Blogger's Quilt Festival - Upstate Beauty

I just got a reminder email from Amy's Creative Side that this was the last day to submit to the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  With all that's been going on, it had slipped my mind.  So I picked a quilt, took some pictures and here it is.  I'm sharing a quilt I made called "Upstate Beauty".  This quilt reminds me of the fall colors of Upstate New York where I grew up.  It's a very special quilt to me for several reasons.

I found a picture of this quilt about 15 years ago in a magazine and tore the picture out thinking someday I'd make it.  At the time I had no idea how to do and I had never paper pieced anything!!  It's a good thing sometimes that we don't realize how much we DON'T know :)!!

I designed the block on EQ7 and printed out paper piecing sections.  The long sections had to be taped together.  At one point I had counted all the pieces - I think it's close to 1800.

My biggest challenge with this quilt were the fabric choices.  As a lover of all things scrappy, I realized that I don't often make quilts using a controlled palette.  So I decided to challenge myself to make this quilt using only a few fabrics. For me, I found it very hard -  I may never do that again!!!

The background fabric - one, arcs - two, sashings and star centers - three, points - four and background of circle stars - five.  The background I picked was a pale batik.  This quilt is completely hand quilted.  Between all the seams, points and the batiks, it was a challenge.

I designed a motif for the centers - it mimics the points of the blocks.  This is a heavy quilt because of all the seams.

The last element I tried was some trapunto.  I don't think I used enough or else the loft wasn't high enough - it doesn't show up real well.   It's very satisfying to cut a picture out of a magazine and then without any patterns re-create it yourself.  I love this quilt and will treasure it, but I will never make one again!!

Quilt Stats:

Size: 60 x 60

Technique: Paper pieced, trapunto

Hand quilted by: Me

Best category: Two color quilt,  best throw

Stop by The Blogger's quilt Festival and enjoy all the fabulous quilts! 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen

Home Again

I made it home from my wonderful weekend in Dothan, AL to find that I had two packages waiting for me.  The first one is a recent purchase of some Chateau Rouge from French General - a total splurge for me from me :).  I saw someone working with this fabric last month and the colors are sooooo yummy!!  Not sure what I'm making yet but anything out of this fabric will be fabulous!

The next package was a bag of HST's from Karen of Log Cabin Quilter.  She had seen  the post with my Christmas wallhanging made from all those HST's, she had this big bag of orphans, one thing led to another and now these all live at my house!!  I think they will be a great leader ender project for me and then I'll be ready to use them.

This little group of goodies was in a gift basket they gave me at the show.  A pattern and kit for a table runner, some fat quarters and Aurofil thread :).

Last but not least, this was my wonderful hostess, Faye.  She and her husband Richard hosted me all weekend and treated me royally.  (She looks great but I look  so tired!!)  Thanks for everything!!

All in all, it was a wonderful time.  I sold a few quilts and made many new friends.

My prayers are with those in harm's way - I've been there.

-Karen

The End of the Story

Well, now that things are almost over, I have a minute to share exactly what has been keeping me so busy...... I have just judged my first quilt show!!!  Several months ago, I was asked by the Evening Star Quilt Guild in Dothan, AL to be the judge for their upcoming quilt show.  I happily said yes!! I judged the quilts on Thursday and presented a lecture and trunk show last night.  I have had a table to display the quilts I've made over the last few months.  

This is my table as I tried to set it up - I put the mug rugs in a little basket.

I realized I didn't even have a sign so I made this from a piece of linen and some 3" orphan rail fence blocks that will never become the jacket it was supposed to be.

 Here's the name sign for the table - it's all so exciting!!

This is a little blurry, but as you can see, "Flowers for Nana Girl" is hanging in the back. I've been promoting Kim's books and signing books and calendars that people have bought. 

Here are all the quilts in my living room the night I was packing up.  It was quite a visual feast for the eyes!!!

These are a few of the mug rugs that I made - getting ready to do the bindings.

This is the barn where the quilt show is being held. It's at the Landmark Park in Dothan, AL.  The weather has been wonderful and the crowds have been good.

As I've looked at these pictures, they are so out of order - but I'm sure you get the idea :).  This has been a great opportunity and I believe it may the start of a brand new door opening for me.

Hope you all have had a great day!!

-Karen

 

Catching Up - Part 4

This is almost the last installment of catching you up on what I've been up to.  I've got a tiny bit left to finish this afternoon, but wanted to get this part posted.

This is a crazy string quilt made from leftovers of t-shirt quilts.  I made a similar quilt for a friend of mine several years ago.

