My First Challenge!

The beauty of Halfmoon Bay

I had started with one idea, switched over to another, did a sample and was still undecided as to exactly what I was going to do for the challenge!  So rather than sit and do nothing, I went picture taking!

I like the texture contrast in this one, it might end up being a quilt one day!

These little treasures were peaking out from under some ferns.

The small sample quilt on the right was my first thought for a pattern.  I loved the way the coloured block seemed to 'pop' out of the off white.  But the lines weren't straight enough, the squares not squared enough so it's going to make a nice place mat for the middle of the table.  With lots of things on it, it should be just fine!

I realised in looking at my little sample, that what I really wanted was for the entire colour pack to stay together.  I loved the way the colours spanned out in the package......an idea was born!

Here is my entire quilting space in the cabin.  Pretty cool huh?  It looks small, and it was, but it worked out just fine, how much room should you need, it was only 2 little packages of 5" squares!

The trick was going to be how to sew white squares onto each of the 4 corners.....344 white square in total and keep them in order.

WOW!  I did it!  Now what?????

Should I continue with the 86 squares that had to be kept in order, without a design wall, trying to work on a 3 foot by 3 foot table?  I love to quilt, but I'm not crazy!  I packaged it all up, put it away and the next day we headed for home.

Richmond, here we come!  Guess who was 3rd in line for the ferry?????

Once we got home, the sewing started in ernest.  I decided to go with one pack of fabric first, lay it all out and sew it together. 

Maggie, of course, was her usual supportive self.  Unfortunately, in the quilting frenzy she took a header off the iron board but the bonus was that we suddenly realized that she makes a great thread catcher!  She wasn't impressed but tolerated me!

Here is the first side.  I started on the far left and just laid them out on the design wall one after another.  For the second half, I started on the far right side but I laid them out from bottom to top instead of top to bottom.  In the end, it made it look like they were just random, but in actuality there is a plan and a pattern!  I guess you could call it kind of a secret pattern.  I am totally thrilled with the results!

So as soon as I got that all done, there was just one more problem.  I had decided that I wanted to use every single bit of fabric in the packs.

What the heck am I going to with these??????

 





Vacation!

My Kona Challenge took to the road last week.  For the first time ever, I took my sewing machine with me on vacation!  My poor husband was a bit horrified as I brought down bag after bag of fabric and supplies to be wedged into the car, but he managed to get it all in (with little complaint) and off we headed to the Sunshine Coast to a little cabin on the water.

Here is the view from the deck.

Talk about getting the creative juices flowing!   I brought along 4 projects to work on as my attention span is not the greatest.  Did I start work immediately on the Challenge?  Of course not!  I decided to try my hand at a Jelly Roll Race quilt!

For those of you that don't know about this yet, the theory is simple.  Take a large jelly roll and separate all the strips.  Then join them all together end to end to make one massive long strip. I decided to join my as in binding so the seams are on an angle but you can do them blunt ended too, it's your choice.

Now because I'm kind of obsessive with my fabric, I decided to stitch up the 1/2 square triangles that are trimmed off and I'll do something with those later...maybe on the back? 

Before you sew a single stitch, you must cut 18 inches off one end!  You can save this to use with the 1/2 square triangles.  Or make a hair bow, or dog collar, or put it in your scrap basket.  Whatever you do...

 DO NOT FORGET TO CUT OFF THIS PIECE!

This is why my quilt just may be named "The 2 Day Jelly Roll Race!".  The reason you cut off this piece is so that when you take the 2 ends and start to sew them together, they are offset.  If you do not do this, then they line up and you might as well just be sewing strips together.  I sewed one seam and realized my mistake.....so spent the next while unsewing. 

Once that was done, it was off to the races!

All you do now is sew and sew and sew.  You take each end of the strip and sew it together.  When you get to the end, just cut the strip.  Sounds strange but when you get to this point, you'll know what I mean.  Then you take the two ends and sew it together again.  You just pedal to the metal and sew.  Here is my result.

Kind of cool huh?  It's pretty colourful, not really my style but now there is one less jelly roll in my stash!

When I was at the Fraser Valley Quilt Show, I chatted with one of the ladies doing a demo on applique using a toothpick to turn under the edges.  She was working on a Hawaiian block and it was spectacular.  I watched her for about 10 minutes and that 10 minutes is etched in my brain.  I had to give it a try!  So off to the Sechelt fabric shop and look what I found!!!!!

I loosely cut them out, leaving some of the black background.  When one of my son's looked at it his comment was......"yup, you were on the Sunshine Coast alright!  Looks like it walked right out of a granola shop!"

I am very happy with it now! 

At this point, you will notice that there has been no comment about the Challenge????  I'm getting to it but my blogging time has run out, so I'll have to post about it later.  I'll leave you, in anticipation, with this shot.



CHEERS!



Maggie

 This is Maggie.  I discovered her, upside down, in a basket, in a dark corner of Chapters on Robson.  She was sitting, quite undignified waiting for me to rescue her.  The sign attached around her neck told me that her name was Maggie and that she has a vivid imagination and never lets the facts get in the way of a good story!
We chatted for awhile and she agreed to come home and be my Quilting Muse.

She moves around the quilt studio to get the best view of the current work in progress.  She usually doesn't say too much but is never critical either.
I think it's a match made in heaven!

Vancouver Modern Kona Challenge!

What to do?  What to do?  The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild managed to get us all a pack of Kona Solids!  The challenge?  To make something with them and the fabric is to be the feature.  I scoured quilt books, checked out blogs and Flicker pictures for a week.  I think I have finally decided what to do.  I'm heading off for a week of R&R and taking my sewing machine so I'm anticipating great things will happen!  It almost seems a shame to cut into them.....maybe I will just use them as a solid piece???????  Only time will tell.

P.S.  Not only did I get the one charm pack, but I also WON another pack at the guild meeting last week!  I'm in heaven!!!!!!