A Very Special House Guest

Two weeks ago, I had the extreme pleasure of hosting one of the sweetest people ever.  She also happens to be an incredible quilter.  Philippa Naylor came to Pensacola, FL from Yorkshire, England  (by way of Houston) to do 3 workshops for our Guild prior to her teaching schedule in Houston.  

I have been a huge, HUGE fan of Philippa's since I first found her book in 2009.  I read her book cover to cover and then made a quilt using techniques from the book and posted about it here.

Can you just see the sweetness in that smile??  She stayed at my house for 4 days and we had the best time.  I still kind of pinch myself that it really happened.  It was a dream come true.  I was able to take the whole week off work and took all 3 of her workshops.  If you ever get the chance to meet her and take one of her classes, do it.  She is amazing.

This is her new book she debuted at Market last week - it's incredible.  We learned so many of the techniques from the book and I can only say my brain hurt when we were all finished!  She is an amazing teacher (and we could all listen to that English accent all day LOL),

I'm still getting used to my new Juki, but found that it did really well in the machine applique department.

Philippa had so many samples there.  We learned how to make these wavy strips - so cool!

After appliquing a simple circle on with a satin stitch, Philippa took it to a whole new level.

Every piece was perfection.

There were so many ideas to try.  This variegated thread worked so well in these samples.

These were just her doodles!!  I could only hope that some day I could attain this control.

I had a project ready to go and so I was able to try out some of my new skills and  practice my machine applique and some detail machine quilting.  But I must say that one of the biggest things I've learned is to bury my threads - shout out to Linda H. :)!  Philippa said to tell yourself it's your most favorite part and embrace it.  The more threads you bury the more complicated your piece is.....I'm trying and honestly it's really not that bad.

Here is my first attempt at McTavishing.  What I find most interesting about this method, is that it really is like a signature.  While it's the same technique, every person does it a little different.  I'm learning but for my first try I'm pleased.

There's been a lot going on around here, but it's now time to go bury threads :).

Have a great day,

Karen

Checking In

I am not sure what has happened to the last few weeks.  When I used to think about what my life would look like in my 60's, I never pictured being quite this busy.  But even with the busyness, I have been productive in the studio with odds and ends.

This is a project for a class next winter even though these colors are soooo fall.

The feathers in the orange blocks don't show up real well, but they are subtle and very pretty.  I wanted the pale yellow center to be different, so I quilted concentric lines and I'm pleased with the result.

The big feathers in the yellow blocks were fast and fun to to.  I know everybody says this, but feathers really are so much fun to machine quilt.  The rest of the blocks got stitch in the ditch. That is NOT fun.  And as Cindy Needham says, ESS.  Yes Cindy, I did every stinking single seam.  I didn't even want to count the starts and stops.  But the binding is on and the quilting on this one is done.

Hope you had a great day,

Karen

Bordered, Basted and Ready to Quilt

In the end, Purple Pickles got a border.  I really struggled with whether to leave it or whether to add a border.  After a trip to my LQS, I found this fabric and my decision was made.

It's got a black background and the exact two shades of warm and cool purple swirls. I added a small black border and a piping of lime green that has tiny black swirls.

Here you can see the quilt without the border.  I just felt that it needed a little extra "weight" to it as I was using some pretty dark colors.  Seeing it with the border added, this now looks totally unfinished to me.

Here is the final version.  I took it ouside to get a better picture and the center still looks washed out to me.  I will start with an allover stitch in the ditch and then hope for some inspiration.

It's a gorgeous day in Northwest Florida today, hope it is where you are too.

Karen

Atlanta Quilt Live Recap

This past week has been so busy, but I wanted to share a little of my trip to Atlanta last weekend.  It started Thursday night when I took a class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  What a fun evening.  Victoria and I have been blogger friends for a couple of years, so it was a blast to finally meet in person. The class was called "Playing with Miniatures" and we learned how to make these little blocks.  I was kind of busy chatting so I didn't finish my block :).  But I did get the center done - the ones on the left were extras.

