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March 6, 2025
Mod TV Quilt...Test Patterns from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full

 

Progress on the Mod TV Quilt

continues on Wednesdays...

test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast.



I am making Test Pattern blocks...





They add a lot of FUN to the Mod TV quilt...











I have decided to add another row

to the quilt top to make it a bit wider.

More to Come next Wednesday !


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February 28, 2025
Mod TV Quilt...Progress from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full

 

This has been my Wednesday project

the last few weeks...


Mod TV Quilt

I work on it each Wednesday when I meet

up with my local quilt group...





This week I fused all of the TV screens

in place...





The TVs really came alive

when the screens were added...





I am enjoying playing with all of this COLOR

during these dreary winter months...





16 TV screens are in place...





I put them up on the design wall in no

special order...





I moved them around a bit and the

lights and darks are more balanced here...




I used monofilament thread ...

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February 13, 2025
Mod TV Quilt... from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full


I meet with my local quilt group

on Wednesdays... 


Mod TV Quilt

I have been stitching this together

once a week since January...





How FUN is this !





Disregard the Periwinkle Quilt on the design wall,

I am putting the Mod TV Blocks 

on top of it...





These are put together improv style...





Next week I will applique' the TV screens

onto the center of each block...





We have been getting a dusting of snow

here in out little valley...





This is the view out the front of the house...





This is the view out the back of the house...




Those ...

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December 1, 2024
Here and There and Back again from Ellyn's Place

Back in the spring, my friend Chris brought me this orphan block and said "let's do something together with this"


And you know I never say no to a fun collaboration, or a challenge! So I added a checkered border to her block and passed it back to her...

And then she added more....
And so on...




Until eventually we had a completed quilt top! I matchstick quilted it on my domestic machine, added some big stitches with 8 weight pearl cotton and bound it in lime green after auditioning many options...





Catherine suggested the name Here and There ...

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November 22, 2024
On My Mind, Nancy Crow on Off the Wall Friday from Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever by Nina-Marie Sayre



You wouldn't think that living outside of Erie, Pennsylvania would be a center of culture. And it kinda isn't.  But it kinda is.  Really, we're within an hour or two of Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo.  Plus 3 hrs out of Toronto. As well as 2.5 hrs out of central Ohio.  Yes, you read that right ....central Ohio.   Central Ohio, for you not in the know, is a hot bed of quilting.  Not only is there a plethora of quilt stores, quilt groups, retreat spots but also there is The Dairy Barn Art Center (home to Quilt ...

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September 2, 2024
Improv Challenge week 2 from Ellyn's Place

 Are you ready for a new challenge prompt? Did you find time to play with prompt #1? Here's what I came up with...

Last week's prompt was stripes in pink and purple. I played around in my art journal and after creating a fun painted page I decided to make the blocks above. You can read more about our challenge here. Feel free to jump in any time!

Meanwhile, here's a new challenge to start this week...


Squares in purple and orange! Hmmm I'm going to need to think about this one.... maybe play a little ...

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August 21, 2024
Improv Challenge from Ellyn's Place

 The other day over lunch my friend Chris and I were celebrating the near completion of a recent collaboration (more on that soon!) and wondering what we should do next. We tossed around lots of ideas and finally landed on a fun improv challenge. It will allow the two of us to make quilts simultaneously following the same biweekly prompts. It will be fun to see how different our quilts end up! Here's the really exciting part.... we'd love for you to play along. 

Every other Monday Chris and I will each be spinning a wheel we've ...

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August 15, 2024
Drunkards Path.....Top Done from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full


After 15 years of sitting in a drawer...

 the Drunkards Path Quilt Top is DONE !



This week I completed all of the

Improv X Blocks 

for the border treatment...





It measures 80 x 80 inches




Now I need to paw through the fabric

cupboards and find something

that will work for a backing...


All Drunkards Path posts CLICK HERE


View my Instagram feed HERE


CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts




May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi 


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August 13, 2024
Drunkards Path...X Blocks from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full


Playing around with some

Improv X Blocks... 





I am trying find a border treatment

that will compliment this

Drunkards Path quilt top...


So much color on the work table...





I have arranged the drunkards path blocks

in circles...





The X Blocks add straight lines

to offset all of those circles...










The more I make...

the better I like it.

I need more!


View my Instagram feed HERE


CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts




May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi 


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June 29, 2024
Drunkards Path...Border from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full

 

At this point, the blocks are all

pieced together into circles...


I do love the cirles...

I think the border treatment needs some

straight lines.





I started playing around with some

improv X blocks...





The X blocks are super FUN to make...





The X blocks play together well

with all of those circles...




In between trips to the hay fields,

I will come home and make a block or two

for the borders.


View my Instagram feed HERE


CLICK HERE:  to see My Quilts




May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn Kessi 


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June 15, 2024
Collab with Chris from Ellyn's Place

Everyone knows I love a good collaboration. Recently I had an opportunity to make a quilt with my friend Chris....
I spent several days helping Chris sort out the clutter in her sewing space. It was fun finding things Chris had started and making a plan for future quilting projects. In the bottom of one bin of assorted fabrics and blocks, I found the improv blocks Chris had made during our workshop with Debbie Jeske in 2018. I couldn't bear to see them all unassembled, and, as Chris had no plan for them, I tucked them in my bag ...

