Here are my very first Block Challenge fabrics:
Not really colors I’d ever pick out, but they kind of remind me of my house!
Challenge Me!
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Category Archives: Quilty Projects
Mod Robin: My Start
Recently, I visited a local Modern Quilt Guild with a couple friends.
One of the projects that drew me in was a small group round robin block. All the fresh fabrics were jumbled like Halloween candy on the table. As we were late to this group, my friend & I split the strip-pieced swatch in the foreground. I thought I might slice it up and reconstruct the block like my red striped pillow from last year, but I changed direction and put on a 
skewed border instead. I’d like to work more on the corners, but I like the wonky feel for my first BAM-a-Lot Block.
(NOTE: this is MY starting block for others to add sections or borders around.)
Moment of Truth
It’s one thing to enter a quilt in an open exhibition, quite another to enter a judged show.
Before the San Mateo County Fair, I’d spent a couple more weeks of hand quilting. Finishing the top of the hearts, I decided the squares on point could use a little attention. I’m ambivalent about quilting another zigzag around the burgundy border; the squares will turn into diamond along the top and bottom, so maybe I’ll just leave it for later.
The tricky part is quilting the internal hanging sleeve. Luckily, I find a flat mirror from my kit that just fits and I set to work quilting the front, then flipping it over to mock-quilt (there’s no batting) the striped side. Easy peas-y!
Funny, I thought I was finished
I’d entered my heart quilt in our biennial quilt exhibition this Spring. Of course, after a month of deliberation and trying to fix my pesky prairie point border, I gave up and took it apart the week before it was due. Spent an evening cleaning off all the little bits of thread. Fun!
Once I laid everything out flat again, I set the points to the correct depth, pinned them on, and pillow-topped the border again. This time, all went as planned and I could begin quilting.
Rocky Road to Love, Part 13
Yup, I’m way beyond part 2!
Another quilting retreat and finally, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everything is relatively square border-wise, though on corner is still a little wonky ~ Ah well!
On to the next burning decision: to “prairie point or not?” After a little research, I find a tip for continuous prairie points and augment it with pairs of points to create a scrappy look befitting my design. They are remarkably easy to assemble (though I hit a snag sizing them), and I zip up the points and painstakingly press throughout Friday night. It’s maddeningly tedious work, but every time I set a strand of triangles to a border, my excitement bolsters my resolve to continue throughout the following day. After the dinner break on Saturday, I finally ‘pillow-top’ the border.
Quilty November
Sometimes when your weather turns gloomy with rain, it’s best to try new things… specifically new quilty things… and specifically new quilty things in cheery colors!
Took another ‘last-minute’ workshop where I learned ‘origami with fabric’ techniques. I chose to work with a spunky turquoise, lavender and butter floral that I added to my stash this autumn. E gave me some matching turquoise and I played with the colors for each folded design. The edged Prairie Points and Square-in-Squares came together very easily, while the Harlequin tucks and smocking were both interesting and time consuming. Stay tuned… these will make a vibrant purse!
Labor of Love
Another Autumn Retreat in Marin brings the saga of my ‘Labor of Love’ Heart quilt closer AND (sigh) further from completion.
Let me start by saying that I almost finished the backing Saturday. Seems I only had a 24” x 95” piece of the burgundy left, so I split it for the two outside borders and pieced the middle with all the leftover 3-6” strips. It looks so nifty and could be a quilt on its own. Other quilters would say I was crazy to be putting so much work into a backing, so I decided this would be reversible! It’s a traditionally pieced design on one side and the modern stripes on the other. Yeah, I’m crazy.
Quilty UFOs
Late March, I took a ‘create fabric using curved piecing’ workshop at the last minute. I’ve never tried to sew curves (intentionally) before and this seemed like it might be new and exciting.
There were 4 techniques for ‘creating fabric’ and we started right in with the curved piecing. Choose 4 fabrics; layer them and freehand cut 3 curves. Shuffle them and sew your blocks. Stack and repeat cutting 3 more freehand curves the opposite direction; then shuffle and piece together. So here’s my first block. Oops! It came out perfect. I don’t think I could have matched the corners so well if I tried! Weird; I was supposed to offset the pieces and to make it more interesting. To remedy this, it was suggested that I add in a fifth fabric. Hmm, the other three blocks are slightly more fun with their blue/with stripes. Now do I make a throw quilt or 4 pillows? The peanut gallery says pillows!
June Honorable Mention
When last we visited the Necktie Quilt, it was hanging in the SCVQA biennial Quilt Show in 2011. Although it wasn’t chosen for the Scrap Art Show at the SJ Quilt Museum that year, it found it’s way into the San Mateo County Fair in June 2012. And earned an Honorable Mention ribbon in the Art Quilt division!
Lucky 13
Thirteen years ago, I embarked on a ‘Labor of Love’ as it were.
As the story goes, in 1998, I wanted to make a nifty Holiday quilt, but I wanted some practice first. So I planned a quilt-a-month project for 1999 to get warmed up. My Heart Quilt was only the second quilt on the list. [Insert heavy sigh here] It was a great start, sewing and piecing the hearts together that February. Unfortunately, the corner blocks stumped me and nothing I tried looked right. I shelved the project momentarily, but between travel, distractions and moving to another house, the better part of the decade zipped by with little more than a passing glance in 2003 & 2005 as I still had no better idea about how to finish those corners.
Then, I started going to March & September quilting retreats in 2009 and soaking up the knowledge and inspiration of my quilting collective. After my ‘Tie-land hiatus,’ I worked out the corner quandary and was emboldened in the home stretch to declare a brilliant decision to use Prairie Points around the border.