Pelham Quilters Round Robin - 2013 Part 2

ooh la la...  do I have a treat for you!

Our 4 center squares have spent the last 2 months in the homes of their first care givers.  And what loving care did they provide!  I think each piece has been lovingly enhanced keeping the center owner in mind.  Remember, at the end of the Round Robin, everyone gets their own top back, with the center lovingly adorned by 3 other quilters.

So with out further delay, here they are:

 





Donna Chambers had the task of adding to Cheryl Heist flower center.  Donna used her mosaic technique to surround the flower and help it blossom.  Although the picture doesn't it show it (thanks to the light hanging down) Donna's fabric choices are off the hook.  She used a vibrant red to back the blue flower and golden touched gold and blue fabric for her touch of 'bling'.  I get this piece next, but I have no idea what I am going to do with it :-(.












I had Donna Chambers top, which as you might remember was an elegant couple dancing in full formal attire.  Donna has developed this mosaic and texture magic technique which adds so much depth to her work.  Donna always uses a lot of fabrics with 'bling' for added life.  In an attempt to keep the movement of the dancers flowing into my round, I added curves and swirls in an applique border that brought in some of Donna's fabrics, but also utilized some of my own golden touched fabrics.  I pulled the pink silk from the dress out to the corners to keep the colors moving.  Doris has Donna's top next.

Doris Green had my piece.  I appliqued 4 female African dancers, clothed in brightly colored fabric.  As always I tend to lean towards applique and Doris balanced the color and applique with a trapezoid border of the same brightly colored fabrics. I love the blue which changes in intensity set as a thin sashing.  Knowing how much I love swirls, Doris used applique swirls to continue the movement in the pieced border.  Cheryl will be enhancing my piece next :-).

Cheryl Hoist had Doris Greens center.  Doris is a piecer, so her center was an intrigue star made from several blue and yellow print fabrics.  Cheryl used a perfectly executed thin piping to delineate the star and then set it on point using a sold blue fabric to give the eye a rest.  The amount of yellow in the piping is just perfect as a bold pop of color.  As they say, just a little bit of yellow goes a long way :-).  Donna gets to add her magic to Doris's top over the next 2 months.




Wish us all luck and come back in April to see what these pieces evolve to next.  I promise it will be explosive!

It is amazing how much they control you...

I started my parrot piece at the Spring 2010 Country Quilter Retreat. I spent most of the weekend creating the bird and thread painting him, creating his background of leaves in the forest setting.  I was in love with the progress I made. The colors were gorgeous, the thread work a joy. I was really proud of myself.  He is thread painted with Superior Masterpiece thread.  Masterpiece is fine enough that it allowed me to layer on the color without adding bulk.  Plus the colors were a perfect match for the underlying fabrics.

Well the joy faded shortly after I got home.  I put my lovely parrot up on the design wall and I couldn't figure out what to do next.  I didn't think he was ready for a border, but what?  It hung there for months, eventually getting taken down to make way for other projects.  I must admit, I took him out of hiding every once in a while and starred, but I had nothing.  Not one real clue of what to do next.  Then it dawned on me.  I really didn't like the piece, him yes --- the piece no.  Yes he was colorful, yes I loved the thread play.  But something about the piece just didn't work.

So back on the design wall he went, just to be starred at for months all over again. I figured it was the background, but ughhh....  I had spent a lot of time making those leaves and doing all the thread play on them as well.  Did I really want to cut the parrot out and start again?  No, I just couldn't bring myself to do that.  So away he went....  again.

Then last July I took him with me to Quilting On the Lake.  I figured with all the creative juices flowing in that place, something would shake loose and it did.  Philipa Naylor saw me staring at it and asked me what was wrong.  Quickly we realized that I didn't need to rip it out.  I just needed a place for the eye to rest.  It was so busy that although the parrot was gorgeous, you really couldn't see him with all the leaves going on.   So I decided to take the plunge.  No one believed I was going to do it.  I cut out a section of the leaves and off I went shopping in the vendor mall :-) for a hand dyed green that had movement but at the same time, allowed the parrot to be truly seen.  What a difference it made.  I didn't do any sewing or fusing there, I was too busy in class, but I fixed him up quite nicely when I got home.

