Honey Mini class (busy as a bee)

The monthly mini class that I've been teaching all year finally got to my favorite one in the book, the hexagon Honey pattern. In addition to the sample that I made last year, I also made both a full-size quilt and two more minis in preparing for yesterday's class.

This one will be a pillow in the newly painted family/sewing room.

Honeycomb!! 

I recently acquired the Urban Threads "Mini Menagerie" collection, and this seemed like the perfect setting for the bee. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this turned out!

The five students in the class made some pretty spectacular projects. Sara C used a musical instrument novelty as her print with rich wood-colored fabrics, Sara F used a beautiful combination of batiks and Asian prints, Nancy worked in some (for her) muted colors and was on her way to a lovely little autumnal project, Tina used fiery brights and a gorgeous print for the insets, and Liz made this:

Awesome use of Beatles fabric!

I'm getting down to the last cherished scraps of the Beatles prints that I have had in my Strategic Fabric Reserves, but this might be a good way to make the most of what's left in there.

Honeycomb!

Despite my plans of leaving some of this undone, I couldn't stop myself from finishing the Honeycomb quilt. (Now I'm going to have to prep another mini, which I'll use as a pillow in my new pink & turquoise room.) The yellow from the Nuance fabric is a little bright -- it comes across lemony in the photo, but it reads as neon in person -- but since the contrasting prints aren't too contrast-y, I like the effect. I think I am going to leave the edges zig-zaggy rather than squaring them off as she suggests in the book; I'll leave the upper-right corner square just for a nifty "something-different" effect.

From outside (my husband tells me) it looks like we have been invaded by giant bees.

Honeycomb close-up: the orange architextures fabric is a perfect background. I finished this whole project with a single 2.5" strip leftover.

Honeycomb prep

This Sunday in the Modern Minis class that I've been teaching all year, we're finally getting to the hexagon honeycomb project that's on the book cover. This pattern uses six solids and six prints, so I'm using a length of a fruity-bright P&B Nuances fabric that I bought just for this project:

This fabric is printed with six strips of color running lengthwise, so it's absolutely perfect for this pattern. Instead of buying six separate one-yard cuts, I cut the four yards of my single fabric into six separate 5-1/2" strips. For the skinny background sashing strips, I'm using the rest of my orange squiggly Architextures fabric:

The pattern for the quilt calls for sixty one-inch strips, but I have found that Hartman's patterns tend to be a little on the wasteful side and, since I will have no use for a bunch of leftover one-inch strips, I have decided to cut just 32 strips to get started. I'm sure I'll need a few more, but not 28 more.

After I finished the Week 5 mystery units, I got a nice start on sewing the sashing strips onto the solids and cutting triangles:

The second-darkest segments are all cut (center), and the sashing strips are added to the other four colors. Time to cut triangles!

I worked through the entire set of the darkest shade, along with the coordinating print, and even assembled those half hexagons:

The violet half-hex units are pieced and ready for final assembly.

By the time Sunday rolls around, I should have most of this finished up and ready to assemble. I'm planning to leave just enough of the work unfinished so I can use it as class samples. Still loving all these 60-degree angles!!

Petticoats and Polio

This pattern goes together so quickly...maybe two evenings to cut the pieces, a few more to piece the blocks...Voilà! Gotta love those lucky ladies with all their fancy modern conveniences!!

"Petticoats and Polio" (60 x 72, Avalon pattern by Elizabeth Hartman)

Another new one!?!

Despite my best intentions of quilting the tops that are waiting upstairs (and a marathon basting session in which I got 5 projects ready to quilt), I still managed to get another new one cut and half pieced this week. The pattern is Avalon by Elizabeth Hartman. I'm going to call this one "Petticoats and Polio" because I don't have a lot of sympathy for false nostalgia.

Two of the four blocks are already finished. I might do a little retro-motif stamping on the solid background, but a variegated quilting thread would fill in the space too. I'll let the possibilities brew for awhile.

This will finish at 60 x 72". (A nice view of the Cloud Nine quilt that I basted yesterday too. I'll post about that one later this week.)

With Halloween eerily looming on the horizon, my sewing machine time will be costume focused for the remainder of the week.