To put it in perspective, these little darlings finish at 1"!!  

We got a little class kit with 2 pieces of fabric and some scraps.  My pieces were red and purple which I think will be cute.

I have promised myself to finish this and not let it sit in a drawer.  

Victoria had several samples for us to see.

I like this single row set in a square.

One of the students actually finished her center block, the red looked really good with the drab olive color.

The next day it was time to see the quilts and enjoy the exhibit.  My sister and I had so much fun.

Victoria did a quilt walk and spent time discussing the quilts in the DWR exhibit. Here she is with her tractor DWR quilt.  

Here we are in front of Organic Pink Pickles.  It looked so pretty hanging and Victoria let me talk about it to the group.

Here I am in front of my QN 45 challenge quilt "Dahlia Revisited".  This exhibit was really something.  I had not seen pictures of the quilts so I didn't really know what the other quilts looked like.  They were gorgeous and I felt very humbled to have placed in the top 5.  This quilt will be back home soon, I don't think they are travelling anywhere else.

Some of you may recognize this red quilt.  If you looked closely at the work, you could probably guess.  It's made by Sharon Schamber.

Sharon had an exhibit there also and her daughter Cristy Fincher led the quilt walk.  She told stories about growing up as Sharon's daughter and shared about Sharon's evolution as a quilter.  I have seen some of Sharon's quilts in person before.  They are so incredible, she has set the bar very high.

Driving over 750 miles is not something I would want to do often, but it was so worth it to see not only my quilts but all the other quilts in the many different exhibits.  There was so much inspiration.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Headed to Atlanta

I'm headed to Atlanta in the morning to Quilt Live!  My sister and I will be travelling together.  Tomorrow night I'll be taking a class with Victoria Findlay Wolfe - I am so excited.  And I get to see this old friend. 

I had to send Pink Pickles off in January so it's been a while.

And I'll get to see Dahlia Revisited hanging in the Quilters Newsletter 45 year exhibit.

I'll be at the Expo all day Friday. I'd love to meet  any blogger friends in person if you're going on Friday - just email me tomorrow night (I don't have a smart phone).

Being a quilter is just too much fun sometimes :).

Karen

Mini Pickle Dish

My 16 blocks are done and are now waiting for me to find a border.  I really like how this turned out.

It's always hard when I'm just getting started making units to imagine what it will look like.

Even when all the arcs were done, it was hard to picture it.

And then at this stage, when it seems finished, I know how different it will look with a border and binding and how much it will change with the quilting.

I'll try and get some outdoor pictures soon, the colors really sing in this one.

Happy stitching,

Karen

A New Pickle Dish Project

I shared this picture last week in a blog post.  It's my new Pickle Dish project using green, purple and black & white.  I'm trying to use all stash fabric but I may need to supplement a few new pieces (darn LOL).

For those of you who follow me on IG  - you  may have seen this picture last week - the start of my new quilt.  I have made some serious progress since then.  All the paper piecing is done.

This is going to be a small project, it's actually a class sample for a class I'm teaching next February based on my quilt "Organic Pink Pickles".

This quilt only has 16 blocks, so there are only 32 arcs.  It seems easy after working on Pink Pickles last year which was so much bigger.

I designed this project in EQ7 and I've already changed the colors slightly.  I started in the center and am working my way out to check the colors and balance.  I like the warm purple center and the green outer corners.  The B&W dotty Kauffman fabric is a little bit of a stretch for me but I'm pretty sure it's going to work.  I'm trying to stretch those "modern" muscles with a traditional pattern.

I don't have a huge collection of cool purple fabric, so I'm auditioning the pieces I have.  I think they will work. 

It's fun to make small projects where every decision doesn't require two days of studying the design wall, leaving the room, coming back, checking again, etc., etc. LOL.  I know you all know what I'm talking about :).  

Having fun this afternoon - hope you're stitching something fun too.

Karen