Quilt Retreat Project Recap

I wish there was a quilt retreat every month! I had a grand time. We stayed at the Pioneer Ridge B & B which started out as a dairy barn. It is a fantastic space for retreats and I hear the place is booked during the non-tourist season with other quilting groups and crafters like scrapbookers. You can click the name to visit their official website.

I stayed two nights and three days. I tackled some boring projects that I have wanted to finish for seven years. Pillowcases and shams to match quilts I use regularly. I am thrilled they are done and I will no longer be shuffling those fabrics around my sewing room.

 Here are the first new pillowcases, two kings and two standards.

And I got two shams pieced...the quilting part might take me a little while to finish. I had two blocks leftover from the original quilt...which by the way...was a Breakfast Club project the first year we started meeting, 2009. I used to finish the quilt tops and quilting before the next breakfast club. Not anymore! I've got an extensive "backlog" of quilt tops.

I also made a set of pillowcases and shams to go with my winter quilt, Iditaquilt. A few years ago a batik with snow dogs was released and I decided it was the perfect fabric for companion pillowcases to my existing quilt.

After being a good girl and mucking through the tedious projects I got to work piecing my "Bloom" quilt blocks together. I had to finish the final border at home but what a delightful design. I think some projects in the quilting queue are going to get bumped.

A few more fun projects to share. Years ago I had my handyman build huge quilt frame to hang quilts in our master suite. I have finally got three quilts with hanging sleeves sewn into place. I adore the  quilt below that started out as an online BOM. I took the 12 blocks and came up with my own setting. I've shown it before, "Sweet Peas in the Meadow." I'm so happy to see her everyday when I wake up. 

And I also just got another project done and delivered from my handyman a large console/cabinet that I will use for storing my quilts. I drew out the design and gave it to my handyman. He is amazing. He does metal fabrication work and he made the barn door railing from scratch. I LOVE IT! I am going to add a darker stain before I do the polyurethane coating.

And one last silly picture. My first morning home from retreat. I woke up to both dogs on the bed after my husband got up to make coffee. Logan was actually laying on my legs. Kinley rarely gets on the bed when Logan is already in place. I missed them, too.

April Breakfast Club - Part 2

Breakfast Club 2016 Mystery Quilt

Our club leader, Marcia, made a mystery from a pattern in this book.

She encouraged the group to exchange colorful batiks, 2 1/2 x 5-inches for the three monthly meetings before our mystery in December. She also suggested we have 4 yards of a dark background fabric. On mystery day, she had us construct one block.

Then she revealed her class sample of how the blocks would come together with one-inch sashing.

We also got to see the original designer's pattern. The book has lots of great quilts and was a nice little Christmas present to ourselves.

My favorite part of Breakfast Club is seeing the individual interpretations of the patterns we make. There was a lot of piecing to this particular project so it has taken several months for the finished and partially finished projects to start appearing at our Show and Tell sessions.

Marge went small and made a runner.

Joyce was one of the first to finish her piecing and get it quilted. She made hers smaller also, 42 blocks instead of the quilt pattern's 80 blocks.

Megan went completely different with her color options. She chose a bubble gum pink background with turquoise blues and bright yellows. She dropped the sashing and created diagonal rows of stars where her blocks met. She also downsized the number of blocks. 

We have a second Joyce in the club and I think she is the only one making the 80 block size. She has all her blocks together and is planning to add borders. This quilt has a beautiful rosy tone to it.

Jackie has her blocks sewn together. She downsized to 42 blocks. Borders are her next step too.

Kathy downsized but also went with a completely different colorway. Hers is completely done and gorgeous.

Erin was inspired by Megan's version without the sashing so that's how her blocks were put together. Her strips were cut from a set of state flower fabrics. This picture doesn't do it justice. 

It is always fun to see how Rona with change up a pattern. She used a multi-color background with a second dark sashing. 

My version is smaller also, 35 blocks. I made a piano key border with a "sashing" piece inserted to line up with the quilt's center. I love to use scrappy borders on scrappy quilt centers and piano keys is the option I most often use. My colors came from a "Splash," Bali pop and layer cake. My background is one of Hoffman's 1895 batiks, Blacklight.