Fire Drill class

I haven't posted for a few days because I couldn't find the USB cord for my camera. It was hiding eighteen inches away from its usual spot. (I must be in some kind of intellectual biorhythmic trough...)

Anyway, cord having been located, I can share a few photos from this weekend's Modern Miniatures class, in which we did the Fire Drill pattern.

Liz has been saving her black-and-white-and-red pieces for a while now and decided that this was the pattern they had been waiting for. I really like the black background -- I think it gives a lot of depth to the design -- and I love that she chose to cut off only the top edge and leave a banner shape.

The very thin b&w stripe did not photograph well, but it makes this little banner really dance!

Sue used a very fresh combination of soft greys and a vivid and rich (not neon!) orange. Beautiful and very modern looking:

The repeated pairing of the same dark fabrics down the center of the quilt works well on this small project.

Here's the one that I made in class. I couldn't resist this nifty stripe from P&B's new Hello Dahlia line, and it made the perfect accent for this pattern; it reminds me of both filing folder tabs and canyonlands. I used a red background for my B&W&Red project just because Liz used a black one and I wanted to see the difference. I haven't chopped it yet, but I think I'll cut both the top and bottom edges so it finishes rectangular. Even though I like Liz's banner idea, this little thing would have a LOT of solid red if I leave the bottom uncut.

Much better than my first Fire Drill mini.

Newington Group Quilt winner!!

Somehow I never got around to posting photos of the Newington Schoolhouse Quilters' finished group quilts from this year. We used the Roller Rink pattern from Modern Patchwork (with the kind permission of Elizabeth Hartman) in a black-and-white color scheme with pops of brights. Both quilts came out lovely!

Our lucky winner was Jean Scibek!

This second quilt will be donated to Northeast Utilities, our meeting location, for their annual charity auction.

Rapid City class sample

One of the things I did while resting my fingers from the microhexies is to get ready for this month's Modern Mini class at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts, so I whipped up another Rapid City sample, this time using the Ghastlies fabric that I am hoarding. I wanted a background that pulled out the accent pink in the print, but I didn't have enough of any one of my batik scraps. Exigency led me to use a slightly lighter pink in the upper left corner of the border and a slightly darker one in the lower right; I mitered the corners where the colors met to make the whole thing look like it's on a beveled surface. I think the full-size quilt would look good this way too. It's amazing what a difference such a little detail can make.

Beveled-edge Rapid City witches (17 x 22")

Mini Neighborhood Class

It's the first Sunday of the month = time for another monthly mini class! This month's project was Neighborhood, which is a super-fast log cabin technique. We talked in class about doing this as a stitch-and-flip project; it would be a fast way to make a big quilt-as-you-go project.

Teaching this class is making me feel like a quilting midwife -- here are today's projects!

Liz used a friend's photo of a flicker as her centerpiece. Love that dotty background!

Sue's chicken coop is awesome! We learned that a fat quarter is JUST enough to do the background when you use a directional print like these eggs. Don't you just want to hang this in your kitchen and tuck into a big fluffy omelet??

Sara made this adorable little bird project. She has really gotten into the spirit of the whole
"Modern Patchwork" thing !

Tina used a terrific retro print surrounded by some sewing-motif prints; she's going to add a thought-bubble applique that says "Will the glamour never end?" Ha!

This is my class sample. A little plain but I like the sun. I'm hoping that some quilting will jazz it up a bit...

Thin Mints: Quilted

Finished the quilting on Thin Mints last night! I used the spirals that I practiced last year in the Free-Motion Challenge -- because I wanted it to evoke round stacks of chocolate cookies -- surrounded by a wavy line, which I did with the walking foot. As usual, all my quilting is with Sulky Blendables threads, this time using two different colors. Nothing is jumping off the shelf as a binding choice, but the right thing will turn up soon.

The chocolate Pearl Bracelets that I used on the back is peeking out at bit at the top of the photo...I liked how this motif supported the "Thin Mints" name that this quilt gave itself.

spiral quilting close-up

I couldn't pick which photo I liked best, so what the heck. This is just the best darn pattern.

