Quilting

Project QUILTING 10.6: Craving Chocolate • 14 Comments

sarah • March 19, 2019

The products used in this project were given to me by Island Batik, Hobbs, and Aurifil.

Sunday morning, as I left the Purim celebration at our synagogue, I took a peek at the new Project QUILTING challenge that had been announced that morning. Craving Chocolate. I immediately had a plan. I would make a quilted hamentaschen.

Purim is one of the lesser Jewish holidays, a spring festival in which Jews read from the Book of Esther. The holiday officially starts tomorrow evening. One of the ways we celebrate the holiday is with tasty cookies called hamentaschen. They are a butter/sugar cookie that can be filled with, among other options, chocolate.

I couple things went into my fabric choices. I don't use much brown fabric, but I knew I had at least a scrap of brown Island Batik from this project. I thought I had a larger piece, but the 3 1/2" x 5" piece I found would have to do. It drove the finished size of the project. Additionally, I knew that one of the neutrals that I had received in my most recent Island Batik box was called Batter. That seems like a close choice for a sugar cough dough. :-)

I opted for a double batting in my dough, wool and cotton, to give it a thicker, cookie-like shape. My cookie was about 6 inches in diameter before it was folded up around my chocolate filling. The finished cookie is about 5 1/2 inches on a side.

Happy Purim!

I've linked up to the Project QUILTING Craving Chocolate challenge. Once the challenge ends on Sunday you can vote for your ten favorites. (Mine is #3)

Camarillo Quilters Association • 6 Comments

sarah • March 18, 2019

Last Monday I flew into Burbank airport for a visit to Camarillo Quilters Association. I was greeted with beautiful spring weather for my visit which included attending their meeting to share my Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing lecture and trunk show followed by my Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares workshop the next day.

Here’s a glimpse of the back of one of my oldest quilts that shared at the meeting. I think it’s my earliest attempt at Planned Improv. In this case I wanted to make “back art” for this quilt using my scraps from the front of the project. I was probably working with a limited amount of the black on white polka dot fabric, and I decided to insert a band of solid black with bars of bright color from my front. I had remnant strips that were all cut 2 1/2” wide, but they were different lengths. I added solid black to the ends of each strip and staggered them for my final placement.

In my Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares workshop, we had a variety of different perspectives on the planned improv technique. Some quilters took inspiration from a shape they saw in one of the quilts during my lecture while others built from their squares (and rectangles) for a unique composition. It was fun to see the variety of colors and sizes these quilters chose to work with. Every time I teach this class I return home with new ideas to try! Here are the slabs in progress by Linda, Kristin, and Barbara.

I had a fun day with this group. A great big thanks to all of the Camarillo Quilters Association for having me, and to Laura who was my host for my visit.

You can view my schedule to see where I will be teaching next. If I’m not headed your way, feel free to point your guild program chair to my website. I’m currently booking dates for 2020, with limited availability in late 2019.

Project QUILTING 10.5: Abecedarius • 14 Comments

sarah • March 9, 2019

After a two week hiatus, I managed to crank out a *very tiny* finish for this week's Project QUILTING challenge. I took my word of the year and turned it into a quilt. Mostly my technique was slice and insert and it was all a bit of planned improv, I wanted skinny lines and to make all the letters about the same height as the E which I finished first.

The strips finish at about 1/8" wide and the quilt finished at 2 1/4" x 9". It ties my Patchwork City mini mini quilt for the smallest quilt I've ever made. Fabrics are Alison Glass Kaleidoscope: Iris, Opal, Aqua Marine, Dragonfly, Beetle, and Peacock. It was pieced with Aurifil 50wt White (#2024) and quilted with Aurifil 50wt Medium Grey (#1158). I quilted it by walking foot echoing the letters, then I pillowcase bound it. By the way, my daughter wasn't very impressed. She told me, "It's hardly a quilt. It doesn't even have binding!" Here are a few process pictures to go with my finished photo above.