Quilt Show Update

The waiting is over, our Guild's quilt show opened last night and we found out the judge's results. When I came around the corner and saw "Wedding Memories Linger" wearing a blue ribbon, I was beyond excited!!! I have become very emotional about this particular quilt and I'm not sure why. But seeing it hanging just makes me so happy.
After all the months of quilting, it looks exactly the way I had hoped it would. The contrast of the straight line quilting and the curved quilting looks perfect. And after completely quilting the border of feathers not once but twice, you can definitely see them. I am thrilled.

And my sweet little Navy quilt "Going Home" that was made for the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation won a third place. This was a very full, competitive category, and I am very happy about a ribbon. Our judge this year was Anita Shackelford. She's an incredible quilter and she judged our quilts with a great deal of detail. I'll share more pictures later, it is a great show! We have 258 quilts hanging. If you're close to Pensacola, come by tomorrow and say hi!

Thanks for all your encouraging comments over the last few months about my wedding quilt. My very humble little log cabin has brought me much joy :)!!

Until next time,

-Karen

Getting So Close

I know it's been a while, I've been missing in action. But I've been busy. I always forget how long hand quilting takes especially for a bigger quilt. As you can see, I am getting so close. This quilt has been such a joy to see as the quilting design emerges. I'm still not totally pleased with the center design of feathers. I have a couple of ideas, we'll see....
I am really beyond pleased with how it's turned out. I will be excited to see it hanging at our Guild's quilt show in a few weeks. I am working on the binding now. Having a few problems, but I'll work them out.

Until next time,

Karen

Been busy.... having a ball!!

I honestly don't quite know where almost 2 weeks has gone! I have been doing contract work at the law firm to help them close out, so that has taken some of my time. These blocks are part of my program that I'll be doing for our guild in February. I've been busy trying to get this project done, but there are lots of steps. I'm doing it as a mystery quilt which I hope will be a fun program.
Then I realized I still have TONS of hand quilting left on my log cabin quilt, which needs to be done so I can enter it in our quilt show in mid March! "Wedding Memories Linger" is a perfect name. I have loved lingering over all the fabrics from my kids' quilts.
Here's a "shadow" picture so you can see the next area I have to quilt. It's acutally the border - yea!!!!!!!!!!!!! But as you can see, there is a lot of quilting. But I do love this quilt and I do love to hand quilt - it just takes forever!

But this is what has distracted me for the last 3 days...... Karen K. Stone! She came to Pensacola and I got to take 2 workshops with her, and then attend a GSQA meeting where she presented a trunk show. Oh my goodness, this girl can quilt! She has been a hero of mine for a long time and it was a true thrill for me. Seeing her quilts in person makes you realize that pictures just don't do them justice. They are incredible

I took lots of pictures of her quilts, I'll share more later. But here we are, the two white headed Karens :). She is an absolute doll and I came home with my head spinning. It will be hard to re-enter the real world tomorrow.

Hope you've a great weekend - mine has been wonderful.

-Karen

PS- my ironing board is still not done, but I do thank you all for the great ideas. I'll get to it eventually :)

Wedding Memories Linger Update

I have spent another lunch hour quilting - how wonderful is that???? Just wanted you to know I have not forgotten about this one - it's just a long term project.
I'm in the big light border right now. I think I've been there forever..... although, wait, I did have a sweet little 8 lb. 4 oz distraction born almost 6 weeks ago. How has it been that long??? I miss that little munchkin! So in between a new grandbaby, work, life, etc. I can definitely tell I'm making progress on this. And I will tell you that my thoughts do linger as I quilt over these fabrics - there's really nothing like recalling all those sweet memories. My daughter is coming up on her 10 year anniversary next spring and my son will celebrate 4 years in a few weeks. So 10 years ago, I was just starting to collect fabrics for her wedding quilt - and it all started at Mary Jo's!!

I just love the solitude of hand quilting.... even in the midst of a busy law firm office!

Hope you're having a great day,

-Karen

P.S. Angie, if you're reading this, I need your email - you keep showing up as a no-blogger.

More Templates and Progress

One stitch at a time, my quilt is emerging. It's hard sometimes to get the quilting to show, so I've tried to let the shadows show the pattern. Needless to say, I am having a blast quilting this. It has been amazing to see this quilt take on a personality of its own. When I decided to use the wedding quilt scraps to make a log cabin quilt, I must confess I didn't know exactly what it would look like, but I knew I wanted to make it special. So far, I'm very satisfied :).
I had picked a different quilting pattern design but it didn't look right and I ripped it out. After studying things for awhile, I decided on this design. One thing I learned a long time ago is, if you are not happy with something stop immediately and re-examine. If you need to rip, do it! I have never regretted any decision to rip out something I wasn't happy with.

