Michael Miller MQG Fabric Challenge

Last year I made several minis and used those opportunities to stretch my creative wings.  It was not easy and often I found myself coming up with an idea which then proved quite difficult to execute.  I have a half finished mini sitting in my sewing room for that very reason. I will finish it one day but suffice it to say, it reminded me to consider my skill in these bright ideas, too.

One mini I DID finish however was the one for the Modern Quilt Guild Fabric Challenge (see winners here).  Using the Petal Pinwheels line of fabric from Michael Miller and some solids from my stash,

I drafted a mini quilt design which I felt had a modern feel and highlighted the fabric.  After printing it, I modified the design just a little further.

Then I got to sewing.  I love foundation piecing and that is the technique I used.

I pieced the binding and the back with leftover bits of fabric.

I kept the quilting simple because I felt there was no need for anything more, the mini was busy enough and the fabrics were what needed to show.

I love how this came out.  I am hoping that this year, I can try this pattern with some other fabrics and if it works again, who knows? Maybe I'll share the pattern with you all (of course, that might require more organization than I actually have.)

Cheers!
Beck

Pink quilt- complete

I'm finally getting around to posting photos of this quilt. I had given you a teaser a while back but here it finally is.

This quilt started as a mystery challenge off my OST Yahoo Group. I had a bunch of fabric from my mom and decided to use some of it for the mystery. While I'm not a huge fan of pink, I love the way it came together.

At the same time this mystery started, an old friend of mine reached out for donations for a breast cancer walk. His wife (another old acquaintance) and he were walking in memory of her mom.

As I was working the mystery, I couldn't stop thinking about her mom (I also knew her through my friends) and their little daughter and as I stitched, it became more and more apparent to me where this quilt should go. I continued working on it and the idea hung into it strong so I reached out to Brian and asked him if he thought the quilt would be a nice gift for his wife and daughter or if it would bring painful memories. He confirmed it was a good idea.

Fast forward... 1 year later I am finally finished. Many other tasks and life got in the way and I wanted to quilt it well so preferred to practice on my kids' quilts before I loaded this one. As I quilted, memories of her mom, the few I had, floated in and out. Images of Liz and her daughter Ana, snuggled under the quilt and talking of grandma also floated in my head.

It became apparent to me this quilt was a labor of love - and not mine. I put care into this one but someone else was putting the love into it. I have no doubt Liz's mom was stitching in her heart and hugs through me. None at all.

I bound it, attached a label, sent a card explaining this journey and pray they can feel the love of mom/grandma in it.

This one, this one is special to me despite it's simplicity in design.

Hmm, now there's a peach twin size one of these (I did 2 at the same time) that I have to find a home for. One thing at a time.

This weekend will be about quilting

Aside from life, I have been plugging away in the quilting world. At my kids' football practices, I've found the perfect time to bind quilts.

This one

which is from before my blog days, is being bound now. I will provide a full write up on it once it's complete & washed. Then you can see my quilting pattern, also, which I L-O-V-E.

More recently, I finished quilting and it is waiting to be bound is this one.

I will not show a fully quilted shot of it yet, only leave you with this teaser.

This pink one has a home and every stitch has love and rememberences of a beautiful lady lost to breast cancer. When I get the label on, I'm going to make sure her daughter and grandaughter know who inspired this one as I worked on it as an OST mystery.

Finally, I'll be cutting the fabrics for this one today.

Baby Kyle was born on Aug. 8 and I still haven't decided if I'll send this ahead or wait until we have a "girls weekend visit" after the holidays but either way, I had best get it completed! It's designed by me but now I have to go do the not-so-fun part of figuring out sizes to cut the pieces. Wish me luck!

a little progress, a math question & a new boo-boo

A little progress: I finished sewing my strips & cutting my blocks for Old Red Barn's sew along. Next week we learn what to do to put them together, I assume it will be a rail fence type of piecing. I have 36, 12 1/4" blocks. That will make for a nice size lap quilt with or without borders. Unless something really bad happense in my piecing, I believe this pretty and soft floral will go to some worthy charity.

Now, my boo-boo is a 3" x 1/4" burn from my iron. I was moving fabric on the ironing board but failed to move the iron I had hovering out of the way. My left arm met the iron and I burned myself. DUH! Still, doesn't require anything but some aloe every now and then so no complaints.

