Nebraska State Quilt Guild 2015 Challenge Finished Part 2

As promised here is the finished quilt – wall hanging.  It finished at 20” x 17.5”.  I did add some beading and a few buttons too so check that out in the detail photos below.  Some of my quilting lines do a squiggle here and there but I am trying hard not to be such a perfectionist and rip all the imperfections so they stay as first stitched.Can’t wait to see how the other challenge quilts I worked on are finished and the other groups that worked on challenge quilts.  Our annual QuiltNebraska is in about a week  so I don’t have long to wait.

Lynn

NSQG Challenge - My Quilt

I just got my Nebraska State Quilt Guild challenge quilt back after making the rounds.  This is the block I started on the trip to 3 of my friends to add borders.  Fay added the pinwheels on the right and the diamonds on the top.  Kay added the green and navy stripe with the leaf appliques and the last to work on my quilt was Janet and she pieced the rectangles and appliqued blue circles.  I love it but know I need to add more to finish it up.  The block started out it's trip looking like this.  I used a traditional looking block with flying geese units running diagonally.  Thinking the block looked a little plain, I added the appliqued circles to the sides.  I used the Bernina Circle Embroidery attachment to stitch on the circles and to do the decorative stitching.  A fun attachment and an easy way to get perfect circles and keep the stitching lines parallel.As a reminder here are the challenge rules -It is a round robin challenge with a team of 4-5 quilters of your choice.  Each quilt will start with a 9” finished center block.  You will build around the center block using borders with the following shapes—pinwheels, circles, diamonds, applique, and some embellishment.  The front of the quilt must have at least one of each shape listed but you may use more of these shapes if you wish.  Each quilt cannot exceed 120 total inches around.  It must be quilted, bound and a label sewn on the back.

Now, I have to decide what I want to add to finish up my wall hanging.   I am thinking Ii t needs something dark on top and left but not sure what yet.  Maybe more embroidery?  Any ideas or suggestions?

Lynn

Nebraska State Quilt Guild–Fay’s Block

Fay’s quilt is the last of the challenge quilts in my group for me to work on.  Two other gals added borders before I got it.  Fay’s original quilt consisted of nine 3” blocks, Kay added the bottom and left side borders and Janet added the diamond top border.  I hung it on my flannel wall for a while to study and figure out what to add next.
The only shape required that had not been used in the borders was a pinwheel so that was what I decided to make.  The 2” pinwheels were fun to make and made five.  To fit them to the border I divided the excess length by 4 to determine the size of the sashing between the blocks.

This is what Fay’s quilt looks like at this point.  She may want to add more or different borders and will be fun to see what she does with it to finish it.

As a reminder here are the challenge rules -It is a round robin challenge with a team of 4-5 quilters of your choice.  Each quilt will start with a 9” finished center block.  You will build around the center block using borders with the following shapes—pinwheels, circles, diamonds, applique, and some embellishment.  The front of the quilt must have at least one of each shape listed but you may use more of these shapes if you wish.  Each quilt cannot exceed 120 total inches around.  It must be quilted, bound and a label sewn on the back.

I am getting anxious to get my own back to see what my friends did with it.  

Until Later,
Lynn

Nebraska State Quilt Guild Challenge–Kay’s Block

The challenge rules are posted at the bottom of this blog post if you don’t remember from my other posts about this challenge.  Kay is a former art teacher and an artist in her own right as well.  She painted/drew the wonderful grasshopper block.  It is just fabulous, don’t you think?Janet added the pinwheel blocks to border two sides before getting it to me to add another border.  After looking at it on my flannel board for a while I came up with an idea…..circles again.  I love the circles on the original block and wanted to repeat that motif if I could and satisfy another requirement or two for the challenge.
I  had a piece of gradated fabric in the perfect shades of green to use as my background for the circles.  I drew double circles on paper and cut them out to try out arrangements to see what I liked best.  I first settled on just having them float upward and had the papers pinned onto the strip of fabric for several days while I evaluated it. As I was thinking and studying the block I pulled these batiks from my stash as candidates for the circles.   One day as I walked by it occurred to me to have the circles make a path similar to the ones in the original block.Here are the circles made of fabric with fusible on the back and arranged on a diagonal – so much better than just floating straight upward.In this photo they are fused down and then stitched with a machine blanket stitch with it's mirror image using several orange, yellow and green threads I pulled from my thread stash.  Not sure that is the right term for the stitch but it looks like a blanket stitch going both ways out from the straight stitch that runs next to the applique.
Ready to send off to Fay.  One block left to work on but I am wondering if I will be doing circles on that one too!

