Bloggers Quilt Festival ROYGBIV

I nearly missed the festival this year, but have decided at the 11th hour, to put in a quilt.  This is Rainbow Kitty Rows, my quilt for the Modern Quilters Ireland Rainbow Rose QAL that Ruth of Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner designed this past summer.  It is going in the ROYGBIV category in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Amy's Creative Side.

This is made from all scraps and stash.  The rainbow kitty fabric is Laurel Burch, left over from my Merry Catmas quilt.

Those rainbow arching kitties in their haphazard rows are on the back too.

I had lots of fun quilting this one and I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Pre-binding, and pre-washing, but the light was really good here to show off the quilting definition.

I used Aurifil variegated in the star and the carpenter's wheel star surround, and Isacord white in the Kona Snow background.  I'm pleased that the effect of the quilted 'frames' is how I envisioned, that the pieced block sections float and the quilted frames weave underneath.

I did lots of micro or matchstick quilting behind the ghost geese to flatten them down but so worth it.  I was also surprisingly pleased by the wavy quilting I did in the carpenter's wheel star surround.

I also like this flimsy shot:

You can read more about the quilt here.  It hangs by my longarm on the wall, a great colourwheel to have as a reference as well as a great boost to my spirit that I did that!  On Avril!

Under our Pee Gee Hydrangea trees, which are still blooming like crazy two months later, as it's been so warm. I have a bouquet of them sitting on my counter as I type this!

Hope you'll hop over to the festival and take a look at all the wonderful creations, truly inspiring and good food for your creative soul.  Voting begins this week; click here for the Viewers' Choice voting form.

Rainbow Kitty Rows

When I saw Ruth's Rainbow Rose QAL that she was doing at Modern Quilters Ireland, I immediately loved it.  It is such a happy quilt and functional too, as a colourwheel.

Washed and crinkly in the morning sunshine

This is one of the projects on my Q3FAL List which you can find here.

The original quilt has a final 4.5" white border.  It seemed like too much white space to me (ha! really, that sounds odd, since I rather love filling white space with quilting!)  So, I only added a 2.5" border.  It has sat like that since July 5 while I contemplated how to quilt it, and dug through my stash for a suitable backing and binding...

When I found the Laurel Burch backing, a chunk of fabric I have hoarded for oh, about a decade, but did use some on my Merry Cat-mas and Dayna's stocking, more angst set in because I wanted to put some of it on the front.  To border or not to border?  As you can see, the kitties won.  They just had to leap and fly in their rows of 3 around the rainbow rose.  Doing that meant I didn't have enough to cover the entire backing, but the purple cats print by Henry Glass worked perfectly.

I did Angela Walters dot to dot designs with white Isacord polyester in the white triangles around the centre star.  In the centre star I used a Judi Madsen design, one I've also used on Dayna's grad quilt that is fun to do.  For this I used Aurifil variegated in rainbow colours.

Hot off the frame in the remaining light of the day in the front entry

I did a random wavy line through the carpenter's wheel sections of the quilt using that same Aurifil thread.

I am continually amazed at the difference in appearance from inside with natural light on a quilt, to outside in shade, to outside in fairly bright sunlight.
Below you see it in the shade before heading to the washing machine:

The Legacy polyester batting I used is to die for.  Quilts like butter, gives good definition and is light and airy.  I first used this last summer in the guild wheelchair charity quilts.  The charity quilt committee had been given a roll of it.  I loved it.  When I was in Alma Sue's Quilts in Sarasota this past winter, she had some quilt batting remnants and I scored two long and narrow pieces of it, one 17" the other 25" but by something like 84", for $2.50 for the two.  Yes!  So the batting in this quilt cost less than $2.50!  There is a join about 2/3 over from one side.  With this much quilting in the quilt I have no fear of it separating.

In the kitties border I did a Christina Cameli design that I've now used at least three times, and I just love it: waves with three "e's" every so often.  The binding I've had for quite some time. When I see a good stripe, I grab at least a half metre/yard since I love stripes as binding.

In the white background around the wheel, you can see I did three different quilted border designs.  Kathleen does this on lots of the quilts she quilts and I love the effects.  I love the idea of the quilting going behind the piecing.  So I did skinny figure 8's, ghost geese, and figure 8's again.  The white is not Kona Snow!  It's Maywood Studio's Whisper Whites from Charlotte Sewing Studio.  I've used this twice now, and it is a terrific fabric, doesn't fray as easily as the Kona either.

