2018 Quilt Review Pt 3: Love Quilt

Another 2018 project that was finished is a small lap quilt/ wall hanging. This one hangs in my office cubical. The original pattern I got from Simple Modern Magazine # 13.  The quilt designed by Sandra Johnson titled Love Forever. I did not follow the pattern exactly but it's close enough I'm going to say it's from her pattern. The Kanji in the center stands for love which is why I call this my love quilt.

I used purely scraps at putting the background together. This was a great scrap buster for me. I think I cut what I had at the time in half. I did buy the black fabric I use for the applique and the binding new but I decided on that after I had it all together.

I did improve blocks with the blue and purple fabrics and tried to get a sort of ombre look when I laid them out. This one was suppose to go into another fair but I never got the application out in time so it just decorates my wall and reminds me of Love. 

For the tea I would have to spotlight here is some of my favorite Sunflower Jasmine Tea. There's a local asian grocery store that gets lots of different things and some at good prices. It's a pretty big store and has everything from fresh meats and vegetables to frozen and instant foods. The tea I like to get is in a tin with an extra stopper in the lid to keep the tea fresh. It's imported by Fujian Tea. I've repurchased this one several times. I sometimes buy extra jasmine blooms and mix it in with it for a stronger floral taste.

2018 Quilt Review Pt 2 Epp and New Orleans

2012 at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop

This is a post I could take forever at making so I am going to try to keep it short. in May of 2018 I went on a week long trip with my mom and two friends to New Orleans. This is my second trip and if I compare the two it shows just how different a person I am versus my first trip.

My first had been in April 2012 with just my friend Karen (who went on both trips). We had spent all our time exploring most of down town and went to the Aquarium and Zoo. I had fallen and hurt myself so I hadn't really picked a lot of places extra to go due to avoiding too much walking. We did go on a ghost walk cemetery tour and even a fabulous park all with lots of sitting and breaks while my friend took lots of photos. My leg has never been the same but it also never locked up on me. The trip was still fabulous and forever shapes my memories of New Orleans.

Quilt Block tile at welcome center. 2018

My second trip I still insisted the people I was with pick stuff to do because this was their vacation as much as mine, but it is shaped by having my mom with us. That is not a negative both of us have lots of things in common and share a love for quilting. We went to a quilt shop and explored areas outside of down town more. We stayed in a hotel across the river and it was so much hotter because the weather did a major change between end end of April and the beginning of May. These factors meant leaving downtown by rush hour to get to the hotel and cool off before dinner.

The four of us at the Zoo. 2018

The quilt shop we went to was Uptown Needle. They had a fantastic quilt on display that was a Nola 300 special pattern of the map of New Orleans. I picked up several fabrics from there and was awed at their cute little shop. Apparently as of now they have closed and are going to relocate. I'm so sad.They had a nice article about them in the Louisiana edition of Quilt Folk if you ever get to read it.

EPP in Progress

This trip I also got to go to the A& E fabric store in Pensacola. Karen lives in Pensacola so we took a few extra days to visit the beach. That store is huge and has lots of great finds.

Finished Flamingo EPP

With fabrics from both of these places I dived into my first EPP project. I had never done english paper pricing before and with a few videos from Mr Domestic I got a clue and started. I was very happy with the finished project. It's a table topper size or small wall hanging. I find these easier to quilt on my little Machine then a full size quilt.

I also entered it into the local fair and won a 3rd place ribbon! This one was a new learning experience with me. I want to do more EPP's in the future.



Since this post is mostly about my New Orleans trip I want to continue with stuff I got from there. But alas, I did not get an appropriate tea picture to share.I will share one of my drinks from New Orleans. It's only fitting.

Bloody Mary in the French Quarter near the French Market.

Shop Hop Saturday

Big Pile of fabric

JoAnn's haul

Last weekend I did a bit of a shop hop with my mom. It wasn't anything strictly planned but that's what it turned into. Mom and I actually started it with a stop at Tuesday Morning and Joann's on Friday. I got a pinwheel by Benartix for half off at Tuesday Morning and a few fun fabrics from JoAnn's. They had a Van Gogh panel for 30% off and I got a cute sushi fabric.

