Lighthouse Lane Designs

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Prepping for the Cloud 9 Blog Hop – I love a good challenge!

August 17, 2016

Wow, lots of new folks.  If you’ve found your way here from Leanne of She Can Quilt, a special welcome.  Pour yourself a lemonade, sit on the porch swing, and “set awhile,” as Grandpa used to say.  Take a moment to introduce yourself, tell me where you’re from, and what your favorite kind of quilting is – both to make and to look at.  Now – on to the fun stuff!

Because Cheryl, of Meadow Mist Designs, and Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl are wonderful mentors, they’ve taken this year’s New Quilt Blogger hop a step further.  Not only have they helped us all with technical aspects of blogging and built connections, but they’re also now heading up a hop of new blocks inspired by the colors of the New Bloggers button (look over in the sidebar).  The lovely people at Cloud 9 Fabrics sent each of us a bundle of their gorgeous solids to play with.

Cloud Nine Fabrics for New Quilters Blog Hop

Aren’t they lovely?  I have a fair idea of what I’m going to do with mine, though I can’t share with you just yet.  Plus, I have to make a prototype and write up a tutorial.  Eeek!  Suffice it to say, I’m going for a twist on a vintage block.  I bet that’s a surprise, eh?

I DO love a good challenge.  Which is probably why I’m behind the wheel for The Grand Rapids Modern Quilter’s Challenge/Charity project for this quarter.  We’re making a quilt for the Grand Rapids Veteran’s Home, to be given at Christmas.  I’ve ordered some fabric from Hawthorne Threads.  They’re a great source for modern-leaning fabrics in general, and also have a gorgeous collection of “house designs.”  The latter are digitally printed, which was a new experience for me.  But I fell in love with the “Mariner” line, and thought it was also a good choice for this project.

When you order these, they print just exactly has much fabric as you asked for.  The edges are white, because the printer needs a little maneuvering room.  Thus:

Digital Print Fabric

Love this print.  It’s called “Pier Pressure.”

I trimmed off the white fabric, then cut a fat 16th for each block.  I’d ordered 3 different prints, and each participant will get one fat quarter, as well as a small bit of the multicolored print to help with color choices.

Hawthorne Threads Mariner fabrics

I’m looking forward to seeing what everybody creates.  Since I’m slightly evil, the piece provided isn’t nearly big enough to make a whole block from.  Other fabrics of each quilter’s choice will have to make up the rest.

One other thing I noticed was that the weave on this fabric is quite a bit tighter than standard quilting cottons.  I took a close up of some of the trimmed white fabric to compare with one of the Cloud 9 solids.

Close up of fabrics weaves

I’ve saved those trimmings, as I think they’ll be wonderful for lining pincushions and emery cushions, too.  I have plans for that – check back soon!

 

2 Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: modern quilt block, New Quilt Blogger's Hop, quilt group block

A Busy Bee

May 29, 2016

There’s a lot going on around here, right now.  First, it’s our busiest time at work, so I’m tending to get home a bit later.  At least I have a bit more daylight to do it in!  Then, I keep getting into more…  activities.  There is the New Quilt Bloggers hop, that I mentioned previously.  And the “hive” divisions take their connotations from historic quilting bees.  While we’re usually too on the go to sit down for an entire day and help another quilter hand-quilt her finished top, we still hang on to the social aspect of quilting.  It’s important, in a way socialization really isn’t for other crafts, even sewing.

I’ve been sewing since I was about 8.  Earlier than that, if you count running off with Mom’s scraps to make little stuffed mice to play with.  First in 4H, then solo – but with Mom’s guidance.  I made a lot of my own clothes, especially dresses and skirts, even in high school.  And while I’ve continued to make clothes for myself and my girls, I’ve never really felt any need to “hang out” with other seamstresses.

Quilting, on the other hand, seems to lend itself more readily to social connections.  Maybe it’s the way we share patterns, tips, and variations.  Maybe it’s the sheer scope of the project.  Maybe it’s the fact that nobody else “gets” the satisfaction of tying off that binding!  Even I, introvert that I am, am more content when I have contact with my quilt group.  I might skip that month’s Lotto Block, I might not have a “Show’n’Share,” but I am crabby when I have to miss the meeting.

So it should come as no surprise to anybody that I got sucked in, yet again.  This time, I’ve joined a modern Bee, sponsored by the only modern quilt shop in Grand Rapids – Stitched Studio.

There are probably many ways that modern Bees work, but this one has 12 ladies, and goes for 12 months.  (Sure, guys are welcome – this one just happened to be all girls).  Each month, one of the ladies is the “Queen Bee.”  She decides which block we’re going to make, and in what colors or other parameters.  When we meet again, the following month, each person gives that block to the Queen.  And the Queen for the next month presents her requests.  At the end of the year, each person has made 12 blocks.  And each person has 12 blocks to sew into a top.

This time, we’re working with the book Vintage Quilt Revival:

Book

Becky chose the Red Cross block, and asked that we make it in solids with saturated tones – no tints or shades.  She laid out a few sample strips of fabric.

Becky Colors 2

Becky Colors

The aqua blue strips on top of the pile in the right hand photo were the fabric she gave to each of us.

Since these blocks are paper-pieced, and my success with freezer paper pieces has been…. mixed, I opted to follow the directions closely.  I also took Becky’s advice regarding paper choice.  I bought some inexpensive newsprint, in the form of a children’s doodle pad.

Paper

I cut the pieces to 8 1/2 x 11″ to fit through the printer, using a paper cutter.  It did work pretty well.  It’s a lighter weight paper, so removing it was easier.  First, I made a sample quadrant, just to get my feet wet.

Quadrant 1

That didn’t go too badly, so I pinned up the next three all at once, to make the work go a little faster.

