Green

It's sort of funny that I'm not a huge fan of St. Patrick's Day, because I love green. Of course the green color associated with St. Patrick's Day is, well, bland - that plain old kelly green, you only ever see that one exact shade, for the most part. Bland and boring. The greens I like are the million variations of nature, sort of like the quilt above.

(Unfinished quilt above made by me and unofficially named "Monochromatic #1" - based on designs in the book "Spectacular Scraps.")


I haven't been doing much quilting lately, partly because I've been spending all my time making jewelry instead. And - surprise! - this has included an awful lot of greens.




(This pair is made with lampworked beads from Erica, incidentally.)

I have a lovely pile of green Czech beads of various shades and finishes - I should take a picture cause they're gorgeous. I just happened to throw a few together and they looked so good I just kept adding more, and the more I added the more beautiful they got. I suspect that that encapsulates my whole attitude toward color, right there.

Progress report

I haven't gotten too far on this, but I thought I'd post the progress on the sashing. I'm not far from finishing - the third row is partly done, too. I really should get back to it and get it over with. Assembling blocks has never been my favorite part of quilting.


Adding: I also haven't posted a picture of the sewing room, now that it's actually functional (if not exactly beautiful):



That pole sticking up on the right is the Ott-Light that I bought at Office Depot, which I love. It has a very different bulb in it than any other Ott I've ever seen, but it works just fine.

Star swap blocks

This is what I've been working on - this picture was taken a week or so ago when I started auditioning sashing fabrics. I posted this on the calicocats LJ group asking for opinions on the two sashing fabrics I was thinking of using. They mostly said, use the cranberry (the slightly darker one) - but the fact was that I didn't have enough of the cranberry to do the whole thing anyway, so I ended up using the more pink one between the blocks and the cranberry on the outside. I did go to Quilts by the Bay and look, first, and they didn't have anything that would do, and I didn't want to wait to get anything from elsewhere, so I went with what I had. The pink(ish) one is the one I really intended to use in the first place, and obviously I spent some time second-guessing myself, but I think it's going to work fine after all.

Swap blocks made by members of Lakeview Quilters Guild, 2006. (There are three more blocks besides these, and they are destined to become a table runner.)

Purchases

Pink fabric purchases, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

So here is all the pink fabric I've been buying lately. (I include the one piece of Freshcut with the ivory background because it is the pink colorway, even though it's not terribly pink overall.) Three pieces are Freshcut, several are batiks, and... I frankly don't even remember what the rest of them are. Mostly they are half-yards, so this is a LOT of fabric.

Kathryn's quilt

Kathryn's quilt, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I just bought a lot of pink fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop, because I've still got it in my head to do another pink quilt. The quilt in my picture was my second quilt - like the first one, it was nine-patches - and it was made for the child of a college roommate. Reportedly Kathryn loved it dearly and carried it around for years - but apart from that I've never thought it was an entirely successful quilt. Kathryn may have been satisfied with it, but I wasn't. I've learned a lot about things like value and contrast since then. (Those fabrics that don't quite read pink bother me, particularly.) Also, this was the first quilt that I chose the fabrics for, and it's a little too matchy for my taste nowadays. I really am a scrap quilter to the core.

Poetry

Poetry on design wall, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

My mom bought several of those packets of pre-cut 5" squares that Moda puts out, and two of them were April Cornell's Poetry line from last year. I didn't quite know what to do with them, so at retreat I started sewing them into half-square triangles. I tried to maximize the contrast, although of course some still have more contrast than others - still, from what I slapped up on the design wall, it seems promising.

I also found the big floral on clearance at Virginia Quilter (in the 54" width, too) and ordered a yard. I figured that's enough to put a nice-sized border on this with room to spare. I think there's 80 of these triangles, and I trimmed them to 4-1/4", so this is not going to be all that big.

Retreat time

log cabin blocks, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

This is one thing that I worked on at the quilt retreat this weekend. The centers are a Kona Bay panel, and they are directional, which you may or may not be able to tell since they are sort of turned every which way in this picture. (I was just trying to figure out how well this whole idea was going to work.) I bought the panel on eBay last year, because I thought it would make good centers for the indigo log cabin I have been planning to make since the dawn of time - or at least for several years. As tends to happen when you collect fabrics like this, though, I had way more dark indigoes than I did light ones. I think I have enough, though. Barely.

Batik double star block

batik double star # 2, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

This is one of the blocks that I made for the Friendship Bee, which led to my mom making the quilt two entries down (here). I like this block a lot. I can't remember ever having seen the quilt it would up in, and I'd like to.

Belated St Patrick's Day picture

Green quilt with both borders, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I probably put this up around this time last year, too, but oh well. I've been thinking of this quilt because I just came up with a use for it. (I'm not telling right now what that is.) Now I just need to finish it.

At least I'm doing ONE craft...

Look, I'm a jewelrymaker!, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I may not have gotten any quilting done lately, but I did take a jewelry-making class - just the basics of stringing beads, really. This is what I made, along with a matching pair of earrings. (Regular readers may remember having seen this same color scheme in a quilt of mine!) Not that I'm planning to give up quilting for jewelrymaking, but this was really fun.