Well I made a vow to work on UFO's this year, so last week out he came.  I found the best hand dyed brown in my stash for a boarder and over the last few days added trapunto and got him all basted.  I even made a 3D bird of paradise that will be added to the side once it is quilted.  Friday evening I sat down and didn't think I would ever get up!  I am so enjoying quilting him.  He is finally coming together.


I spent some time over the weekend quilting.  The parrot is done, as are all the leaves.  I should get the piece totally quilted this week.  Can't wait! 

So far 98% of the quilting has been with Aurifil 50wt cotton.  I like the way it adds to the piece with not being too flashy,,,,  dimension and texture for interest, but not in your face :-).

He will also be accompanied by butterflies and a Bird of Paradise flower that I will add after the quilting is done.  Both will be 3D, to add some additional interest to the piece.



Oh and I have submitted him to New England Quilt Festival (MQX East).  I hope he gets accepted!

Catchng up....

So earlier this month I promised I'd share some of the things I have been working on.

Well the first project I can only share a corner as it is a challenge piece for one of my guilds.  It is another piece done with my mother as my inspiration.  This time it is a salute to her strength and fortitude.  I can't share what just yet, as it will give away my piece, but here is a quick peek at some of the quilting.  I love the piping, as the black polka dots on the fabric are random, so the sliver that shows in the piping is truly sporadic.

This piece is quilted with Aurifil 50 weight cotton.

Once that piece was done and ready to be turned in to the challenge team, I picked up another UFO from last fall (yeah, shamelessly I have more UFO's than I care to admit.  I remember when I made sure I never had more than one other piece in process.  Oh well!)....  It is a piece that was started during my semi-annual Friday Night Fun at the CQ Getaway.  Yes, this piece took more than just the Friday evening.  I didn't actually finish the top until mid-day on Saturday.  But I finally took it out of the bag and finished it.   At the retreat everyone kept coming up to the piece to see the chickens running loose in the yard (by the base of the tree).

I did a bit of thread play on the top before quilting this piece.  More than half of the sun rays, as well as the little patches of grass on the hills and all the stitching on the leaves were done on the top only.  (disregard the little bit of lint...  it is amazing where these lint balls try to call home)

I enjoyed adding dimension to the piece as well.  The beige tablecloth in the laundry basket is sticking out and just hanging over the edge, as well as the purple one behind it.  The quilt the ladies are hanging on the line is a full quilt (all 3 layers). I still have to add the handwork to represent the 'clothes pins'.

I should have took a close up of the boulders I quilted in the boarders.  I love the texture it gives the piece.


"Laundry Day" as I have named it, is a true testament as to why as a quilter you probably need more thread than fabric :-)..  This small 24" x 26" has 10 different threads in it.  Sulky solids and variegated, Aurifil 50 wt cotton, Superior Masterpiece/Sew Fine/Rainbows, Mettler Twists, Gutterman and Isacord.

 I used Quilters Dream batting in both pieces.

Cross one off the list, but I have about 8 other UFO's sitting there waiting to be finished!

Pelham Quilters Round Robin 2013 - Round 1

So we once again started a Round Robin as part of this years guild programs for Pelham Quilters.  This year we are following a slightly different format.  Since there are only four of us participating, we decided to do four tops, where after the round robin we all get our own tops back.

I don't have photos of all four centers only two.  The one I made and the one I work on first.  We each get a top to add a round to every two months.  Cheryl has Doris's center and Donna has Cheryl's.  I'll share pictures of those when it is my turn to work on them.

Here is the center for my top.  I have adapted my dancing ladies to make a group celebration.  Doris Green is working on it now.  I wonder what will happen to it next?

