What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

    Another quilt project gifted by Quiltdiva Julie is the low volume strip blocks. I cut them diagonally, added burnt orange strips (fabric also gifted by her), and played with a number of layouts until this one emerged. I just love the fabrics used for the strips. Of course, I had to cobble together another row to make the design work.
    Well, I webbed it and sewed on a cool border print (Bohemian Rhapsody). Now it goes to the quilting line up. Hopefully my ruler work from the upcoming class will be able to bear fruit on this top! Yes, the ...

     On September 6th, I was supposed to take a ruler class with Kim Werth of Rochester at my Nolting dealer. Why? Because I stink at them. I don't know how to cleanly quilt holding onto a slippery ruler with one hand and moving a big longarm with the other. If I make the plastic ruler sticky, it doesn't move well. When quilting on the diagonal, you have to use a ruler. Didn't know that when I bought a longarm. I do all hand guided quilting and am not changing. However, Kim postponed the class because her father ...

    Well, I am so fortunate to be gifted a whole raft of Kaffe fabric squares and pieces- enough to make a comfort quilt from the wonderful Quiltdiva Julie! I oohed and ahhed opening the squishy and I thought of a pattern I bought from Material Girlfriends called Wallah. It calls for cutting up a layer cake into 5" squares. I don't like to do that as that 10" layer cake is always precious to me so I try to use it for bigger cuts. Well, the squares from Julie were 6" so the quilt would be a better size ...

All these in one fabulous box! (Plus strips to left side)

    A very big box arrived from Quiltdiva Julie with all these gorgeous solid colors jam packed ready for color sorting.

      Also in the mail was a squishy from Quiltdiva Julie of blocks that were strips of low volume prints, wonderful ones. I fooled around with them along with some fabric she sent separately. In my head, I could see a burnt red orange working with these blocks. In the huge box of solids and blender fabric, there were 4 different kinds of that fabric- meant to be!

    I folded ...

      I have had just plain trouble writing and posting. I want to, need to, but my ability to multi-task in my life is not where I would have it. Other stuff is getting done, but not writing. There is a certain mental energy and focus that writing takes and I find myself often lacking it. I am going to try to get on track.
       The last time I showed Jelly Twist by Cluck, Cluck, Sew, most of it was together. However, the more I complete tops, the more I dislike having lots of seams in the binding for bulk and ...

      Another done quilt, this time the pieces and fabric from Quiltdiva Julie. This was part of a boxed set of goodies/quilt pieces from Julie to put together. My husband's high school colors were green and gold, so he really liked to see this one finished. It is a comfort quilt waiting for a referral to recipient who needs the comfort contained within.

Choosing Borders

Quilted and trimmed

With binding provided by Julie

Quilted details

Back, love that Blueberry Park fabric!

Back Detail

      I did finish the 3 Dudes quilt with a border. Rosie is inspecting and wrecking the design wall, multi tasking. I think it came out great, thanks Julie for curating and cutting all that fabric.

      One of the quilts I worked on the retreat was one from QuiltDiva Julie. She gave me two that used the same rail fence type pattern. I did make the first one according to plan, but when I started sewing the second one, I got fidgety. I looked and thought and rembered the 3 Dudes quilt from MSQC I made long ago. It would lend itself perfectly with no waste.
     I started with the same rail fence blocks, Light Dark Light Dark Light and Dark Light Dark Light Dark, but then I placed them right sides together and sewed all ...

      Two more tops were finished. I shopped at Joann's for the border fabric for the flannel batik squares quilt. I could not find batik flannel anywhere, so I bought a mottled lighter blue and a dark blue solid for the borders. After washing it, I cut and sewed the borders on and it is a big size about 70 x 76 now. I have to just accept it as it is instead of what it could be with the right fabric. It is soft and cuddly. When I was at Joann's, I was able to buy 5 yards ...