I was so excited to see the circles form as I quilted the dark sections of the log cabin blocks. As this was not part of my original plan, I had no idea what would happen and I was quite pleased. Here's what the corners will look like. It's not quite finished yet, the stitching will go all the way out to the white section.

Here's what my floor usually looks like with all my tools laying around.

I started with June Tailor's Around the Block ruler but found it was too hard to get the marking pens thru the slots (the batting didn't give me a good solid surface). So I used it to cut my own - by cutting up a plastic calendar for the arches. I have to use both a blue marking pen and the white Clover pen as I go over both light and dark sections.

Then I made a different set for the half inch markings. It might seem like it would take a long time, but in the end it saves time because I have control over each line. I've almost finished this section. I made a list, and so far this is what I've finished: the 4 center blocks, the feather row, 8 fan blocks, 12 full square blocks and then 16 fan blocks (almost done). Doing this row by row has been manageable and logical. Stay tuned, there's more to come :)!!

Until next time,
-Karen

It starts with a plan

I have finally starting hand quilting my log cabin "Wedding Memories Linger". I knew I wanted some feathers in the inner most border so I kept doodling until I got the proportions right. I picked the best section and cut that out. I then outlined it with a Sharpie and covered it with packing tape. I used this as a template and traced it onto the quilt. I first tried a light box but the paper kept moving so I traced it from the top.

It is very challenging to keep my stitches even going through all the seams and seam allowance's of the logs. Each one finishes at 3/4" so there isn't much room to get a rhythm going.

But I knew as soon as I started that the look of the feathers is exactly what I had hoped for. I finished the inside section by stitching in the ditch and then stitching down the middle of each log. I'm doing this part by just eyeing it, so it's not perfect. The slight wobbles add somewhat of an organic feel (at least that's what I'm telling myself) LOL!!

I am absolutely thrilled with the progress so far. There's lots more to come :).

Until next time,

-Karen

Not Square Anymore!

Here is my quilt in its finished form. I am very happy with the layout and the way it looks. I'm also very happy that it is rectangular and not square! You will also see that I added a row of blocks to separate the two light rows (remember I didn't like the two light rows being so close together). I decided not to border this as it was already getting quite large. My 6'1" husband had trouble holding it up as it is and since I'm hand quilting, it is plenty big for me! This is how I decided to solve my "square" problem. I made 12 more log cabin blocks but instead of doing them half light and half dark, I did them all dark (they are not this dark).

I then added them to two sides, creating a rectangle instead of a square.

I was pretty happy with the way it looked laying on the floor.

The biggest problem with this layout I'd chosen, was having to do all the half square setting triangles. I hate those things!! I love the way quilts look set on point, but I rarely do them because it's such a pain to do those setting triangles. Last summer at the retreat, I saw someone using this Marti Michell ruler. She explained how it made making setting triangles perfect and easy. I did not believe her, but when I got home I went a bought the ruler anyway.

I am here to tell you, she was right! My triangles were easy and came out perfect!! I am so happy with this quilt, next up will be pictures of the hand quilting so far.
Until next time,

-Karen

Wedding Memories Linger

Here's what I've been working on lately. I made my daughter's wedding quilt in 2002 and my son's wedding quilt in 2007. Last year I started piecing log cabin blocks. These are all leftover scraps that I decided to make into a quilt for me and I've named it "Wedding Memories Linger". I played around with several setting ideas.

I really liked the center square but wasn't crazy about the second light band so close. It looked a little boring to me - and it appeared it was going to end up square. While I have made some square quilts, I'm not as drawn to them as I am to a rectangular quilt - especially in larger sizes. So I had to figure out a solution to keep the center square but make the quilt rectangular.

Here's a close up of the center. The colors are mainly green, brown and rust. The lights are everything from almost white, to pale green, very light yellow and cream. I used mostly prints but also some batiks.

Even though the two quilts were different colors, they all went together especially in this block format. One thing I did was set the block on point. This meant doing setting triangles but it worked out okay. I already had this batik in my stash and it looked wonderful with the quilt.

I will show you the final set I decided on and the start of the hand quilting soon!! I have been so excited to get this quilt pieced and start quilting it.

Until next time,

-Karen