Need advice on borders for UFO

My Ballard group has an "ugly fabric" exchange at our Christmas party. This is what I have made with the abandoned blocks and some new blocks with the fabric. I think it is quite beautiful. Now I need help on borders. Do you think I should use either the green or gold, or should I try to find the lavander (very weird color), or something else for the inner border, and what do you think about the black outer border? The "true" colors are more like the top photo (with flash).

A Good Time was had by All!

Here we are at Lori's house. What a fun day we had. Look at the blocks on the floor behind Jenny.






Look at this mess that Kim made!!







Jenny didn't seem to mind.

Believe it or not, she did get it untangled.

Talk about perseverance!!




ttfn :) Yuki

Leslie's baby shower contest

These onesies were created during Leslie's baby shower as a contest. I made 'Jungle Gym' on the lower right with my Aunt Corrine and 'Goin' Buggy' (just to the right of 'African Safari') after seeing what fun my cousin Vienna had using glitter fabric paints. Her creation is the van Gogh-like night scene with 'Baby' spelled in gold glitter stars (upper right). Tracy, Vienna's mom, came up with the idea and provided the fabric paints, stencils, embroidery floss, etc.

In case you ever need an idea for a baby shower, this really was a lot of fun.

Elaine's latest project

These are the blocks I helped Elaine make during my visit after Thanksgiving. Elaine had the red butterflies and we found the others at Pacific Fabrics. Elaine discovered the dragonflies which complement the butterflies and pull the other colors together so well. The quilt is based on a pattern Clara had and that Elaine and I adapted 2 or 3 years ago.

Color theory homework

I made this quilt to make up for having missed the class exercise on how adjacent colors can influence one's perception of a color. The central rectangle in each column is the same color and size but the background color changes how one might perceive it. (In the image the columns read horizontally while the backgrounds step down.) I showed it in my color theory class last night. The instructor was really excited to see it since it demonstrates several points she's made in the discussions.

Overachieving me - this came out larger than a twin.

Next step is to decide on borders - any thoughts?

Bali Sea Stars from Ballard

Here is the quilt that my quilt group in Ballard made for annual quilt raffle for Phinney Neighborhood Center. It is Bali Sea Stars, from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Surprise, by Martingale Press. Because the background fabrics were silver/white instead of beiges, and it doesn't have any browns or oranges, it looks quite a bit different than the FHWA quilt for CFC that Jenny, Jackie and I made. The raffle will be held on Dec 5.

Alyssa's quilt top

This is the quilt top that Alyssa started using the Spectacular Scraps book with half-square triangles. She started it when she was in high school, and she graduated from college in June, so she thinks it is very old. We put the borders on it when I went to LA at the beginning of October. I couldn't figure out how to crop the image with the tools Frank has on this computer.

I had a lot of fun at an estate sale this a.m. I don't feel bad about my stash anymore, and this was the SECOND day of the sale. I bought some wool for Marge, and some cotton shirting fabric, and some Indonesian batik samples. I also bought a nice down comforter for $11 that I am going to wash in the machine, instead of sending to the dry cleaner.

Huguette's Scrap Box

The central 4-patches in these blocks are left over from the quilt in my previous post. The block is based on one I found in one of my old quilt magazines. I really like the block so may try to do it using brights for the 4-patches and monochrome blacks for the larger triangles. I was really impressed with how quickly these blocks went together.

Madame Huegette's 80th birthday quilt

Yet another distraction from my UFO list -- this was my mad August scramble quilt to celebrate the 80th birthday of a friend's mother. Martine gave me the color scheme idea which will apparently work beautifully in Madame's den. I love the border fabric. All of the folks who attended Madame's very first surprise birthday party signed the quilt. I've sent it off to be quilted in North Carolina in hopes that I can send the quilt to Madame by Christmas. Of course, I seldom make only enough blocks for the quilt in question so a future post will show the quilt I made to use up excess 4-patches for this one.

Yay Kim!!!!

