Friday, May 22, 2015

Big Bang! ... and other things

 
This is "Big Bang".  It's similar to an earlier quilt I made.  I wanted to make another one 1) to use up the Laurel Burch panel that I had, 2) because I like the quilt and gave the first one away, and 3) my quilting is a lot better now - and  4) for fun of course!  I submitted it for consideration as an entry to the Canadian Quilters' Association show, but they did not accept it.  I got some weird comments - my favorite suggested that I should reverse the colours so that it would look more authentic.  Hmmmm, nice to know there are astrophysicists on the selection committee!  It just struck me as funny.  Anyway, they didn't want my quilt, which means I can post it here and dis the CQA at the same time!  :) 




 
 
Joan is "modelling" Big Bang.

Joan and Kristie are modelling the placemats they made for a charity.

This (above) is the first quilt I've made for my house.  Started it at our retreat last spring and finally got it quilted in the last few months.  It is now actually on the guest bed in my house! 
 
Below is a little quilt I made from a fat quarter bundle that Joan gave me as a "get well" gift following surgery last year.  The quilt went together really well - it's the Lemon Squares quilt.  Easy pattern and I used it to play with quilting. Every block is quilted differently.  I had a lot of fun with it.












 
Joan and Carol and I did a "mystery quilt" class back in March.  This is one of the quilts (not mine) that resulted.  I think it might be Joan's but at this point, not sure.

 
I finished my quilt quite quickly (how's that for three "q" words in a row?).  I wanted to make my sister some of these cupcake hot pads  so I used the left over time to do that.  Joan is modelling them.  In the end, I think I made six of them. 



Joan and Laura (the mystery quilt instructor)  modelling a little creation of Joan's.
 
Below is my mystery quilt.  I have to admit, I don't like it.  I used a lot of really nice fabric (Laurel Burch horses) on this quilt and in the end, not real happy with it so I won't be doing another mystery quilt class in the future. 

 
 
I've been asked to teach a class on "matchstick quilting" - class dates: June 11 and July 9.  The next five pix are the samples I made for the class.  I used a variety of colours of Wonderfil thread - experimenting. 
 
 
Overall "matchstick" (above).

 
Matchstick in circles with horizontal lines (spaced a bit wider than matchstick).

 
Making designs with matchstick with "fancy" stitching as accent on the right.

 
And some more.

 
Matchstick outlining a design or words and some other straight line quilting.
 
Next up - a little quilt I made for the daughter of very good family friends.  Roz is not a "girly girl" and she likes red, so this is what I came up with.  It is a pattern on the Connecting Threads website.  Again I had fun with the quilting. 
 


Roz and Will, the happy couple.

 
I had collected a few fabrics with a "Steampunk" theme.  I used them in the big blocks. ( I called the quilt "Steamfunk". )



Roz is a biologist so I put a DNA helix in there.



Will is a computer guy so there is a string of ascii text in the bottom of the above red section.  There are 8 digits for each letter in ascii so I only had room for two letters.  I chose the word "us". 



Blue, yellow and white is one of my favourite colour combinations.  I made this little mini for our mini quilt exchange at the Modern Quilt Guild that I belong to.   I used the Quick Curve Ruler that I bought.  Pattern is here.
 
I've been making purses for my Mom for the last few years because she doesn't like "store purses" - they are too heavy.  So I broke down and bought a pattern/class from Annie's Crafts.  It was worth the investment - very happy with the result.  So is my Mom. 
 
 
Mom liked it so I offered to make one for a couple of my sisters.  They said yes - so I've got them cut out and ready to sew.  But I also asked if my bro-in-law would like a "man bag".  He thought he would use a messenger bag so I said sure - I'd make one.  Well, a messenger bag is a great opportunity to figure out something for the front flap.  I found some dragon paper piecing patterns here, so I made one (below).  It took me three days to make it - very detailed.  But I LOVE it.  So I made the bag and I love that, too!  So I'm going to "test" it.  Dan might get it after I make another one!  :) 
 
 
 
Above is the block, below is the finished bag.

 
I think I'm pretty well all caught up with my stuff now!  Tomorrow, off to the annual Heritage Park Festival of Quilts and vendors market!  And the weather is supposed to be fabulous so really looking forward to that.  And I'll be sitting at our Modern Guild table at HP on Sunday.  So a busy quilty weekend coming up!