Until Later,
Lynn

Challenge rules -It is a round robin challenge with a team of 4-5 quilters of your choice.  Each quilt will start with a 9” finished center block.  You will build around the center block using borders with the following shapes—pinwheels, circles, diamonds, applique, and some embellishment.  The front of the quilt must have at least one of each shape listed but you may use more of these shapes if you wish.  Each quilt cannot exceed 120 total inches around.  It must be quilted, bound and a label sewn on the back.

Nebraska State Quilt Guild Challenge–Janet’s Block

Challenge rules for the Nebraska State Quilt Guild 2015 are at bottom of this blog if you don’t remember what they were from my previous post about the challenge. 

I didn’t get a photo of Janet’s block before I added my border but you can figure it out what it was, a pinwheel block.  I added the applique circle flowers, stems and leaves on 3 of the 4 sides of the border.  I again used the dissoluble paper like interfacing inside the leaves and flowers.  The stems are bias cut and tiny.  I had purchased a 1/8” bias maker from Clover and this is the first time I used it and it worked great to make the tiny stems.  The photo above is before appliqueing when everything was glued down using a glue stick. After the applique was done by machine using a clear polyester thread.  I love it and hope Janet does too.

Until later,
Lynn

Challenge Rules - It is a round robin challenge with a team of 4-5 quilters of your choice.  Each quilt will start with a 9” finished center block.  You will build around the center block using borders with the following shapes—pinwheels, circles, diamonds, applique, and some embellishment.  The front of the quilt must have at least one of each shape listed but you may use more of these shapes if you wish.  Each quilt cannot exceed 120 total inches around.  It must be quilted, bound and a label sewn on the back.

QuiltNebraska 2014

Shirley, Janet, Fay, Me (Lynn)

Another QuiltNebraska in the books the end of July and as usual it was fun to take classes, meet and visit old friends and participate in a Nebraska State Quilt Guild activity.  This year’s convention was held in North Platte, Nebraska which is about a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive from here.  I love that our annual convention moves around the state so we can have a different experience each year.  There are always new people to get to know as well as those of us perpetual attendees. QuiltNebraska, of course, always means rooming with three of my long time quilt friends.  We look forward to catching up with each others lives as well as spending time together doing what we love.  We had to chuckle this year as we used to stay up late into the night time hours and visit but now “lights out” comes a lot earlier.

This year I took two all day classes instead of half day classes.  Half day classes are fine but sometimes I feel so rushed if they are sewing classes.  Seems like you just get the machine going and the project started and it is time to clean up and be done with the class.   This first class, “Spectrum”, was taught by Jill Vanderboegh.  The project she taught is pictured below in two color ways.  She had a great way of speed piecing the foundation pieced diamonds.  She did give us a choice of making this small 12” version or a larger version which I forgot to take a photo of at convention but did get a photo of it at the Nebraska State Fair where it won a blue ribbon.  As you can see it was slightly different in that it was squared out with piecing in the corners and was approximately 24”to 28” across.

 

I chose to do the small 12” one and will show you my progress in another blog post as I am still working on it.

The second class I took was taught by Kay Grimminger on making a free form beaded pendant.  I had such a good time in this class and Kay’s pieces are exquisite!  We all started with a cabochon and from there on it was our decision of what beads we wanted to stitch on and where we wanted to place them.  Here are 2 of Kay's pieces below.

