Coming Down...

off the high that was my Dot to Dot class with Angela Walters. 

All right, LOOK what my computer took me to when I went to get the URL to paste for her name!!

February 25.  I met Anna, my neighbour who lived across the street from us in Florida, a day or two after I wrote this.  I knew she was a quilter, a young one, but little did I know that I already had met her, on two other occasions last year! She worked part time at Alma Sue's and was a member of the Sarasota Guild.  She is the one who told me that the guild was bringing in Angela; had I not finally gone over to introduce myself, I might not have found out about Angela being here, certainly not in enough time to be able to get into the only one of her four classes that still had space. Sadly for me, Anna moved back to her hometown in northern Florida February 28.  Happily, however, for me, I was able to get into the Dot to Dot class a few days later!  Incidentally, Angela's post where I wrote this comment is well worth a read/watch.  More than once.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...er trunk show and class...

Not only did I have to remind myself to close my slack jaw in class when viewing her slide show, but I also had to make a supreme effort to swallow frequently; otherwise the drool would drip onto her beautiful quilts that we were allowed to touch, handle, hold, photograph, all to our heart's content.

Recognize the fabric? "Textures" -- look at the header of my blog! And yep, those are my legs, my fingers, holding (and before and after petting) her quilt.

And THEN, there was meeting Angela, on Monday night at the guild meeting for the first time, eyes brimming with emotion as I tried (inadequately) to find words to tell her how much all her free videos and demos online, how much every single Craftsy class of hers has helped me, beyond measure, on my Avanté, but also has helped me grow in machine quilting on my Bernina.  Going back Tuesday morning for another 3 hours with this warm, funny, ("My husband says I'm not funny.  But I think I'm frickin' hilarious. Sarcasm is my love language!" ) humble, genuine, inspiring, creative, and so-very-talented quilter was such a treat.

The chocolate says "Quilting is My Therapy", and yep I saved it, knowing I wanted a picture for my blog--I ate it after the pic, dark chocolate! But of course, she has taste.

She is very wise.  To fully round out my dorking out over her, geek that I am and always have been where school and education are concerned, I took notes, furiously scribbling to try to get it all down, even videoed segments of her instruction.

"There is no such thing as imperfection in FMQ.  You just need to know how to fix them. " (the mistakes) She talked about the eye needing to see symmetry, and that symmetry is basically all it looks for, so "if you make a mistake, do it twice and then it's a design element!"

I planned to rip this out as I messed up one of the "dots" to hit.

Now, however, I'm thinking if I do something symmetrical on either side of this "mountain" it could look kind of cool.  I need to get crackin' as these are my ALYOF April goal.

Kinda cool here too, no?

Although I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I thought I would, my brain was totally full of information and inspiration.  She talked, gave you theory and practical tips and answered questions, then showed you slides and her quilts and gave further clarification and ways to use particular designs, and then gave you 15 or so minutes out of each hour to practice the technique on your sample.  Each hour was broken down in a similar fashion to the Craftsy class: squares, triangles and then borders in the final hour.

Rest assured there will be more Angela wisdom forthcoming.

The trip home was uneventful.  The dogwoods didn't disappoint, although there seemed less of them in Kentucky and Ohio than I saw last year through the Carolinas and West Virginia.

Ohio

On the trip, I actually got a fair bit done on the last border of my runner.  I have about 10 more double-rows of the serpentine shape left to quilt.

The little bag I made back in January came in so handy for my handquilting tools!  Below you can see my favourite plastic open-backed thimble that allows your nail to be free.  The condom-looking thing is a finger from a latex glove which I use to grab the needle to pull it through when 3-4 stitches are loaded onto it.

I'm using Gutermann quilting thread, and the Clover chalk pencil Angela uses (learned about these in one of her Craftsy classes).  That pencil is better on the Old World Santa fabric than the Bohin one.  There is too much white in the fabric; the streaks wreak havoc with my eyes, so I need a thicker line.  The plastic serpentine shape is my template for marking the woven curves border design.

