Blogger's Quilt Festival: Flowers Over Falls

Hello!  If you're popping by from the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  If you're a regular visitor, you have seen this one before...

This year, I participated in my first online bee, called Simply Solids.  The rules were simple, too - only solids allowed!

My month was June I stretched my brain for a while and was struck by the idea of a waterfall. To give it some visual oomph, I also decided flowers should be headed over the falls as well.

I sent my bee mates two different blues, two orange squares, and a strip of stone, asking them to make an abstract improv block - free-style, 12.5"x16.5".  And did they deliver!!

I added an irregular sashing, and some borders - the layout of the quilt actually looks like this if you get close to it.

I wanted the water look to be unbroken so I made the binding shift in tone as it went around.

Then I quilted it in wavy, watery lines, broken a little in places by imaginary rocks behind the 'water.'  It's a little hard to believe just by looking at it but there are actually eleven different Kona solids and three different threads.  There is also the handiwork of eleven different people, other than myself, and I can't thank them enough for the beautiful blocks they made.

The back was built around one block I received that I absolutely loved (it's based on Fibonacci - how clever is that?) but it kept popping out when I tried in the front layout.  I did my best to emulate the design and make it macro on the back.

You can read more about this quilt and how it came to be in this post here. And if you are in Saskatoon this weekend, you can see it in person at SaskatoonQuilts!2013 out at Prairieland. :-)

Quilt: Flowers Over Falls

Size: approx. 66" x 80"

Finished: August 2013

Category: Group/Bee Quilts

Contributors:  Myself and the other awesome quilters of Aeneous Group - Simply Solids Modern Bee, plus one super lovely friend from UK

Thank you to Amy Ellis for hosting, all the sponsors who are so generous with their support, and all the other quilters are participating (and you for stopping by!)




Past Festival Entries:
Spring 2013 - Random Containment
Fall 2012 - Homespun
Spring 2012 - Myself as a Teacher

Finished: Flowers Over Falls - Simply Solids Bee Quilt

Yeah, I fell off the face of the earth again.  It's been a slice.  I'll spare you the details.

I have a few things I've been meaning to share and I'll get to them.  I truly want to catch up on all the things I've missed - and I have missed you all and your projects and your wit and your insights.  I have just been incredibly unplugged this summer, and I think that's a good thing. Back to teaching on Tuesday so I imagine my routines will start coming back slowly but surely. (And I owe more than a few emails....)

I HAVE managed to finish my Simply Solids Bee quilt.  June was my month and while one bee member dropped out, an awesome block friend from UK (Hi, Susan!) offered to make one for me.  SO cool!!

One must always have a tall person in the family - thanks, bro!

My concept for this quilt was the idea of flowers and twigs heading over a waterfall.  Each of my bee mates got two shades of blue, two squares of orange, a strip of tan (all Kona) and instructions to improv-piece an abstract block that measured 12.5 x 16.5". (See my post here for more details...)

And they did a beautiful job!!  I made the sashing strips and borders ( also improvised) from the scraps they sent back and spare yardage.

Then I sewed the top together - but in keeping with the improv/modern/abstract idea, I didn't use a traditional layout.  The layout actually looks like this:

All together, there are 7 blues (sky, aqua, baby blue, bahama blue, peacock, turquoise and teal), two oranges (mango and flame) and two neutrals (white and stone). There are only a few scraps of white. I tossed them in with the sky blue so that the sky blue looked blue and not white!

There was one block that I absolutely loved but try as I might, I couldn't make it work with the rest of the improv blocks.  It broke my heart until I figured I could showcase it on the back and actually build the back to echo that block.  The entire back is a reflection of that block and uses up all the leftover yardage.

It's quilted with watery lines in three shades of blue thread.

I matched the binding to the gradient I'd created with the blocks so that the quilt appears borderless.  And I'm really happy with how it turned out. To make it work, I used Flourishing Palms' french-style binding method with great success. (Thanks, Linda!)

This might be one of my favourite quilts of all time!  I'm chuffed to bits with how it turned out and I have my very talented bee mates to thank for it (though some of them wanted to kill me... Oops. :-).

