My lil owlie pillow

I spent the evening repairing this little pillow.

Lil Owlie - after the attack

As you can see,  my lil owlie has suffered a vicious mauling by our puppy when he (the puppy) was still new to the family (he's a little older and wiser now).  I've tucked the damaged pillow away for over a year or maybe closer to two years.  I loved it too much to toss it and yet hadn't decided how to repair it (especially the lower right corner - can you see that the corner is missing?).

I made this pillow using an owl from my toddler class bulletin board (in 2011-12, my co-teacher and I decorated our classroom with these owls).  I made two owl pillows, trading one in Another Little Quilt Swap (in the 7th swap) and keeping the other one (the one shown above) for my home. I especially love the background of this as my friend Liz B painted, over-dyed lightly, and enhanced it.  Click  here for more information on this pillow.


Meanwhile, on Instagram, The Cloth Pocket is hosting a WIP contest tonight.  I immediately grabbed this damaged owl and determined to fix it ....

Lil Owlie in need of new eyes and a beak

First step:  Carefully remove the damaged, half-eaten eyes and beak.
Next:  Stitch two black yo-yos, attach to white circles and stitch in place on the owlie's face.
Next:  Make the new beak and stitch it in place too.
Last of all:  Mend the dog-chewed-and-eaten corner ....

Lil Owlie ready to party again!

Ta-dah!
I've finished!

This marks my second finish in the 2016 Finish Along for the first quarter.  Do you like my creative patch to mend the lower right corner?  This little sleeping owl is appliqued in place and matches the fabric on the pillow back.  Click here for my original list of UFOs to finish for this quarter.

My lil owlie pillow is #345 of the official Q1 finishes for this first quarter.  Click here to see it and other amazing finishes.


Thank you to @TheClothPocket and also to the many hostesses of @FinishAlong  #2016FAL; #finishalong2016  #theclothpocketwipcontest #wipcontest

Blue dog and red kitties

I love testing new patterns and basically I love to sew and I truthfully accomplish more when I have a set deadline to finish by (especially when someone else sets the deadline, so I cannot push it back).

Here is the latest.... I was asked to test a new paper piecing pattern for Kristy of Quiet Play, and share the results by January 20.  This is my progress photo:

 

This shows the madcap scramble of the pieces to the puzzle that will soon morph into a completed 12 1/2" quilt block.  Can you guess what it will be?  (confession: I may have cropped out a few of the sections -- can you spy the dog's nose?)

Here is the finished block which I have titled: My Blue Doxie

Cute.  

Don't you agree?

This is called Geometric Doxie Paper Pieced Pattern and is one of the newest patterns released by Kristy @ Quiet Play.  Click here to see her website or here to see her patterns.   Kristy also has her patterns on Craftsy (click here).

I have tested a few other Quiet Play patterns as well.  My first (and still favorite) is this sitting kitty, which I've mentioned in a previous post, but here is a little more of the behind-the-scenes story.

The pattern is called "Geometric Little Cat Paper Pieced Pattern" and is only available on her payhip site (click here).   I pieced this in red as my Houston Modern Quilt Guild was having a red-and-white block exchange with the London Modern Quilt Guild.  The blocks were meant to be 12" finished and this measured a smidgeon too small so I added this border.

The upper portion was simple -- just cut more of the Kona white with my rotary cutter.  The lower portion was trickier due to the stripes.  Cut one lengthwise and then two crosswise.  But I do like how it turned out.  I have named this one My London Kitty and hope it finds happiness in its new London home.

In fact, I loved my London kitty so much that I decided I must make another one for myself to keep.  Here is My Houston Kitty.

When I was piecing this kitty, I totally forgot to use a different color for the floor that the kitty is sitting on, and originally pieced the entire kitty with an all white background.  I didn't like it and didn't know what to do to fix it.  I didn't relish the idea of restitching the entire tail section .... so ... I carefully removed the tail from the background white and the appliqued the entire tail onto the new floor section.  If you compare this Kitty to the London Kitty, you can see that the section with the tail does not have the same seams .....  I love this little kitty and am thrilled with how it turned out.  Perhaps I will make another ....

These are just two of the patterns by Kristy @ Quiet Play that I have made.  Her patterns are a fabulous introduction into paper-piecing -- although if you are a beginner, select a pattern without as many teeny-tiny pieces!  If you run into difficulties with her directions, Kristy is just a short email away -- or message her through InstaGram (@quietplay).  She lives across an ocean from me, but through the marvels of our digital age, she is much closer!

