After finding a box of UFOs (from 2021!) while re-arranging the studio, I set out to finish all of them. Here’s the last of it!

These improv blocks from years ago

were made into this quilt

I particularly like the quilting, done by Linda NIchols. I do wish I had chosen a whiter background; this one is pale gray.

This panel, attractive though it is, went to the donate pile after much consideration.

And the last two pandau blocks have been put away for when I need them to decorate shirts or bags.

Whew!

Meanwhile, I’m taking Tara Faughnan‘s Block Studies Collective class, which is a six month program. Every month she presents a color palette and a block as prompts, with instruction regarding both. However, students aren’t required to use either!

The first month’s block was the hourglass, and here are my little studies.

I don’t know that I’m crazy about any of these by themselves, but it was interesting to experiment.

The second month’s block was log cabin, with multiple potential variations. She suggested paper piecing tiny blocks, but since her instructions are optional I wasn’t having that! I cut strips without rulers and made the following construction, entitled Along Comes Orange.

I especially appreciate Tara’s advice to apply a black and white filter to a photo of the palette to check contrast. It’s quite surprising to realize how much of what I see as value is really color!

I’ve been thinking of variations on log cabin blocks for some time, so there probably are more to come. And, surprise! These exercises are creating more orphan blocks/UFOs!

A friend and I found some good fabric with tools at a quilt show recently, so of course we bought it, since our husbands are both “handy”. Actually, they’re both pretty good woodworkers.

A lot of woodworking-themed or tool-themed fabric is way too “cute” but this had panels of realistic-looking tools. The fabric is part of a line from Quilting Treasures, if you want to look for it. Be aware that the panels are NOT printed square! I decided just to not worry about it.

I tried out several designs and finally settled on a simple one.

I made the top when my sweetie was away at a woodworking show (how appropriate) and a friend quilted it with a woodgrain texture.

Then I put the binding on while my husband was at another woodworking event, and sneaked it into one of his work rooms, where he has a large leather chair.

He seems to like it, and verified that it is, indeed, washable. Workshops can get dusty!

Quilt Stats

Name: Shop Quilt

Finished size: 60″ x 60″

Designed and pieced by: me

Quilted by: Victoria Gleasure

Still dealing with computer issues, but of course it’s necessary to take a break to sew. Therefore, I put the binding on Starfield.

This quilt started with using orphan blocks (the stars) to practice inset circles. Then I added a few more things, which you may recognize as leftovers from this quilt:

And here it is!

Quilt Stats

Name: Starfield

Size: 65″ x 75″

Design: mine

Pieced by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

This week started with delivery, in pieces, of the long-awaited cabinets for the studio. There were some cabinets to be installed in another part of the house, as well, so that was a lot of pieces. These are just the ones for the studio, which got new cabinetry in three locations.

Cabinets in the studio, awaiting installation

I was happy to get new storage! Of course, that required moving everything out of the old storage and stashing it elsewhere in the house, so it was a busy time and sort of a mess.

In the same time frame, my computer developed a burning-plastic smell and DIED! To be honest, I’ve known for some time that I needed a new computer, but I was hoping to wait until next month. No such luck. (Well, OK, one of my favorite Zen fables is “Good luck, bad luck, who can tell?” but I won’t tell you about that!)

We zipped over to Costco and got a new computer, and I spent many hours transferring data, installing programs, and learning the idiosyncrasies of Windows 11! Therefore, this post may or may not look right, and the photos may or may not be good, because I had to get new photo editing software and learn to use it, too.

So, it’s been a week for lots of learning, and the new cabinets in the studio look great.

The vendor will eventually deliver the rest of the door pulls, I’m sure.

I’m hoping for a quieter week coming up!

First, I mentioned that I’m taking Tara Faughnan’s Block Studies class, here. The first assignment was to make designs with hourglass blocks. Here are mine so far. These are large blocks, not finished quilts, and they’re experimental..

I don’t know that I’ve learned/done anything great yet, but I do know I wouldn’t have taken the time to experiment without this class, so it’s already worthwhile.

After “playing” with those, I got the binding on the second quilt for the boys’ bunk beds. (The first one is here.)

This used Laurel Burch fabric in two different colors because that’s what I had!

Quilt Stats

Name: Cats!

Finished size: 73″ x 61″

Pieced by: me

Pattern: BQ4 from Maple Island Quilts

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

I’ve been focusing on getting my UFOs done, along with a few other things, of course. Here’s the latest.

Although a friend suggested a table runner, I decided to put this mola on a black shirt that I use as an optional wrap when I’m out and about.

The other two molas are still waiting for inspiration, but look at those tiny stitches on the back of this one! I almost feel like I need to frame it so it’s open on both sides. That’s a 2 inch square those hearts are in.

Meanwhile, I’ve signed up for a series of classes with Tara Faughnan, here. 

Tara mentioned that one of her uses for orphan blocks is to make pouches. I quickly found a rectangular orphan block and made this pouch. Here’s the tutorial I used.

It’s not something from the UFO box, but the orphan block collection needs love, too 😀

And finally, I got the binding on this Quilt of Valor.

QOV made from Krista Moser’s “Strips ‘n’ Stripes” pattern

Quilt Stats

Name: Hexie QOV

Finished size: 61″ x 71″

Pattern: Strips ‘n’ Stripes, by Krista Moser

Quilted by: Linda Nichols (who is an official QOV longarmer)

I recommend this pattern. It’s easier than it looks (always a plus), and is free from Krista Moser here. I made it with my 60 degree triangle ruler, though of course Krista recommends the 60 degree diamond ruler designed by her. The pattern is well written and easy to follow.

