Modernized New York Beauty - Part Seven

This is a continuation of 6 previous posts about the making of the modernized New York Beauty for the mod squad challenge.  I pulled out all of my quilting threads to match the colors in the quilt.  I needed a few more, so I pulled from my sewing threads and hope they will run through the machine OK.  Here are two pictures - one showing the matching method that I use by putting the spool on top of the fabric color.  And the second one shows the threads all in a pile.

I can't wait to start quilting it.

I hope you still like it!

Sisters Outdoor quilt show - 2024

I rode the bus with quilters from my guild and another guild for the 2nd year in a row to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt show in Sisters, Oregon.  What fun it was again!   Yes, it was hot over in Central Oregon, I think it was 99 degrees.  I took a cooling fan, a big hat, and sat down more than I did last year.  Anyway, lots of nice quilts.  Here's some of the pictures:

And here I am having lunch with Linda Taccolini, Joy Frahm, and Sandi Stuhr and enjoying our Margaritas!

I hope you like seeing the quilts!

Sewing Lessons

My youngest granddaughter is taking beginning sewing lessons with me.  We made a small bag that is big enough for a cell phone - her first all fabric project.  She's such a fast learner, so smart, and really enthusiastic.  Its a real joy for me to pass along the skill set.  

And Grandpa took her out to pick the blueberries after her sewing lesson.  Now.... maybe she would be interested in making a small quilt?

Modernized New York Beauty - Part Six

This is a continuation of 5 previous posts about the making of the Modernized New York Beauty quilt that I want to enter into QuiltCon.  

The next step was to sew this big circle into the background.  I had to unpin all of the applique circles in order to sew the 4 background pieces together.  Then I sewed the arc into the background.

After I sewed the background to the arc piece, I pinned the applique circles in place, making sure that they were the right angle and distance; then spot glued them in place.  Each circle had to be machine appliqued in place and this took the better part of a week and involved a fair amount of twisting and turning the whole piece.  I don't mind sewing things like this, but I do worry that things will get stretched out of shape on the edge.  So, before I did all of that applique, I went ahead and stay stitched the edges.  

And finally I spray and pin basted it to the batting and backing.  Here it is all ready to quilt! 

I hope you like it so far!

Tradition Made Modern - Part Five

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the making of the Modernized New York Beauty quilt that I want to enter into QuiltCon.   I sewed the quadrant pieces together and separately, sewed the background pieces together.  Originally, the background pieces were planned to also be in quadrants, but I wanted the ombre fabric to match from the 4 sides, so I taped the pieces together, then cut them apart at the corner diagonals.  This meant that I couldn't sew the background quadrants to the circle quadrants.  Each had to be pieced and then sewn together as one big seam.  Oh boy, that might sound like a lot of math to some of you.  But, if you're like me, and you LOVE math, this will get your brain into high gear and it will give you a lot of pleasure to figure out all of the geometry.  

Well, back to my conundrum with the colors of the circles.  I made a lot of circles and tried a few combinations before I landed on continuing with the same colors as the points of the inner arcs and making them in graduated sizes.  Here is where I ended up.

When I finally had that decided, I went ahead and sewed the arcs all together.  For some strange reason, I sewed all of the center pieces together, then had to piece the arc quadrants to the circle.  What?!%?  Talk about making it hard on myself!  

I know it doesn't look like much changed, but the piecing took a long time.  It looks wonky because I intended it to be wonky with my hand drawn pattern.  

I hope you like it so far.

Tradition Made Modern - Part Four

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of the Modernized New York Beauty for the Mod Squad Challenge for 2024.  I decided that I wanted to get it done and enter it into the QuiltCon show of the Modern Quilt Guild in February 2025 in Phoenix.  The deadline is in the fall, which is months before the deadline for the Mod Squad.  

I decided to start making the applique circles for the center pieces in the peach and yellow fabrics.  Since I machine applique, I didn't want to piece the entire top and then wrestle it around the machine for all of the little circles.  It'll be a different story for the applique circles on the outer edge since they will be placed exactly where they should line up.  Anyway, I made the circles and pinned them in place, measuring the angle and the distance with a protractor and ruler.  I think I might change the placement so that it is more random, though.  I like the idea that they could look more like freckles instead of concentric circles.

I cut out all of the circles for the outside in shades of purple to pink.  I pinned those in place.  I thought they looked kind of heavy, so I changed them to some lighter versions.  I didn't like that either and here is the final placement of the the circles.  My husband didn't like the peach and frankly I didn't either.  But it has to sit and marinate for a while.  

Stay tuned for what I decided to do.  

Tradition Made Modern - Part Three

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of my modernized New York Beauty quilt as part of the Mod Squad challenge for 2024.  I finished piecing the inner arcs and sewed them to the inner black arc.  Up on the design wall, it looked like the pieces wouldn't fit together.  But, then I realized I was sewing everything to the backside of the freezer paper.  So, the whole design will be flipped when it is sewn together.  I better be VERY careful when I'm putting pieces up on the wall, taking them down, and sewing them together.  It could be a disaster if I sew them together incorrectly, since the foundation pieces are my pattern too.  I don't have another copy!