Mountain Creek Quilt Shop haul

Saturday's quest actually started with my recent obsession at searching online for Japanese fabrics. I'd been researching Nippori Fabric town and have been watching too many YouTube videos about it (way too many click the links). I plan to go one day. The main plan was to go to Mountain Creek shop in Greenback because they have a bin of salesmen samples. They fill it up every once in a while and will have Japanese import fabrics. I got some pieces from Food Land by Leicen. They're small but enough to use as accent pieces for a table topper or lap quilt. Sorry the photos blurry but I got a few fat eights and some cute frog and mushroom fabric. I have so many ideas for this I don't know where to start. I also got a cute pair of scissors that is pen shaped. I saw someone using it in a journaling video and was so happy to find it.

Twisted Sister's Haul

Since Maryville is so close and it's been awhile since we went to the shop there we decided to visit Twisted Sisters. They have moved to a new space since I was last there and it's huge in comparison. It's like they have a labyrinth of quilting fabric. The parking situation is so much better also. I wasn't terrified of running into things on the narrow area they had before. Here I got a panel from the Cat-i-tude collection which I just saw in a magazine the night before. Panels had been 20% off so I scored a deal. Also ransacked their clearance section for fantastic deals. I got some Art Gallery Fabrics that I had passed up before because of their price. If you're ever in the area I suggest going just to see how big this shop is.

Gina's Haul

So Much Fabric

The final stop after lunch was also a why not. Mom lives in Knoxville close to Gina's Bernina. I love this shop. It's always got something new and surprising. They also had a sale going on. Surprise! For all the sales we hit I had no clue any of them were going on. I got only a few things from this shop because well I had a big stack already. I did get a cool USA panel in black and white. I also had a package of fat quarters from Missouri Star when I got home.

With all this fabric I've got a few projects thought out. I am going to do some pre-plans soon and sort my existing stash.

2018 Quilt Review Part 1. East Tennessee Quilt

I haven't been posting in a long while but I still have been quilting. I have several tops that I finished but have not gotten around to quilting. I finished a quilt that I had started a while back for my brother. I had designed the top to reflect local East Tennessee landmarks and aesthetics.

I call it my East Tennessee quilt. The top is suppose to represent the Great Smokey Mountains that shape a very large part of this area and heritage. The section below is suppose to be the mountain's reflections in the rivers and streams. I used an orange for the mountains to show the fall colors in the leaves but green for the reflection to show how it is in the summer. The bottom checker board area represents the fall leaves and more of the color that can be seen in the area. The surrounding border actually represents the roads through the mountains.

I also have sewn on patches from the national park to show case many of the walking trail. The large patch in the center was an antique boy scouts patch that my cousin had earned. My grandmother found it and had no clue where it came from. She gave it to me to use since she knew I was doing this quilt. When my cousin came to visit I showed the quilt to him and he told me where it came from. I had asked at the time if he wanted it back because I had not started the quilting process but he said to keep it.

The quilt is actually a couple of years in the making. It took me about 2 weeks to do the piecing and another several weeks to find all the patches and sew them on. I did this part in 2017 around September. The only reason it got finished in 2018 was because I decided to finally quilt it. I started hand quilting in February because my wrists were hurting too much when I tried to pull it through my machine. I'm slow at this process so it was a 3 month journey getting it finished. It was suppose to be my brother's birthday present in 2017 but he got it in March of 2018. He has been very happy with it finding new things about it that he loves.

And finally before I forget this post is brought to you by Harney & Son's Paris Tea. I found a tin in World Market and added to my rather large collection. I love this one it smells so good like a citrus vanilla. I took several bags to work and everyone wanted one to use as an air freshener!

What I am reading this month as a break from quilting

During the month of March, I have been reading The Ghost Fields by British author, Elly Griffiths.

Dr. Ruth Galloway is a forensic archaeologist who teaches at (the fictional) Norfolk University. In her forties, single and overweight, she’s a successful woman who manages to overcome what society tells her.

