Hugs and Kisses Blog Hop--Day 1

It's that time of year--Valentine's Day is only a few days away and to celebrate, my thanks go out to Madame Samm who has organized the Hugs & Kisses Blog Hop! Our cheerleader for the week is Jane from Jane's Fabrics & Quilts. It's an exciting week with new projects being revealed each day. This is my first ever blog hop and I'm so excited to have been included in this fun online gathering! My day isn't until Friday, but I hope you will visit everyone and check back at the end of the week to see my heartfelt project.

The full schedule can be found by following this Hugs & Kisses button...


The projects revealed on Day 1 are so sweet and so varied! I can hardly wait to see what comes tomorrow!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Remembering Mom--"Glimpses of Alice" vest

Me and Mom, baking cookies! (Christmas 2003)

Last week, amidst all the flurry of activity making Cindy's Comforting Words quilt, the seventh anniversary of my mother's passing came and went. That emotional bubble that hovers just under the surface on days like that, whether I consciously realize it or not, has not yet burst. For me it hangs on through February 19, what will be the 17th anniversary of my brother Robert's passing.

My mom, Alice, and brother, Robert, Christmas 1995

My mom had Lewy Body Dementia with rigid Parkinsonism. I was graced with the opportunity to be her personal caregiver for the last 16 months of her life before she passed on Feb. 7, 2006. While it was very difficult seeing my mother go that way, we had many very special moments together. Following her death, I returned to school and finished my BA in 2010, writing my senior thesis on "The Differential Diagnosis of Dementias: A Focus on Lewy Body Dementia." The following summer, I submitted a proposal to present my research at the national conference of the American Association of Service Coordinators at their annual gathering to be held in Orlando, Florida. It was accepted and in July 2011 I presented "Demystifying Dementia for the Non-Clinician" to a room filled with about 60 of my peers from across the country.


About six months before the conference, I entered a quilting challenge at my local quilt shop, Queen B's in Antioch, CA, that came with instructions to include the two fabrics in the packet with whatever others we wanted into some creative project. I chose the fabrics to go with the challenge fabrics and decided to make log cabin blocks. Included in the challenge packet were the darkest purple used in the log cabins and the lightest orchid fairy frost used for the collar. I put the blocks up on my design board and there they sat for what felt like months! I'm sure it was only weeks since there was a deadline looming for the shop challenge.

Creating the log cabin blocks

Playing with layout options

One night I was actually dreaming about those blocks and a thought flashed into my mind to make something to wear rather than a quilt or wall-hanging. A vision of the layout began to manifest and the next morning I went to work right away. I had been collecting patterns for jackets and vests to use in creating wearable art, but hadn't used any of them at that point. I dug out the kimono-type vest and started laying out pattern pieces to see if the blocks I had made would fit in any useable configuration. Amazingly, they fit together like I had planned it intentionally. As the design evolved, I worked with my embroidery machine on creating a continuous design around the collar. I also found the Laurel Burch hummingbird and hearts fabric I had added to my stash and started fussy cutting hearts to applique into the layout. Finally, I began picking out favorite pictures of Mom, each from different decades that were photo transferred to the centers of the hearts.

Photos of Mom were photo transferred to the centers of each appliqued heart

Ultimately it became a stunning kimono-type vest that incorporated log cabin blocks, machine embroidery, applique, photo transfer, and free motion quilting, and took second place in the Queen B Quilting Challenge of 2011.

Vest front and back, details of collar and inside label & heart

As I prepared to give my lecture, when I put on that vest, I felt like I was being hugged and encouraged from beyond by my mom. "Glimpses of Alice" was displayed at the Delta Quilters Guild Show in October 2011 in California, and has since been entered in the Lyon County (Kansas) Fair where it took first place and the sweepstakes (best of class) for garment construction, and the Kansas State Fair where it took first place in the Wearable Art Quilted Garment class. I pull it out of the closet to wear on special occasions or when I feel the need of a hug from Mom.

Liz speaking at the AASC National Conference, 2011, Orlando, FL

UFO Sunday--Feathered sprays

Welcome to UFO Sunday as I'll be linking up with Leah Day's review of what we've been up to this week in our free motion quilting journey.

