Yellow Bird's Sister, Viewer's Choice and Voting is now Open

Some of you commented on hexagons that you saw in a picture I posted of my friend Bab's bowls.

I gave you a sneak peek of the quilt that she is working on and it is called Yellow Bird's Sister.

Today I have another picture of Yellow Bird's Sister.  Bab's is designing her quilt as she goes. What doesn't show well is the black border around the entire quilt. The fabric had small white flowers on it but they were distracting so Bab's used a Sakura pen to colour them it. They look grey so the effect is very subtle but very nice! I'll take more pictures as it grows!

The voting is now open in the Blogger's Quilt Festival which is organized by Amy of Amy's Creative Side! A huge thank you to Amy and all of her sponsors for this fun event! Be sure to leave a comment on the main Festival page for a chance to win a Babylock Melody sewing machine!

I have two entries, 81 The Giant Monstrosity and Cherry Blossom. I was thrilled to find out that 81 The Giant Monstrosity is one of the finalists in Viewer's Choice!!! There are some spectacular quilts that have been nominated in this category so I am very honoured. Voting for Viewer's Choice is open from now until November 7th. You can see all of the finalists and vote for your favourites here. To vote you just click on the heart in the upper right hand corner of the quilt you are voting for. The thumbnail picture of my quilt in Viewer's Choice is this one!

You can also vote for your favourite quilts is every category. I entered 81 in the Home Machine Quilted category. This is the thumbnail picture you will see at the Festival. You can vote for your favourite quilts in Home Machine Quilted here.

Close-up of 81

81 The Giant Monstrosity by Karen H, 2014

Cherry Blossom is entered in the Original Design category. You can vote for your favourite quilts in Original Design here.

Cherry Blossom by Karen H 2013

(free pattern available under tab Patterns by Karen H)

Yesterday I went on a bus trip to two quilt shops. A girl always needs more fabric (well this girl does)! I had some ideas as to what I wanted/needed but didn't find it. Nonetheless I did manage to find a couple of pieces of fabric that will fit into my stash quite nicely. While we were on the bus I did manage to stitch together one more Lozagons hexagon block! I REALLY like this one!

That's it for today so until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

How are you? I am sew, sew!

I've been busy sewing up a storm any time I can find a few minutes! I made these two Gardens of a King blocks. All of the block patches are prepared with the English paper piecing method, starch and the Starch Brush from Missie of Traditional Primitives. I experimented with different construction methods and found the one that worked best for me!

Missie's pattern for Gardens of a King (it will be available soon) was inspired by the King George III Coverlet. This is the original.

What you can`t see very clearly in this picture is that there are some blocks with mariner`s compass style blocks with sun faces in the middle. There are two on either side of the top of the centre medallion and one on its lower left side. I decided to try to conduct an experiment using Missie`s technique and my pattern drafting skills. My first step was to draft a pattern. It took a little while but I figured it out! I drew the face on a piece of muslin with my Sakura pigma pens and then prepared all of the mariner`s compass patches with freezer paper and starch. I reverse appliqued the face to the first round of the compass.

I then stitched the rest of the mariner`s compass and added it to the sun face. This is the finished block; it measures 11" across.

If you would like to learn more about Missie's technique for English paper piecing with starch go here.

I've also finished one more Lozagons block! The pink and white print hexagons around the centre are more scraps from the bag of Dresden plate blades that I bought at a church basement sale. I like the red and white gingham in this one because I think it adds a little tension!

If you haven't been over to Amy's Creative Side for Blogger's Quilt Festival I encourage you to visit. There are some wonderful quilts entered including Mary's Soupcon quilt which you can also see on her blog! Be sure to nominate your three favourite quilts (the deadline is October 31) and then come back between November 1 and 7 and vote for your favourites in each category including those in Viewer's Choice! I've registered 81 The Giant Monstrosity in Home Machine Quilted and Cherry Blossom in Original Design. I would be honoured and privileged if you would consider nominating and/or voting for either of my quilts!