Good for you!!

ttfn :) yuki

Kim H's first fully unsupervised quilt

Meant to post this after our last session and finally just now getting around to it.

TA-DA - trumpet and drum roll please!

Presenting Kim's first fully unsupervised quilt!

This went to a friend's granddaughter who absolutely love, love, loves it.

Color studies

I'm blaming it on the heat that I started three new projects over the weekend rather than finishing anything already underway. Quarterly Quilters met last Saturday and I decided that I needed a small project to work on during the session. So how did I end up with two? - you might ask. I couldn't decide whether black or white would be more interesting so I went with both. The black top was complete early Sunday morning. It's not entirely Amish since the setting squares and borders are a print - little tiny dots of color on a black background - hard to see in this photo.

I just need to decide on the borders for the white top. Unfortunately I don't have enough of the setting square fabric to use it in the borders. This picture shows the two Kaffe Fassett fabrics I'm currently considering so tell me what you think.

I'll bring them to S&B this weekend because I don't think the photos do them justice.

Trip to the Midwest

Yup, I started a new project while on my whirlwind tour of the Midwest. I think I'll call it "Midwest Whirlwind" since it has a spinning look to it. It's very Thimbleberries in color. I had these blocks up on my design wall as you can see them and Dad commented on how much he liked them - the first time he's done that. So now I'm in the process of making enough blocks to make two twin-sized tops. One will go to my friend who just moved to West Virginia; the second one to Dad. The block is really easy to make so I'm up to 32 blocks now of the 96 I'll need. Fortunately I have several Thimbleberry fabrics from previous projects; the trick is finding good combinations. I've tried a couple of large scale florals and while I plan to use the blocks, I won't be looking for more large scale florals to use in this.

Comentary on Lori's Quilt

I guess I should have posted more of a description. This was a UFO that Lori had for a few years. The print fabrics are Laurel Burch. The colors are beautiful. This picture does not do them justice. The background fabric is a muted pink & lavender sort of batik looking print. We were all very happy to see Lori finish this top. She bought a very nice olivey green & gold metallic for the backing. We did the pinning at S&B Sat, JUL 24. Can't wait to see it when it comes back from machine quilting.

ttfn :) Yuki

Look at Lori's Quilt

Just for fun

I finished this quilt up about 3 weeks ago using some 9-patches I'd made from 2" squares as threadsavers. I also used some really fun Alexander Henry prints that I've had for years as the setting squares. The borders are a Kona Bay fabric that I bought on sale and intended to use for a quilt back; I enjoy the fabric so much though that I find myself using it in other ways. I pinbasted the quilt last weekend so hopefully I'll get it back from the quilter later in July.

NYC Garment District

Hi Everyone - I got home from NYC last night. I went to the Garment district on Saturday a.m. I liked Pacific Trimming where I bought a couple of yards of soft "ribbon" flowers that I will use to embellish t-shirts - my new favorite clothing choice. They had a very large selection of handbag handles for about $4 each.
I also bought a few yards of "braid" to embellish hand towels at M&J trimming. I like to buy plain white towels and then trim with braid to make them look custom. I even bought some fabric to make sundress, now I need to find a pattern. I used a document from Paula Nadelstern's website to figure out what to look at. One place I wanted to go (Handloom Batik) was no longer in Manhattan, so sad. Nancy even went with me to Purl Soho, but the warehouse in Orange County was way more fun. I didn't buy anything there.

Nancy and I went to see a Nora Ephron (and her daughter) theatrical piece (not a play) called "Love, Loss and What I wore." It was fun, but not very deep, even if there were mentions of divorce, breast cancer, and death. One of the funniest bits (I thought) was about women's purses, and another about bras. I think it is quite a good idea as a way to start thinking about writing an autobiography. We also could draw a favorite piece of clothing. I drew my wedding dress, maybe because I was watching "Say Yes to the Dress" on cable TV in the hotel room. I am so happy that I spent $79 (I think) on my dress, at an outlet store in Dallas-Ft Worth during a Planning Applications conference. Too bad I can't fit into it anymore. I find it quite appalling that people on that TV show have $3,000 - 7,000 to spend!