What a glorious weekend of quilting with friends! I attended the Emporia Regional Quilt Guild's weekend retreat held in town at a local church. The basement fellowship hall is huge and easily accommodated over 30 quilters for the weekend. The doors opened on Friday at 4pm for setup and to get started on our projects. Dinner came about 6:30, and then the stitching continued until they locked up at 10pm. Saturday morning bright and early, the doors opened again at 8am. The committee treated us to a variety of crockpot soups for lunch and a build your own salad and baked potato bar for dinner. The stitching continued all day with lots of sharing, helping, talking, laughing, and a fair amount of teasing with what's become a regular joke with a rubber rat that appears under someone's sewing table. Sunday morning we returned at 8am, enjoyed a delicious lasagna, french bread & salad lunch, and then started wrapping things up so everyone could help with clean up to be out by 4pm. The ERQG holds these retreats quarterly, providing a fun space to work on our projects together and occasionally hosting a national teacher. Last November we had Pat Speth from Nickel Quilts teach for the 3-day weekend and it was wonderful! We learned to much and had so much fun!

I spent my time working on Cindy's Comforting Words quilt so I can get it finished and mailed off to her before she starts chemo. I got it pinned Friday evening and printed out the feathered sprays that I wanted to FMQ in the borders from my EQ Quilting Designs collection onto foundation paper. Saturday morning I ditched first, quilted the diagonal lines through the Irish chains and echoed the embroidered motifs. With the main part complete, after lunch I started the stitching over the foundation paper on the borders and before I left at about 9:45pm, all of the borders were quilted!

Wow! A picture of ME at work! Fun!

Follow the lines--figuring out where to go to make the stitching as continuous as possible.

And then removing the foundation paper to reveal the lovely quilted feathers.

Most of the gals in my guild send their quilts to long-arm quilters rather than FMQ their own projects. I had lots of people coming to watch the process and it was fun to share the techniques I've learned over the last few years with them. Sunday, when I wasn't off visiting at other work stations or looking at other projects, I was tearing the foundation paper away from my feathers. It's a tedious process, but I've learned that taking smaller stitches and staying on the lines makes tearing it away much easier! Practice makes perfect and before long it was all done and the quilting looked beautiful!

Comforting Words for Cindy--trimmed and ready for binding

Nice shadows showing the feathered sprays that are in all the borders.

Before packing up to head home I managed to get the quilt trimmed and now all I have to do is prepare and attach the binding, stitch it down, and attach the label. Whew! In just over a week this project has come from conception, design, production, and nearly completion. In many ways it feels like this quilt made itself. Even when piecing the back, it came out the same size as the front without planning it that way, and when pinning, it lined up so well I was able to trim right where I had planned without losing anything on the backing. Indeed it is a comfort quilt designed by God that flowed through me to fruition. Blessed be!

Here's a few fun shots of the retreat weekend. There were so many great projects being made!

Joan getting ready to pin her hand embroidered bluework tea time.

Lyn showing off her grandson's Indiana Jones mini-quilt. The animals are all paper pieced! This is my favorite of the weekend!

Queen size Neighborhood quilt

Hexagon puzzle--reminds me of the Card Trick patterns

Sharon with her Turning-Twenty Wizard of Oz quilt that she's added several embroidery designs to for added fun

Sherry with her second Quilt of Valor top finished this weekend

Becky busy on her quilt top

Trish finished adding the 9-patch corner stones and stripped sashings to her finished blocks

Kathy giving her top a good press before...

she taped the backing to the floor to pin her mom's Cardinal quilt.

All in all, we had a wonderful time! Everyone got a lot accomplished and Linda even started to learn FMQ, first using the walking foot on a printed panel top and then switching to the open quilting foot with the feed-dogs down to echo the characters. She is just starting out, but wants to keep at it and become comfortable enough to finish some of her own quilts--probably the small ones to start with. :-)

With tables set up along both walls, as well as a few down the middle, plus ironing and cutting stations, there was plenty of opportunity for stitching and visiting. I can hardly wait for the next one in May!

Back to unpacking and cutting binding strips to finish the Comforting Words before tonight's Downton Abbey comes on.
More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

FMQ Friday--stencils and fills practice

It's almost Friday and I know tomorrow and the weekend are going to be very busy, so I'm going to take a few minutes tonight to post my FMQ Friday update, linking to Leah Day's FMQ Project. I'm nearly done piecing the back of Cindy's comfort quilt. The plan is to pin it and the buffalo baby quilt tomorrow and have them ready to quilt this weekend.