I got this fabric from an auction at one of my guilds. It’s Laurel Burch, and I’ve always loved her designs.

I also love the BQ patterns from Maple Island Quilts, so I used BQ4 to make a giraffe quilt. The BQ patterns all make good use of large prints, and most of them can be arranged in at least two different ways.

The grandsons have a bunk room at our house, and I thought this would be perfect for one of the bunk beds. I have another in progress for the other bunk with a different Laurel Burch print but the same quilt pattern.

Quilt Stats

Name: Giraffes!

Finished size: 71″ x 63″

Pieced by: me

Pattern: BQ4 from Maple Island Quilts

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

PS: Just so you know, these BQ patterns are quick and easy 😀

A friend and I joined a group bus tour from near her home in Ohio over to the AQS quilt show in Lancaster, PA. There were several stops along the way to see the sights in Pennsylvania on the way to the quilt show and back. We particularly enjoyed a tour of Amish country with a knowledgeable guide who was from the area.

Quilt on display at an Amish shop

We agreed that the best thing about the bus trip was not having to drive ourselves, though that also meant that we weren’t able to set our own itinerary. We both decided we won’t be doing another bus trip. However, it was great to get to spend time together, so we enjoyed the trip overall.

Here are a few favorites from the AQS-Lancaster show, which was wonderful.

This first was my favorite from the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) exhibit:

Grasshopper Path by Paola Machetta

And I especially liked this quilt in the special exhibit of quilts from Ukraine:

The Italian Town Near the Sea by Natalia Matviyenko

There were, as usual, many wonderful quilts in the AQS contest. Here are a few of those I loved.

With my recent interest in ethnic fabrics, I was interested to see this quilt. There’s a lot of wonderful hand work in this quilt, and it was quilted on her home machine.

Corroboree–A Festival Gathering by Ann Horton

The next quilt was made from a pattern published by the Modern Quilt Guild. I like how the pantograph quilting contributes to the design.

Singularity Ombre made by Elaine Rae Mackey

The symmetry of this next one appealed to me, and she quilted it on her home machine.

20 To Life by Robin Thomas

I love the graphic quality of this next one, though I wish it weren’t quilted so heavily. I realize dense quilting is “in” at the moment, but in this case I think it detracts from the overall design.

Releasing Joy by Patricia Caldwell

 I loved this next quilt with its strong colors and diagonal lines.

Simple Switchbacks by Kathy Tolbert

Another graphic quilt that caught my eye:

Ohio Star Reverb by Linda Selby

I don’t think any of my choices above were big winners, but there’s a post with actual professional photos of those here, and they are well worth seeing!

I’m a fan of much of the fabric designed by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures, so when this collection went on sale, I bought it.

I have NOT joined the current trend to catalog the amount of fabric in and out of the studio each month. If I see and and know I will use it, I buy it. If I use up fabric or scraps from stash, that’s great but I don’t deduct from the total. I do have a general idea of the way things are going by the increase/decrease in empty space where I store my fabric.

Klimt fabric by Chong-A Hwang

Anyway, I went looking for a quilt design to use the fancy fabric, and settled on this Chandelier Quilt pattern, free from Free Spirit.

And here’s the finished quilt, which I must say I like!

Check out the quilting by Linda Nichols, which I think enhances the design:

Quilt Stats

Name: Chandelier

Pattern: Chandelier Dark Quilt, available free on the Free Spirit website at the time I am writing this

Finished size: 57″ x 77″

Pieced by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

When we visited the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in June I took some pictures of cars just for their color schemes, thinking the color combinations would be interesting for quilts.

About 6 weeks later, I decided it was time to try a black and green quilt based on the car on the right. Then I became fascinated with the green vents on the side of the hood and wanted to use those shapes. Here’s how I did it.

I started drawing in Electric Quilt (EQ8, which is quilt design software that I use a lot).

Eventually I decided to trace the photo so I could get the exact shapes. I therefore cropped the photo in Adobe Photoshop……and imported the cropped photo to EQ for tracing! I can’t get a clear picture of the line drawing, but here’s the colored drawing. You can see I took a couple of “artistic liberties”, but the car is certainly recognizable.

Quilt drawn and colored in EQ8

After tracing the photo, I decided on the size I wanted for the quilt and printed a full-size pattern, again from EQ.

Then there was a pause because I didn’t have a large enough piece of the wool blend felt I use as batting for my art quilts. I first read about it in a book by Sue Bleiweiss and have used it ever since. There’s an explanation of it on Kestrel Michaud’s blog here. (Kestrel’s blog is well worth seeing in any case; her art is amazing!)

And there was a trip to the LQS (local quilt shop) for the exact shade of green, or as close as possible.

After that pause, I inserted a strip of white fabric in my black background, then quilted the top in lines parallel to the insert. I used some fun backing.

Then I traced, reversed, and fused the green shapes onto the quilted top. Still channeling Sue Bleiweiss, I topstitched these shapes

I tried out a number of different ways to mark the vanes, since they add interest to the original shapes.

I decided on hand stitching with dark green perle cotton.

.I used Terriy Aske’s method for facing the quilt. Tutorial here.

And it’s complete!

Quilt name: Phaeton

Finished size: 16″ x 29″

Designed and made by me, based on a car (Phaeton is the brand) seen at the Auburn Cord Deusenberg Automobile Museum