We had a wonderful dinner a block away from the theatre at a place called West Bank Cafe. Nancy had some kind of fish, and I had a black pepper pasta with duck and mushrooms. It was delicious.

I'll be in Wash DC in mid to late July. See you soon.

Bento Box: Tracey Brookshier

On Tuesday night, I went to the Quilters Anonymous monthly meeting to hear the talk by Tracey Brookshire about quilting in Japan. Quilters Anonymous is the overarching quilt group with over 400 members, of which the Ballard Stashbusters is just a "satellite" group. Tracey has sold over 50,000 copies of the Bento Box pattern - she says she is sending her son to college on the money she has made from that pattern. Too bad I didn't have photographs of ALL the many bento box quilts I have made!

Her talk was about spending 9 days at the Quilt show at the Tokyo Dome. Her slide show was FABULOUS. I am ready to go! I think it is typically the same week as TRB, so I might have to wait another couple of years, but I am thinking that January 2012 might really be a possibility. Do I really need to go to TRB annual meeting EVERY YEAR? I am not Kim! One of the interesting things she talked about was the "sensei" and student relationship in Japan. This is how the brush painting that my mother studied, and of course, Karate and other martial arts are organized, but they have extended it to quilting as well. She would show a full image of a quilt, and then a close up, showing the meticulous work, especially with applique and hand quilting. She didn't talk too much about different color choices, except for the use of beiges and browns (like the Daiwabo taupes). She asked someone about it, and they said they were going for the "American country look." It is still a mystery. Maybe they saw a faded b&w photograph that looked sepia, and they thought that is what the quilts looked like in real life?

So, start saving your money for a trip to Japan! I am READY! It doesn't bother me that I will never do that kind of quilt making. I think I can just marvel in the fact that they do it, and I am happy to piddle around to maintain my mental health. Frank is building me a shelf for the closet in my sewing room, to help me get a little more order (I hope!).

News from Seattle

Here is the strippy quilt my Ballard group made for our group member, Jean M, who is undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer. Blocks were due on April 1, and the quilt was finished, and given to Jean on April 29. I put the blocks and borders together, Carol did the machine quilting, and Ann did the binding


Here are 4 of the blocks (in progress) for the next CFC quilt that Jackie, Jenny and I are working on. I have finished all 12 of my blocks and mailed them to Jenny. Also, my Ballard Stashbusters group decided to use the same pattern for our raffle quilt for the Phinney Neighborhood Center (PNC). This design is from Kim Brackett's book, "Scrap Basket Surprises". We have received permission from Martingale Press to use it for the CFC quilt. The one for PNC will be mostly blues and greens, with a white/grey background fabrics. It will be interesting to see how different the 2 quilts look when they are completed!

Slight digression

Well, I had to put a hold on finishing UFOs to make a retirement gift for a friend in Iowa. Lucky thing I'd downloaded a free pattern (Summertime) from Michael Miller Fabrics (http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/) - it worked out beautifully in red/white/blue. I mailed it off on Thursday so it should arrive in Ames in plenty of time for folks to sign it during Paula's retirement party on June 3rd. I probably won't get it back until the end of June so depending on when we hold the July S&B, you might see it then.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly so my end result is about 6" larger in both dimensions. I ended up with a quilt that's 60"x74". 1st change - I trimmed my pinwheels to 10.5", rather than the component squares to 5", which meant my setting squares are larger as well. 2nd change - I added a white middle border for more signature space. This is a really fast quilt to make so if you need a twin-sized quilt in a hurry and you have a fun theme fabric, you might try this one.

Lori's Christmas Runner

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this for Lori (who's certainly welcome to edit this text).

