Off the Wall. PPLD Video

https://vimeo.com/68147574

It's out! My interview with Pikes Peak Library District for their "Off the Wall" series of artists who have had exhibits in one or more branches. Click on the link to view 5 minutes of me talking about my quilting, my 2012 Mini-Quilt Project, and pictures of some of my work.

This interview was filmed in February, 2013. The producer/interviewer/director/editor is Ralph Giordano, and he was hoping to have it out by March. At first I started watching and waiting for it, and then I had forgotten about it until he recently sent me an email that it was done! 

Ralph did a wonderful job of making me look not nervous, which I was. A big camera is aimed at you and you're not supposed to look at it. And then Ralph asks questions and I'm supposed to remember to incorporate the question into my answer because he doesn't want to be heard on the interview. That was especially difficult for me, and in fact, there is one spot where you can hear him ask a question because I couldn't manage it. I guess I'm more used to having a conversation rather than being interviewed. But overall, I'm really pleased with it and not embarrassed to show it to family and friends. And now that I have one interview under my belt, I'll be better at the next one! There's optimism for you.

Update on the Peacock:  Since the Peacock was mentioned  in the video, I thought I would let you know that it is coming along. Slowly. I worked on it a while and then abandoned it to do some other things, and now I'm back at it again. I've finished 13 feathers and only have 6 more to go. Then I can work on the feet and ground and then put all the pieces together.

My Departments

Title: My Departments
Finished: ??
Techniques: Appliqué, Free-motion quilting, Fussy cutting, Crayon coloring
Size: 18 x 21"

Description: This mini-quilt was hanging on my office door for many years. The idea for it came from Krystyna Mrozek, a colleague and friend who wondered if we could find fabric to represent the various departments for which we were responsible. So we took a trip to Mill Outlet, a very good source for novelty fabrics, and spent a couple of hours shopping for just the right prints. We had a lot of fun! I don't remember what year we did this, but it's been several years since Krystyna has moved on. I did not include a label of the back of this mini-quilt.

Some of my departments were easy to find fabrics for. Biology, for example, I could find almost any animal print. I chose a butterfly print. Now I don't remember if I actually bought this fabric at the time, but it is possible I already had this one in my stash. For Physics, I used an astronomy print. For Geology, I found a print with rocks at Mill Outlet. I knew they had a variety of "landscape" type prints.

For some prints, I had some pre-conceived notions about what might represent certain departments. For Sport Science, I knew for sure and was hoping they would have some sort of hockey print, which they did. For Environmental Science, I was hoping for some sort of rain forest or forest-type print. Not seeing anything I liked along those lines, I chose a green leaf print that worked; at least it was green! For Computer Science, I was wondering if I could find a print with computers on it, but was delighted by the keyboard keys print I found.

For a couple of departments, I got lucky. I didn't know how I was going to represent Mathematics. I didn't want a print with just equations on it, but when I saw the geometric shapes in many colors, I knew that would work. For Education, I had been thinking "books" but the school bus print said "education" much better. One thing about that print thought was that it was too beige and light. So I used a yellow crayon to color it in a bit.  I also didn't know how I was going to represent Psychology, but as soon as I say the rats in a maze print, my problem was solved.

The one that gave me the most trouble was Chemistry. I was hoping for a print with test tubes or something along those lines, but not seeing anything like that I had to improvise. The closest I came was the fireworks print. I figured pyrotechnics involves a great deal of chemical knowledge, so I went with that.

So after getting all the fabrics I needed, I figured out an arrangement that was pleasing. I had some gaps, so I appliquéd tiger paws on black fabric and put on a tiger stripe print on the sides and also used that for the binding to represent Colorado College.

I no longer have Education, nor Math and Computer Science as my departments, but this quilt holds fond memories for me.

I don't remember all of what Krystyna may have bought for her departments, but she ended up giving me some of the remnants: A native American pot print to represent Anthropology, a castle print to represent History, and a gorgeous African print to represent African Studies.

Yes, We Can!

