Emerald Quilt Challenge entries - my first challenge

Happy St Patty's Day! I'm entering two quilts in the Emerald Quilt Challenge, which is a quilting challenge based on using mainly the color Emerald. Emerald is the Pantone color of the year. (Prior to quilting, I would have never know what that meant to the design industry.)

You can enter up to three quilts: a mini-quilt, a quilt topper, and a fully completed quilt. I am entering two. Here are the quilts and a ton of what I learned making them.

Mini-Quilt 12.5 x 12.5 (The colors are bolder than the picture displays, but it's close enough)

 

What I learned:

1. My sewing machine is cheap and old with bad tension I don't think I can ever fix. That's why I have thread problems sometimes, which can impact the smoothness of the fabric. But I am learning how important tension is.
2. I also got more experience with paper piecing, as the mini-quilt was fully paper pieced. I used one of the October patterns (and video tutorial) from the 2012 Craftsy Block of the Month, and made a slight alteration to make the star a little larger. Paper piecing is really cool but not something I can do very quickly yet. I'd like to do it again but make sure I have more adequate time. I kept cutting the pieces of fabric too big. That's why the center circle has two different fabrics when I'd prefer it have one.
3. I also trimmed some corners when I should not have, so I had to sew the block together with a larger seam allowance, impacting how several seams line up.
4. I had a lesson in color choice--I actually like how the colors turned out more than I thought I would, but I might rethink some of them like making the center circle a lot darker or lighter next time and perhaps switching the ice cream fabric with the bold solids. However, that's part of what makes this block unique.
5. And finally, I thought I had totally ruined this block, so I just had fun with the quilting and like how it turned out. I want to take a free motion quilting class as soon as I get a new sewing machine that can handle it.

Quilt Topper 33"x33"

 

What I learned:

1. I learned that I can use Microsoft Word to design a quilt pretty easily. See prior post here.
2. I am going to read more about the best ways to sew together a quilt with so many squares. After this one and the paper piecing mini above, I can't wait to do a more free-form quilt where I don't have to have so many perfectly matching seams. I don't know if free-form is more my style or if I'm just experiencing needing to increase my skill set level on square quilts, but this quilt wasn't east.
3. This is the first challenge I've done. I felt a bit limited both due to time and having design requirements. I kept wanting to add more color and wanted more time to do new things, but such is life!

 

 



My first dresden quilt block complete

Finally finished my mom's birthday present (her birthday was Feb 2 - I have been showing her progress to build excitement and to let her know I haven't forgotten, lol). See this prior post, for example.

The front

The back

One of my other favorite hobbies is snowboarding. I finished hand sewing the binding after a long day, cold, with the heat blasting in my car in the parking lot of the ski area while I was waiting for my husband who was doing one more run. And I have to say, I really enjoyed having some hand sewing for the road.

As soon as I was done, my husband got back to the warm car, which he appreciated, and we drove to my mom's house to have family dinner and pick up the baby (she and my dad live in the ski resort towns; very lucky for us), and I presented her, her completed present. And she loves it. I can't wait to make her something else soon!

Using Microsoft Word (software you probably already have) to plan quilts

I have not been quilting long enough to justify buying software to help visualize and design quilts I’d like to make, so I decided to use Microsoft Word, software that’s installed on most personal computers these days and which I use every day at work.

I wasn’t sure if it would work at first, but actually, I am happy with the results. I started by creating a basic table with 10 cells across and 10 cells down and with borders turned on. Then I just started applying color to the different table cells to build a design. The pixelated flower design was the first one I attempted and was total freeform—as I had no care how the size or design turned out—I was literally just playing around seeing if the software would suffice for my design needs.

 

The other project I am planning are a couple jungle themed baby quilts. I have some really great fabric with bright colors and snakes, lions, monkeys, etc that I want to emphasize with some kind of square block design. For weeks I’ve been visualizing wanting to design a really colorful, solid border, so after creating the pixelated flower in Word software, I decided to use the same process for getting the jungle quilt out of my head and on paper, and voilà, it worked great. The results match almost exactly what I’ve been dreaming up in my head, plus the process of using the software helped add ideas I hadn’t thought of—such as the yellow squares in the corners.

Very excited to feel like I don’t have to buy specialized software to do detailed planning. At some point I plan to write up more about the process of using software you probably already have on your computer to design quilts. But for now, I’ve got some quilts to work on!

Claiming my blog on Bloglovin

Apparently you have to create this post in order to claim your blog on the Bloglovin' reader, so that's all this post if for. :)

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7168745/?claim=xydsqnhtypv">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Two quilt blocks completed this weekend

I completed two quilt block this weekend. Both are the second to another block already completed.

