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On Thursday I shared about my first class at QuiltCon. After a one hour dinner break, my second class on the first day was English Paper Piecing with Johanna Masko. Again I ended up in class with a guildmate, which I enjoyed. Our whole table was filled with lovely people. I think we chatted more in this class due to some combination of the late hour and not having sewing machines between us.

Johanna asked us to introduce ourselves and share why we chose to take the class. A number of people before me shared that they love handwork. When it was my turn I promptly shared that I do not like handwork, but that I am at a stage in life where I keep finding myself in places where it would be beneficial to have a handwork project to bring along. I have no grand dreams of queen-sized hexie quilts, but I'm pleased to have added a skill to my repertoire. I'd like to get a hexie kit together to keep in the car for the times that I am a few minutes early to school pickup, or I'm waiting for the kids at a class.

It was a great beginning class, focused on how to English Paper Piece without purchasing specialized templates or tools. Johanna led us in making our own templates and we used the freezer paper method for prepping our hexies before sewing them. I had a little trouble with the freezer paper coming loose and moving around as I was trying to baste them, so I might try paper templates and use wonder clips to keep the edges folded over while I baste. I'm pleased at the progress I made that night. I still need to throw the pile into the car so I'll have them with me when I want them. I'm still just not likely to sit down with handwork at home. (I don't even hand sew my binding most of the time!)

 

A few more of my favorites from the show. This first one is Samarra Khaja's Candy Dots quilt, from the Minimalist Design category of the show. My photo doesn't adequately illustrate the 3D design of the dots. That lovely shadow on the lower portion of the dots was simply the shadow that the overhead lighting cast from the raised dots. (I missed getting a close-up photo of Samarra's artist statement.)

The next two are from the Michael Miller Glitz challenge. (I showed off another from the challenge in my last post.) First, my friend Tami Levin's Putting on the Glitz. I admired this on IG and then was excited to see it in person at a guild meeting. It was so fun to see it hanging in the show. I just love it. Her design. Her choice of pop colors. Her perfect quilting! Tami's artist statement reads:

The Michael Miller challenge fabrics reminded me of the glitz from Art Deco designs. Keeping that in mind I wanted the overall look to be on pointe. The squares were a bit too static which is why I opted to slash organize sub sections on the diagonal for each block. They were filled with contrasting solids that made me think of trees wrapped in fairy lights during the winter months, thus the surrounding white corner triangles.

This next one is Linked In by Julie Anderson. I really loved the geometric design of the rectangular links. And the quilting was a perfect complement to her design. Julie's artist statement reads:

Linked in... Even before creating the piece I wanted to challenge myself to use a piece from each fabric that was a part of the challenge set.

Linking all the squares and rectangles together before machine appliquéing them to the background.

 

Giveaway *closed*

I'm sharing some of my goodies from QuiltCon with one of you. I'll draw one winner on March 24th at 1pm PST out of all entries on my five posts about my QuiltCon classes. (This is the second of the five posts.) The drawing is open to everyone. To enter, please comment below and tell me your best EPP tip. If you don't English Paper Piece, share a general quilting tip. Followers can get a second entry by posting a second comment to tell me how you follow me (Bloglovin', Instagram, etc.). Thank you! Thank you to everyone who entered. The winner is Anja of Anja Quilts!

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It's about time that I start sharing about what I made at QuiltCon. I'm no longer exhausted just thinking about the whirlwind that was my first QuiltCon experience. I'm working on some other deadline sewing and just itching to get back to playing with my newest projects that were started at QuiltCon.

I dove in with a 6-hour class on Thursday, Intermediate Improv: Crosses, Cabins and Colors with Rossie Hutchinson. I had the pleasure of being in class with a couple of my guildmates, which was great since I only joined the Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild chapter in October and I'm still getting to know people. Rossie was delightful. She packed in a great amount of content with the perfect balance of instruction time and sewing time. In the first three hours of the class she taught her techniques for improv crosses, liberated log cabins and quartered log cabins, giving us time to complete at least one of each of these blocks. The afternoon included additional sewing time and instruction on color palettes and composition within a project, as well as details about combining odd-sized and irregular blocks to put it all together. Everything Rossie had to say was invaluable. She was also a lovely person and an entertaining speaker. I would take any class she taught in the future!

We started with the crosses. They go together quickly and only require choosing two fabrics  at a time (that contrast in color or value) as the blocks are constructed in pairs. I opted for 11" tall blocks, which will be pieced into rows in the final project. This was the project that I spent most of my extra sewing time working on. It was rewarding to see the pile of blocks add up so quickly. My fabric pull for this block was centered around the multi-color floral print you see in the second photo below. The majority of my stash is blenders, so I started with the floral to set my palette and chose my other fabrics from there, looking for a range of values and multiple fabrics in each of the colors.

The second block we worked on felt most challenging to me. A liberated log cabin has so many options. I consider the block I made incomplete, both because I don't like the pink as the final border and because I'd want to work with larger sized blocks, but this isn't a project I intend to pursue right now. I loved Rossie's sample for this block, but I think I'd do better with this type of project at home where I could spread out in my sewing room and work on multiple blocks at once. I think the benefit of working on multiple blocks at once would be seeing what patterns emerge. I didn't really have a plan as I worked on this block. You see I chose to work with a different palette (since I couldn't decide on just one for the class, I brought two), chosen around the Cotton & Steel Viewfinders fabric, and already in my incomplete block I've used 6 different fabrics. The other benefit of working on multiple blocks at once would be using the extra bits from one block in the construction of the other block, which I think would allow for some cohesion from the beginning. I didn't dislike this block technique. I just liked the other two better. I think this block is destined for my orphan block box for the time being. :-)

Our third block for class was the quartered log cabin. After the unlimited options of the liberated log cabin block, I liked moving on to this one since it required using only five fabrics per block. The construction was also relatively simple and fast. (Read Rossie's post with her tutorial on the Quartered Log Cabins.) I opted to use the same Cotton & Steel Jacks fabric for all my center squares. I made three blocks, that were then cut in quarters to make these twelve units, so I would have enough pieces to play with composition a bit. I'll definitely continue to work on this one. Here's what I've got so far from class.

