Super Simple Sampler in Blue

My final finish for 2019 is this Super Simple Sampler in Blue quilt.

 

I pieced it in early 2017 when this pattern Simple Sampler by Thangles was brand new.  I can indeed verify that this is a super simple pattern to stitch together, especially since it uses the Thangles method. The pattern and Thangles to make it are available for purchase by clicking here. As you can see by their sample, that I reversed the colors: using white in the blocks and a blue batik for the background. I love it!

While the piecing was fast and easy, it took another year (or year and a half!) to deliver it to a quilter. First I had to decide on a backing fabric, opting to stitch one made of a patchwork back of blues from my fabric collection (P. S. I am a quilter who loves to quilt-by-check any of the large bed size quilt tops that I stitch up).

In summer of 2018, I had this quilt quilted by one of the local long armers whom I frequent. Jenn Saxena did a wonderful job at quilting this top using a doodle flowers pattern.  .... then at long last in December of 2019, I stitched on the binding. Now it is complete!

Oh, wait, I may still need to add a label to it!  Guess it will be officially finished in 2020?

My quilt family

I love seeing my Quilt Family at our annual gathering in Houston for the International Quilt Market and Quilt Festival.  This blog post features a few favorite quilts made with Thangles, created by MB Hayes, who I met at Quilt Market maybe 1,000 years ago.  I plan to start one of these soon ....

I love this Orion Star quilt.  If you are familiar with Thangles, you may recognize this best selling pattern which is always on display in their booth at Quilt Shows and Markets -- but in a cooler color way (purples, blues and greens).  I plan to make it one day, possibly in reproduction prints ....  The project pack is available online (directions and Thangles included!) by clicking here.

This one is called "Gemini Stars" and is one of newer Thangles patterns.  You learn how to make the "tulip" block when stitching this one together.  It simply sparkles, don't you agree?

I love this StashBuster pattern!  It is very similar to the current 2014 StashBuster pattern that is the free bonus sent out with all online orders placed that year.  I hope they bring back the Stash Buster patterns one day....

This is a variation of a pattern called "Stash Balls" -- such a fun what to use up your colorful fabric stash! Thangles are so easy to use when stitching up patterns with half-square triangles. 

The blue and white quilt below is one of the older designs and possibly one of the first Thangles patterns that I ever made.  This one is similar to a pattern in the Dress Your Table collection. There are now two Dress Your Table patterns, both feature quick-to-sew small quilts (great for making and gifting to friends and family).  They are "Dress Your Table" and "Dress Your Table 2" (scroll down the page to see the second pattern).

To watch a demo on how to use Thangles, click here. 
To learn more about Thangles, explore their website https://thangles.com/
You can also connect to Thangles via a variety of social media links, including: Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook.... All links on the Thangles home page.

Testing patterns

I love paper piecing and I had no idea that I did .... that is until I volunteered to be a pattern-tester not knowing that the patterns were all paper-pieced ones!

Here are two from recent pattern testing gigs ....

This Geometric USA pattern is due to be released later this month by Quiet Play (aka Kristy Lea in Australia).  Check her many patterns on Craftsy (www.craftsy.com/profile/quiet-play-s-pattern-store ) & Payhip -- or browse thru her awesome posts on Instagram  ....

I finished the USA on July 4th, so added (digitally only right now) the "Happy 4th of July" across the top.  I'm pondering doing a paper pieced red-white&blue USA to put there but haven't decided.


I also tested this amazing lighthouse pattern, also by Quiet Play.

The model sailing ship was hand crafted by my dear Papa Herb (may he rest in peace).  I stitched up the sails for him and the ship is named for his sister Edna (also of blessed memory).  Papa Herb is/was my father-in-law and I still miss the quiet times we shared -- we were the two craftsy people in the family at the time.