Title: Yes, We Can!
Finished: June/July (?) 2009
Techniques: Appliqué, Machine writing, Free motion quilting
Size: 19 x 25"

Description: It's funny how things happen sometimes. Back in 2009, I answered a "Call for Artists" request from the public library as part of their annual "All Pikes Peak Reads" event in conjunction with the DreamCity: Vision 2020. The theme was "Creating the Future". So I whipped up this mini-quilt and submitted it, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Anyway, it was put on display along with all the other entries during the community summit held in July. After the event was over, I tried contacting the library to see about getting the mini-quilt back, but no one seemed to know anything about it. "Oh well." I thought, "Maybe someone out there is enjoying it." So I freely gave it to the universe, and didn't give it much more thought.

Fast forward to 2013. I got a call last week from Kaitlin Hoke, a librarian at East Library, saying she has this quilt with my name on it and would I like it back? Yes! Thank you, Kaitlin! Now, Kaitlin and I know each other from when her mother Debra worked at Tutt. So I have to wonder if I would have even gotten a call if Kaitlin didn't recognize my name. But I'm glad I got it back -- and now I can share it with you.

This mini-quilt is a reflection of my dream of what I'd like our future to be: being stewards of the planet, using renewable energies, having respect for life, and having the opportunities to pursue our dreams.

Originally, I thought I might do one big landscape, with an ocean at the bottom and outer space at the top and everything else in between. But none of the ways I was sketching it appealed to me. So instead I created individual panels separated with green sashing strips. This provided me with an opportunity to try out machine writing. It's difficult to make out, but there are words that I spelled out with free-motion stitching on the sashing strips:

• trees (an important source of oxygen)
• respect for life (symbolized by the columbine flower in memory of Columbine High School)
• peace & harmony (symbolized by human beings - and one alien creature - holding hands. Apparently people in the future wear a lot of polka dots.)
• solar energy (do you see the solar panels on the roof tops?)
• wind power (yes, those are funky windmills in the lower left)
• clear blue oceans (I worry about the destruction and contamination of the various reef systems)
• imagination (Yes, We Can do anything we set our minds to)

Enjoy!

Flowers I Can Grow

Title: Flowers I Can Grow
Finished: 7/31/11
Techniques: gingham, machine stitches, grass stitch, wobble stitch
Size: 11 x 14"

This mini-quilt was the first one I did in the 2011 series. It was done in the Karen Linduska style as was the Grandpa's Sunset Roses in the 2012 series.  I used two different gingham check fabrics: a colorful large check for the background and a smaller light green check for the insert, which was appliquéd. I wasn't sure if the two checks would work together, but I think they do. The light green check was also used for the binding and backing.

The flowers, stems and leaves were made with a variety of machine stitches, widened and/or lengthened to create different kinds of petals and leaves. A single circle stitch made nice centers of the flowers.

The insert was made to not be a perfect rectangle, and the purple flower "grew" beyond the insert, which was also intentional. A grass stitch makes a border, and the quilting was done in a simple wobble stitch.

Amish Tribute

Title: Amish Tribute
Finished 8/21/11
Techniques: Amish design, Rail Fence, Solid fabrics, Machine Stitches
Size: 15" x15"

Description:
This is #4 from my 2011 attempt at a mini-quilt per week. I had seen a program, I believe, on "Sewing with Nancy" where they were discussing typical Amish style and design. I decided to give it a try.

In my research, I learned that Amish quilts have evolved over the years. This mini-quilt represents somewhere in the early/middle of their evolution when Amish quilts employed simple geometric shapes only in solid colors, and usually on black background. I tend to prefer dark backgrounds myself because the colors that are used in the design tend to "pop," as is the case here.

I also learned that the Amish women, never wasteful, weren't too worried that their colors didn't match exactly. If they had two or more shades of green, that's what they had and that's what they used. So you will notice that in each of the four central colors, blue, green, purple, and pink, there are subtle color variations. The simple "rail fence" (or split rail fence) design uses only two rails - black and the color - positioned so that there's a stair step, or zigzag, design. I've seen rail fences with three or four or even five rails, but two seemed appropriate here.

I also learned that the inner border, red in my case, is usually of a different color than any of the other colors in the quilt. I couldn't find out why, so I may have to check out a real book on the subject and read up on it.

The corner squares mimic the four main colors used in the mini-quilt.

Where I deviated from the traditional is that I did this on the machine and not by hand. Also, I employed some machine stitches for a little flavor.

