Sometimes It Works Out Better

Well, the NCW 2015 Quilt Show was this weekend. I took my quilts down to Wenatchee on Monday for drop-off {it's an hour drive}. Practically shaking when I handed them over, I managed to leave them instead of gathering them all up and making a mad dash for the door. It felt a little like dropping a child off for the first day of Kindergarten.

X's and O's

I took all my pics with the flash off which makes the lighting seem not as good as it actually was. My X's and O's quilt had a really lovely glow about it {which I always knew it had} and made me feel very proud. Spring Forward looked soft and approachable {another proud moment}. I so loved being able to see them both hanging tall and proud--happiness in good lighting. It's always such a thrill to see our quilts hanging up for once instead of being wadded up in a ball at the end of the couch.*wink

Spring Forward

Forgive me for not remembering to get the full names of all who made the following quilts. Photo taking is not something that comes naturally to me and I often forget why I even have the thing dangling off my wrist. The quilt below was a wonderful example of wool up-cycling. I felt positively inspired to start combing my local 2nd hand stores for possible quilty uses.

A beautiful up-cycled quilt

The vintage/antique looking quilts caught my eye as usual. I'm beginning to think a hexy quilt might very well be in my far off, distant future...

Lovely hexies

The Dresden quilt below was quite possibly the most inspiring quilt in the whole show to me! The coloring is very bad in this picture, but if you could just imagine the various prints in this quilt looking spunky? Paired with the crhome yellow, lets just say that I was completely enamored of this quilt.

A gorgeous Dresden quilt

I had to smile at the quilt below. It gave off a very fun vintage vibes that I well appreciate.

A bit of a vintage vibe

I really enjoyed looking at this applique quilt although I'm quite positive yours truly would never be able to make something turn out quite this polished looking. And another great border idea!

Interesting applique border

Had to smile at this little quilt in one of the vender booths. Shades of my Sunburst quilt! There was so many good quilts that I simply forgot about taking a picture of.

Reminds me of my Sunburst quilt....

I did remember to go back and take a picture of these great mini quilts? So gorgeous. I adore the stitching details.

Fabulous detail...

 Incredible work ladies!

And stitching....

And this is such a fun, folksy flower quilt--I couldn't resist. I'm often tempted to make another big {one} flower quilt after seeing something like this. And there very far back in the picture on the right corner?

Fun folksy flower and waaay back in the corner?

Yep, it's my fire quilt. And the entire quilt was on display. In very good lighting {tho the picture doesn't do it justice}. My heart was about to beat out of my chest.

My fire quilt

And I just about started crying, blinking away tears as fast as I could--trying to control my emotions and not act like a weirdo.

Is the picture a bit fuzzy?

 'Cuz they gave me Best of Show. I know. Pretty insane huh?

'Cuz that must be you.  I can see it all perfectly....

My dad said it's validation. I just think it's amazing. {Still very unreal feeling}. And so naturally, I had to act like a stalker and go back and stare at it, over and over, for I won't tell you how many times. And I took like five? pictures of the ribbon because surely I had to be hallucinating......

Spring Forward!--2014 Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival

Spring Forward is my first entry in the 2014 Spring Bloggers Quilt Festival. I started this quilt a couple years ago as part of a 9-patch series I was working on.

Spring Forward

As I continued working through my series quilts, I had to go back to this one (the first one) and add in some extra borders and of course, character. It ended up being kind of a tongue-in-cheek laugh at my awkwardness at dealing with Daylight Savings, thus the clumsy looking tulip and appliqued words.

The 9-patch blocks centerpiece

All the applique was done in the freehand style, although I did draw the letters on paper first before a quick re-draw on the fabric. As usual, I used my favorite method of needleturn applique. I've tried several different applications, but keep coming back to needleturn as it just seems to have less overall prep time involved and I'm all for getting right to work when I'm in the mood to be doing some hand work.

A bigger view of Spring Forward

This quilt was entirely hand quilted using a combination of regular quilting thread, size #8 Perle Cotton and also #5 Perle Cotton. If you've been following along with my posts, you'll know that the #5 thread was quite a challenge for me. Now that this quilt is done, I can confidently say that I will be using the larger #5 thread on future quilts, but very selectively. It's definitely not for every quilt! But oh... the texture..... It really is incomparable!

Loving the texture

Spring Forward came out of the dryer at approx. 68" x 77", a great lap sized quilt. For those of you who expressed concern over the Perle Cotton shrinking unattractively, no worries! I only 'half'' dried my quilt in the dryer as I do with all my quilts, then I laid it flat on the floor to finish drying. I am so in love with that just (freshly) washed and dried look that I can't resist petting my quilts for a little bit right after.

My big awkward tulip

I thought the binding would be a lovely blue color, but the correct fabric never materialized. You know how it is when you have something particular in mind and then nothing works out properly. I found wide strips of this light pink toile languishing in the fabric totes (leftovers from a quilt backing) and impulsively gave it an audition. Hmm...  Love how it lightens the entire quilt in a very subtle but positive fashion.

And the cheerful birdie...