I had made extra blocks so I could pick which ones I wanted - and always wanted to get those leftovers made into a quilt - and this seemed the perfect time.

I decided to quilt concentric circles.  About half way thru, I wish I hadn't done it. But at that point I was committed. 

It looks pretty good from a distance LOL!!

This quilt can be used either as a wallhanging or as a small table cover.  It's made from blocks using Karla Alexander's book "Stack a New Deck".  I love those books.

I did some straight line quilting - a little wonky.  I wanted an organic feel - not too polished.

As usual, my pictures don't really capture the woodsy, outdoor feel of this quilt but this one is really pretty.

This is made from a jelly roll of the Martinique fabric line.  I added fabrics from my stash (no big surprise) and it's done in the basket pattern from Scrap Basket Sensations.

There's a small piping around the binding that I think ties in all the colors.

Last, but not least, are some I Spy quilts. So fun!!!  I made these a little smaller, kind of like an activity mat or a car seat quilt.

Some are for boys....

Some are for girls. :)

Once I finish this afternoon's chore, I'll summarize all this.

Have a great day,

Karen

Catching Up - Part 3

Here's another peek at what's been keeping me busy the last few weeks.  This quilt started from a jelly roll I bought at JoAnn's last year. I've been wanting to do a gray, yellow and black quilt for a while.  I added quite a few pieces from my stash to give it variety.

This seemed like the perfect time to do it.

This is made from the same technique as my little happy quilt I started last year. Each block has 3 fabrics and each block is different.  There was no set pattern to light/dark, black/yellow, etc.  They just got put on the design wall randomly, as long as there was enough contrast to see the block.

It looks so different than the one below - in my happy colors.

But it is such a fun block to do.  ( And this quilt is almost finished too !!)

I decided to mimic the block and do a pieced back.  Turned out perfect!

This is a quilt based on a small collection of fabric called City Girl that I bought several years ago. 

I added quite a few fabrics from my stash to make it more interesting.  I had yardage to to the border, the back and the binding - so it ties it all together.

I didn't quite have enough for the whole back, so it got a pieced back too.

Here's the little kid's Christmas out of the same pattern.

And here's what it looks like on the front of Kim's book.  It's a super fun and fast pattern.

This quilt is from a selection of 15 fat quarters that has been sitting on my shelf for almost 3 years.  It's a very random collection of designs and colors, but I decided to trust the designer's choices.  I didn't add any fabrics to it.  It looks kind of "manly" to me.

There's all these animal prints, strips, graphic patterns and whatever!This pattern is Beach Cottage from Scrap Basket Surprises - love those books!!

I used a blue print for the back.

So these are getting added to the stack of things I'm hoping to sell.  I'll finish up the rest in my next post and share the details of exactly why I've been sewing and quilting my little head off!!  But I must say I've been having the best time!

Have a great day,

Karen

Catching Up - Part 2

Here is part 2 - you could call this the Christmas post.  This wallhanging was made from leftover triangles.  These are the bonus triangles you get when you cut off the ends of 2 1/2" strips when using a square to sew a triangle unit.  These were cut at 2" and finished at 1 1/2".

While they are not completely perfect, they were pretty close.  About 95% of them did not need any additional trimming or squaring up.  You can't see it but there's a pretty feather in the border.

The triangles came from making this..... a Christmas version of "Flowers for Nana Girl"!!  I've been wanting to make this pattern again since I made it originally for Kim's book "Scrap Basket Sensations".  In this version I made all the sashings and leaves scrappy - they were all made from the same fabric for the original.

Not only did I make one..... I made two!!  So you can imagine how many bonus triangles I ended up with - all coordinating Christmas.  I've actually got 3 more wallhangings made but not finished yet.

As you can see I used prints, homespuns, plaids, really anything that matched the border fabric.

I bought 2 yards of this Hoffman fabric several years ago, and needed to use it up.

Using all the scrappys strips and leaves was so much fun.

I needed to stretch this backing so I used some of my many 2 1/2" strips I had left over.

And of course I did my favorite swirl flower quilting design, I just love the way this looks.  So all of these will be for sale too.  There's more to come... stay tuned. 

 

Oh, and by the way, the sweet potatoes last night were absoulutely delicious!!!!! So sweet and not stringy at all.  I had to boil that sucker for an hour in my big soup pot and the inside still was not completely done.  But we are very excited that they taste so good.  I weighed them - 24 pounds!  I need to check the garden as there are probably still more out there.

-Karen