1 - QuiltCon 2022

You might be expecting a QuiltCon recap blog post, but I need time to work out how to arrange quilt pictures! I returned home to Central Florida from Phoenix, at midnight last night (Monday), so today has been about "processing" the event; and unpacking, sorting, and laundry. 

Being one of the first 1,000 people to register for QuiltCon, online last summer, meant that when I arrived at the event and checked-in, I received a swag bag from QuiltCon sponsors. Not only were all the goodies in a cool "Desert Cacti" bag, but several items will be downright useful.

Quilter's Dream batting is my favorite, and QD generously gave each of us a crib size batt of select loft; a pink print fat quarter will suit my Glitter quilt; threads will be nice for piecing; and Flatter iron spray is always useful. 

My purchases from QuiltCon vendors weren't too over-the-top. I went with a shopping list, and was able to buy everything except Aurifil threads.

What I did get are (from left to right): a few fat quarters; yardage of a lovely palm print double gauze (you'll soon see me wearing it); a box and more of size 8 Wonderfil perle cotton; two different brands of natural-colored linen - Essex and Moda - and an orange striped linen; and, (at the bottom) Heat and Bond for the "Seaglass" quilt I plan to make; hand and machine quilting needles; and needle threaders. 

My friend Deb, asked me to take pictures of the Wonderfil booth. IMO, it was one of the best booths and always had a line when I walked past.  

By Saturday, the Wonderfil Eleganza (size 8 perle cotton) display case had many "out of stock" colors. (Seems like the busiest vendor day was Friday.) Handwork was evident in QuiltCon quilts, with lots of them showing off big stitch, Kantha, and Kawandi-type stitching.

I also purchased QuiltCon magazine, as I have at every QuiltCon I've attended. This was my fifth show. 

Inside, I knew I'd find a picture and write-up of my 2019 temperature quilt. It's a huge honor to have a quilt in this publication. 

At the awards ceremony... 

I'll just say that the awards ceremony delivered surprising results. Several of us observed that the definition of "modern" is apparently changing. You can go here to decide for yourself whether winning quilts met the MQG's definition of modern:

"Modern quilts are primarily functional and inspired by modern design. Modern quilters work in different styles and define modern quilting in different ways, but several characteristics often appear which may help identify a modern quilt. These include but are not limited to: the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space, and alternate grid work. 'Modern traditionalist' or the update of classic quilt designs is also often seen in modern quilting."

Quilts with borders; feather quilting; and buttons as embellishment, were among several unexpected characteristics. I talked with an MQG staffer and suggested that the MQG offer a webinar with a panel of "experts" who could converse about what's currently considered modern. No doubt it's a moving target, but such information would be helpful - to recognize what's on trend, and have those characteristics explained. 

I found myself more interested in non-winning quilts, and will share those in my next post.

As always, the best part of QuiltCon is gathering with friends. It was a happy surprise to find that six, of nine of us from Central Florida MQG, stayed at the same hotel! Gathering for breakfast was as much fun as the show!  

More to come! Linda

Ready, Go!

This is week three of Jo Avery's Patchwork Pony Sew Along. The week of February 14th is meant to be about adding the mane and tail. My two ponies now have both.

Initially, I'd thought I'd have to ask friends for some leftover yarn (not being much of a crocheter or knitter), but I looked through my Sugar and Cream dishcloth yarn (yes, I do knit dishcloths) and found colors that seemed to be meant for my ponies.

Red yarn, and a little bit of cream variegated yarn, for the denim boy. And a combo of aqua and orange yarns for the Florida-looking girl. 

For me, this post is also week four of the Sew Along -  Sharing! 

My ponies have eyes now too! Thank you to my friend Lynette who gave me some white felt for eyes.

The black part of each eye is stitched with embroidery floss.  

I couldn't be happier with how these turned out! I'll be donating them to my Big Cypress Quilter's adopted charity - Children's Home Society of Florida. I only wish I could see the faces of the boy and girl who receive these... or maybe get to pick for themselves? 

Ponies are so much fun to make! I've left the pattern out in my sewing room, and some already-prepared batting, so I can make another one or two. Jo includes a pattern piece for making a horn, so a pony can be turned into a unicorn. Wouldn't that be cute? 

This is a great pattern, and Jo has made videos to go with it. So if you're interested, stop by her shop for the pattern. 9￡converts to $12.18 USD. Tell Jo I sent you! 😀 I'm not sponsored or compensated in any way... I just want you to enjoy a fun make!

Another thing that's made me happy this week is finishing the quilt top for the Central Florida MQG "Architecture Challenge."

This 70" X 80" quilt top was inspired by a photo I took of the Miami Children's Museum.

