Black and White and one other color guild challenge..

My quilt guild was invited to participate in the Black and White and One other color quilt challenge at the Mountain Fest Quilt Show 2017. 

I chose a fabric folding technique I found on Pinterest. (Yes, as if I didn't have enough quilt books/magazines on my shelf or ideas in my head to keep me busy for the rest of my life and longer,,, I troll Pinterest almost daily for even more projects to do! I have quite the collection of my own pins now! 😆)

This is the photo that caught my attention. Spotted Stones has a great tutorial. I love Cathedral Window quilts! And the part where I don't have to press a 1/4 seam allowance or turn the block inside out that the traditional Cathedral Windows requires had me completely convinced that I need to make this for my B&W+1 quilt.  If you are curious, I just found a tutorial on how to make a traditional Cathedral Window. But to be technical, truly traditional would be sewn all by hand.  And of course, I started hand stitching one several years ago before our move to MS.  I thought a black background would make the colors of my scraps pop better than the traditional creamy muslin, and I found out quickly that it's really hard to see my stitches on black!!

OK, back to the present...

Prince assesses my small stack of black and white fabrics..

He's not that impressed with them. To his credit, he didn't say a word. However, he had no problem letting it show on his face.

That's OK. I stitched several windows. 

Applique requires very tiny stitches.

One of my finished blocks. Not too bad...

But this one!! Eesh! Those stitches are way too visible!!

No matter how I laid out the blocks, the geometric prints fought with the florals. 

I was starting to get discouraged, almost to the point of scrapping this project and starting something different. 

Part of my difficulties was that I can't see the finished project in my mind's eye. At this point it's not looking at all like I had envisioned.  I assured myself that the sashing is going to make all the difference. I also allowed my self to remove some blocks and make it into a 4 X 4 rather than a 5 X 5. 

I forgot to take progress pictures in my eagerness to see where this was going. I am pleased with the final outcome 🤗.

I removed all the geometric prints and added repeats of some of the florals. Now that I'm looking at the picture, I didn't notice that the rose in the to right corner looks like it doesn't match the other three corners 🙄.   Ya, I'm going to be OK with that though!

You can't really tell that I mitered the border corners. A technique I learned in a class taught by Dawn Lord at the Joann's in Federal Way, WA.  I think she'd be tickled knowing that from now on everytime I do a mitered border corner I will think of her and the 4-part class many of us JoAnn employees took together. Ahh, what fun times!!

So now it's time to think about how I'm going to quilt this top! I want simple. And lucky me! I have a few extra blocks to practice on!!

Sample 1 is really crude, lol. And the thread is too dark.

Sample 2 the thread matches better and a quilting plan is falling into place

Sample 3 -  I tried a lighter color but it's obviously a green and not teal. As I'm changing back to the thread that matches best I wonder "what about white!" It's a bit of a brave move because every stitch will show! I tested on the outside corners and loved the effect!!

One last sample - I added corner triangles so I don't sew into the seam allowance. Now I can get a true idea. And it's perfect!! Well, nearly 😋.

I'm excited. When I get to this stage, when there's no more design decisions to make, I feel like it's practically finished! Nothing will stop me now!!  Tomorrow I quilt!!

A week into 2017...

Oh gosh. I've got a lot going on in the year ahead. I don't even know where to start!!

My quilting friends have been talking about Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge for months now. Every year they rent a cabin and sign up for classes and lectures all week and make it into a retreat for themselves. And every year they have invited me and I usually decline. This year Judy Stokes (have a look at her blog A Quilter's Alley) informed me that there is a spot reserved just for me. And my other friend Ebba Kellum insisting that I need to go. ...I think I am going to do this! I really want to go. 

My quilt guild was invited to participate in the quilt guild challenge at Mountain Quiltfest. The theme for the challenge is "black and white and one other color."

Well, I happened to mention the challenge to my brother Jaime while I was visiting in CO. And he chimed in that I could make it an oversized queen and he would take the quilt off my hands when I was finished with it. I laughed when he said it, but it actually appealed to me to have two purposes for this quilt.

I was having trouble deciding on a design. Pinterest offered a lot of ideas.... I mean a LOT of ideas. I finally decided on something simple. I have to keep in mind "oversized queen" and a Feb 1st deadline.

