Kaleidoscope Korners and Judging

      I finished sewing the Yenter kaleidoscope blocks and put them on the wall. The borders will go on after the blocks are sewn. I tried half orange and half turquoise. Yuck! I then put all the orange up that the pattern calls for. Better, but then I found the identical fabric in blue and green on a big Quilted Twins sale. So, I will wait until that fabric comes in before I sew anything else.

     Also, got the results for the Quilts Unlimited Show from The View in Old Forge, NY finally after a 5 day delay. No more show entries for me.

Flannel Fabric plans

    Every year I make members of my family flannel pillowcases. I used to buy woodland themed fabric in the Adirondacks on vacation from a store in Inlet, NY. They sadly retired, closed, sold the building and a great tradition vaporized. I have searched for another source for a while and was able to get a bunch of it from Hancock's of Paducah and equilter. Some even on sale. I used to love the quality I bought- it was mostly Moda and Northcott, but they don't seem to be making it much anymore. I like to feel the fabric before I buy and can't do that online. If anyone knows of another source, let me know. It seems plaids and pastel baby print flannels are the majority of what is out there, not useful to me.
    All the fabric I bought seems ok except the blue plaid- not a great texture for against the face. It is all washed and ready to cut. I usually sew all them on retreat in November all at once. Easier that way and I leave all the mess there. I will use the gray dot and green dot as cuffs for a lot of them. I use the taco or burrito method to sew them. I don't own a serger, so I use French seams.

Yenter Kaleidoscope

    I think I have only bought 4 kits in my whole quilting career. I like to make my own choices and tweaks. Two of the kits I remade differently. One I changed from raw edge applique to set in strips. And then I saw this Floragraphix V Jason Yenter border fabric with pattern at the Quilted Twins and bought the fabric. I read the instructions many times until I understood how the borders were cut and layered. I made  kaleidoscope quilts before that were cut from the full fabric (Maxine Rosenthal book), so this was different plus they are much bigger. I bought the orange as in the pattern photo, but I am wondering if a turquoise would be better.

Would turquoise be better than the recommended orange? I only have a scrap of this turquoise, used it for color idea.

The pattern and fabrics cut.

Have to press seams open on this type of block!

Crumbs combined play together

     For a long while, as leader enders or when I was frustrated with something, I sewed these blue crumb blocks with a red diamond center. I tried all sorts of ways to work them. I finally decided I would just make 7" Unfinished blocks and pile them up. After a substantial pile of them, I stuck them on the wall with all sorts of combos and added borders, like piano keys. Nothing jelled. Finally, I thought, keep it simple and just put them in rows and columns. Looked okay. Then I used a scrappy border of blues so I did not have all those seams in a binding (I really dislike tons of seams in a binding- just doesn't lay right).
    I decided to go real crazy and enter it in a show in at the View in the ADK. A couple of years ago my entries were rejected and I was crushed. Because the deadline was Aug. 30th, I forced myself to do a simple straight line design to give it texture and get it done. Ok. Then I entered it with lots of problems with computer entry forms. Sept. 9th I find out whether it or the pink floral OBW were rejected. If so, I will not try this again. It is expensive and wrenching because you don't know why it was rejected. I just wanted more people to see it in person. I will put it in my guild show next year anyways.
    So here is Ordering Chaos, 51 x 63.

Back

Low volume blocks ready to load!

    Another quilt project gifted by Quiltdiva Julie is the low volume strip blocks. I cut them diagonally, added burnt orange strips (fabric also gifted by her), and played with a number of layouts until this one emerged. I just love the fabrics used for the strips. Of course, I had to cobble together another row to make the design work.
    Well, I webbed it and sewed on a cool border print (Bohemian Rhapsody). Now it goes to the quilting line up. Hopefully my ruler work from the upcoming class will be able to bear fruit on this top! Yes, the border fabric is gradated, not a lighting issue. I like that. Don't know what the binding will be. I never decide until it is quilted and trimmed. Then I audition fabric next to it.

Diamonds look terrific, but ruler work needed

     On September 6th, I was supposed to take a ruler class with Kim Werth of Rochester at my Nolting dealer. Why? Because I stink at them. I don't know how to cleanly quilt holding onto a slippery ruler with one hand and moving a big longarm with the other. If I make the plastic ruler sticky, it doesn't move well. When quilting on the diagonal, you have to use a ruler. Didn't know that when I bought a longarm. I do all hand guided quilting and am not changing. However, Kim postponed the class because her father suddenly passed away the day before.
    Instead of the class, I went to cardiac rehab as usual. What wasn't usual is that the treadmill I was on with just a couple of minutes left-the motor exploded with sparks, pops, a couple flames. None of us were injured, but it did me in for the rest of the day- I was useless. I thought at first it was gunfire due to the flashes and loud pops as I dove off the moving belt. I am glad I was not electrocuted!
    The last quilt I did with rulers, a 3 dudes design from strips the Quiltdiva Julie sent me, is all on the diagonal, which I love, but needed rulers to quilt it. The diamonds are lovely, quilting- well, I tried. It is all bound and ready for referral to fly out the door.
UPDATE: The quilt package is made is going out the door to a man who has young children and is gravely ill with cancer. The referral came from a friend who is the 4th grade teacher of the man's oldest child. I had an extra block that I used for the tote bag that holds the quilt and goodies.

Another out the door!

     I received a quilt referral from a woman at church who has a niece undergoing treatment for aplastic anemia and a bone marrow transplant who is 22. Yikes. She is very scared and having a hard time with treatments. They basically kill everything off inside you, then add the bone marrow. Has to be a horrifying experience. I sent some photos of what I had, and the woman picked one. I washed and made the bag and kit up for her and she delivered it. I understand the young woman is pretty ill and no progress yet.
    This was the quilt and package.

    This was the quilt package. I actually had an extra block from the quilt to make the pocket on the bag. I sewed it on the premade tote bag with the classic Bernina 830 Record in the background as it is my only machine with a freearm.
    Originally, I made the quilt inspired by one I saw in a show. It did not turn out how I was thinking, but it is pretty. I was going for a floating effect. I have a hard time using black fabric. I used different black prints here, but it is still too harsh and did not give the floating floral effect I wanted.

Quilting detail