You can see I used the most vivid colors - nine colors of Painter's Palette solids - and 60° roof line angles. 

Piecing - improv style 😀 - was more than a little fiddly, and very time-consuming, but I'm satisfied with the result. 

Whatever I quilt is going to "make or break" the design. At this time, I'm planning to use several different thread weights and colors to make the negative spaces "say something."But, I won't touch the quilt top until I return from QuiltCon where I'm hoping to find quilting design inspiration, and different weights of Aurifil thread (like #40 and #28) with which to quilt it. 

Book Recommendation

I'm always happily surprised when I listen to two good books in a row! Such was the case with Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley. What I assumed was that I'd be hearing a story about a fire-fighter's daughter. I couldn't have been more wrong! 

Daunis Fountaine is half-American/half-Indian living in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. She's learned tribal ways from her father's family - the fire keepers - yet her pale skin gets her into places her friends can't go. The community lives and breathes hockey, and as the team's first female player, Daunis has earned the respect of her community, and the elders to whom she gives great respect in return. 

When a new, first-season 17 year-old, Jamie, joins the hockey team led by Daunis's half-brother, Levi, Daunis can't deny her attraction to him. Yet Jamie isn't forthcoming about himself, and that makes her suspicious. When two tragic deaths occur, Daunis finds herself unexpectedly in a situation where she can help her community, but it has to be kept quiet. What must Daunis sacrifice to keep her activities secret?

This riveting book educated me about some of the cultural aspects, beliefs, ceremonies, and language of the Ojibwe tribe, and how alcohol and methamphetamine can become a problem.

Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

On last Friday afternoon's power walk, I was so intent on my book (Firekeeper's Daughter, above) with my head down, that I nearly walked into this couple! They were leisurely strolling down the street! 

Sandhill cranes are a Florida protected species. They're so large - regal - that one can only stop and watch them with respect. This couple apparently is not afraid of people. 

So, I'm heading to QuiltCon! I can finally say that!

The much anticipated start of the big event - February 16 through 20 in Phoenix, Arizona - is nearly here. I'm ready to:

• see my three quilts in the show: Temperature Quilt; Illusions of Victor; and Playin' Around
• attend lectures
• see stunning modern quilts
• take a "Piecing With Templates" workshop with Melissa de Leon Mason
• shop the vendors
• attend a "Leader Mingle," for anyone in a leadership position in an MQG chapter
• attend a reception for those who have taken a workshop with Maria Shell (I've taken two virtual workshops)
• and generally have fun meeting-up with Instagram #friendsinmyphone

This is your friendly reminder that you can watch the QuiltCon Awards Ceremony as it's live-streamed on Wednesday, February 16 at 7 pm Mountain time - that's 9 PM for my friends in the Eastern time zone. Go to the QuiltCon website to view it here. 

When I return, I anticipate dedicating a couple blog posts to a QuiltCon review. If you're interested, stay tuned! Linda

Counting Down the Days

I've been working on a few different things as I am counting less than six days until I head to Phoenix for QuiltCon. Each day it gets closer, I'm more excited. 

In my sewing room... 

My restock of Painter's Palette "Sky" and "Daisy" arrived from Pineapple Fabrics (best price now, as cotton fabric prices continue to rise), so I've set to working on my architecture challenge quilt again. I've made myself a goal of having a finished quilt top before going to QuiltCon.

Still liking to switch to hand stitching in the evenings, I've been big stitch quilting. Two small linen fabric sandwiches have turned into zipper pouches. These are samples I'll use when giving my "Big Stitch Quilting and More" lecture/mini workshop several times over the coming months. 

Students will get a small kit to practice big stitches, and can turn it into a zipper pouch if they wish.

 

Keeping up with the Patchwork Pony Sew Along hosted by Jo Avery in the UK, this week's assignment was to use the long gusset strip to join the two sides of the pony. For this pony, I pieced several fabrics together and then quilted them on top of batting. 

For the denim pony, I cut a long gusset from a blue jeans leg. Obviously, I pinned a lot before sewing, to ensure that the two sides matched-up!

 

Turning the thick denim fabrics right side out, through the small slot in the pony's belly, was a little challenging. 

But I had so much fun rotary cutting small batting pieces into chopped bits! Can't explain why this was such a satisfying activity, but it felt so good to roll the cutter back and forth across the cutting mat to turn chunks into useable bits. From the top of my sewing room closet, I found and emptied two plastic bags of leftover pieces. Using-up is such an "ahhh" feeling! 

If you like what you're seeing, Jo's Patchwork Pony pattern is here (a percent of her profits are being donated). And be sure to look at a stable full of ponies on the Instagram hashtag patchworkponysustainablesewalong

Each pony is a nice size: 14"H X 13"W X 2½"D. Next week they're getting manes and tails. Oh, and eyes!

