What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 This was an eventful week -- Labor Day Monday (covered in my last post) followed by Zion Woman's Club at noon Tuesday, then P.E.O. that included the state officer's visit with an officer's workshop, dinner, and the chapter meeting.  (The state officer is my longtime friend Fran.  Everyone enjoyed meeting her and her advice to us was very helpful.)  

The quilt guild met Wednesday evening.  Time for the big challenge reveal!  I was challenge coordinator.  The prompt was Check It Out. Each participant got a fat quarter of the same red-checked fabric and had to use ...

My entry for the guild challenge is quilted, bound, and labeled.   

This is all I will show you because it's a surprise. The reveal is at the September 6 guild meeting. 

At the PieFest in 2008 I made a lot of red/black/white flying geese.  They are 3" x 5-1/2" unfinished.   I used five in this project.  

Another late night Saturday start for this week's Project QUILTING challenge, A Novel Project. 67 minutes from fabric pull to finished mini mini quilt this evening. Woo hoo!

At the beginning of the week I shared other quilts I have made that were inspired by books, but I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make for the challenge. Earlier in the week, I scrolled through my Goodreads of what I've read in the last couple years and wasn't particularly motivated by what I have read recently.

I've been inspired by Margaret Fleisher's ...

This week the Project QUILTING challenge was based on a traditional block, 54-40 or Fight.

As the week progressed with no progress, my quilt plans got smaller and smaller. I finally made it into the studio with less than 12 hours left to the deadline.

I used the traditional block as a springboard and pulled some fabrics in a palette I enjoyed. I opted for a grid-based design instead of piecing the 4-patch units. Taking creative liberties I omitted the 4-patch in the center, in favor of a single square.

Then I improv pieced the triangle units before deciding that ...

The first Project QUILTING challenge of season 14 is The First One.

I am a habitual overthinker. I have a list of things I'd like to work into my PQ challenges this season and none of them were the "perfect" fit for this challenge. So the options to meet The First One theme seemed infinite. I brainstormed some ideas and considerations with my daughter:

• my first quilt
• my first blog post
• my first IG post
• red, the first color in a rainbow
• the letter A
• the number 1
• the first PQ challenge I participated in, PQ 8.1
• fabrics ...

A quilt shop about an hour and 45 minutes north of me hosts an annual fabric challenge, with gift certificates to the store as prizes.  Here’s the challenge packet.  Must use Kaffe Fassett Tiddlywinks fabric in blue, finish 24" square or smaller, and have a face on it

Started with cat photo, and edited in photoshop to have smaller value range.  Printed out grayscale photo to 24" square size on several sheets of paper, and taped together.

selected fabrics and arranged in value order.  All Kaffe Fassett.  

made a value scale from a strip of background

Outlined and numbered ...

Rhythm & Repetition. This is one of those challenge themes that is so easy... but also quite difficult. So many things would work. Three of anything really. Three 4-patch blocks. Three chickens. Three triangles. The possibilities are endless! On my first challenge quilt this season I made a wholecloth quilt and toyed with making wholecloth quilts for each challenge. But then I used two fabrics for challenge 2. So here is my every other wholecloth quilt. I decided to take inspiration from Jacquie Gering and feature my repetition in the way of walking foot quilting. On a small scale. My initial ...

Back in October, with just a week left to the submission deadline, I finally dove in on my idea for the American Patchwork & Quilting Hexagon Quilting Challenge for QuiltCon. The moment I saw the challenge theme I'd had the idea of these "half and half" mismatch hexagons (which my daughter points out don't really count since they are actually octagons read more

This week's Project QUILTING challenge is Mining Diamonds. I chose to go with the gemstone and reduced the Alison Glass Trinket pattern to 25%.

My daughter helped me decide on my color palette, white, light greys, and Kona Bright Pink for the background.

Reducing the pattern brought the 4" gem down to a tiny 1" size.

Since I was using such tiny pieces in my paper piecing, I opted for the Add-An-Eighth ruler for trimming my seams.

I decided on free motion echo quilting with 50wt Aurifil Fuchsia (#4020) and machine binding with a light grey. The quilt finishes ...

We are one day into the latest Project QUILTING challenge, Kitchen Influence. I've continued my series of artist trading card sized mini quilts.

