June Update

Ahhh, summer school is over and the surface-of-the-sun-hot temperatures have arrived. In between swim sessions at the local pool, I have been in my sewing room. (The city pool is open for a few hours in the early afternoon and again from 7-9 pm...late bedtime means a quiet morning for mommy!)

I finished the Reeds quilt. I won these blocks in exchange (see the Block Lotto button to the right) and decided to do a color gradient layout based on the white-grey-black background prints.
I had a bright floral fabric in my stash that worked for the back.
And I used a simple wavy frond quilting design, somewhat following the piecing.

Of course, the major focus has to be the Arizona Centennial project. Entry forms for the "100 years, 100 Quilts" were due this week, so I mailed mine in with fingers crossed. I laid out all the squares in their final position, so it looks like a finished quilt. I plan to add a plain border when the center is done, and I have grand plans for the quilting! Stay tuned...

Flag Progress

Finished the bottom blue section! The first picture is 27 rows of 50 squares which is (quick, mental math) 1350 squares - only 650 to go...So, I laid out the yellow and red rays. When you only use 3-5 squares of each fat quarter, you need LOTS of fabric. Donations are welcomed...I have lots of scraps to trade if you can help out.

As my "leader ender" project, I dug out some blocks that I won in an exchange last summer.
This was a fun wonky block called Reeds. I couldn't decide on sashing, so they are just sewn together and I have some ideas for fun quilting designs. I love summer when I can spend hours at the machine!

School's out for summer!

Congratulations to the Class of 2011! Time flies when you are getting old. I watch some of the kids walk across the stage to get their diplomas and I think "Already? You were just in my freshman Algebra class last year!" It was a wild and crazy school year and I'm sure I'm not alone in being ready to move on.

I have been adding Project Spectrum photos to my Tumblr blog (andiquilts.tumblr.com) but here are a few more reds:Yummy frosted sugar cookies (storebought) and a paper-pieced heart.

Red Hot in May

I'm going to play along with Project Spectrum 5. You can read about it here. it started out in the knitting-blogosphere as a way to organize projects for a year, following the colors of the rainbow. Lolly (the organizer) has set up a blog in tumblr (new to me, but I created an account there too) as well as on Revelry and Facebook.

This year, the project will run from May - November, with the "technical" colors red, blue and green, along with their dditives, pink, aqua and yellow. Each participant interprets the project differently. For me, it will be an exercise in awareness...I read about PS5 on Friday, and all weekend I have been noticing the red things in my environment!

For instance: red scraps of fabric on my cutting table.
A red trash bucket:
And my favorite girl in a red dress:

Centennial Update

Almost halfway on the Arizona Flag centennial project! 900 squares done, 1112 to go. I fashioned a design wall by using a piece of batting and some push pins so I can audition the fabrics. I am trying to do several four-patches each day. In a perfect world, the top will be done in June and I can quilt it during my summer vacation. We all know how "people plan and God laughs," so stay tuned for progress reports!

My "leader ender" project has been Bonnie Hunter's Boxy Stars. (Leader Ender: something to feed through the machine while chain piecing, hopefully to eliminate thread tails and waste when you finish a set of blocks for your main project.) I made a version of this quilt about a year ago, but this time I think I will add sashing between the blocks.
Bonnie typically makes scrappy quilts, but I like to control the color palette a bit more. I started with a rainbow selection of 2.5-inch strips. I need to work on the border design to bring it up to Quilt-of-Valor size (about 60x72), so I'm going to play in Electric Quilt.

New Toys

Hubby didn't get me this for Christmas because he wanted me to pick out exactly what I wanted. Taxes look good so I splurged...An iPad! It's the original model, at a nice discount price. Now to figure out all the apps!
Hubby now "owns" the Kindle from under the Christmas tree, but he doesn't have a fancy cover... yet.

