Block #14 is another 9×9″ block called Kansas Star that is all pieced. We deviated radically from the pattern to bring in more black and orange. I love the contrasts in this block and the way the on point white square in the middle really stands out. We had some angst about the direction of the black stripes in the squares. ShaRee & Terry opted to make them all face the same direction, but I am characteristically rebellious and opted to have them all face the center. Does it matter? No, but fun to notice our minor differences. [Read more…] about Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #14 & #15
Quilting
Sue’s new studio
For several years, my creative space has been in a basement room and I have never liked being in the basement. I need light and space! Even though our boys are grown men and haven’t really lived in our home for more than a couple months at a time since 2007 & 2009 respectively, we have kept their bedrooms intact so they had a place to return that was their own. But over the last couple years, I have been eyeing those upstairs bedrooms with increasing envy and due to several life changes for all of us, Scott finally agreed to let me have one as my new studio. It was Mark’s bedroom for several years, then was the home of his recording studio, Mountain Beach House Studio. It underwent a complete transformation to become a recording studio, and when he found a great space a few blocks from his apartment in his city of residence, he moved all the equipment out and it became a guest bedroom. But I set up a folding table and ironing board and it became my quilt space for several months with my paper crafts still in the basement along with all my fabric and supplies. But earlier this year the decision was made to make it my studio and the transformation began! [Read more…] about Sue’s new studio
Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #12 & #13
OK, I said I was trying to catch up on our progress, remember? So mid-summer we got these blocks done. Block #12 is 9″x9″, called Spools and we did it in the same color scheme as the pattern. We looked at it and said “no prob, we’ve made spool blocks before”. Then we looked at the pattern and realized that the four sides around the center squares aren’t pieced with a rectangle and triangles at each side but are all one piece. Yikes! The pattern instructions say to use a Y-seam construction, but not how to do it. Gulp! We’ve never done Y-seams. Besides the first reason that ShaRee likes the sampler and wanted to make it, one of the reasons for doing this quilt is to learn new skills. So we headed to the “university” of YouTube where all tutorial knowledge resides to find out how to make Y-seams. [Read more…] about Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #12 & #13
Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #10 & #11
I’m a little behind on posting because our 1930’s group has been busy working this summer, even with all the interruptions. I will try to get caught up with posts soon. Early in the summer we did these two blocks. Block #10 is called Flying Birds & Flowers and is a 9″x9″ block. The birds are the pieced triangle blocks and the flowers are obviously the applique flowers. We kept the pieced color scheme the same as the pattern but chose different flowers. The pattern called for a light and dark pink but we went for a bold violet and orange for more contrast with the backgrounds. We each have different preferences for the applique blanket stitch colors so our top stitching varies between each of us between lots of contrast and less contrast. [Read more…] about Ode to the 1930’s-blocks #10 & #11