The Geometric Lighthouse was released this spring and a bonus pattern to the "Release the Kraken" block of the month that Quiet Play and Gnome Angel are hosting.  These two creative Australians have teamed up as "Quarter Inch of Quirk" for this block of the month (I'm guessing it is the first of more that will come).  Check out hashtag: "release the kraken b-o-m" on IG for more of their joint block-of-the-month quilt (there are mermaids, sea creatures, and much more!).  By the way, the website for Gnome Angel (aka Angie) is www.gnomeangel.com and the website for their joint venture is www.quarterinchofquirk.com/




An important reminder (or lesson, or tip) is to ALWAYS be sure to double check your "printer settings" before printing your paper piece patterns. 

Most every pattern will have a test square that (once printed) will measure to be an accurate 1" square.  Print your patterns at 100% and then be sure to measure your test square.  When you do this, your finished paper-pieced block will end up the size as stated on the pattern (ask me how I know?  and no need to ask how many times I forgot to measure my tester square before piecing the entire block...)

Look carefully above -- my 1" square is SMALLER than the 1" ruler markings -- this is not a good sign.  If they do not match, go back and carefully examine your printer settings ..... 

New list of finishing goals ....

Here is my current top ten (plus 2) list of projects that I aim to finish by the end of September....  All have indeed been started and yet are lingering too long in this unfinished limbo state.

1) bind my first Red-n-White quilt (& label)

2) bind my Oopsie Daisy quilt (& label)

3) finish my cross stitch ABC Words of Wisdom

4) buttons and buttonholes on peach plaid shirt

5) stitch up rayon peach top

6) quilt "Dream" quilttop (or will it be a pillow? or pillow case?)

7) quilt "Geometric USA" then finish into mini quilt or pillow

8) finish assembling 2015 Row-by-Row (water theme)

9) finish piecing, quilting, binding & label the latest Thangles pattern

10) dress and garnish my first spirit doll (maybe more than one)

 11) bonus:  quilt and finish my original Instagram logo mini-quilt (and finish an identical twin for a future swap ...) pattern by Lori Holt (IG: beelori1; her website: www.beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/)

12) might as well go for an even dozen:  finish any old UFO that I re-discover in the next two months .... (hee hee hee - there are many that I've forgotten about!)


This is my official list for the Finish-Along group effort -- teams of fellow finishers are wonderful spirit-boosters!  Check out this link or this one for more information and join (if you act fast .....).

Thank you to all the Finish-Along hostesses and prize donors and participants for inspiring me to get things DONE!

I am happy to report that I am linky number 87 for the 3rd quarter of 2017 Finish-along fun.

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!

Progress report on my Drunkard's Wife

I have three more blocks pieced and ready to share.  

The very first block, the Happy Hour Star, is an oops version based on the traditional pattern known as the Sawtooth Star.  It is currently lacking the embroidery in the center square at the moment, which will personalize the block and the entire quilt.  

block #1 -  Happy Hour Star

I love the two fabrics in this block.  One is a lovely background of a line-drawn floral from Emma's Garden by Patty Sloniger (with Michael Miller Fabrics).  The other is a hand-dyed pink by my friend Laurel Cull.  Click here for directions to make an 8" finished version the Sawtooth Star or click here for Felice's directions for the 12" Happy Hour Star block.  Or use your own method, like I did.  I used 3" Thangles to piece the eight half-square triangle blocks which make the star points.

block #5 -  Mimosa

Since I am racing to catch up, I am not stitching the blocks in the order that Felice released them.  I stitched this one, Mimosa, next as it has a similar format to the first block.  Both blocks are a basic a four-patch made with 6" square units.  The dark burgundy print is from the Emma's Garden line, the pink is a recent calico print while the light background fabric is a more ancient calico print that has been aging in my stash for many years, possibly since the last century.  You will see more of it in this quilt, as I am working hard to Sew My Stash during 2016.  Click here for Felice's directions to make this 12" block.  While I almost opted out of her method thinking to use my trusty Thangles again, I decided to try this new fabric-saving method to piece the Flying Geese units 'discovered' by Patti R. Anderson of Patch Pieces.  Click here for directions on this original "No Waste Method for Making Flying Geese".  I do enjoy trying out new techniques such as this one.