Still so amazing that these quilts on my blog are actually made by ME!! Woot woot! After years of trying to learn how to do my own thing, I can finally see the pieces starting to fit together in a way that makes sense and more importantly, seems to have a way of building and/or flowing from quilt to quilt.

Very fun to have a couple quilts in this festival and also get an opportunity to check out the many wonderful entries! There's a lot of enviable talent out there people! And it's such a great way to find new blogger friends and find inspiration too. A big thanks to Amy for all her hard work in putting this together!

Note to Self: It's Easier to Pin Quilts When the Children Aren't Home

Yesterday was the day I decided to sandwich and pin my Broken Dishes Part Deux quilt. It's a very lovely, darkish but still quite vibrant quilt. I intend to machine quilt through the sashing and then hand quilt each block, which totally distracted me from my normal routine of taking a picture of the quilt before any pins are added.

Broken Dishes Part Deux

I rarely machine quilt so it takes me awhile to determine the most efficient pinning for that particular application. Apparently I'm supposed to use a bazillion pins, which always seems incredibly unnecessary until I'm right in the middle of machine quilting the quilt. Then I tend to have tons of remorse and an overwhelming urge to bang my head against the wall. Because I NEVER learn. It's a vicious cycle. Probably why I love my hand quilting hoop to pieces. We completely understand each other and never have relationship issues.

It also didn't help that yesterday was a half day and my children were wandering back and forth through the living room. As you can see from the tennis racket inserted into the picture below, they were NOT helping me out at all. I usually take tons of pictures from a couple different angles which ensures that I'll get at least one or two decent pictures to post. Yesterday I gave up at five pictures. Yep, and there isn't a single picture where my quilt isn't washed out from the light shining in through the front door....

Broken Dishes Part Deux with the help
of my sons tennis racket....

Once I find a fabric that I like, then the binding can be put on my Spring Forward quilt and it will be finished. Oh I just love that word! And I know it's a quick change-up, one quilt out of the hoop and another one ready to put in (almost), but that's how I roll.

Spring Forward waiting for binding

These crazy spring day-- coming up on the end of the school year? I need my time with the hoop. Our schedule couldn't possibly get more hectic than it is right now and although I know it's just the normal having-a-houseful-of-teenagers routine, it leaves me a little bit breathless at times. Whew! These 'almost' adults are a lot of work!

Spring Forward Quite the Learning Experience

I am finally starting to stitch the outside borders of Spring Forward. The quilt is basically a lap size, so really, if everything had went well, I could have already had it finished up by this point in May. Not that I have a deadline!

Spring Forward

Ah.. life. Why does it always get in the way?*wink  One of the things that has continually hi-jacked my quilting time in the last month or so is my daughters senior project. Now I'm happy to report that her cookbook has been completed and submitted for publishing! Yay! We're crossing our fingers it arrives in time for her senior presentation and then if she's pleased with it, there will be opportunity for family members to buy their own personal copy. Uh huh. This mama is getting one no matter what!

Making sure there's slack in the hoop

But maybe I can concentrate on my quilt a little better now? lol Over the years I've noticed that it helps to have a little slack in the hoop when I'm hand quilting. With this particular hoop, I can get my quilt top situated exactly how I like, no wrinkles etc and then I simply roll each of the top plastic grips to the inside--just enough to give me the perfect amount of slack. Since I'm switching back and forth between regular hand quilting thread and Perle Cotton, it's a simple matter to roll the top plastic grips to the outside when I want to tighten the quilt.

When working with Perle Cotton thread, I go ahead and loosen the quilt (in the hoop) up even more than usual. Fat thread seem to need even less resistance than normal, especially the larger #5 thread I'm experimenting with right now, and it will glide through the fabric so... much easier. I'm starting to see why many people quilt without a hoop when they're using this kind of thread. Personally, I still prefer using the hoop because I feel that I have more control over what my stitches are looking like on the backside of my quilt too (something I've always struggled with).

Stitching on the border now

One other thing I've noticed about using the #5 Perle Cotton thread. I had to go out and buy a little rubber gripper thing to help pull my needle through the tough spots. Thankfully Walmart carries them so I didn't have to spend an entire day tracking them down! Now, I probably could have used one of these a time or two in years past, but with this quilt? I'm using it all. the. time. It's that fat #5 thread. I just know it.

Looking at more stitching

The length of the Perle Cotton stitches could have (should have) been even longer than they are in this particular quilt. The longer stitches give such a fun vibe! That's why they call it Big Stitch! Why, oh why didn't I do that? Umm.. would you believe that I forget? Yep. I get in a rhythm born of years of hand quilting, visiting away with my family or just meditating. Next thing I know, I have a hoop full of smallish stitches (much smaller than I want for this Perle Cotton look) and I'm not gonna take them out. No way. No how. It'll just happen again and again and if I keep taking my stitches out, pretty soon I'll have hand quilted the entire quilt twice. Ughhh. Seriously? Even I'm not that crazy. This quilt is just gonna have to be happy with a mishmash of different stitching lengths!

And I can't help but appreciate the irony of the situation. Normally, I get in a rhythm and end up with a hoop full of 'too large' stitches. With Perle Cotton, that will NEVER be the problem!

