Color Stash

Happy Sunday!  For your viewing pleasure ... a random 'Cheese Cake' Shot to start out with!

When I quilted my Improv Mini Wall Hangings, I ended up with a load of thread scraps from all the color changes.  Not wanting to waste a photo opportunity, I molded, played and formed it into this heart!  

Last week I visited Craftsy ... their fabric sale actually.  I was weak.  I bought a little something!  And thank you Craftsy for sending me the 'New Sunday Steals'.  I haven't looked yet...should I?

Shot Cottons: Persimmon, Latte and Aegean.  I was so excited when I saw all three together!  Not planned, but they look great together.

Kona Cotton: Teal, Black and Steel.  No big deal.  (I rhymed) 

How about this?  Elizabeth Hartman Fat Quarter Bundle ~ Kona.  It got me.  I was so excited when I saw it, perfect stash builder.  As I was marveling at the color goodness, I turned it over and saw this:

Can you say Wahhhhh?  Took the wind out of my sail!  Almost!  It looks like grease and some of the pieces have little rips.  Must have been a conveyor belt mishap.  

What to do?  I could exchange it, but this bundle isn't available any longer.  I could return it, but I love it.  I most likely will cut it to pieces so the gunk should matter.  I'm still debating...

Look at that...how could I give it up?

Just what you wanted to see after fabric...my feet!  Some people get really freaked out about feet, I'm that way with ears!  Weird...I know!

These are my new sandals!  I get excited when I find clothing or shoes that I love.  I hate shopping...really!  (all shopping except for fabric) When I find something, I get happy!

LINKING: 

Sunday Stash

Blogger's Quilt Festival ~ Meet Opal

I cannot believe Bloggers Quilt Festival is here already.  But it is!  Amy at Amy's Creative Side always puts on a good event!  Packed full of fun, prizes and of course lots of gorgeous quilts in all shapes and sizes.  

I figured I may as well enter a quilt of two, just for fun!  Opal is entered in the MODERN Quilt Category.

Opal
50" x 64"

This quilt is named after my Grama Opal.  Which is also a big part of 'Twiggy & Opal' the name of my Etsy Shop and my blog.  She always said to me 'Jayne, your thin as a twig'! And viola!  A name is born including a loving tribute to my Grama! 

This quilt shows the varying colors against a light background...just like the semi-precious Opal stone.

I used a beautiful bundle of Shot Cottons for the blocks.  The colors are amazing!  From the lightest of pink to a dark plum and everything in between.  The background is Kona Shadow ~ the perfect shade and lightness to bring out the delicate colors!

I went CRAZY with the quilting!  After dividing the quilt in 4 sections, I machine quilted super dense organic lines in a Log Cabin type design. There are about six different thread colors in there.

This is the back.  I couldn't let those test blocks go to waste, so I incorporated them in the back using Kona Pewter and Iron

If you would like to read more about this quilt here are a couple links:

Fantastic Finish  and Wonky, Wacky and Wild

Quilt Size:  50" x 64"

Fabrics:  Shot Cottons, Kona Shadow, Kona Iron, Kona Pewter

Machine Quilted

Category:  Modern Quilt Catergory

Dance Of The Honey Bee

Gotta love a good challenge, right?  I can now say I finished the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge ~ WHEW!!

Thank you Play Crafts and On The Windy Side for hosting and giving me a run for my money!  Marsala stretched my creativity, tested my patience, but eventually I came around to not hating it so much!!

Dance Of The Honey Bee
17" x 18"

I guess I like chaos in my life.  Starting this project I didn't have a clear idea where I would go with it.  It wasn't until I brought in the Tawny Olive that I started to have a direction to follow. You can see the WIP here:  'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' WIP 

Once the honeycombs appeared, I had a plan.  A story.  A direction.  You might think that the olive color represents honey.  Nope!  You can't have honey without pollen ~ sweet, wonderful (aw-choo) pollen!

A worker bee visits 50 to 100 flowers each trip for that pollen.  You go girl!  (worker bee's are all females too)  All that work for 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their life!  

I think of honey bee's as frantic, agitate or strung out as they fly around. And to think what goes on inside of a hive...it has to be chaotic.  

I would be wrong!  Each bee has its place, its job.  Finely tuned with a mission.  Bee's have a dance.  The Dance Of The Honey Bee!  Once a bee finds that sweet, sweet nectar they fly back to the hive, shake and vibrate their little bodies and in the process give directions to that very source.  

All the different colors pieced together are the neurotic goings on inside the hive.  I machine quilted rather neurotically as well!  Except inside the honeycombs!

Those I kept calm, clean and peaceful.  Not once ounce of pandemonium or turmoil!

This is my favorite part!  I was so excited when I decided to use a bright yellow thread for quilting this little section.  I almost decided to do the whole piece with yellow, but thankfully I didn't.  It would have been too much!