block #8 -  Amaretto Sour

This is Amaretto Sour, the eighth block in the series and another four-patch. It is one of my favorites.  It uses the same Emma's Garden light print as seen in the first block above and a remnant from Brother Sister Design Studio that I found in my bag of pink scraps.  Click here for Felice's directions, use your own method, or try using 3" Thangles (which is what I did).

Three more blocks are complete. 

Stay tuned for more ....

Whiskey Sour

This is the second block in the Drunkard's Wife Quilt-Along, but in actuality, it is the first block that I made in this series.

block #2 -  Whiskey Sour

This Whiskey Sour block is a Twisted Oops on the traditional Churn Dash block which is a variation of a traditional 9-patch quilt block.  The center butterfly is from Emma's Garden, then more of Laurel's hand-dyed pink fabric, with an oldie of mine featuring tiny hearts dangling from strings (but the stripes are sideways here -- so that the butterfly can fly up). Click here for Felice's directions.

I can hardly wait to share it with my traditional quilt bee .... what will they think of making a quilt which has an error, a deliberate mistake, in every single block?

I love this block both in the correct layout and also in this oopsie version.  The error is quite noticeable (even to the non-quilters among us), and yet it is pleasing as well (at least to me).  This block makes me smile.

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.

Tree of Life

The 2015 International Quilt Festival closed a week ago today and I am late in sharing photos and stories from this annual gathering.  I am starting this year's review with a post about the one class that I took this year, the Tree of Life taught by my good friend Sara Hochhauser.  This is a new pattern of a traditional pattern using Thangles. 

This is a new pattern of a traditional block that Sara is developing using Thangles.  Below are the pieces that will be growing into a full tree.

I enjoyed seeing the variety of colors and fabrics that others brought to make this quilt block. Here are a few (the last ones to pack up and leave the classroom -- I didn't think of getting photos until after others had left) of the trees that were started during our three-hour class.

This first one, a Yellow tree, is in the early stages of piecing the sections of leaves and branches for the block.

 

This Blue tree is ready to have the sides stitched together (they are only pinned at the moment this photograph was taken).

This is my Red tree.  It will be going into my growing stack of red-n-white blocks.  I am planning a red-n-white sampler quilt, inspired by last year's huge Red-n-White quilt exhibit to honor the International Quilt Festival's Fortieth Anniversary.

Most students in the class were able to piece the main components of this lovely block, and many actually finished their entire block in our three hour class.

This is another sample that Sara shared with us.  I love the quilting -- the vining leaves on the dark background.  I am also dreaming of making one quilt of four trees, each representing a different season.  Sara also shared her version of a Four Seasons quilt that she had made.  I can also picture my many quilt-pins being attached to the leaves and in the background of this quilt ... I have many plans for more of these tree blocks....


I must end with the tale of a lovely wedding that I attending in New Orleans this week-end.

The bride and groom exchanged their vows under the spreading branches of the spectacular "Tree of Life" located in Audubon Park.

Legend states that "the tree was first planted as a wedding gift for the bride of a New Orleans plantation owner many years ago. And the gift of love still stands today", over one hundred years later.

While many brides and grooms in New Orleans are married standing in front of this massive and impressive Tree of Life, not many of them exchange their vows in a rain storm!  This wedding happened in spite of the weather, and the party that followed was loud and festive.  Great food, drink, dancing and the live music was awesome!  If you're ever invited to a wedding in New Orleans, go!  You will be glad you did -- and check the weather before heading there so you arrive prepared with a rain coat (if needed).  Mazel Tov to Lizzy & Danny!  May your years together be filled with love, sweetness and good times, regardless of the weather outside.