WIP - AMH Love Quilt

I have an obsession, and it's nothing new. I am in LOVE with Anna Maria Horner's fabric designs. 

Way back when I started quilting the first designer fabric I ever purchased was from her Chocolate Lollipop line. I was hooked immediately, and I've been hoarding bits of her fabrics ever since.

For the past few months I've been (intermittently) working on a quilt I call AMH Love. It's all my tiny bits of AMH fabric, and I'm hoping it comes together just as I envision it. 

To ensure that I don't screw it up - I made a maquette - a practice mini. (I learned this term from Jacquie Gering, what an inspiration!) So while I'm not sharing my full project just yet, here are some snaps of the Maquette.

I'm loving the dense quilting (what? I haven't taken pics of the quilting yet). I'm loving the paper pieced letters ("my first alphabet" pattern by Diane Bohn)

Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap - Sent!

It's been ages. I know. 

No excuses. This is my blog and I'm sad to have let a month go by without sharing a bit of my sewing. It's getting harder and harder to find a minute to post -- but I don't want to let go of the blogging. I love blogging. So thank you to whoever is still out there reading!

Last month I finished this sweet little mini quilt for the Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap. I decided to go with a mini Red Letter Day block - since I can't stand the cuteness of all those tiny bits! Also, I paper pieced a tiny paper airplane there. Really the theme of this was cute (check out those tiny Briar Rose strawberries). 

I have been a bit addicted to paper piecing these days - my preparation for Demoing at International Quilt Fest hooks me every time! I decided to go super personal by spelling out my partner's name in perfectly paper-pieced letters. I imagine with a name like Rhiannon, she doesn't see her name printed on most things. The pattern I used is "My First Alphabet" by Diane Bohn / From the Blank Pages. Diane is awesome and I recommend her patterns - they're great!! 

This one is now living with its new owner Rhiannon / @Raebirdrhi (on instagram)

I need to teach.

Today I demo'd at the Open Studios at the International Quilt Festival, Chicago. I demo'd foundation paper piecing for the second time this year. Having already done the demoing thing at this show last year, I wasn't particularly nervous or stressed while prepping for my demo. I was looking forward to it - it's fun to teach people new skills. 

Each demo is given a two hour time slot - and that's enough time for people to come and go - several sets of people stop to see what you're doing and ask questions. I managed to do my complete explanation of paper piecing about eight times today. It went so smoothly and everyone had such great questions. I really think I taught some people a new skill today. They can go and paper piece without fear. 

Today's demo affirms my desire to teach. I want to get out there. I want to share my passion for quilting. I still don't know how to go about doing that -- but I need to continue to work on it. I love the feeling of sharing my love of precision, color, pattern, design. I love connecting with a student - I love when you see that moment of clarity in their face. They get it. 

So bear with me as I figure out how to get to that next step. I need to teach. 

International Quilt Festival Chicago: Open Studios

What a weekend! Last weekend Chicago (Rosemont) played host to the International Quilt Festival! We're lucky to have the festival here this year and I was even luckier to be chosen to demo in the show's Open Studios. 

Open Studios was the place to find demos for all sorts of projects and techniques ranging from stitching / quilting / painting / embellishing. The demos were set up in two hour segments and on Friday I demo'd foundation paper piecing. 

As excited as I was about demoing I was also a little bit nervous. It all turned out great though. It was a really excellent experience! In the quilting studio there was a sewing machine available - and I had a bit of trouble getting it set up at the beginning of my demo time - thankfully my guild friend Sarah came to the rescue and fixed the presser foot / threading! (thanks Sarah!!)

The demo went really great. I had a lot of people stop by during the two hour demo, and they all seemed really responsive to paper piecing! Some couldn't believe how easy it is once you figure it out! 

I had an excellent experience demoing at open studios, and it makes me even more excited to get started teaching some classes. I hope that will happen soon. In the meantime I'll keep perfecting my skills! 

(Thanks to Emily B who took lots and lots of pictures on my camera while I demo'd!)

A Big Reveal: Aunt Kathy's Bella Quilt!

Bella Quilt for Kathy

Some time ago I posted a poll on my facebook page. This poll was for my family and close friends, asking them if I were to make them a quilt, how involved in the process they would like to be. My aunt Kathy asked to be surprised. So surprised she was!

