Bloggers' Quilt Festival

I have never done this before, but I suppose there needs to be a first time for entering this quilt festival. The biggest problem I had is choosing which quilt to show. My first thought was that I would choose Megan's & Madison's Woven Double Wedding Ring because it is my most recent finish - but it was also my most recent blog post, so that seemed a tad redundant! So, instead, I decided to present my Nine Patch Lattice which was adapted from this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman at Oh! Fransson! I say adapted because I was lazy and wanted to use jelly roll strips instead of cutting 3 1/2" strips for the blocks. And I wanted to make a larger quilt. So math was the order of the day.

First, sewed the strips together.

Then I sliced them like this:

Then I made some Nine Patch Blocks.

Next, I laid out a top, alternating with some of my beloved Fairy Frost fabric!

Here is the completed top on the railing protecting my basement stairs - one of my favorite quilt hanging spots.

And here it is in its natural habitat, which is our oldest daughter's room/guest room.

Megan's & Madison's Woven Double Wedding Ring

The neverending hand quilting project ended and was delivered about a month ago. Then it was full speed ahead on the paper pieced quilt for my niece and her fiance. (Just for the record, I do not recommend that your first paper pieced project include 256 paper pieced sections, most having seven different areas to cover.)

The first 32 sections looked something like this (with variations in color placement):

The remaining 224 sections looked like this (with variations in color placement):

This quilt turned out far scrappier than I had intended because of a math error. The original pattern (Woven Double Wedding Ring by Paper Panache) was 40" x 40" and I wanted to make an 80" x 80" quilt so it would at least cover the top of their queen sized bed. My big math error was forgetting that in doubling the size of the length and width was quadrupling the area. So, instead of doubling the fabric amounts, I should have quadrupled them. So I had to make a few trips back to the quilt store to get more fabric. It is dangerous to walk into the batik section!

Here is how the quilt looked over my railing at home:

And here is the lovely bride examining it closely (yes, we are in a warehouse for a production company where my nephew-to-be works):

 And here is the full quilt being supported by the bride and groom quilt rack!

Yes, It Has Been Awhile

Yes, blogging was interrupted by the whole quilt sweatshop thing I had going on here for a while. Yep, 8-10 hours a day paper piecing, stopping only to eat. But I did finish the top, got it to the longarmer, and got it back in plenty of time to bind it and wrap it up for this coming Friday's wedding. I'll post a picture once the gift has been given. Later this week, I hope.

But I can do a little bit of ruminating on a few aspects of the experience. First, the paper piecing. I don't ever plan to paper piece a quilt this big again. 256 sections to piece was a little bit of overkill for me. And I'm not sure what I am going to do with all the scraps from this quilt. Maybe more paper piecing.

Another problem was my math error. The original pattern was for a quilt measuring 40" X 40". I doubled that (and was going to add borders but it looked so perfect without!) and, instead of figuring on quadrupling the fabric amounts, I doubled them. Yep, forgot I was dealing with area. This meant several fabric store trips and building up my batik stash a bit. (Some of the fabrics I brought home didn't really work so into the batik stash they went!) But I like the scrappiness of it for a wedding quilt.

My daughter asked me yesterday what is next since I finished my other daughter's quilt and now my niece's wedding quilt. I think she thought I didn't have any plans. Ha! First there is the finishing organizing the former family room into a studio. Then there is the other quilt for the guest room to finish. Then there is the American Beauty BOM to finish. And the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM 2011. And soon I will be getting blocks for the 2012 FQS Designer Mystery BOM. And I plan to hand quilt the 2009 FQS Designer Mystery BOM.

And let's not forget assembling the top for the church quilt for this year.

I think I have plenty to do! I'll bet you do too!

Quilt on!

Book Rant & Since I'm Talking Books Anyway

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to rant about authors who "franchise" (my choice of words - not a technical term as far as I know) their name to sell more books. You have been warned.

This post was inspired by Tanesha's most recent Crafty Garden Mom podcast where she talked about some books and mentioned James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series. This hit a sore spot with me because I am becoming increasingly frustrated with authors who write books "with ..." another author to sell more books. I first started seeing this with Tom Clancy and the Net Force and other series in the mid to late 90s. Then Robert Ludlum died, and someone else started using his name to write more Bourne books. (I don't blame Ludlum for this, obviously. And I really think they should just let Jason Bourne be! He has been through more than enough. And don't let me get started on the movies that killed off his wife in the second one!) And, of course, James Patterson does this all the time. I noticed it when I read the third Women's Murder Club book, and it didn't ring quite right with me. That's when I quit reading the Women's Murder Club books. (Full disclosure: I still read the Alex Cross books by Patterson because, with one exception, they really are by James Patterson - or at least they claim to be.)