Finally, my math question. Working on DD's quilt. She wants a print centered on the back with solid framing it all the way around. IF,

quilt top = 82"l x 50"w,
print for back = 42 1/2"l x 36 1/2"w,

and I want to sew length strips of solid first & width strips of solid last, I will need to cut,
from solid for back: 2, 42 1/2"l x 7 1/4"w and 2, 20 1/4"l x 50"w strips.

Is this math correct? Somehow, I always think I have it and then I screw it up.

2nd OST challenge block complete

This is the second block from my OST group challenge.

Here's the thing. Since I only have block pictures for all my blocks, I'm designing and measuring myself. This block gave me fits. The last block gave me fits. Between this and the hand piecing and the frogging and the re-piecing, I've grown very dissatisfied with hand piecing.

I know it's not the piecing that's the problem but it takes me longer to see errors and fix them and that's really discouraging. So, I've decided the rest of the blocks will be machine stitched but I since I will still have to figure out measurents and such, I'm still testing and working a new skill (or maybe I should say an old rusty one - MATH!)

While a bit off kilter and with a non-planned added border strip, here's the block. The first block can be seen here, if you'd like.

Cheers! Beck

The Flag. A new challenge I hope you join me.

In my blog browsing these last few days, I came across a nice little blog entitled "The Qulited Pomegranate."

The post last night was about the flag and a challenge issued to the readers. I was intrigued. As a matter of fact, I started getting ideas right away which is unusual for me. I commented I was in and mentioned I'd post to my blog a link.

I really hope you join and comment over in the Quilted Pomegranate you are in too. Challenge yourself in a very different way, with an abstract quilt!

Here's the post link.
http://quiltedpomegranate.blogspot.com/2009/03/thinking-about-challenge.html

Cheers! Becky

Tablerunners

I needed a break from quilting on the frame and from sewing the pineapple blocks so I broke my rule of "no new projects" and stepped up to face a challenge from the OST Yahoo group. Another color challenge to use a color you hate in a project. I chose, instead, a group of colors, pastel, that I tend to stay away from unless requested or required. :)

That said, the pastels I had in my stash were easter eggs and jelly beans. I figured I'd make a seasonal table runner. Since I also had clover fabric and St. Patrick's Day was arriving (at the time I decided to do this) I also decided to make it a reversible table runner. Easter on one side, St. Patrick's on the other.

I think I did well overall, but frankly, I want to brag about my mitered corners for a moment. Just look at these babies!!




Okay, now to the reversible runner itself...




Cheers!

Sewing, sewing, sewing...

This is the first block from the color challenge on OST. It is hand pieced, which was done without any instruction or real experience. Let my just tell you, that is NOT the way to go. I'm all for learning by trial and error, but I will never advocate that for learning to hand piece. The reason why is simple.

After you spend so much time piecing it, it's very disheartening to spend just as much time ripping it out again. And then doing the exact same thing over.

But then again, when you finally break the cycle and complete it, man, it feels good! Of course, that's how you get suckered into starting the process all over again with a new block.

So, like all else with quilting, proceed at your own risk.

the "Quilting Goddesses" and Grace are plotting against me!

Dear Readers,
Please forgive the break in regularly scheduled posts because at this time, I need to take a moment to plead with the Quilting Godesses out there. The same ones who helped me through the Dbl Wedding Ring quilt mess. While looking to the quilting tools in my sewing room, I plead,

"Please, please, please, oh Quilting Godesses, do not send me any more information or reminders that I'm doomed to do something scrappy this year. I get the message, I hear you loud and clear. Grace said there might be a challenge coming, I said I'd only consider it and you sent me all the notes on how to pull a scrappy quilt off. I hear you, I'm doing one this year. All I mean to ask is, could you at least let me focus on my late items now before tantalizing me with the possibility of a new and different challenge? Thank you for listening to my plea."

Thank you readers. I suppose you'd like to know what I'm talking about so here's the short version (is that possible with me?) You see, the online group I belong to is Yahoo's One Stitch at a Time or "OST." "Grace" is one of the moderators of the group and is the creator of the latest challenge I said I'd participate in, the color challenge. Anyway, in the process of chatting about that challenge, we started discussing scrappy quilts. I have a tentative like for scrappy quilts. Some I've seen are just horrid and others beautiful so clearly, it's not scrappy that's the issue, but putting it together and I understand that I, do not have the vision to create a scrappy quilt, yet. I'd been thinking someday (like 5-10 years from now!) I might try one. Well, Grace let it slip on purpose a new scrappy challenge might be coming up in the group.

