smock it to me

This block is headed to Sarah from Common Threads. She gave us three neutral fabrics and asked for texture and a pop of color from our own stash.

I immediately thought of origami and headed to the library to check out every book they had on folded fabric. As I passed over every project listed, I spotted this pattern for smocking in Folded Fabric Elegance by Rami Kim. I was in love. She has several more patterns, but I was drawn to the suggestion of basketweave in this one. I knew I wanted it to be the centerpiece of the block with very simple sashing in the other tones. The green (which looks far duller in the photo than in real life) is from my stash.

Here's the smocking before it's pressed:

And here's the back before pressing. You can see the 1/2" grid of dots I drew. Those are the basis of the technique. From there you follow some simple diagrams bringing the dots together. It's not difficult, just a bit time consuming with a lot of knotting between each stitch. Once I got going, I found a groove and soon didn't need the diagram.

I've got to find some other ways to use this technique. I think it'd look wonderful done in linen as a pocket on a dress or tunic.

big star, little star

I'm officially caught up with the bee again.

Jessica asked for maverick stars - the wonkier the better.

I went with the largest size(12.5) above - and below, the tiniest size she requested (3.5").

I liked the idea of a miniature version of the first one I made. It might make for a fun I Spy game when the quilt is complete - finding the mini me star.

Just to give you an idea of the size difference between them:

As much as I like tiny projects, making sure I didn't cut off those star points and still had enough fabric showing wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I love how cute it is though.

back with blue

Long absence, short explanation: summer, busy, storms, power outage, vacation, insomnia, tired.

I do have things to show you though:

Two blocks for Common Threads- Above is Amanda's. Hers was a geometric challenge for me. Took a little sketching first, but I wanted to get those cross blocks to "overlap" in the background. It required more piecing than making two mini blocks and just sewing them together.

Below is Jess's. Hers was done in a manner I've finally grown confident in using - improvisational piecing, I think it's called. I took a quick look at her inspiration photo and just started cutting and sewing. No sketching, no measuring until I was close to the size she requested. The inset pieces of solids are the direct influence of my common threads cohorts. Same goes for the "off" angles and general wonkiness of it all.

I'm off to pack my bag for quilting group today.

rebekah's butterflies

Posting this is such a good feeling. Ever get stuck on a problem and it only seems to get harder with time? I needed to make pink the predominant color in this block and also wanted to include embroidery in some way. Squares and rectangles were in order, but not as log cabins or square in a square blocks. I hemmed, I hawed, I ignored it.

Finally I refused to let myself start in on any other sewing until this block was done.

And now I'm happy I waited on it because this is one of my favorite blocks I've ever done.

It's a little stripey, but it does include squares and rectangles (that section of berry dots on the left will be a square when the seam allowance is used as the quilt is pieced). I was heavily influenced by the tiny strips of fabric used in the blocks I received during my turn last year. Those 1/4" pink stripes thrill me.

The embroidery was what I was trying to work around at the beginning. I had it in my mind to embroider a chrysalis, but sketch after sketch only looked like poop hanging from a branch. Once I gave that up and focused solely on making the block first, it fell into place. The butterfly above is a white one from the motif fabric. Perfect for outlining in any color I chose. The pink sashiko stitches were done to emphasis the predominant color of the block.

It should be in your mailbox in a day or so, Rebekah. Think of it as a graduation present!

nadia's forest

One more block done. This one is for Nadia and her new baby, Gus.

How can you not love those little animal faces?

Posted here with a little more explanation.

cross my heart, I'm catching up

As promised, I'm catching up on my long overdue common threads blocks.

These are for Jacquie

They're little - 6.5" square.

My favorite is the little cross below.

I posted them here as well.

these are the quilters in my neighborhood

It's my turn again for the Common Threads quilting bee. You saw how last year's round turned out, so you can imagine how excited I am for this year.

Below is my inspiration quilt for this round. It's called The 'Burbs from Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke.

I've asked the women in the bee to create themselves in fabric.

Below are the flesh tones and background pinks for the blocks.

Each quilter will get a different dress print, but she's free to choose something that's more representative of herself from her own stash.

Read more about the challenge here.

round one, done!

My Common Threads quilt from round one is on the living room wall!!

You can read more about it here.

carissa's block

One more block for common threads. Carissa challenged us to create a block that represented a bookshelf. I asked her to send a good selection of scraps for the spines because I think my stash tends to be more vintage and reproduction. She's a happy, bright colored quilter and I was very worried my block would stick out from the rest without more direction from her.

Some of my scraps made it in - a little Amy Butler, some polka dots and a few solids rounded out what I recieved in the mail. I can't wait to see how the whole thing looks with all the other shelves added on. I love the movement and explosion of color in this. It'll be in the mail soon, Carissa.

(Rebekah, I haven't forgotten you at all. I've been hanging back to see if any your blocks have been done with embroidery. Now I have my answer. I'll be finishing up soon.)

autumn

How on earth did this happen? I could have sworn I posted this back in November. I guess imagining I posted it and actually doing so are not the same.

It's a block for common threads that was mailed to rossie long ago. She challenged us to use a code to spell out a word we liked. I chose my favorite season, autumn.