Quiet Play

As the year draws to a close, I am speedily stitching up the letter "Z".

Why?  Because I am a pattern tester for Kristy of Quiet Play and her newest pattern is the Geometric Alphabet (upper case).  The letter Z is one of the letters I am testing for her.

Thus I am stitching up the last letter of the alphabet on the last day of the year of 2015.  I love ending the year sewing a new pattern.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2016!

By the way, I have tested other patterns for Kristy too.  My favorite one is this sitting kitty.

I made the first kitty in red-n-white so I could swap it in an international block swap between my Houston Modern Quilt Guild and the London Modern Quilt Guild. 

I added a border to make the block large enough for the swap.

Then I made a second one for me to keep.

 

Paper piecing can be quite fun especially when using fabulous patterns such as these by Quiet Play.

Click here to see more of Kristy's patterns.  

Her patterns (including some free ones) can also be found here, a direct link to her site on Craftsy.
Click here to see another post about some of Kristy's paper pieced patterns.

Colorful quilts

I love making quilts.
It's a fact, simple and short and very very true.

But how many quilts can one household truly need?  Especially when their home is located in a never-snows-here climate?  What's a quilter to do?

I have found an easy answer -- I make quilts for charity!  In fact I make lots and lots of quilt tops that I donate to various causes (most are given to my traditional quilt guild and someone there finishes them).  Basically, I love to piece blocks and to piece together quilt-tops.

After this spring's severe flooding in Texas on Memorial Day, I joined a group formed on InstaGram (#FloodTexaswithLove) making many many quilts to give to the many flooded families.  Originally I planned to make a few blocks and send them in, but somehow I became the Houston coordinator and received many blocks, tops and quilts to finish and label before dispersing.  A few friends even dropped off their colorful scraps which I used to piece more blocks.  Below are a few of the completed quilts.

All the quilts above were all pieced using the Just One Slab pattern found in Cheryl Arkison's book Sunday Morning Quilts.  Many different people from across the country, and possibly Canada as well have made blocks and sent them to Sara.  Click here for my earlier blog post about how this drive started and for further information on how to make the scrappy-one-color block or click here for Sara's original blog post about this.  Many thanks to Sara (@supersara20 on IG) for initiating this quilt drive and also to Cheryl (@cheryl_arkison on IG) for granting us the permission to use her pattern for these colorful quilts.

Many quilters also donated quilts made using different patterns and techniques, as seen below.

A Trio of Scrappy Striped Columns

an Around the World pattern

A Modern Graphic Color-Study

A Texas-themed Split Nine-Patch

A Batik of Abstract Stars

An original design was used to make the labels for these quilts.  Thank you the gracious Instagrammer for the colorful logo which appears below.

Thank you also to Karri (@karriofberries on IG) for printing numerous labels for me.  Photos below show the label stitched onto a few of the quilts.

I confess that I have lost track of how many of these quilts have passed through my hands, but it is well over a dozen perhaps close to two dozen.  I have personally handed out some to dear friends that suffered from the flooding and must thank Marna M. and Jamie B. for helping to deliver more of these quilts.  There are still a few being quilted by other volunteers (so many have donated fabric, thread, time, and their talent and skill!), so I haven't quite closed up shop yet ... but I plan to end the drive as this year draws to a close ... any new blocks or scraps that may find their way to my home will be used for new quilts that will be given away to someone who in need of extra hugs from the world at large. 

Thank yous must be extended to the great InstaGram community of quilters including all those named above and many many more.  We love to sew and to comfort others, especially in their times of stress and discomfort.  Hugs to all who received one of these quilts and more hugs to the quilters who helped to make the amazing gifts of so many quilts happen.

Modern Rainbow Blog Tour

 

Becca Bryan's Modern Rainbow three week blog tour has begun.  Visit a few blogs and enter your chance to win a copy of her colorful book.

I met Becca through the Houston Modern Quilt Guild and tested a pattern for her last Fall, Trilobite Cats shown here.

Trilobite Cats

At the time I made my rainbow trilobite cats, I had no idea that Becca's new book being published by Stash Books was about using colors of the rainbow in quilts. 