Let it slip... on purpose. I had a little palpatation.

We ended the conversation with me being slightly open to the idea. I pick up yesterday's mail, the SAME day I have this dialog with Grace, and the magazing "Quilter's Newsletter" has arrived. For those of you who receive this magazine, you know, it's all about scrappy this month. Providing guidance on choosing colors, designing, etc.

Does anyone else think Grace and the Quilting Goddesses are in cohoots to thwart my little comfort cushion of not doing a scrappy for oh, the next 20 years?

New Quilt Challenge!

I wasn't going to post about this until AFTER it was complete. I wanted to look like I was sticking hard to working on my UFO's but well, I read someone else's blog regarding this challenge and just had to post a picture of my planned little quilt.

So, the challenge is 1 every 3 months this year we are to create 1 block. Take your first name and use one letter for the first letter of the block name. Use 3 other letters in your name for the colors. Repeat letters only after you've used all the rest up.

I decided I want to use this challenge to work on my hand piecing so I did not want applique or rounded edges, just straight stitching. Since these would be 4 different blocks and I wanted cohesion, I tried to pick blocks which were similar in scale to one of the other blocks as well as keep color theme tight. So, I'm choosing shades of reds, beiges and blues. Here's how they work out in my name.

B – Boston pavement

E – Egyptian blue

C – carmine

K -

Y - yuma

B – beige

E – endeavor
C – Crossword puzzle

K – Kenyan copper

Y -

B - burgandy

E - ecru

C – cerulean blue

K - King's Highway

Y -

B – black rose

E - Empire Star

C - cobalt

K – khaki

Y –

The finished quilt (a small wall hanging) should look something like this if I've done it correctly.

Please bear in mind, I had limited resources with my crayola crayon colors. :)

BAD SIL & BROTHER

This post is written solely for one purpose. To tell on my brother and sister-in-law. The last holders of the Tornado. The ones who tried to forward it without following the "rules." Alas, they were unable. The karma of the Tornado thwarted them and when they took it down from it's hanging perch a 2nd time, they were informed they were going to be mentioned specially in this blog.

So here you have it.

Rick, Karen, the "rule" is HUNG in a prominent place in your home for 1 week before you can banish it to another home. Deal with it.

Love you! B

Quilt mystery- All in the color family

I am a gluten for punishment. SOMEONE STOP ME!

I am participating in a mystery challenge from one of my message boards (the same board which led me to creat the NY Tornado).

Where's my head? I don't have time, but I see a fun challenge to do for no better reason than to push out some of my stash fabric and practice my skills. For me, only me, no one else. So, no pressure, right?

HA! There's the time pressure... what is the matter with me? You'd think I dont' have anything else to do...

Stand by, I'll let you know how it turns out.

NY Tornado - Part 3

I have bitten the bullet, I'm the first to hang the NY Tornado and now it's time to let it spin along. See the photo below, this is the view of the halls right as you walk in the front door. It's in a prominent place...

I hope many of you who receive it do come along and post a comment to this post letting us all know it's arrived and moved on.

Now, just for you readers, a copy of the note going along with the NY Tornado.

"CONGRATULATIONS!

The NY Tornado has touched down and now you have to handle the aftermath but first, you must know the Tornado has been sent to you by someone who loves you dearly and wanted you to experience it, just as they had. Here’s what you must do to be able to clean up after this particular Tornado.

This Tornado must hang in your home, in a conspicuous location for at least one week (longer if you desire). When you take the Tornado down, sigh the back with the pen provided. Include your first name, city and state. Last name or other family member names are optional. Next, mail the NY Tornado on to a loved one you know will be as grateful as you were to receive such a surprise or, if and when possible, simply hang this Tornado in the home of your loved one. (Please, no holes in the walls, simply remove a picture and use the nail already created.)