Stars

Quilts of Valor needed some donation blocks, so these will be in the mail tomorrow, on their way to the Dallas Quilt Show for people to sign. The blocks will eventually be made into a quilt to comfort one of our returning soldiers.

Completely unrelated, Kendra has a new fascination with my camera. She's actually pretty good! First is her favorite stuffed animal, Monkey Dog:
Then Mommy...
And one of our cats...
and Daddy!

New Project!

I cut some blue squares for the Centennial project, and then decided I needed some instant gratification. I pulled out a roll of 2.5" strips that I bought last summer, and started cutting for:
Boxy Stars, a Bonnie Hunter pattern. I like to make scrappy stars in rainbow colors. I need to do some quick math and then supplement from my stash because I'm planning this to eventually be a Quilt of Valor, and I want a 4 by 5 layout.

As I was sewing, I had the thought that this is one of the few times I have repeated a pattern! First, I was thinking it was the ONLY time I repeated, but then I realized I have made several Sudoku quilts. Those are such fun to plan! And, I've got plans to repeat another old favorite as a class sample...someday, when I get the sample done and have time to approach my LQS and get on their schedule, LOL. My brother's opinion comes to mind...he never re-reads a book since there are so many great books out there. What do you think - repeat a fun pattern or find something new and exciting?

String Hearts

Here is the Centennial Project...700 squares put together, only 1312 more! Please contact me if you have any red, yellow or blue scraps that you are willing to donate.

February's Block Lotto Pattern is a Heart Block made from scrappy "strings." It is fun pulling random pieces together.

I goofed on the size for the first one, so I repeated the process, paying more attention to the directions!
I have a heart and a "bonus" block. This heart block is too small to enter in the lotto, so I'm working on another one. Third time's a charm, right?!? These strings would be a great leader/ender project, and there is a whole group dedicated to making string quilts for charity (google Heartstrings). They are definitely addictive.
Some things I noticed...
1. use big pieces to start the string piece, because most of it gets chopped off when making the heart.
2. I have a LOT of dotty fabric!
3. Strings should be between 1-2 inches wide.

Checking the numbers

I decided to work on my Arizona Centennial Quilt. I broke out the seam ripper today and switched the lighter blue section so that it was next to the gold instead of having a few darker fabrics create a line in the blue area on the left (refer to last post). You can barely see the glint of a pin marking the spot where I have an open seam to hand-stitch.
The process I am using is to lay out pieces according to my sketch......then carry them over to my machine and sew the groups together. I have been working from the center out. The top photo shows the center star, and I have been working out to the edges from there. It was easy to get the blue sections done just by laying out the correct number of pieces and squinting to check color placement. The red and yellow rays take more concentration, and I need to shop for more fabric - or do a better job begging people to share their scraps!!
Then I started counting squares on my sketch. The design is 40x50, and I will add 12 pieces in the border so that it matches the 2012 Centennial year for Arizona statehood. The center gold star was 14 inches square, and I am almost done with taking that out to the edge, so I will have 14x50 finished, which equals 700 squares! My twisted mind initially rounded that up to "almost halfway" - why yes, I am an optimist, LOL - and then I realized it's only 35% complete. I need to get my butt in gear. I'll work on the bottom first (650 blue squares) then the rays of red and yellow. I need 330 red and 320 yellow. By the way, I am working with 1.5 inch pieces.
Very soon after starting this project, I gave up on the idea of a true charm quilt where all the fabrics are different. I do want this finished for the Centennial celebration - my deadline is an August contest entry date. I've been purchasing fat quarters, but only cutting a few pieces from each. I started with 3-5 squares of any one fabric, but considering the deadline, I may need to double or triple that number. Even at that, I will need 20-30 fabrics in each color. Like it's that difficult to talk me into a shopping trip...

Lone Star Class

At Quilting in the Desert this week, I took "Lone Star Sparkler" taught by Helen Young Frost. (pictured here during her show and tell).

I showed up for class with a variety of fabric...

And chose these three for my first star:

Here are the pieces for the star points (mine on the left, a classmate's at the top is actually green with purple accent fabric, and my friend's earth tones on the right).

Jeanne and I at the end of the day! We both like to finish as much as possible in class, so we stayed in and sewed during lunch.

And my first stars! You can see I have a problem with the blue star, the red fabric is very rippled. Jeanne's solution is to rip it our and applique the star onto the background, but I think that A-word is nasty! I'm going to email the teacher and see what she suggests.

Since I had some extra time and fabric, I pieced an orange and green star, but it's just pinned to the background. I might try the background again, but I am nervous about screwing it up again! I thought I did a careful job measuring, cutting and pinning...wish me luck on the next attempt.

Sunny Day

This is why people suffer through 120 degrees in the summer...to enjoy 70 degrees in January.  I love living in Phoenix Arizona!  And I love my variegated rose bush, lovely pinks and yellows.  We had a few frosty evenings in December, so everything is looking a little ragged until the gardener (hubby) goes to work.
I was going to tease you even more with pictures of the luscious tangelos in another corner of our yard, but the battery in my camera died.  oops!  For anyone unfamiliar with tangelos, they are a citrus, I think a cross between oranges and tangerines, with fewer seeds.  Yummy!!

Sunday Sewing

While everyone was napping, I cut more 1.5 inch squares for my Centennial Postage Stamp quilt, and started work on the left half.

Here is what I have so far...I'm not liking the darker "stripe" between the star and the left-hand blue section, so there may be some ripping soon.  I knew that would be a possibility when I began sewing before I had all my fabrics laid out!  I tried to keep lights near the center, but I forgot that the whole section was the center of the quilt!

 

More quilting fun this week - I checked in today for Quilt Camp in the Desert. 

 

I can only take one day off from work, so I decided to take a Lone Star class with Helen Frost and meet up with my camp buddy Jeanne.  I hope these blue fabrics work...maybe the star will be a medallion for a future Quilt of Valor.

Fun Mail

I was a lucky winner AGAIN in the Block Lotto!  So, it will be a fun week or so as all my wonky trees arrive.  And, the UFO Challenge group promised to send each other fat quarters to celebrate finishing things, so those are the other fabrics, some nice blue and cream small prints.

Here are the trees that I mailed to one of the other winners:

The green one is supposed to look like Charlie Brown's sparse Christmas tree :-)

I have to share a cute Christmas memory...my daughter is obsessed with the "Gloria" song.  You may know it as Angels We Have Heard On High, with the chorus "Gloria, in excelsis deo."  We were singing it and she was saying "Chelsea Stable" for excelsis!  I love how that little mind works.  And then, since the subject of stables came up, she figured that the stable Jesus was born in was pretty dusty.  Probably!  She also wonders why angels don't have shoes, LOL.

New Year, New Project

My neighbor asked me to make her daughter a birthday quilt, so I planned a simple quilt in bright colors, made from 6 inch squares.  In this picture you can see the colored pattern, so I can keep track of my pieces without a design wall.  I am making a four-patch with two pink squares and one each of green and purple.  This will be a very scrappy quilt, since I cut 11 different pinks, 5 greens and 5 purples. 

 To get random blocks, I stacked the colors and mixed them as I chain-pieced.  The next step is to sew unique four patches together, then build 4x4s and 8x8s until I have the top finished.

 I saw this fabric on the sale rack and thought it was perfect for the backing:

It is a fun project to work on in these grey and unusually cold winter days in the desert!

The end is a new beginning

As I was at the sewing machine yesterday, I realized 2010 was a year of paper piecing for me!  I started with "Sparkling Jewels" a queen size quilt that I made as a wedding gift.  Completely pieced and quilted by me.  It took about six months.

 On New Year's Eve, I whipped up a little 6-inch-square sunflower from a kit I purchased at least a year ago.  It will make a nice gift for a friend at work since I wasn't organized with my Christmas cards before we left on vacation.