Scrap Consumption Progress & July ALYoF

Goodness is seems like forever ago that I wrote up this post about the need to use up fabric scraps and set a goal for July in the Lovely Year of Finishes group. The good news is that I've been able to do both :o) 

My July ALYoF goal was to make two rows for a Year of Rows quilt my local quilt guild is doing as a fun project this year. Each month we are drawing an idea out of a bowl and interpreting it any way we choose into a row of quilt blocks. In the end we will have 12 rows to put together into a quilt. These quilts can be any size you choose. Mine is 36" wide because that dimension allows me to use blocks of various sizes (4", 6", 9", or 12") as I make up the rows.



The first month saw the word "stars" selected as the theme so I drafted my own paper piecing pattern for these 8-point scrappy stars. The second moth saw "girls night out" for the theme. It was a bit harder to choose something to represent that theme. After thinking about it I concluded that going to my local guild meeting was the most consistent thing I do for girls night out so I choose to make a row of spools. 




I really like the super pointy "arms" on this style of star. Many of these background fabrics represent the very last precious scraps of favorite fabrics. 



I actually made this center spool block (text print fabric) quite a while ago with no real idea what I would use it for. I've always thought this particular print from the Mama Said Sew fabric line is so cute. 



Both of these rows have been constructed mostly from my fabric scraps with very little cutting from folded stash fabric needed. 

In addition, I've been able to make more of a dent in my scraps with a recent flickr swap I joined: The Great Pillow Fight Swap. I don't participate in a lot of bees or swaps because with working full time I don't have a great deal of sewing time. However, I do feel like joining in every now and then on a small project type of swap helps to keep creativity flowing and to keep in touch with others in the online quilting community. 

My secret partner requested scrappy low volume combined with bright colors. From looking through her flickr favorites I see she is drawn to rainbow brights and color wheel layouts. I combined this information with the wonderfully scrappy Christmas Snowflake block designed by Rachel Woodenspoon. She got her inspiration from Rachel of Stitched in Color's Snowflake block from the Penny Sampler class. A great tutorial for a pillow-size version of Rachel's block was put together by Katie of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild (scroll down to find a link to downloadable instructions.)

This is the colorful collection of scraps I cut up to make the pillow top. Again, more than half of these came from scraps with the balance cut from stash fabrics. 



So far I've managed to get two quadrants of the snowflake stitched together. I really enjoy this kind of sewing where all of the points have to match up exactly...it's kind of a personal challenge :o) It was fun to move the little 2" squares around trying to get the color balance just right in each point. I pretty much maxed out my variety of fabrics for each color of this snowflake block. 

I"m happy to have met my July ALYoF goals and am linking up with the July finishes party. Hop on over there to check out the other beautiful projects going on!

Progress Update: Summer Handwork

I'm compelled to do handwork projects in the summer...I just do not want to be limited to staying in my sewing room. At the beginning of the summer I prepped both a sewing and a crochet project to take on a trip. I've made good progress on both. 

Two of the four Flickering Stars blocks are complete. These will become a pillow front for the couch in our family room. 

This is what the back of the blocks look like. You can see where the templates were traced to provide the stitching lines. It probably takes me between four to five hours to make each block. In that amount of time I could have the entire pillow finished using a sewing machine, but there is something so satisfying to sewing by hand. 

Here are the pieces for the last two stars. I should be able to finish them both by the end of August...hopefully :)

In addition, I always like to have a good crochet project in the works. These are the socks I started in June:

I'm combining parts from various patterns to make them. The toe and heel are single crochet and the rest of the sock is done in half-double crochet...my favorite stitch! No doubt these will be ready for that first chilly Fall day :o)

So how about you? Any hand projects in the works? 

Note: Due to a necessary hardware update we are without home Internet service for a week, so this post is being done from my phone. Later I plan on going back to add hyperlinks and cleaning up any formatting issues. 

And the Winner Is...

