30 Quilt Designs Challenge Announcement

This is the main post for the third annual Quilt Design Challenge I host on Instagram. It gives me a thrill to write that sentence!
Profuse apologies that this was not up two days ago as planned... Real Life got in the way, and I was waiting on a response from a potential sponsor, and then Instagram, where I originally planned to set up a private account, went whackola, but so did FaceBook... All good, though. Here we go!

Here is the link to the first challenge that I co-hosted with Lisa of Sunlight in Winter Quilts
Here is the link to the second challenge in 2018 hosted by moi.
And now, on with the deets of the third challenge!

Feel free to grab this graphic for your blog, sidebar, or Instagram post.

30 Quilt Designs Challenge Second Draw

I did the second draw last night. Each person that had submitted any number of designs from 11-20 got that many numbers and then I did the Random Number Generator on the total. Velda of Freckled Fox Quiltery was the winner! There are 16 participating this year, wow! A few have not quite kept up, and a few have joined in just within the last week or two!  The final draw is April 15 for 30 designs, so if you have fallen a wee bit behind (I, myself only have 19) it's not too late to catch up. All those who complete 30 will be entered. Remember to add colour, and to design a quilt, not just a block, so we see what it would look like as part of a quilt. 😉

Here are four collages of recent designs. I've included the Instagram name of each quilter, in case you want to follow her!

Aren't they all just so very fabulous?!
Thanks so very much to Melody of The Red Hen Shop for being my main sponsor this year. She has donated three prizes, two $15 gift cards for draws 1 and 2, and a $50 one for the final draw!

Darla is my second sponsor for the challenge this year! She contacted me, wanting to offer a prize, and I said, "Sure!" She is offering a $25 gift card to her shop, Clinton Modern Creative, which will also go out to someone in the 30 completed designs category!

And, finally, I have a Craftsy's Dutch Garden charm pack that I am going to send out, with a copy from my Craftsy store (affiliate link--remember to check out their fabulous SALE; I wouldn't steer you wrong) of my Blue Skies & Sunny Days pattern to a third winner in the final draw! One of these days I will get oh, the other four patterns all typed up, just needing EQ diagrams, and into my Craftsy and Etsy shops... A huge thank you to all those who are participating; it means a ton. 😍 Now I'm off to write the post on my done and dusted aunt's quilt! If you want to see what Dutch Garden looks like, check back in a couple of hours for that finish post.

Caw-mon Ground and Musings

Got up just ahead of the sun this morning despite some odd sleeping patterns yet again (enter menopause fun and games once more--it's bad enough that oddball things plague me during the day, well not plague maybe, but bug from time to time, but now nighttime is messed up too? Like what's with this...) where was I, oh yeah, got up, and felt compelled to do my meditation (wish I did this every morning, as it is truly a magnificent in a profoundly quiet way, to start my day) and after meditating, felt strongly compelled to draw/design.  This happened:

"Caw-mon" Ground for #30quiltdesignschallenge2017

As I said on Instagram, maybe it was my love of the number 3, triangles, pyramids, birds, meditation, sitting cross-legged, a dream last night of a Canada goose in the corner of our yard here in Florida, wow, I could see it, a still sentinel in black, grey and white, the feeling of a benevolent higher power, and of spring in the air, thoughts of heading north, seeing Abigail's rainbow stars, having done and so enjoyed Ruth's Rainbow Rose QAL, playing weekly with rainbow colours, in particular the migrating geese project #2, but I felt/saw so strongly a triangle image and a need to somehow translate this triangle image into a quilt.  After I posted the image to Instagram, I realized the (duh) significance of designing in rainbow colours today, one day after Pink Shirt Day.  Thank you to my sister Linda for reminding me; now that I am out of teaching, some of these significant days we always celebrated. escape me.  It originated in Canada, where a young teen was bullied because he wore a pink shirt to school.  I am so glad that a group of this young gay man's friends not only stood up for him, and against homophobic bullying, but did it LOUD.  And LOOK where a small group's actions can go!  How I wish we could show FREELY show, our tolerance of all peoples, (and all pibbles).

