Shoot For the Moon

Well this has been a LONG time coming.  Three, maybe four times on goals -alongs, both OMG and the 2016 Finish Along.  She's finally done!  This is the first goal on my Q3FAL List.

It was a hot 80-degree day here in Ohio (yes you read that right)  when I took these photos.

Tish took a bunch too.  Yep you read that right too!

What is going on?

We are here:

At the very first Quilt Bloggers International Retreat in Gnadenhutten Ohio!  It was a wonderful first day. :-)  But that's another post or two.  This one is to show you Dayna's quilt.  Hold onto your Olfa rotary cutters, there's several pics coming up:

Judy at Quilt Paradigm gave me the idea for most of the centres of the stars, a Spirograph type design with such movement! Swoops in the star points, swirls and pebbles and then some dot to dot in the star shadows completed the lightest blocks.

These got a Judi Madsen design in the stars, Matrix by Leah Day and the dot to dot.

More of the spirograph (Angela Walters does a similar one), and dot to dot.  So glad I used Quilter's Dream Wool batting!

The quilt surprised me when I was drawing it out on clear vinyl (at full size), trying out various designs.  It was no surprise to see how much negative space there was to fill; the surprise was realizing the centre was not a square, and it was offset.

It's rectangular! A checkerboard design and dot to dot and feathers designs both of Kathleen Riggins' (Kathleen Quilts) filled in this area

There is quite the story to go with this quilt, but I will write it all another time, when I can devote my all to the telling.  I want to post this by the deadline (tomorrow) for the Q3FAL, and as I will be cruising around Amish country, shopping and lunching and wining and dining and soaking up every fabulous minutes with blogger girlfriends like Tish, Julie, Beth, Jennifer, and don't forget Dave the Quilt Engineer, I won't have time...

I hope to get some better photos (Tish has some with her good camera I'm sure) for that post.  Here are a few more from this afternoon:

The lower left corner so you can see the designs I did in the chevron border and the final two borders, which I treated as one, doing a fancy feather design of Angela's she teaches in her borders class on Craftsy. The brackets border highlighted with matchstick quilting is also Angela's as is the "windy" (my term) swirls border between the star blocks.

The block is designed by Judy Martin but the quilt is my own design.  I may be writing up the pattern...

I got the white wide backing, as well as the medium purple in the second last border, last summer at Zinck's when I was here visiting Julie! You can read about that trip here and here.  Because Dayna said, "You are going to make it bigger right?" when I gave it to her as a flimsy, on her grad in May 2015 from Wayne State University, (and I did make it bigger), I didn't have enough of the backing.  Inspiration struck when I had various pieces left from making the stars, and a strip insert was concocted and inserted.  I love the effect.

Stylized moon in the upper left corner, kind of a henna swirls design - more on that in the full story post

Julie and I held onto the quilt while Tish snapped a few pics from below.  Julie has a great hillside bungalow with a perfect wall from which to hang large quilts such as this one which measures somewhere around 94" square!

We'd stood on a bench in order to reach up and hang onto the quilt, and when Tish joined us up there, she saw a perfect setup for a final shot or two:

I am so happy with how this turned out!

Linking up with:

She Can Quilt

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF at Georgia Girl Quilts

Walter 2

Always a favourite fish to eat when we were in our camping/fishing days as a family, a favourite to catch (they fight hard!) and a favourite to look at, marvel over...those EYES, this fish ranks #1 in my MacGyver's mind.  This was another goal on my Q3 FAL list.

So of course I had to make him one.  We have Walter #1, who measures just over 25" long, weighed between 8-9 pounds, and whom we got mounted many years ago.  He lived in Jackson Lake in northern central Alberta when my husband caught him.  He is a big fish for an Alberta lake.

I made this mainly using Henry Glass fabrics from the Desire to Inspire Challenge I did in June.

This was another idea I'd had to do using the fabrics, make a hotpad/potholder but I ran out of time.  The backing which you see above is one of the squares in the panel I received.

I used a double layer of Warm 'n Natural batting because I didn't have any Insul-Bright left.  The water fabric is an old one out of my stash that I do not know whose it is; only a "Y" and the colour circles are left on the selvage.  That fabulous black I used for binding (of which I had a 3" strip left, that's all) is a Michael Miller.