And so there you have it, the first post back on good old Canadian soil.  Mmmm.  Even though said soil is a little darn cold for this time of year!  Still, I think Spring is about to surpass Summer in my favourite season list.  I was musing this morning (didn't get this finished last night, TOO tired after a 5 am start to the day--Mysore yoga!) that no matter whether one is living in 90F steamy tropical heat (Gulf, beaches, cicadas, palm trees), the tundra (pure white snow, frozen lakes, polar bears), or the desert (sand dunes, endless blue skies, meerkats(!!)) Mother Nature gives us something upon which our senses can feast, and our creative juices can start to burble.

These swans literally took my breath away last night on the way to teaching yoga.  I pulled over, got out of the car, crossed the road, tiptoed into the grass, but not before this pair had pulled apart...oh my GOD, but they were in the necks intertwined, facing each other, classic swan pose.  That vision will stay with me forever.

A group of about 25 more were just past these two lovebirds

Rocco is happy; he has made a new friend.  This is Charlie, an 8-month-old Scottie.  He is adorable, although a bit rambunctious.  Good thing Rocco is so tolerant.  Charlie's 'mum' wants me to knock on her door and walk with them sometimes so Rocco can help teach Charlie some manners! They've recently retired here from Vancouver, and live just up the street.

Meet and greet

Reflections on Winter in Florida

Another one has come....and gone.  Interesting to see what I did over the past almost five months. This is the longest we have ever stayed.  And by now, we all know why!

My 6 "sandwiches" basted and ready to take to tomorrow's Dot to Dot class with Angela Walters!!

A couple of days ago, I hauled out my two tubs and started emptying drawers and cabinets.

Cue the freak-out

Rocco, the sensitive soul that he is, wigs out when we start packing.  Not only do the tubs and a suitcase make him nervous, our vibes, which he picks up on before we even realize we are emitting them, also add to his general anxiety.  He usually stops eating.  Has to be coaxed into slowly nibbling.

Flying Geese Tutorial

As we are winding down here in Florida, ready to be like the geese, and fly northwards home, I thought I'd share my favourite way of creating multiple flying geese units, since I've been making lots.

Sidenote: there aren't many northerners, aka snowbirds, left down here; this is the latest we've stayed.  And you know WHY we are staying extra long!!  'T' minus 3 days until Monday night's trunk show and talk at the guild meeting, followed by Tuesday morning's class I'm taking!!  With whom?  None other than Angela Walters IN PERSON!  I'm already doing a happy dance.  Okay, let's be honest; I've been doing a small happy dance ever since early February when I found out about it, each time I think that this is really going to happen.  Pinch me.

Okay, um what is this post about?  Oh yes.  Flying geese.  Big breath.  You will love this. Guaranteed.

This is Eleanor Burns' method.  I first learned it from the first quilt book I ever bought, back in about 1996-7, her Pioneer Sampler book.

It's also known as the No Waste Method, and there is a great tutorial here as well.
Here is my take on this method, which I used to make 78 flying geese units for the current quilt.

You need 5 squares total to make 4 flying geese units.
Your background or "peak" fabric (think mountain) is a square that measures 1.25" (1 1/4") larger than the finished width of the flying geese rectangle unit.  Mine finish at 3X6" so I need a square that is 7.25".

Your four "wings" squares must be 7/8" larger than the finished height of the flying geese rectangle unit.  Mine finish at 3" so I need 4 squares 3 7/8".

All units organized. What you see here will yield 24 flying geese units.

1.  Draw a line on the diagonal (I used my Hera marker, love love it) of each of the 3 7/8" squares.  Set two of these squares across the larger square, right sides together. There will be a slight overlap of the two squares in the centre.  Sew a SCANT (very important) 1/4" on either side of the drawn line.

Small squares are the darker purple, the large 7 1/4" square is the lighter purple

2.  Cut apart on your drawn line, which is between the two seams.

3.  Press seams (carefully, it's bias) to the wings, aka the darker purple in my case. You will have two heart-shaped looking units like this:

4.  Take the remaining two 3 7/8" squares and place one in the corner of each of the large squares.  Sew on either side of your drawn line as before.

5.  Cut apart on the drawn line.

6.  Press seams again to the peak fabric.  Trim to your desired size.  In my case I trimmed to 3.5 X 6.5" as my finished rectangle will be 3X6.  In the photo below I trimmed the top one, but left the bottom one so you can see what it looks like once you press the second wing out.

