A Piece of Kathy

I just added the final stitches to the binding of this lovely little quilt and had to take it outside for a quick photo shoot!

All these tiny half square triangles were left over this quilt top that I had pieced for Kathy O. of Stitch by Stitch last spring.  Kathy was kind enough to let me keep the leftovers.  :)

This quilt was a labor of love, as it took FOREVER to trim all those HST units.  I honestly lost vision for the quilt because all that trimming was so tedious.  But it was worth it, even though it was a lot of hours for such a small quilt (35 x 43").

If  you haven't tried the Bloc Loc Half Square Triangle Square Up Rulers, I would highly recommend them!  They make trimming HST units so much more accurate.

 My favorite thing about about this sweet quilt is that I feel like I have a piece of Kathy.  :)  I love collaborating with her on projects.  And, a piece too of Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew, the fabric designer - I love her work! 

The layout was inspired by this quilt by Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts.  

(Maybe it was the ladder that drew me in initially?!)

When it came time for the quilting, I simply stitched 1/4' from each side of every seam with my walking foot.  Again, a little time consuming, but certainly not difficult.

(I do love my Bernina for walking foot quilting!)

I really like the design it creates on the back!

The backing fabric is from Allison's Wallflower collection that came out a few years ago.  I lucked out and bought a whole bolt of it on sale for dirt cheap last summer; I was thrilled, as it makes a great backing fabric and was perfect for this quilt.

I love the binding!  I initially had selected another fabric from my stash, but decided it wasn't quite right.  Oh course, I didn't come to that conclusion until after I had machine stitched it on!  :{     I was able to order a yard of the red print on line from an Etsy shop, the perfect solution.  So, I ripped out all my stitching, removed the binding and replaced it with this print.

Thanks, Kathy and Rita (and Allison too!), for inspiring this sweet quilt!

Channelling Kathy

Kathy O. of Stitch by Stitch does the most amazing swirls - I want to be her when I grow up!  But unfortunately, I haven't grown up yet.  So, in the meantime, I'm determined to learn how to do those swirls that she has perfected!

This was the perfect quilt stop to practice some swirls.  It was quick and easy to stitch, and since I hadn't invested a lot of time, I wasn't attached to it and wouldn't have been heart broken if the machine quilting wasn't up to my expectations.  Also, at 39x45" it was a manageable size - just big enough to do some serious practicing without overdoing it.  The busy design hides any imperfections, 

yet at the same time, the plain backing fabric gives me a chance to study my progress.

The solid stars gave me a blank canvas to do some stress-free walking foot quilting.  I love the contrast of the swirls in the background and the straight line quilting within the stars.  

I was stumped as to how to quilt this top.  Thank goodness I asked Kathy for some suggestions; I probably would have resorted to my basic stippling stitch had I not checked in with her.  I'm so glad I didn't take the easy way out!

Wish I could just channel Kathy!

Click here to view the fabulous swirls she stitched on my Suburbs quilt.

PS - Funny thing, now I am attached to this quilt!  :)

Sunday Afternoon Photo Shoot

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so I took two completed quilt tops out for a photo shoot before shipping them across the country to their owners.

First up - I stitched this quilt top for Kathy O. of Stitch by Stitch.

The pattern is "Sweet Life" by Camille Roskelley and can be found in her book Simply Retro.

The fabrics are Oh Clementine by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew.

I love stitching a quilt top for Kathy O. - I get to play with beautiful fabrics, and it's always fun to see the magic she works with her longarm quilting after I'm done with the piecing.

Below are a few more shots:

Next, some pictures of Ronda's beautiful quilt top:

Named "The Generals' Wives", it was a Block of the Month a few years back.

The top contains 12 pieced blocks, representing 12 generals' wives from the Civil War.

In keeping with the Civil War theme, these two shots were taken in Columbia, PA, a town that played a significant role in the war.

I also wanted to include some shots of the Columbia-Wrightsville bridge since an earlier bridge was burned in 1863 to prevent Confederate troops from entering Lancaster County.  

This lovely landmark was built in 1930 and is still considered to be the world’s longest concrete multiple-arch bridge.

Click here to view a spectacular photograph of this remarkable bridge.

I thoroughly enjoyed piecing this top!  It was fun to piece 12 different blocks while learning a bit about each wife.  Discovering how fun it was to piece a variety of blocks vs. the same block over and over made me anxious to get started on my "Modern Building Blocks" quilt.

The stars on the center block were appliqued.  I debated about hand vs. machine applique, but felt that hand applique was more fitting for the era this quilt represented, but could I pull it off??

I did!  I was pleased with how well the star points came out with the freezer paper/liquid starch method - yay! 

Next project?  My "Modern Building Blocks" quilt.  Stay tuned!

Pure Happiness

This is today's view from my desk chair - two quilts to bind, a pile of quilt blocks to applique, my beloved Carolina Lily quilt that I big-stitch quilted last summer, and in the background on the little table - a dear pincushion I received for Christmas.  Does it get any better than that?!

PS - The quilt on the right just arrived in yesterday's mail from Kathy O. of Stitch by Stitch.  I am in love with the freehand longarm quilting she did on it!!