 

Imagine my surprise when I saw her five quilts on display at QuiltCon (four were juried into the show and the fifth was on display in a booth) and learned that this is the theme of her book.

Rainbow Remix by Rebecca Bryan

Rainbow Remix was inspired by quilts made by the Quilters of Ghee's Bend.  Becca gives directions in how to make this quilt more wonky or less wonky, leaving it to your preference.  To get started,  gather 10" squares of fabric ... in fifty different solid colors.

detail of Huckleberry by Rebecca Bryan

Here is a detail view of Huckleberry to see the exquisite quilting, a true example that quilting makes the quilt. This is the quilt featured on her blog tour logo, showing the entire color wheel with 72 different solids.

Ducks in a Row by Rebecca Bryan, quilted by Angela Walters

I love this quilt from its' name to the scrappy low volume background to the colorful "ducks".  Becca says this quilt was inspired by a textile on display in a Houston restaurant.  Yes, inspiration to create comes from anywhere and everywhere.  One only needs to look ....

Which may explain why I love to wander among the quilts at quilt shows, looking and admiring and soaking up inspiration.  On the last morning of QuiltCon 2015, I bumped into Patty Sloniger, a friend and designer for Michael Miller fabrics and she mentioned that Becca was giving a free lecture in 10 minutes. Quickly, I finished snapping a few final photos and hurried to get a seat.  Becca's talk was all about color, of course. 

She shared guidelines to think about when playing color and showed early blocks that were reworked differently before going into her book - a good lesson that not every idea works perfectly on the first go-around.

I enjoyed her presentation and afterwards zoomed directly to Stash Books where I spied Wavelength, the quilt that graces the cover of her book. 

Wavelength by Rebecca Bryan, quilted by Angela Walters

 
Now back to her blog tour, yesterday's featured blog was Sally's Angel Works, my friend Sally Keller, the current President of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.  Sally shared a quilt she made from Becca's book. 

Irish + by Sally Keller

This is Sally's version of Irish +.

 

Here are all the stops on the Modern Rainbow Blog Tour.

Stop by and visit as many as you can -- because each have been given a copy of this book to giveaway (International visitors will be sent an electronic copy).

March 23rd             C&T/ Stash Books

March 24th             Heidi Staples of Fabric Mutt

March 25th             Generation Q Magazine

March 26th             Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane 

March 27th  Sally Keller of Sally’s Angelworks

 

March 30th            Amy Garro of 13 Spools

March 31st            Angela Walters of Quilting is my Therapy

April 1st                Rebecca over at Craft Buds

April 2nd               Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness

April 3rd               Sarah Craig of Confessions of a Fabric Addict

 

April 6th                Janice Zeller Ryan of Better Off Thread

April 7th                Beth Vassalo of Plum and June

April 8th                Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft

April 9th                Giuseppe Ribaudo @giucy_giuce

April 9th                Shannon Brinkley of Bottle Tree Quilts

 

April 10th              Rebecca Bryan at Bryan House Quilts

I cannot decide which quilt I want to make first from this book.  Possibly this one ...

Flame by Rebecca Bryan

Flame, or The Impossible Rainbow, or Rainbow Remix, or MonStar, or Scattered, or Icarus Star, or .... Hmmm, how to decide?

Which quilt appeals to you? 

My March finish

I've been busy this month and have finished my UFO of an ancient JoAnn's Block of the Month program.  Remember these blocks?

I cut 8 1/2" squares of some similar era (as in old, probably JoAnn's remnants) Christmas prints and pieced together this diagonal row-by-row top.

It is destined to be a charity quilt, as soon as I turn it into my traditional guild, the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston (QGGH), to be quilted (or tied) and bound.

I also finished not one, nor two but four blocks for this special hush-hush quilt for a friend in my modern guild, the Houston Modern Quilt Guild (HMQG).  Hopefully we have enough blocks collected now to finish this quilt for one of our members -- hush-hush.

This is called the Japanese x and + block and it was fast and easy to sew.  It finishes to a 12.5" size (or 13" unfinished).  Megan of CityStitches has posted excellent directions in case you wish to make your own Japanese x and + block on her blog here:

http://citystitches.blogspot.com/2012/03/japanese-x-and-tutorial.html

I did more stitching and pieced another charity top for my traditional quilt guild, QGGH.  So next month I will be turning in two quilt tops to our Comforters Corner (charity quilts we make and give away) in April.