 Dr. Ruth Galloway and the surprisingly complex DCI Harry Nelson are out to solve the mystery of the Ghost Fields.  The find is the body of a pilot in a WWII plane during the clearing of land for a housing development.  It becomes clear that this body has not been there since the end of the war.  With a colorful array of characters and a good sense of the landscape of Norfolk, this book is a good read.

Genre: Crime Fiction – Series

Books in Order: 

The Crossing Places

The Janus Stone

The House at Sea’s End

A Room full of Bones

Dying Fall

The Outcast Dead

The Ghost Fields

The Woman in Blue

My tea for this read is the Disney Wonderland Tea – Mad Tea Party Blend (loose leaf).  It is a blend of Indian Black Teas, Safflowers, Calenula petals, Ginger bits, Apricot bits, and Peach and Apricot flavors.

I find it relaxing to sip hot tea during my reading time.

What I have plannednext is "Fates and Traitors,a Novel of John Wilkes Booth" By Jennifer Chiaverini author of the Elm Creek Quilt Series.

WIP - Sea Side Sunset

This is from the deco daybreak quilt pattern found in the recent modern quilting magazine I previewed a few posts back. I decided tooled down my fabric selection to feature a bunch of fat eighths I got from the Heather Ross Mendocino collection that had been reprinted recently. I remember the first time I saw one of the designs that had been named swim sister's and scoured everywhere for the fabric. This was actually about a year after it's release so I sadly didn't find any.
The idea to fit the fabric with this pattern was because the design reminded me of fish scales. The leap from fish to mermaid wasn't a big one.

             

The layout is suppose to look like the sun setting over the ocean with the yellows in the center as the sun, the blues as the sea, and the pinks as the sky. I didn't make the half hexes as big as the pattern called for because I didn't want to do such a big quilt, but I am adding extra rows at the top and bottom to play with the sun setting element and get it as big as I want to.

This pattern calls for paper piecing the half hexes and I personally love paper piecing. It's a great way to get a perfect seam or point especially with difficult patterns. I have been going extra slow on this one because it's actually been a design as I go process.
I know I wanted to go from light to dark on all my blocks so I will lay them out radiating from the center of the row and try to pick what goes next from there. I haven't done much designing on paper for this one simply because of the layout already present in the magazine. I haven't needed much reference from it once I got the first few rows started, and I only redid one of my blocks because I thought the color change wasn't working.

On another note today's tea was made from brewing blueberry tea and pomegranate tea together. Both teas came from a sampler I got from disney. It is very good. The blueberry flavoring sticks out a lot in this tea. I would think it would be a great tea for the summer. The brand is only available at the disney parks. It makes a great souvenir because I always think of my time at the park when I go to make my tea, and I especially like their mad hatter tea party blend.

Quilting is in the blood.

I got my quilting habit from my grandmother and my mom. You have to admit it's a habit. I have several projects going constantly and plans for new ones. Like to the right here, I have the plans in the works for three of four ideas.

Both my mom and grandmother have been quilting for years. My grandmother has produced lots of quilts over the years. I own three that she has made for me. Like most quilters she doesn't sell hers, just gives them away for presents. And they get used. I use the quilts on my bed year round, sometimes two at once on a cold night. This one is one she's currently working on. It's actually a recreation of one she did a few years ago. (You can see it on her bed next to the loom) Everyone loves this one so I don't know who is getting the new one. (fingers crossed) She always quilts by hand. Her style is very indicative of the traditional quilter. You can see a close up detail of her quilting below.

My mom's style has gone from traditional to more modern. She normally does small projects and sewing. A full size quilt is not always something she has time or energy for. Right now she's working on pillow cases like the One Million pillow cases challenge. She has put some up for sale and has done a wide variety of pillowcases from whimsical and colorful. Currently up is the halloween themed pillow cases. I don't have many photos of stuff mom has currently worked on but I always enjoy sharing projects with her. We often go to shows and quilt shops together. So you can say this is always something special to bond with both of them over, just in different ways.

Also the first photo shows my tea of the day. It is a honey Jasmine Green tea made with mineral water I get from the local asian grocery store.