"bricks" border, close up.

To give you a little bit of back story, when I was about 10 years old my Aunt Kathy went through a phase of quilting - yes a phase (she used to hop from one craft to another before settling down to polymer clay). During the year that that phase lasted she made quilts for her kids, as well as all the nieces and nephews. I still have the beautiful rail fence quilt she made me that year! When the quilting phase passed Aunt Kathy gifted me her sewing machine, I was about 10 or 11 years old, and that was my first sewing machine. 

Delicious binding!

Anyone who knows my story knows that I fell for sewing right away, starting by sewing faux fur stuffed animals, then self designed purses, and a few random articles of clothing. I used Aunt Kathy's old White machine for several years (I still have it and it's still working). 

Much more than giving me a sewing machine Aunt Kathy gave me a desire for creativity. She was always crafting, and selling her creations at craft shows. It was at her house that I really saw that creating is a way of life and not just a hobby. Beyond that, Aunt Kathy gave so much of herself to us that I don't really have words to explain it. I hope that I can be that kind of aunt to my nieces  We always knew she was there, and she took care of us in a special "aunt" kind of way. 

So obviously she needed a quilt. :)

I've been working on this quilt for about a year, under the tag "Bella Quilt." It was originally inspired by my obsession with these giant paper pieced patterns. The book and paper patterns there were inspired by the intricate tile and mosaic floors in Italy. I did in fact purchase the Bella Bella Quilts paper patterns, but I was not very excited about how cookie cutter the quilt would be (I don't like to follow patterns, I like to make the decisions). 

By March of last year I'd created the NY Beauty block for the center (the only piecing in this quilt that was not hand drawn by me), and I'd decided to stray from the Bella Bella style but didn't completely know how I was going to do it. I had hand drawn the paper patterns for that first round of flying geese and pieced it up to that point. I was fortunate enough to be at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild's spring retreat with Robbi Eklow -- and in chatting with her (late late at night), and looking at her quilts I decided that I should have some of the round borders flowing off the edge of the quilt. Robbi explained that it would make the borders come together a bit easier since they wouldn't have to be perfectly circular. Thanks for the inspiration Robbi! 

Close up!

I gradually pieced the remainder of the round borders. Each one designed and drawn by hand by me (using sheets of freezer paper). It was a bit challenging, and fear of screwing up all that complex work that kept me from finishing it up right away. 

From the center out, here is a description of the round borders:

• NY Beauty (paper pieced, pattern found online)
• Circular Flying Geese (paper pieced, hand drawn)
• Pebble raw edge applique (segments of the arc drawn out by hand, the circle fabrics were fused with Wonder Under, then die cut using an Accuquilt Studio cutter, then the circles were fused down and free motion quilted into place)
• Teal and white bricks (strip pieced units which were then cut with a template, then paper pieced into arcs)
• Large black and white border (paper pattern pieces drawn by hand, cut from yardage)
• Large flying geese (paper pieced, hand drawn, then appliqued into place using feather weight fusible interfacing to enclose the edges, then top stitched into place on the last border)

The crazy backing!

I used all the leftover scraps for the backing, and stippled the entire quilt with a few random hearts included.

Prayers in binding.

The final step in making this quilt was writing the prayers in the binding. I inscribe my quilts with prayers to the recipient in the seam allowance of the binding. The prayers aren't visible once the binding is finished, but Aunt Kathy will always know that she's wrapped in love and prayers. 

Pretty binding, pretty backing!

As I mentioned above, Aunt Kathy requested that this quilt be a surprise. So she didn't have any part in the decision making process. I asked my uncle, her husband for suggestions of what colors to use (without skipping a beat he said "black and white" because of Aunt Kathy's favorite signature jewelry pieces she makes). I also drew a lot of inspiration from her pinterest boards. I even had my own sneaky board where I'd hoard all these ideas. 

Crazy paper pieced curved borders!

Last weekend we went back home to visit family, and I was able to give Aunt Kathy her quilt in person.  It was a pretty awesome experience since she was surprised! I feel really lucky to have an aunt like Aunt Kathy, and it was a lot of fun making this quilt for her!

