I'm Still Here...

Sorry I haven't been keeping up on here lately. In February I went to the VOS (Valley of the Sun) retreat in Phoenix and had a wonderful time with my friends. I didn't do a tremendous amount of sewing this year, on purpose.












I did work some on the blocks for Colene's Farmer's Wife Sampler Swap though, and here are some of the results.









I also made a mini quilt for my dear friend Judy Akers to cheer her up during a recent health issue. A whole bunch of us participated and sent her quilts throughout the months of January and February. It was fun keeping the secret from her as we all privately chatted on Facebook and shared photos. You can see the gallery here, thanks to Mary Jane :)

Here was my contribution:




I'll try to keep up better with blogging once I get my quilting mojo back...which better be soon!

Tulip Mini Quilt for ALQS7

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to work on many personal projects as I've been very busy the last 2 months with the Taylor Bridge project, but I had to take time out to participate in Kate's ALQS7 as I absolutely love how her swaps work!

For those not familiar, usually you're assigned a partner in a swap like this, and there's always worry and strife about whether the recipient will love your final product. There's also the stress about meeting the deadline, or what to do if someone gets sick and has to drop out. Not so with Kate's swap! There is a deadline to get the photo to her, and as long as you make that deadline you're in. If you can't make it, no worries, you just won't participate in that round. She then lets all the participants send her a list of their favorite quilts among those submitted, and she has the difficult task of divvying them all up...but she does a fabulous job and we appreciate all her hard work!

So here is my little quilt. The challenge this round was to make a 12" mini quilt. Yikes! I started on a tiny little Hawaiian Applique piece but abandoned it as I decided my design wasn't good enough (self designed, first attempt). Maybe another time....then I had an idea to use some of my collection of Australian fabrics, but before I had a chance to do anything with them I got a Craftsy email with a free pattern for a 10" Paper Pieced Tulip block. Hmm...10" block + 1" border = 12" mini quilt. Score!

The batiks proved to be difficult to photograph, and in editing the colors to make the tulips, leaves and borders look right I ended up washing out the aquas. Here I've added some extra photos to show how the background looks.

I also wanted to give a shout out to my friend Shelley (aka Pirate) for her great Freezer Paper Piecing tutorial. I love it, and refer to it every time I need to paper piece something like this!

Sadly, Blogger ate half of my original post so I may have to come back later and add some forgotten details, but here are the rest of the photos in the meanwhile...

Hawaiian Applique - Halfway Point!

Hawaiian Applique - Halfway Point! 7443, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I've been working on this on the go...and maybe I should stop working on it in the car, based on some of the lousy curves, but it's all good! I'm learning as I go :)

I'm right handed and working counter-clockwise. The stitching begins at about 4:00 and ends at 10:00. I'm taking a class by Nancy Lee Chong on Quilt University, and loving it!

Hawaiian Quilt Class Progress

The inside Vs are the hardest part so far, but I learn a little bit more with each one I complete. Almost 1/4 of the way done!

Hawaiian Quilt - Basted

 

The result of the first lesson in Nancy Lee Chong's Hawaiian Quilt 101 class I'm taking from Quilt University online. Tonight we'll learn her techniques for needleturn applique. I'm so psyched!

I should note that we were told to baste it with "ugly thread" so we'd be motivated to make progress on the block and therefore get to remove more and more of the "ugly thread". This is why it's basted in brilliant orange! ;)

Doll Quilt Swap Teaser

CS close up 7037, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Just a little close up of a detail on a quilt I'm working on for the about.com swap hosted by Patti. I'll post a pic of the entire quilt this weekend. The theme this round was either Winter or Holiday.

WIP Huckleberry Wave

WIP Huckleberry Wave 7017s, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

A work in progress. It's a variation on Huckleberry Swirl that I made for ALQS6. This will be for me, so it's going very slowly as I have other priorities...but I just recently blogged about the original and was asked if I was making a twin for myself. More of a fraternal twin! ;)

Technique is from Dianne Hire's book Vivacious Curvy Quilts.

I really wanted a take-along project so I've been hand piecing these. Not a good idea, as it will be very difficult if not impossible to trim some of them down, LOL.

I will probably add bits and pieces/wedges to them by machine to bring them up a little in size to minimize the need to trim. (Two of the blocks on the right side are not actually sewn yet.) It will be an interesting puzzle, that's for sure!

ALQS6 - Huckleberry Swirl

Ok, I guess it's time I get into the blog aspect of quilting! We'll see if I can keep up (somewhat) this time.

I was very excited to participate in Kate North's ALQS6 (Another Little Quilt Swap) last month. I'll do my best to attach a photo of the quilt I made, and soon I will post a photo of the quilt I received...but the latter will need to wait as we're still waiting for The Big Reveal by our fearless leader.



Huckleberry Swirl was made using techniques from Dianne Hire's book Vivacious Curvy Quilts. It was my first time doing curved piecing on the machine, and it was a blast! I'm already working on more blocks for a quilt for myself, just with a different type of curve. I hand stitched some details with variegated embroidery thread before quilting with shiny poly threads. There are NO straight lines anywhere in this, not even the outside edge!

Mini Quilts

Here are the two Mini (aka "Doll") quilts I've made so far. The purple one is called Falling for Batiks and I made it for Deb in WNY in the fall swap in 2008. The tulip quilt (which I only now realize I never named!) was made for Judy A. She and I went to the same retreat in AZ in February, so it was neat to make something for someone I'd already met!







Below you can see the quilt I received in the fall swap from Christine. It's made with Asian/oriental fabrics and has the coolest 3D flowers!