When I saw the challenge, I immediately thought of this adorable silverware fabric. Slight miscalculation on my assumption that the binding would fully cover the knife. Oops. I free motion quilted the details of the fork and spoon with Aurifil 50wt Light Delft Blue (#2720).

The quilt finishes at 3 1/2" x 2 1/2". The back shows the quilting better. And you can see my tiny little 1" x 1/4" fusible tags I ...

Continuing with my new series of Project QUILTING artist trading cards (ATCs) I created a 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" quilt featuring a silhouette of my 3-year-old niece. I used solid black batik with black MistyFuse to fusible appliqué the silhouette to my background fabric. My quilting is minimal, just long the edge of the silhouette (more easily seen from the back). This is my submission to this week's In Silhouette one week quilt challenge from Project QUILTING.

I started with this photo my sister took for me of my niece. I printed it on paper at ...

This successful little quilt was a plan B and FOMO all wrapped into one.

It’s Project QUILTING season again! I’ve participated the last five years. (Though some years I don’t complete all six challenges.) In the last many months I have been focusing on finishing up works in progress. I even updated the full UFO/WIP list. (Updated list coming later this month.) So... I decided what I would do for Project QUILTING this year would be to finish a project that was in progress for each of the challenges. I figured with the lengthy list of ...

I realize I am jumping the gun with this, but I am so chuffed at my progress that I can't wait.  If you're reading this and you're in my quilt guild, don't look any further.  If you do, don't let on. 

"Birth Month" is the theme for our guild's 2021 challenge:  use the flower and the gem for your birth month.  Maximum size 20 x 21 for the year.    The reveal was scheduled for scheduled for August -- I knew I wouldn't make it because I was preoccupied by the wedding quilt.  But when ...

Six for six! This little quilt completes season 12 of Project QUILTING. And true to form, I waited until the last 24 hours of the one-week challenge to get started. And as you know, the later I start, the smaller the quilt gets. ;-)

This week's challenge is Ab Intra, or "from within." At first glance, I think the theme is a little intimidating. But really, there are so many options. So far, there have been a variety of deep, personal, or lighthearted submissions.

It was hard for me to roll over the one year mark of being home during ...

This week's Project QUILTING challenge is You're Crazy, inspired by the "crazy quilt" movement of the late 1800s. I honestly hesitated a bit about participating, because I've become more aware of ableist language and I've tried to edit the word crazy out of my everyday vocabulary. Ableism is defined as discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. It includes the use of ableist words, many of which people don't realize have an impact on people with disabilities. If this isn't a concept you're ...

Ya know how I said I was going to start early in the week for this week's challenge? Nope. Here's my Saturday quilt, finished in the wee early hours of Sunday morning.

I taught the first half of my All About Angles workshop on Tuesday. I can't teach a workshop without being inspired by my students to create another version on one of my techniques. I don't always have time to carry that out, but this week's Project QUILTING challenge was the perfect opportunity. This week's theme is Virtual Vacation. We were asked to ...

How long has it been since we have been able to get together as a guild?  It seems like forever.  

Almost a year ago while attending my guild meeting we decided to do a round robin, and I say "of sorts" because we would be the only ones working on our own quilt.  Little did we know that this was the perfect solution since we haven't been together since last March!  

In my stash was this fabric yardage of slightly off white with tiny medium blue blocks.  I fell in love with this fabric and knew I would find ...

This quilt was kind of three and a half years in the making, and also less than a day. This week's one-week Project QUILTING challenge is Fussy Cut! Like the last PQ challenge I challenged myself to a modern traditional design using a traditional block as a jumping off point. The most popular response to my instagram poll indicated Churn Dash as the favorite traditional block. That made me think of one of the first quilts I ever made.

I planned to start early in the week. (Don't I always?) And then I found myself without a stitch ...

With the start of the new year comes the start of the new Project QUILTING season. I'm hoping to participate in all six challenges this season. In 2020, I started my Improv Log Cabin Mini series with a couple of the Project QUILTING challenges. This year, just before the first challenge was announced I decided I would layer my own design challenge on top of the Project QUILTING challenge's again this year. I'll be using modern traditional design in my challenge quilts this season.

Modern Traditionalism in quilting refers to a design that is built on a ...