Quilt Club Challenge Finished

It took me awhile, but I finally made a decision about which product and fabrics to use for my challenge.  The Oatmeal won!

I decided I really wanted to make a wonky house block with the Oatmeal package colors. Oatmeal is one of my very most favorite comfort foods. My mom used to make it for me and add brown sugar and butter (yes, very healthy <snicker>) and I loved it. What kid wouldn't?? This was my first attempt...not very wonky!

Second attempt...much wonkier!! In case you're wondering, that is "corn" fabric that I'm using for the ground.  Worked well, considering the colors I had to choose from.

This is where I had to do some thinking. Originally, I just put red and orange strips on the outside and then was going to bind it. However, it was just too boring. So then I thought of a checkerboard and came up with this.

It worked well, but I didn't have enough to go all the way around.  Back to the drawing board--or design wall. I played around with it a bit and thought about the fact that the house was wonky, so why shouldn't the border be a bit off as well?

From that came this. Having run out of the orange, I decided to play a bit.

Worked for me! From there it went onto my longarm. Yes, I know...overkill.  However, since I've started longarming, I have not been able to quilt on my domestic machine. I don't know how people switch back and forth. Everything, no matter the size, goes on the longarm to be quilted.

A few pics of the finished product:

And the back...

We turned them in just the other day. There were 31 entries, I believe. Mine does not stand a chance of winning, but I did win my own challenge. I came up with fabrics, the design idea, finished the top, quilted and bound it and turned it in. For me, that's a huge win. I will often come up with ideas, but that's where I fail. I never seem to get things put together, or if I do, I don't get them finished in time. This time I did it. 

We will vote on the winner at the next business meeting of our guild and then they will all be hung at the quilt show. I will show pics of the entries next. Including the super cute ribbons we all get just for entering!

Thanks for putting up with my convoluted design process!

Dory

Quilt Club Challenge

Members of the Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt Club in Sequim have been challenged to make a "Quilt from the Pantry." What this means, in essence is that we must make a quilt based on the colors of a grocery store cardboard-boxed food item and we must incorporate at least one recognizable traditional block.  On its face, this doesn't seem so hard; however, we have to use the exact shade and colors that are on the box. We cannot add colors, nor can we change the value. And we must turn in the box with the quilt.

So...this is what I have come up with so far:

The first would be somewhat monochromatic (its a stretch) using this Jello box and mainly the greens.

The second is softer, using the Oatmeal box, with all the colors it contains.

Okay, so I have my fabric and my boxes--the problem now becomes what block and/or blocks and what to do. If this turns out like my other challenges, it will either stay in the planning stage forever and/or get made after the due date.

Any ideas??  Anything???

Dory

The Tevis T-Shirt Quilt

Many of you know that my first love is my horses (not sure how to make that sentence grammatically correct). Last year there was a big fire that ruined part of the Tevis Trail--the famous 100 mile trail from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, California. I completed that ride on my mare, Elly, in 2005. The fire damaged part of the trail and the Western States Trail Foundation is working to get it back in shape for this year's running of the Tevis.

I wanted to do something to help, but since I live so far away, volunteering to be on the work crew wasn't an option. Instead, I contacted the Foundation and told them if they could get me Tevis t-shirts, I'd make a quilt and donate it to be raffled to help raise money for trail restoration.

This is what I sent to them just last week...

As you can see, I don't do T-shirt quilts the "normal" way. I like each t-shirt design to fill the entire t-shirt square. My pet peeve is a huge expanse of t-shirt material with a tiny logo. I know its easier that way, but I just don't like it. This quilt was challenging since all the blocks were either 12x12, 12x16, 8x12 or 12x8; thus the fill in with Laurel Burch Mythical Horses fabric. 

This is a shot of the label that Dennis made for the back. I wanted to get everyone's name on there that contributed shirts--especially since they didn't get them back!

Thanks for stopping by...

Dory

Quincy Crazy Quilters Opportunity Quilt

I'm honored to be asked to quilt the QCQ Opportunity Quilt again. This year they chose a Kim Diehl pattern (with a few changes) for their project.  Currently, its hanging in my studio as I decide how I want to make this one sing!!

Until I actually hung it up and stood back, I didn't notice the secondary pattern that appeared. I love how using only two blocks creates such interest. Now I have to decide which blocks I want to emphasize since I seem to have two options.

Opinions welcome and all will be considered. I won't be quilting this one until I return from Asilomar; too many other irons in the fire right now.

Barbara's Baskets -- Quilted

Here it is, the finished quilt (remember to click on the photos to see the detail):

Some close-ups of the final design. .

Sorry about the fold in the fabric; I didn't notice it when I took the photo.

And what post would be complete without a couple shots of the back?

I have no idea what that spot is in the upper left corner; the fabric wasn't discolored. *shrug*

What are your thoughts? Would you have chosen something different?

Barbara's Baskets Part I

Barbara sent me a quilt a while back. Its been here for a bit as we've gone back and forth with the design process. Often times, I'm given a quilt where the owner wants to be more involved and I've come up with a couple of methods of quilt designing long distance to facilitate the process.

This is the block we were working with (if you turn your head to the right when viewing, it will be on point):

One method is when the quilt owner sends along a sketch of the design showing what they want. This was Barb's sketch.

However, as you can see from her "flowers," she really didn't know what, exactly, she wanted in that area.  So after talking with her, I drew these suggestions to give her some more ideas.

Neither of these (or any of the others I sent) were what she was looking for.  She made the decision to have me quilt the "baskets" in the same manner that they were quilted in the book, "Passionate Patchwork" by Kaffe Fassett.  Barb had altered the Delft Basket pattern to suit her fabrics, adding a flange in the middle of the baskets.




From the basket design, we still had to decide on the sashing, setting triangles and border. I have a Kindle Fire and an app that allows me to take a picture and then import it into the app for so that I can draw on the photo. I sent her these pics with drawings of the quilt designs for those specific areas. There is one caveat that I always tell my customers:  My quilting is far better than my drawing! (you'll have to click on the first pic to even see it; apparently, they don't transfer to well to Blogger)

Barbara decided on the "leaves" in the sashingpictured in the top drawing on the left.  (I later told her that what she thought were leaves were my poor attempt at drawing feathers!)  She decided on the curved design in the setting triangles and piano key border shown above and right.

Stay tuned for the finished product!