Three Little Miniatures Setting In A Row

I'm pretty excited that I've been able to keep up with Pat Sloan's Aurifil Designer Mystery BOM challenge for the year.  And so far I LOVE each one of them.  The picture above shows my finished Flurry mini, Chubby Churn Dash mini, and this month's mini designed by Kimberly Jolly from Fat Quarter Shop.

I dug deep into my fabric stash to come up with two coordinating fat quarter bundles that I purchased someplace locally last summer.

I decided to add an additional boarder of the darker maroon fabric to practice doing feather boarders.

Usually I try to draw up a quilting design before I actually dig in and for some reason I could not completely commit to what I originally designed.

Instead of doing the different quilting designs in each of the color bans, I kept things simpler with my favorite dot-to-dot design.  I loved the idea of the feathers with scribbling as the filler to make them pop a bit.

Because it can be a bit tricky seeing where you are going when working white on white, I used my blue water soluble pen to mark my echo lines so that I didn't get carried away and quilt over them...although it probably happened several times anyway, it is called scribbling.

 This is the first quilting project that I have been brave enough to attempt feathers.  I marked my spines with a porcelain quilting pencil and free formed the plumes as I went.  Overall I was very pleased for my first try on an actual pieced project.  

I'll even be brave and show a peek of the back...

I cannot thank Pat enough for the idea of mini quilts each month.  It helps to have a small sense of accomplishment each month.  Thanks Pat!

Is It Cheating/Why Do I Feel Guilty?

Four days into March and I am completely caught up on my BOM that I'm working on.  I'm absolutely in love with my bitty blocks for the Quilty Pleasures Bitty Blocks BOM .

The block sizes are either 3" or 4" and it will be a row quilt.  Sometimes its the small things that make us happy.

So why do I have a guilty conscience? 

The answer is this note.  I wrote the names of all the quilt tops I have that need quilted and taped it to my desk at work.  It's my daily reminder to get on the ball, my motivation to make the list go away.  So last month I pulled out the Jelly Roll Race Quilt, its backing fabric, batting, an issue of Quilty Magazine, went to the fabric store...and promptly pieced thirteen of these blocks...

Wait!  That is not how that was suppose to go.  Too many distractions!  Now my pretty little strawberry blocks are just waiting to be joined together with sashing and setting triangles to become a finished quilt top.  What's the problem?  It then becomes another name on my list.  By opening that magazine I allowed myself to cheat on my list of UFO's.  So will I finish piecing together the strawberries or pull out the brand new spool of thread and quilt a quilt top?  I'm thinking the best thing to do is take a deep breath, go home, open a new bottle of wine and figure it out then :) 

Chubby Churn Dash

I'm not sure where the rest of February went but it seems like I blinked and the entire month was gone.  However, I didn't let it sneak past me without finishing Pat Sloan's Aurifil Designer of the month challenge.  February's mini quilt was designed by Jonanna Figueroa at Fig Tree & Co. and is called Chubby Churn Dash.  With a name like that how could you not love it??  With Valentines Day in the air and that word "chubby" in the title I couldn't help but think of cute little cherubs and soft pinks and blues. With my goal being to whittle down my stash of fabrics my mind instantly went to some charm packs of Papillon by 3 Sisters that I have been saving FOREVER.  But of course as soon as I pulled out my totes of charm packs other fabrics caught my eye.

I almost changed my mind and grabbed the bright batiks in the middle.  But it was the month of love and my original plan was to have softer colors in the quilt so I kissed the other two charm packs good-bye-for-now and opened up the beautiful blues and pinks of Papillon.  

I had two different thoughts on the color for the sashing.  Even though there is no yellow in this color line, I thought a pretty soft yellow might add something or I had some yardage of a light blue from the Papillon line.  

In the end I decided on the light blue.  Something about the yellow didn't flow for me.  Then it was time to get this thing sewn together.  I was itching to quilt something!

Next came possible thread choices.  My first thought was to quilt the center square with a matching thread color, but I decided to stick with the light pink and gray Aurifil threads and keep it simple.  The only thing left to do was decide on the quilting.  