Faux art-shot....  Does it look like water over rocks? hahahaha.

Flowers Over Falls is about 68x80" and contains the handiwork of the Aeneous Group of the Simply Solids Modern Bee and Susan of Canadian Abroad.

Thanks so much, you talented bunch, you!!  I'm glad I managed to get it finished for an upcoming show in October AND before my birthday today/yesterday (30th).

This is me at 35. And 35 feels lovely.

Technical Tantrums and Other Fun Ways to Spend Your Week

The following section contains an explanation for my week+ absence based on a petty first-world problem.  Feel free to skip down to craftiness after the asterisks.

I am a little naive at times.  When my RSS reader (Reeder) told me that it would continue to work after the demise of Google Reader, I believed it. I didn't confirm that it would indeed work closer to the planned date.  Nope.  Imagine my surprise and dismay on July 2nd when it didn't. Blerg! Apparently, they're working on it but it wasn't going to be ready in time. ( I find it important to add here that I am not a total Luddite; I have embraced new technology faster than the average bear, but I'm rarely a first-adopter and I am cautious regarding change.  I still don't like the new Flickr....)

I went looking for a replacement, hopefully temporary, as I love Reeder - I had it all set up the way I like, I was happy with the interface, and it synced across all my devices.  I wasn't crazy about Bloglovin' but the Feedly app wouldn't let me login on my phone.

So then I spent a day and a half importing all my carefully curated feeds manually into Bloglovin'. I was then too tired and annoyed to read any of them for a few days.  And when I sat down to delve in, I hated it. I would even say I loathed it. It changed my settings randomly, wouldn't adapt to needs and ways of doing things, and it wouldn't import some of my feeds for seemingly arbitrary reasons.  I threw my hands up, closed the computer, and stewed.  I tried the mobile app.  Hated it, too.  Had that existential blogger moment where I questioned why I even bother to blog or read blogs, and in the grand scheme of things, what does it all mean???  I moped, offline, for a few more days.

Then, missing the interaction and inspiration (and my damn hockey news!), and blindly hoping that they'd already found a solution to Reeder, I returned to the desktop. Alas, no. But I spend another day manually importing my precious feeds, (and adding several more that I don't really have time for...)  into Feedly.  While it's not Reeder, it is more adaptable to what I'm looking for and how I use RSS.  I could breathe. It'll do.  Faced with an overwhelming total of posts in the 4-digits, I spend another afternoon going through each feed to clear out posts prior to when I'd checked out of the interwebs last week.  That brought it back to a manageable level. That's where I left it last.  Manageable.  Though I still worried about how to read on the go, which is how I do most of my non-comment/lurker reading.

Imagine my delight when the phone app for Reeder has been updated to work with Feedly. And all is right  moderately okay again in my blogging universe, though I still have some catching up to do. Phew.  Sometimes, technology is not worth the paper it's printed on....

******* (These are the asterisks I meant...)

During my impromptu blogging hiatus, I threw myself into sewing.

A July bee block for SimplySolids is done. It was very fun to do, though she'd warned us to be conservative with the fabric.  I didn't want to end up short so I made a little template for each row, save the last one, and used it to cut a triangle from each fabric ahead of time, and religiously trimmed each seam so that it would be easier to line up the pieces.  One pink triangle got a little cheeky but I didn't notice it until I'd already packed up the block for sending. I can see it in the photo but I'm hoping it's not a disappointment to my bee mate...

On my own bee quilt, I have almost all of the blocks (just two to come in) and I've started working on the sashing and border strips.  The sashing strips are 4.5x16.5" and are made from the scraps left over from the blocks. It's much farther along than this photo but I still have the top and bottom "border" strips to do. I've even made the binding!  I'm really enjoying this whole process.

I also finished up the charity quilt made by our guild but I'll save that for another post!

There were rumours this week of looking for a summer job but visiting family and a nasty chest cold that's left me worse than sotto voce (in fact, zero voce!) has quelled that idea.  I'm spending a lot of time watching movies, knitting socks, and glaring at people who ask me questions they know I am unable to vocalize an answer for and then make fun of my hoarseness. (That's right, Dad - I'm writing at you! Now, quit giggling.  It was funny when Seester was the voiceless one, sure, but you've gone too far... "What? What was that? Heeheehee."  Too far, sir.  :-P )

Simply Solids Bee - June Blocks

June is my month in the Simply Solids Bee.  I'm fairly excited and hope that my bee mates are game for a challenge and a little creative sewing!

