Working on the At the Fair Mystery Block of the Month Quilt

So last week I finished up my triangle Christmas quilt (I'll post pictures later) and have been working on the At the Fair Mystery Block of the Month Quilt.  I LOVE the first block and wanted to give you a sneak peek at the blocks for January.

The large block measures 36" square.  After making it I decided that the second block for January needed to be less intense and made the 8" bow-tie block.  I love bow-ties.  They are so classic.

I am using a mix of Micheal Miller Cotton Couture and they are great - such a smooth hand.

One more artistic shot.  If you want to participate in the At the Fair Mystery Block of the Month click here for more details or sign up here.


Linking with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story and WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

At the Fair Mystery Block of the Month 2015

It is no mystery that I love going to the Iowa State Fair every summer.  Love it!  The first time I went I was taken by the tiled quilt block frieze that runs around the exterior of the Richard O. Jacobson Exhibition Center.  I fell in love with it and decided that some day I would reproduce some of the quilt blocks in fabric.  That day is today and you can join me too!  It is going to be epic!

The At the Fair Mystery Quilt Block of the Month is based on the 36 of the tile quilt blocks on the exterior of the Exhibition Center and measures 96” x 92”.  The blocks range in size from 36” to 8” square.  For 18 months you will receive, via email, a PDF file with clear, detailed instructions for two quilt blocks on the first of the month.  The instructions will include color diagrams, pictures and foundation paper piecing templates, when necessary.  The block of the month program will begin January 2015 and end June 2016.

Layout:

When I started drafting the blocks for the quilt I quickly realized that they would need to be different sizes.  Some of the simpler blocks can be made in the smaller 8” size while the more detailed blocks require a much larger size to make the piecing manageable.  What started as a necessity quickly became the base for a unique quilt layout.  There is nothing boring about this quilt!  Over the course of the year we will make:  1 – 36” block, 1 – 32” block, 5 – 24” blocks, 3 – 16” blocks, 15 -12” blocks and 11 – 8” blocks.

Full and detailed instructions for setting the blocks will be provided in June 2016. 

Fabric requirements:

For the At the Fair Mystery Quilt you will need a total of 14 yards of fabric.

If you wish to use the same background in all of the blocks you will need:

·         7 yards of background fabric

·         7 yards of a variety of solid or print fabrics (yard cuts of two or three fabrics recommended)

·         1 yard of binding fabric

·         3 yards of 108” backing fabric

Pick fabric that you absolutely adore!  You will be working with this fabric all year and you will not want to work with fabric that you think is just ok.  Large scale prints will be appropriate for the jumbo blocks and smaller scale or tone on tone prints for the smaller blocks.  I would recommend including some solids so that there is a clear contrast in fabrics, especially for the smaller blocks.  For background fabric, choose a solid color that contrasts well with your prints.

I will be using Michael Miller Cotton Couture in the following amounts:

•          7 yards Bright White
•          1 yard of Shell, Turquoise and Sail
•          ½ yard of Apple, Limeade, Sea Foam, Clementine, Tangerine, Berry, Bubblegum, Mango and Lemon
•          1 yard Clementine for binding

Skill Level:

Adventurous!  The variety of block patterns and sizes will keep this quilt interesting, but there are only a few basic techniques: half square triangles, quarter square triangles, flying geese and foundation paper piecing.  All techniques will be thoroughly explained with step by step photos and illustrations.

Community:

A flickr group has been created for this quilt along.  Post pictures of your fabrics, blocks and finished quilt at: www.flickr.com/groups/fairquilt.  You can also post pictures on Instagram using the hashtag #atthefairmysteryquilt.  I can’t wait to see them!

Cost:  $35 for the entire year and a half!  If you sign up after January 1st all previous months' PDFs will be emailed to you within 24 hours.  Sign up here!  You are going to love making your At the Fair Quilt!

Callings

I don't usually have really strong spiritual promptings about callings, but this last few months I have and wanted to share.