Sitting cross-legged on the floor for a 12-minute meditation.  Bella loves it as much as I do; without fail coming gently onto my lap, kissing my fingertips, which elicits a bit of a scratch of her chin, followed by a gentle pad/knead of my thigh and then a settling, purring contentedly almost the entire time.  Of course, she needs to strike a pose when the bell/gong sounds to end the meditation and I start to move a bit.

Speaking of quilt alongs, I myself have one that is going to start on the Spring Equinox, Monday, March 20, called Free Fall.  It's the wallhanging size of Windfall, and I have lined up some pretty terrific prizes for those who wish to join me and finish their wallhanging.  More details to come, but I am excited!  For now Bella is reposing on the stack of lush fabrics from Paintbrush Studio that I am using.  They are my main sponsor. 😀

There has been a LOT of sewing going on this month, some of which you see here, a total of four, no five projects, some big, some medium, some small, that I can't talk about.  Yet.  Some has involved February's colour, sea green, teal, aqua, aquamarine, known by many names and hues:

Ah aquamarine!  And Kaffe Fassett...

I've committed to another leader/ender project since the migrating geese strip for February is complete, and my Scrap Vortex is uh, in a vortex still...

Aqua corner triangles in...

or purple corner triangles in....

This quilt, "'X' Marks the Block" (I love witty quilt names) was designed by Teresa at Fabric Therapy. I saw it on Pinterest, and tracked it down to the original designer.  Originally I was going to do it totally scrappy, as she does, but after my like/love/hate/dislike/meh feelings on my Scrap Vortex, I realize that I like and need more order with my scrap quilting.  Could I do the opposing corners in one colour family?  I could!

And thus RSC2017 Project #3 is born.  I am leaving a few blocks each month with a blank corner section, ready for the next month's colour strips to be added.  Not sure how this will all play out, but that is the fun and the liberation of working with one's scraps!  Patience, a bit of a 'what if' attitude of experimentation, and beautiful things happen.

Patience, focus, intensity, Naala has it all.  Yet happily all the geckos are still alive and well despite her attempts to catch one!

Much more of those three qualities are apparent in this week's amazing, not taking no for an answer, 150 Canadian Women project.  Pat Sloan interviewed Kat on her podcast on Monday! Here is the link in case you missed it.  Here are this week's blocks:

Oops.  Ha, not really.  Here is the result of some more patience and hard work done by my intrepid MacGyver who has really beautified our house front this year.  One of his Bird of Paradise plants bloomed yesterday! It is unbelievable.  I've seen several over the years of coming to Florida, but to have one right here and gaze at its wondrous intense colours, is so surreal for me.  As is having my very own jasmine plants whose scent floats in in the early mornings.  Okay closer look at those three blocks:

43 - Alexandrine Gibb: an athlete and an advocate for women's sports organizations, helped to establish the Women's Amateur Athletic Federation of Canada; 44 - Marilyn Grace Bell di Lascio: still alive today, she was the first woman to swim the width of Lake Ontario, a distance of 51.5 km/ 32 miles, and the next year she was the youngest person ever to swim The English Channel; 45 - Eliza Maria Jones (née Harvey): "earned international acclaim for her herd of cattle and bestselling butter" now you see why I put the cow 2.5" square in the centre, although her cows were not Holsteins but Jersey. She was nationally known and respected for her cattle and horse-breeding expertise.

I was tickled pink (ha!) when I found that just about 2.5" square in my tiny-scraps basket.  I love that I've randomly thrown in little pnemonic devices like this to help me remember a block's significance. (Remember the checkered fabric for the racer? The deep red/purple for Viola?) Eliza regularly entertained Sir John A. MacDonald at her farm table! He was Canada's first Prime Minister, elected in...? you got it, 1867! 150 years ago this year.

All right off to work.  Yep, on the Free Fall Quilt Along. 

Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts
My Quilt Infatuation

Oh! Remember my own linky is this Saturday, for any DrEAMi! projects you may have made during February. If you missed the last one in January, here is the link.  Have you ever been a victim of one of those Drop Everything And Make it 'gotta-make-it-and-right-now' experiences? This is the party for you!

Updates: 150 Canadian Women and Quilt Challenge

#30quiltdesignschallenge2017

(I know, two posts in one day? Like what's with that? This was the planned one; the Q1FAL list had to get whipped up and posted in time for the deadline.)
There were 32 designs in the challenge on Instagram as of 7 pm Friday night, January 13.  That is fantastic!

I had www.tintup.com choose the winners and they were:
1.  $15 gift certificate to The Red Hen Shop

•  Leanne at Devoted Quilter

2.  fabric from moi

• Abigail at Cut & Alter

3.  fabric from Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts

• Cindy at Stitchin At Home

Thank you so much everyone who has joined Lisa and me in this design adventure.  Here are the ones I have entered so far:

The challenge continues until March 15 remember, so there is lots of time to hop in the pool with the rest of us.  Bi-weekly prizes of $15 gift cards are ongoing and Lisa and I will add a prize too here and there.

Guess what arrived today in my mail?!

EEEEP!!  I am both excited and a tad nervous at having this (again) in my hands.  I had EQ4 years ago when we had our first computer, a PC Seanix.  Have we come a long way baby!  However, think: exhilarating, time-eating, and frustrating all in one?  Now I played a bit over the past few days with Quiltography, an app for iPad which is pretty darn cool and at $13 a bargain for your dollars.  EQ7 I bought with some money my mum gave me for Christmas.  She is influencing my life a fair bit at the moment: I brought down with me a few of the books she has given me over the years, have read two, The Camel Bookmobile and Beatrice and Virgil, and am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying, A Walk Across France.  Thank you Mum!!  There also just may be some fabric bits 'n bobs working their way into a quilt in celebration (belated, sigh) of your auspicious 80th birthday...  Anyhow, onwards and upwards to the designing end of quilting.

Scraps Upon Scraps :  150 Canadian Women project

May I just say I am in LOVE with this ongoing (for a year!) project?  I am in LOVE with what I am learning about my country's kick-ass, bold, and quietly brave women.  Why is this not taught more in our school curriculum?  Right...we learn about Louis Riel, but not about his mother or his grandmother and their contributions and brave accomplishments.  That's wrong!  Anyhow, thank you Next Step Quilt Design, specifically Kat, for this project.

Sidenote: heard that Hayley Wickenheiser has just announced her retirement as of yesterday, Jan. 13.  Five-time Olympic gold medalist, she has done INCREDIBLE things for women's hockey.  And, at age 38, she said she doesn't want to put off going to medical school any longer!  Love her, hope there's a block for her, but if not, remind me to make on as a tribute to her, okay?

Here are this week's three blocks:

#25 Madeleine Parent - she studied sociology at McGill University and fought for the underdog, fighting against horrific working conditions,  a 55-hour work week and child labour in Quebec's cotton and woolen mills; #26 Thérèse Casgrain - she is the epitome of the Japanese proverb "Fall 7 times get up 8" because she ran in politics 9 times unsuccessfully, BUT she ended up being elected as the first woman leader of the NDP, a national party; #27 Dame Emma Albani - first Canadian woman to become an international celebrity; performed at Covent Garden for 24 years running; a favourite of Queen Victoria, she sang at her funeral.

Just wow.  Again.  I used French text in the background for Thérèse, and for Emma, red fabric with crowns because of Queen Victoria, and stars because of her global stardom.  Here is the collection of 27 so far.  Love!

I have a plan for the sashing pieces that is pretty exciting!  Once I have my hands on my fabric, I will reveal my plan.  I think the additions of pinks here and there is brilliant, and I am using low volume backgrounds from whites to creams to a bit of greys.  At this point I am just loving the way all these scraps play together.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I am not loving so much the way my scrap vomit vortex fabric scraps are playing ...uh, together?  Please help:

These were just thrown up willy-nilly on the design wall.  I kind of like the diagonal line happening from the lower left...

