A Pair of Finishes

Last fall I fell in love with the Forest Floor line of fabric, which eventually turned into a mid-scale Lotus quilt. I probably put some photos on my Facebook page, but it never showed up here and since I just finished quilting and binding it, this seems as good a time as any. This is done with the 6" jewel shape, so each triangle is 10" high.

Finished Lotus quilt. 46 x 60"

I was very happy with the loopy quilting, done with my always-favorite Sulky Blendables in some lovely variegated browns.

Forest Floor Lotus quilt, close up of loopy quilting.

I always save the scraps when I'm using the Hex N More ruler, and (as I posted about already) the scraps of this quilt turned into a wonderful little coordinating wallhanging.

Save those Hex N More scraps! 19 x 26"

I did a little Google-based research (pretty serious stuff) and adjusted the name of the quilt. Apparently "pareidolia" is a specific type of false pattern recognition in which a particular (often human, often facial) image is "recognized," like the man in the moon. It's a subtype of the more general "apophenia," which refers to the human tendency to seek patterns in random information. That works well for this project, which I think looks like it could be (but isn't!) a Microsoft Tag. Plus, with the simple addition of a few letters, I've got a terrific (OK, slightly hokey) quilt name!

Scrapophenia!

 I've been stitching up a storm, so I have a lot more on the way...

Pretty Lotus

Two days of sewing at the shop and my Lotus quilt is together. I love love love these colors--warm corals and salmon pinks, with coppery and ochre accents. Not the super-bright oranges that I typically choose, but a much more "grown-up" version (and still orange, after all). I used a complete mishmash of fabrics in this little lap quilt: some large prints, some small ones; a variety of lights, mediums, and darks; and at least six different designers.

Lotus quilt (Jaybird Designs), ready to finish

I'll square off the sides of this one (and piece the cut-offs into the back), and I might add a border if I have enough of the coppery brown triangle fabric left. I am also wondering if I have enough cut-off triangles to make a border that wraps the whole way around the quilt. I suppose I could cut a few more if there aren't quite enough in the leftover stack.

Due to the timing of both of our summer vacations, I have missed two journal meetings in a row, so I'm now two months behind on those projects. The June meeting is next Tuesday, and I don't want to have three full projects to complete before July, so I took some time today to get a decent start on the May and June pages. I won't post any details about those pages until I pass them on at the July meeting, but at least I'm encouraged that I'll be all caught up by then.

Lotus class

I spent this fine sunny spring day teaching a class on the Lotus pattern at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts. Five students, five beautiful quilts underway! This is a great pattern -- extremely easy to sew, and so much potential for different and unique looks with only minor tweaking in the color choices. Thanks to everyone for a fun day!

A few photos of the initial blocks that everybody made:

Debbie's first block -- delicious chocolate-covered cherries!!

Linda is going to have a tropical treat when she finishes her quilt (probably tonight!)

Liz decided to work in a smaller scale, using just one color for all of the small triangles. One of the great things about the ruler is that it makes it simple to scale up to larger pieces or down to smaller pieces with very little effort. All the math is built right in.

Liz's first blocks. I like the way the single-color triangles creates circles.

Sara had some lovely Asian fabrics with rich vibrant colors.

Sue joined us a little late, but still managed to finish three blocks before we wrapped up.

One thing I particularly appreciate about this pattern is that even the scraps are cut off in ready-to-use condition. I have a small stack of half triangles and a hundred or so perfect equilateral triangles ready to assemble.

My Lotus scraps.

I didn't get much of the sewing done, but all the pieces are cut and ready to go. This will be a good take-on-Tuesday project to keep me busy on the next open sew.

Lotus pieces

Fare thee well, Great Ullr

Despite the forecast of freezing rain and even a few snow flurries mid-week, it is time to retire the Ullr runner for the season. I spent the beautiful yesterday making a new runner with my collection of cute sewing-related fabrics, which just happen to have lots of pinks and blues to coordinate nicely in the new sewing room. Nothing too fancy, just huge half hex pieces arranged in a braid like the growth chart; I quilted a few simple feathers and it was finished before I went to bed!

Pro tip if you want to do the half-hex braid: Start by cutting half of a jewel shape, then add the first half hex to its long side. From that point, each subsequent piece fits perfectly. I use my big Hex N More ruler aligned so the longitudinal center of the ruler is about an inch away from the edge of the fabric.

Stitchery sofa table runner

Stitchery sofa table runner (approx 12 x 58")

I used this fun old-fashioned sewing advertisement print on the back. The half feathers look good from this side.

Lotus samples

In June I'm going to be teaching a class on the Lotus quilt, so I made a Mini version to drum up some interest, and because I just can't stop playing with that cute little Mini Hex n More ruler. If you follow along here, you have probably noticed that I don't often work in such a flowery pastel palette (this is as "pastel" as it gets in my Strategic Fabric Reserves)...but even I, diehard lover of the wintriest of winters, was ready for a little spring color this month. This is a really fun pattern to make, and there are lots of possibilities with just these two simple shapes.