81 The Giant Monstrosity (pattern coming soon)

Cherry Blossom (free pattern available under Patterns by Karen H)

Today little Jinx is off to the vet to have his "pockets picked"!  He'll have the surgery and spend the night in the hospital. He'll be home tomorrow. Poor old Gumby (or Gummy as we've started calling him since he had some teeth extracted) will be glad for the peace and quiet!

On Friday I'll publish  block 15 in my Value Proposition Hexagon Quilt Along! Hope you like it! I haven't decided which block it will be but one thing is for sure.....it will be one of my favourites!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen

What are those hexagons for?

Eagle-eyes Sarah wrote to me in response to the picture I posted of Babs' fabric coil baskets and she asked about the tray of hexagons and wanted to know what they are for!

The hexagons belong to Babs and they are leftovers from her Yellow Bird quilt (below).

Yellow Bird by Babs 2014

Babs is a great proponent of using what you have and if you have leftovers use them in a new project. so the leftover hexagons are going to be used for a new quilt and it already has a name.....Yellow Bird's Sister!

She pulled out all of her Yellow Bird leftovers and started making hexagons rosettes. She made a rosette using my foundation paper pieced English paper piecing technique and since it included yellow it was the starting point for her new quilt.

Here's a sneak peak of the centre of her new quilt! This one will also be yellow, grey and black. I think it is going to be a stunner!

It Blogger's Quilt Festival time at Amy's Creative Side. A huge thanks to Amy for arranging this even! Between now and the end of October nominations for Viewer's Choice are open. You can nominate three of your favourite quilts by going here. I've entered two quilts, 81 The Giant Monstrosity in the Home Machine Quilted category and Cherry Blossom in Original Design. If you like either of my quilts I would be grateful and privileged if you would consider nominating one or both of them for Viewer's Choice! There are lots of great entries including a reader's Soupcon quit from my first QAL so if you have time take a look at all of the entries. Voting will then be open from November 1 to 7 and the winners will be announced on November 8th!

81 The Giant Monstrosity

81 The Giant Monstrosity close-up

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom close-up

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

It's Blogger's Quilt Festival Time - Cherry Blossom Quilt

Once again a huge thank you to Amy of Amy's Creative Side for organizing the Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival. You can submit nominations for two of your own quilts. It is a great way to share your work with others and to be eligible for some lovely prizes. Take a look at all of the registered quilts and then select three for Viewers' Choice category.  Nominations are open now and they close on October 31. You can start voting for your favourite quilts in all categories starting November 1. Voting closes on November 7 and the winners will be announced on November 8th!

I've entered two quilts and this is the second, Cherry Blossom. I wrote the pattern for my quilt and it is available free-of-charge under the tab Patterns by Karen H.  Cherry Blossom is entered in the Original Design Quilts category. The pinks and reds reminded me of cherry blossoms hence the name! 

This is a scrap quilt. Whenever I have some leftover 1 1/2" squares I use them as leaders and enders when I'm sewing. They get stitched into nine patches that finish at 3". When they are done I give them a press and store them in a box. When I decided to make Cherry Blossom I fished out all of the 3" pink nine patches from the box. When I ran out of pink I added some yellows and oranges. These would be stitched together to make larger nine patches. I also pulled 12 red nine patches along with small scraps of all sorts of colours. I used these scraps to make half square triangles that bordered the little red nine patches. 

Here you can see the two blocks in the quilt; the pink nine patches are stitched together with white squares to make larger nine patches and the red nine patches are bordered with white, half square triangles and the background fabric!

I added a nice wide border because I wanted to fill it with a feather and a stippled background.

This is such a summery quilt and it is one of my favourites. If you like it too why not make your own using my pattern! 

It's Blogger's Quilt Festival Time - 81 The Giant Mostrosity

A huge thank you to Amy of Amy's Creative Side for organizing the Fall 2014 Blogger's Quilt Festival. You can submit nominations for two of your own quilts. It is a great way to share your work with others and to be eligible for some lovely prizes. Take a look at all of the registered quilts and then select three for Viewers' Choice category.  Nominations are open now and they close on October 31. You can start voting for your favourite quilts in all categories starting November 1. Voting closes on November 7 and the winners will be announced on November 8th!

