Sept 2014 Quilting Goals.

I completed 2/6 of the Aug goals.
I completed the Dear Jane top and now have a flimsy.
I attended the AQS QuiltWeek in Grand Rapids Michigan.

September Quilting Goals:
1. Begin Dear Jane 2. Ava tells me I should call it Dear Devan.
2. Begin Dear Jane 3. This one could be Dear Elly.
3. Launch my new blog "Quilting Jane at the Farm". I plan to chronicle the DJ2 journey one block at a time. but first have to figure out how to make a special button for it. Any suggestions?
4. Not gloat too much about completing the Dear Jane top. There is life after DJ. After all, I am in the midst of 2 doctoral courses that have been neglected for the past 2 months.
5. Have a giveaway to celebrate my one year anniversary blogging.

Blessings,
Chris

AQS QuiltWeek Grand Rapids 2014 Part 2

This first quilt was the best of show. 

This one caught my attention with is vibrancy. I am planning to do my next Dear Jane quilt bright. 

I love the colour play in this one. I did not get who made it. Here in Canada, a red ribbon is first prize.

It is called Complex Irish Chain and is done in solids.

 This is the quilt that made me stop and take out my camera for the first time. As I was taking the picture, a voice behind me asked if I would like to talk to his wife who made it. I turned in my walker where I was sitting taking a closer look and met Leslie Stevenson sitting in a wheel chair.

 

She calls it The Fabric of our Lives. When asked how many hours it took doing the work, she replies "it is more like how  many innings". She took several Baltimore classes with Elly Sienkiewicz and over 20 years did all the hand applique and embroidery, often at her sons' baseball games. She was unable to complete the hand quilting so got someone to help.  

She designed the quilted leaf sashing around each block. AND that IS no less than 1/4 inch cross hatching stitched throughout the inside of the blocks.  Each block has a Bible verse written on it somewhere. She explained how she used her light box to find a spot suitable for some of the writing and practiced on paper before using pen and ink.

This has me thinking about pulling out the Baltimore quilt I started 4 1/2 years ago with Kathy Dunigan when she lived in Oakville Ontario. The project was a bit out of my skills level then, but she did teach me how to needle turn applique and introduced me to #10 milliners needles. You can check out her new venture in Rockwall, Texas.   TKDAA

Blessings,
Chris

AQS QuiltWeek 2014 Part 1

I spent a glorious 3 days this past week going to the Quilt show in Grand Rapids Michigan. It was the closest. It only took us 7 hours to drive there and 7 hours to drive home. I had just gotten a walker and used it for the first time. I realized that if I was ever going to be able to handle all the walking and standing of a big quilt show, I had to get help. I absolutely love my new way of getting around and actually got a lot of exercise over those 3 days. Also, I had a place to put all my shopping and not have to carry it. I could sit down whenever I needed to and  to stop (not stoop) for a closer look. Just today I was diagnosed with some compressed discs and we are starting a plan to get me out of my chair and walking comfortably again.

I could not get into my first 3 class choices, so, I signed us up for the Sat morning Tessellating Stars with Pat Yamin. "Miss Janome" introduced us to the brand new fancy dancy Elna classroom sewing machines and showed us how to use the things. It was a bit intimidating for someone who still does so much of her sewing on a singer Featherweight.

Tessellating Stars

 This picture makes it look a lot better than it really is. I was not expecting curves. Inside curves and outside curves and points and pivoting. It was awkward with a large presser foot on the machine and I could  not see my seam allowance as I was trying to stitch it. When I got home, I completed the last few black pieces on my Featherweight and they went in a bit more pointy. The rules here are to cut ALL the pieces out from the SAME side of the fabric so you do not get mirrored pieces. NO pressing until the WHOLE thing is completed. This would be a great hand piecing project.

Then we went shopping again in the merchants mall. Two women from Spain were doing demos on how to use these gadgets to improve applique skills. I first saw them featured on someones blog a few months ago and payed close attention to how to turn pointy points. I will try them out on this month's Ben Bigg's block that I have not yet started. More about that later.

I also bought some thread to machine quilt my Dear Jane and lots of milliners applique needles to share with my new students next month. They are really hard to find around here. I wore my I AM AQS button and won a gift card to one of the booths and got some Best Press in peach.
And. yes, we did see some quilts. I will post more later.

Blessings,
Chris

225/225

Almost Done

Only 2 more after these

Chris

Quilting Proteges

I got to spend a delightful evening babysitting my amazing little girl grand babies. Only they are not so little any more. I was getting a bottle for 15 month old Devan and gave almost 7 year old Ava instructions about pinning the coloured fabric scraps onto the background square for 2 1/2 year old Elly to un-pin. Simple instructs, or so I thought. Ten minutes later I come down after putting the baby to bed, who by the way, went without a single peep. Ava found the scissors in my other bag and proceeded to trim the loose threads off the fabric scraps.

 Elly was very happy to participate and started laying out pieces onto the background square. So far, so good. Then Gramma decided to open out the square to give Elly more room for her creativity.

And that is when I discovered that Ava was trying to cut some grass onto the background square. Oops.

Blessings,
Gramma Kiss

Single Digits

It is very exciting to be in the single digits with the Dear Jane triangles. There are so many other things I should be doing, but completing this thing is a bit of an obsession right not. Not that I am spending all my time WORKING on it, but I am spending most of my time THINKING about it and TALKING about it and WRITING about it. But I have been a good girl, sort of, and not started in on the next one, yet. I have all the fabrics for 2-3 of them sitting here in a big project box waiting for this lady to come down off the wall. 

Dear Jane BR # 12

This orange is from the Dear Jane 2 Collection of reproduction fabrics. Apparently, the original Jane Stickle has brighter colours than most of the Civil War reproduction fabrics that I bought to use for this quilt. So, they are all mixed in together and hopefully they will look okay in the finished product.

This triangle was straight forward. I simply paper pieced it and appliqued the base.

BR # 13

This last one was an interesting experience. I paper pieced it from the DJ software. However, the point was not available there so, I deferred to thatquilt for insight. I traced the top part of the point onto some foundation paper and started to stitch it up until I realized that I had not left enough seam allowance on the edge. So, instead of unstitching, I traced a second pattern and started over. Then, I realized that I had reversed the colours of the center and traced a third pattern, this time drawing in the seam allowances. I paid more careful attention and got the thing done. You can see the brighter blue of the Dear Jane reproduction to the right.

 

Dear Jane BR # 6

Seven more to go.
Blessings,
Chris