All my scraps were put together to make this little quilt I am calling, "Extra Credit." It is just shy of 40-inches square. I am going to write up a pattern for it. Maybe the ladies in Breakfast Club will save those little half square triangles from their future projects. I usually incorporate the scrappy HSTs into a border but this time I turned them into a quilt. I might just be on the cusp of becoming a small quilt lover.

There are a few more Mystery quilt versions to be revealed at our Show and Tell sessions. 

April Breakfast Club - Part 1

We had lots of great projects for show and tell at Breakfast Club last week.

April's official project was a pattern using panels. Rona had her's started before class. This wolf panel will be turned into a king-sized quilt.

May's Breakfast Club will feature red, white and blue, patriotic projects. I think Rona has a head start on May's project, too.

So hard to tell in this photo but the runner below is big and meant to lay across the bottom of a bed. 

Joyce's quilt shopping bag...great way to use those fun license plates so many quilt shops are featuring. Seams Like Home is our host for our Breakfast Club meetings.

Don't miss the moose silhouette on the bottom right of Joyce's quilt from our last breakfast club gathering.

Jackie just whipped this little Easter banner together. Love the contemporary design.

And another project from Jackie, also from last month's Breakfast Club. Our projects featured the laser cut silhouettes from a Fairbanks quilt shop, Northern Threads. Here's the link to their website for their fantastic selection of  laser cuts and patterns to feature them.

Jackie was on a roll, a Breakfast Club project finished. "Horizon Charm," is the pattern from the Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine, Winter 2015 issue.

And back from the quilter's, Jackie's "Fall Frolic," also a magazine project from Quilter's World, Autumn 2016.

Kathy had a cute little spring mini...

and a gorgeous finish for her daughter's friend, "Diamond Drop."

Erin with a fun little runner...

she was quilting this little Christmas quilt during our Breakfast Club.

Marge made this adorable tote for her iron. I need this pattern.

Finally, our official April class sample from Marcia. The pattern is, "Spotlight," from Mountain Peak Creations. 

Extra Credit

Working with my scraps from the last project....

has led to an actual quilt inspiration. 

 I also had a stack of 2 1/2 x 5-inch rectangles left from the "Splash" Bali pop and I wanted to make a star block, put it on point, and create corner blocks with the mini triangle cross hatch blocks. I think I have it all figured out with a little help from my EQ 7 program.

An enhanced carpenter's star...perfect!

I am so proud of myself for actually thinking to use Bonnie Hunter's tool for making HSTs. 

Maybe I can get this little top pieced before Breakfast Club on Thursday. I was going to do some more sewing tonight but my dogs just came inside from playing in the backyard...not good...it is "breakup" season in Alaska. Snow is melting like crazy and my backyard is a bit soupy. The pups don't look too muddy but they sure are stinky. This will make their third bath this week! And the mosquitoes have shown up with the warmer temperatures. The bears are awake too but haven't seen any yet...

I think Kinley will be the first to get in the shower. She does not want to look at me. Not volunteering to go first.

A New Book from Margaret Solomon Gunn

I am spreading the word that a new book has just been released by Margaret Solomom Gunn, "Design Inspirations." You can see her facebook post about the book and get a chance to win a copy. 

Her book is appropriately named, as I find her work to be very inspirational. I have learned more from her than any other quilting author. The 10 minutes I spent talking with her at the International Quilt Show in Houston last fall gave me three great tips I have incorporated into my quilting techniques. 

She is amazing. Click her book title above to visit her facebook page.

Quilt Tops - Finished!

I have been on task!

It is such a great feeling to finish two big quilt tops. Both projects had lots of piecing with many points to match.

Bonnie Hunter Mystery 2016

My first Bonnie Hunter mystery, "En Provence," was a great little challenge. I used the specialty rulers Bonnie recommended for her design. Her ruler, the Essential Triangle tool was used to make all the half square triangles and the quarter square triangles. Her ruler was great and I need to remember to use it for my own designs.  Bonnie used Tri Recs rulers for making the "triangle in a square" sections, also a great set of rulers. For years I have read Bonnie's blog and she spends lots of time emphasizing the accuracy of the quarter-inch seam in piecing...I totally understand her constant harping on this necessity. When I started putting everything together it was really amazing how often I basted a row where all the points were meeting and it was good without fixing before I put in the final stitching. I'm pretty much a stickler for my points being crisp so what a relief to have it all come together so nicely. 

