Urban planning: paving roads and installing landscaping

I'm being featured on Midweek Makers!!  Check Susan's blog out!



It's on the machine... quilting is under way.  I worked two elements so far - the major thoroughfare and the green space in the top quadrant.  I like it so far.

Well, I like except where I quilted the building - that part will get unsewn.   Not loving how that worked out but I have another idea and I'll work on that tonight.  My "unsewing" will be more beautifully worked now.  I have a new tool...

Doesn't this make my hand look luxurious?

I picked this beauty up at the MidAtlantic Quilt Fest in Hampton, Va., this weekend  (on IG look for #MAQF or #midatlanticquiltfest for some GREAT photos).  I LOVE it.  The seam ripper or stiletto pops in and out.  The show was nice - I had two quilts hanging in the Modern Quilt Exhibit:

Facebook pose...

My buddies were taunting me about not touching the quilt.  It's mine... I'll lick if I want...  I was a little afraid one of the white gloved quilt police was going to bum rush me and knock me to the ground...

My dear friend Mary Menzer aka Fairly Merry, also had three quilts hanging on won a ribbon!!

This quilt DOES NOT photograph well...  It's GORGEOUS but the lighting and background washed it out here.  Different Drummer

Forgive this older photo of this quilt....  This is Quilt it Wright.  It won the ribbon - go to her website and read the story about this quilt.  It's incredibly interesting.  And - the quilt has such depth of color - I'm afraid I didn't capture it here either...

Have you been to any good shows lately?

Check out the Linky Parties on my side bar.  There are SO many good quilts in progress out there!  I'm also linking up to :

Free Motion Quilting

My family needs better upper body strength

Ping says this one is her favorite so far.

The whining I've endured while photographing my quilts is hilarious.  If I'm helping a friend photograph a quilt, I suffer in silence.  Yes, my arms are like limp noodles when I'm done but I dutifully stand there in pain until it's done.  Buck up family....I'm not stopping the entering of contests because you can't hang....    I can see now...I'm going to have to put my family on an upper body exercise program.

But...on a more important note... I FINISHED MY LAST DEADLINE!  Death Star is officially done! Prepare yourself to be inundated with gratuitous quilt photos...  Get your popcorn and beverage, the show starts now...

I've used quite of few of these during the quilting of this quilt...

I love quilting on my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen Sit down model.

I wound up quilting the circles on my Bernina 440.  Don't get me wrong...I've said you  won't be able to pry my Bernina from my cold dead kung fu grip (unless you're making me quilt on it...).  Once I got the Sweet 16, I created the perfect set up for quilting.

And then there was the squaring up...  This is one of those parts I dislike.... it's hard to ensure you're getting it really square.  This part becomes really tedious...

But it gets done and then it's on to the binding.  I love the binding.  It was the only thing I liked to do by hand but now a days I machine it on.  I like the look just as much.

I put a LOT of quilting on this one.

I enjoy the design decisions you have to make.  It can be a little daunting...you want it to make sense where it's placed on the quilt.  I thought about this part almost as much as the overall design.

And finally....it's done.  This is the Death Star bc.  BC is before crinkle.  I'm always a little apprehensive that something will go terribly wrong in the washing machine...

It washed up beautifully and then...it's Death Star ac.  After crinkle.

Here's the sassy back of the quilt:

I added a little flair to the binding in two spots:

So that's my story today.  Finished a quilt.  It was a great day.  It's submitted to QuiltCon 2016 for the contest....fingers crossed it's selected!!

I'm linking up with Judy today at Patchwork Times - check it out!  On Tuesday I'm linking up with Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts.

And on Wednesday I linked up with Let's Bee Social

Check these blogs out...

Nail Polish Beauty

A.L.M.O.S.T. done.....

So I finished this one:

Opposites Attract - 31 inches square

It's my entry to QuiltCon 2016 for the Michael Miller Glitz Fabric Challenge.  I called it "Opposites Attract".  The Glitz fabric seemed formal and opulent so I countered it with saturated color and whimsy.  Even the back carried the opposites theme with the two kinds of fabric and a circular label.

My other entry to QuiltCon 2016 was "Have No Fear".  I originally made this piece for another contest...but I'd missed the deadline (very much out of character for me...).  I really loved the end result so I felt good about having another chance to enter it.  The premise for this one was ...have no fear.  Don't be afraid to make a mistake.  You'll learn so much more by doing and trying than you would laboring over strict perfection.  

When I first started quilting- I was only making intricate 12.5 inch blocks.   I was caught up over making sure every point matched and every quarter inch sew line was accurate.  A wise teacher, Charlotte Angotti, said to me once, "do you want to make one quilt a year....or 12 quilts a year?"  That was the light bulb moment for me.  I wanted to make as many as I could but at the rate I was going.... I'd be lucky to make one quilt a year.  Boom.  Off to the races I went and I've never regretted it.  So what if all my points don't match perfectly EVERY time.  I found the more I made - the better I got.  So when I designed this quilt, I found the quote by Salvador Dali.... "Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it"  was the perfect sentiment (and as a stater of the obvious....I made one of the blocks wrong on purpose).

Have No Fear - 57 inches square

I printed the quote out (from Word) on paper and used a light box to trace the letters on the fabric.  Then I free motion machined over the tracing to make the lettering on the quilt.  It was a good way to get accurate lettering.  I'll definitely use this technique again.

Down to my last quilt deadline for the year...  The Death Star is under the needle right now.  I took a break to relax my neck a bit.  I don't usually get tense while quilting but it's been a busy week with Thanksgiving, putting up Christmas decor, and having the family around.  Good hectic - but I'm a little tired.  So this quick break was good for my creativity.  I've got a LOT of quilting to go...

