Terrece Beesley

OK...I had an AMAZING birthday...and I have this really great applique project that I worked on today, that I plan to tell you about, plus share tutorials and patterns.

But I'm going to explode if I can't tell someone about my BIG NEWS. I just got copyright permission and the artist's blessings to make a quilt based on one of Terrece Beesley's amazing watercolor paintings.  Here's a nibble.  You'll have to go to her website and drool over her paintings.

I was originally thinking Ice Cream Melting. But Oranges and Pomegranates is the original that I would be inclined to buy.  The nibble is a tiny bit of Momsicles Popsicles (oh man...she has a print available of that too...cool!!!)
There are a couple others that are on her Facebook page.  Summer Solstice or Go Fish????  Help!  I get to make one.  Which should it be?

Give Away!!!

Aren't these pretty!!! Don't you wish that you were Connie from Make Everything Right.  She's the lucky winner, who's entry was being a blog follower.  Today is my birthday, so I included the number of squares that match my age!  They are all different patterns...and I didn't even include all of the stash (sad, huh).

But while I was sifting through the stash for fabrics to bring my total up to..um...ehem...29(tee hee hee) I decided that I needed some runner up prizes.  I also figured out that if I only include fabric in the envelope, I can mail 12 of these squares for a First Class stamp.

1. From the Coral Reef Hawaiian Quilt.  The blue is the back.
2.  From the Joseph's Coat Quilt Along.
3.  The fabric that Guitar Girl picked out for the back of the Joseph's Coat. (I just borrowed a wee bit)
4.  Fabric for the Epic Road Trip hexagon project.  (7000 mile road trip...lots of time for hand work)
5.  The backing for Skater Girl's I Love You More quilt.  I spent more $ on the back than the front.
6.  Random fabric from the stash that rounded out the selection.

Winners are:
West Michigan Quilter said...LOL. You are so much like me. I love applique and not really into piecing. Love your Joseph's Coat. I have the instructions and drafted my pattern, but still have to start it. Love your colors.

yetunde said...i love your blog and i am just loving your applique birds. i am going to have to find those birds. love all of your applique work.

Handmade by Mai said...I really love your sew a long quilt. Beautiful colors. What I'm going to make with your charms. I'm going to use them for a charityquilt.

Winners - send me your mailing address by Friday, or I will re-gift.

So I'll wrap up today with a philosophical question.  I've long argued that people who like to put together quilt tops but have someone else do the quilting should refer to themselves as "Piecers" not "Quilters".  Now I'm wondering if all those swirly, watercolor effect dyed fabrics in the batik section (of which I have a lot) should be called batiks, since they do not have any wax-resist designs.

Joseph's Coat Rows 1-5

Well...here it is.  Rows 1-5.   The blocks for the final 2 rows are done, but not yet connected.  This is taking far longer than I'd anticipated.  PBS cooking shows got me through the morning.  Triathalon and Rugby in the afternoon.  WHO KNEW that Utah has a National-Finals-Worthy Rugby team.  Learn something new every day.  Go Utes!   (This applies only to Rugby....not Football...Go BSU!).

I wish I had the final joining instructions for this project before I'd started.  Had I known how this was all going together, I would have done this differently, saving 3 yards of fabric, endless color positioning stress,  and 10 hours of stitching.  {sigh}

Tomorrow is Rolling Thunder, military family charity motorcycle event supporting The Wounded Warrior Project, the Idaho Guard and Reserve Family Support Fund, and Mountain Home AFB’s Operation Warmheart.   I'll be with Harley Dude.  (Yea...I made those burgundy leather 'gator chaps...I'm ambivalent about the bike, but I really like the costume.)

Patterns

My quilting time this week was sucked up by the pattern producing process.  These are all ready for Anna's classes in West Yellowstone in July.  Watch her blog for dates and times.

I'm also slowly making progress on attaching the JC blocks.  I'm in the process of connecting block 4 of row 5 currently.  I had really hoped to have this section done this week.  Saturday looks to be rainy so with PBS cooking shows to watch while I stitch...It could still happen.

Back to Applique

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice and comment on the fact that for someone who disdains piecing, I seem to have posted a lot of it recently.  It's a lot like doing the laundry and washing the dishes...just because I don't like it, doesn't mean that I'm not good at it.

I'm actually making good progress on the Joseph's Coat.  I'm 2 petals away from having the uncompleted full blocks finished.  And I have 3 of the 1/2 blocks to go.  Rows 3 & 4 are stitched together and 5 started.

While on the back of the Harley Sunday, I worked out why it was that I hadn't finished my Baltimore Album style, National Park block that I designed about 5 years ago.   I bogged down on the Lupines.  I was thinking that it was because of the little pieces that I designed for the flowers.  But I didn't like the way that the petals looked.  Sunday I realized the solution, and cut away all of them on the Right side.  If I like how the repaired ones turn out, I'll fix that one on the left.  I also figured out a  3-d version of the lupine flowers.  I'll tell you how, if the plan actually works.   This block is my Grand Teton National Park block.  The flowers (left to right): Lupine, Wild Geranium, Indian Paintbrush,  Arrow Leaf Balsam Root, Huckleberries (the leaves are there, berries go on last), then  more paintbrush and lupine.

Spring to Finish Challenge

In April, I joined the Spring to Finish Challenge at Tallgrass Prarie Studios.   We were to commit to the projects that we would finish by the end of May, and then list the reward we were going to give ourselves.   Here's what I wrote: 


2 for me. A hand quilted, applique quilt destined for my niece Ashley in New Hampshire. Have to be finished by July 1. And the top for the Pinwheel Party completed (including the extra blocks for Full size to total 30). It is for her brother David, and has the same deadline.

If I can get these done ahead of deadline, I can start on an insane cross stitch inspired quilt I started collecting fabric for last summer. Knowing how detailed/time consuming it will be, I haven't allowed myself to start until the 5 quilts I have to deliver to a family reunion are finished.


I'm happy to report that both are done. 

I finished Ashley's quilt on May 8th.  (Here's the link to the blogs on this one if you missed the story earlier.)

And last night at bed time, I finished the blocks for the Pinwheel Party.  Here they are laid out on my Design Floor.  This was a quilt along at Tiddletails.  It was a block-a-week project with 12 blocks to make a 48x62 quilt.  I made 2 of each block with the plan to make a few more and turn it into a queen sized quilt.  I discovered a few things while working on this quilt.  1) Cutting out the fabric one square at a time is a royal pain.  2) If you wait to cut several weeks worth at a time...you will lose track of time and get WAY behind.  Um, like 7 weeks in my case.  3)  This will look better with wide outer borders rather than more pieced blocks....Right?  I've had as much piecing as I can take for a while and can't bear to do 6 more.  Besides, I still have some mini-pinwheels that go in the joining sashing to sew.

As for the reward.  Well.  Ehem.. The reason I had to finish the pinwheel in a mad day long session to meet the deadline for Spring to Finish, was that I started the Monet quilt Mother's Day weekend.

Snowflakes

I made a Paula Nadelstern Snowflake Quilt for Emily's wedding gift.  All the photos that I took of it were on film, which I have since misplaced. E was good enough to snap this photo from her phone today so I would have a copy.  Maybe I can bribe Kenna to count the number of pieces in each flake :) Now that I know that it still exists...I really must show up one day on her doorstep with my camera to get some more detailed shots.  The leftovers from this project became the Double Irish Casserole Quilt.