      I played around with the HSTs for a while, and finally decided to put the greenish, lightish squares in the center and the darker oranges around it. Sort of. I like the unpredictable quality of it. This layout is instead of the long skinny symmetrical one I showed in an earlier post. The fabrics are wonderful. I have it clipped together to web it soon.

      The second gifted HST quilt is a green/golds one. I tried arranging the groupings of 4 in different directions, but I kept coming back to all of them in the same position. Somehow, that appeals to me. The varied tones of greens and golds seem to pull together this way. The quilt was a little small, so I added a 2" finished green border and now am picking a wider yellow one (4" Finished). I don't know why, but it reminds me of picnic tables in the park when I was a kid. They were always dark green.

       In looking over past posts and lack of, I realized that although I posted the bars and leaves quilt I sewed and quilted that was given me by Quiltdiva Julie, I never posted the extent of the gifted top kits. There were 4 quilt kits contained plus backings, bindings. Two were the strips/bars and two were precut triangles for HST quilts. I have been chipping away at the two HSTs ones. The orange HST arrangement is tall and skinny, but I like the diamond center. If I use wide side borders, it may work. I have a gray print ...

     No, not the branches on the trees here. The daffodils finally are opening and the hellebores have, but little else. The quilt's leaves are rustling.
     I have been absent here, not because of the weather, but between Easter prep, guests and making dinner, and then I had cataract surgery combined with glaucoma surgery. I am unable to see in one eye. My right eye is fogged out. It is supposed to last 3-5 days and I am going, frankly, nuts. The eyes are fighting for supremacy, I have no vision but fog in one eye, and I can do ...

      Another comfort quilt went out the door last week- Flaneur that was given to me by Quiltdiva Julie to finish. The woman who I gave it to is fighting blindness in one eye and can do nothing for 4 months while surgery heals. And then she has to do the other eye. This wasn't how she planned to spend her recent retirement.

After washing and folding ready to bag

    This is another wonderful comfort quilt top gifted to me by Quiltdivajulie. I did some rearranging, adding the skinny dividing strips. There was enough fabric left that she sent so I was able to put a skinny light border on, holding all those HST seams closed. Here is the process.    
    When it came time to quilt, I again printed a B&W photo and put it in a sheet protector to figure out the quilting. I had a hard time because there is not a lot of regular repeats. I ended up quilting diagonals in the corners, a center repeating ...

     I have been gifted parts for a top for another wonderful comfort quilt from Quiltdiva Julie complete with backing and binding. This one is called Flaneur, you can read about it here. It is chock full of happy HSTs with Tula Pink's Fairy Dust as the background fabric.
    Julie's original layout was sent to me and when I put it on my wall, it made my eyes ping pong and I could not appreciate the colors, fabrics and designs. Some patterns just do that to me.

      Not the home Ludic came from (QuiltDiva Julie), but its forever home to do its work. The quilt package went to a woman with ovarian cancer that is the wife of a friend's coworker. I don't know her, but honored the request for comfort. I trust it made the mark like all great quilts do.
     I added 2 borders to it to make it a bit larger. When I was searching for binding fabric, the resident quality control inspector tested it out.

      A little while back, Quiltdiva Julie sent me some tops to finish as comfort quilts. As soon as one gets finished, a request comes in.

A great combo

This past weekend was no exception. I finished Blithe, a man from my cardiac rehab group, who had a heart transplant 12 years ago, received a kidney last week at the Cleveland Clinic. They let him come home to Buffalo for the weekend, and then he had to go back on Monday.
     I had just finished quilting Blithe and binding it. I quickly scrambled to make a bag, card and wash the ...

      This quilt is pure sunshine on a dark winter day. It was made by Quiltdiva Julie and gifted to the comfort quilt work I do (Quilts4Comfort). I showed it earlier, but it is now completed and is just a happy, happy quilt. I hope I get a referral for it soon.
I am calling is Plaid Spring Sunshine.
     Quilted free-motion with Glide Celery on top and DecoBob Dove Gray in the bobbin. Plaid scrappy binding.