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.

Pattern inspirations- Quilt magazine.

I love digging through quilt magazines for inspiration. I've spent several hours at a bookstore looking for the perfect idea. I have several quilts that were done as color variations of patterns found in magazines.

I had dug up a couple of examples of my quilts to show you but for the life of me I can't reference the magazines they come from because I can't find them. Usually my magazines go in a stack in my room or I will give them to my mom or grandmother to look at later. Most likely that is what happened to the ones I'm looking for.

The first one is a quilt done with a fun Alexander Henry fabric "A Ghastlie End". I fell in love with the fabric because it reminding me of the artistic style of Edward Gorey.

The second one is a pattern called "Equilibrium" it is either from the summer Modern Patchwork or Modern Quilts Unlimited (fall or summer?). It was done from their recent issues. They used solids and pastels in purple, pink with a peach background.

I used a recently purchased mermaid fabric from Alexander Henry and shopped my stash for the rest. I found a large print floral fabric, a beautiful turquoise and had some Kona solids left over from when I my row by row prize of 2015. All of this fell together very nicely and I'm quite happy with the results. The original (I wish I can find the magazine) flowed but blended with an analogous color scheme. I used a split complementary to spice things up a bit.

Now that I'm blogging I will have to remember to take photos of my fabrics before I start. It would be easier if I thought to do that. But good news is I'm working on choosing fabrics for my next project idea. I'll have a better shot of what I actually use. My newest project is coming from Modern Patchwork's fall 2016 issue with the Deco Daybreak quilt by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill.

WIP - Patio Pavers Quilt

Still can't remember the magazine I got this out of. As of right now I'm about halfway through.
I have two of the long panels quilted and am starting on the third. It's been a slow process because of distractions and also how much I'm quilting it on my domestic machine. Once I'm done I can put together the panes and do a binding.
I'm planning on going for the same grey as the background color because with the amount of pattern and colors in the quilt already it doesn't need anything else competing with what's there.

Today's tea is a Jasmine Green Milk Tea. I haven't had this brand before. It was one I ran across in the asian grocery store and decided to give it a try. It's very good. Adding milk kinda defuses the flavor of the tea so I imagine it would have to be brewed stronger to get the same richness. I swear I don't always buy teas from there but my favorite is Jasmine green tea, and the hint of orange tea from Petros would be my second favorite.

UFO weekend project- Patio Pavers Quilt

So if you remember my last Harry Potter quilt post you will have seen this stack of unfinished quilt tops.
On the top there is three pieces that are actually part of a single quilt. It was done in panels so I can do a quilt as you go method with it.

The original quilt pattern came out of a quilting magazine I got a few years ago. I can't even remember which one it was, but I thought it was a fabulous way to bust up some of my scraps. I put it together in 5 panel pieces and decided to use one of the panels as the backing for another one.
I had enough batting but ran out of the solid grey I wanted to use as a backing for the other three panels I wanted to do. I decided to start on the one I had pinned and ready to go and had an unfortunate color choice for my thread.

The quilt goes from one brilliant color to another in a nice rainbow effect and I originally thought a bright colored graduating thread would look fabulous with it. Once I got have my panel done I decided I hated the color choice in the thread. With that the project got put down for later when I can get more material and my interest immediately jumped to something else and the quilt was sent to the unfinished project pile. Things get lost there, so almost two years later I decided to pull it out and give this a go again.

I have some solid grey fabric from a recent purchase and just need to get my panels up and running again. First thing is to pull the thread out with the unfortunate color choice and then start quilting with a grey thread I found that worked better. It doesn't compete with the bright color fabrics as the other thread did.
Sorry the lighting in that last picture is terrible. Once I finish quilting I will begin connecting the panels and hopefully see an over all finished quilt.

AQS Quilt Week 2016 in Chattanooga

Wednesday was my birthday so I took the day off to go to Chattanooga and see the show. I have been to Padukah's quilt week but not the one in Chattanooga. Usually I don't have the money for a trip so soon after Dragon*con but I figured I can stretch it this time.
It was fun. Mom and I spent the day running around playing Pokemon Go and it's big brother Ingress as well as oohing and Aching over all the quilts. I got some fabric and ideas for new quilts. I always see things I want to try or that looks so fun. The quilt to the right was done by the ladies of Spool. You can find them at the Badass Quilter's Society. I've got a couple of my favorites from the show below. I did catch the name tags in the photos. I'm sorry it they're too small to read.

They had a few special showings like one with a theme of the Lion King and another with the them of unusual materials. There were quilts made out of chicken wire, duct tape(below), tin cans and more. Over all a blast was had and it was a fabulous birthday.