Good Neighbors

Thank you for the kind comments and words of encouragement on my MMSC post yesterday.  I completely agree, bloggers who write honestly and authentically have a certain quality that makes them very readable.  I love ones who share so much of themselves and their lives, blogs that come to mind of being of that style are here, here and here.  Love, truth, struggle, honesty.  And so beautifully written.  I fear that this style works best when the writers are "normal" or dealing with socially acceptable problems.. and I can't say that all of my challenges right now fall into those categories.  I am making tough choices, choosing to do what I feel is right over what society, my family and my loved ones may expect.  And it's hard, but it's so worth it.

You have all been good neighbors to me, and I am so thankful.  So here, let me show you a quilt I made..

When AmandaJean announced she had new fabric coming out with Connecting Threads, I jumped at the chance to help her promote it.  I chose the cooler colors from Good Neighbors, teal, patriot blue, grey, green and joined them with Patriot blue and Indigo solids.  (This still needs another border in the Indigo, but I wanted to take pics today when I had time).
I chose two blocks from Get Started Quilting, the Starry Night improv stars, and the Improv Housetops, which I modified a bit.  This quilt is very similar to one of the design wall samples (p. 116, I think) but I wanted to see how it would look in cool colors and with the circle of stars in the center.  Here's a bit of my process:

Start by making the double star wonky star blocks:

I use the chain piecing method described in the book to keep the star point units together as I assemble the block (leave thread chains between the patches as you machine piece and then they don't accidentally get out of order).

Make 4 star blocks, and rotate them so that they alternate Big-Small-Big-Small and form a ring.  (I love how this happens)

Then start in on the housetop blocks-- making rings of medium, light, and then dark around center squares (completely improv, nothing needs to be measured, slice in angles for visual interest, trim down at the end).

The Improv Housetop pattern in the book has you make one big ringed block, cut it in quarters, trim up to 6.5" and reassemble so all the centers are going the same direction.  For a large portion of these blocks, I just cut the ringed blocks in half, trimmed to 6.5" x 12.5" and stacked them.

Assembly is a little tricky-- I added panels of housetops to the top and bottom of the star section, then built up the two side panels carefully pressing seams for optimal ease at the final joining of columns.  I could have planned it out before I started sewing, but that's just not how I work.

I added 3" borders in Patriot blue and I want to put on one more border of Indigo before quilting it.  I have.. limited ideas for how that will go so far, so I think I'll let it sit as I think on it for a few days.  Suggestions welcome.

I loved making this quilt.  The Connecting Threads solids have such a nice weight to them and Amanda Jean's Good Neighbors prints are really just that-- I can see these prints working so well with others in my stash already.  Plus the whole line is just cheery and candy coated and reminds me of all of her other quilts.  I really enjoyed playing with it.

So, this is how I quilt.  From idea to partially finished top, it took about 4 months.  I'm surprised I did it so quickly.  Most of the piecing and assembling was done in about 4-5 days.  I do not like to rush.  I want to remember the process (I forgot that that's why I started blogging in the first place, waaaaay back in 2006) and to work out my thoughts as the quilt takes shape.  There is bigger meaning here, much bigger, and I think the social media wave often knocks people off balance.  It's part of life though, one more thing to manage.  Thanks for rallying around me this week, friends.  You guys are the best neighbors <3 p="">

Finally, improv

Life is busy, I feel like I'm hopping weekend to weekend, the month just flies by.  So many ideas, plans, hopes, disappointments.  We're making it through the best we can and as always, I'm clinging to making to keep me sane.
I'm listening to Tori Amos on Pandora and watching dark ominous clouds roll in over my laundry hanging out to dry.  This weekend I put in a new rotary blade and cut into a stack of fabrics that's been waiting patiently for me all summer.  Connecting Threads sent me some of AmandaJean's new line, Good Neighbors and I'm putting together some of the improv blocks from Get Started Quilting to show off both my blocks and her fabric.
Today I made stars--

This is the Starry Night block from p. 106 of my book.   A big wonky star with a little one nestled in up close.  This is one of my absolute favorites from the book and I'm so happy I get to used it in this project.  I took several of the light background and white prints from Good Neighbors and put them on a background of Patriot Blue solid (also Connecting Threads).  One of my quilters-for-hire, Gilma, discovered that if you make four of these blocks and rotate them, you get a sweet ring of stars (her version can be seen on p. 109) so I tried that out and I'm pretty happy with the result.

Next comes more improv blocks, yay!  I really hate measuring and I get an odd sense of pleasure from trimming up the unplanned into usable units of patchwork.  This is just the type of chaos I needed this weekend.
I'm heading back to the hospital with my EPP tonight for a visit.  I prepped a new project to take, progress shots to follow on instagram (@jessica_alex).

It's time to Get Started Quilting!

I am very happy to announce today that my second book is here:

I just got my advanced copy and it will hit store shelves later this month in the UK and at the end of July in the US and Canada.

Please click the links below to order advanced copies via amazon:

(Yes, the UK edition has a different name: The Complete Quilter, but the content is the same)

The Complete Quilter

Get Started Quilting

or ask your favorite bookseller, fabric shop or quilt shop (brick and mortar or online) if they can carry it.  If you'd like a signed copy, check out my Events tab for where I'll be in the coming weeks.  If I'm not coming close to your neighborhood, why not ask your local quilt group to contact me to set up an event?  I've got some flexibility in my travel schedule coming up and I'd love to come out and talk to quilters anywhere.  (weekends next fall, Dec/January, March/April 2016 and July 2016 are my most flexible times for travel).  Don't you want to sit and sew with me?

So what's the book about, anyway?

Get Started Quilting is truly a beginner's guide, so if you area already an experienced quilter, you might not need it in your collection, BUT, we all know someone who likes quilts but hasn't taken the plunge.. why not get a copy for THEM?  Or give your local library a call and see if they want to carry it, for the good of the entire community?  

Inside are 20 something quilt blocks with instructions and step-by-step photographs.  They range from traditional machine pieced to handwork and a bit of improv.  My favorite at the moment are the Improv Baskets  (turn orphan blocks into baskets!) and the Free cut Ainu Inspired Spiral (hand applique).  

I can't get this pic to turn around!  Sorry!

The book is set up to encourage you to try things out and then mix and match to make projects.  If you try all the techniques, you can put them together into a sampler quilt:

If you want to see this quilt in person, it will be hanging outside at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show next month.  I'll be there too, let's take selfies!

Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll take time to show off each of the projects and talk a bit about my process.  

I'm so excited to share this book with everyone~ 

Thanks for checking it out!