What I did during the furlough

Here is "in progress" project using new fabrics from Maui. I am using M'liss Rae Hawley Phenomenal Fat Quarter Quilts book. The orange parts are going to pieced circles. I am going to call it Kihei Sunset. The directions say to cut the quarter circles and piece them using curved seams onto each square. I am thinking of making full circles and then machine appliqueing them to the top where all the squares have been sewn together. I just need to borrow a machine that has a nice buttonhole applique stitch.

The R/W/B is on it's way to American Heroes project at Vashon. I saw that they now have a Facebook page, and they sent several quilts to a military hospital in Afghanistan. Previously, quilts were used at Madigan Army Hospital in Pierce County, where injured soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated.

The T quilt for Russ just needs a small last border. I should get that done today. Frank and I are planning to work in the garden, but it is too cold and windy right now. We had an early spring, but now we are back in Winter. Lots of snow in the mountains yesterday, which is a good thing since we rely on the snowpack for our water and electricity in the summer.

Wish I was stitching and bitching with you all today. Lots of love!

Two completed UFOs plus one

Here are the first two completed UFOs from my list for this year (although I did pick up on the fact that my definition of completed varies slightly from the rest of the group in that I'm thinking of just getting the top finished while everyone else is thinking quilted and bound before it counts as done - since I'm greatly in the minority, we'll go with the majority view). I'm really pleased with how they turned out. You will all be pleased to know that the first two projects are already down in North Carolina for quilting.

The first image is project 11 and I'm still looking for a name. I'm planning to send it to a Marine on Okinawa. Al's now the only family member without a quilt from me. I'll send it along with the baby quilt I'm making for the baby that will be arriving shortly. I'll be using the dark blue for binding since I pieced the back with a variety of outdoors prints - I think it's almost as much fun as the front. Mom thinks Al's getting the best deal since he'll be able to use the side that suits his mood - this side when he's looking for zing, the other side, not so much. I'll have to post a picture of it when I get it really done (bindings and all).

The second image is project 16 - Wacky Patriot, and I really like how it came out. I'm going to call this block the DIY square since you pick your final size and fill it in however you want. You'll notice that I didn't stick with the "every center is a square" concept. I went with one dark blue for the sashing but used a variety of reds for the setting squares (yes, there are repeats!). I plan to bind this one in red. I didn't have nearly as much fun with this back.

This is the bonus quilt - one of the three that Clara is helping me move along. She added the borders. I have the back put together and the batting cut (yup, it's the left-overs from the other two) but wasn't able to get it pin-basted before Mom and Dad headed home. (Family events can really adversely affect project completion - especially when they occur in your own home!) I call this one "Bunting" and it'll go to QFV when it's done.

1 UFO now a completed top

Here is Jenny's windmill UFO to which I added sashing to calm it down. I was originally going to have sashing between each square, but Frank said he liked the columns/rows alone. I thought a good name might be "I spy a windmill" but I don't think there is an actual windmill fabric, and it might confuse someone. (The orange T's are on my design wall, so that's why the photo was t akenwhen it was laid on top of the bed).

The next photo is from Sunday, Feb 21. It is so beautiful with the cherry blossoms out, daffodils, azaleas, a few early rhododendrons. The tree pollen has been very high, so I am home this afternoon using a few hours of sick time, since I've been having trouble breathing. It isn't even March yet.

Third time's a charm

Just wanted to show off something finished and thought I'd post this series of three quilts that I started last November in an effort to make a signature quilt for a former boss who was retiring in December from the Tennessee Division. The first image which I call "Surfer Frog Enjoys his Day" was the first try. I rejected it because it was too white and seemed rather juvenile.


This second attempt (Up and Away) was better but I became concerned about whether there was really room for folks to sign it. The balloons on the border are the reason for the name. Martha used this one to send a friend to celebrate the arrival of his son.







