Westering Women - A Brackman BOM

In my continued love for sampler quilts and block of the month projects, I have again joined an online Block of the Month by Barbara Brackman. In this one she is providing stories from women who headed West and settled the United States.

I am making two versions. One with Kaffe Fasser Collective fabrics paired with Moda Grunge fabrics. These will evoke color blocking and bold colors. The second set will be pastel/pale with a bit of yellow in each block.

The first two months of each set are done:

Block 1 - Independence Square

Block 2 - Indian

Month 1 - Independence Square

Month 2 - Indian in an Indian (cannibilism?)

The challenge for Month 2 - Indian is the 6" square in the middle of the block.

For the bright version, the difficulty was only in selecting which flower to include.

For the pale version, I decided to piece something for that middle area after seeing one done with a pieced center on the flicker site for Westering Women. After fiddling around with some options, I decided to replicate the larger block in the middle -- so I made a 6" version of the block.  I decided to do this in order to keep from having very large portions of the yellow I am including. I wonder how many more of these I might end up doing that way? Uh oh!

The Splendid Sampler

Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson are hosting a mac-Daddy of all quilt-alongs. They are providing two blocks per week (release Sunday and Thursday) and have enlisted over 80 designers to provide the patterns for the blocks.

The Splendid Sampler - Happiness in stitches

Well, I resisted, I really did.

And here are my versions of the first seven blocks, which will finish at 6":

Pat Sloan - Hearts Aflutter

Jane Davidson - Wings

Melissa Corry - Lots of Love

Jen Kingwell - Happy Happy

Celine Perkins - Simple Simon

Natalia Bonner - Focal Point

Amy Sinibaldi - Snug as a bug

As you can see, so far we've done applique, piecing and embroidery. While they are perfectly happy to see what everyone does to make the blocks personalized, I am going to stay pretty close to the designers' versions. For the applique, I am fusing and machine quilting, when I can. Above with the Happy, Happy block, I didn't feel like maneuvering around such small circles, so I fused them and put french knots in some and straight stitches around the edge in others.

I have a feeling this is going to be another year of expanding and honing my skills. So far, so good!

The Big Leap / Kwik Ring Around the Hexie

Time is just flying by and I've been busy with work and projects. I may not have posted, but I've gotten a LOT done this first two months of 2016. I think I'll make a few posts this week and get caught up.

I'll start with a little project that Aunt 'Reen has posted on her blog during February celebrating that this is leap year. She's calling it "The Big Leap" and has provided instructions to make two sizes of a triple Irish chain quilt. Since this has been on my list to attempt, what better time to try than when Doreen is providing instructions? She provides details and pictures that make it so very easy. (Those of you who have been watching my Dear Jane progress may remember she was the instructor for those classes as well.)

I'm also on a quest to use my stash, specifically a whole lotta Kaffe Fasset Collective I've been buying. Here's my top of "The Big Leap" using vibrant red/pink/orange/fuschia for the chain and a delightful gray with flowers (that makes me smile every time I look at it) as the background.

The Big Leap

This top measures 56" square. Now to decide whether to quilt it myself or to quilt by check.

I recently took a class sponsored by Kelly Ann's Quilting given by Two Kwik Quilters where we learned to make a mini-quilt called "Kwik Ring Around the Hexie". I decided to use KFC fabric for this one as well. I quite like the effect, and her patterns are so useful because they provide many sizes and options in each pattern. It was a good day!

Kwik Ring Around the Hexie

This one measures 20" x 19" and I will put it in the queue to quilt myself. More on that queue later!

Smile, it makes the world a bit brighter!

2015 Ends, 2016 Begins

For 2015 I joined the "choose a word" for the year. Mine was FINISH. I had a lot of areas that needed attention that I had been unmotivated to tackle.