I cannot for the life of me recall where I used this fabric, something that is not like me; I can usually place every piece!

Walter 2 is not exactly true to colour, but pretty darn close. That dark green Henry Glass fabric for his main body is really perfect for walleye skin/scales.  Love the random placement of a gold star near his tail.  Speaking of his tail, MacGyver it was who told me I had to make that white 'chunk' on the lower fin.  I didn't know they had that!  The gold Henry Glass fabric worked well for his fins.  For the fish shape/outline, I used a line drawing I got off a free online colouring book.

You know me with my quilts in trees pics so just had to do one, trying to get the lake in the far background.  It blends into the sky though.  I see our clematis is trying to climb up the Nootka Cypress! Better get it back on track on its trellis.

This potholder that could actually double as a mini, was all done with Lara's Crafted Appliqué method.  Love it for no fraying crisp edges.  For those that like to zoom in on photos, you may notice a teensy bit of fraying on one of the brown reeds I freehand cut.  Guess I missed getting the fabric treated right up to the edge, doh!

For quilting I just followed random lines in the water fabric and outlined all the fish parts as well as stitched in some gills detail.  Most of it was stitched with Exquisite thread in green with the white and grey stitched in Madeira Polyneon in silver.  Both of these threads have a lovely glint to them when the light catches them.

Speaking of getting back on track, the quarterly Finish Alongs really do help me, cough, try to stay focussed.  I have Dayna's quilt to blog about yet this week for another from that list!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Original Design
Size: 10.25" square
Fabric: scraps and stash
Batting: Warm 'n Natural 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina 180 Artista
Threads: appliquéd with Exquisite 100% polyester in olive green, and Madeira Polyneon in silver.

Linking up with
Connie at Free Motion by the River
Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts
Leanne at She Can Quilt for the Q3FAL
Nicky at Mrs. Sew & Sow for Scraptastic Tuesday

Quilter's Retreat

As the upcoming Bloggers' Retreat approaches, it is rather fitting that I have my Mini Round Robin finished this week!  This was my OMG for September, and sadly, I missed another deadline, finishing it less than 24 hours after said deadline.  All four of us who participated in this summer-long project had planned to be together at the retreat, and unveil our finishes in person, but unfortunately, one of us is unable to.  :-(

At the time I made the centre block, I had no idea that I would, in fact, be heading to Ohio for a Quilt Bloggers' Retreat in October!  Funny how the Universe lines things up, isn't it? So many times in my life I experience this.

Sunday Stretch for Sewists #13 Eye of the Needle

This is the September stretch, a couple days into October.  :-)   This is the second day of Navratri, a festival brought to my attention by my dear friend Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts.  One of my favourite Krishna Das songs is Ma Durga, and the festival celebrates this Hindu deity, the Divine Mother of the Universe.  Although you may not follow the Hindu religion, please always remember respect, and tolerance for those who do.  I am always fascinated by how many similarities there are between the many religions.... and hey, anything that encourages love, purity and acknowledges female power has gotta be good right?!

I love that the name of this month's pose is a sewing phrase!  This is a great alternative to poses like last month's, Swan, where you might experience too much knee pressure or knee pain.  It is a great hip opener, gently but firmly stressing the ligaments in the hip socket.  Because of not living on the floor, but sitting in chairs, we lose the natural rotation capability of our hips, and the ligaments shorten and tighten, creating the "tight hips" of the West.  Remember! Get down on the floor and watch 5 minutes of TV every single day sitting cross-legged, (or heck sit on your couch in cross-legged), remembering to alternate order of legs.  I am serious.  Your hips will thank you.

Eye of the Needle Pose

Lie down and place your right ankle just above your left knee, letting the ankle joint extend just past the knee.  Flex the right foot to help keep everything in line and to protect your knee.  Think about sending the right knee away from your torso.

If you'd like a little more sensation, then start to lift (go slowly) the left leg off the floor.  The tendency here is to let the right knee collapse towards the chest; try to keep it away.  Ensure your shoulders, neck and jaw are relaxed. We don't want to increase stress there!

Still keeping your shoulders, neck and jaw relaxed, see if you can reach through the triangle between your legs with your right hand and clasp hands just below the left knee.  It's okay to round the low back.  Gently and slowly, so you ease into the sensation and fully appreciate and notice it, draw your knee towards your chest.  Keep the left knee heading toward the left shoulder, and keep sending the right knee away from you.