Of these three projects, I like the Japanese x and + polka dot blocks the best.


This completes my month's "A Lovely Year of Quilt Finishes" challenge.  Join our monthly challenge group, or click here to see the others who have completed their March goals and posted links.  I am linky #29 (gotta love a prime number!).  On the Goals for March page where the Goal Setting Party is happening, I am linky #58 (my goal linky is twice my finish linky - more math fun).
 

Day 5: FB Art Challenge

This is my 5th (and final) Day of the FB Art Challenge.  

I was nominated by Pam Biswas.   Thank you Pam!  For my fifth and final day of the challenge, I am sharing three more favorites, two are my most recent quilts while the last one is an older fiber art piece.  I hope you enjoy them.

Not everyone has a "Vanna White" to model with their quilts and fiber art.  Fortunately, our smart dog Andy thought he'd give it a whirl......

How did he do?

This quilt was made in the Spring of 2014 as part of the Fourth Annual Modern Quilt Guild challenge sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics.  See their website: https://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/.  The line is called Petal Pinwheels and has a fun, light, summery look, plus the Michael Miller fabrics all have a wonderful feel.  Click here to see the full line of Petal Pinwheels.  These are the six that were used for this challenge.

Of the six fabrics distributed for this challenge, I selected three to use (petal pinwheels, petal garland and pegs a plenty) and added two solids: white and gray.  I knew I wanted to make a quilt large enough to be a baby quilt or a lap quilt for someone.  I had great fun playing with many design options.

I call this quilt "Candyland" ... well, actually, my son helped with the name.  One evident fact is that I must practice my free-motion machine quilting.  I must confess that I do prefer to design and stitch the tops of my quilts, then find a friend to do the quilting.  Click here to see an earlier blog about "Candyland".


Many fellow members of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild also participated in this 2014 Michael Miller challenge.  Everyone (or many) brought their finished (or near finished) challenge pieces to our July 19th HMQG meeting and posed for this group photo.

Since I was teaching my first quilt workshop that day (Quiltville's Scrappy Trip around the World, with my Modern Scrappy Twist version as an option - which I may still blog about someday...) it is now surprise (to me) that I was in the early stages of making my Michael Miller challenge piece and did not bring these beginnings to share with the group.  I did some fast sewing and quilting after our meeting to meet the challenge deadline on July 25, 2014.  Click here to see the three winners and their amazing quilts and here to see a few more that were also entered.


Michael Miller announced a new challenge for the Modern Quilt Guild members for the 2015 Quilt Con in September 2014.  This new challenge featured eight solids from the Michael Miller Spring Couture line. The MM Spring Cotton Couture challenge colors are:

Opal

Breeze

Spa

Spring

Blossom

Creamsicle

Candlelight

Soft White

The rules of this 2015 challenge were straight forward: use only Michael Miller fabrics, and only solids on the front of the quilt.  Once I found the darker Cotton Couture solids (at High Fashion Fabrics), I knew I would use the "Pot Pie" pattern by Thangles.  I had to resize the pattern as it called for fat quarters but I had only fat eighths of the challenge fabric to use.  Click here and here to read more about the making of this quilt.

 

"Mmm, Pot Pie" is the name of this quilt.  The name is a spoof both on the yummy pattern name as well as being a play on Michael Miller (Mmm) fabric line.  I love the simplicity of this pattern, especially the random mix-matching of the solid colors but I especially love the quilting too.  Pam Biswas did a spectacular job with the quilting this time, didn't she?

I especially love the spiky spirals - they make me think of roosters (not sure why, but they do).  Can you see the spiky swirls on the yellow/burgundy block above? 

My last piece to share is my valentine-y fiber art, in honor of the chocolatey sweet holiday that is fast approaching.  

Presenting a glimpse of Hearts A'Flutter....

 

I dabbled in a variety of surface techniques when making this piece.  I finished in time to exhibit in Beyond the Borders, the first fiber art show at the Copper Shade Tree Gallery in Round Top, Texas held in February 2007.  My very first post when I began this blog features this fiber art piece.  Click here to read it.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone ... especially to you!

I nominate Mona Keegan to join this 5-day Art Challenge by posting three photos a day of her artwork, and nominating another artist to carry the challenge ever forward.  Mona, I look forward to seeing more of your lovely art!