Quilting

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This week our challenge was to take inspiration from the colors of the sky, but exclude or use less than 10% of the usual blue. When I saw the prompt, my first thought was sunset colors. I ended up looking through my sunset photos and chose one from a recent trip to LA where I hung out with my friend Courtney while we walked around Manhattan Beach.

I pulled yellow and orange fabrics and the pile sat on my ironing board for days. I didn’t really have a plan. And I am teaching four days this week so I was kind of busy. This morning I taught the first half of Building an Improv Toolbox, my favorite workshop, and one of the last things we did in class was improv blocks with lines radiating from the corners. I teach tomorrow morning so I knew that if I was going to make something for Project QUILTING this week it had to be today. I decided I would use this improv technique. I really wanted to make a composition that had numerous blocks in it, but I knew that I did not have the time for piecing and quilting and binding a larger project so I went super simple. My mini quilt is one improv quilt block, trimmed to about 7“ x 8“ quilted with batting and then pillowcase bound with a piece of backing fabric. It went together pretty quickly, except for the hand stitching to close the top edge.

There were over 225 participants for the first challenge and at the time I'm writing this there are over 150 submissions this week. Click on over and take a look.

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING Sky Colors challenge. Congratulations to everyone else who participated in the challenge this week. Next challenge drops on February 4th.

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I'm so excited for season 15 of Project QUILTING to be underway.

I pieced my improv bird house and then pivoted to people houses for my improv piecing demo at Northern California Quilt Council this past week. Here's what my design wall looked like last weekend.

I cut out nine more houses during my demos that are stacked up waiting to be sewn. I'm excited to get those together and watch the neighborhood on my design wall grow. I finished my bird house into a mini quilt by adding a fused appliqué circle and free motion quilting.

My quilt is approximately 9" x 8" and is finished with a faced binding. Since I didn't have a bird on the front I chose an Alison Glass print with birds and bees for the back.

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up on Kim's blog for the Project QUILTING Bird House challenge. Congratulations to everyone else who participated in the challenge this week. Next challenge drops on January 21st.

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I am so excited to share my newest class offerings for quilters of all levels, whether you've done improv piecing before or not! Quilts from the Toolbox is a series of project-based improv piecing classes. In each class I'll be demonstrating the improv piecing skills featured in my improv block then giving step-by-step directions for making improv blocks or units just like mine. There will be tips and tricks along the way and I'll discuss options for making your blocks a little different than mine if you'd like.

Registration is open for these new classes. The live class will be recorded and available for a limited time, so if you are unable to join us live you won't have to miss out on the fun!

March 13 is our first live class, Quilts from the Toolbox 1. This is the quilt we'll be making. All the details can be found here. I hope you will join us!