Third time really was the charm for this effort. This is the quilt I sent to Bobby in mid-January. It's called "Transportation to the Fishing Hole" - hmm, can you tell what his hobby is? - and gave me a chance to use some sample fabrics I've been hauling around since I picked them up back in 1998 or so. Check the four large squares around the central block. It has signatures from both the Iowa and Tennessee Divisions. I think it came out great!

All three quilts are based on Karen Rinauld's Generous Giving book although the last quilt's is a hybrid of concepts.

Wearing my heart on a sleeve

Just wanted to share the silliness that I've been indulging in this week. I didn't think I'd make so many but there's 17 total - including the lavendar/silver one that I'd previously posted. Fortunately I think I've worked through the need to make any more of these just now! It's been fun playing with color combinations and backgrounds. I've put a ring on the back so they could be hung up if someone wanted to do so. Otherwise they're great for sticking pins in but aren't flat enough to be a coaster.

I have to say that I really enjoy using the Sulky 12 thread. The DMC 12 isn't bad but it's just enough thicker that I find it harder to pull through smoothly - of course that might just be because I have my thread way too long. The other thing about DMC 12 is that I haven't found it in variegated colors - does anyone know if it comes that way? Otherwise I'll just have to buy a few more Sulky 12s - darn, that means I might have to make another trip up to Crofton. Anyone want to go along? I'm willing to forego the snowstorm this time!

This is a picture from this morning of the snowpile. It doesn't look quite as impressive since they tried to shave off the front edges so that the garages for the end units were accessible. I'm not sure one could actually get much more than Clara's car in and then carefully. I've also added a photo of the icicles the neighbors behind me were growing; the icicles fell off yesterday noon with a spectacular clatter - I think they hit the heatpump housing on the way down.

Quiting in Maui

It has been 80 degrees, with beautiful sunny skies here in Maui. We have been watching all the weather reports on CNN (the TV does not have weather channel, since they don't need it here) of the 55 total inches of snow in DC. At least today, the TV is talking about the Olympics instead of all the snow and the broken snowplows.

I have been to all 4 fabric stores, but so far, bought a couple of sashiko things for Kim's mom (to take to Phoenix in March), and one cute Hula girl fabric. The first rental machine was AWFUL, so we took it back and got a machine that works much better. I haven't been sewing that much, so I am not making as much progress on this quilt as I had hoped. But, my tan is looking good. :-)

Stay warm!

Mazatlán project

Well, I just got off the phone with Continental. They had cancelled my flight to Houston tomorrow morning due to the weather and wouldn't have been able to get me to Mazatlán until next Tuesday (the 16th). Since I was due back the 20th, I just cancelled out of the trip. Now I'm a bit down in the mouth looking at all the snow that's coming down today, and knowing that I need to go out in it and brush down the heatpump (I need a cup of hot chocolate just to psych myself up for this little excursion).

This is a picture of the snow pile at the end of the cul-de-sac (the reason I don't think I can get my truck back into the garage right now) as of yesterday. I'm sure there will be substantially more snow by tomorrow the way it's coming down right now.


This is a preliminary picture of the project I planned to work on during my Mazatlán trip. It consists of 36 4" felt squares that will have 3" felt circles appliquéd on them. The squares will be whip-stitched together. I added four colors (black, cobalt, willow, and tangerine) to the summer color pack put together by "A Child's Hands" for 18 colors. It'll be 24" square. Just looking at the picture cheers me up.

To follow up on Kim's hearts, I'll have to post some of the extremely silly braided hearts that I've been making. It's like eating chocolate chips (since I'm not a popcorn fan), really hard to stop with just one! Looking at her hearts I may have to go back and add some beads and baubles to them.

Thinking of chocolate - I have to go make brownies now to ease my sorrows!

What can happen when a crafter goes crazy!

Okay this is completely insane! Is it any better that I know I made too many of these? The class Jenny B and I took (wool felt applique) was so much fun and the techniques so quick and forgiving that I went a little nuts.

This one is going to my neice Hannah - she will appreciate the "over the top" nature of this hanging.

