Joseph's Coat

After ignoring this project for a couple months, I spent the weekend joining rows 1 &2 together.  I outlined my steps in an earlier blog.  This is where my plan to do needle turn instead of the technique that Kellie is using, added to the time.   Officially, this makes the quilt-top 27% finished.  The next section and deadline will involve rows 3-5, so I'll need to have 21 blocks ready for the next step which is supposed to be done by the end of April.  The good news is that I have 10 finished and 7 more that I started.

I finally have the Silhouette versions done.  Unfortunately a little blurry on the pics...but you get the idea. I'm very pleased with these, and have a Hoffman wildflower batik to sash these squares with.  It'll be a 60" square with some random width machine quilting.  

I'm not as happy about the color versions.  I made them with Kona cottons.  I would have been happier if the red was more coral.  And what appears as white, is actually a butter yellow.  The light color is quite sheer and took careful planning to keep the dark red from showing through.  I plan to finish these with some traditional style pieced borders, and hand quilting.

I need to get these prototypes ready by the May workshop in West Yellowstone, MT.  The patterns should be available through Victoria Rose Quilts after the workshop.  Anna may be doing these as Saturday afternoon sit-and-sews in West over the summer.

Persian Rug Quilt

    Since I'm not making much progress on other things...how about some recent pictures of old projects?  This is the Persian Rug Quilt.  It's all detailed piecing with no applique...just to prove that I can piece after all.   If you click on the top picture you can look at it up close and see that there are 3 unrelated fabrics fussy cut to make the design.

    I had purchased yards of lush dark blues, when I finally got a reply back from the recipient about the fabric swatches I'd emailed and she replied that the colors were lovely, but a bit dark.  I bought a new batch of tans to lighten things up and the lovely blues ended up on back.  

     I also machine quilted this one.  Unfortunately, one bobbin worth of thread had tension problems and I didn't notice it until I was home.  I can see it in the photo...can you?  Being as how I'm not inherantly a perfectionist, it was clear that I wouldn't be ripping that out since it's only noticable on the back.  It keeps it from ever being in a jurried show...but the purpose was to please the recipient, not some judges.

Color Columbines

Here are the first 2 of the color columbine blocks.  The 3rd is about 1/2 done, and I finally have a pattern drafted for the fourth block in both styles.  Interestingly, the butter yellow fabric that I used, looks pink in the photo.  I also ran into challenges b/c it is a somewhat sheer fabric...at least if you have a dark red behind it.  I'm going to have to replace that with a light yellow batik if I follow through with plans to turn these into kits.   This version is really a quilter's delight.  These look OK now, but I have plans for some very detailed quilting that will make all the difference.  I also see doing this one as a scrap/ stash block where I can use multiple shades of red (or blue) to give more depth and detail to the design.  I managed to get the directions put together over the past weekend, and have a couple quilter friends who have offered to take them for a test drive.  I hope to have these sent out by Feb 1.  We're helping friends move this weekend....so may be a while until I'm free to work on these projects again :(

Columbine 3

     I finished the 3rd columbine design Monday night.  Now I remember why they are called prototypes.  Some of the inner design lines that I was so delighted about in the line drawing, turned out to be frustrating to make, and didn't come out as I'd imagined.  On the other hand, I'm delighted with the overall feel of this flower, particularly when viewed from across the room.  The final pattern will have some revisions.
     Spent Wed night in design mode.  Made the adjustments to all 3 of the quilt blocks to adapt the pattern to a back-basting, multi color version.  I was keeping in mind some changes that might make it easier for less experienced appliquers.  Some of those changes may end up in the final silhouette versions as well.  I was able to prep those blocks and start figuring out the yardage...and have the fussier sections of columbine 2 finished.  This weekend's goals are to finish at least one of the multi-color blocks, write the first draft of the directions, and design the 4th (final) block of this series.

A very productive weekend

I got so much done this weekend in the realm of quilting...although not much in the way of finished product to show off.  Spent the weekend with Anna of Victoria Rose Quilts.  We were planning quilt events to be held at Western Heritage Arts Center in West Yellowstone, Montana.  The hard part was narrowing down our thousands of ideas and dozens of designs.  The planned May 2010 event will be dinner & a trunk show Friday night with an all day Saturday workshop (piecing in the morning, applique in the afternoon).  We still need to confirm the dates with the Heritage Arts Center, but we're looking at May 15 which is the opening of fishing season (calling all fishing widows...).  The bear quilt that I made for my hubby years ago is being re-designed into a baby quilt called "Baby Bear".   Anna is moving this one to the top of her project list, and I'm excited to see it made in batiks!!!

I managed to squeeze in a little needle time and got the Columbine 2 prototype done.  The only big challenge I see for others trying this design is keeping the seam allowances down to 1/8 inch so the gaps that are outlines on this design don't get too big and distort the image.  I have Columbine 3 cut out and basted, so hope to have it done by the end of the day.  I've decided that #4 that I designed earlier doesn't fit with the others...so it's literally "back to the drawing board" for me.  In addition to the reverse applique silhouette versions, I also plan to make a multi-color version using back basting.  This project has moved the top of my list with a deadline to have finished quilts to admire and patterns to purchase by the mid-May workshop date.

Whew!  So much to get done....better get off the computer and get to action.

Columbine

Here's the prototype of the first columbine block.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out, however, some minor adjustments will be happening.  This is one, of a series of 4 that are planned.  The pattern will have direction for both this silhouette version that uses a cut then baste approach, and a multi-color version using back basting.  I'm hoping that some of my quilting buddies will help me with beta testing the directions over the next couple months.  The pattern will be available through Victoria Rose Quilts.