Otsego Revisited - the Quilt

Otsego Revisited is finally a finished quilt.

 

48" x 60" 

You can read the back story 

for the quilt and its name HERE.

Otsego Revisited actually counts for two different challenges

from Ann and Kaja over at the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters blog --

Flowers from mid-2019 and Positive Thinking from mid-2020.

Quilted using another of my unmarked free motion designs 

named Liberated Swirls and Eddies.

(inspired by a mashup of the Pajama Quilter's Dwirling,

 Leah Day's Ocean Currents, and 

my own love of wide open curved stitching)

Since these photos were taken, the quilt has been laundered.

It's all soft and cuddly now - ready for spring to arrive.

And since today is Winter Solstice,

the days will now get incrementally longer

which makes me very happy.

* * *

I'll be back with a new post after Christmas weekend.

Wishing you and yours a safe and healthy holiday!

Quiltdivajulie

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“A good listener is very nearly as attractive as a good talker. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.”

Edward de Bono

InspiRED - the Quilt

inspiRED aka Inspi(RED) aka InspiRED is finished.

(I used multiple variations of spelling along the way)

Finished size 48" wide x 60" long. 

The colorful inserts were trimmings from the making of

LUMINOUS, my 2018 NOT a Mystery quilt project.

Design inspired by Amanda Jean Nyberg's Bright Birch Trees.

Quilted with liberated baptist fans and Glide thread in Apple Red.

Backing - Cassandra by Robert Kaufman.

Binding - Moda Bella solid red.

This finish absolutely counts for the early-2019 

RED challenge over on the Ad Hoc Improv Quilters blog.

Quiltdivajulie

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“Listen to your own voice, your own soul.  Too many people listen to the noise of the world instead of themselves.  Deep inside you know what you want; let no one decide that for you.”

Leon Brown

Inspi(red) - The Flimsy

The idea for this quilt arrived in February of this year

as I trimmed the strip-pieced center panels for Luminous.

I've always wanted to make my version of

Amanda Jean Nyberg's Birch Trees design -

and this was the perfect opportunity.

I could combine the already-pieced skinny insert strips

with reds from the stash and count this project

 towards the AHIQ Red is a Neutral challenge.

I've also always wanted to make a RED quilt -

so the collision of timing with all these elements

was absolutely perfect for me.

The finished top measures 48" wide x 60" long

and features 20 different red fabrics from my stash.

I found a very red reproduction print in the stash 

that will work beautifully for the back -- 

another bit of fortunate timing.

Inspi(RED) makes me VERY happy!

And I have another empty project box.

Quiltdivajulie

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“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”
Dr. Seuss

Luminous - the Quilt Top and Back

I last posted about this project HERE

when all of the blocks were finished.

The project's introduction post is HERE.

I also shared it early on over at the AHIQ group blog

(click HERE for that post)

and on Sujata's Basket Full of Scraps blog 

as part of the Unconventional and Unexpected Challenge.

(click HERE for that post)

Created using the process described in

 Teresa Rawson's X Marks the Block tutorial.

(permanent link in the sidebar)

And now, eight months later,

I have a finished quilt top AND a pieced back.

The top measures 50" x 60"

For those of you eagle-eyed readers, 

I made 35 blocks but the top contains 30.

Why the change?  

Mostly because this saturated pieced backing 

wasn't quite long enough for the final row

and the resulting 70" length.

(Note added later:

This quilt top and back were gifted to a friend

whose husband fell head over heels for it)

I used four of the leftover blocks

to piece this 20" square table mat

for our dining room table.

Quilted using my favorite 

liberated free motion fans

and Glide thread in Tomato.

DH's newly wood-turned bowl looks spectacular on it.

* * *

And for those wondering where 

my weekly Optic Strings update is,

I took last week off on that project.

Hope to get back on track with it this week.

* * *

And this precious young man

is now THREE years old.

Happy Birthday, Little Man!

Thank you for the pure joy

you've brought to our lives.

Quiltdivajulie

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“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things artificial, and the alienation from the sources of our strength.” 

Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

Optic Strings and Conundrum-Week Four and More

These are this week's seven strip sets

for my Optic Strings/Conundrum project for the

Unconventional and Unexpected QAL.

Week Four's seven blocks for Optic Strings.

28 blocks done / 52 more to make

And Week Four's flying geese blocks for

the quilt I've started calling Optic Geese Conundrum.

(another "if you give a mouse a cookie" project)

* * *

In other studio happenings last week . . . 

Squares Aplenty is now webbed/ready to assemble 

including a scrappy pieced backing

for Kevin's SSSSQ (not a mystery for me) quilt.

I have finally started working on Inspi(red) 

(my variation of Amanda Jean Nyberg's Birch Trees design)

for the AHIQ Red challenge from earlier this  year.

This is yet another

 "if you give a mouse a cookie"

project because the inset strips are 

cut offs and scraps from piecing Luminous.

(also for the Red is a Neutral challenge)

My local Build a Barn 101 classes have been 

scheduled with Fabric for the Flock for 

August 15 and 22 (day and evening sessions).