Just a Little Stitching

Such a slacker this weekend, except for the fact that we went to a family wedding and thoroughly enjoyed the Easter holiday as well! When it comes to quilting however, all I managed was a very, little bit of stitching. 

Spring Forward

I finished up the brown border and then moved into the flying geese border, but really, we're talking minimal effort here. I wish the pictures would show how wonderful the pink stitching is actually looking on that brown border but the dark color just sucks all the light away from the stitching in the pictures. While I'm working on the quilt, the big pink stitches catch the light all the time and just make me smile! So glad I came up with that simple flower design too--very sweet.

Spring Forward stitching

Maybe you can see the design better in the pencil sketching format? Always fun to play with the pictures in Picasa even if I don't know what I'm doing. 

My hoop is getting more and more pathetic looking, isn't it? It was one of the best gifts I have ever been given, so I've been reluctant to give it up for a newer model. It's starting to pop off the quilt sandwich occasionally if I don't set it just right too, which means it's almost getting to be more trouble than it's worth. I've thought about boxing it up (along with a finished quilt) and sending it back to the friend who gave it to me so many years ago. lol I wonder what she would think about the fact that I took her little hint to keep hand quilting and turned it into an obsession of sorts.....

Making Time For Spring Forward

Next up in the hoop is 'Spring Forward', the #1 quilt in my 9-patch series. I wanted a change from the blue and reds I've been working with and this quilt seemed like the obvious choice. Well..., why wouldn't it be? Springtime where art thou? lol

Spring Forward

Actually we're seeing wonderful signs of spring around here! Those hardy tulips out by the drive are looking like they're going to bloom again this year which always makes happy. Gotta love that cheery red that comes up every year regardless of their neglect and abuse (really bad place to have planted tulips when you have rowdy kids like I do). And honestly, they look waaay better than the tulip, or whatever kind of flower it is, will ever look in this particular quilt.

The awkward flower

I deliberately made this flower look awkward and clumsy because that's exactly how I feel every year at Daylight Savings time. They (whomever THEY are) arbitrarily jerk an hour out of my Sunday and expect me to carry on like nothing ever happened. Ha. It usually messes up my entire week until I finally fall in with the program.

I included a happy birdy...

But THEN, at Fall Daylight Savings, I totally understand what it's all about. Getting an whole extra hour to sleep in? My. Favorite. Day. Ever. hehe Anyway, It's a fun quilt and one I'm looking forward to trying out my #5 Perle Cotton thread on. I'll keep you posted on how that all works out for me.

I Think it May be a Completed Quilt Top

So..., here it is.  Those colors/fabrics I was in the mood to work with?   All along they were planned for use in my 'Spring Forward' quilt (which used to be my 'Awkward Tulip' quilt before I decided it needed a more dignified name).  Then the little bird looked like it needed to be a different fabric and somehow he/she? got a little chunkier in the transformation.  Hmmm, Is that a reflection on what winter has done to me this year?  

Series #1 Nine Patch quilt

I will never tell.  The office is calling my name again and paperwork is piled so high it's getting harder and harder to ignore these days.  Maybe, just maybe,  I need to cut back on my quilting time for a few days and re-direct my efforts toward the book work whether I want to or not...  But before I attack that particular problem, this quilt seemed to need a little bit of attention before I forgot what it was I was attempting to accomplish with this project.  It turned out to be a rather interesting mix of colors didn't it?  Impulsively using the white fabric lettering completely changed (and hijacked) the look of this quilt from what I originally intended.  As I've said before, white is not my favorite color to work with and so it definitely made for some aggravation interesting moments.  If I can make up my mind to call this the last border, I might actually have another completed quilt top and thus another UFQ ready to move to the 'ready to hand quilt' pile.  Be still my beating heart.*wink

Sometimes Progress Comes in Fits and Starts

Although I have been pushing to finish up the hand quilting on my quilts in a more timely manner this year, sometimes it's seems to be a slow go regardless.  This quilt has made me realize that when the pattern is uniform throughout the entire quilt, it can be really hard to keep focus.  Especially when it's almost Springtime and my kids are keeping me hopping busy.*wink  My thread color barely shows up, so I made the light and shadows do all the work in showing you my progress.

Trying to show the stitching....

I get a little restless this time of year, mostly because my time to quilt seems to be so broken up and undependable.  It makes me jump around from quilt to quilt even more which probably would drive most people completely insane, but helps me keep things on track.  I know, it sounds hokey, but it does work for me.  Watch me.  I do get things accomplished around here even when it seems like Nothing Is Being Done!

The colors I want to work with right now.

Daylight savings reminded me once again that I don't do well with things like time change.  I have been pondering (for the longest time) if I should just rip my clunky, awkward looking tulip/flower thing off of this quilt and start over.  Now that my memory has been refreshed, I'm saying NO.  This is me at Daylight savings time and a week after.  Very off of my game.  I can't go to bed at the right time to get to sleep properly and my days are completely messed up.  So now I'm working on another border with the greens and salmon pink fabrics and a cherry red solid fabric for background.  Fingers crossed that I like the finished product!

Trying to figure things out.