Newington Group Quilt(s)

After a few winter-weather postponements, the ladies of the Newington Schoolhouse Quilters finally managed to schedule a successful worknight for assembling our group quilt. This year we are using Elizabeth Hartman's Roller Rink pattern, using a vibrant combination of blacks, whites, with small random pops of bright color. I made ten blocks a few months ago; the ladies of our group provided over 200 blocks for this project!

We started with about 100 blocks of each border color.

Eleven of us got right to work, starting by sewing blocks into pairs, then pairs into quads, then quads into strips of eight. About halfway through the process, I stopped sewing and started directing, because I didn't want us to end up with too many long units that would eventually need to be taken apart. Before we realized it, we had ten strips of 19 blocks!

The tables filled up fast!

Our energetic co-president Tammy, taking a turn at the pressing table.

Within three hours, the eleven of us had assembled TWO beautiful finished quilt tops! Each measures 76 x 80", a very generous and usable size. The second top actually still needs the final seam sewn, which I volunteered to do in the interests of everyone getting home before it was too late, and because I felt bad for shirking my sewing responsibilities while everyone else worked so hard.

First finished group quilt top! (76 x 80")

Sick Days

Somehow my husband has escaped this terrible virus that has decimated the kids and settled in my throat. Blerg. At least I'm not too wiped out for sewing. I started today by diving into the autumn colors Rapid City quilt that I have had basted for several weeks. I decided on swirly cloud quilting, using the humongous cone of thread that my healthy husband got me for Christmas. We got nine or ten inches of snow yesterday, but the sun was out this morning, so my sewing space was bright and warm. The pearly fabric that I used for the block borders was really glowing in the winter light.

When I'm quilting something this big, I appropriate the gateleg table that we normally use as a sofa table, and I set up a TV tray on my right to support the weight of the quilt. The boys were not happy to give up their ginger ale and kleenex stand today.

I got about half of the quilt finished; the swirly motif is looking very nice against the straight lines of the patchwork.

I guess I should start thinking about making some binding for this one!

Holiday trimmings

I had meetings every single night this week. That caught up with me on Saturday, when I slept in and couldn't face the idea of leaving the house again. I actually forewent (is that a word?) a trip to the SAQA meeting in Guilford, which was the first time I could have gone all year. But wow, it was great to spend the weekend holed up in my creativity nook. My spouse mentioned that we didn't really have any Christmas wall hanging quilts, which surprised me because I feel like I have made a lot of them. Turns out I never finish them; they have all just been hanging out in the UFO bin. That defined my Saturday.

Back in June when we went to the Vermont Quilt Festival, I found a teensy weensy twister ruler that I couldn't resist. When I got back to Connecticut, I got right down to the business of sewing 2.5" squares together, then cutting them up again. My cute little tree has been all wrapped up in batting since then, wanting only a border. I did some scrounging in the closet and found a piece that was perfect, nice holiday jewel tones on a background that makes the whole thing look like brownish wood from a distance, with just a hint of gold for holiday glitz. I bordered, quilted, and bound this little sparkler in the early part of the day. I still need to attach a few teensy weensy jingle bells, which I'll just tie randomly over the tree; that will be a good task for Tuesday morning's piano lesson. After that, DONE: ready to hang!

I left the cutting mat visible for scale. These little pieces are only a quarter of a square inch.

Detail of background meander quilting, done with rayon thread.

After that, I pulled out my Baby it's Cold Outside embroidery piece and got brave with a new motif I saw in Angela Walters' most excellent book. I filled a few pages in my practice journal with this one before putting thread in the machine. It was tricky, and I could probably have benefited from a little more patience, but this was a little job so I got to it. Not too bad, although working around the embroidery in the center was a little challenging. You can see where the shapes got a little off scale, but overall I'm pleased with the look. I still need to slap a binding on this one, but that will be quick. I'm also planning to tie a few rhinestones onto the snowflakes in the embroidery (can you tell that holidays are very sparkly around here?). I would like to use this motif to quilt my autumn Rapid City, which has been pinned and waiting for two weeks, but I don't know if I'm confident enough in the motif to commit to a whole job.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr (from the "Waffletime" pattern, Atkinson Designs)

Here's another fun little holiday job that I threw together on Friday night at the midnight sewing extravaganza at Lisa's. I left it on the wall overnight, and my older son (who doesn't usually comment) noticed it and complimented it first thing on Saturday. I'll take it. My plan is to use a few decorative stitches to add some "icing" details to give the houses a gingerbread look, then some simple quilting to get it on the wall.