Oceans Blue

Title: Oceans Blue
Finished: 8/14/11
Techniques: Curved piecing, couching, ribbon, buttons, yarn, machine stitches, free motion stitches.
Size: 12 1/2" x 20"

I've started my spring cleaning process, and have come across other mini-quilts that I've done in the past. And since I haven't completed a mini-quilt in a while, I thought I would start to showcase some of my earlier works.

A few of you already know that my 2012 mini-quilt project was not my first attempt at creating a mini-quilt per week. Late in 2011, I had started such a project but before I could finish my 6th in the series, I became quite ill and had to abandon the project. I didn't have the Blog then either. This is #3 of that first series.

I started out by piecing curves, which came out quite well. Then for some reason I don't remember, I decided to cover up those seams with ribbon, yarn or stitches. Only a couple of the seams are truly visible.

The layers of the blue fabrics and the embellishments have significance too. The stars at the top to represent the sky, the flowered batik for things floating on the water, the free motion circles for bubbles, the eyelash yarn for plant life, the curves and ribbons for the ocean currents, and the buttons for stuff on the ocean floor.

Overall a peaceful, calming mini-quilt.

Exhibit at Ruth Holley branch

I am please to announce that, during March, I have another exhibit in the public library. This time it's at the Ruth Holley branch, located at 685 North Murray Blvd. just south of Galley. I have 15 mini-quilts on display in their big meeting room.

Here's a list of the ones on display this time:

#2 Bargello Brights
#5 Hatari!
#6 Extreme Sudoku
#8 Doodling with Thread
#11 Butterflies in the Garden
#14 Nebula
#15 Spring Has Sprung
#19 Translucence
#23 Origami
#24 Transit of Venus
#32 Double Helix
#33 Milky Way
#36 Prism of 100 Squares
#38 Prairie Point Landscape
#44 Stained Glass Iris

Starting on feathers

Just a short update. I've started piecing the feathers on the left side of the quilt. The consistency of the eyes pulls it all together. Since I've chosen the upper right corner as the light source, these feathers on the left side have darker green prints. As I move around to the other side, the greens will become lighter. I'm hoping that once they're all done, it will make a nice effect.

Starting on Feathers

Now that the body of the peacock is done, I needed to decide how I wanted to do the feathers. This has not been an easy decision. I did some mock-ups of some different styles to see what I liked.

I have decided on the coloring and fabric to use on the "eyes" of the feathers. I'm using a "peacock" blue, a deep purple, and an orange. The fabrics are mottled and they read as solid. These colors are very close to the actual colors in real peacock feathers. Also in real feathers, the eye is surrounded by a denser green, which I'm representing with striped lime green fabric. The remainder of the feathers are a variety of other green fabrics.

The tan fabric represents the stalks of the feathers, which are prominent in the original picture. The stalks break up the cacophony of greens and adds visual interest.

The first mock-up was the feather with the pointed "eyes" and although I liked it, I wasn't sure it would look right with the straight line construction juxtaposed with the curved lines of the peacock body.










 







The second mock-up had rounded eyes and less of the striped lime green. The rounded eyes look a bit more natural and I thought I liked it better.

I then got a little worried that all the different greens would look too busy and crazy. So I made a third mock-up using one color of green per feather. Each feather would have a different color of green because if all the feathers were made from the same green, it would be boring. Yet, I don't want the feathers to look like stripes, which I fear they might unless I chose colors that really blended well from one to the other.













So, I was really leaning toward rounded eyes with one color per feather. I had put all the mock-ups on the design wall and left the room to do some chores. When I returned, I looked at it again and totally changed my mind. I now prefer the pointed eyes and multi-greens. The pointed eyes show much more of the peacock blue color, and the stylized eyes do not detract from the body of the peacock. In fact when all is said and done, it may actually enhance it. We're going to find out!

Peacock body

***See the previous post for beginning of this new project.***

I actually finished this peacock body this past weekend, but because I posted last week's entry late, I waited a day before posting this today.

This is the peacock body for my new wall hanging. I drew out the design and used Ruth McDowell's freezer paper method for piecing. I bought the blue and purple fabric (the first fabric I've bought in a while!) and fussy cut the head and body pieces. The lime green fabric is something I had in my stash.

