Deadlines are good...

So I guess I just needed a deadline to kick me in the pants and get me going!  I have made good progress on this piece.  I am loving the feathers.  One more setting triangle to go. 

Still need to figure out what to do in the checkerboard border.  But if I can get the last triangle and the outer border done tomorrow night after work, then Friday I can do the checkerboard border and block it.  Leaving Saturday to square it up and do the binding and Sunday morning to wrap it!!!

This is the first time I have quilted a whole top using the Quilter's Dream Wool. In the past I only played on practice pieces.  I love the texture it is giving the quilting.  The compass really looks trapunto'd once I outline it and stitched in the ditch of the top and middle layers of the folded compass.  The circle geese have the same effect, as I outlined them as well.

But my question for the night is....  has anyone blocked a piece that has wool batting?  Does it shrink a lot?  Anything I should be aware of?

Appreciate the input.

Night all!!!

It's been a long time coming...

Sandra from India posted a comment on my blog last week, asking me why I stopped blogging.  To be honest, I hadn't planned to stop posting.  It is just that I really only blog about my quilting.  Not the other myriad of things that go on in my life.  Unless that is, they relate somehow to quilting :-).

Well for the last 2 months, I have done very little quilting of my own.  My son graduated college... WooHoo...  we went on a family vacation early this year as I now have two 'working, supporting society' children.  My son started work on July 2nd :-).  Then 3 days after we returned from vaca, I spent two weeks in Mexico, Argentina and Chile for work.  It was all fantastic, but that meant in the month between Mary 25th and June 24th, I was home for a total of 7 days.  No quilting then.

Once I returned, I had to get back to the quilt I am quilting for a friend of a friend, who brought it on Etsy to give as a wedding present.  It is huge and it is a traditional double wedding ring that he wants quilted traditionally, so you know it is taking me a long time...  :-(.  So of course, I can't post progress pictures of someone else's quilt until it is in their hands.

So that brings me to this weekend, when I realized I will be having dinner at my best friends house (we have known each other for 39 yrs ...  yikes) on her birthday.  Neither of us picked the date.  It was picked by another women, she wants me to meet.  But in this revelation, I realized that the quilt I started for her almost two years ago, could really be finished for her birthday if I focused.  So today, a good friend (Thanks Teri Lucas !!) dropped me off a piece of wool batting and tonight I basted it and got all the in the ditch work done, as well as the free motion quilting in the center Mariner's Compass square.

You may remember this quilt, as I made the center compass in a class taught by Mary Anne Ciccotelli, using her 3D, folded fabric technique.  I then used the folded flying geese around the center medallion and then again for the outer boarder.  You can find more info about the top here, here and here.  Told you it's been a long time coming :-)...

But for now, here is the quiling progress for tonight.

I like my corners.  I can't believe I did them without a single marking.  I started to mark at least the straight line from the corner to the tip of the flying geese and decided against it. :-).  The photo's are a little blurry (or I am soo tired, they look blurry to me).  But either way I will try to take better pictures tomorrow and share it with you.

Night!

CQ Retreat Fall 2011

Well, it has been a busy month and I had a lot going on, so I guess I am going to have to start posting more regularly again :-)....  I finished the clown quilt that I started during Hurricane Irene, I have finished a top I started over a year ago at Mary Anne Ciccotelli's 3D workshop and I am almost finished quilting a piece I started at this falls retreat....  but I will share all of those in separate posts, hopefully within the next week :-).

Today's post is about the CQ Fall 2011 Retreat two weeks ago at Interlaken Inn, in Lakeville, Ct.  As always we had a ball, just laughing, eating and quilting away!  A little smaller group this year than normal, only 48 of us, but still a wonderful time was had by all.  Somehow I forgot to take pictures of quilts in progress until Sunday, so sorry if I missed sharing some of the masterpieces of the weekend.

This is Claire Oehler on the left, the former owner of the Country Quilter, our hostess and her daughter, Jane Davila on the right...  both all smiles for the camera.

Here is Nancy Mirman, another of our hostesses for the weekend.  She is very talented and has her own pattern line for quilted clothing, bags and accessories.  Nancy is working on a paper pieced star from the new book she and Claire have just released!  Those of us at retreat were fortunate to be able to order a copy and they will be signed by both Claire and Nancy...  WooHoo!!!






Somehow I missed getting a picture of Noreen Lipolis, another one of our hostesses busy quilting, but I did get a shot of her from our Saturday night, Red Carpet themed dinner...

