Going the wrong direction, going to Graduation, and going to HMQS.

I am supposed to be reducing my pile of little tops. That was my goal as this year began, and I had been doing quite well. But the past couple of weeks has seen me add 4 more flimsies to the pile. You've seen the first three in recent posts. This is number four.

This quilt was assembled with gifts from friends. Most of the HSTs (which finish at 1") were from a bag of leftover small quilt parts that a friend gave me, and the border fabric was a gift from a blog friend, after I had admired it on her blog.

I love how it worked out. I think this fabric is the perfect border for the little HSTs. My thanks to Kim (no blog) for the HSTs, and Pat (Amity Quilter blog) for the border fabric. Now to decide how to quilt it!

It was a busy weekend. Friday DH and I were in attendance when our oldest son (child #3) received his Master's Degree.

It was just after I began this blog five years ago that he received his Bachelor's Degree. Since then his hair is longer, mine is greyer, and DH's hasn't changed. He never ages.

DH and I spent Saturday in the Salt Lake City area, about 90 minutes south of home. He dropped me off at the South Town Expo Center and I attended the Home Machine Quilting Show, while he did some test driving of cars.

The place was humming with activity. I didn't take any classes this year, but it was very fun to meet up with wonderful quilters, see beautiful quilts in the show, and shop some great vendors!

The Doans, of Missouri Star Quilt Company. Such genuine, down-to-earth people. A real treat to visit with them.

Visited Sandra Starley (Textile Time Travels blog), quilt appraiser, who always has a booth of yummy vintage goodies to peruse. I enjoyed studying the red fabrics in that signature quilt on the back wall.

Someday I would love to see Sandra's entire collection of quilts, but I don't know if that is even possible. Every time I see her there are "new" vintage quilts in her possession.

  
Irena Bluhm had a few of her beautifully painted quilts on display in her booth. She was very sweet to pose for me.

Jenny Pedigo, of Quick Curve Ruler fame, standing by her most popular quilt design. She is a very gracious lady, and an amazing quilter. Even though I am not a modern quilter, I have learned many quilting tips and been inspired by her beautiful designs on her blogs (Sew Kind Of Wonderful and Jenny's Doodling Needle).

This was the first time Primitive Gatherings has been to this show. I was excited. My friend, Jami, happened to have dropped by to shop when Jake agreed to a photo for my blog. This was my first stop in the morning and my last stop before I went out to catch my ride home. They received the bulk of my HMQS budget.
Jake and Amy were very helpful and patient with me. Thanks for coming to Utah!

I saw this sweet machine being used to demonstrate a product in a booth, and I wished I could bring it home with me. There seemed to be a purple glow coming from the booth that I couldn't resist.



After spending the bulk of my time in the vendor mall with my list of items to find, I took a quick trip through the quilt show. 

This was the top award winning quilt.

Read the description and then click on some of the small photos below to get a feel for it. The background appeared to be printed or painted. The buildings seemed to be printed on fabric and attached to the quilt. The people and animals were pretty incredible.

This quilt caught my eye. Love the colors and design. It was very well made.

Here we have  the entire selection of minis entered in the show.

These are the same quilts from the other end of the row. You can see the blue ribbon hanging from the top prize winner in this category.

I was a bit surprised by the selection, but I must admit that the quilting lines were so straight, and evenly spaced, and the use of color play in the threads was a nice visual addition.

It was a long day and I was happy to spend a few minutes relaxing at home that evening with my newest long-term project. This is a quilt I posted about years ago. I designed it for my youngest son as a memory quilt from his time as an LDS missionary in Brazil. Everything has meaning to his experiences there. He has been home almost 7 years, so it is about time I got this going.

I finally had a longarm friend baste it for me last month so I could get started on the hand quilting. Expect this to be with me for a year or two. I am not the fastest hand quilter on the block and my back doesn't allow me to spend too much time on it at once. 

Had a busy, full Mother's Day with family gathered for dinner, and Skyping with those too far away. I'm exhausted, but fulfilled after a jam-packed weekend, and ready to tackle another week. 

BTW, my 5 year blog anniversary is coming up very soon. Stay tuned. : )

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Itty Bitty Eights Rulers put to the test!

By now you surely know that I love making minis, right?

 

So when Lisa Bongean collaborated with Creative Grids to come up with these rulers specifically for making mini quilts I was thrilled!

Left to right, Itty-Bitty Eights 3"x7" and Itty-Bitty Eights 6" (Click for link to order)

Honestly, after finally completing the flimsy for my mini version of Lisa's APQ SAL Burgoyne Surrounded quilt, I was about ready to throw my OmniGrid rulers out the window. I had become so frustrated, trying to cut very precise little pieces with thick lines that were solid in too many places. To top it off, no matter what I apply to the back of my rulers, they slide at the most inconvenient times. And if you put anything on the back that adds any height you are shooting yourself in the foot as far as accurate cutting is concerned.