From the "Neighborhood" pattern (Modern Patchwork, Elizabeth Hartman). Love that Bumble!

This table runner has also been hiding in the batting bin waiting for my attention. I'll try to get to it this weekend; I'm planning simple straight line quilting like I did on the Pink Rink one (hey! I just noticed I never posted a "finished" photo for it!), but that is a more time-consuming process than I originally thought it would be!

From the "Roller Rink" pattern (Modern Patchwork, Elizabeth Hartman)

For those of you who wonder if I sleep, Yes! I slept until after 8:30 this morning...then got up and enjoyed the maple oatmeal scones that my ten-year-old had baked the night before! We had to talk him down from his plans to ALSO make a blueberry cobbler with custard sauce AND a German apple pancake. What a kid, huh?

Newington Group Quilt blocks

I'm in charge of organizing the group quilt this year for the Newington Schoolhouse Quilters, and our blocks are due tomorrow. I anticipate that we'll have a very good response from our members, since this is such a quick block to assemble, and since people do seem eager to make two full-size quilts, one for a member to win and one to donate to our meeting site for their charitable fundraising. We're using a color variant of Elizabeth Hartman's Roller Rink pattern (I made a nifty pink one earlier this year). I can't wait to see this one go together. I made ten more blocks tonight:

Now I need to spend a few minutes putting together the sign-up sheet so our eager members can get these blocks assembled and off to be quilted. And I just now remembered that I need to make a pincushion (like this one) for our holiday exchange. I like this idea -- kudos to our new co-pres Tammy for arranging such a fun little thing!

Numbers 10 and 11 finished

Although these still need labels and hanging sleeves, two more of the Modern Patchwork minis are bound and finished! I stitched the binding down in front of a friend's fireplace on a chilly New England evening...a wonderful, hygge-filled evening if ever there was one.

"Looptastic" miniature

"Happy Hour" miniature

I just finished (!) the quilting on the last one; I'll make some binding later this afternoon and finish it (and maybe some sleeves) during today's football games.

And now my attention turns to some hush-hush secret projects that I can't yet blog about...but I can't wait to!

Basting session

Basting Day:

This is my autumn version of Rapid City. Not sure yet how I'm going to quilt it, but I have the perfect shade of Blendables ready to go!

Quick turnaround

As I mentioned in my last post, I downloaded the International Quilt Festival annual issues. Once I got the templates ready, this only took two evenings -- and that counts the hand appliqued circles (yes, I did something by hand!). Very quick and very lovely project:

"Marbles" table runner. Design by Brigitte Heitland, in  International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene, Winter 2011/12

I think I may begin following this designer's work more closely; I find her new Zen Chic line very appealing, and I love all the subtle curves she incorporates. Watch this space...

I have the binding on two more of the Modern Patchwork minis, with only one more to finish quilting. My next task is to put together a sampler quilt that uses each of the mini patterns in the same fabrics. I'm going to give the assembly directions to anyone who signs up for all twelve sessions of the class that I'm teaching (starting in only seven weeks!?!). I'll get started on that soon. Tomorrow I need to finish the quilting on the twelfth of the minis and baste another full size one, probably the autumn Rapid City that I love so much. I think I have enough pins to baste the Tracking Sandy top too. Also, I'm hoping to get started on Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery quilt. I think I'm going to use an entirely different set of colors than the ones she recommends, but I haven't started cutting yet so I might just go with the lime-turquoise-purple palette that she chose.

Since it's only November 23, there is still plenty of time for me to over-commit myself to making holiday gifts...and I just saw that Urban Threads is having a big site-wide sale. Let the season begin!

Happy Hour mini

Here it is..."Happy Hour," the twelfth and final miniature from Elizabeth Hartman's book:

And that's the LAST ONE! I made EVERY SINGLE THING in that book!