I will enter two quilt and this is the first, 81 The Giant Monstrosity. I am working on a pattern for my quilt and will publish it in the near future. I'll be making it available free of charge! I've entered 81 in the category Home Machine Quilted. This photograph  shows the quilt but doesn't show the quilting so I'll share some close-ups.

81 The Giant Monstrosity

UPDATE: 81 is one of the Viewer's Choice Finalists! How exciting is that? If you like my quilt you can also vote for it in the Viewer's Choice category as well!

I used a neutral soft grey backing fabric and it shows the quilting beautifully. I used my Juki TL2010Q domestic sewing machine. While it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles is is a workhorse and the stitch quality is amazing!

This is what it looks like from the front. There was virtually no marking required. I just doodled with my sewing machine and I adore the effect!

In this picture the quilt is folded so you can see the outer border front and back. I love the effect of the straight line quilting in the border!

I blogged about how I quilted the background filler designs and you can read about it here and here.

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Karen H

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Stars in the Loft

It is time for me to decide what quilt I will show at Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival. Each person is permitted to register a maximum of two quilts in one of several categories (mini, small, large, applique, art, hand quilted, home machine quilted, modern, original design, rainbow and scrappy). If you have a blog and a quilt why not register a quilt or two? Go here to read more about the event! Then on May 24 through to May 29 go back and enjoy the quilt show and vote for your favourite quilts! There are prizes to be won by those who have quilts registered and for readers too!

Yesterday I registered my small quilt Flora and Fauna, Parts of the Garden in the small quilt category (quilt measures more than 80" but less than 240"). I wanted to enter a second quilt and with your input I have decided to enter Stars in the Loft in the scrappy category. I didn't buy any fabric for this quilt. Instead I worked with the scraps in my stash. When I ran out of one fabric I added a second, third, fourth and so on! There are at least five fabrics in the background. While the navy border looks like a single fabric there are more than a dozen navy blues.

Stars in the Loft. Karen H

This quilt was inspired by an antique quilt. I saw black & white picture in a book but there was no information about the quilt maker nor was there a pattern. Many years after I made the quilt I came across the original which was made in 1830. I subsequently found a second quilt that was made more than 100 years after the original. And mine was made more than 170 years after the original! If you would like to see the other two quilts I wrote about them on June 1, 2013.

I wanted to make some beautiful hexagons for Stars in the Loft and although I didn't mind fussy cutting the centers I wasn't about to fussy cut the six surrounding hexagons. Also I was working with scraps so in many cases I didn't have enough fabric to fussy cut six patches. My solution was to developed a technique to quickly and easily piece the interesting hexagons so that I could create all sorts of interesting shapes.

Center medallion in Stars in the Loft

The navy and off white patches are foundation pieced on the paper hexagon before English paper piecing. These patches remind me of fireworks because they seem to sparkle!

The border on this quilt is similar to the original but the stars and hexagons with gold centers are my own design. When making the border blocks I ran out of fabrics and again had to insert similar fabrics to make the required number.

I loved the rusty red fabric for the star points but soon realized I would only have enough to make about half of the stars. They are surprising easy to make! I wrote a tutorial on February 7, 2014.

For the other half of the stars I added a similar fabric and I alternated it with the rusty-red.

The same thing happened with the making of the gold centered hexagons in the border. I had a blue stripe fabric for the outer half of the hexagon but there was only enough to make have of the blocks.

I substituted a similar grey-blue print for the remaining half and then alternated the blocks so that the border would be balanced.

I thought I would share some close-ups of the blocks in my quilt!

Not all of the hexagons are made using this piecing technique. Some had just a fussy cut center or the six surrounding hexagons were fussy cut.

For more information about English paper piecing have a look under the tab English Paper Piecing & Hexagon Fun just under the banner at the top of this page!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit. Tomorrow I'll have an update on my Godstone Grannies hexagon quilt and I'll show you the most recent African themed quilt my Mom is working on. Until then, happy sewing!
Karen H