WIP Wednesday: It's a Mystery!

This week's WIP is also my April UFO project.  It's a mystery quilt I started last summer at Quilt Colorado 2012.  The designer is Linda Ballard of Let's Quilt.

"Mystery at Quilt Colorado" is probably the most "mysterious" mystery quilt I've made.  You really had to sew all the steps before a clue emerged as to what the quilt would look like!

A further mystery:  I knew, I just knew, I had lots of the fabric I used left over. I needed more of the "dark" fabric to make the borders. But I couldn't find it -- my sewing room is a disaster area, the result of an energetic search for the extra fabric.

Amazingly, I awoke this morning with the thought "it's on the bolt."  You see, I have a dozen or so bolts of fabric stored behind my cutting table, mostly backings and background fabrics.  I moved the cutting table out, and there it was!

I have the twelve blocks complete, next I will work on the sashing and the pieced border.

Saturday at Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, Kari presented a wonderful talk on "color."  She suggested translating a photo of our quilts to grayscale to see if the contrast is adequate.

I'm very happy to report the contrast for this quilt is excellent!  Kari, thanks for the excellent tip!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

It's going to be "down to the wire" to get this UFO complete before the end of the month!  How is your's coming?  Email me a photo when you get it finished!


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World Book Night

Tonight is "World Book Night" in the US.  If you haven't heard of it, here is what WorldBookNight.org says about this project:

About World Book Night
World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading, person to person.  Each year on April 23, tens of thousands of people go out into their communities and give half a million free World Book Night paperbacks to light and non-readers.  In 2012, World Book Night was celebrated in the U.S., the UK, Ireland, and Germany.
World Book Night is about giving books and encouraging reading in those who don’t regularly do so. But it is also about more than that: It’s about people, communities and connections, about reaching out to others and touching lives in the simplest of ways—through the sharing of stories.
World Book Night is a nonprofit organization. We exist because of the support of thousands of book givers, booksellers, librarians, and financial supporters who believe in our mission.  Successfully launched in the U.K. in 2011, World Book Night was first celebrated in the U.S. in 2012. Thank you to our U.K. friends for such a wonderful idea!

I am lucky to be chosen to be a book "giver" for 2013.  A few months ago, WBN asked for input on what books to give away this year.  I read several of the books, and chose "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham.

I mailed my books to My Little Sailor on the USS George Washington -- after all, a United States Ship is technically US soil!  I chose "Playing for Pizza" because I thought this light read would appeal to young Sailors who might not have the "reading habit."  I hope during their summer "cruise," they will enjoy reading this book and maybe come back for more.

If you'd like to get involved, go here to sign up for the World Book Night newsletter.  And keep on reading!

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What's on the Design Wall?

I know, I promised a road trip report.  I got caught up working on the next Jelly Roll Party sample, so I'll save the Saturday Stash for next Saturday!

The June Jelly Roll Party quilt at Ruth's Stitchery is "At Sea," from Cozy Quilts.

The Party Girls chose this one for June from a pile of patterns I brought into the shop.  I love it, mostly because of the name.  I want to have some quilts completed in case a Sailor on My Little Sailor's ship, the USS George Washington, gets a major award.  It takes two weeks for mail to reach them, so I need to be ready to ship off a quilt at a moment's notice!

Here is my layout of the blocks:

My fabrics are from Edyta Sitar's "Laundry Basket" batiks collection.  The background is a very pale seafoam green.  I'm waiting for the yardage from Edyta to arrive at Ruth's for the border.

After I had the blocks for "At Sea" pieced, I decided to finish the blocks for this month's "Vintage Schnibbles" parade.  The pattern is "Hat Trick," and I'm using 1930s reproduction scraps for mine:

I did go with the muslin for the setting squares and triangles.  It will be fun to quilt something fancy in those blank spaces.

There is barely one week left to finish my April UFO, and this is all I have done!

How about you?  When you have your UFO "finished" (remember, *you* decide what is finished!), take a photo and email me the photo at AuntMarti at 52quilts dot com. The parade will be May 1st! 



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A Friday Finish (Not Mine)

I'm hitting the road today, but right quick  before I leave, I want to share this link to the newest Scrap Squad quilt.  Nope, not mine (although mine is going to the Long-Armer Ann today!).

It's Colette's "Mandarin Express."  She used 1920s repros, and I just love it!

Here is the original from the May/June issue of Quiltmaker Magazine:

Go here to read all about Colette's version.

Then come back Sunday for a Road Trip Report!





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100 Blocks Vol. 7

I love being "ahead of the game."  Twice now, I've tested blocks for 100 Blocks magazine.  The next issue, Vol. 7, hits newsstands May 7.

My group of testers sewed 13 blocks.  The blocks were made in a variety of techniques, including piecing, applique, and foundation piecing.  It's so fun to see the new magazine and say, "I tested that block!"

Before the magazine is published, Quiltmaker will host a Blog Tour on their blog to showcase some of the block designers.  Go to Quilty Pleasures blog to see a preview of some of the 100 blocks, beginning April 29.

I've had some trouble with links since I changed over to Bloglovin.  If this happens to you, the Quiltmaker blog url is:

http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/

Although I'm not "officially" part of the blog tour, I'll post photos of the blocks I tested. And of course, I'll again offer a giveaway of some of the blocks I made.

Come back on Monday, April 29 for the Blog Tour kickoff!


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WIP Wednesday: A New Project

All month I've worked on UFOs, BOMs, and samples.  I decided to reward myself today by starting something new!

And what would that "something new" be?  Jamie's "Brick Road Sew Along."

I have a lovely stack of Free Spirit solids that I bought from Amy Burg Gibson.  She is using them for her Sugar Block Club; however, I am using Bonnie and Camille's Vintage Modern for my blocks.  Soooo, here are my colors for the Brick Road:

Using my color wheel, I started selecting complementary colors.

The true complement to bright orange is bright blue, but it looks too much like Boise State University Broncos.  So the first block I chose was purple and orange:

Next:

Then:

When I edited the Summer School catalog at Pacific Lutheran University, these were the first colors I chose for the catalog cover:

The next year, I chose:

I have 45 bricks to choose, so this is going to take some time.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

How is your April UFO coming along?  I confess, I haven't even worked on mine this month.  Only two weeks to go!




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Scrap Basket Sunday Block a Day

When one is retired and doesn't have to be somewhere everyday, one wakes up in the morning and thinks, "OK, today is Sunday, airport run."  Otherwise, one is surprised when DH says "you're taking me to the airport, aren't you?"  I love only leaving the place twice a week!

I'm also loving reading all the links on Kim's "Scrap Basket Sunday."

Even more, I'm loving playing in my own scrap basket!  Karen at Anna Lena Land sponsors a "block a day" challenge each season.  The idea is, even if you can't make a quilt each week, you can make one block a day!

The Spring Block a Day is the Chevron block.  Can't get much easier than this, and I love the results!  I'm doing mine in a rainbow arrangement, using all polka dots:

There will be 90 blocks, so I need nine rows of 10 each.  The Roy G Biv rainbow has only seven colors, so I'll add brown, black and grey.

Here are my other "Block a Day" quilts.

Bowtie:

Hourglass:

Flying in Squares (Flying Geese):

Tessellating Crosses:

Streaks of Lightning:

And my favorite quilt of all time, Summer Strings:

Wow!  I can't believe how many of Karen's Block a Day quilts I've made! That one block per day thing really works -- thanks, Karen!


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