I had already decided that I was going to be replacing my OmniGrid rulers with Creative Grids when I read Lisa's post here. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the rulers and planned to order them after the next payday. But Lisa beat me to the punch and had a set sent to me so that I could try them and share my experience and opinions. Let me say up front, I am delighted!

Look at the markings--everything is marked clearly, down to every eighth of an inch.

 The lines are narrow and dashed all the way along. So easy to line up on the edge of the fabric or a seam line to get a precise cut.

I finally got play time and have experimented with some of Lisa's own patterns for small quilts.

 Making 1 1/2 inch HSTs and pinwheels, I made a very small version of the Primitive Gatherings pattern "Pinwheel Garden". Excuse the fact that I made my pinwheels rather hurriedly (no pinning), so the centers don't match well, but the photos show how clearly you can see to line up your cuts. Lisa recommends foundation piecing for this quilt, but I used the "make large, cut smaller" technique to give the rulers a good test.

They passed the test so well that I have actually cut HSTs to make the whole quilt in scrappy CW blues and browns.

I decided to give the "Broken Dishes" pattern a try, but this time I thought I'd take it up a notch (or would it be down?) by making the units half the size the pattern indicates. Instead of finishing at 2", those little Broken Dishes blocks finish at 1".

 I got everything cut and then began sewing together the broken dishes blocks.

 

The ruler markings made squaring up these little blocks so easy. I did not "cut large" on these blocks, but had no trouble coming out with perfect little blocks. You can see I was practically just trimming off fuzz when I squared them.

 

 After completing enough broken dishes for three rows, I decided to stitch those rows together and move on to another test of the rulers.

 Here are the finished three rows up against one of the Itty-Bitty Eight Rulers. I think it is fun to see how much mini quilts shrink when sewn together.

Next I wanted to test how well things would come together when using one of the less common measurements. I pulled out some thrift store shirt scraps and decided to pretend that the scraps were only 7/8", so I would need to make my cuts accordingly.

 I got lazy about taking photos during this process. Above you see the cut squares compared to my rotary cutter. Below you see the basket in my hand. It will finish at 1 3/4". The 7/8" markings were not hard to work with at all.

I did try one other project, but took no photos of the process. When I made  my mini Burgoyne Surrounded, the most maddening thing in the whole process was the little 9-patch blocks that finish at 3/4". I was having such a hard time getting good results with the OmniGrid rulers, so I had to try a few tiny 9-patch blocks with these rulers. You can see the little double 9-patch block at the bottom of this photo. It isn't laying flat so it looks wonky, but I was really pleased with how well the 9-patches turned out. That block will finish at 2 1/4".

This photo shows all of my "test projects" together, with the rulers. I haven't had much sewing time lately, so this has taken longer than I care to admit. But I can't wait to finish up the broken dishes, and tackle my CW blue & brown version of the pinwheel quilt.

I can highly recommend the Itty-Bitty Eights to anyone who makes minis, or even those of you who make larger quilts that have many smaller parts in the construction. The 6" square is probably the one I used the most, but when I was making the 9-patch blocks by sewing strips, the 3"x7" was very handy. My only wish was that the 3"x7" would have had more markings across the width of the ruler, as the square does. Other than that, no complaints. The textured dots and edges held onto the fabric well. It wasn't until I was writing this post that I realized I hadn't had any slipping problems with any of these projects. Many thanks to Lisa and Creative Grids for a job well done!

Next week is the 4th anniversary of my blog. I'll have to celebrate somehow. : )
Until then,
Janet O.

A Primitive Gathering

I spent a very fun day in a neighboring valley being instructed in all things wool by none other than Lisa Bongean, of Primitive Gatherings. Some of you are smirking now, I'm sure, because I've often  said I would never do wool. What can I say--Lisa designs the most gorgeous and whimsical wool applique patterns, like the one below. I'm hooked (okay, Julie, you can say, "I told you so!", and Karen, I know you are probably smiling to yourself).

This is the fun snowman we stitched today.

It isn't really this dark. I took the photo without a flash because it washed out the details. And we started on this block of stitched words. My goodness, I haven't done embroidery stitches in decades!











The snowman quilt hanging here behind Lisa is the pattern we were using. It also comes in a smaller version, which is one of the kits I have on order. I don't have a wall big enough to hang the larger version.

 The class was a beehive of activity all day.

I didn't get a photo of the mini flower quilt that I also ordered. How did I miss that? Well, Friday night is a dinner and trunk show, so hopefully I will get a photo of it then. It is incredible and I don't know what makes me think I can do it. : )
I did bring home these, because I don't have enough projects and I have all the time in the world.

I attended with a sweet new friend and you can see the two of us here with Lisa at the end of the day.

Lisa is so real and down to earth. What a delight! I enjoyed her no-nonsense approach, her sense of humor, and her teaching methods. The speed with which this woman can do the blanket stitch boggles my mind.
We had the pleasure of her company at our lunch table and enjoyed getting to know her a little bit more.

You can see Lisa's post about the day here. You may recognize a face or two. : )

More to come after the trunk show!
Janet O.