7. Repeat with the other 'heart' unit and you will have four flying geese!  Cool, no?
Most important is that scant 1/4" seam; otherwise you will lose some of your 3 1/2 X 6 1/2" needed.

In fur kids news, I know it's heating and steaming up when Rocco does this after our walk:

Under the fan.  In the AC. 90 and something like 90% humidity out there yesterday.  Now for a pittie puppy to lie like a frog is nothing new, but  upside down, getting air on his fur-less belly and inside legs, you know it's steamy! Time to head north where it's 30 degrees cooler.  Then he'll be wearing his hoodie, lol!  And Miss Bella not only snuggled with me last night in bed while I read, she also slept for a little while in her customary position, snuggled against my belly, this morning.  Yay, she's speaking to me again.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Pink Doxies, buttons on sidebar.

The Greek and the German Have It!

A post on two recently purchased tools.  I should add that I am not being paid or recompensed in any way for this post.

Greek
I'd heard some talk about Clover's Hera marker, and, because I am always on the lookout for a fine line marking pencil, or in this case, tool, I decided to pick one up.  Hera, by the way, is the Greek goddess of women and of marriage, particularly of married women.  Women.  Not sure if Clover named this knowing that, but it wouldn't surprise me.  Sorry quilty guys.  But let's not go there regarding the fact that her husband, Zeus, was her brother... (in her defense he was beyond a jerk as to what he did to her, and she did not marry him for love nor lust).

I love it.  The marker.

It leaves a definite crease, aka line, along which, or on either side of which I can sew.  I've done both.  I've used it on light fabric:

Q2FAL List

Wow, we are into the second quarter of 2015!  Time to make a list for this quarter's finish-along over at On the Windy Side.

How did I do with my Q1FAL list?  I had 8 projects on it, and I completed 6 of them!! I am very happy about that.  I will move two of them over to this quarter.

Here is the new list:

1.  Stack 'n Whack quilt from Q1FAL

You always have enough fabric to make two quilts using Bethany Reynolds' method.  I made my brother-in-law and sister-in-law one with these fabrics, but with a dusky coral-pink rather than the deep coral I have.  I think that was 10 years ago?!  Worked on it again last year, or the year before, but still have a ways to go.

2.  Brrrrr Park from Q1FAL

I would say I am about 1/3 of the way done of the quilting.  I did quite a lot last quarter, but it got put to the side in favour of a couple of more pressing projects.

3.  Charity String Quilt
These are a bunch of blocks I have made so far using Cyndy's Scrap-a-Palooza Quilt #8 from August 2014.  I intend to give them to a seniors' residence in our town, along with a second as-yet unplanned or started quilt.  They will both be lap quilts for residents in wheelchairs.

4.  Bento Box quilt for one of my nephews

This has been in the works for a year now; my friend, Nancy, and I shared the pattern.  I have since learned the original colour scheme I thought would work, won't.  So most of the blacks and whites are staying, I've added a couple meaningful ones, and totally changed the colour run.

5.  This is a small project that I've seen floating around quilt blogland, but I saw a good tutorial on Molli Sparkles blog.

6.  Secret Quilt Project #1
This is going to be a star quilt out of Pam and Nicky Lintott's Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts book, but I might modify the pattern as I will not be making it out of a jelly roll.

There will be some more fabric in this quilt; I just do not have it, um, available for the photo.

7.  Secret Quilt Project #2
You've seen some glimpses of this baby.  'nuff said for now.

8.  Hand-quilted runner

I'm doing the walk of shame right now...I had this last year as my goal for a month in ALYOF.  I did make a fair amount of progress on it, but it got set aside, I believe for the "Fleurs" flurry (ha) of work.  I have not touched it this winter, although it has sat, alternately forlorn and glaring at me, in a basket in my sewing room.  I hope to quilt while we travel for the day and a half north back to Kingsville.  Then it will just need binding.

9.  NINE??!!  Fabric bucket

Last year I bought the pattern, Nesting Fabric Bowls, from Nova at a cuppa and a catch up and I did buy some Amy Butler fabric at that time with the bowls in mind. Then at fabric.com I saw this, and thought, 'Ooh, that would make some cool fabric buckets.  Because I had quite the success last quarter with creating pouches, I think why not make some more buckets/bowls in the second quarter?