This summer our ward boundaries got realigned and instead of the two Ankeny wards being divided north/south they are divided east/west.  They wanted to even out ward numbers, but it didn't really end up helping - the wards are still really uneven.  I had been serving in the RS Presidency as 1st councilor and the Bishop wanted to keep us until the boundaries were changed but it kept getting put off and off and finally he released us.  A month later the ward was split.  Our RS President Rhonda was in the other ward now and their RS President Melissa was in our ward.  I totally knew that Melissa would be called as RS President (I am sure everyone else did too - not that big of a surprise) and I kept on thinking, "She's so cool.  It will be really fun to serve with her in RS!" and then telling myself to "let it go, you're not in RS anymore."

But when the Bishop called the week after the presidents were called I knew - absolutely knew - that I was going to be asked to be 1st councilor again.  And I was.

We needed a secretary and when Nikki Smith moved in I knew she should be called, but Melissa wasn't sure and then Nikki was called to be a primary teacher.

I love our Bishopric, but they have been slower than molasses in January about getting callings filled.  Primary is still missing teachers and RS only has one teacher, no compassionate service leader (we have been soooo lucky and have next to zero compassionate service needs in the ward) and only one visiting teaching coordinator.  And until this week no secretary.  That is 6 months people!

Anyway, a few weeks ago Bishop Bishop met with the Primary, Young Women and RS presidents and they went over what callings still needed to be filled and who needed callings.  After the meeting Melissa dropped a hit that there were some big changes coming.  I read that as meaning I was going to be released and I was correct.

It was really a good thing.  I kept on feeling like Melissa felt like I was being critical of everything.  Honestly, we just had different ways of doing things and I was kind of use to the grove of the old presidency.  Plus I was getting burned out.

So for the first time since the reorganization there were a ton of releases and sustainings today at church.  When I heard Nikki Smith was released from primary, I knew she would be the new 1st councilor - and she was.  I knew she belonged in RS - it just took a few months.  :)

I am a primary teacher now for the 8 & 9 year olds and the Activity Day leader for the same age girls.  So after I was called Melissa told me about the meeting with the other presidents.  The Primary got first dibs on callings and the first thing Diana said was, "I have been thinking about the 8 & 9 year olds and Activity Days and there is only one person I can think of that can do that...Leila."   She was nervous to ask for me to be released, but Melissa and everyone else felt really good about it too.

I served my purpose as a bridge between the old ward and new mixed ward and know that all of the decisions were inspired.  I still want them to get me some teachers called for RS though.  :)

The only thing that I will miss is being in the thick of things planning wise.  I liked having a say in how things go.  I'm kinda a bossy control freak.  But now I can plan for Activity Days.  :)

Monday

• Brian stayed home today.  He is taking the whole week off.  Crazy.  He cleaned the kitchen, played with Becca and mopped while I ran errands this morning.  He was going to replace a few pieces of siding on the house today but that is proving difficult.  There are way too many old nails that won't come out without tearing the old siding apart too.
• Kate didn't want to go to school today.  She was low level sick all last week and got use to staying home.  It started with a fever then congestion and sore throat and then diarrhea.  But go to school she did.  The kids are going to school tomorrow and then are off for the rest of the week.  Fun!  (kinda sarcastic there)
• I have been throwing around this idea for a block of the month program based on the ceramic quilt block patterns found on the outside of a building at the state fair grounds.  Every county designed one and it looks pretty cool.  The blocks would range in size from 8" to 36".  I made the 36" block and it is bigger than it looks in the quilt mock up so now I am re-evaluating my plan.

Emily's Pinwheel Star Tutorial

About a month ago my 14 year old daughter Emily was playing around with EQ7 (I love seeing them get into quilt stuff too!) and came up with this design.  I really liked the pinwheel in the star and decided to make it up into a 12" block to go with my other Meadowsweet star blocks.

I thought other people might like to make it too, so here is the tutorial:

To make a 12" finished Pinwheel star, cut:

 White
4 - 3.5" squares
4 - 4" squares
1 - 4.5" square

Pink
1 - 4.5" square

Print
4 - 4" squares

Yellow
 2 - 4" squares

Cut the 2 of the print squares on the diagonal.
Cut the 4.5" white and pink squares into quarters along both diagonals.
Draw a line along the diagonal of the four white 4" squares.