Sewing on a strict deadline...

Do you guys do this to yourselves? 

Paper pieced arcs of flying geese.

I've been working on a quilt for ages. It's the most complex quilt I've ever made. I thought I'd have it done by Christmas, but things got away from me. I pushed it back a bit, but now I've committed to finishing this before a family get together in a week and a half nine days! Whoa it's only nine days away! lol.

Last night I spent a lot of time figuring out the last bit of piecing - and decided to applique the last round of flying geese down instead of piecing a gigantic curve twice (while maintaining those perfect points!) So now I need to schedule my time to ensure I'll finish - goal setting time!

Tonight I'm going to work on backing the flying geese to turn the edges to applique.

My goal tomorrow is to acquire the final bits of Kona Ash (why is Ash so elusive?) for the final corner. I'll also applique those flying geese to the quilt top tomorrow.

By the end of the weekend my goal is to have the backing pieced (and any additional fabric needed for that purchased). 

Here's hoping I can pull this off! 

In Times of Tragedy... I Paper Piece.

I think we have all had a bit of an emotional day with the tragic school shooting. We're all hugging our littles and trying to grasp the reality of what happened. 

After watching approximately one news cast this evening I couldn't take any more. I needed something to provide a bit of numbness. So I went to my old friend, foundation paper piecing.

Yes, I paper piece when I need to clear my mind / when I don't want to think / when I need to feel something other than the emotions in my head. (is that weird?) 

It seems that I haven't taken a photo of this since adding the last border -- which is a wide border in a black and white print... 

It didn't hurt that I've been wanting to finish this quilt before Christmas... but I keep putting it off because this next step requires drafting another giant circle of paper pieced flying geese... which to say the least, is not easy. (I'm fairly sure there's a computer program out there somewhere that would do this for me, but I haven't yet learned). 

So. That's what I did tonight. I drafted up that giant arc of geese... each "unit" includes 8 geese (approx 3" x 4" each) - and the arc will require six units of geese. I finished one unit and cut the fabric for the other 5 units! I feel accomplished. The piecing of the other units should go fairly quickly since everything is prepped. 

This is truly mind-numbing work - but not in the normal sense -- doing all the drafting and prep work takes a lot of brainpower / measuring / double checking  It leaves no room for any other thoughts. Such a luxury on a day like today. 

{Sew} Beautiful Bee - Paper Pieced 3 Layered Star & Tutorial

Last night (last week) I broke down and finally started on my July Bee block. I've had it in my mind for a while, but was deciding whether I should draft the one I wanted to make, or take the easy way out (easy?) and use a pattern that I could just print out.

I decided it was worth the effort, so I broke out the freezer paper and drafted paper patterns for this star. In a stroke of genious I realized that I could simply print copies of the pattern using my printer/scanner. I guess I could have used the other method (I can't find a proper tutorial for it, and have no idea where I learned it). For the other method, print one copy of the pattern and then staple a few sheets of paper together with the pattern on top. Then simply sew over the pattern lines with your machine using a long stitch and no thread (no thread!!) this will make several identical copies of your pattern. So easy!

Alright, I managed to get the pieced sections done (all 16 of them). It really was a struggle to get all the sections pieced out of the fabric Kati sent - since I didn't plan that part ahead! I did manage to finish one quadrant of it, and will finish sewing those sections together today! It's finished!

I'm calling this star a 3 layered star, since I think of it as being three different sized stars that are stacked. (and because I'm too busy to think of a cooler name for it.

Stats: 12" finished
Made for: Kati / From the blue chair
Pattern: drawn by me, maybe I'll share it later this week. Here it is!

Free paper piecing pattern here. 

Instructions:
Download image from googledocs.
Open using Microsoft Office, and print as "Full page fax" (no margins etc)
Double check that the square at the top of the print out is 1".

• Cut along the outer lines, and across the three diagonal lines (at the arrows) 
• Sew pieces in order 1-4 leaving 1/4" seam allowance around the outside of the paper pattern.
• Use the same fabric for each number (in my example 1 is bright yellow, 2 is dark grey, 3 is light yellow, 4 is light grey)
• Trim sections leaving 1/4" around all sides
• Sew sections together in order. 
• Four of these blocks will make one 12" finished block (12.5" before sewing full stars together)

Enjoy! If you use this pattern I'd love to see it! Feel free to drop me a line, and add it to the Mommy's Nap Time flickr group!

