Monday, January 12, 2015

Little Progress


My sewing room hasn't seen much of me this week as I've been out-and-about attending various quilting activities. 

Last Tuesday, our Central Florida MQG presented a quilt to North Lake Presbyterian Church, to thank them for letting us use a room at the church, at no charge, for our monthly meetings. That was a neat presentation, as we were touched to learn how much the quilt means to them. It will be used as a raffle item at an upcoming Art Festival, to raise funds for the church's various charities. Yep, that's me on the far right.
Chevron-style string-pieced quilt: 87" X 97"
On Friday, this lovely young lady, Kelly came to my house. We "met" through Instagram - she's @sewkellysews - and was my consultant for my Jamberry Nails party. It was fun to show my friends what Jams are all about. Everyone left with at least one Jamberry fingernail, and a few even used nail polish! For me, it was fun to meet a quilter friend (she could also be my daughter) who is also the amazing mom of four little ones. Her youngest daughter is the same age, by two days, as our little Luke in Austin. 

It will be great to meet-up with Kelly again at QuiltCon. 

While I'm away from home I want hand work to take along, so I pulled out my travel roll-up. I found this inside. It's a Joseph's Coat block I started hand-appliquéing in January 2010! Obviously, I'd forgotten there was a block inside because I gave away this UFO before we left Iowa. The travel roll-up hasn't been touched for 2-1/2 years!

Well, it's being used now for a new EPP project.

On the at-home sewing front, I finished a Modern Hexagons pillow using a great tutorial by Nicole at Modern Handcrafts. This was easy, and fun!

In fact, it was so fun that I'll be sharing how to make it on Wednesday, July 1, at an all-day workshop with Quilting Guild of The Villages. The pillow finishes at 13-1/2" X 13-1/2" with a 14" X 14" pillow form inside.

Last week I also pulled fabrics to start a Metro Waves quilt

Thinking to make every wave a different print, I cut lots and lots of curves with my Quick Curve Ruler.

When I put the prints on my design wall, I quickly realized this wasn't working. Yuck. You can see the color pattern diagram in my left hand. Every arch is meant to be repeated horizontally across the quilt, but these prints weren't working together.

So, I've played, cut more prints and Kona white, and rearranged. 
I'm pretty sure this is what I'll sew together. However, let me offer some advice if you make this pattern. 

  • The supply list calls for 2/3 yard of eight different solids. Solids are a couple inches wider than prints!
  • From each fabric width, six 7" cuts are needed.
  • That equals 42", and most prints don't have that much usable fabric.
  • So, if you plan to use prints as I did, you'll need to either: 1) include some of the selvage in your cuts, or 2) buy extra fabric.
Isn't there's always something new to figure out? In my case, I learned a little more about color and how it applies to making quilts. How timely that the MQG will have a January 27 webinar by Elizabeth Hartman on "Choosing Fabrics for a Quilt."

This Monday is a full day! Line dancing this morning, followed by five hours spent in the classroom teaching quiltmaking, followed by this evening's Central Florida MQG meeting. At least I have pretty nails! Linda

16 comments:

  1. So you never finished that Joseph's Coat either ;)? Mine is still languishing somewhere in a cupboard but I still like it so I hope to get back to it one day. Maybe I'm kidding myself! Have a wonderful and full Monday and show off those beautiful nails.

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  2. You are one busy lady. Have a great day.

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  3. Lovely donation quilt. And the Wave one will be very interesting. Your fabrics are like eye-candy! thanks for the link to the hexagon pillow- I'm off to check it out.

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  4. Gorgeous projects Linda! Love those nails too

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  5. What a full post! I especially love your hexie pillow! One of these days....

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  6. What a fun post, Linda! First, I really like that pillow after using the hexie Christmas fabric ones that I just finished. I'll have to look up that pattern. Secondly, I really like the donation quilt...so pretty! Did you quilt it? Third, you have reminded me that I am not sure where my leaf shaped hand applique project is hiding...haven't seen it it months! And lastly....love those nails and really MUST investigate. I don't know anyone that uses them here. Hope you don't get too tired today!

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  7. Your quilt for the church is wonderful and it's nice that it was so well received. I also like what you ended up doing with your wave colors. Definitely better with a more controlled palette.

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  8. You mentioned so many good projects that I forgot to tell you how much I love the hexie pillow. One of the best uses of hexies I've seen. I really like the space between each one and then the quilting. Maybe I'll make some hexies after all.

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  9. YOu have been very busy.
    Love your pillow. Neat looking quilt you are working on too.

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  10. Great post Linda, love all your projects especially the Jacob's Coat block and the hexie pillow.
    Oh my, love those nails, I'll have to check out them more,
    Julia ♥

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  11. Love the quilt you all made for your Church. I'm sure they'll raise a lot of money. I absolutely love your Joseph's coat block. How large is the block. I am very tempted to want to make a quilt. Is there a pic of your UFO?
    BTW Happy New Year Linda, if I haven't already told you. :-)

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  12. What lovely eye candy in this post! The donated quilt, the QCR quilt-in-progress, and that delightful orange cushion! In fact I've been in love with the pattern ever since Nicole first shared it on Instagram (took a screen shot at the time :-)). Now that I've seen yours I must get moving and make my own version - perhaps in MY favourite colour! Your nails are pretty too.

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  13. What a fun post today. Lots of eye candy to drool over. Great donation quilt and that hexie pillow is so cute -- and I'm not an orange lover. Oh well, the kind you eat I love, but I don't have many orange fabrics in my stash. :) Very cute nails too.

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  14. Fun nails! I agree about the pattern thing - it irks me when designers do the math that way. I always calculate based on 40" rather than 42" lol! Looks like it will be a fun design though!

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  15. you have been busy ! so fabulous that you got to meet up with Kelly and those nails - so cute !! love your orange hexy cushion too and thanks for the tip about the fabric in the metro rings - I've got that on my list for this year !

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  16. I love the orange hexi pillow and your nails look great! I'll bet that was a fun day. Thanks for the inspiration.

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