 

"Le Tour de Provence," 69 x 87

I did make my version, "Le Tour de Provence," smaller, twelve blocks instead of 16. Kudos to all those quilters who did her original size. I saw some really great versions of this pattern in the blogging world. The quilt below is one of my favorites and I would have done this if I had seen it earlier. This is Jane Klotz Gephart's version as seen on the facebook page of McTavish Quilting Studio.

Photo from McTavish Quilting Studio FB post.

There are ways to simplify Bonnie's designs and I would take some of those steps if I were to tackle any of her designs in the future. I get that her niche is using scraps...I just don't have the scrap stash she has to fulfill the scrappy fabric designs...maybe after another 20 years of quilting. I had to order strips to make this design...that kind of defeats the goal of busting your stash for a quilt project. I think I would have had a comparable result with straight yardage in these colors...especially working with batiks like I always do.

Breakfast Club Mystery 2016

Our Breakfast Club mystery was another major piecing project. I also made this mystery smaller, 35 blocks instead of 80...yes...80 blocks in the original design. I think 42 blocks has been the largest finish so far from our group of Breakfast Club quilters. 

I made my own border design, a variation of piano keys, to follow the layout of the blocks with the 1/2" charcoal sections. A great way to use up many of the 2 1/2 x 5-inch pieces I didn't want to make into more blocks. I used a "Splash," Bali pop and Bali cracker with the Hoffman 1895, "Blacklight," which is more like a charcoal color, as the background fabric.

"Fruit Rollups," 57 x 75

Here's a reminder of the original design Marcia used to create the mystery, "Meadow," from the book, "Moda All-Stars Scraps Made Simple." Marcia made her version in bright batiks with a dark background and encouraged everyone to swap bright batiks for a truly scrappy look. I was on the fence about participating in the mystery since winter driving is a bit challenging in December but the quilting goddess cleared the streets so I was able to make the session...though I didn't take part in the scrap swap.

I am getting a reputation for creating little designs with my leftovers from trimming the corners of the blocks where a 2 1/2-inch square is sewn on the diagonal of a block corner. I get a 1 3/4-inch half square triangle that finishes as 1 1/4-inch...tiny little devils...but they have become a bit of an obsession. Here's what I am doing so far with these scraps...making little blocks that will finish at 3-inches. 

Another little quilting project that could take months...

April - Beginning a New Month

First...a bit of news from March.

I almost forgot to share the birthday present my son, Zack, gave me. We landed on Spencer Glacier...way up on the peaks of the Chugach mountain range. Our weather was perfect; sunny and no wind! The snow was almost waist deep powder. We are standing on the snow that the airplane skis packed down when we landed.

Three of my son's friends also landed on the glacier with their airplanes. This photo was taken from our airplane parking spot. If you click on the photo you will be able to see the black lab dog one of the couples brought in their plane. A pretty unique outing for private planes. My son spent a summer working in Denali National Park, flying tourists around Denali and landing on the a glacier there so he has lots of experience with this kind of flying. We patiently waited for a great day for our trip.

I also wanted to share a picture of a quilt I donated to the orphanage my father spent a few years in when he was a wee boy. The Methodist Children's Home in Waco, Texas, has an annual craft sale to raise money through their alumni association. I have donated quilts every now and then. It is getting easier for me to let go of my quilts. The blocks in this quilt were part of a Thangles sampler through a local quilt shop. I came up with my own layout to include the six new star blocks I added to the layout. It was one of my first longarm quilting endeavors which I loved at the time but now I would do things so differently! 

I did get the red snappers installed on the fabric leaders of my quilt frame. I have loaded the backing fabric for my next project...it was so much easier than pinning! I still pinned the quilt top bottom edge to a fabric leader. I'm waiting for about a three hour block of time to get the batting in place and baste everything together. I absolutely cannot leave anything hanging down when I leave the room or my cat might attack it.

My most exciting quilt related news is the new books I bought from one of my favorite longarm bloggers, Margaret Solomon Gunn. She self-published these two books and they are fantastic!!! 

You can check out the books through her website here.

Our cat, Eli, likes to spend time in the dog run. I haven't managed to get a photo of both dogs and the cat on the dog bed together. Every once in a while they all nap together peacefully. This is Kinley. Logan was inside napping.