My inspiration for this project is the idea of flowers (and a few stems) going over a waterfall.  That should explain my colour choices!

Bee Mates - here's what I'm asking of you (please don't panic - this is supposed to be fun and different!):

Using the fabrics I'm sending you, please make an improvised abstract block that measures 12.5" x 16.5".  Cut and sew - go crazy! Enjoy the process!

I've sent each of you a fat quarter of a lighter blue, an eighth of a darker blue, a strip of stone, and a square each of flame and mango.  Please leave the squares intact.  The strip you can make whatever length you wish and treat the ends however.  If you find you're running short of the blues, just give me a shout and I'll send you some more. Please return the scraps to me - I'll be needing them to finish the quilt top!

Some of the blues are very close in colour - that's intentional.  I hope it doesn't pigeon-hole your creative juices! Be free with it!

Simpler on the left - fussier on the right.  Whatever you feel like!

Just to give you an idea of how I see this coming together, I pieced a couple of sample blocks and stacked them...

There are four rows and the colours'll bleed from row to row.  I'm excited to see what you all come up with!  Thanks so much. :-)

Round One: Done.

Oops!  Been awhile, eh?  Well, I doubt you're surprised. After all, I did warn you that playoffs were starting...  (I even skipped a guild meeting to watch the Leafs-Bruins Game 7, which no one saw coming!  No, it didn't go my way but I'm really proud of how they played so I'm looking on the bright side. After all, they got two more games in the win column than the Habs and three more than the Nucks so that's bragging rights. It just hurt that it was the two teams I love most at each others throats. Oh, the agony!)

Anyway, sewing!  There have been a few days where the sewing machine has seen intense use....

I finished our last challenge for the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild.  We had to draw two crayons sight-unseen from a toque and use only those colours (plus neutrals if we felt like it).  I had yellow and white.  Seester has a yellow living room and a new pillow.

Things learned: 1) Sew and quilt the top BEFORE smocking.  I had wanted to be sure that the smocking would work first but then I had to deal with puckers from hell. 2) Sometimes, that 2" less than the size of your pillow form rule doesn't apply.  Super puffy forms mean that it would have been just fine with an same-sized cover.

I also managed to finish the challenge at the end of the month.  Patti @ retiredtoquilt generously donated a FQ bundle for our members to use making 2 - 12.5" blocks to go into quilts for local babes and kids who need a little extra cheer. Rules:  One block has to use a technique we've discussed at guild, the other is quilter's choice. We can only add coordinating solids or more of the same line.

I chose stacked improv curves in a rail fence-ish setting and surprised myself.  They went together really easily. And curves terrify me.  Hunh.  I also threw together an improv wonky log cabin.  I'm getting very comfortable with improv as I go on.  I think sewing with a toddler on your lap helps you to not overthink things. We had fun with the scraps from this challenge!

For the Simply Solids Bee, Principiessa sent us triangles to randomly create a larger triangle - so fun! - and challenging.  Points, points, points, points....

And the socks I wasn't going to finish during playoffs because they were too complicated? Perfect for clearing things off the PVR. :-)  Misty Alpaca.  Super comfy, but not in dress shoes.

Medallion Lace Socks - pattern found here

I've been working away at other things, too, but my schedule has been crazy so it's spend an hour sewing OR spend an hour reading/blogging. Yeah. When you're battling brain fatigue, sewing it is.

Well, I've got some things to get done and a over-stuffed RSS reader to deal with so I'll talk to you soon!

