Monthly Archives: March 2019

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Last Monday I flew into Burbank airport for a visit to Camarillo Quilters Association. I was greeted with beautiful spring weather for my visit which included attending their meeting to share my Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing lecture and trunk show followed by my Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares workshop the next day.

 

Here’s a glimpse of the back of one of my oldest quilts that shared at the meeting. I think it’s my earliest attempt at Planned Improv. In this case I wanted to make “back art” for this quilt using my scraps from the front of the project. I was probably working with a limited amount of the black on white polka dot fabric, and I decided to insert a band of solid black with bars of bright color from my front. I had remnant strips that were all cut 2 1/2” wide, but they were different lengths. I added solid black to the ends of each strip and staggered them for my final placement.

 

In my Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares workshop, we had a variety of different perspectives on the planned improv technique. Some quilters took inspiration from a shape they saw in one of the quilts during my lecture while others built from their squares (and rectangles) for a unique composition. It was fun to see the variety of colors and sizes these quilters chose to work with. Every time I teach this class I return home with new ideas to try! Here are the slabs in progress by Linda, Kristin, and Barbara.

 

I had a fun day with this group. A great big thanks to all of the Camarillo Quilters Association for having me, and to Laura who was my host for my visit.

You can view my schedule to see where I will be teaching next. If I’m not headed your way, feel free to point your guild program chair to my website. I’m currently booking dates for 2020, with limited availability in late 2019.

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After a two week hiatus, I managed to crank out a *very tiny* finish for this week's Project QUILTING challenge. I took my word of the year and turned it into a quilt. Mostly my technique was slice and insert and it was all a bit of planned improv, I wanted skinny lines and to make all the letters about the same height as the E which I finished first.

The strips finish at about 1/8" wide and the quilt finished at 2 1/4" x 9". It ties my Patchwork City mini mini quilt for the smallest quilt I've ever made. Fabrics are Alison Glass Kaleidoscope: Iris, Opal, Aqua Marine, Dragonfly, Beetle, and Peacock. It was pieced with Aurifil 50wt White (#2024) and quilted with Aurifil 50wt Medium Grey (#1158). I quilted it by walking foot echoing the letters, then I pillowcase bound it. By the way, my daughter wasn't very impressed. She told me, "It's hardly a quilt. It doesn't even have binding!" Here are a few process pictures to go with my finished photo above.

 

I'm linking up to the Project QUILTING 10.5 challenge. Voting will be open soon. You can pop over and vote for your ten favorites. (Mine is #70.)

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I know it's March. I decided in December when I didn't have the bandwidth to do serious planning that I would let March 1 be my New Year's Day. So, welcome and Happy New Year!

Last year my word of the year was Chaos, or really Embrace the Chaos. We are at the nearly finished end of a remodel at our house. (How long does the "nearly finished" stage last?) While things are certainly still chaotic I'm ready to move on and start settling into 2019. My word of the year for 2019 is Enjoy. All of the work and chaos of the last year, the "season of sacrifice" as Gretchen Rubin would say, was so that we could really enjoy our home, and enjoy having friends over. Despite not being fully settled we had our first real weekend in the house this past weekend. (We've been here a couple weeks, but it was moving weekend, then I was in Nashville for QuiltCon.) It was so nice to relax with friends and just hang out in our own space. Bagels, conversation, board games, and a sewing project for school. Ahh...

I had another plan in mind, and still might go for it, but my word of the year would be a good fit for the Project QUILTING challenge this week, which is Abecedarius. I think the definition has been extended to "relating to letters or the alphabet" for the sake of the challenge. I missed the February challenges due to the aforementioned chaos, but I'm hoping to participate in PQ this week. There's still time for you to join, too. Check out the challenge!

Happy quilting!