I made a few changes from the picture I took at the zoo. In looking at the enlarged picture, I felt the body needed to be bigger. When I reviewed pictures of peacocks on the web, it seemed that they normally have longer necks than the little fellow in my picture, so I went ahead and made him a little larger so he would stand out. Also, I took some creative license with the lime green portion. It's not usually as large as I made it, but I wanted the head to show off well. I figured if the head sat in the middle of feathers, it might get a little lost, but set against the lime green it does well.

One nice thing about Ruth McDowell's method is that you can press the seams any way you want. I chose to press them toward the body so it is slightly raised from the background. I like that effect. However, in order to keep them turned in the right direction, I (for now) basted them into place. Once the quilt is done, I'll remove the basting stitches. So don't worry - the peacock won't always look like he's sipping something through a straw.

Also, in the quilting phase, I'll connect the crest to the head using stitches.

One big mistake I made while sewing the head. When I clipped the curves, I slipped and cut too far into the beak. I couldn't fix it, so I had to redo the entire head. I'll have to be more careful!

New Project

No, this isn't a new quilt, but I hope it soon will be. This is a picture of a peacock I took at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo last summer. I was resting on a bench when this peacock came and put on a show for me! He strutted around for several minutes and I was even able to capture a short video of him.

I love the vibrant purple blues and lime greens, and I think this would make a wonderful quilt. If I can figure out how to construct it and if I finish it in time, I may try to submit it to the Denver National Quilt Show in May. Perhaps my practice with creating a mini-quilt in a week will help me here.

In the coming weeks, I'll be posting updates on my progress and explaining my process along the way.

My first step was to crop the picture to the size I wanted. It's shown above. The body of the peacock is at one of the focal points. (In a photography class, we learned to compose a picture by dividing it into thirds vertically and horizontally. The four resulting intersections are focal points, where the main subject should reside.)

My next step was to blow up the photo to the actual size of the quilt, which in my case is roughly 36x60". Microsoft Publisher allows one to create a poster and will print off an image onto as many 8-1/2x11" pages as needed. Here's my black and white version, now taped together on my wall. I've already started to mark it up a bit with cutting lines and notes for what I want to pay attention to.

I'll be starting with the peacock body for two reasons:
1) I think the head will be the most intricate and difficult part to piece because of some tiny pieces, and
2) all the feathers, and therefore the design, radiate out from the body.

I hope you will follow my progress. Wish me luck!

Rebecca

Mini-quilts on display

No new mini-quilt yet, but I wanted to let those of you who follow the blog that there's a display of 15 of the mini-quilts at the Ute Pass branch of the Pikes Peak Library District during the month of January. That's in Cascade, CO.

For this display, I chose mostly mini-quilts that were based on traditional quilt designs more or less, but I included a couple of my other favorites as well. Here's a list of what's on display at Ute Pass:

#2    Bargello Brights
#6    Extreme Soduko
#15  Spring Has Sprung
#16  Fish in the Attic 
#19  Translucence
#21  Dresden Plate
#23  Origami
#27  Pinwheel Fireworks
#29  Tumbling Blocks
#35  Purple Pinwheels
#37  Autumn Kaleidoscope
#38  Prairie Point Landscape
#40  Trapunto Sunflower
#44  Stained Glass Iris
#51  Poinsettia

Mini-Quilt Project 2012 in Review

Happy New Year

Happy 2013!

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the mini-quilt project of 2012 - making one mini-quilt per week using no new materials. It felt good to give myself a goal and see it through, and I had a wonderful time coming up with new ideas and seeing them come to fruition week to week. At times it was a challenge, but except for a couple of weeks during the big Waldo Canyon Fire, I managed to make my deadline.

My purpose was to get a chance to try out quilting techniques I’d never tried before, to see if I enjoyed doing them enough to later try them in a larger bed-sized quilt. In addition, I wanted to practice techniques I had tried before in order to improve upon my skills as a quilter. Overall, I’d have to say the project was a success.

On the downside, I wasn’t able to devote too much time to other sewing and quilting projects through the year. Sometimes I deliberately chose to do mini-quilts I knew wouldn’t take a lot of time in order to have time to make a purse or go on vacation, etc. Also, as I was getting close to the deadline, I was forced to cut some corners or not take  the care I normally would. Sometimes I made mistakes that I chose not to correct. But I learned from those mistakes too. 