I also have a charity quilt to be completed for this quarter for Hands2Help and my placemats for my April goal at ALYOF (see sidebar buttons).  This a lot to do, I know, and for 12 days in early May, my mum is coming down to visit us in Kingsville!  I'm excited for many many reasons, but one is to show her how I quilt on my longarm.

One last note about the cutting backwards technique that I mentioned in my last post.  Here is the method I used yet again this morning.  You can do this in any increments that result in your desired measurement.  Here I needed 3.5"X6.5" rectangles, so I cut a 13" long strip out of my WOF fabric, but I could have cut a 19.5" strip.

13" line and then cut in half to yield 2 6.5" rectangles by 3.5" wide

Because you have more length of your ruler along the side edges of your strip, you have a better chance of getting precise pieces.  When I was cutting 3.5" squares, I used the 10.5" line, cut, backed up my ruler to the 7" line, cut, then backed it up to the 3.5" line and cut one more time to yield 12 3.5" squares (oh yes, I had a double WOF strip under my ruler!)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and Let's Bee Social, buttons on sidebar!

Two Blocks for Two Kids

Although I don't know Yvonne, I have run into her work several times over the past several months of linking up at various linky parties.  When I heard from Judy at Quilt Paradigm that she was asking for blocks for two kids whose father passed away very suddenly, I thought, well this sounds like a worthy cause.  I went to her blog, and hey! found that she does Thankful Thursdays!  I wrote my first one here, thinking I had something unique and original...well, great minds think alike is what my mum always says, and she is absolutely right.  I truly believe in the idea that all beings, animals too, are linked, connected, that we can tap into a mega stream of consciousness if we only find the right frame of mind.  Anyhow, I'm not sure when Yvonne started doing Thankful Thursdays, but I will have to link up my next post.  I don't do them weekly anymore; all right, let's be honest, last week's was the first in several months!  But talk about synchronicity (another thing my mum says a lot), it was right around the time I wrote my last Thankful Thursday post that I went to Yvonne's at Quilting Jetgirl.

Yvonne's April 2 Thankful Thursday shows some of the blocks she has received, and provides links to her original posts where she explains about the project and about Mike's death, her friend, who was the kids' dad, the pilot of the Virgin Galactic mission.  This post is worth the read about a challenge quilt she created that expresses grief, yet hope in working through the aftermath of the tragedy.

The first block I made is for the girl.  Her blocks need to be in portrait orientation, 7X10" finished, and could be ocean or dance-themed.  My first thought was, no surprise, the ocean.  I went to Google and eventually with much surfing (and digressing), found this page.  I also did a second Google search for "lighthouse quilt blocks" and combined and rearranged a couple I saw there.  Got out my newsprint paper, and drew this:

Building Blocks

I've designed another quilt, inspired by a guild nametag that a blogger somewhere out there made.  I've drawn out an entire quilt and I've been doing the calculations for fabric, as it might just become another pattern in my as-yet-unborn pattern collection.  Now I'm cutting the components that make up the blocks and strips for this quilt.  It is going to be an interesting method of construction...but I'm getting way ahead of myself!

When I was cutting the fabric this morning, it struck me that I automatically do this little trick I learned while watching one of Alex Anderson's "Simply Quilts" shows that used to be on HGTV.  The guest, whose name I cannot recall, showed how she, in my own coined phrase, "cuts backwards".  I have found that this results in a "more square" square or rectangle.  Here is the tip!

For example, this morning I was cutting 3 7/8" squares from a WOF strip.  Instead of cutting each 3 7/8" square individually, I cut a rectangle from the strip that was 3 7/8" X2, so 7 3/4". Note that the strip is a double layer of fabric.

From here I backed my ruler up (cutting backwards, get it?), put the 3 7/8" mark where you see the 7 3/4" measurement in the above photo, and cut across.  Yield: (4) perfect 3 7/8" squares.

For some reason, this keeps my edges more square, probably because I am using a longer length as one of the guidelines.