 

This is the piece below that I had nearly finished by the end of the day long class.  Love the colors and it really was fun to make.  I didn’t get too elaborate with the shape or the number of kinds of beads as  I don’t really like to wear really large jewelry and wanted to get it finished.
Each year the NSQG members await the unveiling of the new raffle quilt with much anticipation.  This year the quilt did not disappoint.  It is a gorgeous black and gold double feathered star with appliqued vines and leaves in the corners.  The quilt is further enhanced with beautiful machine quilting done by Nebraska’s own award winning quilter Kris Vierra.  Crystals were applied to the quilt to add sparkle.  To read more about this quilt check out this webpage on the Nebraska Quilt Guild’s website.
Of course I have my tickets purchased and intend to win this quilt next July!  I say that every year but this is one I really would like to own.

Lynn

Quilt Gathering

Recently on a beautiful Saturday afternoon the Nebraska State Quilt Guild held what they call a “Quilt Gathering.”  These gatherings are held around the state in different areas, are free to the public and have programs of interest to quilters.  The events are planned by the district representatives and the one just held in my area was planned by a good friend of mine and the other district rep. plus my friend volunteered to be one of the presenters for our afternoon program.


The theme of the afternoon was “Crazy Quilts” and my friend Gloria has been making crazy quilts for quite a few years and has made some very beautiful examples she showed that day.  She had lots and lots of examples of things you can do to manipulate fabric, trims, and embellishments and told how she stitches it all up into a beautiful creation.  Gloria likes to work on the sewing machine but does hand stitching too and the quilts she has made using these techniques are stunning.

 
The second half of the program was given by Terry Melby from Kansas.  She has been doing crazy quilting” for many years but she loves doing her work by hand.  She had  many lovely panels to show and pass around for the audience to get a close look at.  She said she has certain size picture frames that she displays the crazy squares in her home.  The finished work is stretched over stretcher frames that fit the picture frames so she can change them out and rotate the squares – a very good idea.  Her work is exquisite, and full of all kinds of fabrics, trims and hand embroidery stitches, a real inspiration.

We all enjoyed both programs – good to see both machine and hand work on the same subject with the two presenters.  I enjoyed them both but to be honest I probably will never get hooked on it in either form.  I have done one small crazy quilt wall hanging for one of my daughters and husband after they got married.


It has been so long ago – finished it in 2002 – but think the blocks are about  8”.  One blocks depicts my daughter, one about her husband, one about their wedding and the last about the two of them together.  I did the embroidery stitching on my sewing machine and used trims and embellishments on the blocks.  There is a piece of lace trim I tatted in one of the blocks, fabric from the bridesmaid dresses, photos printed on fabric and charms to depict them and their lives.

After making this wall hanging I decided I really did not enjoy working with the satins, silks and velvets in the crazy quilt format.  I tied it by stitching from the back  into the seams so the ties wouldn’t show.  Maybe I would feel differently now but I really have no desire to do another crazy quilt but I do enjoy looking at the detailed work of others so the afternoon program was very enjoyable.

Lynn

Nebraska State Fair–Quilts

I just love attending, exhibiting and white gloving at the Nebraska State Fair each year.  There were 467 quilts entered from 195 exhibitors and they were fantastic!  Sandi McMillan won the grand champion award with this quilt.  Her machine quilting is amazing and she does it all on a domestic machine too.
Here are a couple of detail photos of her quilting – isn’t it beautiful?  Sandi has won the grand champion award numerous years and they are well deserved honors.  Click on the photos to enlarge them to take in all the detail.

 

Reserve Champion honors went to the Nebraska State Quilt Guild’s raffle quilt.  It too is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!  You can see other photos of it on this blog post on August 3, 2011.

I entered two small quilts and was lucky to win two ribbons.  My miniature “Sweet Remembrance” won a second place ribbon.  You can read more about it here on a blog post on March 31, 2011.

The quilt I made for our guild challenge received a first place ribbon.  I was surprised and pleased of course but was thinking of not even entering it.  I didn't know if it had enough pizazz or something but glad I did.  I did do more quilting on one of the borders before I took it though.  There were a lot of entries in this class too so that makes it even a nicer win.  (Notice how the large and med. quilts are hung...skirt hangers with hooks over the pipes.  Really works slick.)The funny part of this win was the prize.  I read on the online results page that it got a special award and couldn’t figure out what that was.   I didn’t realize the class was divided into two sections and thought I got a second place as my name was second on the list.  I didn’t see the placing numbers for several days and was still not sure what the award was.  The prize I won was a $25 gift certificate to Quilter’s Delight quilt shop in Holdrege, NE…owned and operated by my long time friend.  She gives the prize for this category each year and this year I just happened to win it. 

