Stitch and Bitch Quilters

Did I really miss this?

2015-01-26T17:27:00.001-05:00

So, Harrie and Nellie used to help me arrange my quilt blocks into cat-approved arrangements - something that I kinda,sorta missed after Harrie crossed the Bridge. This past weekend I discovered that Garnett thinks quilt blocks are a premium cat playground! Another quilt that I have almost finished - just 11 more seams to go - maybe tonight since the weather doesn't look so great for doing much else.

More from Houston

2014-11-06T14:55:00.001-05:00

Thought I'd post a couple quilts that caught my eye: No real surprises here:

Link to Pam Holland's blog for some more pictures: http://pamhollanddesignsand.ipage.com/the-diary-of-a-traveling-quilter-blog.html

Halfway through the building blocks afghan

2014-11-06T14:46:00.001-05:00

I'm assured that all these blocks will block out to a common size so that I'll be able to sew them together. We shall see.

Since I'm two blocks behind, you know what I'll be working on during S&B this weekend!

Just for Ann

2014-11-04T17:37:00.000-05:00

Because I promised Ann I'd take a picture of this one for her:

Int'l Quilt Show - Houston 2014

2014-11-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

I went to Houston for the Quilt Show (actually it was to meet up with my sister and a friend from Iowa). At the last minute I found out that a friend from Ravelry would be there as well. We had so much fun. This was the 35th anniversary of the show so big collection of red & white quilts to celebrate:

One of the exhibits was inspired by Dr. Karen Nyberg, NASA, quilting on the International Space Station. After she suggested that folks send in blocks inspired by astronomy, NASA received over 2000 blocks from around the world. Volunteers transformed those blocks into 28 quilts which were all on display, and created notebooks with the cover letter w/block picture so folks could look through for their blocks. Bonus: a stand-up image of Dr. Nyberg that visitors could position in front of the quilt that contained the block they'd sent in. Here's Ann and Michelle in front of one of the quilts.

You'll all be amazed to know that I bought very little fabric although I did buy a Hobbs Silk batting that I think I'll use for a jacket.

work in progress December 2013

2013-12-09T19:50:00.000-05:00

I found this Geisha panel at Bayside Quilts in Olympia. Frank needed to meet our insurance company at our rental house for them to make sure our house was adequately insured. These colors are "perfect" for my sister's living room.

License Plate "Quilt"

2013-10-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

I commissioned this metal art piece, it is 3 x 4 ft, composed of old license plates and Arizona Iced Tea cans. Carol Braden, who lives and works in Seattle made it for me. Her typical piece is a guitar shape made of license plates. It looks great in our living room, and unlike fabric, it will not fade from the sun in our west-facing windows.

Field Trip to Prints Charming in Maple Lawn

2013-09-09T00:25:00.005-04:00

What a nice time we had visiting Prints Charming. The ladies there were very gracious. Jane won a door prize! As usual, I got carried away but only bought fabric that I just had to have. LOL

I'm progressing on my Baltimore Bunnies. Only 2 more blocks to go. This is what I have done.ttfn :) Yuki

"Transitions" quilt - graduation gift for my cousin

2013-08-05T19:41:00.000-04:00

This is part of a quilt that my niece Alyssa and I are making for my cousin's daughter Sachi.Piecing the strips is fast, but then all the blocks have bias edges!

possible CFC 2013 quilt, if CFC allows for raffle for fund-raising

2013-06-14T12:59:00.002-04:00

Queen-sized quilt, 25 blocks with bright batiks

Oliver helping layout the blocks

2013-06-14T07:59:00.001-04:00

Making progress with the Tumbling Block Quilt. Thank you Yuki!

Clara's wallhanging

2013-03-28T16:40:00.001-04:00

Here's the top all done! It's going to look great in her living room. Close-up:

What I did on my (February) vacation

2013-02-25T17:16:00.001-05:00

I bought a bag of purple strips at a Block Party Quilt show a couple of years ago. During my vacation to Maui, I sewed the strips together to make 6.5" squares. The strips were of varying widths (approx 1 inch to 2.25 inch). I found this excellent Kaffe Fassett orange floral with purple plums at Quilting Loft near my house. The center is 42" x 48". I want to add a purple floral as the border.

Jenny, Michelle, Frank and I had a SUPER time whale watching off of Maui.

With a little help from my friends?

2012-11-02T17:59:00.000-04:00

Well, courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, I had two extra days to get some things done at home. Unfortunately Oliver, Declan's new playmate, has a different idea of what 'helpful' means than I do.

As you can see in the last picture, I was able to complete 28 pillow cases for my mom's church bazaar. Hopefully they arrived in today's mail (since the bazaar is tomorrow. He's a cutie (very good thing) and he hugs which is lovely!

Table runner using printed panel

2012-10-26T13:53:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone. This is a "Stonehenge" printed panel that I found on sale at Undercover Quilts at Pike Place Market last Friday. I used a batting scrap and machine quilted it over a couple of evenings. I think it came out pretty well, so I bought another panel. I am going to give the first one to my sister for her vacation house in Idaho.

Kaffe Fassett class at Island Quilter, Vashon

2012-10-14T22:19:00.002-04:00

How do I rotate this? top is on the left!

Here is KF talking about my quilt!

Here is what the room looked like with everyone working away.

Here is one I liked at lot.

BQ3 pattern using crumbs

2012-10-08T18:13:00.000-04:00

Here are my blocks (not yet sewn together) using my crumbs. You will see several Hawaiian prints, pink, and navy. The stripe fabric and the orange-y print in the sashing are both Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I am really enjoying the spontaneity of the crumbs. My friend Beth decided to make a crumb quilt too, but each block is one color. She keeps all her scraps color-coded, so she pulled out one box at a time to make each block.