I chose simple squares with sashing and cornerstones. Showed it to my brother and he approved. .....

... Then I found out that I didn't pay attention to the whole requirement thing. See, there is no minimum size, it just needs to be big enough to hang. But there IS a maximum size of 160" perimeter. An oversized queen is over 400". LOL.

.... looks like I've committed to making two quilts, one for my brother and a different one for the challenge. 

Since it's smaller I decided to go with a different Pinterest idea for the challenge...

Awww!! All the charm of a Cathedral Window and only half the work 🤗.

The picture above is from a blog by Spotted Stones Handmade. She has made a Cathedral Window Tutorial for this faux cathedral window block. The best part is, I already have the book Fantastic Fabric Folding Innovative Quilting Projects by Rebecca Wat from which this block was inspired.

I'm going to make a 5 × 5 grid with teal for the background, black and white prints for the center square, and black sashing. 

I've been folding, pinning and tacking the last few days.

 

It's a bit time consuming because it's all handwork, but that's what I love best anyway.

Also happening this year, I agreed to serve as VP for the Possum Town Quilters guild. That means I am get to schedule educational opportunities. Honestly, I did not immediately embrace this responsibility, but it's growing on me. I have a few teachers lined up and a lecture on caring/repairing vintage quilts. And on a recent trip to the airport in Memphis I visited the Cotton Treasure quilt shop in Senatobia, MS. 

It's a wonderful quilter's shop with a great selection of unique fabrics!

And the owner Chantay Rhone tells me to let the program director of my guild know that she does trunk shows. Which means she will come to my guild with loads and loads of quilts to show us and inspire us. She'll tell us about different techniques and new tools that will enhance our skills. 

Ooohhh!! How fortunate for me!! I am exactly the one who can set that up!! I love how things just happen, they seem to fall into place. 

While I was there, I couldn't resist purchasing an acrylic template set to make this quilt that was on display...

Hmmm, lol, I need to rethink my strategy for this year. I mean, we are only a week into 2017...  And counting my practice grafitti quilting in my Happy New Year post, I've practically started FIVE new quilting projects (I haven't even mentioned spinning in this post! Lol.) ... And I haven't finished one project yet...  Oh boy, I need a pause button for this year!!

Happy New Year!!

2017!!

First day of the new year and I'm off to a good start!!  It is said that whatever you are doing on New Year's Day is what you will be doing all year.  So I made sure I did some of my favorite things. 

First, my little family was together.  I watched football with my Heartbeat.  The Seahawk's and the Bronco's games were at the same time, so we flipped back and forth between the two during commercials.  Happily, both teams won. And I enjoyed my kids company throughout the day.  

Ahhh, I feel so blessed. 

While watching the games, I kept my hands busy with spinning!  The single-ply yarn on my spindle need just 10 more seeds to be ready for plying.  I've been aiming for 100 seeds per spindle full.

Then I couldn't resist plying it using my favorite plying method -Navajo plying with drop spindles. I learned this method several years ago at Renaissance Yarns, a LYS in Kent, WA (the shop is long since closed now 😢).  But if your curious about this plying method, I found a pretty good picture tutorial made by Handmade by Knottygal - Navajo plying.

I roll my single plies into center pull skeins...

The single ply is so thin I figured I could use a size 10.5 double pointed knitting needle I had handy instead of the usual nostepinne..... 😊 The knitting needle works wonderfully. 

Prince isn't as interested in my "yarn cakes" as he is wondering why I'm not petting him! But you can see how tiny these skeins are. 

My brother Chris used to work at a tree farm. When there was a tree that was being uprooted or trimmed he would keep the roots and branches that appealed to him and make interesting pieces of art out of them. He showed me walking canes, walking sticks, coat racks, and carvings he had made. I fell in love with the pieces he showed me and had to have some kind of his woodwork for my own. I tried to describe a nostepinne, but I didn't really understand the particular hand and balance needed...

He let me pick out the sticks from his collection that I liked. I think one of them is from an apple tree. One of the pieces already had a really cool face carved on the end.
 