I am at pretty big and medium slabs now.  These are about half of the lot.  Put 'em together as is or try to make them into a standard size, say 12X18" and contain some of the chaos by sashing the blocks?  Right now it's uncontrolled chaos which is kind of compelling but kind of nauseating to me.  Having never done this sort of thing I need opinions and suggestions please.  It's going to be a good size, or perhaps even two medium sized quilts?  and the scraps have not gone down a whit, but seem to have increased...wabbits....

30 Quilt Designs Challenge 2017

Announcing!  Last year Rachel at Stitched in Color started a 30 Days of Quilt Design Challenge which ran from August 5 to Oct. 31.  Sadly, I missed out on it, but thought it such a great idea.  With 2017 shaping up to be more of a year of design, I thought well, why not just do this on my own?  And The Universe said, "Uh, no..."   Shortly thereafter, in conversation with Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts, I brought this up and she said she'd love to do it with me, because she, too, just hadn't been able to join in last year.

So here we go!  If anyone would like to join in, feel free!  I don't have a sponsor (yet...but you never know) but I do have a couple of prizes for certain milestones, for example, 10th design.  I've been saving selvages for a while now since I saw some people like to make things with them!  So this is one prize:

Another is these two fat quarters:

Of course, the best prize is the designs that are yours and yours alone, and that you've challenged yourself, and realized growth. 💖

Here's what I envision:

Who:  Anyone!

What:

• Design a quilt block or an entire quilt.  If you draw a quilt block, maybe put a few together to see what an overall pattern might look like.  Add some colour.  Just as Rachel said in her challenge, you can use non-original blocks, but re-invent them by changing up colour or value, or put two non-original different ones together and see what magic can occur!
• You may submit hand-drawn designs or digital designs.  Personally I find there is something relaxing and Zen-like in getting out the old Crayola pencil crayons and notebook...
• No construction directions needed.
• The goal is to create 30 quilt designs by March 15.

Where:

• Take a photo of your design, number it, and post it on Instagram using the following hashtag:

#30quiltdesignschallenge2017

• Please tag each photo @mmmquilts and @sunlightinwinterquilts so we can see your designs!
• Be sure to number each design.
• To be eligible for prizes, be sure to follow both @mmmquilts and @sunlightinwinterquilts

When:  Today, January 2 - March 15, 2017

Why:  Because...as Henri Matisse said, "Creativity takes courage."  And, as Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all."

Here is my Design #1

What a surprise when I thought, 'What if I put sashing between the blocks?' and then saw half-blocks, and then thought, 'Hmm, need to add a third colour...I wonder...'  I like!

Linking up with
Patchwork Times
Cooking Up Quilts

Note: If you have any questions, or I've not thought of something, don't hesitate to shoot me an email, (click View my Complete Profile or use: ephdra at gmail dot com) or ask in the comments below. Be sure to leave your email address if you are a no-reply so I can respond!

Current Project with a Reminder or Two

This quilt is going to a very close friend in need of a quilty hug.  Here it is on the design wall on Sunday:

I've known I need to make this quilt for a couple of months.  I just didn't know, or feel exactly what, other than lots of pink.  I've since found out aquas are her favourite, along with rich tropical hues.

I saw a quilt on Midget Gem Quilts, made by Helen for a cousin of hers, which is gorgeous, and I knew instantly, this was the quilt.  Helen and I have been chatting back and forth over the past few weeks thanks to us each having joined the New Bloggers Hop.  She has a great blog, great sense of humour as well as a great sense of colour.  Enough greats for you to go check her out? I hope so.  When I asked if I could use her design as the basis for a quilt for my friend, she said go for it.  Mine is a bit different: I used 4.5" squares, whereas she used 5", and also mine is slightly differently-shaped.  All of the fabric, except for the backing, which I bought yesterday at Guildcrafters Quilt Shop, is from my stash.  There are some scraps (for example: wave fabric from Cloud 9, Tula Pink aqua fabric, hot pinks from my daughter Brianne's second quilt), some that was destined for kaleidoscopes (ex: circles fabric, second last row, centre, and "fireworks" aqua and black fabric, third row from bottom, second from right), and some bought just because I loved it (ex. Australian fabric 3rd row exact centre square)