Have you tried any new quilting techniques lately?

I'm Linking up with CrazyMom Quilts  (oops - missed it this week) , Confessions of a Fabric Addict   , Creative Goodness Linkup, and A Quilted Passion Check out their great blogs - LOTS of great quilty things to look at....

*******HUGE NERD Alert.....This is a Quilting Public Service Announcement

Why have I not done this before?  I HIGHLY recommend that you take a few moments and go through the exercise of sewing test strips of the thread that you use regularly ( and even some not so regularly).  I realize now how I was cheating my quilting by using thinner weight thread.  I kind of ignored the many times I'd heard how the weights made such a difference.  I LOVE the heavier threads and it wasn't until I did this that I really could see the difference (see also : the stove is hot - don't touch experiment).

My favorite thread of choice is Aurifil.  I was lucky enough to meet Alex Veronelli in person.  He's Mr. Aurifil - and if you've been at any big quilt show - you've probably seen him.  He gave a wonderful presentation about how Aurifil is made.  (I love those shows on TV about how things are made....  so this presentation was RIGHT up my alley)   The quality is evident if you've ever had a chance to sew with it ...and seeing how it's made - I understand why.

Here I am - mugging for the camera and showing off my quilt top to Alex.  

So do yourself a favor.  Make one of these handy little tools and get educate yourself about thread weight.  And change your needles frequently....  but that's another PSA for a later date....

HOLD on to your hats - two posts within 30 minutes????

I needed to make sure I honored Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts  (http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/crazy-mom-quilts-turns-9.html)    as she celebrates 9 years of being in the blogisphere.  I've been SO inspired by her work and was thrilled to be able to participate on her link up.  I made this quilt with the help of my Flickr friends.  It was made based on her Colorful Birches quilt.

So did I tell you I won this year?

For the past few years, two fabulous bloggers have hosted an on-line quilt challenge inspired by the Pantone Color of the Year.  2015 was the year of Marsala.  It's kind of a deep wine with some brown elements.   http://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year 

It wasn't a color I've used before but my competitive spirit didn't let that get in the way.  I purchased a nice variety of solids (Kona Cotton, Michael Miller Cotton Couture, Oakshott Cottons) and started laying them out.  I had a simple design in mind but kept feeling like it needed a shot in the arm of color.  After auditioning TONS of options...  I landed on Kaffe Fassett Stripes.  The perfect compliment.

I loved the texture of the marsala blocks and the brightness the stripes added.  My quilting was fairly simple but dense on the marsala parts - just linear bits on the stripes.  Of course, I had to make sure Ping approved...  She did - and then I felt satisfied. 

 Anne Sullivan, @playcrafts on IG and Adrianne ,http://www.onthewindyside.co.nz and @adrianneonthewindyside on IG, are the lovely ladies that host the event.  Check them out on their websites /IG - they are extremely talented and equally as inspiring.  

The past colors were Emerald Green (my all time favorite), Radiant Orchid, and Tangerine.  The new color of the year is announced in December.  I can hardly wait....

I'm going to start this like you know what I'm talking about...

This is something that drives my dear husband crazy. I finish telling a story I started the day before...another chapter comes to mind and I start rattling it off. After 37 years of marriage - he should be used to this by now. I think I make perfect sense and he should be able to catch the drift quickly and go with it... So that's how I'm starting with you... Don't worry, I have FULL confidence that you'll go with the flow and understand. completely.

I'll be posting to the blog about once a week but you'll find more frequent posting on IG or Flickr.  I love Flickr...and while I love IG, too, Flickr is where I made so many new friends in such far away places.  IG is a little more fast paced and I think the friendship part is just a tad harder to maintain.

My blog roll is the list of quilters that have made an impact on my quilt evolution.  If I'm not obsessively pinning on Pinterest....I'm stalking IG, Flickr, or these blogs.  Check them out - they are spectacular artists.

So I start this little beauty back in June - kind of thinking about how nice it would be to have a patriotic themed quilt for the living room. I used a very cheerful Kona cotton background (Bahama Blue) and a very tangy red (Pomegranate) for the sashing. The colorful bits were tons of scraps I obsessively collect (seriously - I've had to show strenuous restraint from keeping scraps smaller than 1" x 1"...). I chose bright colors, mostly in the blue family.

This is just the cool bucket.  The warm color bucket was on my table...

I cut 16 inch blocks, laid scraps in a pleasing order, then basted them on to the block.  And by basting...I just barely caught the edge of some of these.  I just wanted them on there well enough not be knocked off by my devilish cat or blown off when the ceiling fan was in airplane mode.  Once I was happy with the order, I put together the top.  I could NOT wait to start quilting it.

And then...I saw the ad for the Handi Quilter feet.  Well....let's just scream SOLD on that!  I've been using a Handi Quilter Sweet 16 for a few years and can't say enough good things about it (my other car is a Bernina 440 - which you can't rip from my cold, dead, kung fu grip).  The addition of their new Echo feet and the Glide foot was a huge thrill for me and I couldn't WAIT till they arrived.  In fact, I halted production on this quilt until I had that Glide foot in my hot little hands...  I just knew it would make a difference in the ease of sewing this particular quilt.

Ohhh - I was so right.  Got the foot at the beginning of October and finished this quilt up in about 3 hours.  The Glide foot allowed me to smoothly fly right over all the edges of the scraps with such ease.  I machine bind my quilts for the most part so onto binding I went.

Finished it last week and tossed it into the washer and dryer.  The detail of this quilt is in my blog photo above.  I LOVE the crinkle and am always waiting anxiously for it to come out of the dryer....   And Waaa -la.... here it is.  It's VERY snuggly.