Remaining Neutral

Using colors from nature

 can be a way to help remain neutral

when choosing a color palette.

But when there's a rainbow of colors

surrounding us, it can be a challenge.

Last January I began working on the

BOM found on The Quilt Show

designed by the late Sue Garman.

I looked to the colors of the southwest,

the desert tones.

Starting with the center medallion

and adding each new border
month to month.

The most challenging
has been what I've called

 "geese flying in circles"

It was paper pieced and seemed
to take forever.
Wait, it did take forever!

On a recent trip to Santa Fe
I took my quilt top and
found a lovely adobe room
in which to photograph it.

It's not finished yet.
But the colors are definitely what I was striving for.

Last week I worked on the next border, pinwheels.

All those half square triangles were
trimmed and perfectly sized and
the borders  went together lickety split,
or as fast as you can sew a pinwheel border,
which isn't really very fast.

Two floater borders had to be figured out,
 sewn on and
then finally,
 those spinning pinwheels.

This is where I am today.

Next up,
more flying geese.
Not Running Man's favorite visiting yard bird!#@!

 I'll remain neutral
and continue on.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Always a Quilty Buddy

It's always hard to say good-bye

to friends that have been 

 Quilty Buddies.

It may not have been a friendship 

for many years, but we all 

know about the threads that bind quilters together.

Our friend, Jenine, is opening

another chapter of her life in Austin, TX.

We've loved getting to know her over

the past couple of years.

I had been gifted a 

basket full of red and white fat quarters 

in February

24" x 24"

and I used this wonderful collection of fabrics

from one group of quilting friends,

to stitch this sweet and easy heart quilt for a Quilty Buddy.
It seemed the perfect way to pass
the meaning of  friendship forward.

I made the the hst's to finish at 2"

and made 4" four patches set on point.
Any size patches would work.  You
could customize them to your particular project.

It was fun to

machine quilt heart motifs in the 

open spaces.  It seemed to add another layer
of sharing, caring and friendship.

This would be a simple and sweet

pattern to use for a quick baby quilt.

A going away gift doesn't have to be

big to let someone know

that they will be missed.  It

just has to be something from your heart.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Only Slightly Distracted

I did so well

during January,

but now...
 I've encountered a few

fun distractions.

Why not!

I said I wasn't going to do it,

but the Quilt Show's BOM

is a medallion quilt designed

by Sue Garman.

I have always admired her work and

with her passing, I knew I wanted to make

probably one of the last patterns she designed.

  After choosing the the initial fabrics,

 

 then expanding the palette,

 and then doing some auditioning

it was time to 

 challenged myself to get down and

familiar once again with paper piecing.

It wasn't as complicated as I had remembered.

There were only a few do overs.

So I felt good and the results

were spot on!

16.5" center block

****

This week my email had the 

first clue of the Semi-Mystery Quilt 

from Thimble Creek Quilts.

I've done two of their mysteries before

and find them fun and challenging so...

the third one is the charm, right?

I've been hanging on to a layer cake

from Benartex and
a bright fat quarter packet from
Fat Quarter Shop

that I had planned to use in a quilt for my Florida

daughter.  With white backgrounds,

I think it has the feel

of hot tropical breezes.

8" finished blocks

 ****

Okay, I had resisted since January,

but I finally
started having fun with Lisa Bongean's

2017 Triangle Gatherings.

I spent last week making about 20 sets of HSTs.

Each block takes 16 pieces.
I decided to do

navy and cheddar and see what

happens.

 I've been using three different products to 

make my HSTs, Thangles,

Triangles on a Roll, and the PG Triangle Papers

designed by Lisa.

Thangles work great for strips,

the Triangles on a Roll works

well for larger pieces of fabrics,

and the PG Triangle papers work perfectly

with charm squares.

There's a place for everything.

Which one rips the easiest?

I'd vote for Triangles on a Roll.  The paper

is the thinnest. 

Patterns 1-5

6" finished blocks

****

Well, you can see that I have

branched out a little and 

have only become slightly distracted.

 It's funny what we can add in

and it just becomes part of the circle of  life. (quilting)
Have fun. I am.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Pieces of the Past

If you've read my blog for awhile,

you might remember one of my 

projects from last year was unsewing 

and then resewing

vintage 1940's Ocean Wave blocks.

The fabrics were in  perfect condition.

It was just the stitching that needed help.

So with a lot of help from Jack the Ripper

and a bit of patience, I hand pieced

these "pieces of the past"

back into a quilt.

 52" x 68"

My goal was to have it done by 2017.

The last stitch was taken

January 2, 2017.

I'd like to think that the original quilter

would be pleased with my interpretation.

There were several triangle pieces that became my favorites

I loved the chrome orange and navy together

and the other two much older pieces were possibly leftovers

from a grandmother's scrapbasket.

These 60 unruly blocks were given to me

by a quilting friend who was doing some

purging and thought I might enjoy the challenge.

When the top was finished,

I was glad I had some triangles

leftover and pieced a small quilt for her.

I even had a few more leftover pieces

and stitched a mini "sister" quilt  for myself.

Like sisters,

similar yet different.

"Old Goose"

Now this quilt must wait patiently again
  in the queue for hand quilting.

But that's okay.  It's only

been waiting about 75 years already.

Until Next Time-

Kyle