Even though I haven't been showing any sewing, I have been productively engaged in quilt making.

Some time ago, I began piecing quilt blocks from the Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month.  It's a free course taught by Amy Gibson of Stitchery, Dickery, Dock, and I learned a number of new-to-me techniques.  I have decided I much prefer watching videos showing how to construct something and then referring to directions for specifics.  I guess that means I'm primarily a visual learner.  Anyone else like me out there?

My daughter held up the quilt top but my phone was slow to take the pictures.  After several tries, I actually got one of the whole quilt held up straight, but I much preferred this one.

Missouri Star Quilt Company had directions for an inside out block and I had the plastic template so I tried this too.  It isn't quilted yet but I found the dark purple outside fabric at JoAnn Fabrics so that will be the back and binding. 

Originally I planned to donate this quilt to Camp Acheaway for youthful arthritis sufferers, but I kept thinking of someone as I made it so I suspect it will eventually make its way to her.  Instead, I bought fleece on a 60% off sale at JoAnn's for fleece blankets to donate:

I didn't take a finished picture but here is the raw product.  The top two fabrics were coupled together and the bottom two made the second blanket.  I love the abstract design and colors!

Wrapping up the holidays

My hexagon block is finished for the Amy Gibson modern quilt.  I'm not a big fan of doing hexagons and I have one more quilt block using them.  I suspect paper piecing will be something I'll do when I have to do it.  It takes considerably more work although Amy's video instruction makes it simple.  I used regular copy paper for templates and can see the advantage of buying pre-made hexagons.  Mine weren't perfectly sized either but it worked.

 

This year we finally bought an emergency kit of food for our family.  120 entrees while they were on sale.  We've often put in 72-hour kits using regular canned food but that food takes more space and doesn't keep as long.  Now to figure out where to store water.

I found a new recipe for Hamburger Stew.  Originally I used radishes instead of potatoes to make it THM friendly (which I liked but my husband did not), and then I made it again with potatoes.  The Pioneer Woman definitely knows how to cook!  I think I'll be buying her first cookbook soon to help my son become a more confident cook.

Tis the season for movies.  We saw both Rogue 1 (Star Wars) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Harry Potter).  So good and we found an incredible theater about 30 minutes away from our house that makes the movie-going experience worth it.  Matinees are also my favorite way to save money and not deal with gross highway traffic.

On to failed gifts.  I made placemats with this fabric, an artist special:

They looked really nice until I rinsed off the blue marker I used to guide my quilting stitches.  If you look closely, you'll see stray pink marks from the burgundy color in the binding fabric.  I was really upset.  I learned to pre-wash fabric, especially dark fabric.  I washed them with color catchers but it wasn't enough.

Here's another set I made:

I like the quilting better on these anyway.

This n that

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Today I spent more time on a Christmas present that I will not be able to reveal until after Christmas, and I'm bursting to tell!  I am quite excited about it but I can't tell yet.

Yesterday my son and I spent some time together at the Krohn Conservatory for the 2016 Holiday show to see the Christmas decorations.  I enjoyed touring it with him, and then we hit Five Guys for lunch.  Yummy!

Steven in a train carved out of a tree trunk:

Pretty cool, huh!

Finally a view of part of the holiday scene.  The buildings are miniatures of buildings in Cincinnati, as is the train that circles throughout the whole thing.

And finally, some quilting!  I cut out 13 hexagon shapes from paper for my modern quilt from Craftsy's 2012 Block of the Month by Amy Gibson, and 13 3 1/2" squares.  Here's decision time for fabrics.  I hope they work!

And cutting around each paper form on my new rotating mat!  I used my glue stick to keep the fabric squares attached at this point.  It worked!

Next up:  hand basting.  This from the girl who doesn't do hand sewing.

Oh, check out Sew Mama Sew for giveaways, but they're almost over so hurry!

One more for those who like art of all sorts:  check out JessicaPutnamPhillips.com for a ceramics artist.  I've been following her on Periscope while I quilt my surprise.  I've learned a lot about ceramics watching her scopes.  I still choose quilting, but what she does is amazing!  She shares my view that art allows me to focus on what I'm doing instead of worrying.  It's a way to just be and find my place.

Freedom in the creative process

One of the challenges I have struggled with in quilting is trusting myself to choose fabric that works together.  I suspect, given the number of blogs, videos, and classes, that many others struggle with it too.  

As a result, I have chosen colors and fabric lines pretty much as directed by the pattern designer.

And that's okay.