When the State Fair moved from Lincoln to Grand Island last year the state fair board decided it wanted to have a large block made for every county in the state and have them framed and hung outside the large room where the quilt display is held.  I was asked to make a block for my county and write about it in this blog post from September 17, 2010.  This was a photo I took of the block before I sent it off  and is now framed.

Here is a view of one of the walls where the blocks were hung.  All the county blocks got finished but 3 counties so there were 90 of the 93 Nebraska counties represented.  Hopefully the last 3 will get done to be hung with the rest by next year.  As you can see they are high up on the wall and were a little difficult to get photos of individually as the glare off the glass reflected the lights overhead. 

The Grand Island newspaper had a nice article about the quilt display and these county blocks here.  The fair board hosted a reception for all the makers of the blocks during the fair at the VIP lounge.  The lounge is a large glassed in area on the second floor overlooking the air conditioned show arena.  Now that would be the way to watch a livestock show!  What fun it was to see so many people I knew and a lot I didn’t know.  I think most of the makers of the blocks attended that reception so they came from all parts of the state.

I have been so busy every day lately and have not taken time to post … maybe things will slow down a bit now and I can catch up.  I do have some photos and ideas for posts but just need to get them written up.

Until Later,

Lynn

QuiltNebraska 2011

Last weekend was the annual quilt convention for the Nebraska State Quilt Guild that is named QuiltNebraska.  There are classes by national and regional teachers, banquets, quilt displays, merchants booths, raffle quilts, etc.  It was a fun filled busy weekend that always passes so quickly.  I room with the same 3 gals and we took our annual photo right before the Saturday night banquet.  Sometime I should go back and look at past years and compare…or maybe not.  Who wants to see yourself age year by year?
I took three machine work classes over the weekend so packed up my Bernina 730 to use.  I needed a zig zag machine so my Singer Featherweight stayed at home this year.  Lugging my machine to the second floor of the motel to our room the first night then down on Friday morning for my first class was a challenge but I solved that problem by putting it in my car between the other classes.

Friday morning I took “Bobbin Drawing, Thread Painting, and Free Motion Machine Embroidery” by Marjan Kluepfel.  Was a fun class learning how to set up your machine for the different techniques and playing with different threads.  Some threads worked real well and others I found out were not good choices.  Am anxious to try bobbin drawing on a quilt top soon.  Marjan is very talented and her work is full of detail and very pretty.

I had a machine embroidery class on Friday afternoon, “Animate Your Applique” by Mickey Depre.  She uses a product called Pellon Décor Bond as her stabilizer of choice.  The product worked well and want to get more to try.  Mickey was fun and making the sampler of different stitches will be a nice reference.  Her quilts are so whimsical, very lovely and hang so well with the extra stabilizer.

Saturday I took an all day class with Sarah Smith called “Hawaiian Applique by Machine”.  I really enjoyed the class and have worked on my block at home this week.  I am not that proficient at satin stitching so it is a little wonky but with a little practice I am sure I can do a better job.  The room was really tight with tables and students but we managed to find room for what we needed to do.  Tried another stabilizer in Sarah’s class and liked the way it behaved.  It was C&T's Wash-Away Applique sheets that can be fused too.  Loved looking closely at Sarah’s work as it is just beautiful.

Each year a new raffle quilt is revealed at the Saturday night banquet.  The quilts are always beautiful and this year is no exception.  The quilt was entered into the Machine Quilters Showcase in Overland Park, Kansas this last May and did well.  It is named “Magic of the Rose” and was pieced and appliqued by a group of women from the Columbus, Nebraska area and machine quilted by Kristin Vierra of Lincoln.  It won the viewers choice award plus and honorable mention award.  My photo was taken from the side so is not the best angle but you get the idea of what it looks like and the detail shots show the wonderful machine quilting.