Autumn Leaves II

Taking a one-picture break from IQF quilts - this is my little autumn leaves wallhanging that I finally finished a month or so ago. (And here is one where you can see the back, which I really like.) I'm sorry you can't get a good look at the edges in these pictures, because I really think they came out nice, too. I am really pleased with myself about the whole thing, actually. I have said most of this before but to get it all in one place: it's 36 of the little 3" paper-pieced autumn leaf blocks (the pattern is on the small-expressions website and it's called "maple leaf" there, I think) and I did the same concentric sort of arrangement that I did on the bigger quilt that I made out of these blocks. Then I used a chinese-coin border that I started making for the big quilt and abandoned - I cut it in half lengthwise so that I had two identical 2-1/2" strips, and I used those for the border. Then I finished it by turning it, using Melody Johnson's technique from this month's Quilter's Newsletter. I have turned quilts before, but her technique of cutting the back open and then fusing it closed again makes it so much faster. (It only really works on quilts intended to be hung, though.)


We're always focused on IQF here in the Houston area, but the new Chicago Quilt Expo was also good, by all accounts. My friend Karen has two sets of pictures up, and dquilts also has some over on Webshots.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

Star swap blocks

Star swap blocks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

So, here's all 12 of my swap blocks. They're arranged like they are because I think I'm making 2 things out of them: a 9-block wallhanging/lap quilt, and a table runner. The main reason for doing it that way is that the only way to make my block look right is to put it in the center - thus, 9 blocks. And I like the idea of having a table runner. They divided up fairly neatly into 5 blocks with green backgrounds, 4 blocks with gold backgrounds - plus the one that's equally green and gold. The outliers are the one with the red background and, of course, mine with its pink background. But I think sashed with cranberry it will all work together fine.

Swap blocks!

Christmas swap block
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Here's a preview of the swap blocks.

It's funny, the blocks I got back don't look a thing like mine, even though we all followed the rules. They are all mostly green, cranberry, gold and pink. Mine is definitely the pinkest. They will all blend pretty well, though, I think - I am going to put them up on my mom's design wall tomorrow and take pictures of the whole group.

Favorites

Teacups
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

(Quilt top above made by me, from Jan Mullen's pattern "Cuppaz")

I happened to notice today that this is my most-favorited quilt. (Of my own quilts, I mean - my most favorited picture is of somebody else's quilt - one of the IQF ones, I think.) Anyway, it made me think that I never did make the wallhanging out of these that I meant to make when I started. These blocks - the ones in the picture, I mean - I gave away, and I took a few more of them and made a small wallhanging for Karen - but I never made one for myself, which was my original intention. I need to figure out how many of "Cuppaz" blocks I still have, because I have no idea at all.

I got a few more leaf blocks done this weekend, but I had left my glasses behind, and trying to see well enough to stay on the line was giving me a headache, so I quit. (I complain about those bifocals, but apparently I really need them.) No word yet on the swap blocks; I'm really interested to see what I get back!

Added: I looked and I still have 23 Cuppaz blocks. I gave away 9+4 = 13, so that means I've made at least 36. That's a good many blocks! (They're fun to make, though, I think that's why I have so many.)

Finished swap blocks

(If you're in the swap with me, avert your eyes!)


cranberry star swap blocks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Only four of my 12 swap blocks are pictured, of course, but they're done, done, done! (And in the nick of time, too.) I'm meeting the swap leader sometime today to hand them over, since I'm not going to the retreat this year.

Speaking of the retreat, I expected to feel regretful about not going, but so far, nada. I do always get a lot done there, and I will miss that part - well, I will miss all of it, really. But I'm not pining about it.

Updated picture of swap blocks

pink & cranberry swap blocks
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Here are the four swap blocks that are finished. I have some more bits and pieces (i.e., subunits) together but this is it for finished ones. I like them all - the one with the too-light center probably the least, the two on the top row the most, although I also like the bottom right one with the lighter corner star points really well, too. Since I keep running out of one fabric or another, they are going to keep changing a little bit, anyway.

This exchange was supposed to take place at fall retreat, and I don't think I'm going this year. It's the first time in maybe 7 years that I haven't gone. I know I'm going to be sorry I'm not, but there were too many other factors - mom's disability, money, a minor shortage of vacation time.... (I had enough vacation time and in fact had already put in a request to use it - but I have taken an awful lot of vacation already this year and am going to be taking more, so on top of everything else that may have been the tipping point.)

More autumn leaves

new autumn leaves
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I have promised to make another autumn leaf quilt - a small one - so here's the beginning of that. I haven't decided how many leaves I'm making exactly. We'll see how it goes. (Last time, I totally got addicted to making the things, so you never know.)

Exchange update

three & one-third pink stars, plus a boat
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

So here's the progress on the pink-&-cranberry exchange. It's going slow, but it is making progress. I did get a little more done after this picture was taken - the third block was still in pieces here, for one thing. I also replaced the center, because I didn't think the lighter one looked as good.

I partly changed blocks from the original one I was going to make because I thought this one would be easier, and it is, but it's still not quite as easy as I thought. Sewing the subunits together usually takes a while because the "side" star units - the ones with the gold - tend not to come out just right. The points tend to want to come out with no seam allowance and that's not going to work!

The blue sailboat is my mother's Friendship Bee exchange block. The part you see is solids, and then it's doing to have an indigo blue batik printed with koi underneath the boat. (That's what serves as the water, I guess!)

Exchange block v.2

pink star from Carol Doak book
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Here is my most recent try at the exchange block. I don't know if I said before that I found out a couple of weeks ago that we could use gold ("dull gold" - to be specific) as well as pink, cranberry and green. And that seems to have helped. This is still a very very pink block, but I like it. I'm still tinkering with fabrics, though - for one thing, I don't think I have enough to do 12 blocks exactly like this!

Cranberry swap block?

Sue's Star
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I whipped this up in EQ about 11:30 last night - of course these fabrics would not be what I'd actually be using, but what do you think of the basic idea? (This would be for the exchange, so the fabrics would be the ones in the entry-before-last.) I think it's fairly promising.