Sister's quilt - Part Two

This is a continuation of the blog I wrote about the design and idea for a blue and light quilt for my sister, Colleen Wilson.

I dove right in and cut all the background pieces as 13" squares.  Over-sizing the background allowed me to applique the paisley pieces or do trapunto quilting and then trim the squares to the hexagon shapes.  I like to do the trimming after I do the applique, just to make sure the blocks haven't shrunk during all of the stitching (which always happens for me).  For this hexagon quilt especially, I want to preserve the edges that are on the bias until just before I sew them together.

I've appliqued 6 navy blue paisley pieces onto the background, using my machine applique method with the dissolving foundation.  I pulled out all my embroidery supplies, which had been pining away for attention, and got to work.  I've usd blues and tans and whites, plus some embellishment supplies.  I even snuck in a little bit of purple, and plan to sneak in a tiny bit of lime green.  It wouldn't be a quilt from me if it didn't have a little of my personality showing through.

Here are they are:

I hope you are like where this quilt is heading. I know that I do.  Just not that sure I'm totally on board with making a queen-sized quilt after all my fun small ones.   Nevertheless, it feels really good to make something that someone special in your life wants.  And a fellow quilter and sister is just the best combination.

I hope you have friends and relatives that like your quilts too!

Sleeves, sleeves, sleeves

Well, the quilts have been coming into the house from all of the owners.  It's been fun to see all of my old quilts again.  But...... I was very remiss in the old days about not signing all of my quilts (which I was SURE that I had always done).  And, as I found out earlier, I did not put sleeves on a lot of the quilts.

Needless to say, I have been sewing sleeves like a crazy woman.  I am using up all the muslin that I had previously purchased from Mood.  Maybe this is one of those serendipitous things that happen.  You do something, or buy something, then the real purpose pops up in your life sometime later.  Yippee!

The sleeves that I've been making are plain old muslin cut into 9" strips.  I sew the seam at 3/8".  I don't measure the quilt and then the sleeve.  I just place the long sleeve strip on the back of the quilt and trim it so that it's even with the outside edges.   Then I turn in 1/2" twice on each end; stitch those down; then press the sleeve so that there is 1/2" extra on the outside.  The last step is to slip stitch this to the back of the quilt; top and bottom and both sides of the sleeve.

I am so thankful that my small quilt group is helping me sew these sleeves onto the quilts.  I would be so backed up (and bored), if I had to stitch these on all by myself.

So, note to you all:  MAKE SURE TO PUT YOUR SIGNATURE OR LABEL ON YOUR QUILTS, AND EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK YOUR QUILTS WILL BE DISPLAYED, ADD THE SLEEVE TOO.

Shadow Selfie #6 - Painterly wave

This is the 6th quilt in the Shadow Selfie series.  I wrote blogs about quilts 1-5 previously.

I got the idea for this quilt from a picture taken on a walk.  The background is made of muslin covered with tissue paper, then painted while it was wet.  It was the perfect background for a shadow made of tulle, so that you could see the painted fabric through the shadow.

I pinned 2 layers of black tulle onto the background, then placed the paper with the shadow printed on it on top.  Then I sewed over the outline twice with black thread.  This both pierced the paper pattern and gave a nice heavy line as an outline for the shadow.  The final steps were to tear away the paper, then cut away the excess tulle.  And voile, there's the shadow selfie on the painted background.

Shadow Selfie #6, The Painterly Wave" by Joanne Adams Roth

I hope you like it.

Northwest Quilting Expo - September 2018

The Northwest Quilting Expo was held in Portland at the end of September, 2018.  The show this year was fabulous, with many special displays.  I really like going to these larger regional shows because I get to see my friends from Block Party Quilters in Sammamish, Puyallup Valley Quilters in Puyallup,  Clark County Quilters in Vancouver, and Northwest Quilters in Portland, OR.  Hello again to all of you that I ran into at the show. 

I took a lot of pictures this year and am sharing them with you here, so that you can see how the excellent workmanship that went into these quilts.  One caveat - many of the quilts did not have a show label on them, so the makers and the stories are unknown.  Too bad - I like to give credit where credit is due.

Best of Show