Ahh, love that texture. Yep it feels as good as you think it does when I pet it.  :-)

Here is the label:

Yes, I did my binding by machine again; it's just so much faster, and I am improving.  Only had to go back in on 3 spots this time!  Applying it to the front, folding it to the back, and stitching it down from the front in the ditch is my preferred method, and nicest final appearance IMHO.

Love me a good folded up quilt, but there is definitely an art to it, to get that rolled look...I opted for the folded look as you can see

Hot as Hades here as it seems to be in the east, with little to no rain in our area.  We did get a lovely quiet thunderstorm (oxymoron, but it was quiet as in not violent) with quite the downpour that went on more than 5 minutes!  The lawns are so brown, and I noticed the massive Catalpa tree down the street has many yellow leaves... Our hydrangea paniculata, aka PeeGee Hydrangea trees are glorious, so I had to get a shot of Rainbow Kitty Rows under one of them:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Rainbow Rose by Ruth Bourke
Size: 38 X 38 3/8"  (like how?  must shrink more one way than the other? It was square before quilting and washing...)
Fabric: scraps from my stash; backing is Holiday Collection by Laurel Burch for Clothworks, binding is from David Textiles (other info is cut off)
Batting: Legacy polyester scraps
Quilted: on Avril the Avanté; 96, 138 stitches
Threads: pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Isacord 0015 40 wt and Aurifil variegated Marrakesh 3817 50 wt; So Fine in the bobbin

Linking up with
Modern Quilters Ireland
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at What a Hoot Quilts (hey! Lynette is where I first heard of the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge!)

and also with Leanne at She Can Quilt for the Q3FAL.

Rainbow Rose Week 4

I finished this week's homework on Thursday, taking a break from my "Better at the Lake" projects;  the photo of the fabric is at the end of that post.  We didn't have to make the entire quilt centre, but how could one not?  It's so pretty!  I love how it's turned out, and can't wait to quilt it and get it hung on my sewing room wall...er, vapour barrier plastic!  You can still easily hop on board with us; head to Modern Quilters Ireland and follow Ruth's steps.  The hardest part of this was choosing colours and analyzing them!  You can do every single HST and square a different fabric, or you can double up in areas.  For example, my outside ring has 8 diamond shapes that result from making the two HSTs the same fabric.  This results in 40 different fabrics.  Next week is borders.  I'll be linking this post for the giveaway too!

Next week is also the reveal for the first round on the centre block of our Mini Round Robin.  There is excitement building!  And next week is also my big reveal of projects made for the Henry Glass Fabrics Desire to Inspire Challenge, and my interview on their blog, eeek!  Or 'eeeep!'  Also be sure to visit their blog if you'd like to take on this challenge, as they will be announcing the opening for the July challenge probably on Friday, July 1!  It's been fun: good brain and good creativity work.

Right NOW, for four more full days, Craftsy (affiliate link) is having another mega sale on supplies and kits.  This is as good a sale as they have, but what is better is that they have extended it to a full 5 days (it started yesterday), as opposed to the usual weekend one.  Apparently this is it for all summer, so now might be the time to stock up, replenish or snag the product you've been eyeing for a while.  As the button on the sidebar says, 40% off all kits and supplies (and that is across the board, so if you knit, for example, check out the yarn as I have, and take advantage of some sweet deals), but some products are as much as 60%.  Remember you can sort by price, and go from lowest to highest.

Important:  As you heard once before I've had some issues in the past with orders bought through my links but not credited to me.  I had asked if you do buy through my link, just let me know in a personal email, and the order number, nothing else, so that I can check to see that that order number did show up.  I totally appreciate this that several of you have let me know.  We did a conference call and screenshare in early June to check everything and all appears to be working.  However.  I have heard now that not everyone can SEE my sidebar button which Craftsy puts there and updates.  It is right under the Moda Bakeshop button, so can you let me know if you do NOT see it?  If it is there, no need to tell me.  Thank you for supporting my blog; it means a lot, truly.
So a leedle update and enabling since I posted this (yeah yeah I've been browsing)...that Steamfast mini iron which I ADORE? Haven't used my Rowan big one except for once on a quilt top since I've been sewing on the dining table, and I can tell you I am more in love than ever with it...it's even cheaper now than what I got it for! $26CA so I would bet it's under $20US.  It's also part of yesterday's freebie Friday giveaway on the Craftsy blog, if you haven't entered yet.  If you are in the US, there is free shipping on orders over $99, so get a couple friends together and take advantage of that sweet deal!