In my living spaces,  I got the major pieces I need to make living in my lovely condo more delightful, including a piece to display quilts, a comfortable sofa and a media console (still need a flat screen TV). I incorporated quite a few organizational pieces into my sewing room. In both spaces I made great headway in culling out things that were just taking up space and donating them to others who will use them.

In the quilting area, I got quite a lot accomplished, even though I was out of commission with illness and surgery for at least 1/4 of the year.  I tallied up what I did in 2015. As far as I can remember:

• 4 quilt tops delivered to be quilted (by someone else), binding put on by me
• 5 tops completed and awaiting quilting
• Completed one center portion of Dear Jane, including quilting every block and assembling it using the QAYG method
• 5 tops donated (they've been in the way for a year or so and I wanted them to be useful for someone)
• 3 pillowcases made and donated for the AQS million pillowcase challenge
• 5 embroidery projects completed and 2 made into pillows, 1 was donated as part of Flood the Streets with Art on Black Friday
• Row by Row done start to finish and a winner for first quilt at KAQ
• One art quilt piece done start to finish to hang at ArtSpace in Herndon this month
• 2 quilts done by longarmer waiting for binding by me
• Hanging sleeves put on 6 quilts/miniquilts
• 4 mini quilts completed start to finish, 2 mini quilt tops done
• Pieced/Finished piecing 6 tops
• Participated in an Embroidery Club at KAQ for 5 months (missed the last one due to eye surgery)
• Took one class sponsored by my quilt guild
• Attended one sewing retreat

I got so much done and I like the idea of choosing a word as a sort of compass for the year. I have a personal phrase that I am keeping to myself for now,  For my home and quilting, I am still contemplating my word.

Time to  plan for 2016!

SVBAQ Pineapple Block Prepped

Now that my background fabrics have been selected and the range of fabrics selected for the applique', I decided to prep the first block in the sew-along - the Pineapple block.  I will be using a wide variety of Grunge Basics for the applique pieces (great idea Suzanne!) and I bought the fabrics for the three Pineapple blocks that appear in the quilt. I may try to place similar colors as they are in the original quilt - we'll see how that goes as we progress

So the first Pineapple block is in the upper left-hand corner, and is pink. Here's my version laid out - it may not end exactly like this as I numbered all of the pieces and the pattern and I have not checked to see if I have the pieces in the right place yet.

It's not sewn down yet as I cannot see well enough to do that yet.

So I will continue to make good use of my light table and trace some more blocks. I think I'll do the yellow Pineapple next.

I'm doing the 20" blocks and it will be my Springtime bedspread if (WHEN) I finish it!

SVBAQ Backgrounds and Layout

I finalized my background fabrics and layout. It's a bit hard to see here, so the photos of the individual blocks will show more detail.

I am using 5 fabrics: black and white stripe; black and white text; purple tone on tone grid; solid lavendar; solid light periwinkle.

I will be using a wide variety of grunge fabrics for the appliqué. 

Patterns Printed for SVBAQ

I had trouble finding a place to enlarge my patterns for the Shenandoah Valley Botanical Album Quilt Along. Most places (FedEx Office and a Staples) said it would be over $100 to enlarge them because I needed an 8 1/2 x 11 page enlarged by 200%. I finally went to a Staples that knew about paper that is 18" x 24" used for engineering drawings. It worked perfectly!

Now onward!  I need to find one more fabric for the block backgrounds and then I will cut the background squares. And the most fun for me, is picking the fabrics for the applique! The top pattern, Pineapple, is the first block in the sew along - this pattern is used three times in the quilt.

I will likely use the method of tracing the pieces onto heavy freezer paper, then ironing the freezer paper to the fabric and turning under the edges with starch. It's a lot of prep work, but I find it's the best way for me to get those edges turned under cleanly.

I still cannot see well enough to sew the applique down, but will get as much done to get the pieces ready as I can.  This will be a fun project!

There's also a Shenandoah Valley Botanical Quilt sew along page on Facebook, if you're interested in following along there.