Among Other Things, QuiltCon Prep

I don't know how a week managed to get away from me, but it sure did! I've had my eyes on the looming date of Quiltcon, figuring out which projects to can get organized, and which ones I can make a little progress on.

A paint chip quilt challenge, organized by Big Cypress Quilters, a chapter of Quilting Guild of The Villages is due April 15. After selecting two paint chip cards (no swapping allowed) we can make anything we want. I wasn't overly pleased with my color combination, but I'm giving it a go anyway. 

My inspiration was this design, found online when I Googled "mid-century modern." I like the deep, narrow curves. But how to create those echoing shapes on a quilt is challenging. That's the point, isn't it? 

I weighed my options - piece those narrow curves? Impossible. Or make bias tape to appliqué by machine or by hand?

I decided to go with Misty Fuse appliqué. I'll apply two to three layers of Misty Fuse to the back of fabric, cut the skinny curves, and then fuse those curves to a background. To prepare, I've drawn (erased, re-drawn, erased and re-drawn) deep curves on a piece of freezer paper. 

I'll wait to being fusing. I'll tackle this approximately 62" X 72", attention-consuming project until after QuiltCon. My design wall will wait. 

I've progressed on quilting Party Time! The 43" square improv-pieced center is filled with half-inch wide straight-line triangles.

Now I'm free motion quilting every confetti dot on the four 13-wide sides, and giving each corner some custom-quilting. The top thread color matches each fabric, so I've had a few thread color changes. All are 50-weight Aurifil.  

In random places, I'm taping a square of masking tape (on the right) to the quilt top, and quilting around it twice to make ghost "confetti" (left).

When not quilting, I'm making Inner City blocks. Mostly from my shoeboxes of solid scraps (I've gotten into stash to give me a few more color combinations) I've cut out more shapes to continue hand-piecing. This little stack, to be added to the other big pile, means I've now made more than 100 blocks - 100+ more needed.

I will take this 5" X 7" pouch of supplies along to QuiltCon, for airport and down-time piecing. 

I've been distracted by Instagram this week, looking at quilters' posts about past QuiltCons, the quilts they've had in those shows, and sharing my own quilts. I was surprised to count and realize I've had a total of 17 quilts appear in 8 QuiltCons. None have earned an award. I think I'm understanding a little of how Susan Lucci felt for so many years.

😊 Are you familiar with my reference to her? 🤣

I've also arranged a few QuiltCon meet-ups with people I see only at this (extremely social) event, and have dinner plans for two evenings. Also, I'm part of two group quilts. Photos will be taken alongside quilts made by: 1) Central Florida MQG members, for the QuiltCon Charity Challenge; and, 2) 16 of us who made Pot Luck. Of the 16 of us, 8 will attend QuiltCon.

Saturday afternoon and evening I'll be taking my six hour QuiltCon workshop - Chaos With a Twist with Libs Elliott (90 minute break for dinner). Lib's supply list includes colored pencils, a couple rulers, rotary tools, and fabric - 8 to 12 fat quarters. Having at least a yard of all these colors, and not wanting to chop yardage into fat quarters, I selected and cut eight half-yard pieces to take along. I'm documenting them here, for future reference because...

...you know I won't be satisfied making a small quilt! I'll return home to make it bigger.

Speaking of "bigger," have you noticed that I enlarged the font on these blog posts? My vision has gotten worse in the past year. Bigger is better. This past week, I finally saw (ha, ha) an ophthalmologist (after cancelling my January appointment due to contracting COVID). I learned that my eyeglass prescription is incorrect. And - not really a surprise - I am a candidate for cataract surgery. For months, I've been seeing a glare when in bright sunshine, and in buildings with overhead lights. An April consultation is when I'll learn more about the procedure. Honestly though, many of my friends have already gone through this, so I have an insider's understanding as to what happens, and what can be problematic. I began wearing glasses in third grade, then wore contacts for 48 years, and then returned to glasses for the past eight years. I am looking forward to experiencing what it's like to not needing vision correction, except in particular situations. Happy days ahead!

Happy QuiltCon ahead! 😄 Linda