Hope you've also been checking out the New Bloggers Hop going on; there are some sweet giveaways to be had as well!  This is Week 2 and you can find the links to the blogs at Cheryl's Meadow Mist Designs.

Have you decided whether or not you are doing Cheryl's mystery that starts in just under 2 weeks?!  This is mine (yet to be quilted) from last year.  It was a great project, lots of fun, with one step per month, so not much at all to add to  a person's load, right?

One last quick photo...

Catalpa tree flowers

See how orchid-like they are?  Just stunning in colour and frills, no?  They are dropping big time now, so I picked up three good ones and laid them together for a photo to show you.  These are off the huge tree (which MacGyver says is not 70 feet tall, maybe 50-60) which I photographed in my last post and in which Jean saw the shapes (like cloud shapes) of a sheep's head and an eagle!  LOL-- I thought she could see a real eagle, so I zoomed right in...it could happen; I've seen them on a few occasions flying and once watched one land on a sandbar with a fish and proceed to eat it, glaring at me from time to time as eagles are wont to do!

Happy weekend! Hope the sun is shining in your little corner of this blue-green planet, as it is in mine, and that you get in some sewing time as well.  Take the time to pause, though, and remember those who are hurting, those whose loved ones were killed in Orlando, those whose homes have been lost either in Fort McMurray, or now both homes and lives lost in West Virginia with the terrible flooding.  Send them some love and hopes for better tomorrows, and maybe even participate in one of the ongoing quilt donations.

Rainbow Rose & A MiniMini

For Week 3 of the Rainbow Rose QAL, we made the four corners to the quilt.  I hadn't cut any more of my 5" squares, so I laid out what fabrics I had thought I'd use in the places where I anticipated placing them:

That helped me with the flow from say red to red-purple.  From there I was able to complete the corners.

Three fabric in here are from the Benartex bundle I received a couple of months ago for recommending their emagazine

The bottom is not as dark as it appears here; I tried to get natural light on it with limited success.  I really am liking it so far; it's a great blend of older fabrics with modern ones IMHO.

In other news, Bella has accepted that we now sew upstairs on the dining table.  It's only taken her 6 weeks...  That's a cat for you!

I've made several scraps and trimmings piles that resemble this:

Trimmings from the first Henry Glass Fabrics Challenge project

which has yielded two completed projects so far with more to come!  That is why I haven't posted in a week, and haven't been that active in QBL.  I have to say that I am enjoying how much I am getting done!

Bella is supervising in all things Henry Glass as well.

Sneak peek of second project which got completed this morning

I've finished my round on Cindy's block for our Mini Round Robin.  Watch for that reveal next week as we send them on their flight to the next in line.  Speaking of flight, I made a minimini for #mmminimini for Make Modern Magazine Challenge on Instagram.

Flimsy on the left; quilted top on the right

It's paper-pieced, a pattern from Carol Doak's Easy Machine Paper-Piecing.  The ghost geese are 1" wide at the base, and 1/2" high.

Birds of a feather....

and here's the photo I posted to Instagram for the challenge.

It's bound with a Michael Miller Eiffel Tower print that I thought gave it a little pizzazz.  I named it Flashing Geese.  It's winging its way to the recipient (yep it's a surprise) as I type.  More on the name and the mini once it has arrived.

And great news, today was Rocco's first walk, 6 weeks after his surgery.  He got to walk to the end of the driveway, stand and sniff the breeze, then turn around and walk back.  He was a happy boy, but sad because it was over all too soon and he wanted to RUN! (and would have had we let him...)

Heading back (so not ready to go back in) and a little later, chill-axin' in the sunshine on the patio

I photographed this jaw-dropping majestic Catalpa tree last year about this time in full bloom.  The photo does not do it justice; not only is it covered in orchid-like blooms, but it also towers over the adjacent trees, dwarfing the 2-storey house and the streetlight.  It just takes my breath away.