Actually, the irregularities in these pieces make them difficult to use as nostepinnes but their story makes my heart warm and fuzzy. They will always be cherished by me.

Now, back to my spinning... As I said before, after I "caked" the single-ply I couldn't resist plying it. The first skein of 3-ply I made was from approximately 75 seeds resulting in about 17 yards of plied yarn.  I've spun five 100 seed spindle fulls since the first, leaving them to ply later.  This most recent 100 seeds resulted in about 25 yards of 3-ply yarn.  I think I'm maintaining a fairly even consistency.  I'm pleased.

And now I start thinking about what's next.  I'm eager to grab a crochet hook and start making a small lacy doily or something. But I am curious about dyeing the yarn too. And then thoughts about dipping the yarn in dye reminds me that with spun wool the twist has to be "set" by washing and hanging the hanks. Not setting the yarn could result in unfavorable surprises, like shrinkage, in knitted items.
I don't know if cotton has to be treated the same as wool. Time to Google: "does hand spun cotton need to be set".
Knitty.com has a wonderful write up about finishing yarn written by Lee Juvan.  In the "Finishing your yarn" article it says:

"Plant fibers such as linen and cotton are best finished by simmering the skeins in dish detergent in a pot of water on the stove for 40 minutes or more. If you plan to dye cotton yarn, you’ll need to simmer it in a pot of water and detergent to which you’ve added two tablespoons of washing soda (also called soda ash) to remove the natural waxes that will prevent even dye absorption. Because I knit with my linen and cotton yarns, they are plied and I boil them in skein form (tied in several places to prevent tangling); those who are finishing linen or cotton singles for weaving may want to boil them on plastic cores (see Olive and Harry Linder’s classic books, Handspinning Cotton and Handspinning Flax, for more information on making your own boiling bobbins or try Stephanie Gaustad’s wonderful new video, Spinning Cotton).

Remove your clean skein from the rinse water, gently squeeze out any excess water, and lay the skein flat on a towel. Roll the towel up and press out as much remaining moisture as you can. I hang my skeins to dry without tension because I generally knit with my handspun and prefer to retain any natural elasticity. If you want your skeins to dry with a weight, try Maggie Casey’s clever trick of hanging a plant mister on the bottom loop."

Lol, setting the twist is complicated!!  And I had no idea that setting could be different if you wanted to use your yarn for weaving than for knitting!! There's quite a bit to consider here! It often amazes me how much "behind the scenes" we don't know until we want to know. Craziness!!

OK. Back to my check list of things to do on the first day of the year... 

1. Time with family -  √
2. Watch football with my Heartbeat and our teams win- √
3. Spin - √ (I have two bags full that I want to get spun this year!)
4. Make it into a 3-ply yarn - √ (that's practically a finished item... Well it was until I Googled about finishing yarn...)
5. Learn something new to improve my skills - √

It's a pretty good list. But I have to get at least two more things on it... Quilting!! of course!!!

My quilting guild will be participating in another guild challenge. The theme is "black and white and one other color." I have a few ideas but I haven't quite decided what I want to do yet. I think the deadline is in February. Part of my personal challenge is that I will free motion quilt it myself. So.... while I'm deciding on the quilt top design I might as well practice free motion quilting!

I stitched the left and right pieces yesterday. (I missed a couple of spots. I might go back and fill them in... Or just leave them, idk.)  The one in the middle was stitched today.  

I love the recent surge of graffiti quilting. Karlee Porte has several books on the subject. It is actually doodling with needle and thread instead of pencil and paper. Lol, ya, it sounds easy but it isn't for me. I was never really a doodler, not even in school. Those brown paper book covers we used to protect our text books remained fairly plain on my books. I guess I preferred writing letters in other people's notebooks over doodling in mine 😉.

Anyway... The black thread on white fabric shows every imperfection! Lol, I both love it and hate it. I love that it shows the perfectionist in me is letting go. But omg those imperfections 😵!!! Lol.... Good thing is I do see improvement. 😀

#6 was quilting. And finally #7 - the last thing I needed to add to my check list was blogging. Although this post will be dated Jan 2, I did start composing it on the 1st, so that counts for me!!

Happy New Year to you and yours.  I'm wishing for you all the best that 2017 has to offer.