Once in a Blue Moon - Part One

Our quilt guild has picked a theme for next year's show, and it is "Once in a Blue Moon".  I always love to work on quilts for challenges and themes.  It's fun to think of something creative that you may not ever make otherwise.  Is that true for you too?

I started gathering ideas for a quilt with a blue moon and/or with blue fabric by looking on Pinterest and the internet.  Some pretty good ideas percolated.  Then I found (with the help of a friend) some really cool blue and white fabric with phases of the moon on it.  I bought 2 yards for the back of the quilt.   I found some blue velvet on our free table and some blue selvage at a quilt store.

And then I remembered a feeling I had when my husband and I laid on top of a picnic table at a campground and gazed at the stars.    Awesome was how it felt.  The universe is so vast and we're just a tiny spec.  There's so many stars up there!  I don't often lay out flat and look up at the stars... do you?  It only happens once in a blue moon for me.  Especially since I'm afraid of the dark and you can't get me out there very often, or for very long.  Anyway, this became my inspiration for this quilt.

I sketched up a few ideas of a couple looking up at the stars, but frankly, people laying down didn't look all that great; standing up was much more effective.  Then I thought about something more playful and ended up designing a quilt with cats (and one mouse!) looking up at the stars.

Genius ideas sometimes surprise me!  No, I'm not saying I'm a genius.  I'm saying that something genius moves through me from the universe.  Doesn't that happen to you too sometimes?  What if I was able to use battery operated LED lights and really bring this piece to life?  I went to my local craft store and bought 3 strands of blue lights, for a total of 90 tiny LED lights.  The lights don't emit any heat so that should be OK.  These strands are on for 6 hours and off for 18 hours - perfect for a quilt show!  I decided that I would attach the lights on the back of the top fabric only, and devise a slot for the battery pack to stick out of the backing fabric and sit in its own pouch on the lower back of the quilt.  Here is a sketch of my idea:

I drew up 5 cats that were slightly different and one little mouse.  Then I went through my stash and found some fun and bright prints.  I had some hand dyed dark blue fabric in my stash too, but it was only one yard and I needed closer to 1-1/2 yards.  Fabric Depot is so close that when I get an idea of what I want for the background, I can run down to Portland and search for just the right piece.  I found it in the Christmas section.  Dark blue, mottled, with dots of white and gold.  Nice.  I had just the right grunge white fabric for the moon in my stash and also the hand dyed orange fabric for the wall.

Here is a picture of the fabrics pinned to the background and the cats roughly cut out.

Clark County Quilters annual quilt show - April, 2018

Clark County Quilters held their annual quilt show at the Clark County Event Center in April 2018.  I love to work behind the scenes and be at the show while it is running.  It is so fun to see my friends, and drool over all of the wonderful quilts made by talented quilters in our guild.

Here are some of the winners this year:

BEST OF SHOW, "For Everything There is a Season..." by Bonnie Keller

"Blue Mooo-n" by Audrey Prothero

"A Bright Idea" by Lynn Czaban

"Red Tide" by Bonnie Keller

"Letters from Durban" by Audrey Prothero and Wilma Scott

"Out of Africa" by DeAnn Perigo

"My Happy Dance" by Shelly O'Brien

"Star Pluvium" by Mary Kay Price

"Boistfort Valley"by Bonnie Keller

"Sushi III" by Mary Key Price

"Circle Games" by Linda Burrell

"Navajo Weaving" by Jean Seele

"Midnight at the Oasis" by Linda Padilla

"Gemstones" by Ada Levins

"Passion and Whimsy" by Rosanne Hatfield

"Christmas Sampler" by Arden Shelton

"Mamas on a Mission" by Ada Levins

"The Albatross around my Neck" by Deena Morgan

"Baltimore Halloween" by Christy Hoffmann

"Finding the Light II" by Hedda Wright

"Believe in Yourself" by Nancy Tubbs

"Chickens" by Terry Knott

"Rue" by Terry Knott

Quilt Block Contest for Clark County Quilters

We have this terrific way of making our raffle (opportunity) quilts in our guild.  Each year, there are 3 quilts in various stages.   The first stage is the block contest.  The chair picks a theme and the fabric and then gives us a challenge to make a block for the quilt that meets the parameters and uses some of the fabric provided.  During our quilt show, the blocks are exhibited and voted on by the public.  The maker of the block that wins the most votes gets a small award and their block gets made into a pin that we sell to members.  The second year, the quilt top is put together from all of the blocks, it gets quilted and bound and is presented to the guild at the end of the 2nd year.  The third year, it is our raffle quilt and that is also the year the pin that matches the quilt is sold.  At the end of the year it is given to the raffle winner.  All of the proceeds of our opportunity quilt is given to a non profit charity in Clark County.

This year, the block contest was to make a Kaffe Fassett 8" round block and use some pink grunge fabric that was provided to us.  It had to be pieced with no embellishments and only a tiny amount of applique.