When you think that a colony of bees consists of 20,000 to 60,000 bees, there wold have to be order.  It amazes me when I see a honeycomb with honey gushing out.  Did you know that bees are the only insect that produces food eaten by man?!  

Finished and ready to hang!

Size:  17" x 18"

Solids: Shot Cotton, Kona and scraps

Bee Fabric:  Emma's Garden by Patty Sloniger

Check out all the other wonderful entries in the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge!

LINKING:

WIP Wednesday

Let's Bee Social

Can I get A Whoop Whoop

TGIFF

HST's For A Queen

My last post was about hand dyeing fabric.  Hand Dyed Heaven.  I had a beautiful stack of fabric dyed, ironed and ready to cut.  These fabrics were specially dyed and reserved for a custom queen quilt full of half square triangles.  And now we begin...

combination of hand dyed and shot cottons

Where to start.  Of course, cutting squares!  I pulled out my Kaffe Fasset Shot Cotton stash (because I love these mixed with the hand dyed fabric), and began cutting 8" squares.  The stacks were growing and by the end of it I had about 275 cut and stacked.

Once the cutting ended...finally...I needed to pair up the squares.  I love seeing the combinations as I put together the pairs.  I marked each set with a diagonal line and carefully pinned them together for the marathon of strip piecing.  First 1/4" on one side, and then the other.  Kind of mindless sewing, but waiting for the payoff!

You know the next step.  More cutting!  I whipped out the ruler and rotary cutter and sliced and diced each pair in half.  I had my 'Ginsu Knife' vibe going full force!  That resulted in a whole 'lotta' triangles!

With the steam iron blazing, those cut triangle pairs became square (almost) again!  Lots of ironing, lots of steam, lots of stacking!

Aren't they pretty?  I enjoy seeing these blocks come together.  Any block.  Once they get ironed they just look so much better!  

Okay, let's do some more cutting!

I can't sing the praises of these Bloc~Loc rulers!!!  I couldn't tell you how many HST's quilts I have made in the last year (I need to research that)! If it wasn't for these rulers I'm sure the number of finished quilts would have been drastically reduced.  Not to mention they wouldn't be nearly as perfect without Blok~Loc's help!

Usually I end up trimming these to 7", but I wanted them a little bigger because of the size of the quilt.  If I was super careful they would end up being 7 1/2" trimmed.  With the exception of one block that was slightly smaller that the rest, I was able to accomplish that task.

Think about those 138 sets for a second.  This is the carnage left from trimming all of them! Seriously, I feel like I cheated the system for trimming so little and getting away with it!

Half square triangles are basically very easy with lots of design possibilities.  When I make these quilts part of the 'fun' is to see how perfect I can get the points!  Bring on a challenge! So, I will take extra care when putting the blocks together.  

This is where I am as of today.  Two panels each of which is 6 HST's x 10 HST's.  If I were to sew these two panels together right now the quilt would measure 84" x 70", but that can't happen!  I still have to add more. Who would want a queen quilt that didn't fit their bed? Although, the quilts on my bed are not queen size!  I just turned them so there was more length on the sides.  

More work on this today.  Add more length, a little more width, finish the top (hopefully)!  I always get excited at this stage of the game.  You can see the end in sight...that feeling of a fully finished quilt top is exhilarating! 

LINKING:

Let's Bee Social

WIP Wednesday
TGIFF
Can I Get A Whoop Whoop

Color Block Placemats

Back in September I was in Chattanooga at the AQS Quilt Show.  It was a wonderful experience and my first time attending a quilt show.  Plus, I got to spend a few days with my daughter.  One of our 'gotta do's' was visit Spool.  It's a really fabulous shop and Maddie (the owner) was a delight to meet!  Super friendly environment. 

Spool ~ Chattanooga

One of my purchases was Pepper Cory's Peppered Cotton fabric.  As soon as I saw the colors, I knew I had to have some!  Gorgeous!  The weight of this fabric surprised me. Very sturdy, rich, soft and touchable.  This fabric is considered a shot cotton ~ the warp and weft are different colors. 

25 Gorgeous Colors

I'm never sure what I will make when I buy fabric.  It may sit for a while on a little shelf until an idea hits me.  One day it did.  I wanted to make some placemats with a modern design. After playing with ideas and making a practice piece, I settled on this design.  A very simple design using rectangles.

Color Block Placemat

The peppered cotton colors are Fuchsia, Aubergine, Morning Glory and Blue Jay. Beautiful together!  

I decided grays would be best bet to highlight the Jewel Tones.  Each peppered cotton has its own gray ~ Kona Shadow, Iron, Medium Gray and Pewter.  

13 1/2" x 17 1/2"

I actually free-motion quilted the center!  Little projects + FMQ = I can handle that!!  

LINKING:

LET'S BEE SOCIAL

CAN I GET A WHOOP WHOOP

FABRIC FRENZY FRIDAY

ANYTHING GOES MONDAYS