A Flight of Hope: Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative

My AAQI quilt has been listed! Quick - go see if you can beat my mom to buying it!

I'm so happy to see it listed. I came to make this little quilt because our Chicago Modern Quilt Guild decided to  work on them at a meeting and send them all in as a group. Truthfully I had only heard of the organization in passing prior to that. I'm so glad that I know of them now! You see all around me there are people suffering from Alzheimer's or similar ailments (my Grandma for one, but also my MIL has spent years working with Alzheimer's and dementia patients). AAQI is raising money to fund research to find a cure. 

Go on over and have a browse at the little quilts they have up for sale and auction. You'll find the CMQG quilts listed here (ok they're not listed as a group yet - I'll update when they are). Mine is here. There are some really cute quilts to be had. Most of them have "fast finish triangles" which means they're easily hung with a small nail and a straw or chopstick. I'm sure you could even put them in a frame too. 

If anyone is interested in making a quilt to be sold or auctioned on AAQI check it out - it's really easy to submit a quilt! 

Here's a little bit about my quilt and my inspiration for making it: 

The title, "A Flight of Hope", describes not only the flying geese quilt block, but also the desire to fly away from the troubles caused by Alzheimer's. Around the center panel I quilted inspiring words, including the word "Hope." We have hope that one day we'll have a cure for Alzheimer's. 

Now go buy my quilt! :) 

Intricate.

Is late March too late to declare a word of the year? 

The word "intricate" has been written up on my inspiration board for months now. It is how I frame my thoughts about most of my projects. Not necessarily tiny, not necessarily hard to do, just intricate.

I thrive in the challenge. I want to learn precision and structure. I want to design it all myself. 

I want to be my own sort of quilter. And yet, I often get bogged down by what my peers are doing, how they're succeeding, and gaining popularity that I don't have. I think spring will help me sort these things out...but I need to just keep pushing myself to do my own work - rather than following the crowd. 

Where does that leave me though? Is my desire to teach? Is my goal to write a book? Do I just want to sit around and create however I please? I'm not sure. 

But as for now I want intricacy. I want little complex points, and circles upon circles, nesting together perfectly. 

Who knows where it will take me, but I like the journey I'm on. 

The pictures here are from my current project which I'm calling "Bella Bella..." It's for someone special and is inspired by this book (although I haven't used any of the patterns in that book...) I'm really loving it. 

The Salt Creek Quilters Guild - Quilt Show

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend my first ever quilt show! A friend from my guild had posted about this show in a nearby town, on a whim I decided to go. The show was pretty cool, although a whole lot more traditional than I'm used to! I can respect the talent though! 

One thing that I was surprised by was that their Mini-quilt section could have just been re-named "art quilts" since only one or two of them were pieced. I was a bit disappointed by this since that's the most inspiring area for me. 

Paper pieced mini quilt by Kathy Elwood

They did have vendors - and yes I bought a couple FQ's... how could I not? And they had some demos. One of which really inspired me. It was a demo on "no-tear paper piecing" by Kathy Elwood. Now I've seen tutorials for this method before, and it was really nothing very new to me... but I walked up to the table there and she was working with 2 1/2" squares -- that gets me! All her samples were miniature quilts (the real thing, to scale!) Tiny tiny piecing!! So of course I stuck around to watch her demo and ask some questions. the most mind blowing thing? she uses a large basting stitch to secure the paper to the fabric!

Kathy demonstrating this method... note the amazing tiny quilts all around her!

I do notice that this method of paper piecing isn't nearly as "perfect" as the other way, but heck, it gets me out of picking out those tiny pieces of paper afterward! The blocks she was doing were built out from the center, but I wanted to try it with my fling geese arcs -- since I see quite a few of them in my near future, and this would save me from having to trace my patterns a million times! 

Hand drawn flying geese pattern (transferred to template plastic!) and rows of geese!

Here's a link to a similar method... although she presses hers to the freezer paper so they stick there (I didn't want to go to my ironing board every time when finger pressing is all that's necessary... and I think the basting stitches hold better. 