 I auditioned 3 different possibilities for my blocks.  One of my favorite things to do is very dense quilting around something to really make it pop off the quilt.  I really wanted the churn dash blocks to stick out so that is the quilting option that won.

So after a weekend spent relaxing with Netflix I finally finished the mini quilt.  Not a bad way to end the month at all.  Now it's time to catch up on all of the new BOM for March that should be out.

4-H Love---How How!!

It seems like the older my daughter gets the busier we are.  Definitely a bitter sweet thing, because before I can blink she will be trying to tell me she's and adult and ready to do her own thing.  One of the things I am grateful for is that she was introduced to the 4-H program when she was in elementary school.  She dearly loves and believes in this organization and it is giving her confidence and helping her become the beautiful young lady she is today.  By going to the different camps she is able to meet other teens from different areas of our state and make friendships that may last a lifetime.

I have to have a proud parent moment for a moment...excuse me while I climb up on my soap box.  The two weekends ago she participated in our state air rifle competition for the first time.  Though she did not place she did an amazing job for her first year considering she had only been shooting since November.  This past weekend she participated in her club competition.

She placed 1st place for the girls junior division.  She also participated in the club archery shoot as well against a neighboring school district.  

She placed second in the girls shoot for her grade.  Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of her because we had to leave before the final scores where announced.  Hopefully, her team will advance to the state competition.

A big clap of hands for the  4-H organization for sponsoring these actives!  Through the clubs, camps, and sporting events such as these,  the children have a chance to learn teamwork, confidence and the value of their community.

As any true 4-h'er knows camp is where it's at and everyone takes a deep pride in their tribe...even when they are adults.  During my daughter and nieces last year at younger camp they were both chief of their tribes.  For our family it was the Delawares vs the Mingos.  My fear was a scalping as the girls are very competitive, but they happily proved me wrong and worked together to lead their tribes.  My heart rannith over, so of course I made quilts.  It seemed like the perfect presents for Christmas so they could take them to camp the next year.

I tried to personalize each one with things specific to each tribe such as tribe colors and animals but also give them blocks that represent camp itself.  Each quilt has a Maple Leaf block (Maple is the name of the cabin everyone wants), a Friendship block, Indian mat and Indian Star blocks.
The Delaware quilt is done in the tribe color of black and has their mascot the Fire Bird, a Birds in the Air and Delaware Star block.  The Mingo quilt is done in the tribe color of red with their mascot a bear, a Bear Paw and Ohio Star block.  And of course they both have the four leaf clover blocks representing Head, Heart, Hands and Health.

Both girls loved the quilts and proudly displayed them on their beds at camp.  How! How!

The Death Quilt

We all have a story whether it is a fairy tale or something straight out of a Stephen King novel.  My guess is most quilts have a story too ranging from emotional for both the maker and the recipient to just weird to all but the person who made it.  This is the story of a quilt that I almost did not finished, but in hindsight I am glad that I did.

When I saw the pattern for Interlocking Stars in the the January/February 2011 issue of Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting I had to make it.  Although the colors they chose did not speak to me.

 I decided to make the colored links alternating shades of pink and turquoise.  Which seemed like a great idea until I realized how much thought it was going to take to figure out how many tiny pieces of what to cut.  Out came the zip lock bags and markers so I could keep track of what was what.  I was still fairly new to quilting and this was the most complicated project I had tackled so it seemed to take for ever to get everything cut and organized.  Most of the pieces were in the 1.5 to 2 inch range. It is made up of two basic alternating blocks.  I was in the process of sewing the gazillion units to make the blocks when this quilt's story started.

It was Mother's Day, May 8, 2011.  My daughter had spent the night with my parents and my husband and I were to visit with them later that afternoon.  I had just spoke with my dad on the phone when I set back at the machine to sew.  He was happily watching TV and my mom and daughter were at the store.  Less that 45 minuets later my world would crash down and forever change.  The phone rang and the voice on the other end was the calm voice of my child but the words she spoke were hard to process.  "Mom, get here quick.  I think Papaw just died."  Everything froze.  I could hear my mother in the background and I knew things were serious.  My husband and I raced to my parent's house.  Luckily, we were able to get behind the ambulance and run.  I would like to say that this part of the story has a happy ending, but for our family, it did not.  My father suffered a massive heart attack and did not make it.  The next week was spent at my mother's side all of us trying desperately to make sense of things.  When we finally returned home and tried to make life seem normal again, I could not stand the sight of those quilt pieces or the thought of sewing.  I packed all the sandwich bags of fabric and the magazine into a plastic tote and stuffed it away.  I think it was months before I even turned my machine back on.

