Planning a Sampler

This Fall I enrolled in The Penny Sampler online class taught by the talented Rachel of Stitched in Color. The main class project is a beautifully designed Scandinavian sampler quilt which Rachel named, "The Penny Sampler." The class focuses on developing skills in three areas:

• machine applique
• precise piecing
• machine paper piecing

Rachel teaches these skills through mini stand-alone projects. The first skill we are working on is machine applique with various techniques to choose from. 

I chose to try the stitch and flip method to create my dogwood petals and then use sketch stitch applique to attach them to my quilted-in-advance background fabric. I seem to be on a grid-quilting roll lately...really like the look of it. It is super fun to sketch stitch! I think I've found something I will continue to enjoy and will add variety to my quilting skills :o) I ended up using my darning foot and free-motion quilting for the sketch stitching. I love the "slightly" messy look of it...so freeing! (Note: this is a stand along project...not part of the Penny Sampler quilt top. It can be used as the front of a pillow, although I may just set this aside for now and try making a quilt-as-you-go mini medallion quilt with it.)

I used three online color palette builders to help me select the colors for my Penny Sampler quilt top. The photo I used for my inspiration is not mine so I'll not post it for public viewing. However, I will show you the rich, beautiful colors that resulted from it!


I am really loving these colors! Deep, dark chocolate browns, teal (this word does not even need any adjectives...it's super all by itself!) rich eggplant purples blending into lively magenta's, mustard yellows, and creamy neutrals. Sounds good enough to eat!

Rachel provided us with a black-line master of the quilt top so we can color it in to help balance out the use of color across the quilt.


Clearly I need more depth to the variety of shades in my colored pencils :o) I just have basic colors so the shades don't match up too well with my fabrics, but I do get an idea where I want to put my main colors. 

This is going to be a fun Fall! Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend~I'm off to work on my next class assignments :o)

Summer Reflections

One thing I especially love about being a teacher is the cyclical pattern of the years. It appeals to me to have starting, pausing, and stopping points. It is exciting to begin each new school year with all it's potential stretching out before me. There are long-standing holidays and breaks throughout the year I anticipate and enjoy. Finally, comes the end of the school year with the prospect of summer fun and relaxation. Students are not the only ones who enjoy this pattern of life. Looking back over the past couple of months I've enjoyed working on several projects during the summer break.

The first project of summer was this Modern Chevron baby quilt for my great-nephew {pattern by Rashida Coleman-Hale}.This pattern is such a fun twist to zig-zag quilts. I used straight line quilting in the solid white areas and left the colored fabric unquilted to make a nice soft quilt. 




Next, I made this pinwheel baby quilt as a silent auction donation to benefit a children's charity through my professional teaching organization. I made these pinwheels with squares of fabric left over from the Modern Chevron quilt shown above. I have to admit that I am really smitten with this quilt...pinwheels are just so classic. I am thrilled that it raised $150 for the charity :o)




Woven ribbons is a quilt to symbolize that none of us stand alone. Our lives are intricately woven together with those we love. This yellow ribbon quilt is for my dear friends who are separated by a military deployment for the next year. {pattern by Melissa @ sewbittersweetdesigns.com} 





I'd been seeing the sweetest quilted frame purses on flickr and fell in love with their charm. When I found frames at my local JoAnn's store I thought the shape and size would be a perfect fit for crocheted African Flowers. Crochet has always been a great love of mine. It is so soothing to sit with yarn and quietly crochet. These two little purses made sweet little gifts for a meet up with college friends.




Once all of the scrappy triangle blocks arrived from my bee mates in the Faith Circle of do. Good Stitches I set about putting them together into the quilt top. It needed to be a bit longer so I requested input from friends. Melissa, our bee leader, suggested the wonderful staggered squares for the top and bottom borders. I am so pleased with how this quilt turned out! We make our quilts for Restore Innocence. {scrappy triangle block by Ashley of FilmintheFridge.com}




Towards the end of summer I started working on this divided basket for my dear friend. This is the perfect project to use fun fabrics! I thought the subtle apple print on the front pocket fabric would be the perfect background for grid quilting with red thread. I was so happy to find just the right project to use the Meadowsweet polka dots (lining) that has been in my stash. {pattern by Anna of Noodlehead}




Using fabric scraps from the basket I made up four little coasters to tuck inside along with some fun apple treats ;o) {apple design by Charise of Charise Creates} 




Finally, just in time for the start of a new school year I made myself a new lanyard. After  contemplating my fabric for quite a while I decided that Mama Said Sew would be the perfect choice...a great way to share a little about who I am...so fun!! I am super thrilled with how this turned out ;o)

It's nice to look back and see finished projects! I also have quite a few additional starts and a whole stack of work-in-progress. Enough to keep me busy through the fall and winter :o) How about you? I'd love to hear about what you worked on this summer...maybe what was your favorite finish? 

For the love of Epp {English paper piecing, that is}

Last summer I was introduced to the wonders of English paper piecing. It was love at first stitch. The more I quilt the more I love hand work...be that hand stitching, applique, or hand quilting. Here are a few of the Epp projects I've been working on:

The jewel star pillow is the only complete project so far. The mini lone star is the focal point for a wall hanging and the grandmother's garden hexies will be a small pillow. I just love very single stitch from the basting to the joining of the various shapes. Please ignore the fact that I am showing you a photograph containing unfinished projects while I continue on to write about yet another project I'm getting ready to start :o)

When I saw the Mini QT Swap group on flickr had selected Epp and foundation piecing for the next swap round I just knew I had to ask to participate! I'd participated in a swap round with this talented group of ladies before when the theme was True Mini. Here is the quilt I made for that round. 