Ahh happy summer!  Happy International Yoga Day!  Happy me.  Namaste everyone.

Linking up with Modern Quilters Ireland.

One little update, sorry: I forgot to mention that Craftsy is having a 2-day sale today and tomorrow, any one class for $19.99! That's pretty sweet.  Let me know if you buy one and what you think of it! I will have a review for you in early July; gotta concentrate on Henry Glass for the next several days. :-)

Rainbow Work

I decided to join in with the Modern Quilters Ireland Rainbow Rose QAL.  I love the Swoon block, made a mini earlier this year, and have plans to make a giant one this summer.  I didn't think I'd be making a baby-sized one as well!  I also wanted to give Ruth my support; I follow her blog, Charly & Ben's Crafty Corner, and thoroughly enjoy seeing what she gets up to, and how she uses colour.  She also has a great tutorial on using shapes within Microsoft Word which I used when I did my first pattern Pocketful of Sunshine.

Just as with Angela's RSC 2016 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge), I had to do some catch-up.  Here is my sorta/coulda/maybe/I dunno for sure, Week 1 fabric pull:

 Photo taken June 11, 8:59 EST

Although I didn't put mine in a circle, as most did, I did pull from the pinks at the bottom and tuck them in behind the purples to see that I'd got a decent transition.  There are more options littered around the edges as you see; for example, I don't have a teal (the Zen Chic 'Sphere' fabric on the right side) and I found a good pinky red below another good turquoise (or is it aqua?) fabric...  So I haven't cut all my squares.  I have to say that I just LOVE projects where I get to muck around in my stash; it's  therapeutic to be sure (make sure you say 'to be sure' with an Irish accent ;-).

Update a couple hours after posting:  To say something, or not...I at first opted to say nothing hoping the title and my silence would speak volumes.  However, something my brother said to me this morning after he saw this post made me think maybe I should say something.....  I sewed on Sunday, with a heavy heart, profound despair to be exact, thinking how poignant my rainbow stitching was...thinking about my family members, my friends, my colleagues, my darling hairdresser who is the first hairdresser in 50 years who knows how to cut my naturally curly hair, thinking about the sadness and horrors and judgement and maltreatment they have witnessed and possibly been subjected to over the course of their lives.  Just before adding this paragraph, I looked at the time stamp on the photo of my fabric pull above.  June 11, 8:59 EST.  That is what made me write this update.  I was happily pulling rainbow fabrics, and a few hours later many LGBT human beings had been murdered for being themselves, in a safe place where they thought they could be themselves.  I am not jumping on a bandwagon of 'standing with LGBT people, no.  I was already there.  Have been for decades.  MacGyver and I talked before I wrote this.  He said when you write publicly, you're damned if you say something, you're damned if you don't.  Well I'll be damned for saying something then: until we practice ahimsa, (do no harm), until we practice what Mohammed the Prophet, Jesus, the Buddha,  all said, Love one another, without exception, we cannot get past intolerance, racism, prejudice.

Here is Week 2 step, making the four 'points of the compass' if you will, on the Colour Wheel:

Outside in natural light on the Boxwood hedge

You can see (I hope) the blue-purples on the left of the square, the red-purples on the right, which will head into pinks.  Then the red, and to the right of the red (which has a bit of a pinky one on the top triangle) the orange-reds, heading towards the oranges corner and into the orangey yellow...and so on.  I found it so interesting and gratifying that Ruth said colour has a personal side: she sees blue-greens more as greens.  I see them more as blues.

Everyone seems to enjoy the spinning effect of putting our four blocks together, and I did this before seeing the others! I find that interesting too: we innately want to create movement.

That would make a terrific cushion right there, wouldn't it?!

My other catch-up item was doing the January row of blues (think frosty blues to deep midnight blue skies with sparkling moonlight-kissed snow) with a touch of purple.  As with the other rows I've done in this second RSC project, I use the "touch of" colour that Angela gives as the inner frame around the rectangle.

Yet again, I am mesmerized by the study in value here.  It isn't the greatest lighting, having sunlight on 5 of the 6 blocks, but you see how the purple goes from palest mauve to rich royal, and the blues from palest Bella's blue, perhaps even paler, to rich royal deep midnight blues.

Linking up with MQ Ireland.