Baby Quilt for my Niece

Well I'm back from Africa!  We had a great trip and saw lots of cool animals and stuff...but I managed to  leave the cable that communicates between my camera and computer someplace in Africa.  Fortunately it was close to the end of my trip so no pix missed;  but, I can't download the pix 'til I get a new cable.
Well,  I did manage finish a little baby quilt for my niece and her soon to be born baby boy since I've been back, so I thought I'd share a few pix of that.

I love this Riley Blake kids fabric.  Robots, rockets and one eyed aliens in wonderful bright colors! 

and this cute flannel for the back!

I love making baby quilts, the fabrics are so much fun and they're small so they don't take to long to make!

Do you have a favorite kid quilt pattern?

cheers, Claire W.

Celebrateing my 60's!

Well, I'm turning 60 tomorrow and instead of hiding for the day I decided I'm going to follow the example of my friend Lori D. of Humble Quilts.  When Lori turned 50 she decided she would do something special every month of the year she turned 50, to celebrate!  Well I missed that healthy attitude when I turned 50 but I decided it made a lot of sense and I may be 10 years late but I could still apply that positive attitude and celebrate my 60's in the same spirit!   So This month being my birth month I decided to sign up for a special trip so I'm going to a country and a Continent I've never visited;

 Africa!  I'm not sure how Internet connecting will work there but I hope to post some pix along the way!  Cheers, CW

Modern Improv Mechanics

This is my contribution to my guild's Modern Challenge.  (see last post)  It measures about
87" x 87".  I like the fact that the challenge had no size limit.  I like working large!  The piecing was all improvised, here's how.

I started with this sketchy idea...

Once I had decided on the scale of the 'ladders'  I took a 90" square piece of bleached muslin and hung it on my design wall and started working on the layout of the 'shoots and ladders' with large paper strips.

Once I got the layout roughed out I started constructing the 'ladders'.  I decided the 'shoots' were going to clutter up the negative space to much so I would quilt them in after the top was finished.

Once the first and farthest away ladder was worked out I started to piece it.

It helps to have a nice long area on which to pin large scale pieces.  The frame for my long arm works well for this.  I often use it when putting on long borders.

Once the first ladder was sewn I pinned it roughly where I wanted it on the big piece of muslin on the design wall and then draped it over the long arm frame to adjust it 'til it all lay flat.

Then I simply sewed down along the wrong side of the pinned edge, rather like one might sew down a strip on a piece of foundation sewing.

Here's the resulting piece.  Flipped over on the muslin and ironed flat.

The tricky part of this process was deciding where to cut the muslin background so's to make it remain approximately 90" square.  I reasoned if I cut the muslin 1/2" inside the edge of the 'ladder' it would approximate the correct seam allowance and size.  I layed it out as you see it and then picked up the edge of the 'ladder'  and cut down the far edge of the omnigrid.  I'm not sure if that makes sense but I hope the picture helps...

Once the edge was cut I put  the muslin to the unsewn edge of the 'ladder',  right sides together and sewed the first ladder into place.  Then I put all the 'ladders' back on the top to recheck their placement and then repeated the whole sewing and pinning process for each ladder in turn.

Once I finished the top I had to figure a way to quilt the durn thing.  I took a picture of the quilt and printed it and then traced the picture several times to sketch different quilting options.

When I had settled on a layout for the 'shoots' I went back to my large paper strips and layed them out on the top and marked the 'shoots'  with green painter's tape to guide me once the top was on the long arm frame.

Here's a picture of the lower left corner quilting.  My thought was the 'shoots' would be simply quilted in the background and not compete with the more graphic 'ladders'.  I'm not sure that part of the design worked so well?!  I might try this again with grey background and white 'ladders'  and different quilting...but not anytime soon!

cheers, Claire W.

PVQA Modern Challenge

Last year PVQA exhibited their first Modern Challenge.  See those pix here.  Here are some pix from this year's ...

This was the quilt that I made for the challenge.  I read the directions this year! 

This is another quilt I made and entered in the General exhibit, but I guess because it is Modern looking  it ended up being hung with the Modern Challenge.

Actually my favorite quilt in this challenge was made by Karen over at Capitola Quilter you can check out her quilts in the fair on her blog here.

Well I'm off to clean my sewing room. Last minute stuff for the Fair always turns my sewing room in to a terrific mess.  It does give me a chance to do some early Spring Cleaning.

cheers, Claire W.

Hand Quilted Quilts

There aren't a lot of hand quilters in our guild these days,  but it's always a treat to see those quilts that  
                                                                       are submited.

This was one of my favorite quilts in the whole show!  Made by Carolyn Miller.  Carolyn not only quilts all her quilts by hand but she also generally hand pieces them!  I just love the asymetrical set of theses blocks.  Unfortunately you can't see the light blue embroidery in the inner border but there are a series of winter scenes, 'snowy cabins in the woods' etc.  I think it is a wonderful mix of hand work.  It is probably from a pattern but I did not get a chance to ask Carolyn the origin.

Here's a wonderful vintage quilt, I love the mix of indigos and pinks!

maker unknown.

This wonderful scrappy crosses quilt was made by Ann Rauen.

The patches that make the crosses are less than 1" square!

(Sorry the pic is blurry)

I don't remember the name of the owner of this quilt but it had an interesting storey. The blocks are signed by family members of a young woman graduating from school. (the aunt or mother of the owner) The top was then machine quilted much later.  I think the machine quilter did a fabulous job of keeping a vintage feel to the quilting!

I think there were a few more hand quilted quilts in the show but this is all the pics I have.

I'll post some more pix later.  Cheers, CW

PVQA 36th Annual Fair- Part-1

The Fair was FANTASTIC this year!  Some smart people on the Fair Committee decided it was time we change-up our display stands so almost all of the quilts were displayed in bays constructed of 10' metal poles and black back drops.  The displays were really wonderful!

This first batch of quilts were made in a class taught by our very own Mike McNamara. "Mac"  uses a whole variety of improvisational techniques to make very unique quilts!

Above is Mac's class sample.

by Lisa Saporta 

by Betty Whitman

I think this one is Sue Costa's (but this is all from my feeble memory)  

 There were quite a few more quilts from the class and they were all wonderful but somehow these are the only pix I got from the class.

These next 2 are also made by Mac.  They were in the general exhibit.  Mac makes wonderful abstract whimsical quilts and we are so lucky he is a part of our guild!

I think Mac said this one he used up a lot of Block of the Month and orphan blocks.

You can read more about Mac in Joe Cunningham's book "Men and the Art of Quilt making" or visit his website.

I will post more pix of the Fair tomorrow. 

cheers, Claire W.

Done in time for the Fair

I've been poking along on these blue and white blocks that I started with Randy's Sow- Along in 2012.  I had them in mind for a quilt for my son and his wife as a wedding present (they were married last April).

 PVQA's  Fair is always a time for me to sit down and figure out what projects Really need finishing.  Since Sam and Meg's  1st aniversary is coming up I thought now would be a good time to put on some steam and get the blue and white quilt finished!

  The setting is kind of a composite of several Historical quilts.  I wanted to do a border kind of like Jane Stickley's quilt only not pieced (good lord that would take me Forever).  Since my blocks are 6" the triangle units are  larger too.  I looked at pix from the Quilt Index and found a lot of examples of this kind of border, mostly mid 1800's.

The last turn of the frame!  You can see what a terrific mess my sewing room is!  But the quilt got done just in time for the Fair which is this weekend!

I helped with set-up yesterday and it looks like an excellent show!  I will post pix on Monday after the dust has settled! 

Have a great weekend!

Cheers, Claire W.