My First Quilt Show Entry (and August finish)

Ethan's quilt got done just in time to enter it in the FW Quilt Guild's annual show.  It didn't win a prize, but it was very nice to see it hanging in the show.

Golf and alligators is not an obvious choice for a baby's room, but I gave it my best shot.  My buddy Joe wanted Ethan to be called "Ross Vegas" since he was conceived on a  family trip to Vegas, but he was outvoted, so I named the alligator Ross Vegas instead. 

Anyone familiar with the Masters at Augusta knows that the 11th, 12th and 13th holes make up "Amen Corner".  I decided to incorporate these three holes in the border of Ethan's quilt.

My buddies who golf immediately recognized "Hogan's Bridge" by the 12th green.

Here's Ross playing the 12th.  Sadly, he triple bogeyed 12 and decided to eat the 13th pinny instead of playing the hole.  I quilted the broken 13th pinny on the right side below the larger alligator, and showed the larger Ross Vegas eating his club.

Here's a close-up of Ross still happily playing the 11th hole.  I embroidered "RV" onto his hat so he wouldn't feel nameless - lol.

Joe LOVES Ethan's quilt and is VERY partisan about it.  I ran into him at the show last Friday and he kept going on and on about how my quilt was robbed and deserved to win a ribbon.  He kept asking every lady that walked by if they were in charge because he wanted to register a complaint.  He acted like a complete lunatic and kept me in stitches the whole time, threatening to gather up other ribbons and adorn Ethan's quilt with all of them.  It was only with great difficulty that I restrained him.  lol  It doesn't help that he's a gigantic 6'3" man, fortunately no one seemed too alarmed about it since I was laughing so hard.  What a maniac!

Joe's family especially liked that I incorporated Ethan, his cousin Mayson, his Dad Steven, and Joe on the leader board.  The first four scores are this year's top four winning scores.  Joe's score is the worst actual score ever recorded in a Master's tournament. (Charles Kunkle 1954, before they instituted a cut.)  Joe was pleased with his score, since he doesn't normally shoot in the low 80's.  :o

June Completion - Scrappy Blue Nine-Patch

I took a break from blogging, but not from quilting.  With Rachel's help, the scrappy blue nine-patch is now complete.  I'm glad I went with the red border; it really sets it off nicely.

I tried something besides stippling for a change.  I found this method in Fons & Porter's "Love of Quilting", Jan/Feb 2008.  It's called "Continuous Curve Quilting".  It's not supposed to make circles like this; I made mine very curvy.  It's a pretty fast technique, though I should probably have slowed down a bit, but I was in a hurry!

This was the first quilt I ever made where I didn't buy ANYTHING for it.  I had enough of the green backing.  Rachel and I combined similar blues to fill out the sashing, and she had dozens of leftover half-square triangles from somewhere. 

I even pieced the batting,which I had never done before.  It worked fine; I can't even find the seam.

I'll have to remember to bring this quilt to the bee at Rachel's house this Sunday; she hasn't had a chance to see it completed yet.

And now, I'll leave you with a final treat from Krystian.  Yummo! (As Rachel Ray would say.)

May Project Day Fun

We had another lovely project day a few weeks ago.  Our theme project was scrappy nine-patch quilts.  Here is Virginia working on her blocks.

And here is Sheila, with Mary in the background.  We were glad to see Sheila's thumb had completely healed from our last project day.  (The paper plate she was carrying collapsed, and hot barbeque sauce spilled on her thumb - second degree burn, ER visit, special ointments. Yuck!)  She was very patient with us hovering over her in the kitchen this time.  8)

We were glad that Nancy was able to join us.  She's a very experienced quilter, who actually got her entire quilt top pieced during the time we had together.

Mary put together some very lovely leftover blue and brown polka-dot fabrics.  She came very close to finishing her top too.

Here is the layout of the quilt which Rachel and I pieced.  We split it up to take home so we could each assemble half the quilt.  Rachel is new to sashing, and when I picked up her half, the rows were sewn with the sashings together.  lol  That would be LOTS funnier to me if I hadn't done the exact same thing myself once  **blushes**.  Oh well, all fixed now.  8)

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of quilts in progress, but with luck, I'll be picking up some of the completed quilts at this week's meeting of the Blanketeers.  If I do, I'll be sure to share them then.

Beautiful Flowers from a Budding Photographer

My friend's daughter, Krystian, took these lovely pictures.  Krystian is a young teen who wants to be a photographer.  I think what she has accomplished with her simple camera is amazing.  Her sense of color and composition are really wonderful.  I've told her to send me more, and I would post them here.  Enjoy!

I love the deep veining on this one: 

And the way this rose peaks through the leaves - I wouldn't have thought of that! 

I can never get vibrant yellows like this; they always wash out for me. 

This one was my favorite.  I just love the way the light glistens on the water droplets, and the ruffled edges are adorable.

