is done.

I was able to fulfill my main goal, which was to find some larger scale 1900's repros to add to the High Cotton quilt, and replenish the stash.  The Rusty Crow Quilt Shop booth fit the bill exactly--I've purchased from her before at the Long Beach IQF show (which has moved to Portland this year, dangit!).

The colors got a bit washed out in this photo but you can see the bigger scale of the prints against that smaller cheddar background, which is also destined for the High Cotton (Kim Diehl) quilt.  The Perle cotton was a nice find too--these are hand dyed and yummy in person. 

My last purchase of the day was in the silent auction area, where a large display of mini quilts on stands was available.  Unfortunately there were few bidders, so I was given the two minis I wanted without waiting for the end of the show.  After I'd paid the cashier and was about to put the minis in my bag, I realized one had a label--Made by Lani!!  Too funny that I liked her big quilt and her mini. My photos were terrible so no sharing today.  I'm pleased to support the quilters of the CQG and look forward to another show in a couple of years.

Last of the quilt eye-candy

Step right up folks, plenty of room for everyone to get a look!

This quilt had all the fabrics from Collections for a Cause and some of the other lines used in the Greenpiece BOM I am doing.  Also one of the fabrics in Erica's quilt.  I love all of them!

Isn't this optical illusion fantastic!

More pretty applique.  It looks like the quilter had a little trouble with the center flying goose on the bottom there...I'm sure that would be my problem too!

Absolutely gorgeous and complex medallion quilt.  I have seen this pattern somewhere--probably on the cover of a quilt magazine!

A 12 days of Christmas quilt, so clever and jaunty. 

Look at the milk spilling out of her buckets, and the piper!  The action in this quilt was great.

The pears were my favorite crackle fabric but you can't see it very well in this photo.  The color is off because the lighting was not very good in the fairgrounds building.

This was a beautiful small quilt in broderie perse.  I loved the cross blocks surrounding it and the flying geese.

The quilter stated that this was a class where they made 16 identical blocks and just by switching and turning them, got these fantastic layouts. Loved the colors she used.  Intriguing!

Friendship stars and spools, it looks like to me. Love the scrappy everything!

These were all William Morris prints.  So simple and effective.  Sorry my shot of the entire quilt was too blurry and poor to share.  This was a large quilt.

The Quilter's Psalm.  Hilarious!  I had not seen this before but got a chuckle out of it. Hopefully you can click on this to make it more readable.

Okay, that's all there is, there isn't any more!

Happy Mother's Day to all.  We'll be having our annual Mother's Day brunch here--I think there will be 21 of us, a regular sized gathering for our big family!

More Camarillo Quilt Guild eye-candy

First, on the sewing front, I have now put together eight blocks for Erica's quilt--that leaves 16 to go before the top can be assembled.  I'll show those sometime over the weekend probably.  They are so pretty!  Also I finally talked to my newly married friend who had not opened the wedding gift for three days but loved the zigzag quilt and said it was already in use as a throw on their bed.  So pleased they liked it!   Okay, now on to some more quilty goodness:

Erica said, "Hmm, I wonder why you like that one" (sarcastically of course!)

Okay, so its red and green (and cheddar!).  Of course I love it!

This is not applique but quilt crayon of some sort, with embroidery.  Each block was a little bigger than the size of a regular sheet of paper.

Fantastic, and I loved the sashing and framing.

Very pretty Lone Star.  This pattern is on my list of "someday" quilts.  Again with the piecing and applique.

Civil War prints, with excellent piecing work. 

Another piecing and applique mix I loved.  The yellow background was different and pretty.

There were several of these in the show, but this was my favorite. Says Spring, doesn't it?

The medallion has a 3D effect I liked. 

Someone tell me, is this reverse applique?  Very nicely done, anyway!

I loved the story of this double wedding ring quilt.  It was large and really beautifully sewn, quilted, and bound--a finish after 78 years!  That beats my Grandma's yo-yo coverlet, which has a label that says "Made 1934, Tied 1997".

I have one more batch of quilt pics to post, if you can stand it!