QuiltCon Prep

In just a couple weeks - February 22 to 26 - thousands of modern quilters will converge in Atlanta, at AmericasMart Convention Center, for the annual modern quilting event called QuiltCon (QC). I can't wait!

Since I'm taking two workshops, I have a little prep work. 

A three hour workshop with Laura Loewen @quiltfortco is Reimagine the Classic Tied Quilt, where we'll use her (purchased) Quilt Tie Felting Kit - Iroiro roving yarn, needle, felting needle, and Leather Felter's finger guards - to tie an 18" X 18" quilt, and add tiny pom-poms. We're to make and bring with us an 18" X 18" quilt sandwich.

I chose the Quilt Tie Felting Kit that's multi-colored, so the yarn color played a part in the fabric colors I'm using in my quilt. 

Remembering that I'd made a Crosscut Quilt when Debbie @aquilterstable hosted a quilt-along back in 2016, I thought I'd make a similar design. This 36" X 36" Crosscut Quilt is now in the possession of a dear cousin, but is a good reminder of what I could recreate as an 18" square quilt.

I followed Debbie's Crosscut Quilt tutorial, but changed the sizes of the blocks I cut. For neutral print squares, I cut 7" X 7" blocks (Debbie cut hers 9½" X 9½".) 

After adding the first 1½" crosscut insertion, 

...and then the second crosscut insertion, I trimmed each block to 6½" X 6½", and sewed them all together. 

Then, as Debbie says, "Now is where it gets especially fun!" I cut 20 blocks, 4½" X 4½". 

I arranged, and joined blocks to make a quilt top 20½" X 20½" - a little larger than Laura asked us to make.

20½" X 20½" quilt top

Having second thoughts about the size, and all that color, I decided to make another, simpler design.

This one began with one print and one solid, cut in 8" X 8" squares. I paired a print and a solid, randomly cut across them twice, rearranged fabrics, sewed them together again, cut them down to 6½" X 6½", and joined blocks to make an 18½" X 18½" quilt top. 

18½" X 18½" quilt top

I will sandwich them and take both of them with me to QC.

My second QC workshop with Youngmin Lee is Jogakbo with Ssamsol Technique. I don't understand what we'll be doing, but Youngmin too offered a kit to purchase. It was mailed to me - fabrics, thread, and a needle. My initial reaction is "blah" because those definitely are not my colors. But I'm looking forward to learning this hand stitching technique... that I can't even pronounce! Jo-gak-bo? Or Jog-ak-bo?

I've also been making 12 Travel Trays (my free pattern here) as friendship gifts. Each tray takes four pairs of snaps - one on each corner - so I've spent many hours hand-stitching 96 snap parts onto them!

Book Recommendation

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger reads like a classic novel. With the flavor of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Mr. Krueger takes the reader on a 1932 trip through Minnesota and Missouri as he relates the adventures of 12 year-old Odie, his brother, their mute friend Mose, and six year-old Emma.

The three boys have been in a pitiless school led by a harsh woman - "the black witch" and her conniving husband. One night, a life-threatening event happens and Odie must get away. The four vagabonds escape in a canoe. Encounters along the way - with a one-eyed pig man; a healing evangelist, Sister Eve; and other destitute people suffering through the Depression in Hoovervilles (shantytowns) - make all of them wary, and yet grateful for the kindness of strangers. Odie's goal is to get to St. Louis. However, when he arrives, Aunt Julia isn't who he expects her to be. Odie must face the truth, and recognize who is his family truly is.

I could easily rate this story higher than 4.2, but I didn't because of the narrator, Scott Brick. I'd heard his voice before, and remembered it from listening to Atlas Shrugged. Though he's apparently very popular, having narrated more than 800 classics, he has a tendency to over-dramatize. It's tough to put into words, but the way he emphasizes certain phrases, with a sort of sing-song timbre, rubs me the wrong way.

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

When power-walking last Saturday, I nearly bumped into these sandhill cranes! While I always begin walking with my shoulders back and head up, too often by the third mile or so, I'm so intent on my speed, with my eyes looking at the ground in front of me, I could nearly walk into them.  

It's noteworthy that one of a pair always seems to be on "watchful alert" while the other looks for food. I gave them a wide berth as I passed on the opposite side of the street. Linda