Yesterday I only had a half hour or so of sewing time, so here is where it currently sits:

Reminder of a previous Tip:  I'm using the "Book It!" method for this quilt which is so awesome in keeping all the squares organized.  I wrote a tutorial which you can find under the tab up top or click here.  I'm on Step 6 right now, where I'm beginning to piece the "books" aka pairs of squares, into columns.  Because the heart is not a square shape, I pieced as much of the square part as I could with that method, and I've got the bottom three rows sewn into rows, attached with a chain of thread holding each set together so they don't get out of order.  For the background, I plan to add in big squares and a couple of strips as opposed to filling in everything with more white 4.5" squares.

And one more reminder, a day late.  After a 2-week break, the New Bloggers Hop is back for Week 3 with more wonderful prizes to be won.  Here are the 4 quilters in my hive

posting their "All About Me" post this week, which you will be taken to by clicking:

Julie of Pink Doxies
Carrie of The Zen Quilter
Lori at Sew Psyched
Cindy at Sewing Moxie

The other 3 hives with their new blogger posts can be found at:
Meadow Mist Designs
Quilting Jet Girl
Childlike Fascination

Happy Reading!  I'll be linking this post up with Stephanie's Tips and Tutorials Tuesday at Late Night Quilter, and also with Nicky's Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs. Sew and Sow.

I'm also linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.  :-)

I'm Still Here

I don't have anything finished yet, but I thought I drop a few pics of what I've been up to:

I'm still plugging away at the handquilting on my runner.  I'm really, really enjoying it, despite my poor up-close eyesight these days (yep, wearing two pairs of glasses at the same time, sigh), and my sore pointer from the finger underneath the quilt that gets stabbed with each stitch.

I'm also planning the last of the charm square quilts (and I had a waking dream about the design for this last charm quilt, which excites me to no end!)  Unfortunately, the ivory fabric I want to use is in Kingsville, so this will get started here, and then finished back home.  It's a challenge as there are only 32 squares, 30 in the pack, and I had two leftover from the first one I did.

My self round robin you see peeking at the bottom of that pic is no further than when Dayna was here, but I have narrowed the appliqué pattern down to two ideas.  Am I procrastinating?  Uh, a little.  It's that "I hope I make the right decision, gee, I don't know, ew, I don't want to trace all those shapes onto Steam-a-Seam, will it be wrong to machine-appliqué if the centre is so beautifully hand-appliquéd?" stage.

I also have been really enjoying machine-quilting "Hidden in Plaid Sight".

Yesterday and today I did some more lessons online in Angela Walters' "Dot to Dot Quilting" class on Craftsy and I am just LOVING this class every bit as much as her Free Motion Feathers one.  Worth every cent.  I also have her Machine Quilting Negative Space class too, and can't wait to get started on that.

I must confess that I have spent more than the usual amount of time over the past couple of days, reverse-sewing, sigh.  Unpicking machine-quilted stitches is no picnic.  Neither is getting the window fixed in my sewing room so that it opens without having to be propped open with the can of QBS (who knew that can would have a dual purpose of 'holding'? LOL), only to discover, after I happily opened it, those 4-patches of charm squares mostly blown off!!!  One of the few times I hadn't taken a picture of the arrangement...BIG sigh.  I even unpicked hand-quilted stitches in the red zinger.  I'd quilted a couple of feet about 1/8" away from the seam, but decided it looked weird, so unpicked it all (easy, just heartbreaking to think of the lost time that it took to stitch) and re-quilted in the ditch.  I like it much better, so it was worth it.

Yesterday we spent a few hours kayaking in the Robinson Preserve, along the canals and into Perico Bay.  Just heavenly, so serene and calm.

I'm also reading a new author, Jo Nesbø.  It's The Redbreast, and is very good so far, intriguing, has me thinking on it as I sew.  Hope to have some finishes shortly!