Thank you to each of you who took the time to comment on my blog anniversary post :) As promised I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner. 

As you can see, the winner is Number 29: Mimi's Darlins! I've contacted her to get a mailing address and will send the prize package right out!

Again, I am greatful to each of you who follow along with Shadows of the Blue Ridge :)

 

One Year Blog Anniversary - Cause for a Giveaway!

Shadows of the Blue Ridge is one year old!

 
I knew this day was coming...I've had a mental note about it in my head for the last month. Summertime for teachers is often a time of reflection on the previous school year. This habit of reflection is one reason I began blogging. As I'm sure many people feel, I was nervous writing and actually publishing that first post. Insecurity about writing styles and proper language mechanics whispered into my ear. I am happy to say not a single comment all year has come in referencing either of these areas :o) Apparently none of my errors have been too egregious, or people are very good at following their mother's admonition, "If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all." 

So, reflection...what has blogging caused me to reflect on? Or maybe, if I reflect on the act of blogging what has it done in my life? I believe the two of these are really tied together. Blogging has caused me to reflect on what I really think. If I didn't take the time to blog I might not seriously consider things such as:

• Why do I make quilts and various other crafted items
• What influences me to make the things I do
• Whose "voices" am I listening to in the quilting/crafting world, and why
• How do I balance crafting with the other important aspects of my life
• How can I use blogging/crafting to honor God and bring Him glory 

This is a pretty good list to start with. I have thoughts and feelings for each of these areas. There is value in taking the time to wrestle with answers to "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions. Sometimes the answers to these questions are included in what I've written about, or what I've specifically chosen not to write about.

Now for the celebration and giveaway! 

Celebrate Shadows of the Blue Ridge with me for a chance to win this pink and green fat quarter bundle, zippers, and a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 9 which contains the pattern for my Dashing Geese block. Why pink and green? Where I live we have long been know as the "Apple Capital" and each year we celebrate like no other town with a HUGE celebration called the Apple Blossom Festival. You've never seen so much pink and green in your life! So it seems completely appropriate for me to share this pink and green-ness with one of my lucky blog followers :o) These lovely fat quarters and zippers come from my local quilt shop, The Scrappy Apple. 

There's just one thing you need to do for a chance to win: Follow my blog. That's it, just be a follower of Shadows of the Blue Ridge. If this is your first visit to Shadows of the Blue Ridge and you'd like to follow me you can choose from three different ways: (1) Bloglovin', (2) sign up for email notification, or (3) click Join the site to use Google's Friend Connect. Then, whether you've been a follower for awhile now, or are a brand new follower, just tell me in a Comment  how you follow Shadows of the Blue Ridge...simple as that :o) If you suspect you are a No Reply Blogger please include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner. 

A winner will be chosen on Sunday, July 20th at 9:00 p.m. EST using the Random Number Generator. 

Thank you for traveling through this year with me! I look forward to sharing more of this crafting journey in the year ahead :o)

Using Scraps - July ALYoF Goal

How do you feel about fabric scraps? Do you love them, do you hate them, or are you indifferent towards them? In this day and age of a "throw away" mentality I like to look at my fabric as every scrap being precious and they challenge me to use them up :o) Now, before we go any further, let me give you my definition of a "fabric scrap." A scrap is any piece of fabric which is so small it can no longer be folded and stored with cuts of fabric (fat quarters, half yard cuts, and larger.)

I use an over-the-door shoe organizer to sort and store scraps

Somewhere online I discovered this idea to use an over-the-door shoe organizer for keeping scraps sorted by color. I've been using this method for about a year-and-a-half now and it works great for me. I try to make it a personal goal not to accumulate too many scraps so that each individual pouch cannot contain it's color. If you look at the top row you can see the neutral fabrics pouches are getting a bit too full. Thus setting the stage for a good scrap-using project :o)

Here's the background for my scrap busting project: My local quilt guild, Winchester Modern Quilters, has recently started a fun guild activity...a Row by Row quilt. We are each making our own quilts using our own fabric, and it can be any size. Each member wrote a word or phrase on a scrap of paper (ie. stars, flowers) and we put them all into a bowl. Then, each month we pull out a word and use it as an inspiration to make a row for a quilt. It is completely up to each quilter how she wants to interpret the word. 