Here's how it worked. I used a large basting stitch (a 3 on my Juki) to secure the first geese triangle to the paper then used the no-tear method to sew the two outer triangles on. After adding the next flying geese unit, I finger pressed it and then basted that one down. I basted each center geese piece so that the curves didn't shift. they turned out pretty great and I was able to re-use the paper 3 times (simply pull the top string of each of your basting stitches to remove). I'm pretty sure I can get another couple times out of my paper since I traced it out onto freezer paper (it lasts a bit longer than regular paper). 

Close-up of the basting stitches

I want to give a shout out to Kathy -- Thanks for sharing this tip!!! Sewing these flying geese curves is so much easier now that I don't have to re-trace the pattern every time!

PS - I also pre-cut my pieces for this project instead of doing them one by one like I do many paper piecing patterns, this shortened the sewing time by a lot!! 

From the back. 

Worrying...

I have a question for those of you who do flickr swaps.

Do you worry? 

Finished DQS quilt top.

I'm usually not a worrier. I stalk my partner's photostream and blog until I have a list of ideas and then run with it from there. I occasionally worry and mostly about color or fabric likes. I don't have a big fabric stash and sometimes don't have the ability to drop everything and buy more fabric. 

But this time I'm worrying - my Doll Quilt Swap quilt is spectacular (if I may say so), but what if it just isn't my partner's style. It's not entirely her colors but the fabrics were begging to go together. 

Drafted by hand flying geese.

It's technically the hardest/most complex piece I've ever worked on (and that says something I think). Between the miniature NY Beauty block, plus the tiny plus blocks, then the giant set of 48 flying geese in a circle - that I drafted by hand.... and learned a new way to paper piece. I think I've executed it very well so far... and I do still have to quilt it and finalize the "framework" (hehe... how else would I expect for a circular quilt to be hung on the wall?) oh yeah, and it will finish as a circular quilt. 

So I'm worrying. Will my partner like it as much as I do? I couldn't bear if she didn't like it. Sometimes it's ok for a swap partner to not absolutely be head over heals over something... but this one, they've got to love it. What if she doesn't? 

Optional hexies - I haven't decided yet.

I've never felt such angst over sending a quilt to a swap partner... eek! 

Here's hoping she loves it!

(linked up for Fabric Tuesday)

DQS12 - in progress!

I've been making some progress on my Doll Quilt Swap quilt. I've got some lofty goals for this one, and I hope my partner likes it! Here are my initial sketches:

Starting with a small NY beauty block in the center, I'll then start adding borders. Finally ending with a larger circle of flying geese. I think I'd like this quilt to end round, but we'll see what the quilt tells me while I'm working on it!

So far the center is a 7" NY Beauty. It could have been a bit smaller if you ask me, but I didn't want to fiddle with trying to reduce the pattern any more than by 75% If you're wondering, I printed the pattern from this site. I used the first block on the page, and printed 4 pages per sheet (thus reducing it to 1/4th of the original size). I used freezer paper ironed to the wrong side of the small middle sections to control them while sewing the arcs together. I didn't do it perfectly ... there are a couple tiny puckers... but I think it'll come out in the quilting. 

Here are the hexies I made in preparation for the later rounds of the quilt... there are quite a few of them. I hope my partner likes bright fun colors with a splash of grey!

I am excited to work on this more tonight!

For the love of Harry Potter!

I think I may have mentioned it a time or two that I'm pretty obsessed with Harry Potter. Having first read the series in high school, and re-reading it more than half a dozen times since, I'd say I'm a pretty big fan.

I found this picture on flickr recently, made by Amanda Hall. And added it to my inspiration mosaic for the Pillow Talk Swap -- which spurred a conversation with a fellow Pillow Talk Swapper about doing a Harry Potter themed one on one swap together. Although Ale and I haven't set out any dates etc for this swap, we've talked a bit more about it, and I'm excited to say it looks like it will happen! I'm excited to get my HP sewing on!

I've already been playing with some of Jennifer's paper pieced fandom patterns. The symbol of the deathly hallows was first! I love that.

I'll keep you all posted on my fan-crazy sewing! :) I've got so many ideas floating around my head, now to find some time to sew them up!