I used lots of left over beads to decorate the hearts. It was also fun to play with the stitches - I am going to have to get back to my crazy quilt!

My other excuse for making so many is that we have had about 2 feet of snow. Without electricity for about a day, I was able to finish up a lot of hand sewing!

Okay now back to those UFOs I was supposed to be focused on!

Kim F.

The last of Jenny's UFOs (for this year)

It's been a productive weekend if, for no other reason than I finished posting all these projects. Working on getting them posted has also helped me get refocused on them. For instance, last night I wend through and cut up another 6 pairs of jeans for project #15 (which also opened some space in my closet. I'll need to do that t-shirt quilt if I really want to make space though).

15. "Rocky Mountain Ramble" - this is a denim log cabin summer quilt on which I plan to put all those fabric patches I've picked up from various tourist spots. Most of the denim comes from my old Rocky Mountain jeans (hence the name) but I did have to buy a few pairs at thrift shops to get the lighter colors I needed. On the list I gave Lori, I said I was trying to decide on size - that's done - this will be 5x7 using 14" sewn blocks.


16. "Wacky Patriot" - this one was inspired by a project Kim F. pulled together during an S&B session last spring. She put random strips around a center square and built up the blocks to a common size which she then sashed with a light lavender pulling the whole thing together. It was really fun and easy so I decided to try it using scraps. One thing I did different was not worry about having the center be exactly the same size in each block. Initially I got sidetracked because I wanted to use a few more shirt pockets but I've worked past that and only need to finish about three more squares. I plan to sash it with dark blues and use red setting squares. It's intended for QFV so 55"x70" is the goal.


17. Okay, enough with this one! It's been on the pile tooooooooooooo long as a result of my not wanting any one fabric to be within 4 blocks of itself in any directions (and you wonder why I have so many fabrics!). I think this is from the first Nickel Quilts book and that I started it in Ames but it was pre-index cards so no notes to help me remember what the h--- I was thinking. This is the central half. I need to add panels half this width to top and bottom. It will be queen-sized and is intended for a friend.

Okay, now I'm off to sew. Have a great day!

Yet some more of Jenny's UFOs

After shoveling snow yesterday afternoon, I'm not good for much until the Ibuprofen kicks in so here are a few more.

10. This one is based on "Country Manor" in Evelyn Sloppy's Strips and Strings although I made the blocks slightly smaller (5" trimmed). It's predominantly fall tones (don't ask me why) using strings from my scrap basket with black/cream in the pinwheels. I have about half the blocks complete. The string blocks are easy; for some reason, making the half-triangle squares is slowing me down - I think it's because I shifted from half-triangle squares to crumbs as my thread-savers. I started this one since moving back to DC.

11. This one uses the same concept as project #10 with slightly larger blocks (6" trimmed) and two different color schemes for the pinwheels. The blocks are almost complete other than adding the corners to the final four. I have most of the blocks assembled into sets of four so the final assembly should go quickly. It will be twin-sized.

12. Yet another project from Evelyn Sloppy's Strips and Strings (yes, I like the book). It's hard to tell from this image - the backgrounds are navy blue celestial/Christmas fabrics with silver and the star fabric (amazing but true that I limited myself to one!) is white with silver swirls. The strippies are Christmas prints - it's scary how many boxes of those I have. I have most of the strippy bits complete but need to cut the background and star pieces.

13. This one is based on the 2008 CFC quilt Jackie, Elaine and I put together although I changed the star blocks for easier piecing. This was intended as a housewarming gift but it won't actually work in the room it was intended to warm so I'm rethinking its size. If I go from twin to queen, I'll need about 5 more blocks.

14. I picked up the pieces for this project while at the Houston quilt show in October 2009. The larger pieces are hand-embroidered by South African women and depict aspects/characters in various native folktales. Each block comes with a copy of the pertinent story which I plan to include on the back. I need a fat quarter of one more African batik for the setting squares. The black on white batik will be the sashing between blocks. It'll be a wall-hanging.