For my FMQ this week, I worked on my Hugs & Kisses project, which will makes its appearance next Friday, Feb 15. I can hardly wait! It's been so fun to work on! After testing out a stencil for that project, I used the same practice square to do some McTavishing before attempting to add any more detail to my Express Your Love quilt. For a first try, it's not half bad!

I'm still figuring out how to shift from one cluster to another and not have them all going the same direction, but I'm getting there. Today Leah had some concentric circles and I gave that a shot as well, although, having just oiled my machine and getting ready to work on a big project, I did it in cream-on-white, so it doesn't show up quite as well.

I've been using this practice piece for a number of designs and just keep adding more layers and filling in more spaces. It's getting interesting, even for a simple practice piece!

The biggest project I worked on today, to take a break from piecing, was to get a jump start on the quilting on a friend's quilt. This quilt is huge and is taking all of my skill to manage it and keep going at a steady pace in the right direction. I'm working at my HQ Sweet Sixteen table model. All of the ditch work is complete, so I pulled out the stencil I had selected to fit in the 12" blocks and started to work on it. I'm using blue pounce to mark the blocks and only one at a time as I go. That way, the chalk doesn't brush off before I get to the next block.

I'm using a creamy Aurifil 50 on top and in the bobbin and it's coming out lovely! So far I have 8 blocks done, still a long way to go, plus something in the sashings and borders. Given that Jacob only slept for 10-15 minute mini-naps between crying jags with his teething today, it's a miracle I got any done!

I do feel like I'm gaining confidence and getting better at maintaining more consistent speed and stitch length. I don't use a stitch regulator at this point, although I did buy one to go with my machine. I may play with that later, but for now I'm good.

This weekend will be great fun. The local guild is holding a 3-day retreat here in town at a local church. We get to set up at 4pm Friday and sew to 10pm, return Saturday morning at 8am and sew until 10pm, and once again on Sunday from 8am to 4pm. There are about 30 quilters signed up and it's always great fun seeing what everyone has going. The guild holds these local retreats quarterly, so I get to escape my household duties fairly often for an entire weekend of quilting with my buddies! I have three projects to get ditched and hopefully quilted and bound during my weekend. If I can get that done, I'll be in great shape! Two gals who live about an hour from here stay with me, so it will be a nonstop weekend of fun.


More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

WIP Wednesday--Fast & Furious Finish

It's been a long and winding road this week... Crazy busy and very emotional. Jacob cut his first two teeth, my sister-in-law Cindy got bad news from her oncologist, and I'm working fast & furious on finishing her Comforting Words quilt to send out to her in California to take to her chemo appointments that start next week. A bright spot earlier this week was when Jacob came dressed in his new Abbey Road onesie the same day I had put on my new Abbey Road t-shirt! I love when things like this happen. :-)

So, the projects for this week include machine embroidery, photo transfer, and, yes, lots of piecing and quilting. First off was a new onesie for Jacob's little friend, Mattie, who turned 1 on Feb 2. Her mom planned a wonderful first birthday party with a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme that unfortunately got cancelled and rescheduled due to the flu hitting their home. I still got her birthday onesie done and delivered and she'll be wearing it for her first birthday portraits later this week now that everyone is over the flu.

Last Thursday, Cindy had surgery to put in the port for her upcoming chemo treatments. She's had two trips to the ER (one by 911/ambulance) in less than a week with complications. Luckily all is now okay and she wasn't admitted on either trip. But, needless to say, she is terrified and trying her best to stay positive. She's a ten-year survivor and a true warrior! The doctors give her a year at best, but I believe she has the fortitude and strength to make it to their 50th wedding anniversary a couple of years away. My brother has long embraced the practice of calling me to check in, asking if I have a minute, and then saying, "Here, Cindy, talk to Sis." I've been her support group, cheering section, loving sister for a long time and through this tough time even more. This weekend we had a couple of nights when we talked until the wee hours of the morning. Thankfully it was on nights when Jacob wasn't coming in the morning so I could sleep in. But I'd have done it anyway. We talked about the quilt I sent her for Christmas--a stack-an-slash of Christmas fabrics that I quilted with snowflakes.  