You can read a little more about it here.

thrifty thursday and a decision

Wow! Thank you all so much.

I just did a count of your "votes" and option #2 is the clear front runner. I have to admit I'm a little relieved. A quilt like #1 is still in my future, but not on this go-round. I felt like too much of the blocks was lost in the motion of that quilt. What I love about option #2 was mentioned in the comments - it has a bit of a Gee's Bend feel to it and since those quilts were part of my inspiration - it just feels right to go that direction. I'm going to add an extra amount of black fabric to the bottom of each column to see if I can still put more weight at the bottom of the quilt with a larger border there. If it looks funny, I can always cut it off. My challenge this week is to start moving those blocks around until I'm happy with the balance in the design.

It also occurs to me that I never explicity said in that post how much I absolutely LOVE how all those blocks look together - and how amazed I am by the work and creativity that went into them. So to my Common Threads friends - I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Now, on to a little thifty goodness:

Does anyone believe that a 2 piece pattern would be flattering on a woman with curves?

I love 5699. I just don't love the undergarments it would require.

Any career gals out there looking for a wardrobe update?

we value your opinion...

I'm getting started on my common threads quilt from round 1. I'd been waiting for two last blocks to roll in, but since so many of my fellow quilters generously sent me two, I have more than enough to just go ahead and finish without them. My living room wall has been bare for so long. I'm determined to get this finished before it's my turn to send out fabrics for round two in March.

Since I'll be sashing/bordering the quilt in black, I covered the design wall in black fabric and began toying around with some ideas. Keep in mind that I didn't bother balancing the blocks in terms of intricacy of design or color yet. I just sort of slapped them up there for this initial step.

A few things I'm pretty sure of:

-the black background fabric

-3 rows of 6 blocks will fit the space on the wall very well

-putting a larger border on the bottom of the quilt than on the top

With that said, the first option that came to mind as the blocks rolled in was this - making them into larger blocks that have the color blocks offset at different angles. Drawbacks - might be too busy. A lot of work. The need to make them into larger blocks might make the quilt too large for the space. Benefit - will accomodate variety of sizes in the blocks easily.

Option 2 - Staggered columns of three. I think I'd stagger them even more than this. Perhaps have one column moved several inches higher than all the others. Benefits - accomodates variety of blocks well, easy to do. Drawback - may need to add fabric to a few blocks and I'd prefer to leave them as they were created by the original quilters (though I have absolutely NO problem with my fellow common threads quilters altering the blocks I send you). I may also need to reconsider the border on the bottom being larger because the movement on this quilt is vertical.

Option 3:

Three even rows of 6. Seems so 'meh' to me. However, much of that could be the lack of balance in the blocks since they were just thrown up on the board. I'm also not sure if they should be sashed with black or sewn one to the other with no visual breaks. Drawbacks - different block sizes are very noticable and I'll have to alter them to fit. Benefit - once the blocks are uniform in size, this would be the easiest to put together.

Your thoughts? You can see the space I'm filling here.

opposites for Amy

I've posted these blocks over at common threads today.

They're for Amy, one of our new members. She's working on a quilt top that's inspired by Kaffe Fassett and will need MANY to complete it.

We had a choice of several sizes ranging from 2" square to 12.5" square. I opted for the largest and smallest. The directions were straightforward and easy to execute once I decided on the order of colors for the squares. My favorite is that little dot on the 2" block.

My Waste Not, Want Not quilt is also posted over here, on Karen Griska's blog. Thanks Karen! And hello to new visitors!

round two

It's begun - Round Two of Common Threads!

This block is headed to Amber in Hawaii. No rotary cutters were harmed (or used) in the making of this block. (Unless you count when I squared it up at the end.) It's not a surprise to anyone that I tend to be a planner. That's one of the reasons I've loved this quilting bee. It's forced me to put together fabrics I don't have the bravery to choose myself and I've had to try things I've never done on my own.

The first block I made in round one was to be "wonky". I was so nervous that I actually drew it out and then cut the design into templates to make it. This time I put away the paper and pencil, only used scissors to cut freehand and just started to sew. I wasn't able to just grab fabric and whatever I had in hand is what got sewn on, but you know, baby steps.

When that bottom row wasn't as long as I needed, I added to it with blue and my world didn't shatter ; )

I played with the stripe making a basket weave strip, but it looked awful when I held it up to the block and I abandoned it. Thank you, Amber, for strips long enough that I could play like that and still have enough to keep going without worrying that I'd run out of fabric.

It should be in your mailbox anyday now.

Lisa's block

This one is it! The last block has been sewn for this Common Threads round and it seems I finished it first. It's not a race at all, but it pleases me to no end that I'm on time(for a change).

Lisa asked for symmetry, perhaps a log cabin and for the patterned fabric to be featured. I thought the courthouse steps version of a log cabin block fit the bill. I may have blown the symmetry thing with the machine appliqued squirrel though.

Still, he's pretty cute.

my turn!!

I'm hoping my common threads friends can turn these:

Into something gorgeous to hang here:

Click the Common Threads button on the right to find out the details.