It’s the first week of October and has been my tradition this year, I announce the next Frivols I’ll be making for that month. (Only three more months to go.)
Titled The Cookie Exhange, box #10 inclues a Christmasy set of fabrics, recipe cards for the extra, a quote about cookies, and directions to a cute Bento-box type quilt called (what else?) “Sugar.” More info can be found on the Moda blog.
I had put all of the Frivols tins in two cloth bags in my closet, and one-by-one I had been drawing them out to use. What a nice surprise it was to find extra fabric tucked in next to this box. See? I was being kind to my future self (for once).
AND, I’d like to announce the winner of the Paint by Numbers quilt book, a digital copy sent out by C & T books.
Random Number Generator picked respondent #5, so congrats, Susan! I’ll be emailing you details for how to get your book.
I was recently asked to review Kerry Foster’s new book, Paint-by-Number Quilts, recently published by C & T, and I eagerly said yes. I’ve been a quilty-pal of Kerry’s for some time, and enjoy her style of quilt-making.
Her style reminds me somewhat of Edrica Huws. I love the energy this type of quiltmaking generates, as I trend toward the pristine and ordered, and am not as comfortable with the assemblage/collage. I always want to be better, but it’s like trying to straighten that errant curl in your hair–when you are not looking, it springs back to where it wants to be.
So I thought I would give Kerry’s techniques a try in recreating this picture, taken when we were in Burano, Italy some years ago. I like the weather-beaten look and knew that it would be better served by Kerry’s Paint-by-Numbers approach.
I threw it into an image processing program and used a filter on it to highlight the edges, but you could just trace the strong lines using a lightbox.
I extracted all the color, so I could see the shapes, then printed that directly onto the dull side of freezer paper, cut to size and put through my color printer.
I trimmed the freezer paper to size, taped it to a piece of cardstock at the top edge and fed it through the printer. Mine has a rear cassette access, so the paper path is flow-through (it’s the reason I purchased this one). Since I’m making one of my tiny picture-stand quilts, there are two images per page.
I did draw on lines and prepared it for construction, according to her instructions in her well-written book. All the information is clear and concise, with great photo illustrations to accompany each step.
I’m mid-process in the upper left photo, layering up the pieces as per Kerry’s instructions. Yes, it did dawn on me at this point, that I’ve hardly broken out into wild new territory, but I liked this door when I took a photo of it some years ago.
In retrospect, I realized that some of the proportions are off a bit — like the doorway is kind of floating, but I am always learning. Next doorway will be better…and wilder!
The back. I’ve finally wised up and am using some of my favorite fabrics in quilts, instead of leaving them on the shelf. I can enjoy them that way, instead of never seeing them.
Okay, back to the real reason for this post: letting you see a couple of the fun things that Kerry has in her book for you to make:
Grizzly Bear quilt
Kerry, and C&T Publishing would like to for you to have a copy of her book. There are many others who have reviewed Kerry’s Paint-by-Numbers Quilting book; I’m one of the last. Each one is running their own giveaway, if you want to visit them:
Yippee! Number nine is finished, and in the same month I started it. We had to take my car in to get fixed (see recent post) and I thought taking photos at the auto body shop would be something different. I’m calling it Walk Around the Block.
First, a cool picture from @bymariandrew:
It’s been this way this month. I’ve kind been working all the time to finish up this and that.
I’ve been helped by listening to this excellent book, Forty Autumns, by Nina Willmar, about one family separated by the Berlin Wall. I got down an old guidebook from the bookshelf in our family room, and sure enough, it shows the two Germanys, and the “island” of West Berlin. The Forty Autumns cover photo shows the Brandenburg Gate trapped in East Berlin, a fitting visual reminder of the difficulties of this time. I recommend it highly.
The squares had no HSTs–hallelujah! so I whipped right through them, and the directions were easy to follow in both cutting and sewing.
After switching the blocks around a bit, I found an arrangement I was happy with.
Now to mark off the triangles to make the flying geese borders. I usually put on a gizmo on my sewing machine to make that sewing easier, but I was talking to my Mom, and it seemed a nice quiet way to keep my hands busy.
And then, just like that, I had it quilted and done. I did loopies in the octagonal parts of the block, filling in with little petaled flowers. I kept the quilting to a minimum, so the quilt is soft. I always think there is a baby coming right around the corner who might need this.
When I sewed on the the snowball squares, I did a double seam, so that I was — in the end — left with lots of little half-square triangles. There are four per block, and two per triangle in the border, so you can figure out how many I have.
I’m now three-fourths of the way through, and I often wondered if I would make it this far. Thanks to all those supportive comments; I do appreciate them.
A Stack of Frivols. One is missing and is now the property of a wee girl named Halle.
I love these posts where I get to place a quilt front and center, quilting finished, bound and photographed, and even a label made AND sewn on. It’s like that Easter Sunday long ago, where your mother dressed you and your sisters up in fancy new dresses, new patent leather shoes and anklets with ruffles and you all posed for a picture. It’s like that wedding day, where your hair was behaving, and your wedding dress and veil were just how you wanted them, and oh–the love you had for your soon-to-be-yours was shining from your face.
Yeah, kind of like that. Some process photos:
I now pin my quilts on my kitchen counter–the floor is too far down these days.
I’m getting faster at quilting: the dates from start (August 8, 2018) to finish (August 25, 2018). Part of the challenge is figuring out what to quilt, and another part is not to physically wear myself out.
I love the texture that quilting creates.
Fun detail: I like to include my name and address on my quilts, but also like to hide that info. So I used the logo from the Mad for Solids Challenge and used it as a disguise.
This began as a challenge to create something using just eight colors of Painter’s Palette Solids, in the March Madness Challenge in 2018; you’ve read posts about this before.
But the other challenge I put for myself was to create a medallion quilt using my favorite quilt software, QuiltPro, which I’ve been using for years. I love it love it love it and their tech support person, Linda, is nothing short of a fairy godmother, always answering questions quickly and succintly. Like she taught me how to do this conversion:
from thisto this (no pen outlines)
This creates a more modern look, I think. Anyway. I’m a fan.
So I posted this design up on their Facebook page, and I was contacted and one thing led to another, and Northern Lights Medallion (its real name, in spite of other confusing malarky above) will hang in their booth at both Paducah and Houston this year. I’m honored, and I love working with these lovely people (and it may be the only way I get to be at either of those shows!). So if you go, snap a photo and email me (opquilt@gmail.com) or tag me on Instagram (occasionalpiecequilt). Thanks!
This is quilt number 210, and it’s going up on the 300 Quilts list.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 