The final countdown

I am almost at the hyperventilating stage - my bags are not packed, my supplies are not gathered, and there are two winter storms in the next three days standing between me and QuiltCon. I cannot wait to immerse myself in the quirky quilty culture, have some great Tex-Mex, meet friends from all over while sipping a Margarita and chatting about the show. Good times are to be had! I cannot think, let alone write because I am so excited. So, I bid you good bye with a picture of Ethos, my quilt juried into QuiltCon 2015. My next post will be from Austin y'all! 

Ethos - QuiltCon 2015

Bag

I have been itching for a while to make another bag. You can never have enough bags, right? I spent hours browsing the Internet for something simple and quick, yet pretty, versatile and effective. I did not want a tote bag, or a grocery bag. I wanted a bag that can fit all my stuff, and still look cool. I came across a free pattern called Reversible Bag by Nevita Estiti who blogs at VeryPurplePerson,com 

The instructions are very clear and the pattern prints easily on any printer (make sure you set your printer to 100%). It took me about 2 to 3 hours to make the bag and I believe the next one will go faster. I made only a slight change - I extended the straps by inserting a 12" piece of reverse fabric. I am 5'11" and far from petite so I needed the straps to be a bit longer.

Lack of my photography skills on the side, the bag turned out exactly as expected and it has already been claimed by my daughter as a perfect cross body bag for her dance gear...

WIPs and UFOs

For about a two weeks before the Quiltcon entry deadline I was quilting like crazy, day and night. My house looked like a complete disaster, the laundry was piling up, I was high on creative juices and sleep deprived. Everything was on the back burner except for quilting. Now that the deadline has come and gone, I find myself missing that non-stop quilting rush, so I decided to finally deal with ever growing pile of works in progress (WIPs) and unfinished objects (UFOs). Needless to say, my sewing room was in dire need of organizing and while I plowed through the Quiltcon leftovers I came across several forgotten half done projects. Some of them were what-was-I-thinking kind but some were pretty good and deserved to be finished.

I tackled a pillowcase that only needed binding to be finished. It was my take on the Dresden plate pattern. I used leftovers from a charm pack and quilted it on my at the time brand new sewing machine. It was a test piece that turned out to look pretty good.

Dresden pillow

I also came across a pile of fabric strips left over from a quilt I made eons ago. The fabric felt so soft and silky and although I decided not to start any new projects until I put a serious dent into WIPs I could not resist. I put all the fabrics together, randomly, into a table runner. The result was hideous. They worked so well in a rag quilt I made, but in the table runner, not so much. I had some left over binding, and I bound the table runner nevertheless. The binding pulled all the fabrics together and it look much better. Although not my favorite piece, it fits my eclectic home decor quite nicely.

Leftovers table runner

Go me!

I am an obsessive compulsive email checker ... except for today. Today, life caught up with me, my devices were comatose and the kids were monopolizing the computer. A friend, or rather an Angel looking over my shoulder, called to urge me to check my e mail....and tadaaaaa (cue in drum roll)...there were three e-mail from the Modern Quilt Guild waiting for me. One of my quilts was accepted for 2015 Quiltcon in Austin, Texas. Two were rejected, but let's not dwell on the negative :)

To be on the safe side, and leave Karma at bay, I will not post the picture of the quilt that got in. It is almost like I cannot believe it until I see it hanging in the convention center. I do not want to jinx it. I was hoping that at least one of my quilts gets in, and I am pretty much over the moon excited right now. The two quilts that did not get in are String Theory and Through the Fence.

String Theory is a quilt that did not want to be made, and the more fitting name for it should have been Persistence. From the very beginning, everything that could possibly go wrong with this quilt, indeed went wrong. Two sewing machines, two long arms, an oil spill, and numerous thread breaks later it is finally finished. At times, I thought that it would be much easier to explain String Theory to a toddler than to finish this quilt....but it is done, and it will look great on my couch.

String Theory

Through the Fence was inspired by the aftermath of hurricane Sandy on Long Island. While sitting on my patio this summer, I was looking at the section of the fence that we fixed and remembering a majestic oak tree that fell right through it. The fence has gaps, and it is far from perfect, but it is ours, and just like us it wears its scars proudly. I like that I can see my neighbour's garden through it, and that the paint is peeling in places. The fence is no longer a divider, but rather a link between us. 

Through the Fence

And now we wait for February to start packing for the Quiltcon. I cannot wait!

That last minute thing...

There is nothing like doing things the last minute. Many moons ago I selected seven, yes, seven designs for seven quilts to enter into 2015 Quiltcon. This reminds me of that Iron Maiden song "Seven deadly sims, seven ways to win, seven holy paths to hell and your trip begins..." I had two years to execute my plan...and I procrastinated for one year and 11 months. The last month has been a sweet hell, a whirlwind of not sleeping, quilting, burying threads, screaming at the Gods of quilting, but three of the seven quilts are done, finished, photographed and submitted. All I have to do is wait and see if any of them get in. Keep your fingers crossed.

(Never) say never

There are many quilting techniques and styles that are simply not my cup of tea, so I stay away from them. I do not even give them a chance to plant a seed of interest in my head. My mind is not as open as you might think. 

A few days ago, Quiltcon 2015 catalogue was published and I was smacked head on by one of those techniques that I would not even discuss - bias tape appliqué. I like, scratch that, I LOVE challenges of any kind, and this time the challenge is bias tape appliqué. So, I opened my mind, just a smidgen, to think about this technique that was up until now packed away with all the undesirable ones. And, as you guessed, I got hooked, completely obsessed with this technique. I cannot sleep, I cannot read, all I can do is think of quilt designs that would utilize bias tape appliqué. I have so many ideas, I went through almost an entire design pad, and I have an urge to make all of them into quilts. My day is only 24 hours long, so I have to pick one. A difficult choice to say the least.

The moral of this story is not obscure - never say never, because if you do, you will have to go back and eat those words with the side of humility, just like I did. Happy quilting!

Supernova Block Swap

Fellow MQG member Sandra, who blogs at One Million Stitches and her friend Stephanie of  Late Night Quilter put together an event called the Supernova Friendship Block Swap. I have already joined, and if you would like to join as well, hop over to one of their blogs and let the fun begin.

The idea is to pair up with a quilter you really do not know all that well (a fellow blogger, somebody you met on a quilting forum) and swap Supernova Friendship blocks. You will end up with a gorgeous quilt and in the process learn more about each other. The way how Sandra and Stephanie explained is that  "each time we send our surprise package with a new block in it, we’re also going to include a few details about ourselves.
Each month we’ll add a couple of questions on our blogs for all of us to answer and give to our partners. With my experience as a journalist and Stephanie’s as a psychologist, you can bet we’ll have no trouble coming up with some interesting ones!"

I think this is going to be a blast. I am already ransacking my finally organized underground lair for suitable fabrics. Supernova is designed by Lee at Freshly Pieced, who featured it last year on her own Supernova Quilt Along.

Supernova by Lee from Freshly Pieced (used with permission)