Here is the center I am working on.  It was done by Donna Chambers:

Donna used both her mosaic technique as well as texture magic for the female dancers skirt. Which means I have to make sure I live up to her artistic level...  ouch, not easy to do :-).   I have already ripped out my first attempt.  It didn't measure up.  But my next idea is really working out well.  It has advanced from the paper and pencil phase to the first level of execution.  Hopefully I will get the chance to work on it this weekend.  Wish me luck :-).

Sew Inspired Road trip

So, I have been running like crazy the last few months, so when the year-end madness was over and I found myself with a few days off, DH and I decided it was time to get away for a few days.  I will update you on some of my quilting over the last 2 months later, but for now I want to share with you my time today.

I have had a couple of folks tell me about Sew Inspired in Simsbury, Ct and the cute little town, so we decided to book a room for a night and take a drive. Of course, our first stop was Sew Inspired. It is situated in a small indoor mall called Fiddler's Green, so we had lunch first at Joe's Wood Oven Pizza.  It is an old building that houses a couple of restaurants and shops. The pizza was great, nice thin, crunchy crust, although none of the locals were eating pizza.  Instead they had sandwiches and huge salads.

I really like Sew Inspired. It is a large, bright shop with fabric to fit all tastes.  Lots of batiks, Kona solids, a children's fabric section, an Amy Butler section and on and on.....4,000 bolts to be exact.   They carry Quilter's Dream batting in all types, including wool, as well as Superior Sew Fine, Rainbows and Razzle Dazzle thread. They also carry some Aurifil thread in neutrals for piecing. But Mettler is their primary thread.  They carry a good selection of notions and tons of patterns for bags with some really cute coordinated fabric bag samples. They even have a clearance section with 30 and 50% off fabrics. 

Downstairs they have a studio with their long-arm business as well as a Studio version of Go! that is used when they have BoM and classes requiring tons a cutting. 

The staff is extremely pleasant. They offered help when I first arrived, but backed off and allowed me to browse until I needed assistance. Once we engaged in conversation, they were very helpful helping DH and I plan our 2 days in town. 

Yep, definitely a place I will return. In fact DH overheard them mentioning Fat Tuesday Madness, where FQ's are on sales. Buy 10, get 10 free...buy 20, get 20 free, etc...  This is an annual event in which one year a woman brought 100 FQ's, getting 100 free!  Anyway DH wants to come back then, hoping to see the area without the snow. Oh yeah, Fat Tuesday Madness is on Fat Tuesday every year...the day before Ash Wednesday. 

We'll see.....

He Loved the Monster!

Yes, I shared with you the piece I was quilting at the request of a friend for her friend.  Yes, it was months ago....here.  I have never worked on one piece for so long.  Yes, it was on and off, yes, I was out of town quite a bit and yes, my machine was in the shop for 5 weeks.  But 6 months...  that's a long time!

Well I am happy to announce that he picked it up last week, and LOVED IT!!  I must say it did come out quite nice..

Here it is laid out on the table.  It is quite large 130"x130", so only part of it fits on the table.

Here is a close up of one of the centers...

The gentlemen who was giving the guilt as a wedding present, asked me to quilt the names and date from the invitation into one of the rings.  The date is based on the Jewish calendar :-).

I am sooo happy he loved it, but even happier that it is done :-).

Cheers,
Renee

Country Quilters Retreat, Fall 2012

Had a wonderful time this weekend at the Fall 2012 CQQ Retreat!  Unfortunately, I left my camera home and my phone went on the blitz, so no pictures :-(.

I used the weekend to progress a couple of pieces and while I didn't get anything 100% finished, I made a lot of progress  :-). But as always, I spent Friday night creating an original piece.   It was not what I had in mind at the outset and while ok...not really something I really like   Oh well, every piece is a learning experience. :-).

 53 quilting ladies, good food and laughter over 2 1/2 days.... Ahhh heaven!