Lay out the white, pink and print triangles as illustrated.  Sew the white and pink triangles together.  (Tip:  Feed the triangles into the machine blunt end first.)  Press.  Sew the print triangle onto the pink and white triangle unit.  Press and trim to 3.5" square.  Make sure that the seams all run into the points.

Match the white 4" squares with the remaining print and yellow 4" squares and make 8 half square triangle units as illustrated above.  Press and trim to 3.5" squares.

Lay out all of the squares as shown.  Sew together into rows.  Press.  Match seams and sew the rows together.  Press.

Done!

Such a cute block.  I just need to make a few more for the quilt!  Have a great Thanksgiving week!

The new plan

So the probability of me actually carving out time to write tons and post cute pictures is pretty low, but I decided that I could probably write for 10 minutes a few times a week.  Don't think, don't plan, just write for 10 minutes.  Here we go:

• As fall and winter came I stocked up on tomato soup.  I have decided that tomato soup counts as a veggie.  With open faced cheese sandwiches you have dairy and whole grains.  Score.  That is what the kids are eating right now.  Emily doesn't like tomato soup.
• Today was Stake Conference.  I was kind of sad that the snow last night wasn't bad enough to give us an excuse to skip and watch old general conference addresses.  The crowds and having to contain/entertain kids for 2 hours takes all of my patience.  Actually it isn't that bad.  But I only say that because we hang out and watch conference in the RS room.  Padded chairs and only 15 kids making noise vs 200 kids making noise in a loud, echoing gym with hard chairs is a no brainer.  I don't know why it is always empty.  Best kept secret ever.
• We were encouraged by the visiting 70 last night to have gospel art, inspirational teaching quotes on the walls/refrigerator.  I know I should.  I have been thinking about it for the last 10 years, but there is only so much time and I want to use that time to quilt not to go around to Goodwill to find cheap frames and paint them a trendy color, choose out print, frame and hang all cute.  I know I can just tape a picture from the friend on the kids' wall, but somehow that just makes the rooms seem messy and cluttered.  I know I am whining and justifying, but I wanted to get it out there.  Maybe I will work on that kind of stuff on Sunday.
• Becca is obsessed with Elsa from Frozen.  She is about a year behind the trend but is making up for it fast.
• Kate followed Brian all around yesterday jabbering.  She says she doesn't jabber.
• I have started to try to do more interesting things to the girls hair except for brushing the tangles out.  Colleen's hair is really fun to work with and I have been doing a twist along the crown of her head, fast, easy and almost fool proof.
• Aleah has been reading a ton the last six months.  It has gotten to the point that I want to ban reading books at all.  She isn't interacting with the other kids very much and will go up to her room and hide out at any given opportunity.
• Emily, Aleah (I was trying to get her away from her book!) went to a consignment shop yesterday.  Emily found a leather jacket there for $24 and I bought it for her in exchange for two nights of babysitting.  She LOVES it.  We just had a talk about how people wearing jackets in the house bugs me.  She can wear it outside, she can wear it all day inside at school, but I will go crazy if I have to see her in it all day every day.
• Lot of things bug me and make me crazy.

That was more like 20 minutes, but I think I am liking this type without too much thought thing.  So if grammar is poor I hope you will forgive that.  Let's just think of it as "raw" and hope I can keep it up for awhile.  :)

Real Life/Quilt Life Balance

So, I haven't touched my sewing machine since I posted my mile long WIP list last Wednesday.  Kind of a bummer.  I have drafted some blocks and dreamed/planned different quilts and quilt-alongs (like I need anymore projects!)  but no actual sewing.  And yet I still feel fairly guilty about my "quilt life" interfering with my "real life" responsibilities.   Do you ever feel like that?

I guess I feel like I should have everything under control/perfect in my "real life" before I focus on my quilting.  Like the leaves from our 11  (!!!!) trees should be raked and disposed of, the wallpaper that I started to strip (5 layers!!!) should be finished and painted, the floors should not make your feet stick and the dishes done before I lose myself in sewing.  Logically I know that those things will never be completely done.  There will always be something for me to do/clean.  I need to find a way to balance and integrate my sewing so that it complements, not overpowers, my everyday responsibilities and vise versa.

