Tag Archives: Project QUILTING

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It's once again time for Project QUILTING. Kim at Persimon Dreams and Trish at Quilt Chicken host this series of one week quilt challenges running now through March. I participated for the first time last year for season 8. Each week there is a theme and exactly one week to formulate a plan and execute it to completion. This week's theme was Hometown Proud. There is a prize drawing for participants, and a Viewer's Choice vote, so be sure to visit the link up and vote for your favorites. (VOTING IS OPEN. Mine is #73.) If you haven't participated, consider joining us for round two which begins on January 21.

I have lived my entire life in San Jose, California (with the four year exception of being in college in San Diego), so unlike people who had to consider which town they wanted to identify with for their challenge, there was only one choice for me: San Jose. I thought a little about what San Jose means to me, or what comes to mind. San Jose is a city with a population of over 1 million people. Santa Clara County has nearly 2 million people, and the greater Bay Area has a population of over 7 million people in nine counties and 101 cities. I live in the heart of Silicon Valley. There are a wealth of options to represent my hometown. I considered a few options, thinking about memories from my childhood. Here are a few I considered: Happy Hollow, Sharks hockey, Wichester Mystery House, San Jose Giants, Christmas in the Park, The Tech Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, the 'Quake of '89, History Park, Hotel De Anza, San Jose libraries. In the end, I settled on the first item on my list: the orchards.

Back before Silicon Valley was Silicon Valley, the valley was full of trees. Long before I was here, Santa Clara County had 8 million fruit trees. My parents built their house in the 70's along the east foothills surrounded by orchards. The vast majority of these orchards are gone. Heritage Orchard at San Jose’s Guadalupe River Park is 3.3 acres, containing over 200 fruit trees, of the varieties that were grown in the Valley over the last century. This map (PDF) of the Heritage Orchard was the basis for the design of my quilt. Each tree is represented by a 1/2" x 1/2" square. As you can see on the map, the first three sections of trees are cherries, apricots, and prunes. The last section of the orchard has a wide variety of fruit and nut trees. I chose a low volume black on white for the area around the trees and bound in the same fabric.

All those tiny pieces create a lot of bulk on the back. My smallest pieces were cut 1" x 1" and finish at 1/2" x 1/2".

The quilt finished at approximately 7" x 10" and has over 125 pieces. I shared a bit about my project with guild mates without telling my inspiration and a guess was made that all my little bits of fabric were to represent computer chips. From that conversation I was inspired by Michelle and Mary to use the design of a circuit board for my quilting. I used my hera marker to mark some horizontal lines as a guide for my quilting. It is quilted in Aurifil Dove (#2600) 50 wt.

Also with circuit boards in mind, I chose a bright green solid for the backing. I thought these details were a great nod to the current Valley. I've named it Silicon Valley, Then and Now.

Thanks for visiting! I'm linking up to Project QUILTING 9.1

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This week's final Project QUILTING challenge of the season was "Time Is Up." My initial thought was that I wanted to make a sundial quilt. I opted for a minimalist representation and started with a couple improv pieced curves before adding the triangular "dial" by machine appliqué. I used my free-motion quilting to embellish the design with the clock tick marks and the shadow. My mini quilt finished at 9" x 9".

A great big thank you to Kim (Host) and Trish (Challenge Designer) for a fun season of challenges. It was my first time participating, and I'm wiped out, but I'm really glad that I set aside the time and made it a priority to participate in all six weeks. My two favorite quilts that I made for this season's challenges were for the Tuned Into Texture and Brighter the Better challenges.

I'm linking up to Project Quilting Challenge 6. Voting starts at noon Central time on Sunday. You can check out all the entries and vote on your favorites. (Mine is #82.)

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This week's challenge for Project QUILTING was "well-dressed man." On Tuesday, the kids and I made a trip to Goodwill in search for an inspiring men's jacket. I was interested in a jacket with elbow patches (which this one didn't have) and interesting buttons. I just couldn't resist this plaid jacket! And it had a great solid blue lining, too. We chose a tie to go with it. At the register the man helping us commented that "dad [was] getting a new jacket" and my kids prompted corrected him that it was for me. I laughed and said that I was going to make it into a quilt. He chuckled, then asked if I was serious. I explained the challenge and he asked if I'd bring in my finished quilt to show him.

I knew that I wanted to highlight some of the features of the jacket, but I didn't really have a plan for the construction of my quilt.

I finally got to work deconstructing the jacket on Friday night.

I cut out some sections that I liked, but didn't get back to my sewing machine until almost 10pm on Saturday. With about 12 hours left in the challenge, I knew I had to take my friend Mel's advise and work small. I edited down my initial ideas and decided on making the blocks even smaller than I'd planned. One feature that I liked was the section from the front of the jacket that had the full pocket. When I decided to make my blocks smaller, it eliminated the possibility of using it as a block. Then I realized if I trimmed my blocks down to 4.5" finished squares I could use the pocket as my backing. I used a remnant piece of batting and bound my quilt with the tie (deconstructed to only be the top layer of fabric).

In the end my mini took me about 2 1/2 hours to sew and finish. The solid blue is the jacket lining fabric. My blocks feature the tie, the cuff of one sleeve with buttons, a section of the inside where the lining met the plaid fabric, and the bottom corner edge of the jacket. The section from the interior was just cut out and used as is, and I machine appliqued the other three blocks.

Here's the back with the pocket.

I loved this section of the inner lining. The plaid edge you see was the detail on the interior breast pocket. Early on I knew I was going to use it. Mel suggested I use it for my label, but I thought I might feature it on the front before I decided to work even smaller than planned. Once I decided on the smaller size, I knew it would make a fun label. I opted to finish it and tuck it into the pocket on the back.

I'm linking up to Persimmon Dreams for the Project QUILTING Well-Dressed Man Challenge.

Voting is open over on Persimmon Dreams. You may vote for your EIGHT favorites. You can find me at #51.