For those that can do this and don't experience a lot of sensation, you may try this:  I like to use my right elbow to put a bit more pressure against the right knee.

Hard to tell, but my right elbow is pushing gently against the side of my right knee, creating a bit more resistance and sensation in the right hip joint.

This works into the outer hips, the low back, opens up the pelvic area and can help to work and loosen the hamstrings (I feel a good tug deep in the butt cheek).  Hold here for 2 - 5 full minutes, breathing slowly and deeply through your nose.  Then do the other side.  :-)  Rest between sides and at the end with both legs bent, foot soles on the floor so you enjoy the 'ahh!' feeling as the blood rushes and then flows through those compressed areas.

References:
The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga by Bernie Clark
Gaia
Yoga Journal (a note about the name Swan pose: Yin names for the 25 poses used from the many Hatha poses vary slightly, and are mostly from the animal world. In my teacher training, I was taught that Pigeon is where you sit on your foot, but there are pictures and reputable sources that call Full Swan Pigeon.  Either way the intent of doing Full Swan/Pigeon, or Sleeping Swan, or, for that matter, any of the yin poses, in the Yin fashion, is to relax the muscles, so we work into the connective tissues, the ligaments, tendons, joints, the very bones themselves, as Bernie likes to say.

Eeep!  Although I did not win in the ROYGBIV category for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, I came in 5th out of 24 quilts in that category, so that makes me very happy!  Oh man there were so many gorgeous quilts!!! The one that did win in this category was one I voted for! I'd love to make one...add it to the never-ending always-expanding list of quilts I want to make!

Fall Resplendence - A Finish

This small quilt really packs a punch IMHO.  And it is one of the goals on my Q3 FAL list! I sewed the top last summer/fall when I was doing all the wheelchair charity quilts.

I pulled colours from the leaf print to make the half hexies.  Two of the half hexagon fabrics, the orange and the green, are in the same line, a VIP from Cranston Print Works Company.  The rest are all scraps.

I drafted a pattern for the half hexagons, which isn't hard to do: you just need the finished measurement of the short sides, and then if you think about it, a half hexagon is made up of 3 equilateral triangles, so voilà, template made.

Dave, husband to Tish, and author of the blog, Dave the Quilt Engineer (each of them are having a giveaway, on until tomorrow btw) said in his post about his diva of a cat, "'if it fits, I sits' (not just for boxes)".  Thus it is with my Bella.  See what I mean about cats getting the same memos?  As soon as I laid this down, hot off Avril the Avanté, to get a photo, Bella was like, "Mmmrrow? for sure I'll test it for you, and don't even worry about my good side; they're ALL good!" as she blinked, owl-like at me.

She was sure to get involved in one of the most exciting parts of the quilt process in her mind's eye, binding:

Here is the back, assembled from leftovers:

Brady's Halloween quilt, two chunks from non-blogged about quilts: a piece of brushed cotton from a Thanksgiving quilt, and the brown from another very cuddly quilt.

Love the texture I got from a pretty simple quilting motif.  I did wavy 'organic' lines in the leaves sections and this circles with wavy line connectors, very similar to a design Judy of Quilt Paradigm used on one of her latest quilts.  I don't have a circle template for my longarm, but I do have one to trace around, so I traced the circles onto the fabric and then just FMQ-ed them as well as the wavy line connectors.  They aren't perfect; you can see a wobble in the black fabric, but I'm okay with it; I'm not a robot.

The label.  I wrote right on the piece of green I needed as the pumpkin brushed cotton wasn't quite wide enough.  This is the 10th use (that doesn't seem right somehow, feels like it should be more, hmm) of my mmm! quilts labels from Ikaprint. (no affiliation but Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts is, so go there first and click on through!

I haven't decided whether I will keep this one or sell it or maybe donate it to a needy place.  Speaking of donating, I finally dropped off the first quilt I made for the Henry Glass Fabrics Desire to Inspire Challenge.

This is in the vestibule of the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre in Windsor.  I asked for this one to go to a boy as it is more masculine in feel on both the front and definitely on the back.  I now realize that I have never given you a more in-depth look at all of my projects for that Henry Glass challenge.  I need to do that.  I already gave the Centre two I made in April when it was Sarah's Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge.