I signed up for Kaffe Fassett class in Vashon

2012-09-06T16:34:00.001-04:00

I signed up for this class "Sunlight in the Forest" at Island Quilter on Vashon Island in October. I am excited to see him "in action" and how he thinks about color and contrast. I might make a trip ahead of the class to get a few "focus" fabrics to start building upon. This example uses the very large red floral that is fussy cut. The largest squares are 12" finished.

Ready, Set, GO!

2012-08-23T11:21:00.000-04:00

At Quarterly Quilters earlier this month, we talked about the October project which will be the 1600. Apparently this is a fad sweeping through quilt guilds around the country, and would be right up Kim F's alley since it requires 'punching it.' Most guilds do this as a race (which will be the way QQ does it in October). I did a modified version just to see how it worked and ended up with this quilt that's a lap size.

The basic idea starts with a jelly roll and ends with a twin top. You sew the jelly roll strips together in a VERY long strip and is race-ready. The race is to see who can sew the strip into the top the fastest; it would help immensely to have a pit crew to help manage that long strip through the initial 2-3 seams since the top is formed by sewing the opposite end of that strip together along the long side until you meet in the middle; clip the strip; line up the ends, and repeat until the top fits either your desired length or width (depending on which way you want your strips to run.) I modified the plan for a smaller size and because I had a bunch of strips that aren't WOF, and added the white squares to give it some continuity (and lighten it up).

Rosie's Calico Cupboard in San Diego

2012-08-10T17:10:00.002-04:00

Last week, Li and I attended a conference in San Diego. I took a little time to check out "The Trolley" their regional light rail system, by getting an all day pass, and traveling to this quilt fabric shop that Yuki had recommended to me many years ago. Their website said they would pick up at the transit station, if they were not too busy.   The woman who picked me up told me that her husband was in Seattle for our annual Seafair, as he was on a Navy ship.

It is a VERY large store and has EXCELLENT prices. OMG. New Kona Bay tonal leaves for $8.50 a yard.    I think the going price in Seattle is about $11/yd. Once the bolt is priced, they don't change the price to the same price as the new bolts. I found some older bolts that were only $6.50/yd.

Most of the store is organized by color, with separate sections for batiks, Asian, 1930s, children, floral and Kaffe Fassett.   If you are ever in San Diego, I highly recommend it, especially because of the transit accessibility. :-)

My recent mood has been "fear of becoming a hoarder," so I didn't do much buying, but sure had fun looking!

2012 CFC phase II

2012-07-26T17:17:00.001-04:00

Since Elaine finished her half-blocks for the edges, and most of the sashing units, she was able to finish assembling the center during S&B at Kim H. It's looking great!

The second image is a mock-up of the inner border and the pieced 9-patch borders that Jackie's working on. Oops, just realized both images are turned 90° but I think it actually makes the border picture easier to understand so I'm not going to fix either.

Progression

2012-07-10T14:42:00.000-04:00

So, the other day I learned that the ladies in Iowa were ready for my next quilt. Excitement! Except that when I got home, I discovered I didn't have a quilt ready to send them (I really need to figure out a way to piece quilts while I knit, or vice versa!) - how is that possible? Where's the quilt? What to do? The only obvious response was to speedily piece a top, right? Right? Of course, we are talking me so that top which is inspired by Kaffe Fassett. Finished size 88" x 66"

That one led to this one because of all the left-over 3 1/2" square pieces (plus 10 pieces to fill in the gaps) which is 51" x 39" with the borders.

Here's a close-up of the incredibly scary bunnies in the border print. (Can I give this to a kid? or will that be grounds for a damages suit when the kid grows up?) Kim H thinks they're cute?!?

But, naturally all the left-over bits weren't square so I ended up with a bunch of 3 1/2" x 2" pieces which weren't quite enough to make a top by themselves but Ann had given me the left-overs from the scrappy wedding quilt she made her daughter. (Remember cutting those way back when). Whew! No need to cut more. The end result was this which is 39" x 30" and won't have borders.

Oh, by the way...

2012-06-21T15:48:00.000-04:00

So Mom and Dad came up for Mia's 11th birthday party in May. On Saturday morning Dad showed me the bed he'd made for Mia's American Girl doll Mia. About an hour later Mom mentioned that the bed looked awfully bare and couldn't you (meaning me) do something about that - a little quilt would be nice. So with a little technical assistance from Kim F., we ended up with the following ensemble.

First, the bed as designed by Mia and made by Granpa

Complete with initial on the headboard

I went with a bedroll assembly of mattress pad and lace-edged top sheet with a little pillow to match

Here's the quilt (aren't I clever for collecting all those 2" cut squares so that I could pull this together zippedy-quick? JITD - I finished at 3 pm about the time we needed to leave for the party!)

Last but not least, here's Mia taking a rest from the excitement of the family party.

First the bed

the first image

2012-06-18T11:15:00.001-04:00

We've started....

this year's CFC quilt.

Leftover Chinese Coins

2012-06-14T19:49:00.002-04:00

what to do with leftover "coins"

Some of you will remember my pink and green "Chinese Coins". I believe I finished it last year, with the help of Jenny to select border fabrics, and Alyssa to do the binding. It was given to my brother-in-law's niece Megan. I had a few strips of "coins" left over, so this is where I am now. I will use the same fabric (large scale pink floral) for the borders that was used in the first quilt.