I will have the Pink Barn (above) quilted 

and finished in time to share with the students.

I will also have the Cows and Balloons barn

quilted and finished to share during class.

There are four sample barns at the shop now:

the Hay Bale barn, the Minimal Barn in solids,  

the Yellow Barn, and

my SSOBB gallery quilt Flying Lessons.

Months and month ago, I pulled fabrics

to make Sunset from Cultural Fusion Quilts.  

That plan fell through and I used the fabrics 

to die cut snowballs / multiple shades of purple corners.

The project box has sat and sat - waiting.

I pulled it out this week and grouped the sets

of four snowballs with their corner triangles.

(future leader-ender sewing)

I also designed a scrappy back using 

an abundance of purple squares

and end cuts from the top's WOF strips.

All in good time - but I think I know where it's headed.

* * *

And - there were FINISHES this week!

First is the Instructor Display Case sample for

my September class at John C. Campbell Folk School.

Quilted with liberated matchstick-style quilting 

using 8 different colors of Glide thread.

I love the way the backing and purple binding

tie in with the scrappy colorful front.

Second is this 24" x 30" chair back quilt

made with leftover blocks from the 

pink and green strata quilt top.

Quilted with liberated free motion (unmarked)

multi-directional fans using Pink Glide thread.

And my big finish for this week is Flower Garden.

I made the Lattice quilt top earlier this year

when I taught the design from

 Sujata's Cultural Fusion Quilts

at Fabric for the Flock.

When I learned last week that 

one of my two primary attorneys from the law firm 

was going into hospice care for an aggressive 

and no longer responding-to-treatment cancer, 

I knew this quilt was meant to be his.

Quilted with Glide thread in Mocha

(as a nod to his love of coffee)

using free motion liberated Baptist Fans.

I truly hope it brings color and comfort to him.

* * *

I took Wanda's advice and ordered an 8.5" square

felted pressing mat for the small end table

that fits under my sewing table.

(I already had the iron and the two-sided turntable)

* * *

Be back again next Monday

with another weekly recap.

Quiltdivajulie

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35 Blocks on the Wall

Hooray!

All thirty-five blocks for Not a Mystery

are done and laid out on the design wall.

I am still surprised each time I walk into the room

 at how much I like this background fabric.

I am glad it waited in the stash for such a long time

just so it could be part of this quilt.

Now it is time to get busy and sew these blocks together

along with the completed blocks for Catharsis . . . 

then I'll have TWO flimsies to share!

Quiltdivajulie

NOT a Mystery - Update

Note:  Some of you may have seen this post 

over the weekend on the AHIQ Group Blog 

or on Sujata's Basket of Scraps blog - 

but I'm sharing it here as well 

so it becomes part of my own blog record.

This is the quilt from Unconventional and Unexpected

that Sujata suggested for the U and U quilt along.

I knew from the beginning that I would not

be making mine in the style of the original,

so I've been waiting to see which direction

my version would take.

In the meantime, I ran across this vintage beauty

photographed by Ann Champion and shared on Flickr.

And my brain immediately leaped to a quilt design

I've made twice before.

This version named Happy Happy Joy Joy, 

or HHJJ for short, was made 

during the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

And this version, named Girly Girl,

 was made shortly thereafter

to celebrate our great niece's birth.

In HHJJ, I used strings to fill in the side triangles.

In Girly Girl, I used half square triangles.

So with the design method settled,

I moved on to my waiting fabric pulls.

I had pulled these scrappy pieces

shortly after Bonnie Hunter introduced

her 2018 Good Fortune mystery quilt.

I never planned to make her mystery quilt

but I was drawn to the colors and her inspiration.

Double click to see greater detail

This photo was taken by our DIL in the Forbidden City 

during one of her Asian business trips.

It captures Bonnie's inspirational color palette perfectly.

(I even used this photo as my desktop wallpaper 

back when I was working at the law firm)

I also had this fabric pull set aside

for the current AHIQ Red challenge.

Once I started looking, the overlap between the two

was obvious and they quickly became one project

that suits both the UandU QAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge.

With the intensity of my colors,

it was clear the low volume prints

needed an upgrade.

This long-stashed Marblehead was my choice.

  

I pulled these four fabrics from the stash

to use for the quilt's pieced back.

Initially I was not going to add the narrow strips

along the sides of the center insert.

But when I cut one WOF strip of a well-aged red batik

and laid it alongside the first pieced center segment 

you can see the results -- Those rich red 1" strips 

simply HAD to be part of this quilt.

I'm planning a layout 5 blocks wide x 7 blocks long

for a top that will measure 50" x 70" 

8 blocks made, 27 more to go.

And when I trim the center strips to 4.5" wide,

these marvelous lengths are the cutaways.

I already have a plan to use them 

in another small quilt!

Hooray for the UandUQAL 

and the AHIQ Red challenge

and for shopping my stash to create this project.

Quiltdivajulie

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"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you'll discover will be wonderful.  What you'll discover is yourself."

Alan Alda