Once the NY Tornado is on its way or has been hung elsewhere, please post a comment to this blog, http://sarcasticquilter.blogspot.com/, or send an email to me at _X_ and I will post the notice of where it was and has gone to. This should help us all keep track of where the Tornado has last been spotted touching down. We will share the love and beauty of the NY Tornado as long as possible and with as many as possible.

For the story behind this quiltlet, and the reason for its journey, please read the back of this paper. Thank you for your humor and participation!

Kindest Regards, B (a.k.a., the Sarcastic Quilter)
The NY Tornado Quiltlet’s abbreviated story:This quiltlet was created as a result of a quilting challenge. The challenge was to use specific NY Beauty block patterns and an ugly fabric you had in your stash. The challenge was called “Beauty and the Beast” and the object was to use your ugly fabric in a large area of the block but to disguise it in any way possible using the pattern and other fabrics. The rest of this story is posted on my blog but in short, I am proud I did exactly what I was supposed to do. The ugly fabric is the off white fabric with colored clouds. However, I cannot get past feeling this quiltlet is still ugly and sitting with family, I wondered aloud what I should do with it now that it was complete. A joke started about leaving it in someone’s home but that’s limited to those few who knew the quiltlet’s story. Then it made sense. Share this quiltlet and its story with many. Too much work went in it to throw it away but no one really wants to keep it (and really, if the quilter feels like that, is it a no wonder others do?) Since it looked like a tornado ripping apart city skyscrapers to me, I named it the NY Tornado and I am watching it spin out of my home and to each and every one of you. I hope it doesn’t get stuck in one location too long and I really hope you enjoy passing along this proverbial fruitcake to the next lucky recipient as much as I enjoy seeing this get passed on to you."

Quilting Challenges -part 2. The Beauty and the "Beast"; the NY Tornado

The challenge I previously wrote of is over. I did not receive the most votes as a Beauty but I did not win "dis"-honorable mention either. Some people actually voted for my quiltlet putting me somewhere in the middle of all entries for a job well done. I'm surprised but do appreciate their votes.

My accidental design looks a little more purposeful now and I need to let you all know, it has a name. My ugly fabric (the clouds in the background near the corners) has led to the creation of the "NY Tornado." What can I say? It looks like a tornado ripping apart a NY skyscraper to me.

My family, who's been a tremendous source of humor, encouragement and sarcasm throughout this challanged must be thanked at this time. I may have lost the desire to keep going if it weren't for the constant questions, "Is it done yet? Is it still ugly?" The answer now is, "Yes and yes." The final question, "what are you going to do with it?" led to a few ideas.

The first, my sister's dog needed a new pillow. Hmm, just didn't seem right for all the hard work.

Next, hang it above my sewing machine in my sewing room as my new "quilt of shame" to remind me how bad a buying whim for fabric really can get. No, dismissed. The NY Tornado is too small for the space and my other quilt of shame still has too many helpful reminders to take it down. Reminders like:

- BASTE when quilting.
- Binding should not have thread showing through it on the front!
- Squaring up doesn't mean quilt first then try to straighten edges later.
- SID really means stitching IN the ditch, not wavy lines around the ditch.
- Pulling the quilt through the machine results in puckers and uneven stitches.

(Yes, for those of you wondering, it really is that bad. At least color choice is okay but still, it servces me well to remember there is something to be said for following instructions.)

Back to the NY Tornado, another idea. Just leave it in someone's house. Aha! Now we are on to something! Hmm, leaving it where they can see it might just lead to their being able to hide it in my own suitcase when I go home (my family is a couple hours away from me.) If I hang it for them to find, that's a great joke but I don't yet have the heart to see my work just thrown out, no matter how ugly we all think it is.

Wait, let me back up here. We do still think it's ugly but this is a relative term. My sister, sister's friend, mother and father (the primary players in the term "we" being used throughout this post) all believe I did accomplish making something out of the ugly. It would not suit the taste of anyone we know, but that is half the fun of the final version of what I've decided to do with the NY Tornado. Amid cocktails (maybe too many?) at mom's and dad's, we decided the Tornado needed to touch down in as many homes as possible, especially in our family! Could we get it to V's dad in CA? Oh, that would be funny? And Aunt S, the look on her face when she sees this! How about J in FL? lol He might wonder what we've all been smoking and if we smuggled any in the NY Tornado for him.

