Kona Cotton Palettes
These are the new Kona palettes I’ve been cutting for the shop. From the top – bright, dark, pastel, classic and dusty. There are 20 colors in the dusty palette, and 25 in the others. As well as the fat quarter bundles there are design rolls (2½” strips) and charm packs (5″ squares) in each palette.
I’ve also got some project ideas to go with, which I’ll be sharing with you here in the coming weeks.
Repeating Stars
I had to play a bit more with last week’s star block. I toned down the scraps a bit – using 8 scraps only for each star. I’m quite happy with the result, and am going to leave this experiment for now. It might get turned into a quilt or maybe a wall hanging. And since this may be the year when I actually try some hand quilting, I’ll need something simple to start on. This would be perfect!
Stars from Strips
It was demo day at the Kanata Guild meeting yesterday and I was asked to demonstrate a technique for making stars from strips (there’s a video from Missouri Quilt Co. here). I thought it would be fun to substitute some scrappy strips (inspired by Scrap Republic) for the jelly roll strips, and you can see the result above. Maybe it will be the start of a new quilt.
Stars are everywhere this month – like the Sparkle Punch Quilt-Along with Elizabeth Hartman, and thought and found‘s Oh My Stars! quilt-along. Are you seeing stars?
Quilty Highlights from 2011
It’s always interesting to look back at the year gone by to see what stands out. Here’s a list of some of my favorite quilty moments from 2011.
In January I came across this binding tutorial from Rita who blogs at Red Pepper Quilts. Now I know how to get a nice smooth binding all the way around (after years of not quite getting it right!)
The Cherry House Quilt Along in February was the impetus for a small group of friends to meet weekly to learn how to quilt. Bonnie, Sandra, Millie, Astrid & I finished our quilts, and continued to meet for show and tell the rest of the year. Now we’re trying to get organized for a more ambitious sampler project in 2012.
I subscribed to Fat Quarterly, a fantastic e-zine that publishes 4 times a year, with a bonus issue last fall. Full of great projects and ideas for modern quilters, delivered straight to your inbox! I also discovered their quilt along from 2008, which was a great way to use some jelly roll strips I had on hand.
I became a convert to Aurifil thread, using a heavier 28 wt for machine quilting and a lighter 50 wt for piecing. Bytowne Threads right here in Stittsville is my supplier. I also switched from grey to beige for piecing after seeing Grace Whiting’s presentation at the Kanata Quilt Guild. The beige blends better with the lighter colors I favor, and is less likely to show a shadow through the stitched seam.
Quilt Ontario took place in London at the end of May, and it was a truly memorable experience. I met many wonderful people from all across the country. It was the first time I’ve seen a juried quilt show, and I was blown away by all the quilting talent to be found here in Canada. I’m already looking forward to Quilt Canada in Halifax later this year.
In June, Kate Conklin’s fun slack and stash tutorial inspired me to make this black and white beauty, one of my favorite finishes from the year. I’d love to try more of Kate’s patterns, which are available as PDF downloads at Kate Conklin Designs.
After all the busy-ness of the winter and spring, things slowed down a bit for the summer. I ordered in a crop of new-ish quilting books for the shop, and thoroughly enjoyed going through them all. Block Party – The Modern Quilting Bee by Alissa Haight Carleton and Kristen Lejnieks stands out as a particular favorite, and I’ve started work on a quilt top using one of the blocks shown in the book (which I promise to share soon).
The best thing about August is always our family vacation at Red Pine Camp. It’s been part of our summer for 13 years now, and I can’t imagine a better place to kick back and relax. This year I brought along a newly finished quilt for my bunk. The fabric from Denyse Schmidt and the pattern from Jaybird quilts was a winning combination!
The Mad About Patchwork summer sew-along finished up in September … 7 projects in 6 weeks. You can find links for all the projects here.
I was off to Toronto in October for another Creativ Festival. In spite of the travel and long hours, I always enjoy the opportunity to meet my customers from south-western Ontario.
Two weeks after I got home from Toronto, I was back on the 401, this time to visit the London Friendship Quilt Guild. I set up shop and also showed some quilts at their regular Thursday night meeting, and then taught a workshop on Saturday (a first for me!) I even made some new friends, as often seems to happen whenever quilters get together.
December is sometimes a difficult month to get any real work done as preparations for Christmas take over. I did manage to squeeze in my own version of quilt-til-you-wilt to finish off a number of small projects. I also signed up with Pinterest, an online pinboard to “organize and share the things you love.” I think it’s going to prove very useful for keeping track of all the interesting things I come across when browsing the internet.
And that’s about it … 2011 was a terrific year, and I’m looking forward to more in 2012!
3 things I love about this quilt
Volume scrap quilt flimsy, from Scrap Republic by Emily Cier.
1. I love the way the colors cascade through this quilt. I followed the pattern exactly, because that’s who I am. I suspect you could play a bit with the colors and it would still look wonderful.
2. I love that I used only scraps to make this quilt. And little bits at that. In the process my scrap buckets were organized (at least by color) and I’m completely ready to tackle another scrap project.
3. I loved the process of making this quilt. There was no need to over-analyze the color choices and placement, and the piecing was more or less improvisational. It was gratifying to see how the individual color strips came together so beautifully (thanks Emily!)
What are you doing with your scraps this year? (You might want to check out the Scrap Attack that’s happening over at Stitched in Color for more inspiration.)