One of my favorite take aways from this class was Rossie's perspective of "what can you add to it to fix it?" with regard to color. There was also an informal discussion in class about what we stash and cutting loose fabrics we don't love. I added, "you'll never use a fabric you don't love to try to fix something that you're trying to love." As I mentioned above, I mostly stash blenders. That's simply because that's what I'm drawn to in the shop and they are so easy for me to use. I've worked on my stash over the last year and there are two big things that have helped me. My first tip is: Have it all visible. (You can see most of mine in this post.) You can't use what you don't know you have. Also, it's easy to see what your gaps are. My second tip is: Purge what you don't love anymore. You may have loved it before, but if you don't now, get rid of it. I have used some up making quick gifts. I've given some to friends. I've donated some. You could also sell it or trade with friends.

Interested in more about how Rossie designs with color? Here's her blog post about her participation as this month's Mighty Lucky Quilting Club instructor.

 

I wanted to take an opportunity in each of my class posts to share some of the quilts I enjoyed at QuiltCon. This first one is Windmill Explosion and is the Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild charity quilt that I contributed to. It was so much fun to see the amazing variety of quilts on display for the charity quilt challenge. I didn't take nearly enough pictures of all of them.

 

This next one was in the show in the Michael Miller Glitz Fabric Challenge division. The quilt is called Better Together and was made by Laura West Kong. It won two beautiful ribbons, 3rd place in the division and Judge's Choice. I have been drawn to ampersands lately, as my 5-year-old son is really excited about them. I love the composition in this quilt with the use of dark and light, and the bright colors in the ampersand. The combination of improv technique with careful planning is amazing. I loved Laura's message as well. The artist statement reads:

My inspiration for this quilt is a celebration of diversity. It's so hard to believe that in 2016 we haven't learned to accept and embrace each other's differences. Our differences make this world a richer, more wonderful place. You AND me. No discrimination. No division. Complementing each other. Better together. Not apart.

Making this quilt was a challenge both emotionally for what it meant to me, and technically, because although it's an improvisational design, it also required a great deal of precision.

And because those ribbons are such amazing works of art themselves, a closeup of them.

 

Giveaway *closed*

I'm sharing some of my goodies from QuiltCon with one of you. I'll draw one winner on March 24th at 1pm PST out of all entries on my five posts about my QuiltCon classes. (This is the first of the five posts.) The drawing is open to everyone. To enter, please comment below and tell me if you've tried improv and what your favorite improv block/style is. Followers can get a second entry by posting a second comment to tell me how you follow me (Bloglovin', Instagram, etc.). Thank you! Thank you to everyone who entered. The winner is Anja of Anja Quilts!

 

 

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I think the timing of this photo is very appropriate since we've had warm, springlike weather the past couple weeks here in California. However, that is all changing today with a big rainstorm coming in. The photo is Pink Poppy, taken by Lorinda in her garden last summer.

This week I took a different approach to pulling my palette for Color Play Friday. I pulled a larger variety of colors to start with (17 colors to be exact) and then viewed fabrics on Hawthorne Threads using their color grid and any dominance. Since I'm generally drawn to blenders, using the any dominance option brought up quite a variety of multicolor prints. I settled first on the Quills and Arrows print because it contained so many of the colors in my potential palette. It was practically made to pair with this photo!

At the risk of too much busy fabric my second pick was Evenly Smudged. That choice led me to Writings in Boards from the same line. These first three choices of fabrics helped me narrow down my color palette. I found that having a larger palette to start with gave me more options for finding good fabrics, which in turn drove my final color palette selections.

I created my palette with Palette Builder 2.1 by Play Crafts.

Solids:
Kona Citrus
Kona Aloe
Kona Baby Pink
Kona Emerald
Kona Blue Grass

Prints:
Quatrefoil Medium in Yellow by Riley Blake Designs
Quills and Arrows in Turquoise by Maude Asbury, Blend
Libs Stitches in Baby Pink by Karen Lewis, Robert Kaufman
Writings in Boards by Sew Caroline, Art Gallery
Evenly Smudged in Joy by Sew Caroline, Art Gallery

Check out the other palettes this week at:

See other palettes on Instagram at #colorplayfriday.

If you'd like to participate in Color Play Friday you can visit In An Otter Life or Laurel, Poppy and Pine for the rules, their contact information, and next week's photo.

 

I'm going to use this opportunity for my official check in for week 4 of the 4x7 challenge. While it's possible that I didn't sew a stitch in week 4, I did work for way more than 30 minutes each day on a big sewing related task that was just for me. After three years sewing downstairs in the front room of our house, I've moved into the upstairs office. That required cleaning out said office as well as moving all the sewing related stuff into it's new home. Full sewing room tour later, but here's a glimpse of the room. This is nearly my full stash. What a beautiful view! This project has taken a lot of time and energy, and I started it right after QuiltCon (which was awesome, but exhausting)... now to find my sewjo... I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

I'm linking up to Sarah's final 4x7 Sewing Challenge check in post.