But this time I can't.  This block of the month quilt was created back in 2012, and whatever fabric line was sold with it at the time is no longer available.  So I began exploring my stash possibilities.  Not being happy with that, I purchased a set of Rowan from the Kaffe Fassett Collective.  It opened up many possibilities for me but I still wanted to use other colors and designs I already had.

The first thing I did was consider already-completed blocks.

Then I started choosing colors and patterns I liked that I thought might play together well.  I really wanted to use the abstract fabric at the bottom of each stack and the blue/green that is showing up in two out of the three already-completed blocks.  I took pictures of each and converted the photos to black and white to see what kind of contrast they created.  That knocked out some combinations.

I liked this one but kept searching:

Black and white coloring made the pink and blue/green look exactly the same so this next one got knocked out.

Finally it came down to the next two.  The red print was the only one that changed.

Ultimately I decided that I didn't like the abstract peach/reddish on the bottom of the stack with the bolder geometric.  I also didn't like how the two greens fought each other.  Fighting kids aren't allowed on the playground, and I don't want them in the same block (although I think I'll use that geometric piece in another block in this quilt.)  

So let's see how it comes together.  I laid out the half-square triangles and full square pieces.

Then I began sewing the pieces together:

The completed block:

Finally, how do the four blocks look all together?

I think the overall effect is to cool down the really hot colors in blocks 2 (#) and 3 (Balkan puzzle). This picture helped me see that I need to make another block with that orange print playing in the background or the wonky pound sign block will look out of place.  

Individual liberty in technique

We're in the thick of a very scary political season, and I am realizing more and more how much I value individual liberties and how concerned I am that we are giving them away.  It should come as no surprise then that one of the things I love about quilting is how much freedom the individual quilter has in creating his or her own work, even in something as basic as half-square triangles.  I know of 3 ways to make them although I have only used 2 of them.  (I haven't yet cut a triangle and sewn it to another one.)  This particular block uses 2 ways.  I also love how Amy Gibson allowed a little extra so I could cut it down for an exact measurement--forgiveness is wonderful!

I also love how I can combine any fabrics I choose.  You may not like the selections I chose, and that's okay.  They felt good to me.  You can choose entirely different fabrics.  Or a different kind of quilt pattern or none at all.

I chose to press the seams open.  I initially learned to press seams to the dark side, but I began to run into problems doing it that way because sometimes I'd have 4 layers of fabrics to press and sew through.  Those problems got worse when I began doing my own quilting.  So I pressed all the seams open on this block. 

I love the creative process!  You have so much freedom in it.

Back to the future!

Have I ever mentioned that I love Amy Gibson from Stitchery, Dickery, Dock?  She is so encouraging!  She's doing a Sugar Block of the Month this year, but I picked up Crafty's 2012 BOM by Amy to do earlier this year.  Can I just tell you how much fun it is?  I'm really excited because she leads the viewer through all kinds of blocks, including a few I've not had the courage to try on my own.

Amy has also published a book, The Quilt Block Cookbook, that I'd love to have! Go to her site and follow her Quilt Block Cookbook Blog Hop to see why.

That was a long preamble to say that I've finally made the third block in the Craftsy 2012 BOM.  I've been concerned because my first block was made from cool colors and my second from warm (hot) colors.  My third block, the Balkan Puzzle block, married both color schemes together.

The first one, the Asterisk block, is in cool tones; the second, the Wonky Pound Sign, is rather hot; and the bottom one is the Balkan Puzzle.  I'm very happy with it!  The bright orange is a print although that doesn't show up as well.

New ongoing project

I have found that my days feel much more complete and my worry levels drop when I create something every day.

Creating a new block fills the need so I've begun the Craftsy 2012 BOM quilt by Amy Gibson, author of Stitchery, Dickory, Dock on my sidebar.  I haven't ever tried modern quilting so I was pleasantly surprised to find I have enjoyed making the first two blocks that she teaches.  (She is doing another BOM this year, but I fell in love with this first block in her 2012 BOM.)

The asterisk block:

I LOVE these two fabrics together with the green dots on blue with the green asterisk.  This is my favorite shade of green.  Originally I planned to make this green the background color tying the whole quilt together.  I changed my mind when I realized I'm going to make a Crosswalk quilt with green as the predominant color so while all of these blocks will work together and I will use green in many of the blocks, I'll probably sash it with a different background color.  

The following block is a leading reason I decided not to stay with green in every block.  I really, really love the boldness of these fabrics together!

So somehow or other, these two blocks will look good together!  Orange and green will both play prominently in the other blocks.  I think.