Monday Morning Star Count 2014/13

ISO!  Please help if you can~

 I have decided to use this beautiful Timeless Treasures print for my background hexies on Travel Quilt #5, but after working up a pattern in EQ, I see that I'm about 2 yards short..  So I'm searching for more.  If you've got a chance, please flip through your stash and see if you have any your could part with.  It's Jacobean Arbor by Patricia Campbell for Timeless Treasures.  I bought it at Cloth Peddler in Virginia in 2010.  If you can help me out, please let me know!

These are my background bits, I'm piecing them in 5-hexie strips to keep them portable.  I don't want to join the diamond hexies til I've got a few more done (to play with layout, of course), but I shouldn't wait too much longer.. I'd like to join so I can free up and reuse my templates.

At our pillow workshop last Saturday, we talked a bit about stitch sequence, and I took this picture to illustrate how I've been getting these diamonds together.

 Honestly, it took me a while before I fell onto a sequence that worked for me.. Here I work in groups of 3 mostly.. join the center part in two triangles and a 3-hexie strip.  Then do two more triangles of the outer color, and two strips of 5.  Stitch the 5s on first, then travel your thread through the seam allowance to get the corners on.  Motifs this large still take a while to assemble, but they're worth it.  As my stack grows, I like them more and more.

Hacked!!

 I've been having a bad day.
See, my yahoo email address has been hacked (If you've gotten spam from me, you know), and it was sending links to weight loss supplements repeatedly to my family, friends, acquaintances, and business contacts.  This is so embarrassing!!!
Today I finally decided I'd had enough, and I've spent most of my screen time trying to switch over to gmail.  So.. if you get anymore emails from my yahoo account, please disregard them!  If you'd like to send me email, you can send it to jessunderquilts at gmail dot com.

While I was freaking out about this whole mess this morning, George drew a picture to show me he understood what was going on (those are laptops, btw).

I'll paraphrase George's explanation of his drawing, and the situation:

Someone hacks the other person's email so he's happy.  The next guy sees an email from mom and then it's spam, so he's sad.  Mom sees her account is sending spam so she's sad. 

That's just about exactly the way it happened.  He really amazes me.
Anyway, I hope to have this week's MMStarCount up tomorrow morning, thanks for your patience.  (Remember, you can link up all week~)

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/12

Upcoming English Paper Piecing Events
 I've got a lot going on in the next few weeks, and if you're local, I'd love for you to join me and do some EPP!  Here's a list of my upcoming lectures and workshops..

March 29th     Hexagon Pillow Workshop, 1-4 pm
+ This is a workshop for Huntington Guild members only, please contact Laura or Gilma if you are interested in attending. 

April 3rd   EPP Lecture at the Evening Star Quilters Guild, Mineola, NY
+ 7:30 p.m.

Mineola Community Center

155 Washington Avenue

Mineola, NY

For more information on the guild, see their website.

April 4th  Hexagon Pillow Workshop, 10am-1pm
+ This workshop is open to non-guild members, and there are still plenty of spots available.   If you'd like to join us, please email me (jessunderquilts at yahoo dot com) and I'll send details.

April 6th     Hexagon Pillow Workshop
+ This is a workshop for Huntington Guild members only, please contact Laura or Gilma if you are interested in attending.  (tentative date)

May 17th  English Paper Piecing Demo, 2-4 pm
+ This is a free workshop, open to the public, but space is limited so reservations are necessary.
To reserve your spot, please register online using this form or write to handmade@nypl.org with your name and the date of this event.
New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Rm. 227
New York City

Sadly, my Greek Island Quilt Retreat had to be cancelled due to low enrollment.  I'm very disappointed, hopefully we'll have a better turn out for 2015.  When details are available, I'll post them here.

For my EPP progress this week, I've got the following:  

I still need a lot more to meet my goal of 20 by the summer.. but can I count the partials on the edge towards that number?  Is that cheating?

How are you doing?