Now my story fast forwards to 2012.  By this time my small family had moved into a house beside my mother and I had once again started piecing quilts.  It was the end of October and hurricane Sandy was headed toward New Jersey and New York.  Our small town was expected to get hit with large amounts of snow and I stayed home from work.  Since I had just recently finished something, I thought enough time had passed that maybe I would work on my pretty pink and turquoise quilt again.  Out came the almost forgotten tote and all its small pieces.  I sorted everything out and scratched my head trying to figure out what in the world I was doing.

Several hours into it while entertaining myself on Face Book, I was devastated to learn that one of my best friend's (she more like family) mother had just passed away...of a massive heart attack, just like my dad.  We all knew her as Momo and loved and respected her deeply.  Another piece of our heart would be missing.

I just stared at the partially sewn blocks in disgust.  I know it sounds stupid but I thought "is someone going to fall over every time I touch this thing?"  I had not touched it in almost a year and a half and it is out for a few hours and we get the same news.  After things had once again settled, I shared the story with my friend and told her I didn't want to finish it.  Then I had a great idea, I would finish it and we would burn it.  I didn't want to look at it again.  Somehow I figured symbolically it would feel good and allow us to release some of the hurt and anger. A bond fire and wine was the answer.  Yes as crazy as it sounds it was the plan, I'd show this quilt who's boss.  As soon as it was together I dropped it off at the local quilt shop for quilting (I even told the long arm quilter to quilt it at her own risk I was not responsible for any more deaths) and a few weeks later it was back.

I called Jackie to tell her it was finished.  She loved it and as much as I hated to admit it I did too.  The burning did not happen (the wine probably did).  We decided it was our quilt and named it "The Death Quilt."  She even talked me into entering it into a local quilt show and it took first place in the wall hanging division.

It's a quilt that adds an extra bond to one of my best friendships.  I'm very thankful that she and her family are in my life.  

Though others may look at me crazy when I call it "The Death Quilt" she and I understand it really represents the love that we have for the ones we are missing.  I don't have to hate the quilt anymore.  My dad and Momo where beautiful souls and I'm happy that it represents them.  Plus as long as there are little things like this...

Face Dad spray painted on the building door.

I know he's still around.

Flurry

I just finished finished my second project of the year.  It is from Pat Sloan's Aurifil designer challenge for 2015.  The January designer of the month was Gudrun Erla of GE Designs.  She introduced us to the cutest mini quilt called Flurry.  I pulled out my boxes of fabric and decided to go with a solid light turquoise and white on white polka dot fabric.

 Next it was time to pick out thread.  I already had a nice Aurifil white thread but I needed a turquoise of some sort.  Unfortunately,  the quilt shops closest to me do not carry this brand of thread so I had to look online.  Sometimes ordering online can be tricky and the color I chose actually ended up being slightly darker than I wanted, but I decided to just go for it.

Now I needed a plan so out came the Plexiglas and dry erase markers.  

 After I started quilting I wasn't quite happy with what I had came up with.  I didn't like the back and forth wiggles in the white blocks or the swirl/scrolls in the blue.

So I went with a more dot-to-dot quilting approach.

Finished Front

 Finished Back

It's like Christmas every month

It's the time of month I look forward to every month, New Block of the Month Day!

Kinda like Ralphie and his longing for the Red Ryder BB Gun I cannot wait to see all the new blocks for the quilt-a-longs I am trying to keep up with.  Two or three days before the beginning of the month I start checking the pages (sometimes they post early) to see if they are out yet.  I MUST HAVE THEM!  Most have posted that they will not be posting them until the 2nd of the month for February, so instead of pouting I've decided to write about them.

