Peace and Comfort...Finished

My red cross quilt is finally finished. You can see all the pics here. Thank you all so much for making crosses for this quilt. It turned out better than I could have imagined.
Thanks again!

finally found a quiet moment!

here are my blocks for sarah and jess, hooray for a baby who goes to bed earlier than i do! first, sarah's block:i decided to use fringe as my texture for this block. this was a stretch for me as i normally find unfinished edges unattractive, so i wanted to see if i could use them in a different way.
i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, but i'm curious to know what it will look like after going through the wash a few times (assuming this is going to be a quilt that will be used and washed rather than, say, a wall hanging).

The second block I finished was Jess'my favorite part is the contrast between that lovely deep blue and the little piece of orange i used for my pop of color.i'm looking forward to seeing how both of these quilts turn out. Thanks for the great inspiration, ladies!

The Red Cross Quilt

I started with this wonderful embroidery and made it a focal point...I adored that teeny tiny cross too.
I planned something totally different when I first thought about this project, but it evolved into this and I'm pretty happy with it.
I had another bee make crosses for me as well, and of course they got all mixed up in the process. I'm working on making this two sided with another cross design on the back.
Thanks so much for all the unique crosses you made for me. Not done, but at least it's in progress.

Challenging, but so fun!

This was probably the most challenging bee block I've ever made. I so appreciate the opportunity to stretch and struggle. When I saw that you wanted it to be dimensional, I thought of those little paper fans we used to make in school. So I played with fan folding, and angles. I hope the bit of color isn't too much. I'm inspired to make a dimensional quilt of my own.

On another note, thanks for a great bee everyone. This is always my fav bee. You all are so creative and so on it. It's great to have you as quilty peeps!

Texture

There was so much fabric I decided to make two blocks -

hope that is ok!

This was so fun - such gorgeous shades of solids and then deciding on

what pops of color to add to it. I used some scraps from

Far, Far Away 2 to add another dimension of texture with the linen...

I'm mailing them off tomorrow...

Pleaty McSweety

Sarah, your block is in the mail!

I loved putting all the pleats in!

I just hope I didn't overdo the colors!

smock it to me

Texture was the name of the game this month. Origami came to mind and while going through all the books of folded fabric that our library had to offer, I came across this smocking pattern in Folded Fabric Elegance by Rami Kim. I love the suggestion of basketweave.

The green bordering it looks much darker in the photo than in real life. The other two colors in my package form a simple border.

The smocking in progress before trimming and pressing:

Below is the back view at the same point in the process. Here you can see the 1/2" grid of dots that guide all the hand stitching. Following a simple diagram in the book, dots are brought together to form the pleats with lots of knotting between stitches. It takes a few minutes to find your groove, but once I had it, I found the whole process meditative. I've got to find some other ways to use this technique and I may need to order that book. (There are 2 or 3 additional smocking patterns in it along with other fabric origami techniques. One is a VERY cool way to make continuous prairie point edging, with some interesting ways to press them into other shapes.)

Sarah, I thought I'd get this in the mail before I left on a short trip tomorrow, but I'm so enthralled with that center piece I need to bring it to my quilt group first. I promise to pop it in the mail right after the ladies get a look at it.

for jess

loved your inspiration, jess! hope the pop of color works for you.

sarah,
i'm getting to your block this week...sorry i'm late.
j

Jess and Sarah's blocks

First up is my block for Jess. I had intended on making a block similar to the one circled above. My width guestimation was way off, so the beginnings of that block turned into the center of my final block and a little strip in one of the outer edges.



Here's an unobstructed shot of the block.



For Sarah's block, I dug out my solid color scraps and stitched together this non-rainbow of rainbow colors. Halfway through creating the block I came up with the idea to add this flange of texture and I love how that little pop of color sticks out.




Here's the final block. I guess I was trying to create "texture" with my blurry photography!


Thanks so much for participating in the bee this round, everyone! I had a lot of fun working with you all.

The ideas are percolating for finally finishing up the quilt from my month, so I'll be back to ask for your input on things soon.

Star Blocks for Jessica

Sorry these are so late in coming, Jessica! There are 2 9.5" blocks and 1 6.5" block. I dropped them in the mail this morning.

Thanks for joining our group late this round, Jessica! It was great to have you join us.

Sad-colored quilt finished!

Hello, all. Just thought I would drop by Common Threads as a Round One dropout to show that I finally finished my Common Threads quilt!


My design plan asked people to make wonky or geometric blocks that combined a bunch of sad gray solids with a touch of coral red.

Everyone made terrific blocks - I loved them all. I added in a handful of others to have a throw-sized quilt with no sashing or borders.



I've posted a few more pictures on my blog.

Thanks again to everyone for their blocks!

backlog!

I've been meaning to get to these for awhile... I blame a shortage of dog biscuits to keep my puppy occupied long enough for me to sew! First up: the wonky stars for Jessica. These were officially my second and third time making wonky stars... it took me a while to get back in the groove, but I enjoyed getting reacquainted! And I love the citrus colors - so cheery.