Acknowledgements:

I’d like to acknowledge my friends, family, co-workers, and the CC Quilters group for all their encouragement and praise through the year. Many were a great source of inspiration for several of the designs.

What’s next?

Spring Has Sprung

I find that I like doing mini-quilts. I like the small projects that I can easily quilt on my machine. I will definitely do more in the future, although not one a week. I have ideas for wall-hangings and functional pieces still and I’ll post my progress on these too.  It’ll be nice to work on projects using what I learned in 2012.

Someone from my quilting group (I’m sorry I don’t remember who) suggested that I write a book about the project. I think I will pursue this idea.

Analysis:

Here are some interesting things (to me, anyway) that I learned from this project.

I utilized the LABELS feature of the blog to provide keywords. At the bottom of the page, a word cloud appears showing the frequency of those keyword. The bigger the word, the more times I used the technique. Interestingly, the top tier included “appliqué”, “free-motion quilting”, and “machine stitches”. I like appliqué OK, but admittedly I used it sometimes in place of piecing to save time.  I much prefer piecing. 

As for free-motion quilting, I’m glad I got a chance to practice this technique. I hadn’t been comfortable with free-motion before the project, but I am now. Of course, quilting small projects on a small machine is a lot easier than quilting big projects on a small machine. I may have to look into getting my larger quilts quilted professionally. (Or else buy a large machine, which isn’t doable right now.) 

doodling with Thread

The third label, Machine Stitches, doesn’t surprise me. I like using as many of the specialty stitches as I can. They’re there, so why not take advantage of them. I think using machine stitches definitely adds to the character of the quilts.

The second tier of labels included “3-D” and “paper-piecing”. I tried out many of what I’m calling 3-D techniques: origami, trapunto, tucks, cathedral window and added objects like ribbon, buttons, and zippers. And although I enjoyed doing them, I don’t think these are representative of my style of quilting. 

Paper-piecing, on the other hand, is very representative of my style. I like everything about it, and I knew this before ever starting on the mini-quilt project. I enjoy creating the design, making lines that will work for paper-piecing. It’s a very methodical, almost mathematical, design technique and that’s what appeals to me. Often creating the design takes a great deal of time, but seeing it all come together in fabric is so rewarding for me. “Spring Has Sprung”, “Purple Pinwheels”, “Milky Way”, “Star of Bethlehem” and “Poinsettia” all incorporated paper-piecing, among others.

My Style:

I’m not sure I learned a great deal about my own personal style of quilting during the mini-quilt project. Rather, the project affirmed what I thought before: 

• I prefer piecing to appliqué.  There’s something about sewing two pieces of fabric together that makes me very happy. 
• And I really enjoy paper-piecing for its precision in creating unique designs. 
• I also like using machine stitches, particularly as thread painting to further enhance designs. In many ways, I prefer machine stitching to free-motion quilting, but I concede that there are times free-motion is desirable. 
• I don’t have a dark side. My quilts are happy, or at least pleasant to look at (I hope). During the fire, I thought about doing a mini-quilt about it, but never could come up with a design to represent it. Likewise, I thought about a commemorative quilt for 9/11 but never found the inspiration.
• I do have a whimsical side. “Fish in the Attic”, “Snowmen Tucked In” and the golden fries as backing for “Golden Mean” speak to that.

Fish in the Attic

Favorites:

Stained Glass Iris

People have asked me which mini-quilt is my favorite. And although I have many that I really like, I’d have to say that “Stained Glass Iris” is my favorite. I marvel at how much it does look like a stained glass creation. I love the purple iris made from batiks, and the satin stitching for the lead lines, and the sky fabric which looks like glass. And the oval shape completes the picture.

Autumn Kaleidoscope

But I do have others which are at the top of my list of favorites: “Doodling with Thread”, “Butterflies in the Garden”, “Spring Has Sprung”, “Purple Pinwheels”, “Autumn Kaleidoscope”, “Milky Way”, “Extreme Soduko”, and “Poinsettia” are ones that make me smile.