Still kickin'

Well, it's been real... lol.  I find that in the spring, I need a little more downtime than the rest of the year due to the season-shift and the migraine-related consequences that come with it.  This year, with its whack-tastic weather has proved to be a little more difficult than usual and results in the frequent disappearing act.  It's not that I don't miss reading blogs and keeping up on the haps but this last little while, I kinda skipped the glare of the internet - my laptop sat abandoned - and my sewing machine gathered more dust from disuse than lint from overuse.  It's Easter break so I've had the week off but while I had big plans, I crashed hard instead. My productivity was more of the passive kind - I cleared tons off the PVR and watched almost the entirety of Game of Thrones. (I was also holding my breath approaching the NHL trade deadline... Phew! Dodged an unneeded goalie-sized bullet there!)

This was the first day of Spring 'round these parts.... Chest height snow. After the first two melts.  Yeah.

So, I'm a week behind on everyone's blogs if you've been missing my comments or hits on your site. Sorry, I'll get there. :-) (Oh, so very Canadian....)

I am working on a tutorial for the random piecing demo I did at the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild at our last meeting and I'm hoping to get it up before the end of the weekend.

The guild has a couple of challenges going at all times.  The one we just finished was the Ugly Fat Quarter Challenge.  We all brought an ugly FQ, dropped it into a pillowcase and took turns pulling one out. What did I get? A green/brown floral monstrosity.  I went pouch because I was mentally blocked and after experimenting unsuccessfully with some FMQ and mock-trapunto, I was running out of fabric.  I did manage to quickly design my own gnome-y accent for it though and it makes me happy.  My sister thought the pouch was cute and it now lives with her.

'Scuze the shaky photos - took them months ago.

Our current challenge is a Two-Colour Crayon Challenge.  You pull two crayons from a magical toque and those are the colours you're stuck with.  You can use only those colours, and neutrals if you really feel you need them.  I pulled yellow and white.  And as much as I'm happy with how it's going, it will also be living at Seester's.

I managed to get my Simply Solids Bee block finished.  Karen @ BungalowBayQuilts asked for Scrap Jar Stars and I was thrilled that I had tons of scraps so I could make it really colourful for her. Hopefully, colour was what she wanted because, boy, there's a ton in there!

The major project I had planned for the break was the quilting on a quilt that's sat waiting, basted and ready, since the middle of January. Well, folks, it's already the end of Thursday and this is how far I got.

10 minutes in...

But when HotWheels interrupt your projects, it's really hard to be annoyed at a lack of progress.  Nephew's learning about why we don't keep pushing the button with the scissors on it...

And since you may have noticed this, I'm not on Crackbook, I don't pin anything, I don't use Twitter or Instagram, and am kinda lame and inept at using Flickr.  Therefore, please understand how very difficult it was for me to do the following.   I am resentfully claiming my blog on Bloglovin'. (I am a curmudgeon, yes, I get that.)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Yeah.  I have no plans to use it - I'm happy with Reeder - but I know that I keep a pretty low profile and thought it might make it easier to find me, if you're looking.

Now - I'm going to send some overdue emails and get back to reading.... Have a lovely one!

Hexes Finished!

Somehow, February always gets away from me....

I finished the hexie table topper on Sunday, just before our guild meeting. I filled in the edges with half hexes and tiny kites (only every other half hex on the two sides they fit - I'm not THAT intense, though some folks and good for them!)

I used four or five long, skinny pieces of batting - you know, leftovers that aren't good for much, you hate to throw away, but leave you with a big pile of batting that makes you THINK you have a piece big enough for your next project...? Yeah, those. :) I didn't join them; I just cleaned up the edges, butted them together on my back piece and then laid the top over it. I quilted pretty thoroughly, (leaving this sort-of jewel shape...) and since this isn't going to be used in a cover hog battle or for making forts in the living room, that''ll do.

In keeping with my scrap plan, I used only bindings remnants from other project. Between this and my scrappy trip blanket, I have few binding scraps left! Yay! I did have to go into my stash to grab a yard for the back but that's what a stash is for.

Title: Compulsive :D
Approx 30x34"
Given to my mum
Never want to see another hex for as long as I live (or a year, if it turns out I'm exaggerating... )

I also finished my bee block for Simply Solids Bee for March. My lovely guild mate sent out these beautiful fabrics, for squares in squares... On Sunday, she showed us her inspiration piece so I'm really looking forward to seeing this one when it's done.

Off to take a thread-painting class from My Sweet Prairie.....!