Second were Jess's blocks. What are these called, anyway? In my brain, I think I'm cataloging them as little hills... either way, I'm in love. This block took me longer than I care to admit, but I really like the look. I think I feel compelled to add lots of details to these type of blocks, especially if I'm only making one - hope that's okay. And I didn't really have a choice when it came to "pop of color" - I'm teal all the way! I can't wait to see the finished product!

June for Jess

Finished up Jess' block today - such a cool concept and fun inspiration quilt.

I hope it's ok that I added the blue on the bottom too.....did we get July's fabric yet?

big star, little star

Phew, caught up again.

Here are Jessica's maverick stars.

One that's 12.5"-

And one that's 3.5"-

I thought they'd make for a fun I Spy game on the final quilt - find the mini me star. Or perhaps the mother/daughter pair...

This was another block that let me know how much more comfortable I've become with just cutting and sewing without overthinking it all. Granted, it helped that there was a clear cut idea to follow, but I've come along way since the first month nearly two years ago when I was so afraid of making a mistake for Rebekah's turn that I made paper templates for my "wonky" block. (And it still took me two days to actually cut the fabric!)

Two in blue

One of the things that I've loved about this bee is working with colors that I find beautiful, but don't use much in my home. Amanda and Jess both sent packages of blue greens that were fun to play with.

Amanda's block was a geometric challenge too. I so wanted to have my "pluses" overlap in the background space. Does that make sense? In other words I couldn't make them in mini blocks and just set them diagonally from one another. Here's the end result.

Jess's block was one that I've grown so much more comfortable making in the past two years. I looked quickly at the inspiration photo and was drawn to the block that had a small triangle. From there, I just started cutting and sewing. No drawing or planning. I know this comes very naturally to most of the women in this bee, but it's one of the things that was way outside my comfort zone when this bee started two years ago.

See those inset pieces of solid color in the prints? How about different widths and angles that are a little off? That's your influence ladies. Thank you.

block for Jess

I loved Jess's inspiration and that the amount of fabric she send suggested a lot of seams and switches in the blue background--truly her own twist on the inspiration piece.

 and a close up...

and the backside...

It's going out with tomorrow's mail!

Oh dear

I have learned that some of my packages for June didn't get sent out (SIGH...long story). They are going out today, so if you haven't gotten my fabric yet, it will arrive this week. Sorry for the delay!

Last but Not Least... I Hope!

A couple of things occurred to me yesterday. One, it's almost July. Two, July is my month for the Quilting Bee, (and my birthday.) And three, I had no idea what I wanted to have you guys make. This happened to me last year, too, for my own Bee. I got so caught up in the fun of making everyone else's blocks, I completely forgot to think about what I wanted for my own.

So, I sequestered myself in my office and buried myself in my Flickr favorites and all the bits of inspiration that I have saved on my computer. Two hours later, I still wasn't sure what I wanted, but I kept coming back to this image.

This was made by The Mayfly for the Virtual Quilting Bee. I love it hard. The simplicity of the neutral tones, the fabulous texture, the pleats. (Oh! The pleats!) And so I decided to check out the rest of the blocks that were made for this particular quilt. And boy howdy! I loved them all!

So I thought I would just procure myself some neutral solids and ask you guys to make me texture-filled blocks. I figured it would be something you could all have fun with and use your own creativity and I would end up with something sophisticated and lovely. But then I saw this:

This was in the same Virtual Quilting Bee pool, but made for a different quilt and stitched by Uncommon Grace. And it struck me that this block was just as textural as the other blocks, even though it seemed so different at first. And I loved LOVED the little pop of color. And that's when it hit me. I knew exactly what I wanted you guys to make for me! Textural blocks with little bursts of color!

So, I went to look at Kona cotton to find a couple of similar tones to use for the background of the blocks. The problem was, I couldn't find a couple of similar tones that I liked... I found 10.

So, I bought them all. I mean, look at them! It's pretty much impossible to narrow it down any further, right?! So here's what I'm gonna do. When these get here in the mail, I'll parcel them out so each participant gets a portion of a couple of neutrals. With this, I'd like you to make me 12.5"x12.5" blocks featuring texture (pleats, pintucks, rouching, stitching, embroidery, etc.) and a small burst of color. I'd love for you to use fabric from your own stash for the pops of color, so that I can have a little of each of you in your block. The color sections can be prints or solids or both.

I don't really want to get any more specific, because I'm really looking forward to seeing how each of you interprets this! But please, let me know if you have any questions or if you need more fabric or would like me to send you some color along with your neutrals. Thank you!

*PS: Sorry about the weird way the photos got cropped, but I need to leave to pick up my CSA and don't have time to resize them all. Click on the images to see the full thing.

Forgetful

I posted these on my blog a while back, even uploaded them to flickr, but forgot to post them here -- where they belong. I got carried away with Nadia's and made three blocks.

For Amanda -- clearly I need a better iron.

And for Wendy. I was trying to make this reflective of my personality -- jeans, t-shirt, blend into the background, barefoot. However, I ended up with footless bald girl. And that's just ridiculous, because I have an overabundance of hair. Inconsistencies aside, I enjoyed putting this together. I love the people blocks. I had long ago (when I was in college LONG ago) seen one with men/women/children in different bright colors. I put it in my file and never did it. Wendy's block is making me want to pull it out again. So fun.