New Round Robin Square

So my guild does a round robin ...

We're going to start a new round in September.  Here's my center square, thanks to a little thought from me and some help from EQ7

At Piece with Time

I'm getting a jump start on my quilt bee for next year.  I lead the bee, so I always have to be a block or three ahead of the girls.  We're doing another Mystery Quilt this year, but I'm at a stopping place on this.  All my blocks are done, as many of them that can be are set, the inner border is pieced and the other two borders are cut out.  Until we're a little further along, there's not a whole lot else left I can do.

So next year - 2014 - the group has agreed to try At Piece with Time designed by Kristin C Steiner and Diane C. Frankenberger.  I love the work these ladies do.  I'm in the final stages of hand quilting A Southern Album Quilt, something I've been working on since 2009.  At Piece With Time is a wonderful "diary" quilt.  Each block has a theme and you're encouraged to journal about it.  And each block represents a particular time period in a woman's life.

I recently became a grandmother.  This fact alone spurred me to make this quilt.  This quilt and the journal may allow my granddaughter to know things about me we may never get a chance to discuss.

Like A Southern Album Quilt, At Piece with Time has a center medallion that is a magnificent riot of applique -- flowers and vines and bees and berries and the cutest birds' nest.  I will begin this before I actually start the blocks.  As a matter of fact, Hop to It (my current obsessive applique) may end up taking a back seat to this for a while.  It would help if I would buckle down and just finish Indian Summer.

I had decided I wanted to do this quilt before I went to Paducah this past April for the AQS show.  I took the book with me and my previously-purchased focus fabric, and bought the rest of the materials.

The bottom striped material is for the borders.  I can't wait to get started!

Jane, Jane, Jane, Jane Jane....

So I mentioned a few months back that I was considering starting a Dear Jane quilt....

Well, I did. I bought the book by Brenda Papadakis.  And then I bought the software published by Electronic Quilt.  And then I subscribed to the blog Thatquilt.blogspot.com.  Personally, if you're going to fall prey to the madness that is Dear Jane, I offer you these suggestions:

1.  Buy the book and take it somewhere to have a spiral put on the spine.  It's just easier and you save your book a lot of grief.
2.  Buy the software.  It is MORE than worth it.
3.  When you start the quilt, go to the ThatQuilt blog for the first several squares.  This lady gives you pictures and terrific instruction.   After the first row (or three), some of the blocks you can figure out without help.  But I am more than half-way through with the center blocks and I still consult this blog before starting almost any block.
4.  Be aware that Jane is very, very addictive.  It is the quilter's equivalent of eating potato chips - one block isn't enough.  Each block is different and each block offers its own challenges.  It will make you grow and stretch as a quilter.  So even if you're like me, and have several quilts going at one time, Jane will gain particular significance and will become a quilt you spend time with.  I find myself alone most Saturday mornings, as that is the time my husband golfs or fishes.  And it's in those hours that Jane and I spend quality time together.  I may just make one complicated block or several  not-so-complicated blocks, but Jane and I have a weekly "date."
5.  Many of the blocks are straight up applique.  I cut these out, put these in individual bags and stow them in my quilt-n-go bag to take with me on car trips.
6.  Organization is critical.  One of the suggestions for Jane is not to use the same fabric twice.  I know some quilters that do this.  I'm using 1930 feed sack reproductions for my first Jane (my family has taken to calling this quilt Depressed Jane or Jane Needs Prozac).  Each time I use a fat quarter, I toss the used quarter into a separate box so I don't reach for it again.  I also put each competed block in its own plastic bag (I buy the sandwich size) and label the outside of the back with the number and row of the block.  I use a hole punch to punch a small hole in the top of the baggie and put it on a ring.  I have a ring for each row of the quilt.  It's just going to make putting it together easier.
7.  You may have caught the phrase "first Jane" from #6.  Most people that make one Jane go on to make another.  I am one of those people.  This second Jane I affectionately call "My Jane."  This quilt will be blue batiks and I want to use a warm taupe as the back ground.  I will not do all 225 blocks.  I have made notes in my book about what blocks I would do again, which ones I wouldn't touch again for all the fabric in the world, and what I would do differently.  I am enlarging the blocks I want to do again to six and a half inches and setting these on point.  I also will not do the pie-wedge border, but am designing one of my own.  I have to believe that Jane Stickle would be proud.

I am now on row H, about midway through. I need to hit the pause button and begin to put a few rows together.  But I love making the blocks and find myself procrastinating on this part of the process.  I think a trip to Mary Jo's in Gastonia is in order to get the sashing fabric.  This will no doubt inspire me to put rows A-G together before continuing on.

Here's  few of my Janes....they need trimming -- a step I don't do until the very end. This is a journey of either pure inspiration or pure insanity, but Jane is worth the cost of the ticket!

I'm Back...

It has been a long time.  But what a journey....here's a brief rundown of the milestones.

1.  The fibromyalgia worsened a bit and didn't respond to treatment.
2.  I became vice-president of a national quilt group.
3.  I became president of my local quilt guild.
4.  And most importantly, I became a grandma....which resulted in this:

And another pink and white quilt because the grandchild is a girl.  And I sincerely hope the quilting gene has been passed down.  I've already taken her to a quilt shop and she was excited about the colors -- especially anything green.  And she had to touch the fabric!  So maybe, just maybe, the qg (quilting gene) skipped a generation and my granddaughter picked it up.

I'm still hand quilting Southern Album.  I'm still hard at work on Dear Jane -- I'm half-way through.  I've finished Glacier Star and my Irish Quilt.

I've been busy.

When the Idea Strkes...

So most of you know, I'm working on a block of the month call Patriots in Petticoats.  It's in tribute to all the women who assisted in American Revolutionary War.  "Assisted" is kind of a lame word to use, really. These women were spies, lovable liars, and often soldiers themselves -- putting both their lives and livelihoods on the lines for liberty and sweet freedom.  Anyway...the quilt has been an awesome learning experience.

I'm just about done with it.  Last month, I got the fabric and the instructions for the center medallion:

It turned out to be a large center medallion -- 24 inches x 24 inches.  After I completed the piecing and stepped back from it, the first thought through my head was, "Wow....that'd make a pretty Christmas wall hanging or table topper, because it looks kind of like a Christmas wreath."

And it just so happened that the next day was my monthly sewing bee at Hancocks.  And it just so happened that Hancocks had just gotten in their new line of My'liss Christmas fabrics.  And it just so happened that $18.35  and five days later I have two Christmas table toppers, one of for me and one for Mom

Moral of the blog?  I'm not sure there is one, but I would encourage you as you're quilting, piecing, or browsing through quilt magazines, to look beyond what's in front of your eyes and think outside the box.  Don't be afraid to use alternate colors or new themes.  The colors and fabrics that are available to quilters today are extra ordinarily beautiful and bright.  If you're a "traditional" quilter, don't be intimidated by batiks and the bright jewel tones that are out there.  Embrace them.  Let them empower you more as a quilter. 

Likewise, if you're one of the new "rebels" of the quilting age, try some traditional blocks with reproduction fabrics.  The new lines of American Revolution and Civil War prints are amazingly accurate and wonderful.  Try some. 

Above all, think out of your comfort zone.  Stretch yourself as a quilter and as an artist.  Good things can only come out of it!

West Virginia Memories is Pieced!

Two quilt tops down in less than two weeks!  Go me!  However, I won't discuss how long it's going to take for me to quilt them....

Kinda sorta almost finished....

I've got my Mothers-of-the-Bible quilt together!  I've just got to applique the borders and quilt it!