Fellow Quilters,

Co-worker Jennifer nearly fell over today when she saw me writing this blog post.  “You can’t do a blog post today – you’ve already done one this month,” she said.  As if I only do one per month!  Well, that’s pretty much true, actually.  “Oh, but today is special,” I said.  “I am participating in the Quilter’s Newsletter’s Best Tradition With A Twist Blog Tour.”  This special issue hit newsstands a week or so ago, and contains 21 creative projects of all sizes.

Cover of Tradition with a Twist by Quilter’s Newsletter

Nine of the quilt designers are blogging about their project this week, including yours truly.  Here’s a list of the others:

January 27, Janet Jo Smith at www.dyesmithy.com

January 28, Twisted 9 Patch, www.jendalydesign.com

January 28, Emily’s Nonsense, www.rOssie.blogspot.com

January 29, Jennifer Parks, www.jennykaequilts.wordpress.com

January 30, Nancy Mahoney, www.nancymahoney.com/blog/

January 30, Natalie Barnes, www.beyondthereefpatterns.blogspot.com/

January 30, Gigi Khalsa, www.quiltersnesletter.com/blogs/insideqn/

My modern quilt guild (www.facebook.com/barriemodernquiltgroup ) has really got me thinking modern these days, so when Quilter’s Newsletter sent out the call for “tradition with a twist”, I thought “modern”.  Northcott had just introduced the Artisan Spirit – Shimmer pre-cuts, including fat quarter rolls, so I chose 3 coordinating rolls (hibiscus, peacock and mineral).  Then I took the traditional circle shape and modified it in some blocks by making it an oval.  Additionally, I changed the scale of the blocks: the main blocks are square, but I made my sashing blocks rectangular, necessitating my cornerstones (the blocks at the intersections of the sashing blocks) to be small squares, with smaller circles in then.  Here is my quilt:

My Going in Circles quilt

Since I was thinking “modern”, I did not add any borders to my quilt.  With the quilting, I emphasized the circles in the background squares and rectangles, and did free-motion spirals in the circles and ovals, all with a variegated thread.  The circles and ovals are fused in place, and when I do fusible appliqués, particularly large shapes, I like to “window” the fusible webbing – that is, I remove the center of the fusible by trimming ¼” inside my cutting line before I fuse it to the fabric.  With this quilt, I could use the centers of the large fusible circle pieces for the small circles.

Quilter’s Newsletter has a yummy bundle of Shimmer fabrics to give away, so for a chance to win, please post a comment on my blog by 9am tomorrow (Friday) telling me your favorite method of appliqué.

Artisan Spirit – Shimmer in the pansy colorway

I will draw 2 names, and the 2^nd name will receive a bundle of fat quarters from Northcott’s Mandolin collection that just arrived in our warehouse.  Like the Shimmer collection, Mandolin has a hint of metallic, adding to the elegance of it.

Mandolin collection

I think this collection would be perfect for the sashiko class that I will be teaching on the Australia/New Zealand cruise that I am going on next Spring (Feb. 13 – 27, 2016) with Quilt Camp at Sea.  Here is a picture of my original quilt.

Sashiko sampler

I can already picture it in Mandolin, can’t you?  For a chance to win the Mandolin bundle, please tell me if you’ve ever been on a quilting cruise, and where it was, or where you would like to cruise to if you haven’t yet tried a quilting cruise.  That’s 2 chances to win – 1 for telling me your favorite appliqué method, and 1 for telling me where you have or would want to cruise to with some quilting “buds”.  Good luck!

Cheers,

Patti

Fellow Quilters,

I’ve been thinking about you!  Around this time last year, I posted about learning new skills in snowboarding, particularly riding switch (backwards), and how that correlated to machine-quilting skills (see my Splats post).  I endeavored to practice switch every weekend, and if I did, I would surely be competent by the end of winter.  Despite my intentions, I found a million excuses not to practice – the snow conditions weren’t perfect enough, I might injure myself and not be able to attend a scheduled upcoming event, too many obstacles (a.k.a. other skiers) on the hill, etc.   Needless to say, I was not competent at switch by the end of the season.