On Tuesday afternoon, I taught English Paper Piecing to 26 quilters in my Big Cypress Quilters chapter of Quilting Guild of The Villages.

I was asked to teach how to make a name tag - a little Grandmother's Flower Garden block. Seven hexagons on each side of the two-sided name tag, so everyone is piecing a total of 14 hexagons. 

Name is stitched on a Bernina

Name is hand embroidered

Our chapter has an Accuquilt, so one of our members helped everyone cut hexagons from their selected fabrics, and also cut out two hexagons from the fabrics onto which they'd stitched their names. 

I took along a couple of my finished EPP projects, and another WIP. I've made 58 of the 60 needed medallions in this Prudence Quilt. I've been EPPing this since winning an Instagram giveaway of the Prudence Quilt templates and papers from Lilabelle Lane Creations (a $105 value!), back in June, 2019!  Won't I have fun laying out all the medallions and crosses for the final design?

 

The afternoon was a great success, and reminds me how much fun it is to teach. I think several of these quilters are hooked on EPP!

Book Recommendation

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield takes place in England where a young woman, Margaret, lives in an attic room above a bookstore that she operates with her father. When a letter arrives from the famous Vida Winters, an authoress with dozens of titles to her name, Margaret, who has never read a Vida Winters book, is intrigued. Ms. Winters wants Margaret to come to her home and write her biography. A promise is made that Ms. Winters will tell the truth, and Margaret will write that truth. What is revealed is remarkable and unfathomable, and not quite adding-up. Intrigued, Margaret visits the ruins of Ms. Winter's childhood home, where she meets someone who adds a new twist to the truth. 

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

Hubs and I have been enjoying watching Olympic curling on TV. We learned about the sport and become hooked during the 2018 Olympics when John Shuster and his team won gold. 

We've already watched all of mixed doubles play. Sadly the US didn't win a medal, but Italy, a team that played undefeated, deserved the gold. Now we're watching the four-person men and women's teams. In round-robin play, both teams have played and beat the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee). 

Women's play against the ROC, February 9

Did you know that the QuiltCon Awards Ceremony will be livestreamed? Anyone, anywhere can watch it, so add a note to your calendars:

Wednesday, February 16, 7 PM Mountain time (9 PM Eastern time)

LINK

Linda

Patchwork Pony Prep

This is the schedule for the Patchwork Pony Sew Along being led by Jo Avery in the UK.

This week we're to prepare two outer panels that will become the two-sided pony. I dug into a bin of leftover patches and blocks to come up with these two panels and the long strip that will join the two sections. 

I quilted each piece onto batting and then cut the pony shapes.

I made a second pony using denim (jeans) and canvas/home dec fabric. Next week we'll be sewing ponies together with the long fabric strips.

Several of you mentioned that in the past you'd made a Scotty Dog or a similar type of pony. So did I! This is one I made for a grandson, in December 2014. Jo's pony isn't quite like this dog. 

I've returned to rug-braiding since cutting more strips from a thrift shop bed sheet, and two of hub's shirts. I'm braiding with eight strands. Now I'm taking a pause again because I think this rug needs a darker blue. Time for a thrift shop visit.

Book Recommendation

Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves is book #4 in the Vera Stanhope series. Unfortunately, as so often is the case, after reading book #1 (The Crow Trap), I could not find book #2 and #3 in audiobook format through my listening apps: Hoopla and Axis 360. So book #4 is my second Vera Stanhope listen.

Detective Investigator Vera Stanhope has joined a health club, ostensibly to show that she's making an effort to be fit. When she finds the body of a woman in the sauna, she's on the case. Assisted by her crack team of investigators - diversely different personalities yet oddly suited to the work- including loyal Joe Ashworth, her right-hand assistant, they begin interviewing everyone who knew the woman. When they discover she's a social worker who was involved in a high profile case where a young mother drowned her son, old assumptions are revisited. Of course, Vera brings more information to light to catch the murderer. 

I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy watching old episodes of Vera on TV (on the Ovation channel. I have no access to the newest episodes.) If you like a good who-done-it, this is one to read. 

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

While outdoors Thursday afternoon, taking a four mile power walk, I returned home just as another rocket was being launched from Cape Canaveral. These two pictures are of Falcom 9: Starlink 4-F, carrying another load of communications satellites. 

From our house, which is 110 miles from the launch site, we've seen a half dozen launches now, but it never gets old. It's still a marvel of engineering and science. Linda

New Projects

Don't ask me why, but when I saw the adorable ponies being made by Jo Avery, I fell in love. They're so darned cute! (I met Jo at QuiltCon in Savannah, and her Scottish accent is as cute as she is.)