Noreen, is in black on the left.  Sorry Noreen for not getting a better shot.  But thanks to all 3 of you for a wonderful weekend!!  P.S...  no I don't dress up for theme nights..  so I played the roll of Paparazzi and took photos :-)....





And here is Donna Chambers working on her one of her mosaic pieces....

Donna, a goldsmith by trade, is so talented and has her own jewelry line.  Check out her jewelry website for a little quilting inspiration :-) 
This is Donna's mosaic technique.  She will be teaching it to some lucky quilters at The Storytellers Retreat coming up this weekend and at Hartsdale Fabrics this winter in December and January.  Her workshop filled up so fast at Storytellers that I am going to be her assistant.  This shall be fun, can't wait until Friday :-).

Gay sat next to Donna in the Patio room (we love the sunlight and view of the garden during the day).  Gay is part of the gang from The Pelham Quilters guild I belong to.  A bunch of us (Donna, Lorraine, Margaret, Jeanne, Evelyn and I) have been coming to retreat for years.  We even sit in the same seats.

   
Gay worked completely by hand this weekend.  She does stunning hand applique and hand quilting.  We were all so jealous when it was time to pack up.  No machine, etc... to load up!









Here is Lorraine busy at work...

Lorraine was working on Christmas presents for her grandchildren this year. Sitting next to her is Margaret.  Margaret always finds such lovely panels to incorporate into her work.  This year she was working on a Dahlia piece for her sister.

Remember, in my last post I mentioned I had won 2nd place in the Art Quilts category at the ViewArts Show in Old Forge, NY.  Well Marie won 1st place in the Wallhanging category and her lovely piece was used as the cover image for the Exhibit's Program.  Way to go Marie!!  Marie always works on very complicated paper piecing patterns.  Here she is taking the easy way out, doing a 'simple' cat paper piecing pattern....  lol.

On the design wall behind Marie is Ashley's circle quilt, seen here..

Ashley is my long time buddy and retreat roomie.  Can't believe I didn't get a picture of Ashley, but her gorgeous colors will have to represent her :-).

I also didn't get pictures this time of Jeanne or her Mom, Evelyn.  Guess I was so focused on quilting this weekend that my picture taking duties seem to have taken a back seat.  Sorry Jeanne and Evelyn.  I will remember to include you in April for our Spring 2012 retreat!

Well, now let's go next door into the room where we always here the most laughter coming from.  On the design wall right outside our door was Dory Higgin's house piece, made from all striped fabrics.

Actually, Dory sits in our room, but the design walls were all busy when she went to lay out the piece so she slipped next door.

Also in the room next door is Jane Davila.  If you are a quilter you know Jane's name.  She is the a well known quilter, teacher, speaker and author.  She teaches across the globe, has a great quilt pattern line and has written a number of "Sew Simple" quilt pattern books.  Not sure how she will use this pattern, but I believe it is being created using a Jelly Roll....








Barbara comes every year and works on very interesting patterns.  This year, she is turning a photo into a stunning floral piece...

 You can see her pattern on the table in front of her in the first picture.  It is an enlarged version of the photo in the bottom left hand corner of the picture below.  I can't wait to see what it looks like in the spring, at our next retreat!

Here is Jenny intent on laying out a nice blue and white top...  

I believe those are called tumbling blocks.  There was another quilter working on a tumbling block pattern, but I didn't catch a photo of it.



Just like I don't remember whose top this is, I just loved the daisy fabric.  I think it is one of those BQ block patterns...

Love the polka dots fabric as well!

 

Here is my piece.  I stated it in a 3D Workshop with Mary Anne Ciccotelli over a year and a half ago.  The mariners compass as well as the circular flying geese are all 3D, using Mary Anne's folded fabric method.  I completed the circle after the workshop and then it just hung on my design wall, waiting for me to figure out what to do next.  It finally spoke to me a few months ago, so I drafted out the rest and packed it up for retreat.  The side boarder geese are folded as well, using the one seam flying geese method.  They aren't sewn on at this point, but I have finished the top since coming home.  More on that in another post.

Well I hope you enjoyed visiting with me today.  As you can probably tell, we have a great bunch of quilters who retreat with the CQ ladies every 6 months.  It is such an inspiration after a busy summer when I get so little quilting done.  

I hope to bring you up to date on my other projects soon, but until then, Happy Quilting!

Hugs!!

I Won a Ribbon!