The first is a Victorian themed block. This is for a 3- or 4-block mini wall-hanging, but I keep visualizing a larger one, because I'm having so much fun with the free-form log cabin style and the fun prints that I don't want to stop making these anytime soon.

The second is part of the Sugar Block Club - block of the month (BOM) I'm participating in lead by Amy Gibson at www.stitcherydictorydoc.com. I am learning a ton about technique, new types of blocks, using solids, and sewing in general being part of this BOM.

You can see it's not perfect, but I learned a ton doing it. And I don't know what I was thinking using stripped fabric, as if learning paper piecing with this block wasn't enough, I had to spend a ton of extra time trying to make the stripes line up. Oh well, I'm not one for easy.

Like I mentioned, this block used paper piecing--a technique where you actually sew the fabrics together by following lines on a piece of paper, and then you rip the paper away. That was a simplistic explanation, but if you've ever seen more intricate quilted fabrics, very detailed stars or even objects like boats or animals, it was probably done using paper piecing, which is remarkably fun. I can't wait to do something even more complicated some day soon. And now I know how it's done!

Below is a close up of my first 4-point star. I was so excited that I didn't even wait to trim this baby before taking a picture, but you can see the point in the middle looks pretty good.

It makes me so happy to make pretty things. I'm calling this weekend on a success on the quilt block front...now the sleeping front is another story.

My first dresden

I didn't complete this on time for my mom's birthday but showed it to her on her special day, so that she knew I was working on something. And since she already knows about it, I don't have to keep it a secret! My first dresden block.

This is suppose to be a mini-quilt placemat for the center of my mom's pretty, round, wooden table in her kitchen, but now that I sewed the quilt back, I think it might need to be two pieces or made into something larger. We'll see. That's how projects get much bigger and out of control, so I might just stick with the original plan. I'm giving it a few days to decide!

Daisy-chaining the petals - what a fun block!

Literally scrappy boutineer

After sewing 15 quilted Valentine's this year, I looked at the pile of beautiful little scraps and thought there has to be something more fun and useful to do with them than just throw them away. So I wadded them and put them under my sewing machine needle, and this is what was created...

Then I pulled a few fabric roses I had out of another miscellaneous basket of craft remnants and attached them, and the creation got even better...

How adorable is this!

All from making these...

Happy Valentine's Day!

On 18-month-olds & language acquisition

I read an article that I think really explains the path our guy is taking with language acquisition. It states some more cautious and reserved 18-month-olds tend to wait until they understand a great deal of what they hear before actually speaking.

As long as they are pointing to things they want, to pictures in books, if they seem to understand what you're saying, use gestures and facial expressions to communicate, and grunt (yep, grunting is a sign of language development--must be part of our cave man heritage, lol), your kid should be on track.

Reading books, talking about what you see, encouraging pointing, labeling, sounded out words, etc., are all things parents can do to help develop language. Comparing to others can act as a flag to check in on research out there, but usually there is nothing wrong. The key is, with almost all milestones, that development is happening. That's what I've been learning lately.

If you feel there could be a major problem, talk with a pediatrician who may refer you to to a language development specialist, which would be covered under most insurance companies.

Here's a link to the article on Baby Center referenced above.

My second quilt block ever - this isn't just your grandma's craft anymore

Here's the second quilt block I've ever sewed in my life! Even though I am more into free-form quilting, it amazes me all of the different ways that the same block can be composed. Playing with beautiful colors, prints, and patterns, figuring out the best composition, and seeing it all come together as you sew has been one of the most fun creative processes I've indulged in for a while—and you get to work on your sewing skills along the way.

I did this block as part of the Sugar Block Club being hosted by Amy Gibson at StitcheryDictoryDock.com. She invents monthly patterns and sends them out with delicious recipes. There is a flickr group where everyone shares their blocks. She also hosts a monthly get-together at Fancy Tiger crafts to work on the blocks in person. I've been learning a ton being part of the group.

And I know, I know...quilting sounds like an old lady thing (nothing against old ladies, but it is a very traditional craft)...until you get to know the modern quilting movement (a term I don't know really exists but puts a good name to a culture of young creative types who love to sew and compose art with fabric). I think there should be an updated name for modern quilters, like textilers or something, because it's not your grandma's craft anymore.

This nifty population consists of artists, illustrators, and designers who create fabric; and writers, publishers, and typesetters who create tutorials and books; and of course passionate crafters who put it all together in the most creative ways and share everything online. It’s like the perfect way for a busy person to stay in touch with their creative side and be part of a artistic community. I'm so into it! Can you tell?!