Non-favorites:

Overall I like nearly all of the mini-quilts. There are only a few that I don’t really care for. I’m glad I tried the techniques, but I am fairly certain I won’t be doing things like crazy quilting or ribbon weaving again. Although I was disappointed in the way the tiling “Bountiful Basket” came out, I think the technique is worth exploring further.

Surprises:

Extreme Sudoku

I mentioned that “Extreme Sudoku” is a favorite of mine, and it is. What surprised me was how much this one resonated with others. I received more compliments on this mini-quilt than any other. This simple design and the fact that it comes from an actual, workable puzzle really speaks to people. I was honored that a friend at work, Patti,  made a larger quilt based on this design. She brought it in to work for me (and others) to see before she gave it as a Christmas gift to a family member.

Purple Pinwheels

After the end of the year, I went through the list of mini-quilts and categorized them into one of three areas: 

1. Traditional quilt designs, or those designs based on        

traditional quilt patterns.

Purple Pinwheels is based on the traditional pinwheel design, but enhanced by tessellating the design with six spokes instead of four.

Milky Way

2. Thematic designs, or those meant to commemorate an event, person, or memory.

Milky Way was based on a bed-sized quilt I made for my niece, Wesley.

Butterflies in the Garden

3. Art Quilts, those with no particular theme or design, but are artsy in some way. 

Butterflies in the Garden was an appliqué creation using many different prints.

Of course, some of the mini-quilts spanned more than one category (some might even be considered in all three) but I was surprised by how balanced the numbers were.

Traditional - 14

Thematic - 19

Art Quilts - 19

I don’t have an explanation, I just thought it was interesting and surprising.    

And so ends the year of mini-quilts. If anyone is interested in pursuing such a project, I encourage it. Set your goal, write it down, and find some way to make yourself accountable. My way was to start this blog. Knowing that others were encouraging me and awaiting my next post kept me going.

Poinsettia

Thanks all!

Rebecca

#52 Happy New Year

#52: Happy New Year
Finished: 12/30/12
Techniques: strip piecing, couching, appliqué, raw edge appliqué, ribbons, 3-D, free-motion quilting, satin stitching.
Size: 14 x 15 1/2"

Description: The last mini-quilt of the year! And since we're heading for 2013, I created a simple festive design to ring in the new year. This one was just for fun.

The party hat and party horn were strip pieced, cut out and appliquéd onto the background with a satin stitch. The numbers for 2013 were satin stitched on using tapered ends. The confetti was made by adhering fusible web to the fabrics, cutting them into random sizes shapes and ironing them onto the background. They added a nice touch. I then couched some silver bead strings around the party hat leaving a length fairly free for the chin strap part. More beads were couched on top of the hat and by the end of the party horn. For added whimsy, I curled some silver ribbon and attached pieces to the top of the hat and end of the party horn for a 3-D effect.

Quilting was done with a loopy free motion stitch meant to simulate the path of the confetti.

Here's wishing all my good friends and family a joyous new year!  Watch for my next post for a wrap up of this year's mini-quilt project and for what I plan to do next.

#51 Poinsettia

#51: Poinsettia
Finished: 12/22/12
Techniques: Paper-piecing, free-motion quilting, machine stitches
Size: 19x19"

Description: The inspiration for this mini-quilt was the poinsettia fabric used in the border. I created the central poinsettia design and paper-pieced it together. I could have used the same red print fabric for the entire poinsettia, but chose instead to include a second lighter red print to add a little spice to it. I like the effect. The yellow dots in the center are made from a circular machine stitch.

The flower was quilted with a straight stitch that I ran forward and backward along the leaves. Surrounding the poinsettia and in the border I used a free-motion loopy stitch.

I'm afraid I haven't taken good pictures lately. The last few mini-quilts look much better in person than in the pictures.

I apologize for the brevity of this posting, but there isn't really much else to say about this mini-quilt, and I'm busy getting ready for Christmas.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Merry Christmas!

#50: Snowmen Tucked In

#50 Snowmen Tucked In
Finished: 12/15/12
Techniques: Tucks, Scalloped Binding, Fussy Cutting, 3-D
Size: 11 x 16 1/2"

Description: I got this idea from a quilt hanging up in Nana's Quilt Cottage in Old Colorado City. They had a quilt with little tucks revealing a scene and I wanted to try my hand at that. I still had some of the snowman scene that one of my quilt buddies had given me. (Those fabrics were handed to me in a pile so I'm not sure which friend gave this particular fabric to me, but thanks so much!)