With her Christmas quilt I had made a pillowcase to store it in and use with it out of a fabric with "Believe" written all over it. She LOVES that pillowcase and told me she wants to take it to chemo with her pillow and maybe it will be inspiration for someone else. Cindy said the snowflake quilt is too big to take to chemo, so that sparked in my mind another project that had to be made and fast! So, my mind started jumping, I started playing in EQ7, and a plan came together to make Cindy a quilt with Comforting Words. Her favorite quilt pattern is the Irish Chain, so I worked with that, embroidery designs from Embroidery Library's Wings of Faith and Flowers of Faith collections, and photos I'd taken of Wayne & Cindy and their family several years ago, along with a couple of Cindy's special angels--my parents and two granddaughters who became angels far too early. I used EQ Printables inkjet fabric sheets which turned out marvelous.

Initially I had planned to use several of the cancer ribbon fabrics, but the more I got to thinking about it and listening to Cindy on those late night calls, I knew it had to be more positive and, if you will, cancer-neutral. So, looking at my stash, I noticed a beautiful periwinkle blue floral in a tub in the closet that I had bought to make myself a dress with, probably 12-15 years ago. I pulled it out and it was exactly the look I wanted! Then to the bag of white-on-whites to balance the floral in the 9-patches. I've had one that I'd been saving for a special occasion that is printed with the words Faith, Hope, Love, and Charity that I used for the embroidered blocks, and a mini-dot for the rest. From there, the embroidery machine went into high action while the printer started churning out photos to be included.

With the EQ7 layout taped to the design board, I started placing the blocks to go between the 9-patches to make the Irish chain pattern. And by Monday night, just 2 days after I'd come up with the idea, I had a top assembled and Tuesday morning I added the borders. It's amazing how much piecing you can get done by using a bluetooth headset to stay hands-free while chatting.

Today I'm spending my time piecing 12" blocks into a larger scale 9-patch for the back and tonight I'll pin and start quilting. I'm hoping to have this quilt completely finished and in the mail by next Monday. It's been a labor of love and I know Cindy will cherish it and share all of those encouraging and comforting words with those she comes in contact with.

Back to the piecing while Jacob naps.
More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

FMQ Friday Update--Practice feathered heart

After Jacob went home today I got busy and managed to get a feathered heart stitched out on a practice square. It came out pretty good, especially since I haven't done any of these in quite some time. I selected the one I wanted from my stencil collection in EQ7 Quilting Design Series, printed it out to the size I wanted, pinned the paper design to the sandwich, and started stitching. I managed consistent small stitches so the paper tore away easily once the stitching was done. I think for my project that I'm practicing for I'll use a solid red Aurifil 50 thread rather than the variegated version I selected. With the overlaps, this doesn't look as clean to me. Good thing I practiced!

For the practice one I just printed on computer paper. It works fine, but can stress the stitches when you tear it away even if being very careful. For the project I have printed the design on Carol Doak's foundation paper, which is very lightweight and is easy to remove after stitching. Now to start on the real one!

Still hooking up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday. Once again, Happy Friday!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz

Happy Friday FMQ & Small Blog Meet

Happy Friday Everyone! I dropped my car off for service bright and early this morning and it was a whopping 9 degrees out! With the light breeze, it felt more like -3. Yikes! I already miss those lovely 70s we had just a few days ago. At least there's hope... Forecast shows mild 50s for the next week, so the cold won't last long. In the meantime, Jacob is dressed warm in a cute fleece jacket and pants with his bear slippers on and I'm in my flannel lined jeans & long sleeves. We'll stay in and warm until my SIL comes to pick up Jacob and take me back to get my car.

My FMQ Friday sharing isn't what I had hoped because my main project is a secret for an upcoming blog hop, so it will have to wait for another day. I'm working on getting it done as there is a definite deadline for that one! It's been fun to work on, but has put my Express Your Love on hold for the moment. My second favorite FMQ this week was the Cookie Bowl advent calendar I made to hang in my own home this coming Christmas. It was simple outlining of the cookies and down the stripes on the printed panel, but still fun to practice making more uniform FMQ stitches. I find I'm doing more ditch work as FMQ instead of with the walking foot as I get more comfortable with it. This is a good thing because I also find I have fewer riffle problems with the FMQ than with the walking foot that, while great, can still push the fabric into approaching stitch lines going the other direction and cause little tucks. The FMQ allows more easing of the fabric across intersections which I like a lot better.

I'm also hooking up with the Small Blog Meet at Lily's Quilts to get to know more people out in blogland. I've only been at this a few weeks and definitely qualify for the "blogs with under 50 followers". I'm grateful to my three followers and hope to gain more.

I guess that's it for now. Jacob is in his bouncer and is getting antsy, so it's time to go downstairs where he can safely crawl around for a bit. Then lunch time.

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz