Templates and berries and leaves

Here's an update on my Jubilee quilt progress.  These are the templates that I have drafted so far.  Trying to create a quilt just by looking at a picture  isn't always the easist thing to do.  So far they seem to be working.   The "tree" looking one I made to help me position the leaves on the block. It worked like a charm.

Here are some of my berries.  You can see the size of them compared to the dime.  My DH only had one 1/2" washer so I called my friend's husband to see if he had any.  Sure enough, he had a whole bag!!!  Don't you ever wonder why guys have such random things in their workshop?  I guess the same reason we have the things we do stashed away in our studios **wink**.  Anyway, the washers are working perfectly for my little berries.

And here are some of my leaves.  They are finishing at 1 3/4" long, I think they'll look perfect.  I am still having so much fun!!  I've been looking for jobs for the past 2 hours and my hands are worn out from using the computer. Filling out some of these applications borders on being ridiculous!!

But a cup of coffee should do the trick.

Hope you're having a great day,

Karen

Go Noles!!

This morning I needed a gift for a friend and decided to make a mug rug. 

I had some FSU fabric, so I fussy cut the pictures and randomly framed them out.

Here's the back showing the original fabric.  I don't know who first thought up the concept of a mug rug, but they are so much fun to make!!

I'm auditioning the next section of my Jubilee quilt, the vine. Not sure if I have the leaf size right or not.  The vine is 1/4" wide and the berries are 1/2" in diameter.  So many decisions....

Until next time,
-Karen

Making progress

Here is the next step - this is what happened to those cute little 3/4" hst's.  Aren't they sweet??  Since I'm re-creating this quilt just by looking at a picture in a book, I'm not sure how the original quiltmaker made these blocks in 1860, but I appliqued them down.  Seems to have done the trick.

You can get an idea of how the center medallion part will look like.  I just love watching this grow.  I decided on just using 2 fabrics for the center blocks.  I will use a single fabric for the corner triangles and the border.

This project really has been such a learning curve for me with this fussy applique.  I'm so used to doing folk art applique where it doesn't matter how wonky it gets.  There are still some wonky parts to this and they are staying in!!

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Karen

Flowers are blooming

My flowers are growing and my technique is slowly improving.  I'll never be a master, but it is certainly good enough for me!!  I am auditioning background fabrics to see how scrappy I want to go.

I also found a cheddar that I thing goes well, a repro that has a tiny red flower on it.  There won't be a lot of this color showing (at least at this point I don't think so).  When you design as you go, sometimes your original design changes as the quilt grows.  I'm also auditioning greens.  So far I am very pleased with the way it looks.

I have been collecting pink and red fabrics for a while, but had not decided on a pattern yet, so I'm happy to be using these together.  There's more coming soon.

Until next time,

-Karen

Monday Design Wall

I keep forgetting to share this. This obviously is not my design wall, but it is hanging in my studio.  For my 15th leap year birthday my DD and DDIL decided to give me 15 presents! So much fun. But this one my DDIL designed.  She wrote the saying, printed it and framed it.  So appropriate for a quilter and I treasure it.

Here is what is on my design wall.  I'm doing another Nine Patch Pineapple in Christmas colors. I'm using the Grace line by 3 Sisters - sooooo pretty.

I just love watching this pattern emerge.

Remeber the mystery quilt from a couple of months ago?? Same pattern, different colors.

And I decided to add red for the center triangles.

I'll also be adding the strippy borders to this like the book shows.  It will probably be a blend of green and red - not sure at this point. I've gotten slightly distracted by my Jubilee Quilt.

But this is so rich looking - exactly what I was hoping for.  I'm making this a 9 block square and plan to use it as a table topper next Christmas.  I know, I feel so on top of things!!

So until next time,

-Karen

The beginning of my Jubilee Quilt

I am excited to tell you that I've taken the plunge and have joined the Jubilee Quilt Project!  When I turned 40 I was told it was the new 30.  When I turned 50 I was told it was the new 40.  Several months ago I turned 60 and was told it is the new 50 - so that means I'm legit!! (I just love the fact that baby boomers will find any excuse not to get old!!)  The Jubilee Quilt Project was started to celebrate those turning  a half century - to make a quilt just for you to celebrate that milestone.  A big thank you to Barb for encouraging me to be a part.  After months of waiting for inspiration, I have started.  These are a few of the flowers (coxcomb) that will be in the blocks.

It all started several months ago. I was waiting for inspiration to strike.  While browsing thru old books at our quilt show last month, one of the quilts in this book literally screamed out to me "Make me!!"  So I bought the book.

The second main element to this quilt will come from this book.  My mother has made theorems for over 30 years.  It's a painting on velvet - it's very difficult and my mother is very good.  But she doesn't make theorems any more and has passed along her books.  The designs in this book intrigued me and I'm going to see if I can interpret one of them in fabric.  We'll see how that goes..... I'm a long way from that at the moment.

Here are the little templates I made for the flowers.  I have never done reverse appliques before, but from looking at the picture in the book, I didn't see any other way to make these.  My technique did improve slightly as I made more, but they are not perfect and that is just fine with me. I'm hoping the overall look of the quilt will make one not linger too long over my stitches.

Here is my progression. The one on the bottom was first (I didn't like that pink either).  The one on the left was second.  I decided it need to be a little bigger. The one on the right is the one I went with.

One of the other elements to the block are these little darlings.  They will finish at 3/4" - I'm glad to say I only need 64.  I made them slightly bigger and trimmed to size - not too bad.

So that's where I am at the moment.  I'm getting ready to add some leaves, and it's been rather frustrating trying to get the right shape and size.  I'll have more to share soon.

Have a great weekend,

Karen

Keeping Me Company

My little self portrait that I made in a class with Roberta Horton in 2005 is done and hanging in my little sitting room.  Yay!!!

Here is the little quilt that used to hang in this spot.  In 2008 I made a series of New York Beauty quilts.  This is a smaller version of one that I couldn't bear to sell, so I made one for me. 

I had the early morning sun coming in the windows, so the colors kept changing as I took pictures. But instead of looking at this now...

I'm looking at this.  So different and so much fun!!

I debated on how to quilt the inside of this, I started with little swirls.  It was very busy and didn't add anything to the overall look, so of course, I ripped it out.  I decided to just do wavy freestyle straight lines.  I think it sets off the chaos of the inner border blocks and the outer border fabric.

This picture actually captures the colors the best.

I decided to do a continuous line quilting in the blocks and just followed the design of the fabric for the border.  This is one time I wanted the fabric to show and not the quilting.

So as I'm writing this from my chair, this is what I see.  It's going to hang here for a while I think.  So again, thank you Roberta.  I am so glad my little "Nana Girl" has come to keep me company.

Hope you're having a great Wednesday.
-Karen

Thank you Roberta

While looking for something the other day, I came across this little piece.  Back in 2005 I was lucky enough to take a workshop from Roberta Horton.  What a thrill - I've been a fan of her work for years.  Our assignment was to bring a basket of scraps and do a freehand portrait of ourselves (I took the literary license to be a brunett LOL)!!  I finished this the day of the workshop and then didn't really know how I wanted to finish it - so it's been waiting.

Back in 2010, I made this quilt for Kim's 2nd book.  By this time I had 2 grandchildren and a blog.  My granddaughter had started calling me "Nana Girl", so I used that name for my blog and Kim called this quilt "Flowers for Nana Girl".  For a lot of reasons - this is a very special quilt to me.

These are some of the scraps I had left and I decided to use this palette to finish the quilt.  I had lots of little HST's left over from making the quilt, so I started "playing" to see where it would lead. I had absolutely no plan in mind.  And while this is not as wild as it could have been - I could hear Victoria cheering me on :-)!!  Thanks for your inspiration.

And here is where I ended up!  I am so happy with my little "self portrait" - I've got it pinned and ready to quilt.

I'm going to hang this in my little sitting room where I will see it every day.

Seeing all these little happy triangles and the beautiful fabric is the perfect finish for this. 

Back in 2005 when I took this workshop my granddaughter was only 10 months old - Nana Girl didn't even exist yet. But now Nana Girl is a part of my life that I love - having this blog and hearing my 2 older grandchildren call me Nana Girl. So thank you Roberta, for this wonderful reminder of so many things that make me happy.
Until next time,

Karen

Orca Bay almost done

I can't believe how even when you make a real effort to pay attention and pin things in the right order, something like this happens!!  And it was completely sewn down with all seam matching before I put it back on the design wall and discovered it!

Needless to say, it needed to be ripped out, but not before I made sure that I didn't like it this way better.  I experimented with several different sets, but in the end I didn't like them better...... so I spent time with the frogs.. rippit, rippit :).  I'm trying out different inner borders. I tried red and blue, but they didn't work - so I'm left with black and gold.  I'm thinking of using some of my 400 plus black and white hourglass units for the second border - I think I'll have enough.  I kind of like what happens but it will need to be set off with the right fabrics.  The first time I used black, but I kind of like the gold

I made the gold border smaller and this is where I am now.  The whole top is pieced and I'm going to live with it for a day or two and see how it grabs me.  I like how it pulls out the gold, but it may need to be smaller yet.  I also want to try the Kona black on the outside.  Any thoughts? Suggestions??

Until next time,

Karen