The next part of the pattern that I tackled was the next set of pieced arcs.  I did a little bit of shopping to enhance my fabric shading in the peach , orange, and maize colors.  I've heard that peach is the color of the year.  Have you heard that too?  I checked it out and yes, it's peach fuzz: Pantone Peach Fuzz.   Here are the pieces in that next arc.

 

I like that layer a lot!  

The next thing that I cut out was the background pieces from the Ombre fabric and the center pieces.  Its pretty turquoise heavy, but I'm fine with it.  I put up some black and some dark gray to see what I wanted to use for one of the middle arcs.  Here are the 2 choices.  

I chose to continue on with the black and white print.  Even though it looked a little bit like a bulls-eye, I liked the continuity.  Here is it with the pieces pinned up, and the whole thing rotated back to the original position.

I hope you like it so far!

Tradition Made Modern - part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the making of the challenge quilt for Mod Squad, which is a modernized version of the New York Beauty block.

I foundation pieced the inner arcs, using my freezer paper pattern as the foundation.  It makes things so much simpler for me to precut the shapes with a template piece that is 3/8" larger than the finished size.  You can see that the background wedge is larger than the colored wedges.  Here are the precuts from my hand dyed fabrics:

And the precuts from the background gray and white fabric (Smol Tweed in Dove) designed by Kimberly Kight of Ruby Star Society:

Here are two of the arcs pieced and placed back in place on the design wall.  I will keep using the freezer paper pattern to piece and cut the rest of the circular pieces.

I had a great idea for the background.  It's an ombre fabric from Moda called "Lipstick Cowgirl" designed by Shari Jenkins, and it fades from turquoise to gray.  I bought a little bit of this at  Sharon's Attic a month or so ago, but I needed 4 more yards.  So, I called the store and they had just 4 yards left on the bolt.  What luck!  Now it's on its way to me and I'll be able to use the background that will be just the ticket for this quilt.

I hope you like it so far!

Duckworth Charity quilt - Final

This is a continuation about the making of the Duckworth charity quilt as part of the Mod Squad challenge.  I kept making improv log cabins until I had about 60, then I tossed them up on the design wall.  It's bright!  

I thought that I would try to insert a solid (ish) block here and there to give some rest for the eyes.  I liked that idea, and ran with it.  Here's the completed top.  It's 48" x 60".  

I hope you like bright quilts!

Graduation quilt presentation

Our 3rd grandchild graduated from high school on June 7th.   It was actually a fun graduation ceremony, complete in about 2 hours with over 500 seniors!  It was a fine summer evening and so special to be there.  

Her party was held a week later and that is when she was presented with her high school graduation quilt.  Oh, to be that age again with all your hopes and dreams ahead of you.

I hope you get to celebrate milestones with your family too.

Mod Squad 2024 Challenge - "Traditional made Modern" - Part One

This is a follow up to the post about the Mod Squad 2024 Challenge.  I posted 15 pictures of quilts that were in this category at QuiltCon in Raleigh in 2024.

I decided to work with  a large improv curved pieced New York Beauty.  I've made the pattern many times before and thought that I would make this as one as a huge block.  Here is a sketch of my idea:

I pulled out some fabrics in the hot pink to maroon to purple colorway, along with some black, gray and white, and a couple of shades of turquoise.  I don't know if this is what I'll end up with, though.    I printed the sketch a few times and colored them in.  Here are the colors that I decided to use.

I will probably start on making the foundation pieced arcs first.  I've drawn them on the paper pattern and I'm pretty sure I'll use the colors from the sketch.

So, stay tuned for how that section turns out.

 

Little Hearts for "I Found a Quilted Heat"

One of the ladies at our quilt retreat showed us how to make little hearts with hand work on them.  The idea is to leave them in public places for someone else to find.  "I Found a Quilted Heart" is an idea very similar to the painted rocks that people leave around.  I decided to make a few; its nice to have a little bit of handwork while watching TV at night.  Here are three that I made recently:

I plan to make some more and leave them here and there for other people to find!

Mod Squad Charity Challenge - Duckworth Quilt and CCQ Spring Retreat

The Mod Squad decided to do a charity challenge using scraps in our favorite color and using the "Duckworth" idea.  Basically, it is a scrappy log cabin block over and over and then sewn together into a top.  The top is supposed to be 46" W x 60" H.  Using 6" blocks, that means I need to make 80 of them!  I got a start at the spring quilt retreat with 30 of them.  Here's a few of them:

I walked around the lake a couple of times every day and enjoyed the spring green colors and all of the wildflower blossoms.  

I hope you enjoy seeing them too.