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!

Northern Star Quilt Show 2012 - Ribbon time :-)

So as always, the first weekend of May means the Northern Star Quilt Show in Somers, NY. 

This year, besides the normal show entries there was a special dedication to Mrs. Rose, the women the quilting world owes their gratitude to for the show "Infinite Variety:  Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts"  in NYC last March.  The guild had a red and white challenge, that resulted in an exhibit of 95 red & white quilts.  Our exhibit was hung similar to the way Thinc Designs hung the show at the NYC Park Ave Armory, with the quilts suspended and backed by other quilts.  It was a wonderful tribute.  I am just sorry that I missed the presentation by Mr and Mrs Rose and Tom Hennes from Thinc on Saturday.  But it was my birthday and my family had tickets to the Gladys Knight concert, featuring special quest Brian McKnight, at Foxwoods that evening, with dinner and an overnight stay in Connecticut planned.

But thanks to my friends, I didn't have to wonder as to how my quilts did in the show. :-).  Between Facebook posts and text messages, I knew that one of the two quilts I submitted had won a ribbon.  I didn't know which quilt, nor what ribbon until I got back into town late Sunday afternoon and made it to the show.  Yes, Ashante Rhythms won a 3rd Place Ribbon, in the wall art category of  "people, portraits, animals of other recognizable forms"

 It is always nice to win a ribbon, but this year, it was the judges notes on my comment sheet that really made me smile.  My quilt was held over for 'best machine quilting' judging....!!!!  While I totally understand why I didn't win (the quilt that did was exquisite) it was good to know that my quilting is starting to get recognized, not just the visual appeal my pieces have due to the vibrant colors.  I also appreciated the comments underneath the notation....  a few short thread tails on the back...  a skip an area thread not trimmed.... and lint on the back of the quilt.  (Black...  I lost points in the judging because of lint on the piece...  need to be more mindful of that in the future).  But notice the comments...  nothing about equal or un-equal stitch lengths, nothing about the regularity of the quilting, nothing about the density of the quilting...  NOTHING to indicate I needed to improve my machine quilting.  WOW was I excited.  All the comments were on the attention to detail, after you finish a piece.  OMG!!!! I can easily fix those problem :-).  Oh yes, I know that even if I didn't have any of those issue, I still would not have won. Believe me the quilting on the one that did, was absolutely breath taking.  But just to know that for once, the judges did not have a negative thing to say about my machine quilting.  In fact they thought it good enough to be held over for machine quilting judging.  Oh YES, I am happy :-).

Paper Piecing with Pelham Quilters

In February, I had the pleasure of teaching paper piecing to some of my fellow Pelham Quilters.  We are fortunate to have a wonderful community room to use with lots of light, thanks to Doris Green!

Here are some pics of the ladies working on their NY Beauty arcs....

Lorraine is always so intense as she works on her pieces... 













Here are Nancy and Anne.  Neither of them have ever paper pieced before, but they sure did catch the hang of it...        Nancy even tried out a new mini iron.  She said she loved the portability of it and how crisp it made her seams.

Anne really picked up the concept of how to match your fabrics to the lines while going around the curve.  It is a hard concept for some, but she got the swing of it pretty quickly!

Joanne and Millie, both had experience in paper piecing.  I think they both took the class to make me feel good :-)...

You can't tell from this shot, but even though Joanne was late (she had to run back home to get her foot pedal), she got 2 NY Beauty blocks completed.  Maybe I should call her speedy gonzalez :-). 

Mille was also pretty speedy.  She is here working on her second block.  As always she is heads down as she works.

Don't know how I missed getting Paula's photo.  I clearly remember taking the shot, as Paula was having a hard time with the whole concept of lining up the fabric around the curve and sewing through the paper.  I so wanted to show her completed arc!!!  Sorry Paula :-(.


I really enjoy teaching new techniques to my friends.  We have discussed a couple ideas for next year.  I will have to see how that turns out :-).


Hugs!
Renee

My blog has been nominated for a Liebster Award!

Of course, I had no idea of what a Liebster Award was, but I was grateful to Sandra Scott for my nomination.  A quick email to Sandra and I am even happier.  Someone thought my blog was worth sharing! 

