A Retreat, A Road Trip, and A Little Quilt Show

Last week I went with friends to spend a few days in Northern Virginia. We rented a little house with a living room/dining room combo large enough for us all to set up and do some quilting, we went to a local quilt show, and we tried to visit some quilt shops.

Here are some of my favorite quilts from the Northern Shenandoah Valley Quilt Show, presented by multiple guilds from the area.

The theme of the show was “My Favorite Color is Plaid”. Members of the local Modern  Guild challenged themselves to make small modern quilts using fabric from plaid shirts.

“Curved Plaids” by Heidi Haynes was made for the plaid challenge in the traditional category

Springtime in Plaid Land, made by Susan Adams, was an interesting entry in the plaid challenge

Intersections, made by Melissa Mattice, was another interesting entry in the plaid challenge

Mexican Star Dance, made by Elaine Breiner

The quilt above was one of many well made, beautiful quilts in the show. I was especially interested in it because the pattern is by Annette Ornelas, who will be speaking at one of my guilds soon.

As for the shopping, we did some at the show but found that most local shops were closed in order to vend at the show. Of course, we really didn’t need anything so we went happily back to our rented house and sewed for a few more days! I didn’t finish anything, so further show-and-tell will have to wait 😀

A Little House Quilt

One of my guilds provides little wall quilts, featuring houses, to Habitat for Humanity. They give one of these quilts to each new homeowner, and have asked us to provide a few more.

To make this one, I used a pre-drawn block from EQ8 and printed a line drawing of it at 12″ x 12″. Then all I had to do was measure the components and make the fusible applique quilt. This is the block as it was shown in EQ8:

Block design taken directly from EQ8

And here is the line drawing I printed from the program (along with my notes!):

EQ8 drew this as if I were going to piece it. There was the option to print sections for paper piecing as well.

Finally, here is the finished house. It is all fused applique.

I use wool felt as the “batting” for wall quilts now, having learned from one of the many books I read that it is more stable for that purpose. It does, indeed, produce a nice firm quilt and this small one won’t sag even though it is to be hung with two loops at the top instead of a sleeve and rod.

I did a little decorative quilting and zig-zagging along the edges of some of the pieces, but this won’t be washed so I didn’t worry too much about it.

The redbird on the roof is a button! I collect them for things such as this 😀  As is often the case with decorative buttons, this one has a shank, so I poked a hole in the quilt and pushed the shank through so the button would lie flat. The back is secured with a pin.

Finally, after debating about what to do, I zig-zagged the edge to finish the quilt. I hope it will enhance someone’s new home.

Great Blocks, OK Quilt

Last year’s Block of the Month (BOM) at Studio Stitch was a series of complex hexagons made with the Jaybird Quilts rulers. You can read about the woman who designed this way to make them in my earlier post here.

I enjoyed making the blocks and most weren’t very difficult with the use of the rulers and Justiann’s good instructions.

They looked great when I put a few up on the design wall to view them together.

It was my intention to make the quilt using the Kaufman Effervescence fabric, like Holly did here:

Quilt (c) Holly Alloway, designed and made by her

The fabric was ordered by the shop months ahead of time, but it still hadn’t arrived when the BOM classes were finished. I auditioned several other fabrics and finally settled on black and white with metallic accents. Here’s the finished quilt. (There were several blocks left over.)

I’m not crazy about it. In this instance, I think my choice of secondary fabrics does nothing to enhance the blocks. However, a done quilt is a good quilt so I’m on to the next project.

Had any quilts like that lately?

A New Donation!

A friend called recently to say that a local charity wanted a quilt to decorate their new office space. I sent a couple of pictures and they were enthusiastic but thought maybe they wanted both quilts! Eventually someone came over to look at some options since both the pictures I sent were very much alike; I didn’t think they’d want two quilt so similar. Of course I was thrilled that somebody wanted my quilts!

The charity is Backpack Beginnings, a local organization whose mission is to give “food and basic necessities directly to children in need” and to connect their families to appropriate community resources. I like the fact that they have a “market” where families can “pick out their own groceries and supplies”.

Anyway, back to the quilts. The Backpack Beginnings representative selected these two quilts to decorate their new space, and I couldn’t be happier that someone actually requested a donation!

This first quilt, 48″ x 48″, is a modification of a pattern by Brigitte Heitland. I made it in 2022 and quilted it using the QAYG method.

The second quilt has been around a long time! I made it for Modern Quilts Unlimited back in 2014 and quilted it myself. Finished size is 47″ x 57″. It’s one of my favorites, so I’m glad it will be displayed.

Just FYI, if you’re local, Backpack Beginnings has the quilts they need now, but they still need volunteers!

I Love This Finish!

This pattern came from a shop I visited on vacation last year. Then there was the issue of templates, which I ended up ordering from the same shop where I’d bought the pattern. Of course I can make templates, but it’s so much easier to cut around an acrylic template than to draw around a home-made template and then cut with scissors.

I got the small templates because that’s all that was available. Here’s a detailed picture in which you can see the lovely swirl quilting as well as that pointed lozenge that finishes at 2-1/4 inches long!

The quilt was exhausting to make, but I love it now that it’s done! There was the option to make the background pieced as well, but I passed 😀

Quilt Stats

Name: La Fin du Monde

Finished size: 40″ x 40″

Pattern: La Fin du Monde by Libs Elliott

Quilted by: Lewis Schafer

 

Two Finishes

It probably looks like I’ve been wandering around the country taking classes instead of making quilts, and of course that’s partly true. However, here are a couple of finishes.