This week I decided to move my sewing stuff back down to my basement sewing room.  I had moved everything upstairs while I was writing the book but now that I don't have to sew all-the-time it is kind of a pain to get it out to sew for a few minutes and then put it back.  So I have spent the last few days popping downstairs for a bit to clean and sort my sewing room.  My plan is to run down there for a few minutes (or more!) everyday to do something/anything creative.  I might not be able to put a lot of time per day into sewing, but goodness knows I could replace my Facebook "brain breaks" with a sewing "brain breaks" instead.

Dealing with scraps was my first priority.  There were tons of scraps in piles all over the sewing room.  After folding and storing the larger scraps (fat 1/8th and larger) I sorted the smaller scraps by color.  Then I admitted that I never really use those smaller scraps, so I decided to cut them up into rough hexagons for a future English paper piecing project.  Maybe like this one?  This morning I worked my way through the reds.  It was fun to see fabric that I had used in other projects again.  Any piece that was too small to cut a hexagon piece out off was thrown away.  Yes. Thrown. Away.  With the exception of a few strips that I will hang onto just in case I feel the need to make a string project.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Once I am done I'll give away the scraps to whoever wants them.  :)

Just taking a few minutes this morning to cut up those red hexagons gave me a fabric fix.  Here's to taking a bit of time each day to enjoy some fabric beauty.

Works In Progress - The Unabridged Version

Yesterday At the Heart of Quilting, a local long arm quilting store, needed someone to pretend to be a customer while Channel 5 made a commercial for them.  I was more than happy to oblige, especially since they said I could bring in a quilt to quilt while they were filming.  Sweet!  It was all low key and fun.  I love free motion quilting on a long arm and told them that when all of my kids were in school that I wanted to come down to Des Moines all the time to quilt.  Since time was limited, I brought my smaller I-spy quilt did a large all over flower design.  The quilting really shows up well on the back.  I used minky fabric for the first time as a backing.  It is awesome!

I have been getting a lot done, but I still feel like I am drowning in projects.  So I want to get old school WIP Wednesday today and make a comprehensive list of my WIPs.  I didn't think there were this many....

Needs Binding:
1.  I-spy quilt
2. Hexagon Christmas pillow

 Needs Quilting:
1.  Megan's Star quilt
2.  Christmas triangle quilt
3.  Star Flower quilt
4.  Diamond Christmas pillow

Needs a Border:
1. 1930's Sampler
2. Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt

Needs to be sewn together:
1. Yellow/purple triangle quilt
2.  Tree skirt

Needs a few more blocks and to be sashed and set:
1. Meadowsweet star quilt
2. Dresden plate quilt

Fabric that I want to do something with:
1.  Jelly roll of Kona solids
2.  Jelly roll of Lotta Jansdotter fabric
3.  A rainbow pack of vintage sheet fabric

Need to get rid of:
1. Coral and black baby quilt top
2. Brother's blue quilt (totally messed up the quilting on that)

Quilt Ideas:
1. Iowa State Fair Quilt made with solids
2. Simple patchwork with my special "sweet" fabrics
3. Fun improvisation (multiple ideas there)
4. Selvage pillows/quilt/skirt/etc
5. Scrappy hexagon quilt
6. Christmas pillow with selvage trees

12 active projects and tons in the wings...I think I have enough to keep me busy for awhile.  :)  What have you been working on?

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

I usually rather like the fall, but this year I haven't really been feeling the love.  I've just been plain old grouchy.   But the sun is shinning today and there are so many good things around me.  Here are a few of my favorite things....

It was fun that the color of some fabric I just bought matched the color of the leaves that fell the next day.  

Rainbow piles of fabric trimmings.

Mini gourds from my neighbor's garden and chrysanthemums from ours.

Two year olds who insist on dressing themselves in their sister's way-too-big boots.

Making fancy bread inspired by this viral facebook video.  (Post by Iris Cohen.)

And small town homecoming parades and five year old's who tell you that they didn't throw the candy they were given because "if you do, you won't have any candy at the end of the parade."   Words of wisdom.  :)  

Pre-Order You Can Quilt!

After my last post, I checked Amazon and You Can Quilt! is available to pre-order!!!  

