A Quilt, But Not Mine

I thought it was time to share a quilt my friend Ann, proprietor of ThreadBear, our local quilt store, has made. She didn't use this particular design, which I may do on my own version of this quilt, but instead decided on a rows and furrows layout. Most of the fabric is called Story by Carrie Bloomston from Windham fabrics, along with Ann's assorted scraps.

It's from a book called Modern Designs for Classic Quilts, by Kelly Biscopink and Andrea Johnson. Ann's Rows and Furrows layout is the one depicted on the cover, and it looks gorgeous!

I am a fan of traditional designs made modern and this book has some great ideas. One design in the book is a flying geese quilt with lots of negative space. I think that's a perfect idea for this half square triangle panel I've been looking at for over a year.

I can see this panel surrounded by black, with a few more Amish-looking half square triangles here and there in the negative space. Okay. I've talked myself into something.

Bye!

Quilty Pleasures: Finally, A Finished HST Overload Quilt

Last year I was preoccupied by Amish quilts and quilts with triangles, in particular. A triangle quilt (or two) was on my agenda and I couldn't let that idea go.

An Accuquilt Go cutter languished in its bag under the cutting table and I'd been wondering what the first project would be. I bought the 3.5 inch die and stamped out some solid triangles for something Amish-looking, but when I saw the HST Overload quilt by Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts, I knew this was the one. 

Ann, owner of ThreadBear, our local quilt shop, helped me choose the brightest fabrics in the store, focusing on Kaffe Fassett collective fabrics, small checks and florals to calm things down just a bit along with Moda Grunge fabrics and other blenders that read like solids. We went just a little crazy: there are about 30 different fabrics in there, plus or minus.

I took the triangles and my new little 1954 Featherweight to Cali this past July when we visited Trudy and Pat and by the time we went home, I had sewn those triangles together and even started on  a load of half square triangles ready to go. That was the easy part.

Laying it out was fun, and I enjoyed sewing the triangles into patches into squares.

What I hadn't anticipated were all the seams to match when I sewed the long diagonals of on-point blocks together. I measured my progress in Hulu television shows: pinning and sewing took one Elementary (42 minutes) on the longest seams. Layout was somewhat random, kind of like I am.

So here's the rest. The photo below shows HST Overload lying on the snow. You can see that the corners are not square, which is on purpose, really.  There are instructions in the pattern if one wants to square it off, but I wanted the angled corners.

Here's another look at the corners. The binding fabric is a swirly multi-colored stripe I bought at a store in Arizona.

The zigzag print backing was on sale at ThreadBear, so I scored!

Quilting was a loopy paisley done by long arm quilter Beth Glass, who runs On the Mountain quilting retreats.

So I haven't finished with half square triangles just yet. Those Amish bright solids with black are turning into something quite interesting. More about that later!

The Sewing Room is Kind of Clean

Thanks to Trudy, my beloved mom-in-law, I cleaned up the sewing room. She didn't make me do it, but the sewing room is the guest room, too, and it was quite a disaster. There are no photos this time of the detritus and decay, but trust me, it was insane in there.

So I folded and stashed fabric in their color coded bins upstairs in the closet. Extra bins of fabric ended up in our upstairs bedroom and should have crime scene tape surrounding the mess up there, since I've heard several times so far that it's hazardous walking in the dark. A purging is in order. Yeparoo.

But the sewing room is useable. No, it isn't pristine like the quilters' studios I see in magazines, but it works and I am determined to deal with those little pockets of insanity still lurking in the corners.

Here's my sewing area, still with a bit of debris, but I can use it.

I recently purchased a couple hanging lamps because I sorely needed lighting and this guy does the trick nicely. I've had the peg board since we moved in and love it. I still need an inspiration board, though, because the yellow magnetic chick board on the wall just isn't large enough.

The cutting area is a terrible catch-all and I am determined to cut it out! Cut what out, you ask? I drop stuff on that table and then I can't use it for its original purpose of cutting.

Another new lamp, both from Lamps Plus, hangs over the cutting area. Before I bought this lighting I carried a floor lamp from place to place to get more light on the subject. The cabinet is repainted, but I haven't found the right hardware, yet.

The fabric on the table's end needs to be cleaned up because it is obscuring my neato cutting carryall, which I purchased many years ago at Road to California. Here it is:

It holds cutting tools, replacement blades and a marking pencil or two.

The ironing board is in a tight spot right by the door and used to be set up in the hallway. I noticed, though, that the plaster on the hallway wall is getting nicked by my erratic pressing habits and I don't want to destroy any more of it right now.

That framed quilt, called Stuffed Olive, is circa 1966 and created by my aunt Kay using reverse applique. The painting near the doorway is by my friend in Truth or Consequences, Sue Sorenson. It's hard to see, but it's tie-died cattle crossing the road. Do you like my new Oliso iron? I'm still getting used to it.

The futon which used to be in this room is gone and we drove up to Colorado Springs to pick up this sleeper sofa. I love doing handwork or reading, or watching shows, all snug in my sewing room. Did I say we have heating in this house? With a thermostat? That's something new for me.

Usually the wicker table is in front of the sofa, so I can set up the computer or ipad there. My design wall behind the sofa is not so convenient, but I plan to buy some of those slider saucer dealies to place under the legs. Then the sofa can move easily and the wall will be more accessible.

That piece of patchwork is part of a modern Amish quilt I've been thinking about. I'm about there, thinking-wise, but I have some Christmas sewing to do before I can do anything.

Well, hope you enjoyed the clean-ish sewing room tour. I will endeavor to keep it in useable shape.

Quilty Pleasures: HST Overload Quilt

Man, oh, man! It's been a long time since I've written a quilt post, but I'm seriously stoked about the quilt I'm making right now.

Here's HST Overload on my back-of-a-tablecloth design wall. I've cropped out the blue painters' tape attaching it to the drywall, so it looks much tidier than in real life.

 I've had the blocks completed for about three weeks now, and they sat patiently while I dithered about where to lay it all out. At first I was going to do what I've done in the past, which is lay a tablecloth, flannel side up, on our bed which is upstairs. It's a good workout going up and down the stairs, but I decided not this time. I need a design wall in the sewing room, thus the taped up tablecloth.

In the next couple weeks I hope to have a real design wall, using this neato tutorial from The Quilting Edge blog. Instead of batting, though, I'll use a gray flannel sheet because Kaffe Fassett likes gray instead of white for his design wall. Less glaring, is one of his reasons. If it's good enough for Kaffe, well, you know the rest.

When the quilt is together, I'll update you all.

Quilty Pleasures: What the Heck Am I Doing?

Today I am off to ThreadBear in Las Vegas, NM, to quilt the string quilt, but in the meantime, in a hyper moment, I took out the Go cutter and made some half square triangles. I've been collecting solids with the idea of a series of  a couple of Amish-style quilts in the back of my mind.

Look at the lint on these blackies.

So the triangles morphed into these:

Which made their way into one of these:

I've been looking through a book called Amish Abstractions, by Faith and Stephen Brown, and have an idea.

Ms. Pearl is not impressed.