This first one was made because I love-love-love some of the Tim Holtz fabrics, so the blue-green one is featured here. Also, I really like the movement triangles give to a quilt top, so I chose this Jaybird Quilts pattern called ChopSticks. A few of the blocks are made with some Fossil Fern fabric I found; I thought I had given it all away, but I guess not! Anyway it fit right in and provided a bit of variety.

Quilt Stats

Name: Chopsticks

Finished size; 64″ x 74″

Pattern: ChopSticks by Jaybird Quilts

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

The second quilt was made to use up some of the many dotted fabrics in my stash! I have enjoyed collecting the dots, especially the ones that aren’t quite what you’d expect from a dotted fabric. There are jelly beans, cat heads, and more complex designs as well as the dots you might expect. There are even two-tone dots in the “solid” fabrics. It was fun.

And the back used up some orphan blocks!

Quilt Stats

Name: Triangles at Play

Finished size: 49″ x 61″

Pattern: Triangles at Play by Sarah Ruiz Quilts

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival 2024

I’m happy to say I was able to attend the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival (MAQF) in Virginia recently. I took two classes and will write more about them later. For now, here are some of the quilts I especially enjoyed.

There were many traditional quilts and art quilts, but of course my favorites were mostly modern. And BTW, I’m sure some of them came directly from QuiltCon.

Simply Luxury by Susan Bravereman

Holding Space by Sharon M Carrier

Modern Garden by Andrea Barrett

Orange Sherbet, by Sana R. Moulder, was made from a pattern.

I would have liked to know the name of the pattern! And look at this really fun quilting on the “orange slice”:

Detail of Orange Sherbet by Sana R. Moulder

House of the Incas by Jen Sorenson

Grody to the Max! by Candi Lennox

Sliced by Amy Kerkemeyer

Taking Notes by Debbie Grifka was part of a special art quilt exhibit with a botany theme

And finally, there were these two amazing dresses in the “full ensemble” category of the wearable art competition. No quilting, but the dresses were amazing. As you can see, both won ribbons.

1957 Vogue Featuring MacNeil of Barra Tartan, by Christine Streenan

18th Century Robe a la Francaise by Christine Streenan

MAQF is a Mancuso show, meaning it is run by a commercial outfit rather than a quilting organization like AQS. I’ve always found the Mancuso shows to be well organized. The variety of quilts is broader than at either AQS or MQG shows in my opinion. Both the style and quality vary within the show, but that’s part of the point of a quilt show!

Modified Quilt Labels

I’ve heard for years that I should label my quilts, and I get it, especially because I have inherited some quilts without labels. However, since I donate most of my quilts, I have spent a good bit of time lately removing those labels I worked so hard to make and attach. I suppose I could leave the labels on, but it seems inappropriate to have my name on a quilt that I donate. 

Here’s my current compromise.

After finishing a quilt with binding, I use my sewing machine’s lettering function to stitch my initials and the year in a corner of the quilt, as inconspicuously as possible. This fulfills my need to sign my work without putting my name out there in a way that might cause recipients to feel they need to find me and thank me. My husband points out that I may also want to know when I made a particular quilt and this meets that need as well.

It turns out several of my friends didn’t even know their machines would do this. I know nothing about any machine except my Bernina, but it does have programmable letters and numbers. It is not an embroidery machine. So if you’re interested in this idea, check your machine to see what it might do for you.

And of course there’s always the trusty Pigma pen for signing!

 

Mounted Over Canvas

When I asked for suggestions recently about how to display some of my map quilts, the majority suggested mounting over canvas or on the front of canvas. This one was already faced, so it’s staying as is.

However, I researched online to find out what others are doing, and here’s what I found.

• Cindy Grisdela, whose work I admire, has a tutorial on her method for attaching art quilts to canvas. Here’s the link. Her method is way complicated but does leave the option of removing the piece without (much) damage in the future.
• A tutorial on another site suggests using heavy duty velcro attached to both the quilt back and the canvas. There’s more to it than that, but velcro is the basic idea. She also glues other stuff to the canvas around the quilt in some cases. Here’s that link.
• Finally, Susan Carlson has a more sophisticated velcro option or instructions on mounting the whole thing over stretcher bars. She discusses other options as well, and this link was my favorite of ideas I found on the internet.

Of course there are lots of YouTube videos as well, but I haven’t the patience for those.

So, with the help of my husband, I mounted this floor plan over stretched canvas.

It’s not as neat as I would like–I may try to tuck and glue the corners a bit more–but I’m satisfied with it for a first try.

This is the floor plan of the house our daughter’s family just left after 9 years. Of course they have many fond memories there, so I made this “map” of the floor plan for them.

Have you tried mounting quilts on stretchers? Over canvas? Suggestions?

More Orphan Blocks

First, I found this on the blog from Frances Arnold, a fellow quilter as you can tell:

How true!

And the same seems to be true of orphan blocks. Here’s the box with mine, despite my having made multiple quilts from them recently.

Here’s the latest top made from orphan blocks. It will go (eventually) to Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses.

Blue Sky and Sunshine, 60″ x 72″

And here are a few more made from orphan blocks.

Quilt made using orphan blocks and the BQ5 pattern from Maple Island Quilts.

But look back up at that full orphan box. I think orphan blocks must follow the same rule as scraps!

What do you do with orphan blocks?