This is only partially quilted right now; I did some nice feathers in the rounded parts, but I can't decide what to do in the background sections. I think a meander would be lost in the busy fabric and would compete with the feathers. I might just pop the walking foot on and do some shape echoing. This picture doesn't really do the piece justice - it's very dark and the fabrics all have different very small-scale optical illusion prints.

Believe it or not, I am not tired of these patterns. I could just keep making them over and over. I have several plans for making larger versions of some of them, and I'm sure they will remain favorite "go-tos" for a long time.

So, what's next...? Maybe this; I think I'm going to buy the three-year International Quilt Festival download (which, incidentally, also has a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman that I've had my eye on):

Marbles Table Runner, pattern by Brigitte Heitland. 

Odds 'n' ends

In case you're looking for something to read besides political coverage, here are a few things I have been working on over the last few busy weeks. (We're coming up on the holiday season, of course, so I won't be posting about some of my projects until the new year.) I finished another of the Modern Patchwork miniatures, this time the Owl Eyes:

"Owl Eyes" pattern from Modern Patchwork (Elizabeth Hartman)

I am really happy with how the quilting on the Owl Eyes came out. I was trying the Paisley motif from Leah Day's excellent website (if you need ideas for free-motion quilting, it's THE site to visit) using Sulky Blendables (30 wt), which has become my go-to quilting thread. If you want to try it, make sure you use a needle with a really big eye -- I use a 100/16 topstitch needle. I do a lot of pencil-and-paper practice before I try a new motif on the machine. I find that when my hand can draw the design while relaxed, instead of holding onto the pencil for dear life, it's time to give it a try with thread.

I have two more tops from the same book hanging on my design wall, shivering in the chilly air while waiting  for some quilting of their own:

"Looptastic" miniature in autumn scraps

"Escape Artist" miniature in citrusy brights

That makes eleven minis from this book; there's only one more pattern left! Seven of these little minis are hanging at Lisa's Clover Hill Quilts, where I'll be teaching one pattern a month all next year. Last Friday night, I finally got a chance to go there for some sewing, and it was so exciting to see them all together...a feast for my eyes! The semester is wrapping up quickly for CCSU, so I am anticipating lots of nice wintery stitching time in my very near future. I'll get to the Happy Hour (love the name!) in the next few weeks, along with some more UFO quilting, lots of holiday gifts, and who knows what other new projects that may present themselves to me. Hmm, I did pick up a new Rita Hutchens pattern at the Newington Schoolhouse Quilters meeting last night...

Metropolis blocks assembled

Back in August I whipped up a batch of super bright Metropolis blocks using a rather unusual color combination.

I made a few fabric changes after this point in the block assembly; replaced the batik with a chestnut, and finished with a shimmery light turquoise.

I started with the neat mosaic print that runs vertically between the dark brown bars in the photo above. I have had a yard of this sitting calling to me for years. I think I might have actually bought the fabric before I even started quilting. Weird. I love the combo of orange, purple, and turquoise, and this fabric combines those with chestnut and gold accents. I am always drawn to oranges, especially oranges that don't specifically scream "Halloween!!" (Not that I don't love Halloween - I do! - but I appreciate orange in a much broader context.)

Anyway, these blocks have been in a bin for almost three months largely because I haven't been able to decide what I wanted to do for the sashing. Although the blocks are predominately orange (with purple accents, even!), I didn't really want to end up with a Halloween quilt. I tried dark purple, ivory, chocolate, peach, navy, black...but a bright solid turquoise won the day. I picked some up on my trip to Salem last week and finally have a complete top:

Metropolis quilt (top), 75 x 75". Pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.

This pattern is a great one for working in a tricky multi-color print that you have sitting around. You can combine several different vaguely coordinating prints with a few solids (or near-solids) to pull them all together. And, at this size, you don't really need too much of any one fabric. In the book, she gives yardage requirements for the blocks AND the back, which is a terrific effect for a reversible quilt, but if you ignore the back requirements, it's a great way to use small pieces of a group of lovelies. I don't have the math right in front of me, but I think 6 of the 9 block fabrics use less than a fat quarter.