Though I don't know a small child who might like one of these, I decided I'd make at least one to donate to the Children's Home of Florida.

"Patchwork Pony" pattern by Jo Avery

Jo's pattern is for sale, with a portion of sales going to a UK organization called Create and Sustain. These ponies are meant to be sewn using only materials you already have at home. The Sew Along begins tomorrow. 

I bought the pattern, and have dug into fabric scraps and leftover batting bits to get started. Though I'm depending on the sharing nature of local friends for felt and yarn to make the eyes, and mane and tail!

If you're interested in joining, here's the link to Jo's post with details.  Though I'm not sure I can keep up because QuiltCon falls during the Sew Along, I'll do my best.

I've previously shared that I've begun designing my quilt for our Central Florida MQG Architectural Challenge. As inspiration, I'm using the picture I took of the Miami Children's Museum, from the balcony of a cruise ship (our one and only cruise in 2019).

I pulled ten colors of Painter's Palette solids. After checking the museum's roof angles against my rotary ruler to work out that they're 60° angles, I started cutting fabrics into those angles. I moved around pieces and could see a possible three-dimensional effect with the placement of lights and darks. 

When one row worked out, I added another row. 

I like where it's headed, though I still don't know what the finish will look like. This is the first time I've intentionally approached designing this way.

Improv Discussion

Yesterday, my friend Maureen (in South Florida MQG) and I had a phone chat about the design method I'm using. She calls it "improv," as she understand improv is creating as you go, whether it's precise or imprecise piecing.

Not to be contrary, but I said I always thought improv meant rotary cutting without a ruler, and using organic pieces to assemble a quilt. 

We had a nice discussion about it, and ended up saying we'd like to know how other quilt makers interpret "improv." Do you have any thoughts about it? 

Nonetheless, I won't be going any farther on my architectural design until I receive an online order of more Painter's Palette "Sky," the lightest blue. 

Speaking of ordering fabric... have you noticed the price of raw cotton? It hit $1.28 today. A record high!

Not to get into a detailed economics lesson, but basically... last May, when we experienced an increase in the price of quilting fabric, by about a $1 a yard or so,  cotton was at about 96 ¢ Can you imagine what retail price $1.28 will translate to?! Fabric prices have the potential to increase by 50%!

My public service announcement to my quilt-loving friends:

If you haven't yet bought quilting cotton fabric needed for a project(s), or you anticipate needing batting, I recommend buying it now. Prices for both products will increase. It's just a matter of "when."

Book Recommendation

You really can't go wrong with any Liane Moriarty book. She's an Australian author who manages to write captivating stories with great insights into a variety of personalities. 

Apples Never Fall is about a family of six, the Delaneys, who live and breathe tennis. Parents Stan and Joy, married nearly 50 years (she's my age) have recently retired from running a tennis club, and are trying to adjust to a newly-quiet lifestyle. Each of their four adult children had the opportunity and potential to achieve tennis greatness, but are now living with various levels of success and struggles, especially in their personal relationships.

When Joy leaves a cryptic text message for her kids, and no one hears from her for days, the family begins to speculate about where she may be. The police are notified. They're recalling that only months ago, a young woman, Savannah, appeared from nowhere on their parent's doorstep. She ingratiated herself, moving in with them, cooking for them, and making the four kids suspicious of her.

I especially enjoyed this book because it's the first time I've read about the pandemic in a work of fiction. I wondered, early-on in 2020, whether authors would ever write about Coronavirus. Liane did. The pandemic isn't mentioned until the last chapters of the book, but the topic works seamlessly into the storyline. Well done, Ms. Moriarty! 

Linda's score: 4.6/5.0

Expecting to be a bit disappointed in any book that followed Apples Never Fall, I was happily surprised to be captivated by Mr. Nobody by Catherine Steadman. 

Dr. Emma Lewis is a preeminent neuropsychiatrist who is invited to look into what happened to a man found wet and wandering on a British beach, seemingly unable to speak. To investigate his case, she must return home to a place where 14 years earlier, an incident occurred that changed her life, and those of her mother and brother. When Emma meets Mr. Nobody, oddly, he reminds her of someone from her past. Unexpectedly, everything that's happened in the past becomes part of the present, and she must determine who's behind the confusing information she's receiving.  Linda's score: 4.4/5.0

In other fun and games - literally - have you tried playing Wordle? I learned about it from a blogger-friend, Cindy.

It's a word game that can be played only once a day, so you can't become too addicted! And it's not an app, but rather available through the Internet.

I learned this morning that Wordle was sold to the New York Times, so I don't know what that might mean for the future of the game. I only know I am enjoying it, and not doing too badly.

Linda