I am getting a bit behind on this quilt because I was away on a trip so now two inspirational words/phrases have been selected: stars, and girls night out. Therefore, my July ALYoF Goal (A Lovely Year of Finishes) is to complete my two rows for this quilt. I am going to be working from my scraps. First up is the row of stars.

I pulled my fabrics and organized them into piles. I will be making (6) six inch 8-Point Star blocks. I could not find a tutorial/pattern for the particular star I had in mind so I used Microsoft Word Drawing toolbar to create my own paper piecing pattern.

8-Point Star Block - front

8-Point Star Block - Back

Here's what the back looks like with the paper pieces still attached. This is really a simple star to make and the paper piecing ensures nice, perfectly formed points.

Once the star blocks are complete I have to represent "Girls night out" as a quilt row. I have a couple ideas floating around in my head, but I'd love to hear any suggestions you might offer. If you have an idea please leave it for me in the Comments :o)

I'm linking up with the July Goals Party over at Sew Bittersweet Designs & Fiber of All Sorts. My scrappy quilt rows is entry No. 78. You should pop on over there and check out some of the other great projects going on this month!

Quilts and Color

Recently I was blessed to be able to take a trip up New England. It was one of the best vacation trips I've ever taken and I cherish each day. One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to the Quilts and Color exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with my aunt & uncle and friends.

Here is a short narrative from the museum introducing the exhibit, "Quilts and Color presents more than sixty graphically bold American quilts from the Pilgrim/Roy collection, one of the finest and largest collections of quilts in the world."

Wow! How to describe this exhibit...it was amazing...inspirational...and gave strong evidence to how the roots of quilting are really not so very different than what quilters are making today...be that traditional, contemporary, and even modern style quilts. 

We had no idea the collector, Gerald Roy, was going to be leading a narrated tour of the exhibit that day...what a treat! I tried to get a picture of him, but flash photography was not permitted and none of my photographs of Mr. Roy turned out. 

Here is just a small sample of the beautiful quilts on display at the museum:

Bunches of Grapes. Ohio about 1875

In this Bunches of Grapes applique numerous design elements {Optical Illusions} come and go from your focus on the quilt: The individual blocks with four bunches of grapes, the green circles formed by the leaves, and the large off-white diamonds created by the negative space. When I look at this quilt my eyes are in constant motion all over the top and don't really find one individual spot to settle down on.

Thousand Pyramids. Amish; Holmes County, Ohio, about 1930

Many of the featured quilts, such as Thousand Pyramids, exhibited sophisticated use of color and design {Harmony}. Mr. Roy pointed out that these quilts were made by accomplished women who understood the intricate details of fine design such as selecting a mix of fabrics that stand out or recede, and careful attention to placement. In our day and age these same women would probably be accountants, doctors, architects, and engineers (his words, not mine.)

Center Medallion Tied Child's Comforter, Missouri, 1910

Looking at this wool medallion quilt (note the bold orange ties!) one would think it was straight from an Instagram, flickr, or blog feed, and yet it was made 104 years ago! This quilt happens to be my favorite from the exhibit and falls into the {Singular Vision} grouping. This grouping features quilt makers who..."audaciously employed unconventional colors, materials, or techniques to make their individual statements." I can guess that this particular quilt was quite unconventional for 1910 both in the color choices, the design of the top, and the color choice for the ties. It's brilliant!

I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of the Quilts and Color exhibit. If you find yourself with the opportunity to go see this exhibit be sure to seize it :o)

~Quotes come from the Quilts and Color museum program.