You can do more than just double the measurement of your squares.  For example, if I have a bunch of 3.5" squares, which I do have in this particular quilt, I will cut perhaps a 14" section out of my WOF strip, and then back the ruler up to the 10.5" mark; cut.  Without moving the strip, back the ruler up again to the 7" mark; cut.  Back the ruler up one last time, again with moving the strip, this time to the 3.5" mark; cut.  Yield: 8 very square 3.5" squares!  Tip inside a tip: place that line of each measurement as you are backing up your ruler, exactly on the cut edge.  Otherwise you will find that you do not have 3.5" (or whatever your squares are) left to cut your last square.

Here are the components so far of this newest quilt:

A few Moda fabrics here...yep, I think I've often waxed poetic about my love for Moda fabrics over the last what, decade(?), and it continues...I've always loved the Moda Marbles and own/owned several pieces, and I now love the new-to-me Marble Swirls.  The purchase of the Moda Marble Ombre Dots was a bit of an accident; the darkest part of the fabric was showing on the bolt and when she unwound it to cut some for me, surprise!  Even in this 6.5" square you can see the colour shading change.  Coolio!

I know...there's looking to be a lot of white (Kona Snow, love it) in this quilt; however, there are 3 more coloured "sections" of fabrics I have not yet cut.  Exciting!  Still, there will be a nice, make that fabulous amount of negative space for quilting!

I also made two more placemats which may grow up to become a bag of sorts, since pink does not really have a place in my dining ambiance, but I want to be able to experiment with triangles in Angela's Dot to Dot Quilting class.  There was a LOT of math figuring in this:  one placemat required 4 different sizes of 60 degree triangles!  In case you're wondering: 2 sizes of full triangles, and 2 sizes of the half-triangles needed at the ends of each row.

Reversed the colour placements in each.  Kind of cool, the effect, no?

Here are the two styles side by side.

When I showed my grandson the other night, he said, "I like the green one; it looks like a Minecraft face."  Who knew.  He loves quilts, so I always like to show him what I'm working on.  Again, the difference in colour between the first, outside on the lanai, photo, and the second, inside my sewing room, amazes me.  The bottom looks like blues here, but it's really blueish-greens. The lanai pic is the true colour of the pinks.

Woo hoo, I'm doing a happy dance because of TWO more, three if you count the 2 placemat designs, of my own, original designs!  I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict  and Pink Doxies, buttons on sidebar.

Set the Table

First things first:  I added a new member to my growing herd.  I just love looking at these cuties on my design wall. This is my April block for the RSC at SoScrappy.  I love how the yellow pansies just happened to fall perfectly in place on her blaze.  That purple body and ears fabric is pretty much the end now of Bonnie Benn Stratton's Quilt for a Cure fabric. The pansies, of which I have just a very few scraps left now, too, are from my daughter Dayna's Mariner's Compass quilt, under which she sleeps every night!

Rounded-edge Small Bag Tutorial

When I made the Itty Bitty Knitting Bag to hold my fingerless gloves I was working on, it was about the size of the plastic bag I'd been using.  I soon realized it could have been a bit bigger, and I also knew I wanted to remake it to improve that tutorial.  I have quite a bit of scrap fabric left from my "new bag" so I set to work.

This bag was going to be a rectangular bag sitting on its small side, but it just evolved into a much smarter, wider opening, rectangular bag sitting on its long side.  Flying geese can go sideways or up and down, right?

Two Finishes for Friday!

Picture heavy.  Words light, I promise.  Tutorial tomorrow.

First of the two Friday finishes:

Yep, this is another Itty Bitty Knitting bag (or makeup, sewing supplies, what-have-you).  This one is a little different.  Already used.  Already love it.

Thankful Thursday #9 - Ode to Bloggers

Sorry for this being posted late in the day.

Yes, it's back.  I used to do this; the last post I wrote is here.  Kind of nice to read it again and remember that meal, that evening, good friends, ahh.  It won't be long until we are back and hanging out on the patio again, munching on great salads like the one below.

Jude's Salad: lettuce salad with fruit, nuts etc. Yum!

I am truly blessed.  This thought filled me this morning during meditation.  Blessed with such good friends, and a loving supportive family.  Oh, we have issues, we are definitely not perfect, but we do love each other.