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May 10, 2024
Four ways I am busting my scraps from I Patch and Quilt

Every year the Dutch Modern Quilt Guild organizes a Quilt Along (QAL) with a Block of the Month (BOM) and I normally don’t participate. There are various reasons for that, one being that I prefer working on my own projects. This year the guild decided to try a different ‘…of the month’, namely colors! Ohhh that sounds so liberating! No specific blocks to do, just a monthly color to use in any of your blocks or projects.

That is FUN!

That I can do!

I am adding a personal challenge on top of the color requirement. I want to ...

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May 8, 2024
Spot On from Ellyn's Place

Time for some catching up! Back in January my pal Debbie was cleaning out her stash and gifted me a beautiful stack of improv hourglass blocks she had made last year. 


I had a wonderful time assembling them into a quilt top, adding a scrap or two of my own alone the way to make things fit. As I assembled it, I began adding appliqué dots here and there, because, why not? The Modern Quilt Guild has recently embraced Maximalism as an element of modern quilting and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get on board. 


I attached ...

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February 9, 2024
Improv Quilts at John C. Campbell on Off the Wall Friday from Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever by Nina-Marie Sayre

Fall 1


With 2024 starting, I thought it was a good idea to look into our next creative vacation.  Paul and I both wanted to get back to John C. Campbells Folk School in North Carolina so I started there.  Luckily, 

 I found the class, Intro to Improvisational Quilts taught by Veronica Hofman-Ortega.  The class description reads....

Explore improvisational cutting and piecing methods to create one-of-a-kind contemporary quilts. Dispense with templates, exact measurements, and block-based patchwork, and embrace the unexpected and exciting outcomes you can get with improvisational patchwork. Arrive with a sense of adventure and spontaneity and prepare to ...

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May 18, 2023
Triangles everywhere, all at once from Ellyn's Place

 I just realized I left you hanging. I never shared my completed Improv Triangle Sewalong quilt.... although I did share some of my process here. Well it's finished! Introducing, Triangles everywhere, all at once...


The improv triangle units were made using the process Nicholas Ball spells out in his book, Inspiring Improv. I used fabric I had painted with my gel plate and acrylic paints for the triangles and assorted teal, aqua and orange solids from my stash.

When it came time to quilt, I went a little bananas! It is all walking foot quilted on my domestic machine ...

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May 8, 2023
Pantone Quilt Challenge 2023 from Ellyn's Place

I love participating in the Pantone color of the year quilt challenge and have made a quilt just about every year since I learned about it! This year the color of the year is Viva Magenta. Sarah and Elizabeth hosted a challenge and I am happy to share my finished quilt.

My intention was to simply make a wonky square in a square quilt and call it good enough. ahhhh intentions! When I got this pieced together I knew it wasn't done. First of all my "wonky" blocks were not wonky enough! It looked like I had tried unsuccessfully ...

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February 13, 2023
Another Improv Triangle Sewalong from Ellyn's Place

 Well, I didn't mean to start another quilt but here we are. I can't resist Nicholas Ball's (@quiltsfromtheattic) improv triangle sew alongs, I've participated twice before (here and here) and when he announced a third opportunity to sew along with him I jumped right in.

As I told you in my last post, I've been enjoying gelli printing lately. I had a stack of fabrics I had painted and quickly decided those should be triangles...


After lots of cutting I had almost 90 triangles ready to sew! I pulled out my teal/aqua solids and ...

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January 27, 2023
Improv piecing with scraps from Crazy Quilter on a Bike!

You guessed it -- EVERYTHING takes longer than you think it will. Did I finish those improv blocks with the leftovers from Farmer's Wife? Nope --- and I went to bed with the problem of figuring out how many blocks I would need, how many I have, and whether I have enough fabric to complete the blocks? 

Thanks to a discussion with Katheleen, I will keep these blocks myself. I have a plan and hope I have enough craps to finish it. 

Here are the finished blocks. They look fantastic, and I'm very excited about them. 

My improv blocks


I ...

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January 25, 2023
A collaboration, parts 1 and 2 from A Prim and (not so) Proper Quilter

And, it's Design Wall Monday!  Read all the way and you'll see it.  

Part 1:

We have a son that is a maker.  He comes by it honest; but the great thing is that he does beautiful work, and I sit back and admire that he managed to acquire that particular gene or trait, which I believe is from his father’s line and my father’s line. 

In other words, he is an artist.  He makes his living as one.  For a few years we have discussed the desire to collaborate.  Life and the pandemic got in ...

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January 24, 2023
Some REassembly required from Crazy Quilter on a Bike!

I'm so glad to see people ARE using those special dishes! And eating in the dining room! That won't happen at our house, but that brings back memories. Remember those houses that had the "front room," and the furniture was wrapped in plastic. Oh my --- someone was afraid of a little stain or two. Thankfully, our mindsets have changed, and crack out that good china!!!!! 

So we're happily ensconced at Retreat at the Farm in Shelburne. What a nice, cozy house. I can hear the wind whipping outside this morning, and I'm toasty warm in the ...

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  • improv
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