Quilting design and start of quilting

I finally landed on a quilting design for Emily's quilt.  In a previous post, I lamented the fact that I hadn't drawn anything that I liked.  So, I hit my collection of books, and friends gave me inspiration from some of theirs.  Here is what I landed on overall and the center motif:

I'm marking the design lightly on the squares, using a circle template and a straight edge, along with a Bohn water erasable blue pen.

And here are the tools that I use while I'm quilting the design:  both of the quilting templates are from Jamie Wallen, Quilters Apothecary. There is s 3" inside circle and a straight edge.  I really like his quilting templates because they have handles to hold the template steady on my sit-down long arm machine.

And here is what the block looks like all stitched out, which is slightly different than my sketch.

  I hope it will feel young and bright!  What do you think?

Polka Dots and Spots - Final - "Circle Mania"

I finished the polka dots and spots quilt and named it "Circle Mania".   Too bad I forgot to take pictures along the way.  Oh well, most of the techniques have been covered in other blogs on other quilts..... I hope.

After I finished quilt the top, I evened up all the edges.  Then I took my rotary cutter and made the wavy edges and rounded corners.  I made a 3" wide facing, which is wider than I usually make.  It needed to be wide enough to take care of all the large dips in the edges.

Here is a picture of the finished 50" W x 69" H quilt:

Circle Mania by Joanne Adams Roth

I hope you like it. And huge thanks to Jody Bowyer, who made the center medallion.

Baby born on showing off the blanket

This is the second baby born this year that received a baby blanket from me.   This little boy was born to my husband's nephew and his wife in Salem, OR.

Aah, isn't he cute?

Opening Night pictures of "Whispers in the Wind"

Our opening night reception of the Vagabonds show "Whispers in the Wind" was held on Friday, December 6th.  The Second Story Gallery does such a nice job of mounting the art displays, lighting them fantastically, providing the helpers for the reception, and finding a great musician.  Two pieces were sold on the opening night, and the other 79 that are still on sale will be on display in the gallery through January.  I hope you get a chance to get to Camas and see the show. 

Here are a few pictures from the opening night:

From left to right:  Beverly Woodard, Audrey Prothero, Joanne Adams Roth, Karan Brooks, Sharry Olmstead, and Val Pellens.  (Three of the others artists couldn't make it to the reception.)

Our group is working on our next challenge, and we have a couple more ideas.  We are definitely keeping the creative juices flowing!

I hope you have a group or at least someone else that helps you keep challenging you on your artistic journey.

Vagabonds "Whispers in the Wind" gallery show

My small quilt group, Vagabonds, has a gallery show opening reception on December 6th, from 3 to 6 pm at the Second Story Gallery in Camas.  All 81 of our 12" x 12" quilts made for our Whispers challenge will be on view and all of them are for sale.

They will be on display through December and January.  If you can make it to the gallery in Camas, be sure to drop in and have a look!

I made several blog posts about these quilts in 2018 and early 2019.  Go back and take a look.

Emily's quilt - quilting designs

This is the 4th post about the making of Emily's graduation quilt.

I like to sketch up my quilting designs before I start the actual work.  It doesn't mean that I will follow the exactly.  But it does give me a sense of what designs will work better than others.  Its super easy to erase pencil marks on a piece of paper than it is to tear out quilting stitches!  For those of you that have done the tearing out, you know that a fair amount of hair gets torn out at the same time.  Or you might even turn a little grayer.

I've probably posted a blog about this already, so excuse me if this a total repeat.  After I finish making the top, I take a picture of it.  I turn it into black and white and make a copy on my computer.  Then I use tracing paper and start doodling.  I usually draw 2 or 3 different designs and often combine a couple more ideas on each sheet.  Rarely do I completely draw out the design.  If there are complicated things like feathered wreaths or large circles, I will draw these to full scale and using a light box, transfer those designs with blue dissolving ink pens onto the top. Sometimes, I will transfer lines too if I want them evenly spaced across the top.

Here is my start at the quilting designs.  Frankly, I'm not that thrilled with anything that I've drawn so far.  I kind of like the idea of putting "E" shapes into the quilt, and I definitely want it to be more modern.  Wreaths in the white areas, while very traditional, just doesn't feel like the right thing for this quilt.  So, I'll keep sketching and come up with something that I do like.

If you have some great ideas that might help me, let me know!  I'm a little stumped right now.

Happy Quilting!

Polka Dots and Spots - part three

This is a continuation of the theme quilt with the polka dots and spots.

After the main large wedges were in place, I played around with what wedges should be placed next.  I had some really cool black and white fabrics to add into the mix, as well as more of the pink and green fabrics.  Here is the quilt with all of the wedges in place.

Here is how I sewed the wedges together.  I pinned one edge over the stiff tear away stabilizer.  This edge was pinned to the edge of the stabilizer on the adjoining piece.  The pictures show you the pinning on the front side and what it looks like on the back side.

Here is what it looks like when it is pinned together.

I set two stitches in my machine.  The straight stitch is for the start and stop.  It is set for 0.40 length and I reduce the top tension since I use invisible thread in the top and a light weight thread in the bobbin.

I sew a few stitches with this setting, then switch to the zig zag setting.  It is set for 1.0 stitch length and 1.4 stitch width.  The tension is also lower for the top.  Then I zig zag the seam in place.

I still like it so far, and hope you do too!