I fussy cut the scene into 2 3/4" strips including seam allowances. Because of the seam allowances I couldn't cut the strips side by side, but I had several repeats I could work with so that the scene would display as a whole. I wanted to use the snowy sky part for the tucks but didn't have enough of it, so I chose a dark blue print from my stash that blended well. It's difficult to see in the picture, but there are tucks on the upper part as well, except for the column containing the house which I wanted to keep whole.

Sewing was easy once the fabric was cut; I alternated the snowman scene with the tucks. I then folded and pressed at the seams and sewed up the middle of the strips creating the tucks. I strategically bar-tacked the tucks.

Then there was an unexpected problem. Because I chose to do wide tucks, the edges of the tucks did not lay flat with the edge of the mini-quilt. I could have solved that by trimming off the edges straight, which would have worked OK with the bottom of the piece, but would have cut off the top of the house. To avoid that, I found that I could cut scallops for the columns and be able to catch all the edges.  So when I cut the binding, I cut it on the bias and bound those scalloped edges. I did the top first, which  is not as pretty. By the time I got to the bottom scallops, I'd had a little practice so they look better. I still need some practice with binding scalloped edges, but at least I added another technique for this project which is soon coming to an end.

The backing was another fabric gift from one in my quilting group. Sweet little angels.

#49 Star of Bethlehem

#49: Star of Bethlehem

Finished: 12/9/12

Techniques: Paper-piecing, free-motion quilting

Size: 32 1/2" x 22"

Description: This is a practical piece that I wanted to do as a backdrop to my snow village that I put up every year around the holidays. I have an entertainment center that my Dad built for me. Originally, I put a TV in the space, but I don't use it for that since moving to my new house. The space has a large cut-out section in back that I wanted to cover up. It's nice for cords and wires, but not very aesthetic otherwise. 

So I designed a mountain scene and put a bright shining star in the upper corner. The foreground mountain was pieced with various prints. It looks a little funky but it's ok. I designed the scene in columns for easier piecing, but I think in the future I won't do that because it doesn't look very natural to me.

It does make a nice backdrop I think, but after piecing and quilting, it needed squaring up. I originally figured the size I needed for the space, but after squaring, it came out a little narrow. (You can see the curtain rod sticking out of either end, which is unfortunate.

Quilting was done entirely free-motion, so I got some practice. Each element (snow, mountains, star, sky, rocks) was quilted with a different pattern.

The snow covered peaks are better seen in the lower picture; the camera washed out the white in the upper one.

I had fun doing this. I think I will design other backdrops for the space in the entertainment center for other holidays and seasons.

#48 Advent Calendar

#48: Advent Calendar
Finished: 11/30/12
Techniques: Pockets, Fussy Cutting, Machine Stitches
Size: 23 x27"

Description:  A couple of months ago, my friends in the CC Quilters group surprised and delighted me with gifts of several Christmas fabrics from their stashes. Adding those to my own Christmas fabrics, it didn't take me too long to come up with the idea of creating an Advent Calendar with pockets for goodies. I just had to wait for the beginning of December.

I researched Advent Calendars and found that the numbers vary: 24, 25, 26, 31 or 32, depending on what you are counting down to. The most common number is 24, so that's what I went with. I sketched out several ways to lay out 24 squares and I liked this pattern the best. I fussy-cut the 22 different pocket fabrics in rectangles and folded them over for smooth tops of the pockets. (There were 22 pocket fabrics instead of 24 because I was able to fussy-cut one fabric three different ways. Can you tell which one?) The next step was to stitch on the numbers, which I did with a satin stitch with tapered ends. I then sewed borders around each pocket and sewed them together in rows, with a white print to carry out to the edges. Binding was done with the cute candy cane fabric one of the ladies provided. Quilting was done in white thread with  a fancy machine stitch.

This was an easy one to sew, and I love it because it is so festive and because my friends thought to do something so nice for me. Thanks, ladies! And the best part is, I still have fabric leftover.