Mini Lotus -- 20 x 23"

T-shirt progress

I mentioned that a friend of mine has asked me to make a t-shirt quilt; I thought I'd try something a little different than other t-shirt quilts that I've made and seen by using...wait for it...hexagons (there it is again!). Okay, technically the pieces won't all be hexagons, but variations on the 60-degree angle shapes nonetheless.

On Friday night I decided to start by ironing the stabilizer onto the shirts that she gave me back on October. But that's a boring job to do all at once, so once the first shirt was ready I decided just to give it a whirl and start cutting the shapes. The largest size on the hex-and-more ruler was perfect. I added matching triangles to end up with 12" triangle units (thanks again for the Christmas present, boys!), which will be the building block for the whole project.

First unit from Aimee's triangle t-shirt quilt

Two of the pieces were so small (and obviously from one shirt) that I combined them into a single triangle: I cut the upper piece using the Hex n More "Jewel" shape, then added a thin wide strip with the eyes as the bottom of the triangle unit.

Combination unit from Aimee's triangle t-shirt quilt

Once I had the first few pieces worked up, momentum kept me going. By the time the boys' movie was finished, I had cut all of the background triangles (from a pretty jewel-colored print that coordinates perfectly with this collection of shirts), and trimmed & pieced 11 of the 17 shirts. For the pieces that were much larger, I squared (or angled) them off as large as possible, then added coordinating fabrics to get them to a usable shape. So far I have one 12" hexagon -- I don't have a ruler for that, but I know how to cut it with my regular 12.5" ruler -- a 24" hexagon that runs off the upper-right corner, a 24" diamond, and a mid-size parallelogram shape. Another evening of work and I should be able to finish the remaining few shirt segments, then the huge pieces will go together in no time. This is a really fun process, and I think it's shaping up nicely!

Aimee's triangle t-shirt quilt, shaping up!

Hex n More Class Sample

Here's a peek at the beginnings of the hexagon pinwheel quilt I'll be teaching at Lisa´s shop this Saturday:

Stitchapalooza

Despite our intentions to spend most of this Spring Break visiting museums and seeing friends in NYC and Philadelphia, a strep scare (ultimately negative) sidelined the younger boy, so I stayed home with him while Child the Elder accompanied his father to a Penguins-Islanders game and spent just one day in the Big Apple. I spent nearly 36 hours sitting with a sick son watching a neverending stream of movies and wrapping tiny hexagons for my neverending River project. I had a really enjoyable time talking with just one child at a time; we don't split them up for one-on-one time often enough. My fingers, however, were literally bleeding from the hexagons. Time to learn to use a thimble. The city tourists were kind enough to take a detour to the City Quilter and brought me a nice stack of cotton prints, always the best souvenir!

So many possibilities for these wonderful NYC-themed fabrics!!

After they returned on Saturday night, we just kind of hunkered down in the house and I put the hexies away for larger-scale projects. I made an entire quilt top for my California fabric "cousin challenge", although said cousin asked me not to post any photos so I will wait a while. (If you're in CT, though, you can see it at Lisa's Clover Hill, and I'll be teaching a class with the VERY EASY pattern on June 8.)

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at Open Sew days at Lisa's, then Thursday shopping and basting with my friend Tina. On Saturday morning I went back to Lisa's to pick out some monotone fabrics for a pixelated photo project that I'll be working on this summer. And, while the menfolk were in Springfield last night for yet another hockey game, I whipped up this nifty table runner (also with my new favorite, the Hex n More ruler):

This sucker is 18 x 80, which is a real table-filler in this house!

And, finally, today I added two outer rows to the triangle/hexagon project that I made using the cutaway pieces left over from the Jewel quilt.

The outer border was a good opportunity to practice Y-seams. I cut the strips exactly wide enough to use up the rest of the contrast fabric that I had leftover from my sister's purse.

And THAT's how you spend a Spring Break!

Jewel experiment

Having been exclusively quilting for a week or so, I was itching to do a little piecing for a change. Working through the worst headache I've ever had in my life (seriously, what the hell?!?) I pulled out the nifty new Hex N More ruler that I picked up at Sew Inspired earlier this month. I'm really quite impressed that I managed to wait two whole weeks before trying it. I have been thinking that I want to make the Lotus quilt with the citrusy fabrics that my cousin and I picked out together in California. I didn't want to commit to cutting those without trying the technique on something smaller, so I cut a few jewels and triangles out of some leftover Klimt print that I used to make my sister a purse, and a pretty lacy icy blue batik that coordinates beautifully with the print.

"Amanda's Bag" pattern by Marlous Designs, made for my sister in 2011

The pieces sewed together very quickly and easily; I made eight triangles altogether. My first thought was just to sew these into a single linear table runner.

However, although the fabrics were pretty, the single-line arrangement doesn't really show off the piecing geometry. I arranged them into a simple hexagon, which I always love...

...but adding the other two triangles made a diamond shape that would look good on a table and really lets the geometry shine. This is my favorite small arrangement:

I still have lots of both fabrics, so I could just keep going and make a full-size two-fabric quilt. Or, I might make some placemats and/or coasters to go with this smaller table topper. I haven't decided yet, but my California fabrics are all washed and pressed and ready to go, and those colors are WAY more exciting to work with, so this sample will undoubtedly languish unfinished for some time.