I'm not even sure what flower this is, but I love the way it pops!

Let's all give Krystian some encouragement.  I think she definitely could have a real future as a photographer!

Ethan's Quilt now has Borders

Ethan's quilt now has nice wide borders and I'm beginning to really like it.  I don't think it looks too busy anymore.  In fact, I'm looking forward to adding more embellishments.  I think I'll start with his name.  I'll use the orange fabric from the Card Trick blocks if I have enough left over. 

I can't let this one hang around.  I have to get moving on it if I want to show it off at guild in two weeks.

Ethan's Quilt - Gators & Golf

My buddy, Joe P, asked me if I would make a quilt for his grandson, Ethan Ross. Sure, I say, but then he tells me the theme is alligators and golfing! Really? I was hoping he was kidding,... but no. Really. I had to think about that one. I searched my stash and found this animal print which fortunately has an alligator.

Now Joe is a HUGE gambler, and rumor has it that Ethan was conceived on a family trip to... wait for it,... Las Vegas, so the card trick blocks were a no brainer. Joe (ever the kidder) lobbied to have his grandson named "Ross Vegas", but thankfully there were no takers.

This is already the busiest quilt top I have ever made, and it just keeps getting better. My plan for the border is to have have 2 sides be holes of a golf course, one other will have a large gator on it, and the final side will just say "Ethan". Gators and golf. Wish me luck!

Happy Easter, New Look and New Siggy!

I hope you like the look of my blog. I thought it was definitely time for a make-over, and Easter seemed like the perfect time for a fresh start.

Here's my most recent siggy. It arrived a week ago from Helma de Jongh, who lives "between the cows in Lopik" in the Netherlands. I really love this siggy. I used to live "between the cows" in Wisconsin, so I know just what she means.
I've been busy quilting, but that's a story for another day. Happy Easter, everyone!

Group Nine-Patch Scrap Quilts

The Blanketeers decided to harvest our scraps to make some nine-patch quilts. I've made 18 blocks so far and have barely made a dent in my stash. Rachel and I decided to use blue as our coordinating color. I made 12 of these blocks using only scraps with white backgrounds,... and six of these blocks using intensely colored prints. I love the really saturated hues like this one. Remember the "Great American Smoke-Out"? These bright scraps came from that haul. If you look closely at the GASO picture, you can see a bit of it peeking out.

I love this one too; I think it's a bit of Laurel Burch from who knows where.

And these ponies brought back fond memories of this quilt.

This clown fabric is more of the GASO fabric; I love the happy motifs.

And these stars were from the Baby Fats quilts. I remember picking them out at JoAnn's with Virginia many moons ago. I love using up scraps, especially from quilts I enjoyed making in the first place. I can't wait to see what Rachel comes up with. I'll probably recognize her fabrics too. 8)

Disappearing Nine-Patch Quilt Complete

My first attempt at using glue to bind a quilt was a big success. Even though I had to overcome several screw ups on my part, using glue is definitely the way to go. Despite making a narrower binding than usual (I only had 12" of pink left) this method was much easier and more accurate than using pins.

The binding was especially easy to make with glue. Just lay down a patch of glue... then line them up and iron them together. Heat setting really make the Elmer's bind quickly and tightly. And popping the fabric back to the seam was fun. Note to self: Always trim after popping the glue loose.

I guess my starch wasn't heavy enough, because my binding didn't stick to itself much at all when I initially ironed the binding. Note to self: Use heavier starch next time.I also didn't measure my seam allowance very well, and as usual, didn't allow quite enough. This put more pressure on the binding to get it to overlap the seam line in the back, and made gluing it together a much messier proposition. Still, I was impressed with how well the glue held. An added benefit, all that glue stabilized the edges so well that the final seam went together like a dream.

And to all you free-motion newbies out there, here's the real trick to making your stippling look its best: Buy 100% cotton batting and using the hottest washer & dryer settings the fabric can stand for maximal shrinkage.

With all those extra crinkles in the fabric, no one will ever spot your "problem" areas. 8) And all that glue just washes away. Yeah GLUE!

Disappearing Nine-Patch Top - Stipple Complete

I lit out at lunch in the rain on Tuesday and bought another spool of my favorite baby pink Prescencia so I could finish stippling.

This was a bigger quilt than I usually make, and it took me longer than normal to stipple the whole thing. The center was a PITA to reach, but I got it done. I don't think it's quite up to my usual stipple-standard, but it will do. Here's a close-up of a part I'm not too ashamed of. lol I'm going to bind it with the pink batik, using the gluing technique I've seen here. In fact, I had better review the process before I start; otherwise, I'm likely to mess it up!

I was happy to hear my friend, Dorthy, is going to start stippling. She took my advice, and selected a quilt that is in such bad shape it can only be improved upon - apparently after washing, the back is falling off. This removes all pressure to stipple perfectly, and lets you just get in the flow.