Goal one for the year is tackling all of the UFO quilt tops laying around, but my second goal for the year is to lessen my fabric stash.  I'm happy to say that the piles of unused fabric laying around are not as bad as they could be but I do not want to turn into a hoarder either.  I want to be known for beautiful creations not as that crazy chick from that one episode of Hoarders Buried Alive.  BOM are a great way to use up fabric plus it's kind of exciting not knowing what you are going to end up with.  Plus most of them are FREE (all the ones I'm participating are).  Last year I participated in Pal Sloan's Globetrotting  BOM and her Aurifil designer block challenge.

This year I'm joining Pat again for her Vacation Time Mystery Challange and the Aurifil challenge as well.  Instead of a block of the month the Aurifil challenge will be 12 mini quilts!  Who doesn't love a mini quilt!  I should have Flurry finished this weekend.

  My husband asked me several years ago to make him a quilt with an Asian feel and I jumped on the fabric collecting.  Huge problem, I had no idea what to do with it and could not find a pattern that spoke to me.  So I stumbled onto this BOM hosted by Gold Coast Quilter's Guild.  Each month they are posting a Japanese block designed by Susan Briscoe.  Perfect! Sign me up!

The Gold Coast Quilter's Guild also has a mystery quilt underway.  Clue one is a supply list and these fabrics seem like this quilt will be a nice home for them.  Now to wait for clue two.

These are two of my smallest totes of "stash" containing mostly 2.5 and 3 inch blocks or strips.  I think the QM Bitty Blocks BOM will be the answer for weeding these babies out.  Really it's more of a row by row challenge.

The rest of my collection will fall victim to the Quilt Art Designs Beginners BOM 2015 and the Adventurous Quliters 2015 BOM.  Both are using paper piecing for their blocks.  I could use a little more work on my paper piecing so this kills two birds with one stone.  Quilt art Designs also has a Bitty Block going on as well but I think I might need to improve my skills be before I tackle that one.

UFO Sighting---What?

I have had a UFO sighting at my house.

No, I haven't lost my mind.  Not that kind of UFO sighting.  It was of the UnFinished Objects kind.  The kind of UFO only a quilter could love...or hate depending on which side of the fence you're standing on.  When I first started quilting my view was "I just like the creativity of piecing and fabric. I'm not into it for the actual quilting."  I pieced my little heart out until I ended up with a stack of quilt tops that I could not afford to pay someone to quilt.  Oops. 

Slowly I'm crawling out of the hole.  The UFO sighting at my house for the most part looks like this today.

How about a contest of How Many Quilts is Tisha Behind--Guess the Stack?  If my counting is correct the answer is 14.  Which is a smaller stack than when I started out last year.  Hopefully, by the end of this year I will be completely caught up.  A girl can dream right? 

Down the Rabbit Hole

Around this time last year while playing on Face Book, I came across Pat Sloan's Globetrotting quilt along.  The idea of a mystery quilt and the fact that her friend Debby Brown was going to also follow along and show you how to do it as a quilt along had me hook line and sinker.  This was the push I needed to gain some confidence to try free motion quilting...and for the last year I have not looked back.  Although that first quilt isn't exactly finished (although it will be) I decided to make a second quilt but not do it as a QAYG.  The quilt along was technically over and I knew what the finished product would look like so I asked my husband to pick out the colors and fabrics.

I have to say the color palette he chose is not one that I would have chose which is part of the reason I asked for his help.  Sometimes it's good to get out of our comfort zone.  I was determined not to let this top fall into the dreaded category of UFO, so I printed out a blank copy of the layout, poured a glass of wine and went to the drawing board.

After maybe a few glasses of wine (over a few days) I finally came up with my crazy plan.  I have found that drawing something out helps me stay on track and figure out how I'm going to tackle things.  The next big question is with what shall I quilt it?  Can I decide on one over all thread color or go crazy with the colors that are on the quilt?  Of course crazy color wins!  Bring on the Aurifil threads!

After 3.5 hours quilting time this week (thanks to the handy stopwatch on my phone) I finally have the center square of the quilt and all of the "ditch" stitching finished.  The design for the most part has stayed the same as the drawing. 

One block down...only 12 more to go!