#47 Geometrics

#47: Geometrics
Finished: 11/25/12
Techniques: Partial Seams, Circular Quilting
Size: 28 x21"

Description: My stash of fabrics is sorted by types: florals, nature, solids, batiks and mottled, novelty, and geometrics, to name a few. What I call 'geometrics' are those fabrics containing stripes, plaids, ginghams, polka dots, diamonds and anything else with repeated geometric patterns.

At times during this year when I've been stuck for an idea, I've often just started looking at my stash hoping for some inspiration from the fabrics themselves. That's what I did in this case. My eye landed on my geometrics and I knew I wanted to do something with them. I plotted out a design of interwoven strips and added a few squares of others to round things out. Although it may look like some of the fabrics weave in and out, this mini-quilt was entirely pieced. To avoid breaking up the strips and to avoid sewing Y-seams, most of the piecing was done with partial seams. Considering the intricacy of all the design, I feared I might become confused as to what seam to sew next. And when I tried to plan it out in advance, it was confusing. But when I actually started sewing, I didn't get confused at all. It went very smoothly, much to my own amazement. The only difficult parts were the couple of places where there were very small pieces to piece.

Although there are some fabrics with tiny dots, there aren't any fabrics I would consider to be polka dots. None of my polka dot fabrics fit in with the color scheme. So when it came time to quilt, I decided to quilt with circles. I used different thread colors for each circle, but in hindsight it might have been better to have used only one color, green. Oh well. I drew out externally tangent circles with a pen that disappears when ironed. I used plates, glasses, lids, and other round kitchen objects to draw the circles. Then I quilted using a triple straight stitch. The circles drawn from plates left too much area un-quilted, so I added internally tangent circles to fill in. I think the quilting looks like bubbles.

#46 Bountiful Basket

#46: Bountiful Basket
Finished: 11/18/12
Technique: Tiled Piecing, Mosaic, Free-motion quilting
Size: 13" x 18 1/2"

Description: This mini-quilt combines the theme of Thanksgiving and trying to make the design look like a tiled mosaic. I am thankful for many things this year, but right now I am thankful that this mini-quilt is finished! This has proven to be the most time-consuming project to date, and one of the most difficult. I vastly underestimated the time it would take to finish this project, and in an effort to get it done in time, the work is sloppy at best and not up to my usual standards. Having said that, however, I am still very much intrigued with this technique and think it holds great potential for spectacular designs. I'll need to experiment with how to deal with the myriad of problems I encountered during the process.

My original thought was to portray a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, a typical Thanksgiving composition.  I picked out the fabrics to represent the corn, cabbage, apples, cucumber, squash, grapes, basket, sky, and grout. That was the fun and easy part. I then sketched a basic design and overlaid a grid, hoping to follow it for placement of individual pieces.

The pieces of fabric had to be small by necessity. I cut the "tile" pieces 1" square (for a finished 1/2") and I cut the "grout" lines 5/8" ( for roughly 1/8" finished width). I didn't worry too much about the evenness of the sewing, figuring the slight variances in widths would make it appear more like an actual mosaic. I sewed the pieces in columns then used long strips of the grout fabric to connect the columns.

One of the first problems I encountered was that my sketch was too small. The fruits and vegetables were just colored blobs; they needed to be bigger in order for the observer to recognized them as fruits and vegetables. At this point I should have re-done the sketch, but I thought I could get by without doing so. That was a mistake.

Another problem was that my round fruits were coming out square. I thought about replacing certain pieces with half-square triangles to round off the corners, but that would have involved a great deal more time. I decided to "fix" it in the end with circular free-motion quilting.

Because the pieces are small, there is quite a lot of bulk in the seam. As I was sewing the columns together, the mini-quilt kept rolling in on itself, making it difficult to work with. This also led to an "accordion" effect, making the piece very stretchy (and it had a great deal of rebound). This later gave me grief when I was quilting. You will notice that parts of the sky are far too wavy.

I soon realized I wasn't going to be able to finish the cornucopia design; it was going to take far too long. So I lopped off the tail and made it into a basket lying on its side.

There are parts of this design that I particularly like. The yellow squash, the grapes, and the one vertical ear of corn turned out nicely. (The other ear of corn is rather wonky.) I also like the sky, which was cut from a large scale blue gingham.

As frustrating as this project was, I want to try this technique again. I've learned quite a lot, and have a lot of ideas of what to change for the next time.