Well, I am once again in snowboarding lessons, and this past weekend, instructor Tim tried oh-so-patiently to give us some tips on riding switch (again, or is that still?).  After the lessons, I went back out on my own and practiced some more.  It is slowly coming along.  At one point yesterday, I was way out of my comfort zone, going fast enough to really hurt myself if I fell.  Fortunately I didn’t, and this gave me a boost of confidence. It will take weeks, but I will try harder this year, and hopefully achieve my goal. As my fellow students would attest, you can teach old dogs new tricks, and our group is living proof.  Howard, my most-senior classmate, is 70 years old.  He is still nursing an injury from a fall in the terrain park last year, but he is gung-ho about mastering switch.  Go Howard!!

Hubby and I recently spent 9 days on a 32ft sailboat in St. Martin/St. Barts with my BFF Jennifer and her friend Terry.  Hubby and I sailed in the British Virgin Islands a few years ago with Jennifer, and the sailing was delightful.  Since I am not really a sailor, I was assigned the position of cook. When Jennifer asked if we would join her for the St. Martin trip, we jumped at the chance.  Jennifer and Terry are seasoned sailors, and Hubby is also quite comfortable in windy conditions.  Me, not so much.  Well, let me tell you!  We faced some significant waves (20ft tip to trough) and wind, and they had to harness me to the boat to quell my nerves.  I was once again the cook, and Jennifer was determined to keep me from getting seasick so that she could have gourmet meals every day.  I think I was too scared to be seasick!  The good news is that I survived, and even became somewhat accustomed to the rolling sea.  Hubby and I went snorkelling one day and saw sea turtles, lion fish, a moray eel, lots of colorful fish and a nurse shark.  It was great!  Here are some pics of our trip:

Captain Jennifer at the helm

View of St. Martin from our boat

Terry, Jennifer and I at the dining table

Jennifer works on navigation while I prepare dinner in the galley.

Now that my sailing vacation is behind me, it’s time to get back into quilting.  My guild (www.regionofyorkquiltersguild.ca) is having a show March 28 & 29, and I have a lengthy list of projects that I want to have ready.  On January’s To Do list is my project started last June in Lenore Crawford’s class at Quilt Canada. It is a small fused wall-hanging, and requires some painting to bring it to life.  I have not painted anything other than walls and ceilings, so this will be a challenge.  Time is running out, so I had better just take a deep breath and get ‘er done!  I am the challenge coordinator for our show, and the members are busy completing their entries to be handed in next month for voting by the membership.  I haven’t started mine yet!  It is my early February project.  And I have 2 sets of 3” nine-patch blocks from a block exchange a few years ago.  The quilts for these are designed, but at this point, it is unlikely that I will get them assembled, let alone quilted – one is queen-size and the other is king-size!  Unless we have a week-long snow storm, these 2 projects will remain UFO’s. Did I mention that I am teaching at A Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN March 17 – 21? I attended last year and it was a total blast – tons of vendors, and the quilts in the exhibit were amazing.   But I digress.  My modern quilt group pushes me to think outside the box, so I shall try to make my challenge modern, and use some modern quilting.

I was working on my new pattern Florentine Floor for last Fall’s Quilt Market trade show, and wanted to use some really heavy thread for some of the quilting, as the fabric had a busy background that competed with the quilting.  I stopped by the Superior Threads booth to see what they had, and decided that Razzle Dazzle would work.  I wanted to use it in the top of my machine, but Mother Superior a.k.a. Heather Purcell said I would need to put it in the bobbin, necessitating me quilting the quilt from the back.  I had not done that before, so, unconvinced, I tried it in the top.  I now know why Heather is Mother Superior, because she was right, of course!  After 2 minutes of practice, I had the tension balanced, and went about quilting the quilt from the back on my sewing machine.  Voila!  It looked amazing, and I am so pleased with the results.  I will add this to my technique toolbox, and won’t hesitate to try it again.

Florentine Floor twin-size quilt

Detail of the bobbin work done with Razzle Dazzle

Have you tried bobbin quilting?  Do you have any advice to pass along to those who have not ventured down this path yet?  The fabric collection that I used for my pattern is Stonehenge Medici.  Post a comment about bobbin quilting sometime this week (by Friday night) for a chance to win a bundle of Medici fabrics.

Cheers,

Patti