Dawna Bell Photography

This post is a bit off topic, but I wanted to take a moment to brag about my sister in law, Dawna Bell. She's a wonderful photographer with a real talent for detail and composition. I'm writing now because this weekend she'll be exhibiting at the Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show, and I wanted to encourage all my Portland-area garden-loving readers to stop by.

Paperbark Maple by Dawna Bell

The garden show runs February 8-10 at the Oregon Convention Center. You can get a coupon for $2 off the admission price here.

In a Mallard's Eye by Dawna Bell

She'll have a range of beautiful prints, note card sets, and photo tiles on display and available for purchase.

Water, Rocks and Leaf by Dawna Bell

I know she's been working hard to get ready for the show, including building a pergola inside her living room, to be disassembled and then reassembled for her booth.

White Dahlia by Dawna Bell

If you go to the Portland Yard, Garden and Patio Show,  be sure to stop by booth #758, Dawna Bell Photography, across the aisle from the showcase gardens, and say 'hi' to Dawna!

Stitch Modern

The opening reception for Stitch Modern, the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild's second annual exhibit, is tonight at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.

My most recent finish (phew!), Measuring Stars With a Calculator and a Ruler, is hanging. There are dozens of quilts by Bay Area quilters, and lectures and events scheduled through the month.

I hope to have better photos to share with you soon, but here's a shot Birgit was kind enough to share when the quilt was being hung.

The gallery will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12-3 through February 24. Read more about the show here.

Boardwalk Quilt in Fat Quarterly No. 12

I finished this quilt several months ago. It was a gift for my nephew's high school graduation.

I held off showing photos because the pattern for the quilt appears in the new issue of Fat Quarterly. The theme of Issue No. 12  is Precuts. I used jelly-roll-sized strips from lots of different fabric lines, and quilted a grid of straight lines through the strips, then echo quilting around the clover shape.

The finished quilt is 72" x 100", generously sized for my tall nephew's extra-long twin dorm room bed.

I had lots of leftover scraps from the width-of-fabric strips, plus older scraps from a surprising number of previous blue & brown projects, including my Shirting quilt and Marquee quilts (1 and 2).

I mixed them all together into scrappy rail fence blocks.

I set the rail fence column in a background of denim Essex linen, with a few more scrappy bits here and there, and stamped a simple label on the back.

Photo credit: Joel Ignacio

The bias binding is a navy crosshatch print by Lotta Jansdotter.

Photo credit: Joel Ignacio

I showed the quilt at the June 2012 East Bay Modern Quilt Guild meeting at New Pieces Quilt Shop.

Fat Quarterly is always full of great patterns and inspiration, and this issue is no exception. You really do owe yourself a subscription!

Lucky Trips Around the World

I've gotten caught up in the online quilting fad of the moment, making a Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt following Quiltville's clever tutorial.

Last month Alison Glass sent me nine fat quarters of Lucky Penny, her debut line of prints for Andover Fabrics. The colors are deep and vibrant, and the prints are bold without being fussy. And the 'Bike Path' dot stripes are perfect.

I added a tenth print from the collection, and paired the prints with about 20 solids from my stash in coordination colors.

To make the most of the fat quarters, I upped the strip size from 2 1/2" to 3 3/8" (couldn't quite squeeze out 3 1/2") by 21" long, yielding 17" blocks.

Sixteen blocks later I have a quilt top.

I'm so happy with it as a complete quilt, and I love how the larger squares show off the prints.

Traveling Quilts Bee for John

It waited patiently for several weeks, but I've finally added my bit to John's quilt-in-progress for the Traveling Quilts round robin.

John began the quilt with the field of equilateral triangles on the left side. Alissa made the large triangle. Elizabeth set the first two blocks in stripes and a few triangles. Amber contributed the diamonds at the bottom, Heather the star, and Monica the bottom setting and the jet at the top.

I couldn't resist the triangle theme, and added a column of flying geese on the right.

The geese are and assortment of 1"x2", 2"x4", and 3"x6" pieces. For the smaller to sizes I used the four-from-one method on this Connecting Threads tutorial page. I love that the method requires no trimming and leaves no waste. For the large geese I used the square-on-rectangle method on the same page, which does require trimming.