Order a signed copy in my etsy shop or non-signed on Amazon.

I will meet Amazon prices, but do need to charge shipping.  The planned release date is February 2015 and I will ship out the books as soon as I receive them.

This is getting real!

You Can Quilt!

Here it is!  You Can Quilt!  

It's planned release date is February 2015!!!

Just like the original We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler, You Can Quilt! devotes a chapter to each major piecing skill.

Chapter 1:  The Basics (cutting, 1/4" seams and straight line blocks)
Chapter 2:  Half Square Triangles
Chapter 3: Quarter Square Triangles
Chapter 4:  Flying Geese
Chapter 5:  Wonky Piecing
Chapter 6:  Improvisational Piecing
Chapter 7:  Foundation Paper Piecing
Chapter 8:  Curves
Chapter 9:  One Patch Blocks
Chapter 10:  Applique
Chapter 11:  Inset Seams
Chapter 12:  Challenge Yourself!

My picture of the Flying Geese Blocks.

Each chapter starts with a simple block, followed by an intermediate block and ends with a more advanced block.  The idea is to start with a nonthreatening block and then to progress to the point where you know you could make any quilt that used that particular skill.  The instructions for the 36 quilt blocks are detailed, clear and beginner friendly.

I think this book is the most awesome quilting book ever!  (I might be a bit biased.)  But I put off sharing the book's cover for a few weeks for two reasons.  First, it features my "ugly" quilt :).  Second, this book is a must have for all quilters, not just beginners and I wanted to see if the cover could be altered to resolve those concerns.

I know AQS wants to market to beginning quilters, but this book is also perfect for all of us that are stuck in intermediate-quilter-land.  I had been quilting for years before I tried to foundation paper piece and I would never have tried to applique if it wasn't for my husband (read that story here).  This book is all about overcoming your quilting fears, trying out new techniques and building skills so you can make the quilts of your dreams.

This book is for you!  Your friend!  Your quilt group!  Everyone!

I will be sure post more information and sneak peeks as they become available!  Have a great weekend!

AQS Des Moines Quilt Show Recap

I had a lot of fun at the quilt show this week.  Somehow going to quilt shows always makes me think not really about the quilts I see (although they are Amazing) but about what I like and what I want to make next.

There were so many wonderful quilts, but my picture taking time was limited by my daughter.  I took her toy puppy for her to pull, the idea being that it would: 1. Keep her happy, 2. Keep her walking when she didn't want to be in the stroller (90% of the time) and 3. Because the puppy makes a small popping sound as it moves I could look at a quilt and still hear where she was and if the popping stopped or got too far away I could respond.  It worked ok.  :)

But the long and the short of it was that having a two year old with me made me have to be choosy about what quilts I took pictures of and I only took pictures of ones that I immediately "ahh-ed" over.

So here are my faves from the show (Some of the quilts are from the AQS show and others are from the local DSM guild.  I labeled the ones I had info for):

 LOVE the quilting

Love the solid red and white and the different sized blocks.

Love the log cabins mixed with blocks.  Very striking.

 Nice and graphic and scrappy.  Love the blues.

Cool quilting in the negative space.

Bright and fun.  The quilting was great too.

I want to make this type of applique quilt someday 

Here is the same quilt in a different colorway.  It uses my favorite color of blue for the background and I LOVE the fabric choices for these flowers!

The applique and quilting was perfect. 

 I loved the texture the serpentine stitch gave the quilt.

 I love rainbows and the quilting in the negative space was really fun.

 I really love wool applique.  I love the look and I love that you don't have to turn under the edges.  I don't like the price of wool.  Insane!  (Note the spiderweb quilting between the blocks.)

 Becca's favorite quilt was the one with the animals under it.  She stayed there looking at the animals for 15 minutes until I pried her away with the promise of candy from the vendors' booths.

 
Conclusion:
I mostly like quilts with clear crisp colors (the exception being the beautiful wool quilts).
I like solid backgrounds.
I want to make an applique quilt like Aunt Millie's Garden.
I want to make a quilt with solids.
I want to make a quilt with different sized blocks.  (I already have an idea for this one.)
And I want to continue to improve my quilting.

What kind of quilts are on your bucket list?