I was so excited to find out that I'd been paired up with Jen of SewWhat! We are both middle school teachers and if that does not make us two birds of a feather I don't know what would :o) After spending some time looking through her photo pool and reading her blog I'd made some notes on what I thought she may like in a little quilt. Now it's time to dive into the design process!

I thought I'd try sketching out some designs to see what I was going to be able to do in a 12"x12" (maximum size} quilt. I found a lot of inspiration in the photo pools for these flickr groups:
Ferris Wheel Along
English Paper Piecing/Foundation Piecing
60 Degree Diamonds

After working out a layout I'm pretty sure will work I used the incompetech Web site to draft template paper. This is a great site for making almost every shape used for English paper piecing. Now I've cut out all of my template papers and I'm ready to begin selecting fabric.

I am really fortunate to have a well stocked stash. For several months I participated in the Stash Stack Club sponsored by Pink Castle Fabrics. You can find information about the club here. It was a really good way to build up the blenders in my fabric stash. I'm happy to say that I've really been putting them to use!

I'm off now to pull fabrics. I'd love to hear about what you are working on!

Hooray for fun mail!

Don't you just love getting something in the mail besides bills and junk? Today I received this beautifully wrapped package of fabric from the Sew Lux Fabric & Gifts shop.



I've ordered fabric from Sew Lux before and am so impressed with the lovely way they wrap their packages. I'd say they go the extra mile to make you feel like the beautiful fabrics you ordered are really special! Wouldn't you?



Here are the lovely fabrics that were wrapped up in that pretty paper! A Day in the Life {Sky colorway}, the paint by number deer print from Erin Michael's Lush Uptown line is one of my *all time favorites* I just may have even more of this fabric coming in additional colorways... It will be added to the fabric I have stashed away from the first time the Lush line was released. {What can I say? I married into a hunting family.} The three beautiful gray fabrics (Leaf & Dot, Posie, and Bouquet) from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy line are destined to become this new bag:

I've gotten into the habit of making the bags I carry. See here and here and even here. It's really a fun way to strike up a conversation with people and introduce them to modern sewing. I am drawn to this change-your-mind SLIPCOVER BAG because the outside "skin" is removable. I plan on trying to make it reversible, too. This allows the look of the bag to be easily changed up. I'll be working on this bag in September when imaginegnats is sponsoring the Selfish Sewing Week...have you heard of it? The idea is that after all of the preparations necessary to get kids back to school it just may be time to sew something fun {or necessary} for yourself :o) Go check out the flickr group and sign up! I just may not be able to wait for September 23 to get started :o) 

How about you? Do you have a project that has been just waiting for the right reason to pull it off the shelf and get started? I'd love to hear about it in the comments! 

Measuring progress & fun new swap!

Little by little I'm making progress on the scrappy triangles quilt. I've had some requests to see a picture of the entire quilt back so here it is. 

It's quite bright and I hope cheerful! I bought the butterfly fabric because butterflies are the symbol for Restore Innocence. I knew I'd like to try my hand at some improve piecing so I bought 1.5 yards of the butterfly print and added additional fabrics from my stash. I'm hoping the finished product comes across as modern and fun. 



In case you are wondering I ended up using spray basting. It's just so quick! I had the backing, batting, and top laid out and basted up in about 30-40 minutes...so fast! When the weather is nice I spray baste outside on our deck. I sweep it off well and then have a nice large area to work on. 



Before I started quilting I did a quick refresher on free motion quilting using a home machine since I've not done it in a while. I really like this great tutorial posted by Oh Fransson. It's a learning process to quilt on my home machine. I have a Janome DC3018 sewing machine and I really like it. It's not one of the large Janome machines which makes it a bit of a challenge during the quilting process because the harp opening is quite small (just 4.5" x 6.5".) This causes a lot of "stuffing" when trying to move the quilt around while meandering/stippling. 


It's hard to post this close-up picture because the "oops" areas are glaring out at me. As you can see it's not perfect, but hopefully the young lady who receives this quilt will know it was made with love and that things in life are rarely perfect. Just a few more quilting sessions and I should have this quilt all ready to bind!

I'll leave you with this announcement...there's a fun new swap if you're interested! flickr member, Rockislander, is putting together a Fat Quarter Blender Swap.  Requirements are basically to have a flickr account and agree to the swap rules.  All of the details can be found here! 

Oh those quilt backs

The sticking point for me on most quilts ends up being the quilt back. By the time I get to this point I'm just ready for the quilt to be finished. I often turn to the Quilt Backs flickr group to find inspiration. This is the back for a quilt I am making for the Faith Circle of do. Good Stitches.

.

The front is called Scrappy Triangles. Each of the ladies in the Faith Circle made triangles using scraps from their fabric stash. This quilt is a good way to put tiny fabric scraps to good use. This fun block was designed by Ashley who blogs at Film in the Fridge. The tutorial can be found here. 



Next up is the basting process. I'm still mulling over pin basting or spray basting. I really like how securely the quilt is held together using spray, but at the same time it leads to a more "structured" feel when quilting. I've toying with idea of doing an all over stipple pattern. I've never done free motion quilting (FMQing) on a quilt this large and I'd kind of like to give it a try. If not, there is always straight lines...I like them, too!

Here's a scripture verse to inspire me to finish this quilt...maybe it will inspire you, too!

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning...  Ecclesiastes 7:8a