Quilt Away 2010

Retreat was fabulous. I sewed, slept, shopped, walked the beach, hiked the headlands, shopped some more, eat, laughed, sewed some more and sat in the quiet of my room enjoying the view of Noyo harbor. I was glad to go; March is a great month on the coast. Click any image to enlarge.

Harbor Lite Lodge, Fort Bragg, CA


Rhododendrons







View from my room


North Harbor Trading Company


Morning Surf


Heading out for the day's catch


Martha & Candace



Dottie


Bethany

More tomorrow.

Grapevine Quilters Show 2010

After the miniatures at guild, and before going on retreat, I attended the LQG's annual show. Frank and I went and he was my willing photographer. He does such a nice job. Click any image to enlarge.

It was difficult to get a picture of this lovely little wall hanging, there was almost always a group around it! The colors, the detail and the little hidden surprises in this quilt were wonderful!

close up

I'm sorry I didn't get the name of this one but I call it Pineapples and Poppies. :)

A Piece o' Cake design by H White


Dear Jane by B Hook


Country Hearts by L McCallum


By the Light of the Moon by B Hook


Sampler on Point by K Sechrest

Miniature Quilt Show

Miniature quilts that is, not miniature show. :) Last month's guest speaker at guild was Helen Hardwick. I got so inspired! Click any image to enlarge.

Tree of Life


Devil in the Blue Dress (Devil's Claw)


Seaside Sampler


Friendship Star


Pineapple with print border


Sew a Row


Jacobs Ladder


Hunters Star


Sampler



Goose in the Pond


Broiderie Perse


Sampler

Sawtooth Star on point

Whole cloth, machine quilted

Lady of the Lake

Our guild is called Ladies of the Lake. Each year we make the out going president Lady of the Lake quilt blocks as a thank you. I made mine the first night I was at retreat.

I've made this block for three other presidents. I love the positive-negative interplay of colors; but every time I make it I do it wrong at least once. It's so easy to reverse one hst or another. Practice makes perfect.

The Road to Retreat

Great drive over the grade to the coast; I could feel the stress shrugging off. Just a quick post to share photos from along the road.

Pillowcases

They're fun, they're easy and such a great stash buster! I've been making pillowcases for the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge. If your interested, the site has all the information and free patterns from simple to complex; though how complex can a pillowcase really be?

The print on these doesn't show well in the photo, but it's cute birdhouses. I thought these might brighten some child's life. I know making them brightened mine.

Leaving for a four day quilt retreat to the coast tomorrow! Makin' my list and packing my bags. I don't care if it rains, blows or snows, it'll be great!

Slow and Steady

I've been working on the 5" Ocean Wave blocks, perfecting the alternate block that continues to come out anywhere from 4 7/8" to 5 1/8". ARGH! I changed to a thinner thread, I switched machines, I redrafted. It continues to baffle me. Tonight I'm going to cut the base triangles with the straight grain along the bottom edge, see if that makes any difference. It's hard to get a good photo of it, the colors are actually 1930's pastels. You can tell by the links I've been working on this for awhile, well... off and on until this month when it's been more on than off. Switching to the featherweight has made all the difference, now piecing these blocks is an absolute *dream*. The Janome just can not handle seam allowances more than 4 layers thick, it jogs *around* them! I had to rip and redo over and over; with the featherweight, straight as an arrow, spot on, first time.

I have a whole *box* of fabric pulled together for this project, mostly from stash, I don't *need* anymore, but I was delighted by this gift of a Bali Pop pack from my SIL recently. Finally opened them and *hooray* some of them are the perfect shade.

I washed them in the dish pan. Some people say batiks don't bleed, they've been boiled after all. But the water was gun metal gray. Since the background color is white-white I'm glad I washed 'em.

Back to the piecing!

Valentine Mini

I saw a patched heart block on Jeannie's blog and that got me to thinking. I wanted to make a double heart mini as a Valentine for my DH.

I drew a few sketches on graph paper, overlapping the hearts one square, two or three? Once I got it the way I liked it I went to my box of 1-1/2" squares and laid them out on gridded fusible interfacing; it was 9 inches high by 12 inches wide.

I was just winging it, having fun and making decisions as I went. As I laid it out I found I needed some HSTs to shape the heart, so I pieced those.

Once it was laid out I fused the squares in place using a pressing sheet, that kept the fusible from getting on the iron.

Then I folded on the lines and sewed all the vertical seams at a half inch, trimming each to a quarter inch as I went.

Next I sewed all the horizontal seams. I wanted a mini and sewing half inch seams made working with it easier than a lot of *little* pieces, it also created half inch finished squares. It was adorable and I was having a blast!

I thought it would be cute framed under glass to hang on the wall but I hadn't really planned ahead and didn't know if I'd need a custom mat and frame. So when I went to Michael's Crafts and found it fit perfectly in a 3 x 5 mat and a 5 x 7 frame I was pysched! I had envisioned a red frame and this cherry wood look was perfect.

click to enlarge

I gave it to Frank on Saturday. At first he thought it was a picture of a tile mosiac, but once he saw it in better light the appreciation showed on his face, the *wow* factor. I can't tell you how pleased I am with the whole thing. :)

Doll Quilt

I finished another one patch doll quilt. Some of this was hand pieced while I was recovering from my accident.

click to enlarge

I also tried the big stitch quilting, something I've wanted to experiment with. I used six strands of DMC embroidery floss and a sharp embroidery needle. It was fun! The main thing I noticed was that I had a hard time keeping the stitches *small* enough.