Home Away from Home

Once again a little log cabin block - just a quarter of one, in fact - has led me to a place I could not have foreseen, yet am definitely glad to have arrived at. Begun at QuiltCon in an Improv Theme and Variation class with Denyse Schmidt, I arrived home with my blocks from class still arranged on my portable design wall, rolled up in my suitcase. It took just a little puzzling together to make them into a quilt top.

Right away, I knew that matchstick quilting was the way I wanted to go. And though starting out I intended to use several colored threads, I ended up using just one, Aurifil 50wt #2435 (Peachy Pink). In my mind, it's Pink Flamingo, and it provided a nicely subtle contrast in nearly all of the fabrics I'd used.

Speaking of fabrics, did you think I'd only used solids? Mostly, yes, but there was a single print inserted three or four times.... one from Carolyn Friedlander's Doe, and I love the extra bit of interest it adds.

For the backing, I pieced a variety of orange and coral stash prints together, and it was all finished with a faced binding, measuring 34" x 30".

So here ends an agreeable little meander that began with the simplest of blocks, was enhanced by an encounter with someone I admire alot, all the while buoyed up by the Instagram contingent. These are just the type of projects and processes that empower me the most, and every time, I'm grateful that they've happened.

Linking up with Meadow Mist Design's Favorite Finish Linkup!

QuiltCon 2019 :: The Charity Quilts

When arriving at QuiltCon, the first thing I wanted to see was Seattle MQG's charity quilt, The Last Hurrah. And excuse me, but it looked mighty good!

Unfortunately, my giving committee co-chair, Louise/@imfeelincrafty wasn't able to travel to QuiltCon this year, so we did the best we could to include her in a photo with the quilt.

We totally wish there was a book made with all the quilts from the charity quilt challenge, they're that good! I'm not even sure I saw them all, but here are some I especially liked.

  

See what I mean? Beautiful, and such a variety of interpretations on the theme.

QuiltCon 2019 :: The Quilts

I was disappointed when I got home from QuiltCon and realized how few photos I had taken of quilts in the show. Let me rephrase that. I took lots of photos of certain quilts (such as Baconrific, oops), but not of a wide variety of quilts. I won't say alot about the ones I did take, but will share the placards that hung with them to credit their makers, and so you can read more about them.

The first two, though, are Bee Sewcial quilts, and lo and behold if Leanne/@shecanquilt's "Smile" didn't win Best in Show! A profound and proud moment in time for our bee.

Karen/@capitolaquilter's "Stretch" also hung in the show, and the quilting done by Karen's sister Sharyl/@itssewscottsdale, just elevated it to another level.

Another quilt of special interest to me was made by Hillary/@entropyalwayswins. The design was inspired by a card Hillary had sent me back in 2017, and because of that, she named it, in part, after me. Fun, eh?





Here are just a few more quilts from the show that caught my eye!

  

I just love the variety, don't you?

QuiltCon 2019 :: Baconrific & Loosely Connected

There's something inexplicable and extraordinary about seeing your work hanging in a show, and not surprising, having Baconrific hang at QuiltCon this year made me very happy.



Getting a photo with my Bee Sewcial bee mates was definitely a QuiltCon highlight.



One thing I love when I have a quilt in a show is noticing its neighbors. It just so happened that Baconrific was hung next in line with the winning Group or Bee Quilts. That's the Third Place winner Group Therapy by Jane Cole to its left.

And further left, were the First and Second Place winners, Overlapped by Alisa Kutsel, and Micro in Macro by Tanya Munro. Facing us were quilts in the Minimalist category, and shown below is Graphiti by Marah Light.

Further down were (l-r): Colonnade and Lilium, both by Heather Black; and Egg Travel by Susan Borger.

And then just around the corner was Flight Path by Jess Frost.

As you can see, Baconrific was in excellent company!



As for Loosely Connected, I think I laughed out loud when I rounded the corner and saw it for the first time. It's tiny! But at 11" square, it was not the smallest quilt in the Small Quilts category!

It just arrived home yesterday, and I thought you might like to see the Judges' comments.... a few kudos on design elements and they liked my thread choice. ;-) I'll take it.

If you'd like to see the entire Small Quilts category, I shared them on Instagram here, here, and here. Enjoy!