A Few More Finishes

This top will shortly be on its way to Kathy O.  

I had stalled out on it because it just felt so boring, even though I loved the fabric when I first bought it about 5 years ago.

While I could easily quilt this smallish 56 x 70" quilt top on my domestic machine, I knew its ho-hum design needed some help.  Kathy's amazing freehand stitching will bring it to life.

In exchange, I finished piecing this top for Kathy.  It's so fun stitching/swapping with someone else - you get to try all kinds of fun fabrics and designs!  I love the giant hexagons!

(The fabrics are Color Me Retro by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery Fabrics.)

Can't wait to show you the magic Kathy works on these two tops!

Suburbs Swirls

Kathy O. just e-mailed me these pictures - she's in the middle of quilting my Suburbs quilt.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!

I knew I couldn't pull off machine quilting those amazing swirls on my own, but hopefully some day with lots of practice I'll get there!

Don't you love the movement it gives, the feeling of the wind swirling around?

Can't wait to see it in person!!

35th Anniversary of the OLFA Rotary Cutter!

I recently had the unique privilege of helping OLFA celebrate the 35th anniversary of their rotary cutter!

What fun!
What quilter doesn't love their rotary cutter, and doesn't love the OLFA company?!  I still remember purchasing my first OLFA cutter,  mat, and O'Lipfa ruler in the late 80's - it totally revolutionized my quilting!  My original OLFA mat needs to be put out to pasture, but I can't bear to part with it because of all the memories embedded in it (yes, Robin, I can hear you saying "Let it go, let it go!")!  So, when this opportunity presented itself, I immediately responded, "I'm in!!"  I could picture myself hobnobbing with the celebrities of the quilt world!  :)

Thirty-six quilters/designers/authors were invited by OLFA to submit a quilt block.

The only requirements were that the block needed to contain yellow and needed to finish at 6 1/2" square.  Each participant featured their block on their blogs, along with an OLFA give-away for their readers.  It was fun receiving their blocks, then reading their blog posts (you can read some of them here, here, here, here, here, here, and my favorite one here.)  And, it was especially fun receiving blocks from many quilters whose blogs I already follow and love!  It was fun, too, learning of some new blogs and personalities in the quilt world.  (OK, I know I used the world "fun" too many times in this paragraph, but no other word suffices!)

After receiving the blocks in the mail from each participant, my job was to photograph each block along with the accompanying card, log their comments, then assemble the quilt top.  It was the dream Administrative Assistant job combined with quilting!  :)  It was so much fun opening the mail box each day with an envelope from a well-known quilter. And, I so enjoyed reading their comments;  there was so much love and appreciation for the OLFA company in their words - you could feel the love! 

After the top was completed, I shipped it off to Kathy to do her magic.  Then, Kathy returned the quilted top to me, and I added the binding and sleeve, as well as a label on the back documenting the names of each participant.

I didn't think to add Kathy's and my names to the label.  :(

I have to admit, when it came time to assemble the quilt top, the stressing began!!  It was a challenge to find a way to put the blocks together in such a way that showcased each quilter's distinct style, while at the same time tying all the blocks together in a cohesive design.  We wanted to keep the style modern and keep the focus on the blocks.  

And, we wanted to incorporate the bold yellow of the OLFA cutter. 

Finding the perfect shade of yellow was a challenge!

 As I was assembling the top, I kept thinking of each participant, wanting so much for them to be pleased when they saw their block in the finished quilt, displayed at the International Quilt Market in Houston. I wanted them to say, "that's exactly what I envisioned!"  (Totally unrealistic expectations, I realize!!)  When I sent the quilt top off to Kathy for longarming, I wasn't even sure I was happy with what I had come up with, but we had a deadline to meet, and we needed to keep the project moving along.  (If it had been a personal project for me, I probably would have folded it away and come back to it several years later!)

But, when the quilt came back from Kathy, I almost cried!  Her quilting tied everything together beautifully....

So, how did I get in on such a cool project?  As we all know, it always comes down to who you know!  When I was exploring the possibility of launching a longarm quilting business last year, I stumbled across Kathy O. of Stitch by Stitch on line.  I had consulted with her about the feasibility of a longarm business for me.  My longarm dream never materialized, but we became kindred-spirit friends as a result.  Kathy is well-known in the longarm quilting world, so it was no surprise that OLFA would contact her about the project.  However, she was too busy for tackling the entire project, so she then invited me to join in.  Kathy and I had worked on a quilt together earlier in the year, so I knew I would enjoy collaborating with her on this project.  We even set up a secret Pinterest board that Kathy, Robin from OLFA, and I could view/pin together with our ideas for the quilt.

When it came time to ship the finished quilt back to the OLFA headquarters outside Chicago, I hated to part with it.  (Unlike most quilters, I've parted with very few of my quilts over the years....)  So, with the help of my friend Phyllis, I took it out for a final photo shoot on a lovely fall day.

The quilt will be showcased in the OLFA booth at the International Quilt Market/Quilt Show in Houston this week, then will make its way to the OLFA headquarters in Japan.  I would have loved to been a fly on the wall at Quilt Market!

Thank you, OLFA, for allowing each one of  us to celebrate this milestone with you!