Yes, the plan has been hatched and with everyone's good humor, will be a success. The NY Tornado is going on tour.

A thank you to the host of this challenge and the creator of the NY Beauty Block patterns available to us participants for use in this challenge. Challenge is the most appropriate word and despite my lackluster feelings about how the NY Tornado looks (fabric choice-wise), I'm thrilled with the final product.
Stay tuned for Part 3 to read how the NY Tornado may blow into your home next!

Quilting challenges

Alright, let's talk about "quilting challenges." I belong to a few online quilt groups through Yahoo. Since I don't have the availability or desire to participate in an actual guild right now, these online groups are a wonderful place to connect to others more experienced and just learning the art of quilting and piecing.

Often, there are various block swaps and challenges posted for the group's entertainment and education. For many reasons, I've avoided all of these but recently, I chose to join in. The challenge: pick an ugly fabric from your stash and using a set of pre-chosen block designs, make it look beautiful in a 4-block quiltlet.

I decided this challenge was for me. I had an ugly fabric. I think I may have inhaled some glue accidentally somewhere at Joann's because I have no other explanation for why I purchased it.

Also, I knew this WOULD challenge me to take more risk in choosing coordinating fabrics and planning an overall design. It would also, as I've come to find out, teach me about the entire process of piecing from start to border. More about that later. Lastly, I knew this was my chance to practice paper-piecing and curved-piecing. Neither of which I've really ever had any success with before. So, I took a photo of my ugly fabric and joined.

It took me 3 weeks to figure out what other fabrics I could use. I tried many, I even enlisted my mother and friend to help. Kudos to mom, she was a trooper and thanks to my dad who bore with me and mom laying fabrics out on the living room floor and talking over his news channels to figure the best ones. I sewed the blocks all up, still believing this to be the ugliest thing I've ever created.

I sewed the four blocks together without sashing and HATED them. Since I had a couple errors in my curved piecing, I had to square the blocks up and in doing so, I ended up shaving off some of the paper- pieced triangles. When those blocks were combined together, it made for uneven seams and incomplete triangles. As inexperienced as I am, I knew I could not hide these with quilting. I had to figure something out. I took apart the 4 blocks.

I searched the internet for ideas beyond just straight vertical and horizontal inner sashes and saw blocks set at an angle. I don't yet know if this is "legal" in the challenge, but I adopted this idea and created long triangles to add to the sides of my blocks. It worked and started to give my blocks new dimension. I was beginning to have hope this wouldn't be so bad after all.

Okay, sewed up the newly built blocks into a quiltlet but something was wrong. When I drafted my quiltlet and reviewed the draft, my eye was drawn around the quilt by the design and colors. However, once sewn, my eye jumped from one place to another and the quiltlet coloer was all jumbled and confusing. After an evening staring at the quiltlet and my drafted version, I figured out what I did, the triangles were on the wrong sides of the blocks. I couldn't leave it that way so I took apart the quiltlet again, took the long triangles off the blocks, repositioned the triangles, resewed them and then resewed the blocks together. Finally, my quiltlet was taking shape and directed my eye like it was supposed to.

Still ugly, though. There's just no escaping that.

Okay, so next I "audition" a couple border ideas and decide a simple, solid color is the way to go. My, oh my, it makes a bunch of difference. This quiltlet is not looking quite as ugly.

Well, maybe I'm speaking too soon.

At this point, I've only got the quilting left and then the binding. One week to finish so I'm trying to get myself away from "pondering" and to start "doing." However, I felt compelled, after putting on the border, to post here and let you all know, if you are like me and cannot visualize a finished product but can only visualize a part at a time, then join small challenges like this. It doesn't necessarily change the process of doing one part, then deciding the next part based on what the first looks like and so on but it HAS taught me to expand my mental zone to ideas and colors I would normally overlook. It has also taught me that sometimes, when I only have a piece of the puzzle complete, it may not be as pretty as the finished product so I should keep going and not get discouraged.

I'll post photos later, once the challenge is complete and let you know if I won "dis"honorable mention for ugliest quiltlet. It was decided to add that to the challenge because while some folks are able to make their ugly fabric beautiful, some of us aren't. All I can say, though, is I'm proud I'm sticking with this and I am having fun through it all and that may even be because I can't make this stinker look pretty. -wink-