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

1.       Show thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them....  Thanks Sandra!!!

2.      Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3.      Post the award on your blog

4.      Bask in the love from some of the most supportive people on the internet—other writers and artists.

5.      And best of all – have fun and spread the karma

The last 3 are easy...  I love sharing my quilt musings with my fellow bloggers and love even more being able to share theirs.  But to pick only 5 fellow bloggers that I love..  oh, so not easy...  but of course, I will give it a try!  Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Marianne Bos:  I love Marianne's quilts.  So full of fun and whimsey.  She has also branched out to fabric dyeing and fabric post cards.  Check out her Mother's Day cards...  but you better hurry they are going fast!
2. City Girl Quilts  A little more than just quilting, but you know how us quilters go.  We love to dabble!
3. Sonji Says:  Sonji's "architectural" quilts definitely belong on the wall!  Her unique style has ended her up in many gallery exhibits.
4. Sistah Stitch Alot  Boy oh boy, if you like portrait quilts, you just have to stop over at this blog.  Her work is amazing!
5. Kheli at Remember your Kharma designs jacquard textiles by day, but quilts for the fun of it.

Again a shout out to Sandra Scott for nominating me and I hope those of you who read my blog, enjoy visiting the quilters I have chosen to share with you today :-).  Please let me know if you met a new fellow blogger, by posting a comment back on my blog.

Cheers...  Renee

I am soooo excited!!!

First I want to make sure that everyone in the Lower Westchester, NY area knows about this great exhibit.  Not just because I am co-curating it with Donna Chambers :-). but because it is really a great exhibit, celebrating all types of quilting, at all levels, not just those that would make it into a juried show, but also the everyday quilter, enjoying this thing we call art!  It is a celebration about us!

So what is it....  Well my friend Donna Chambers and I were asked by the New Rochelle Council on the Arts to curate an exhibit together as the inaugural exhibit for their new gallery space in the New Rochelle City Hall Rotunda.  We were thrilled and the next thing we new it grew to include a simultaneous exhibit at the Media Loft Gallery, a gallery space in an artist residence/studio loft building also in New Rochelle.  With the added space we were able to accommodate not just our quilts, but quilts from fellow Pelham Quilters and a few other invited guest.   

I won't spoil it by showing pictures of the quilts here (yes, I want you to come see it in person :-)).  But here are the details.  The exhibit runs from March 11 - April 27th.

There are a few events as part of the exhibit and I am hoping you will be able to join me for at least one:

• Fellow quilters will be interested in a book signing with Claire Oehler and Nancy Mirman, who will be presenting their new book "A Constellation of Stars".  The book signing is March 11th, from 1-2:30pm at the Media Loft location (50 Webster Ave, New Rochelle, NY, with parking across the street).
• An Inaugural Reception at the New Rochelle City Hall Rotunda Gallery, 515 North Ave., New Rochelle, NY on Tuesday, March 13 @ 6pm.  We are fortunate to be the first exhibit to hang in the gallery space in the rotunda.  A light supper will be served.
• An Artist Reception at MediaLoft on Sunday, March 25th from 4-7pm.  This is an opportunity, not only to see the exhibit, but to meet the artists as well.  There will be music and light refreshments.

So please stop by the exhibits and enjoy our quilts.  There will be over 50 quilts between the two exhibits.  Admission to all events and both galleries are free, as they are sponsored by New Rochelle Council on the Arts and their sponsors.

Finally finished - Mom's Legacy

Well, after over 11 hours of frogging and then redoing the trapunto, I was finally able to get this piece done!

Yes, I took out all the stitching around the trapunto and redid it.  I didn't like the heavier weight variegated cotton thread I had initially used.  I had planned to do all the quilting with that same thread, but didn't quite like it once the trapunto was done.  So I decided to use it just for the trapunto and ended up using a finer Sulky poly thread to quilt with.  But once all the quilting was done, the trapunto just jumped out at you and not in a good way.  So as emotionally invested as I was in this piece, the piece that kept telling me how much like my Mother I was, I knew what I had to do.  Rip it out.

And now, with the hotfix crystals added, I know it was the right thing.  Otherwise, they would have been competing with the heavier cotton thread. 

I love the texture in this piece.  I used the wool felt under the batting in this piece, just like I did with "In the Spotlight".  It gives the quilting such a deep effect.

Since I didn't add a boarder, I used black cording to pipe the wall hanging.  This brought the black from the applique out to the edges of the piece, framing it nicely.

 This isn't a  good picture, but as always, I love the paisley.  This is the second piece that I have used this applique design on.  I love all the swirls and points mixed.  If it was a better picture, you would be able to see what a nice touch the crystals add :-).

 And I think this font is perfect.  The swirls in the P go so nicely with all the swirls in the quilting and applique.


So while it seemed to take forever to make, I am quite happy.  I think my Mother would like it as well.

Love you Mom!