LIQS Show

This was a big quilting weekend for us on Long Island.   The Long Island Quilters Society holds a huge quilt show every two years, and because I taught a workshop for them in January, I was in the loop enough to fill out the forms and submit my quilts on time this year. 
I went yesterday morning and saw the show with Eri.  It is held at the Garden City Field House Gymnasium which is big airy space.  Everything felt fresh, bright and beautiful. Promise that spring is on the way.  I was very happy that Travel Quilt #3 took two ribbons-- Best in class for Piecework, and 1st place for commercially quilted in its size category.  (That's completely Shannon's fault!  thank you!). 

It's only recently that I became interested in entering my quilts to be judged.  Winning a ribbon is pretty cool, but I have always been a little anti-establishment when it comes to the "proper" way to make a quilt.  I still feel that I made the quilts for me, and I want to share what I've made with a larger audience.  If a judge likes or doesn't like it, that's fine.  It's my quilt, I won't be ashamed of that.  So tonight when I go to pick them up, I'm curious to read the judge's comments.  I don't know if it will change anything about how I make my next quilt, but it's interesting to get feedback nonetheless. 
Here are some of my favorites from the show.  Quilt maker info is on each pic. 

As Eri and I were walking around, I thought about why I love these quilts, scrap quilts.  When I saw the Cathedral Windows below, it hit me.. I like to look closely and see if I have any of the same fabrics.

 (Btw, this quilt was hung behind a guild booth, without any identifying information. If you know who made it, please let me know!!)

I thought about the quilts I have been making, and the ones I'm planning to start or work on soon.. I think I've been getting distracted by what others have been doing again (bad, bad Instagram!), and I want to find time to get back to some of the projects that really spoke to me.  I've also got a bit of gift sewing I want to finish this spring too.  Hope I'll find time for all of it.
Anyway, here is my finished Travel Quilt #2.  Completely me.  No ribbons, but I still love it.  Made between 2007-2014, there's a whole lot of my life in there.  (the border does go all the way around, but the hanging sleeve is placed 88" from the bottom, as per the show requirements)

Virginia Getaway

Last weekend we decided to take a last minute trip to see some friends in northern Virginia.  I eluded to it in my Monday post, and sure enough, we got caught in a snowstorm.  It was great to see our friends, and a quick shout out on Instagram pointed me in the direction of Finch Sewing Studio in Leesburg.  Eleni and I hopped in the car (leaving the kids with the husbands) and stopped by just as the snow started to fall.

The owner, Nicole, was very friendly (You can read her blog here, or follow her on IG-- @finchsewingstudio) and her shop is just adorable.  It has such a great atmosphere, I don't think my photos could capture how happy it feels just to be inside.

 It was great to go in with Eleni, who has been asking me to make a quilt for her wall for a few months now.  She isn't a quilter, and it was helpful to be able to talk about fabric, pattern, and design using the examples in the shop to get a better feel of what she likes and doesn't like.  I'm still thinking of what I might make..

I treated myself to some modern fabrics (bought in person, not online!  it was so nice!), and a few notions.  I finally got a hera marker, can't wait to put that to use.

We also discussed the possibility of my coming down for an event/signing/epp demo some time later in the summer.  I really hope we're able to make that happen.  I have so many online friends in the DC Modern guild that I'd really like to meet in person.  I'll let you know what we sort out.

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/11

Is spring here?  I think it might be, but then again, I'm writing this post ahead of schedule and the forecast is predicting snow for Monday..
Anyway, I've been very productive this week.. the boys helped me sort through some scraps one afternoon and I've got a nice basket full of hexie-diamond hopefuls.

 I figure I better not cut too many now in case I change my mind about the colors.  I have pulled a lot of purples, pinks and oranges, and I'm not sure if I'll want to stick with that when I actually get around to stitching them.  I let George help and select the fabrics for the rings around the bird hexies-- one uses a blue scrap from the quilt on his bed, I wonder if he recognizes it.  They are definitely not fabrics I would have picked to go together, so these two bird blocks will be all George, and that's just fine by me.  I hope by the time I reach the other side of the quilt, Jack will be old enough to contribute his preferences too.

So, show us what you've got!

tiny patchwork needlebook

I did it.  I did some selfish, not-work sewing and made myself a little needlebook.

