Contra Dance experiment

Back in the spring I was on a roll with finishing up some smaller quilts. This one however, was a brand new project start to finish! Say hi to Contra Dance.

I got a Classic Curves Ruler by Colorgirlquilts for my birthday, and wanted to play with some curved piecing. I've had the gold and maroon fabrics for years waiting to be turned into a project, so I pulled those out to start. As I cut the curves - so easy with the ruler - and started pairing them up, I added the other colors, and eventually added the pop of mint green. That spiced up the rest of the pieces and it was fun combining these blocks together.

The solid squares helped keep the design on the modern, fresh side, and it took a little bit of debating before deciding on a final layout. I quilted straight lines with my walking foot and a light mint thread color, it's finished with facing and a hanging sleeve, measuring 24.5" x 24.5", and is entirely pulled from stash fabrics!

Mini quilt swap stories - the secret color version

Back with another early 2021 finish to share here, the 'Happy Dancing HSTs' mini!

I participated in the #tqs_secretcolourquiltswap2021 hosted by @tinyquiltswaps back in the spring. This was a fun swap challenge in that we had to make a mini quilt featuring half square triangles and the favorite color our partner had posted in their mosaics. This came with a twist, all photos we posted of our progress had to be in black & white!

My partner wanted teal and I was inspired by one of the HST designs in her mosaic. So i math-ed out this design with the squares finishing at 2" and set about pulling fabric from my stash! As I also love teal - is was not too hard to pull fabric. :) 

Making & trimming all these HSTs took some time as I love the scrappy look, and it was fun to arrange and see how it would start to come together. The pop of orange added some lively movement as well against the low volume background.

For quilting, I wanted something with curves to soften the angular lines of the design. There were a lot of quilts hanging in exhibits at work finished with Baptist Fan quilting and it was a design I'd always wanted to try so I did! It required figuring out how far apart the lines in the fan needed to be, and then marking the entire quilt with the design. Thank goodness for a light box and my trusty Dritz Mark-B-Gone marking tool!

Once it was entirely marked, it was easy to free motion quilt all of the fan lines and I absolutely love how it turned out and am definitely adding this design into my pocket for use in the future. Of course there's a bee stitched it!

Well, we swapped in April and my partner really enjoyed the quilt so that's always great to see. One of the extras I sent was a coordinated mug rug.

Here's what I received in return which I also love! It fits really well with a couple other quilts on my mini wall and a great scrappy, improv HST look.

Lanterns - quilt finish

 This was another small quilt top that I pulled out and finished in Jan/Feb this year. It's an original design, which started as a drawing/doodle, that I was able to do the math for it and turn into an actual quilt top at Quilt Retreat in 2017. So it's been waiting patiently to be finished and I'm thrilled it's done!

I used a a charm pack of 'Flow' by Zen Chic and a grey dot background fabric. The hexagonal shapes reminded me of folded paper lanterns, so that's where the name comes from.

I used straight line quilting, spaced 1/4" apart (for a modern look) with grey thread in the background, and coordinating thread colors through the lanterns for an added pop!

Finished with a dark grey zigzag binding, it measures 27" x 37."

Sunfish Adrift

Doing some catch up here updating my finished quilts from the year! Starting with a mini quilt titled "Sunfish Adrift" which I finished back in January.

It's based on a photo I took one summer at the camp where I worked. It was on the river, and I spent a lot of time on the waterfront. The photo, and this quilt, capture the look of several sunfish sailboats moored just off-shore waiting for the next class to arrive.

 I dye-painted this piece in a class with Hollis Chatelain in 2019, which was a really great experience! It lingered a little bit and then early this year I knew it would be a fast finish to kick off the year. 

Free-motion quilting with Aurifil threads, and measuring 18.5" x 20," it is finished with facing, and a sleeve. Of course there's a lil bee in there too - can you spot it?

Spring Blossoms

I've been enjoying watching Spring arrive! Around town there are loads of these saucer magnolia trees and I adore them! They are real standouts when the whole tree is in bloom and you drive down the street and see one appear. 

From my office window I can see a couple of white, star magnolias, which are some of the first to bloom each year.

Daffodils are my favorites! They make me smile anytime I see them on my walks, and especially when they are randomly blooming in fields or in small bunches on a hillside.

 

How can these cheery tulips not bring a smile to your face?!

A familiar sight are the cherry blossoms around town! In parks, around neighborhoods, along the back roads - these are such a cheery pop of color after winter. They make me feel a bit at home.

Of course, you can't ignore the dogwood trees around town either! They add a touch of ethereal beauty against all the green leaves unfurling, or those clear blue skies!

 On my birthday a friend & I went over the river to IL to a local peach orchard to see the trees in bloom. It was a gorgeous day, and the orchard trees were so lovely! The owner showed us around and taught us about peaches vs. nectarines- he's been running the orchard for 40+ years. Now I'm really looking forward to peach season!

100 Stars Update

Popping in for a quick update on my 100 days Star quilt. I've completed the quilt top, putting all 100 star blocks together! While all the blocks were made entirely from my stash, I bought a few yards of a low volume star print to use as filler when putting the stars together.

I didn't want grid-like straight rows/columns, and my blocks weren't uniform in size, so there are lots of partial seams in this assembly. Then I put the filler fabric on the outer edges, so that once it's quilted, I can square it up without cutting into the stars. It took some time to puzzle together, and I'm a bit impressed with myself that it lays flat!

It's roughly 88" x 89" right now, and next steps include getting backing and figuring out how to quilt it.

Summer Biking

Over the Spring/Summer, with more time at home/out of the office, I had more time for biking this year. It's a favorite activity in nice weather, and gives some much needed stress relief & mental refocusing.

 I spend a lot of time on the local Greenway trail, as it's close by and a good distance, with views along the riverfront too. Going further afield, I enjoy the Tunnel Hill trail in IL, and made it my goal to ride the whole trail this Summer - instead of the same sections over and over.

 It's a rail-to-trail, so has a relatively flat & well maintained path with minimal elevation gains. As an added bonus, it's very scenic through the trees, has trestle bridges and even some tunnels. Driving out to some of the parking lots had me exploring some new countryside views, and hitting some back roads too.

The trail runs 45 miles from Karnak to Harrisburg. I did it in sections, from one parking lot up to the next then back each trip, so I guess I've done a round trip of 90 miles overall! 

The namesake tunnel is roughly the halfway point, and runs 500+ feet, making it eerie to ride (or walk) through! The elevation is the highest at this point too, so it's beautiful scenery being up on the bluffs and tree tops. Though it means one part of the trip is uphill...ha!

My favorite sections were the scenic ones around the main tunnel. The sections nearer to Harrisburg were closer to the roadway, so there wasn't as much quiet while riding the trail. Exploring new sections of this trail and getting outdoors was a wonderful part of this strange year.

Trail Complete!

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