Paper piecing

Some of the seam allowances are thinner or thicker than I would like, but the block as a whole turned out OK.

Finished Becky Block

I’m ready to give it to Becky.  The center is a bit wonky, and I will admit that I did not enjoy those bias-edged triangles, when sewing the whole block together.  But, all in all, I’m going to call it a success.

June is MY month as “Queen.”  I admit that I obsessed over my choices for a long while.  I spent hours surfing Pinterest for color combinations.  My angst was fed by the fact that a lot of my bee-mates are also in my Modern Quilt group.  And, for whatever reason, it seems like every project they’ve seen me do or buy fabric for has run heavily to pink.  I’m in real danger of being typecast as “The Pink Girl” – and never getting anything from them that’s another color.  Therefore, pink was out.  I wanted something fresh and summery, with a hint of a nautical feel about it.  Possibly because I’m still daydreaming about building a house, and that’s what I want for my house….

I ended up going with this, found on a business card website, of all places, though I couldn’t locate the original source:

Cherries

I’ve cut some Bella solid in white (which is really a creamy color, closer to Kona’s Snow, than a true white-white), and packaged a fat quarter for each of the ladies, including a printed version of the palette, and a brief bit of instruction.  I don’t HAVE to provide the background, but I decided that doing so would make my finished quilt more consistent.  I’ve asked them to make the Rolling Squares block, using this color palette – prints or solids, but no batiks.  First, because I’m not fond of batiks, and second, because they’re woven more tightly and I have a hard time quilting on them.

Book and palette

I’ll show you the result when I get my blocks, next month!

4 Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Modern Bee, modern quilt block, quilt group block

Lotta Blocks Conundrums

September 7, 2015

My local modern quilt groups, like many others, does a block lotto at each meeting.  A block is chosen, and anyone who wants to participate brings it to the next meeting.  This month, the block was an 18″ bear paw, to be done all in solids on a white background.  I nearly didn’t bother, as it’s not my favorite style block.  But it IS pretty easy to put together and I needed something simple to get to know my new sewing machine.  (More on that later).  I dug out a couple of fat quarters and came up with this:

18" Bear Paw

Yep, that’s my milk glass, holding it up again.  And boy, do I need to pick my raspberries.

Anyway, I took the block off to the meeting, and didn’t think too much more about it.  And then, lo and behold…  I won the blocks.  Yay?

I have to say, I’m not quite sure what to do with them.

Lotta Blocks

This may involve an atypical setting.  One of the other group members had finished piecing the blocks that she’d won, several months ago.  It’s an interesting take, and I might end up following in her footsteps a bit.

Previous quilt

 

So, lots of white space, I think.  And I may make some itty bitty bear paws and space them out like tracks.  Since there is that one black block, I’m thinking of backing it in black, with a couple “eyeball” blocks pieced into the backing.  Think, “Goin’ on a Bear Hunt,” if you will.  What do you think?

In the meantime, the block for next month is Lee of Freshly Pieced’s Hexing Around.  I was going to try to buy a more modern fat quarter bundle for this block, that would appeal to the other group members and still blend in with my more vintage stash aesthetic.  Which meant a trip to my “local” quilt shop – 30 minutes away.  I poked around for a while, couldn’t find anything that spoke to me – and then realized that this block will only take a few bits and pieces.  I opted to use some of the Daysail bundle I already had at home.  I’ve got it about half done.

new block

I kinda sorta fussy cut the center hexie, to the degree to which it is possible to fussy cut the boats on the Daysail feature print.  The next round will be i navy, and the final in aqua.  I think that works out.

Of course, I never CAN leave a quilt shop empty handed.  So I picked out a couple more fat quarters that work into my Strawberry Farmer’s Wife selection.  The grey has small white dots, if you can’t make them out.  It’s a holiday weekend, and I live in a beach town.  So there will be swimming, barbeque, and reading.  My youngest child is being excessively tempermental this week, so there is a limit to how much we’ll be out and about.  One of the little joys of Autism is that the wee one has veto power over plans for things that involve much time in public.  That’s OK.  I have enough to keep me busy:

Goodies

I hope you all enjoy your holiday.  I’ll be here doing a little reading, a little piecing, a little embroidery – and planning the groups NEXT block – since I’ve taken on that task.

0 Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hexies, modern quilt block, quilt group block

Everything Old is New Again

July 21, 2015

I had so much fun the other night looking through my new vintage quilt booklet from the last post, sketching out the patterns.  Most of them, as they’re presented in the booklet, are pieced in the smallest number of pieces of fabric.  Which conserves fabric, but makes for lots of y-seams.  Not something I’m fond of.  So I graphed out one of the blocks, then broke it down into squares and half-square triangles.

zigzag

I do think next time, I’ll cut it so that the four small squares are all one large square.  It will make piecing easier and make the block look better.  In fact, I’ll probably take this one apart and redo that much.  But I like the effect.  The grey fabric is Kona Graphite, and the red is a print from the Pam Kitty Garden collection.  I’m considering doing up a whole quilt with this block, and some solid squares.  What do you think?

The red and grey block is a 12″ block.  I seem to like this size, best.  Though for next month’s meeting, my local modern quilt group is doing 18″ blocks.  Here’s mine:

guildblock

 

Each month, there is a pattern and set of colors posted for the group.  Everybody (or at least everybody who wants to participate) makes a block from that pattern, in those colors.  Each person who brings a block to the meeting can put their name in a hat – the winner goes home with all the blocks.  Now. 18″ is a little big for my tastes, but it does make it easier to get a useful finished item when you’re likely to go home with 9-12 blocks, total.  What size blocks are you most comfortable working with?

0 Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: modern quilt block, quilt group block, vintage modern

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