I used the pattern from nanaCompany and I'm really happy with it.  I am a scrap hoarder, this is not news to anyone, but a while back I started putting tiny scraps into a separate little tray next to my cutting table, and then when I moved the sewing room downstairs, I started a new tray for very little scraps.  I think my original goal was to sort out pieces small enough for this EPP project, but the collections came in really handy for this too. 

 

 I'm a little out of practice, and this improv scrap top didn't come together as easily as I thought it would.  I actually had several reject bits before these scraps just found each other and I stitched them up.  Instead of play trial and error for the back cover, I just went with a piece of this teal/turq floral from JoAnn's.  I hand quilted it with fans on the back,

and just followed the seam lines on the front.   It had been ages since I hand quilted anything with regular thread (instead of perle cotton).  It was nice to remember how much I like it, but I don't foresee myself doing much more of it in the near future.  All the quilting patterns I want to try are all FMQ, but who knows?  Another little side project like this could pop up at any time..

My favorite detail is the rubber stamping.. I used my little horse instead of putting the date (2014- year of the horse), and couldn't come up with anything cuter to say than my own name.  At least everyone will know who it belongs to.

On the inside I put one "sheet" of felt and a fabric-enclosed magnet to hold my loose paperclips. 

The magnet makes the case very heavy, and I'm pretty sure it would get me stopped at the TSA check at the airport, so I might not keep the case in my sewing kit while flying.  Actually, my TQ#5 sewing kit is bursting at the edges-- it's tough to keep it closed these days and I really don't know what to do.  Suddenly all of those other EPP sewing kits I've seen for hexie-based projects make a lot more sense to me.  We've got a trip coming up soon and as I prepare for it, I just don't know where I can fit all the stuff I need to bring (extra colors of thread, a new pack of 100 hexie templates).  I wanted to make this needlebook, but I'm not sure how to make it work for me yet.. 

Anyway, a finish is a finish, and it sure felt good to flex my patchwork and quilting muscles after all this constant EPPing.  I'm linking up with TGIFF! Be sure to pop over and see what everyone else has finished this week.

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/10

With the enthusiasm that I baste and  piece hexies, I can hardly imagine that there once was a time I didn't like the shape, or the idea of making a quilt with them.  I guess we all learn and grow with age, huh?
This past week I had a wonderful lecture and trunk show with the guild in Huntington, NY.  I taught the pillow workshop to a small group of their members last month and several of my students brought in progress to share.  One even completed the entire pillow!  The group was lively and welcoming, and I had a great time.  We have scheduled a few more workshops as well, and I am steadily working towards my goal of getting all of Long Island English paper piecing.. (well, almost).

(I always feel a little guilty when the volunteers have to hold up my quilts.. these suckers are HEAVY.)
I am making slow and steady progress on TQ#5, with the fifth diamond nearly complete.

Yesterday I was piecing after the kids went to bed and decided to time myself with the stopwatch on my phone.  Turns out I can stitch a 1" seam in just about a minute.  That's pretty cool.  Takes me a minute and a half to baste though.  Have you ever timed yourself?  I'm not trying to speed up this "slow sewing", but I was curious and it's kind of fun to see the block materialize from your fingers in just a few minutes..

 (the 1:10 was the end of the thread where I took extra stitches to bury it in my seam allowance..)

Who wants to link up this week?

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/9

135 stars.. that's how many are in Merrill's quilt.

 She brought it over this weekend with some fabric and a deal-- if I bind it, I can bring it along for my trunk shows.  I've got a lecture/trunkshow coming up on Tuesday, so it was pretty easy to agree to this idea.
The quilt is for Sabrina, who proudly pointed out fabrics to George.  I, of course, loved seeing the two of them pour over it like true quilters' children.  You can read more about the quilt in Merrill's guest post here.

I am so lucky to get to keep this quilt in my house for a while, it brightens up the whole living room!  We made the quilts simultaneously and even though there are a lot of shared fabrics between the two, they look completely different (to me anyway, what do you think?).  There is a pic of them side by side here.  

For this week's progress report, I have bits and pieces to show.. most of diamond #4 and the start of #5.. 

I may be teaching this pattern at a workshop next weekend, so I need some "in progress" pieces to explain how I assemble the block.  Yeah, that's a bad excuse, but I'm sticking with it..

Please tell me you have all been more productive?