Here's the finished block.

And here are all the rest of the blocks that were displayed at the CCQ quilt show in April 2018.

It's so much fun to participate in the guild challenges and to see what every else comes up with.  We always end up with unique and beautiful quilts and I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

Sewing something fun and fast

Every year, I invite my 3 youngest granddaughters over to make decorated sugar cookies.  When the two older ones were about 5, I made them both aprons.  This year, the youngest one turned 5, so I decided that she needed one too!

Sewing a child's apron is something fun and fast to do ..... and it uses up some of the cotton fabric in your stash.

Arielle came over for an afternoon and I had her pick out that materials that she liked.  Watching and helping a small child pick out fabric is pretty fun, and it is also interesting to see them take their first step in designing their own original piece.  Personally, I like funky and bright colors, so guess which fabrics I steer them towards?  You guessed it, bright, funky, and usually something lime green!

The pattern I used is from Cabbage Rose and is called, "Little Chore Girl".  Here's the picture of the pattern front.  It makes up into a super cute apron.  The two I made a few years back still fit the older girls who are now 9 and 11.

And here is the finished apron:

And the happy smile on the day she got her very own apron:

I hope you like it and can start the sewing and designing bug for your granddaughters (grandsons too!).

Large Print Quilts - "BIGS" #1 and #2

The comfort quilts group handed me some large print fabric and said, "This looks like you!".  Of course, this was their way of challenging me to make something to donate back as a charity quilt.  I do like making quilt tops, and sometimes quilts, for the group, and I like the anonymous factor involved with charity.  So, I accepted the challenge.

We spent a lot of time watching the March Madness basketball playoffs.  I love, love, love, watching the college teams and especially the women.  This year I noticed the commentators calling the tall girls "The BIGS".  I thought this was a little derogatory, but then I noticed that they also call the tallest men "The BIGS".  So, OK.  I guess it's not derogatory towards the tall women.  I asked my husband how long they've been referring to the tallest people on the team as "The BIGS".  And he said for a long time.  Jeesh.  Where have I been?  Anyway, I'm going to steal the term and call the Big Prints "The BIGS" too.  They need their own special treatment, I think.  Don't you?

My personal feeling is that when you use large print fabric, you need to keep the pieces as large as you can.  Otherwise, you totally destroy the motifs.  I drew up a couple of designs for this fabric, using 10" squares.  Here are the two quilts that I made with this fun circular fabric.  I'm calling them "BIGS #1" and "BIGS #2".

BIGS #1  67" X 67"

BIGS #2  52" X 64"

I hope you like them.

New Iron - Reliable Velocity 200IR

My iron crapped out.  In a big way!  I turned it on to iron some clothes (yes, I had to break down and iron something besides quilting fabric).  It sputtered and spit and then spewed out a great big gob of rusty steamy water.  Thank goodness it was not on top of the clothing... however, my ironing surface looks pretty bad now.  I think that irons are designed to do this very thing so that you have to keep buying new ones.  Do you agree?

Anyway, I did a little research and found another iron that I hope will work for me.  I am a bit picky about having an iron that doesn't have an automatic shut-off.  Or at least one that can be bypassed.  It is very annoying when you are sewing a bunch of pieces for a quilt and then when you get up to iron, it has turned itself off again.  Argh!

So, the  Reliable Velocity Iron  has a steam and a super steam function, plus the bypass, and the cool thing is that the steam is made inside the iron so it doesn't spit.  AND, you can steam with it vertically!  So if you want to press or steam something on the design wall (or clothing if you really have to), you can do it without the ironing board.  Pretty cool, huh?

Well, here is a picture of it.

I found that the price was the same whether it was ordered over Amazon, or from another source.  So far, I love it.

Selling raffle tickets

Clark County Quilters makes an opportunity quilt each year (raffle quilt).  This year, I helped to sell the raffle tickets at the Milwaukee airing of the quilts show in March 2018.

Here is a picture of our quilt and a customer.

Let me tell you how our opportunity quilt gets made and what we do with the proceeds.  It's a 3 year process.  The first year, we have a block contest.  Guild members get a piece of fabric from the coordinators and make blocks according to whatever the rules and theme are for that year.  For the quilt in this picture, we started with a piece of gray fabric and had to make a house block or something that represented "It Takes a Village".   Shameful promotion:  my block won!  The second year, the coordinators sew all the blocks together and have the quilting completed.  Karen Saltzberg did the fabulous custom quilting on this one.  The third year we take the quilt around and sell raffle tickets.

Every year, Clark County Quilters asks other non-profits in Clark County to submit proposals that explain what they would do if we gave them the proceeds.  This year, we selected FISH of Clark County to receive our proceeds.  In previous years, we've earned money for the Vancouver K-9 program, babies in need, and search and rescue.  Each year, it is a different non-profit and we are always excited to present them with a check.

I hope you take a chance at winning a raffle quilt... and maybe even it will be ours!