Magic of the Rose VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The theme and national teachers were revealed for 2012 in a video slide presentation.  The chairman is very enthusiastic and has a lot of things in place already.  QuiltNebraska moves around to different locations and 2012 will be held in LaVista, Nebraska then end of July.  The web page here shows the teachers booked so far and some of the other plans that have been made so far.  They will be updating it with new information as it becomes available.  The convention will play on the Harry Potter idea – different than we have had but sounds like fun.  This is not limited to just Nebraska residents so if you are interested in attending next year just check out the website for more information in the coming months.  Registration forms won’t probably be posted until Feb. or March though.

Still thinking back to a great time spent with quilters and quilts – a great summer get away.

Lynn
PS-Follow this link to see a better photo taken of the quilt.

QuiltNebraska 2009

Janet, Shirley, Lynn, Fay

QuiltNebraska, the Nebraska State Quilt Guild convention, was fun again this year. Here are the 4 of us that have roomed together for many, many years at convention. We don't live close to each other so enjoy catching up when we are together.

I had a class on Brazilian Embroidery in an all day class on Friday. I didn't really know what it was or how it differed from regular embroidery before I walked into the class. It is done with Rayon threads of various weights and the flowers are really 3-D and stand away from the background fabric. One example of a 3-D flower is the pansy that looks like it has been crocheted and stitched onto the background fabric but it is all constructed from embroidery stitches as you work on the fabric. It didn't look like we got much done by the end of the day but the instructor, Christine Hause, from Denver, had us work on a practice cloth to learn the stitches. This was great for me as I don't really do embroidery so needed a good instructor. She could tell right away if I was doing something wrong and demonstrated all the stitches until we got it - good teacher!

Christine Hause

Brazilian Embroidery Kit that all purchased as part of class.

The entertainment on Friday was a couple from Canada that sing, mostly folk type songs she had written and all the songs were about quilts and quilt makers. Cathy Miller and her husband John Bunge are from Canada and have entertained at lots of quilt events and were very fun to listen to. You can listen to the clips of some of the songs from ne of her CDs on this web page.

Cathy Miller and John Bunge

Cathy Miller

The second all day class I took this weekend was on Saturday. It was a needle turn applique class taught my Suzanne Marshall of Missouri. She also was an excellent teacher and I learned a few things I didn't know and really like her method of marking the background called "Take Away Applique". You only have to trace the design once and use that drawing after it is cut out as your pattern.

Her quilts are beautiful, each more special than the last and she has won numerous awards on her quilts. I got a chance to visit with her more as she sat at our table for dinner on Saturday night. She was really fun and had some great stories to share.

Suzanne Marshall showing some of her quilts.

Suzanne demonstrating the steps she takes to do her exquisite applique.

Saturday night we had a presentation by Jodie Davis, the host of the internet quilt program "Quilters News Network." She was going to show one of the new shows they had put together but the sound wouldn't work so she kind of narrated it. It turned out kind of a dud - she did talk about the show quite a bit so it was more like a big advertisement for us to subscribe to her show.

Jodie Davis

The live quilt auction went well with a total over $10,000 collected on Saturday night. The silent auction the day before netted around $2000 and sale of old books brought in another $300. The president presented a $150,000 check to the director of the International Quilt Study Center to satisfy the pledge the Nebraska State Quilt Guild made 4 or 5 years ago. My quilt brought $150 and I even know the quilter that purchased it so know it will be taken care of.

I was so tired when I got home yesterday afternoon I couldn't wait to get to bed last night. I knew I was tired as I slept about 2 hours later than I usually do. Am embarrassed to tell you how late I slept so will just let you imagine a time!

Better get to bed now as I want to drive out to see my mother tomorrow - a 2 1/2 hr. drive. It is her 88th birthday and I am going to take her out for lunch. My brother and his family will come in too. I called him today and he ordered a Dairy Queen ice cream cake we will pick up to take back to her apt. after lunch. YUMMMMMY!

Happy Quilting,
Lynn