Back to Fall Respendence.

Loving the slowly opening mums! Here we'd set them out to catch the rain, which is still falling off and on today.

We need to take the boat out once or twice more in order to make room for some fresh gas to put in it while she waits over the winter.  But she did make a good backdrop even though it was drizzling while I was taking photos!

One of my favourite style of shots. Mmm!

It's nice to check another off one off the list...haven't made great progress this quarter.  I've been doing other, unforeseen quilting, as well as experiencing some other life stuff, so I apologize for not getting back to you in a timely manner if you've left a comment. I hope to catch up this weekend.  Remember to vote in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival! Easy peasy, just click the 3 that you like in each category.  Here is the one I entered, Rainbow Kitty Rows in the ROYGBIV category:

The post I wrote for the festival is here

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  based on a tutorial from Quilting is More Fun Than Housework
Size: 42 1/2 X 49 3/4"
Fabric: scraps and stash
Batting: Warm n Natural
Quilted: on Avril the Avanté;  52 236 stitches
Threads: pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Essential variegated thread 21224 Autumn Splendor

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

And My Quilt Infatuation

and Leanne of She Can Quilt for the Q3 FAL.

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.

Sunday Stash for Fall...and Needles

I've added some vibrant hues to my stash, and they are a perfect set for today as we officially started Fall a few days ago.  btw it's exactly three months to Christmas, just sayin'...

This is Windfall, generously sent to me by Paintbrush Studio Design and what an incredibly rich array of colour!  There are just two tone one tone leaf 'prints' in the collection, a maple-shaped leaf and an oblong, birch-shaped leaf, but just look at the variety of colours in which they printed those two patterns--mmmm!

I got a fat quarter pack and a little yardage for the project (or two) I have in mind.  I already made a button basket out of some of the red, which you can see here.  I will be taking part in a hop later in October, hosted by Bernie of Needle and Foot.  You can take a peek at the others's fabric in the hop (we each chose a different Fall line) by clicking:
Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Janine at Quilts from the Little House
Mari at Academic Quilter

Here is one more shot of this gorgeous fabric (and what a lovely hand it has) by one of our chrysanthemums, such a pleasing mid-Western tradition (or is it American, period, and once again, our southern section of Canada has adopted it?) of front porch displays that evoke thoughts of wonderful pumpkin pie and apple cider and muffins and football and cozy hours by one's sewing machine...

Even though I still wore flipflops, capri pants and a short-sleeved t-shirt yesterday to lunch with a friend and then later to dinner with a group of other friends, including a most enjoyable cruise on the Detroit River in one of their boats, I was able for the first time since Spring, to wear one of my beloved dress scarves around my neck!  Which reminds me....I have some fabric somewhere to make an infinity one, hmmm, gotta put my hands on that.

I am still hand-stitching the binding down on Dayna's quilt, but I loaded another, which is on my Q3 FAL list and got a start on it yesterday morning:

Flowing 'organic' wavy lines in the leaves sections and a design my good friend Judy used on a recent quilt that I decided to try here. My circles aren't quite perfectly round, despite drawing them on using a circle tracing template, but once the quilt is washed and crinkly, it will be just fine right?!  I'm loving the Essential 100% cotton variegated thread from Connecting Threads, (no affiliation) a gift from another good friend, Preeti.  :-)

Which reminds me of two things:
1.  The Bloggers Quilt Festival  - one day and 10 hours left to enter...I haven't done that yet!! It's been a rather crazy last couple of weeks for multiple reasons.  SUCH inspiration you will find in each one of the categories.

2.  Did you remember to snag yourself a class for $20US/$26CA this weekend at Craftsy?  (affiliate link) Think I may watch some more of my latest Angela Walters one while my husband cries over, er cheers on, his beloved Detroit Lions.

Eye of the Needle
Bada BOOM!  Once more a post comes full circle, and how I love it:  This is the last Sunday of the month and many of you are looking for Sunday Stretch, and this promised pose for your hips especially when you have bad knees... It will be here within the next couple of days, promise.  This one took precedence as will hopefully one more, my entry into the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  :-)

Linking up with
Molli Sparkles