I followed Stephanie's suggestion and used the trimmings to create half-square triangle pieces. On my last post she commented:

I like the square-on-a-rectangle method, because a second seam 1/2" away from the first delivers a bonus HST unit from each side of the goose(which end up in a baggie in a bin, for "someday").

I used these bonus units at the top and bottom of the column. I like how they give the feeling of flying in and out of the column.

Now I'll send it off the Penny. I can't wait to see what she does with it.

In other sewing news, I made a bag as a last minute holiday gift for Munchkin's grade 5 teacher. I used the Two Zip Hipster pattern by Erin Erickson. The tutorial was easy to follow and the bag feels solid and elegant. Here's the photo I took the other night at 2am when I finished the bag:

My machine had a bit of trouble top-stitching the thickest parts of the top edge of the bag. Both the exterior and lining fabrics I used were heavier than quilting weight, and I think I had an extra layer of interfacing in there, too. Next time I'll be careful to reduce some of that bulk. I'll use this pattern again - maybe a slightly sized-up version for myself.

Some quilts want to be noisy

I've started a new project with Thomas Knauer's upcoming Asbury line of prints from Andover Fabrics. Thomas says the designs are inspired by New Jersey beach resort Asbury Park.

I started the project with flying geese blocks, using all the prints with anything more than a hint of purple or plum. The background dots are the Marquee print from Thomas's Frippery collection, currently in stores.

I tried to capture a kind of funhouse energy, movement, and noise with the bold prints and kinetic background dots.

The patchwork measures about 66"x76". I meant to use the Quilt in a Day flying geese method and 5"x10" ruler, which produces four geese units from two squares of fabric. I feel like I followed the directions closely, but obviously I wasn't careful enough when I aligned and marked the fabric squares. At least a quarter of the geese came out too small when I went to align the ruler and trim the units. The below photo shows one such block, with a scant seam allowance visible in the lower left corner.

My first thought was to buy the 4"x8" ruler, but I didn't feel good about reducing the size of the quilt a full 20%. So I decided to make my own ruler for 4-3/4"x9-1/2" blocks. The plastic store cut a 5-1/4"x10" rectangle of 1/8-inch acrylic for less than $2. This only works because all the blocks are the same size, but I'm happy with how it's turned out.

I have to say I'm disappointed in the Quilt in a Day ruler, simply because the instructions seemed to indicate "eye balling" the fabric placement would be sufficient, when success actually requires precision. I'd love to hear your tips for success with their technique.

Free and Precise

I finished piecing a new quilt top today.  The edges are a little raggedy. I plan to square it up after I quilt it, but for now it's about 80"x100".

I didn't have a plan at the start. I knew I wanted to do something with lavender diamonds. I started with the central star, piecing 2 1/2 inch strips.

Then I cut 2-1/2-inch diamond strips at a 60-degree angle. To address some waviness in the strip piecing, I aligned my ruler's 60-degree line with the center seam, and trued up the angle after every two diamond strips.

The colors are mostly pink and lavender. For punch I included some purple, magenta, blue and green.

I bordred the star with an improvised patchwork of dark blue solids highlighted with a pale green that picks up the green in the Tula Pink paisley and Kaffe Fassett water lily prints.

Next came a rotated hexagon in slightly lighter blues.

It's hard to see here, but there are at least a dozen blue solids in the first two borders. Some are very similar, but next to each other there is just enough contrast to create a sparkle effect, I hope. Then came two more rotated borders with another 10 solid shades, shown in the top photo.

The grain of the border solids was crucial in my vision of creating a sense of movement and rotation. For each facet in the second, third and fourth borders, the grain is perpendicular to the outer edge (the first border is a bit more complex).

As it happened my first try at the third border was a complete loss. I created a large piece of improvised patchwork fabric, then cut the facets, all of them, at the wrong angle. It cost me a full day of work, but worse two months passed before I could pick the project up again.

I did pick it up again last week and got the border right. I have to tell you it bugs me a little that there isn't greater contrast between the third and fourth border. Or maybe the contrast is too great between the second and third. I hope to be able to make some sense of it in the quilting.