I understand that there is sort of a precedent historically for many writers writing under one name. Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene (The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries respectively) never existed as a real person, as far as I know. Those books were ghost written for those names. And for some reason I have a less negative reaction to that than I do to an established writer who sells or lends his name in order to sell more books per year! And as to the authors who write "with" the established authors - create your own characters, for Pete's sake!

I could also rant about the whole series idea in the first place, except that I understand the feeling of finishing a book and wanting to know what else happened to the characters. It used to bother me that best selling authors kept writing over and over about the same characters, but I guess I have gotten used to it. Which brings me to...

Tanesha also mentioned the Camel Club series by David Baldacci, a favorite series of mine. The only thing I want to mention about that is that when the first one was written, before it was a series, as I read that book I pictured Clint Eastwood in the role of Oliver Stone. As a matter of fact, I wondered at the time if it was written that way to entice Clint to play that role in the movie, if such were ever made. Now that I've mentioned that, if you read the series you will only be able to picture Clint as Oliver when/if you read the books.

Okay, I mentioned nothing here about quilting, but that's okay because I am about to go downstairs and complete the paper piecing on my niece's quilt! Yay! I am so sick of paper piecing. Then I just have to complete the top, get it to the longarmer, and bind it. And...

Quilt on!

Too Much Quilting Going On

Did I get you with that title? Is that ever possible? Whatever could I mean by that?

Well, I'll tell you! I have been spending 3-6 hours a day working on paper piecing my niece's wedding quilt. (Yes, I procrastinated!) While I quilt, I listen to all my favorite quilty podcasts. When I spend this much time quilting, I run out of quilty podcasts to listen to, so I have been listening to podcasts about how to podcast. (Don't ask why; it was the first thing to come to my mind!) And do you know what happens when you listen to podcasts about podcasting? You start to wonder if you too should have a podcast. I don't think that is going to happen because I would need a good topic and.... Besides, my entire family will tell you that I am the one who does not like microphones!

So I have spent this morning downloading podcasts to try out. I am even downloading some Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski. He has so much energy, he makes me tired sometimes when I try to listen to him. But I will give it another try, because I know he has great guests. But all that energy...

I have fewer than 100 paper pieces to do! Yeah, that is not even close, but it more than half complete. And I've gotten the paper backing off of almost all of those! That's some progress, but will it be enough? Will I get finished by the end of next week? Will the longarmer be able to get it back to me in time? Stay tuned and

Quilt on!

Still Paper Piecing

Janni's Woven Star has been safely delivered and now resides on her bed! She sent me a picture this weekend:

I have to admit it is starting to grow on me! From this distance, even I don't think it looks so bad. Maybe I will keep making quilts. In all my spare time because....

I only have two more days of work. Ever, as far as I know.

This may affect this blog adversely because I usually have done most of my hand piecing (and some of my blogging if I am being honest here) at work. So soon we will find out whether I do much (any) hand piecing at home. Actually, maybe I will because the sunroom is so enticing, and my sewing machine is in the basement. (Note: This sunroom picture was taken several weeks ago and there is now much more green outside.)

 

Right now, however, all I'm working on is the paper piecing project (tongue twister alert!) which is owning me. I am working 3-6 hours a day on it, and I still don't think I will get it done in time. Sigh. 

So, as you can see, I really didn't have anything interesting to say, but I just felt like I should blog today. Sorry! 

Quilt on!

Paper Piecing

I am starting to get the hang of paper piecing and feeling a bit less negative about it, I think. I started out hating it. I'm still not sure how much of it I will do, aside from things like Mariner's Compass and other very complicated quilts. And I'm pretty sure (but never say never, of course) that I won't do an entire queen-sized quilt in paper piecing again.

Part of this is my own fault. I waited until too close to the date I need it finished to start this quilt. I am afraid that I am going to have to give up on getting it done by the wedding (but I'm still trying). And I made a lot of mistakes to start with and unsewing those tiny stitches was a big pain. But I am less than half done with the block sections - way less - and I still have three days of work next week.

Here are a couple of pictures of what I have done so far:

I find myself having to make a choice between using less fabric or moving faster. I guess for now I have to choose moving faster, but I am saving a lot of scraps from this quilt. Sigh. And I probably need to buy more fabric soon unless I want to make this a very scrappy quilt - which I am leaning toward.