Easy Lane - Step 2

 

I'm so excited with how easy this step is going! I had read Bonnie's suggestions last year when doing her Orca Bay Mystery to buy the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers but I didn't buy them until recently. They are so nifty! I also like how versatile they are, as each one can be used to make several different sizes (unlike another Flying Geese ruler set I bought that only makes 2 different sizes). She also made a killer video on how to use them properly!!

So here are the first few geese I've made for my Easy Street (or in my case LANE) mystery quilt. I will be making about 50 more but wanted to at least knock a few out and get them posted so I'm "keeping up" as best as possible. To see other participants' posts for this mystery please visit http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html



I had practiced with the rulers over the weekend and made even SMALLER geese (finishing at 1x2") for a Farmer's Wife Sampler swap that I'm participating in. I got ahead of myself and made the geese dark and the sky light in the first set before I realized that the Cups and Saucers block is the other way around. Whoops! Bonus block for me, I guess :)




I then made another block using different fabrics...I liked the look of the 2 blue ones but the lighter one was thicker than the other and it made the seams very bulky. Unfortunately the pattern in the dark purple is conflicting with the angles of the block so it kind of makes one a little dizzy looking at it, LOL. Good thing I only made one of this one too...but I like it enough I think I'll keep it for my own quilt.

Easy Street...or Maybe Easy Lane?

It's time for a mystery!!! Here's my Step One for the latest Bonnie Hunter mystery: Easy Street. The finished size if you do the entire quilt is 84" square and I just want more of a couch quilt/throw so I'm doing half of the steps to make something closer to 60" square. Therefore the working title for MY quilt is Easy Lane ;)

Here are 98 three inch finished 4 patches...the grey is our "constant" and is a batik. The other parts are black on white prints. The colors in the quilt are purple, aqua and apple green. Below is a photo of the fabrics I pulled, except I changed the grey to a darker one. I also pulled out a few of the other colors that I thought weren't quite right and set them aside for later...we'll see if they feel right later on.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-street-monday-link-up-1.html

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...

Smokey Inspects My Taylor Bridge Fire Quilt

Smokey just *has* to inspect everything I'm quilting! Here she admires the color changes in the variegated thread I chose to quilt the Jewel Box top.

It's made up of primary colors and is a discontinued color from Connecting Threads.

I think she's partial to the swirly pattern, as she seems to be more interested in the quilts on which I use this design!

I made binding for it this morning but then had to go to work. I'm having a friend over Wednesday to sew and I plan to get that binding attached so we can call this one DONE!!!

In case you don't follow my other activities, please come see the Taylor Bridge Fire Quilts blog

Great Grandmothers' Quilts

No, I didn't put the apostrophe in the wrong place, I have quilts to show from TWO of my great grandmothers!

Mum had been telling me ever since I started quilting 4 years ago that she had a couple of her grandmothers' quilts. It took all this time to figure out where they were, as she would alternate between saying they were in the cedar chest (which has a huge TV on top of it) and telling me they were in the linen closet (which is packed). But finally last week they surfaced, and are now in my possession for safekeeping!! 

This first one is believed to be by her paternal grandmother. Mum's memory is a little rusty (cough) and of course there's no label and no one else to ask, so we're going to assume that is the case! It is hand pieced and hand quilted, and approximately 60 x 80".

 

You'll see that a lot of the blue fabrics faded to nearly white over the years, but many of the baskets are still quite vibrant. It has some stains and the single layer of binding is shredded in areas. I will probably hand baste those areas for now, just so they don't get worse.



Here is a close up of some of the fabrics. If anyone has an idea of what decade this might date to I'd love to hear your thoughts!





Below is a gorgeous Double Wedding Ring hand  pieced and hand quilted by my mom's maternal grandmother, Zeal. It is 74 x 81"



She's the one who also made the baby quilt I posted previously. Some of the fabric dyes have transferred to other areas, not by bleeding but by crocking (contact/rubbing onto the others). The binding is double fold and is in very good shape. I only found one part that was frayed. I took a few close ups of this one too. I recognize the fabrics as being feedsack/30's but am not sure when it was actually made.

 Enjoy!!!

Taylor Bridge Fire Quilts

Hey all! I'm taking a break from my regular quilting to work on a very special project. That project has its own blog: http://taylorbridgefirequilts.blogspot.com/

My friends and I are making quilts for the victims of the Taylor Bridge fire in Cle Elum Washington. It's a terrible fire that consumed 48 homes and more than a dozen other structures in a matter of hours a week ago today. In fact, the fire is still burning but at last word it was about 47% contained and they hope to soon make an announcement of 100% containment if the weather would just cooperate. They're having trouble with the wind :(

If you are interested in seeing what I'm up to, please visit the other blog. And if you'd like to help...just drop me a note on either blog!!!

-Misha

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!

Splashes of Color - with Smokey

Splashes of Color with Smokey 7439, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Smokey is inspecting the stitching. She says it's a little "large" but at least it's consistent. Comfort quilt made for my friend Molly following surgery. She hasn't seen it yet, but as far as I know she's not aware of my blog so it should be a surprise!

Free pattern for quilt here: www.allpeoplequilt.com/projects-ideas/bed-quilts/splashes...

Click on the pic to go to my Flickr page to see additional photos!

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! ;)

Quilt University Class

I signed up for my first Quilt University class the other day...actually I signed up the very day that class started! It's by Nancy Lee Chong and it's Hawaiian Quilting 101.

I followed the instructions on how to email pictures to the Dean to the letter...I made sure I scaled the photos down in size, etc. For some reason, however, they still saw fit to crop the images significantly, showing only a small portion of the fabrics I'm considering. Here I've posted the full photos so you get a better idea of what my fabrics look like. The background is not my counter top, LOL, it's the white batik with purple detail that I'll be using for the background of my applique. I'm undecided at this point whether to go with the teal/blue fabric or the fuchsia/blue for the applique itself.

I'll decide Friday which one to use and will cut out my Ulu pattern provided for the class. I'll continue to post my progress as the class continues over the next few weeks!