Ok, I am soo excited! I got a call last night from the Village Square Quilter's, that my Dazzling Geese quilt won a ribbon @ Quilt Celebrations X! I guess you call it a Viewers Choice Award, (I don't have all the details). But folks visiting the show voted my quilt as their favorite in the Basic Quilter's Wallhanging Category. (Basic = non professional quilter :-) ).

This is my first ribbon and I owe it all to my friend Teri, who kept bugging me to enter it into the show.

If you remember, Dazzling Geese is my original design, using Paula Nadelstern's Mega Marble's fabric as the focus, and her Classic Stripe from the Opulance line for the piping and binding. I loved this fabric from the moment I saw it, and just couldn't but it in a square. As soon as I learned how to draft circular flying geese, I knew what I had to do, and so Dazzling Geese was born.

I want to thank all of you out there that voted for Dazzling Geese! It was a joy to make and has inspired me to do more original work.

Hugs,
Renee

Dazzling Geese

Ok, sorry I didn't post this during the weekend, but we ended up in Troy to watch Robert's first football game.

Here is my finished baby..... I echo quilted each element, as well as around each flying geese and NY beauty point. The cutouts were also outlined quilted. Everything was done free motion, no walking foot, on my Viking Lily. My echo quilting isn't perfect, but I am getting there (smile). I used Superior Threads Rainbow on the top and bottom.

I really like the un-even wavy bottom.... I didn't put binding on the bottom, in an attempt to give the illusion of it continuing. Instead, I sewed the batting/backing on along the bottom, flipped it over and then basted and quilted. I used the same striped fabric from the piping around all the circles as the binding. I think it gives it a nice finish.

This is the center flying geese circle with the fabric that was the inspiration that started it all. From an earlier post you will remember that I actually drafted all the geese and beauty points. (My first attempt at drafting!) If you can zoom in, you will see that I quilted within the star. It really came out nice, as the various sections of the star, actually pop out.... as if they were raised in some way. Sorry you can't actually touch it, but I love the look.

This is one of the smaller stars from the fabric. I actually fussy cut it out and appliqued it on the black background and then sewed it into the NY Beauty circle. Then I outline quilted the various stars within the star.... again using freemotion quilting. On this picture you can get a good look at the piping I placed around each circle.


This is one of the cut outs from the larger star circles. The panel had 4 different star patterns and I tried to use at least two pieces from each. I outline quilted these as well, as well as within the star, to give it some definition.


I am so pleased with the fact that the fabric inspired me to learn how to draft. Now to send the photos to Diane, the owner of People, Places & Quilts in Charleston and Summerville, SC, where I brought the fabric last year. She was such a pleasure to chat with, in fact, she and my husband had a real long chat while I browsed and shopped.

Hope you enjoy as much as I do!

Cheers!!

Two Great Quilting Reads

Hi everyone. I have been on the road alot over the last month or so, and as usual, I like to find a good quilting book to take with me. Well, I must say I found TWO!

The first is Karen K. Stone's book entitled... "Quilts", 2004. It is not the typical quilting book focused on how to make a particular pattern, instead it is a journey through her quilting process, in an interview format. As she helps the interviewer and her readers understand how she approaches quilting, including color and fabric selection, she uses 13 of her quilts as examples. Patterns for all 13 are included in the book as well, including my favorite "Cinco de Mayo". Karen uses wonderful colors and sometimes as many as 100 fabrics in her quilts. Take a look, you won't be disappointed!

The second book was another one that has been around for awhile. Gail Garber's, "Stellar Journey", published in 2001. I thought it was a new book, since I had a hard time finding it in quilt stores. But I finally found it on the APQS website. Later I realized, I could have just purchased it off of Gail's website, but oh well. I was introduced to the book via Gail's site, while googling how to draft circular flying geese. As you look at the site, you will see why I just had to have the book. Oh yeah, I brought the compass as well. Anyway, the book! I loved the way Gail made learning the basics of drafting soooo easy. She didn't tackle it, as if she was writing a book for engineering students (notice how many great quilt designers are either trained in art or engineering???). Well I am just a lonely software salesperson, and I don't understand all the mumble jumble many sites went into while I was poking around on the web. Gail's book also uses some of her students quilts to help make the process easier to understand. I am going to use some of her techniques to draft a center medallion for a round robin quilt project my guild just started.

OK... hope you enjoy the books, they are definitely worth the investment and are books I am sure you will pull out over and over again in your quilt designing.

BTW.. notice how both of these books use paper piecing to create great points... oh yeah, exactly the technique I use to create crisp points!

Cheers!