Impossible is a Bad Word- a mini quilt

Here’s a min quilt you may recognize. I actually finished it in 2019, but again, never blogged about it. Catching up! Late is better than never! ha!

This mini quilt was a Curated Quilts challenge for the Well Said Issue. The challenge was to incorporate a word into the quilt, literally or figuratively. I have always told my son to never say, ‘I can’t,’ without at least trying first. During Christmas time we read a book by Matt Haig, A Boy Called Christmas, and in it the word ‘Impossible’ is considered an elf swearword. The book was great, but that sentiment has stuck with me. That sentiment, combined with our family not saying ‘I can’t’, inspired this quilt.

I absolutely loved the color pallet for this challenge! Pink, orange, teal and bright green. I could use this color scheme over and over.

I started by piecing the letters. No plan, pretty improv. The strips of pink were all the same size and I tried to make the letters the same size. But pretty much just winged it!

Then I sewed them together. It had to be a square, so I had to rotate the letters in a ‘circle’. And I added the border.

Then I do that crazy thing that quilters do. I cut it into pieces and sewed it back together. I wanted the word to look shattered!

I wanted the quilting to further enforce the idea of the word being shattered.

I took these pictures at Jackson Lake Island near Montgomery, AL. It’s a little island where they filmed the movie Big Fish. The only inhabitants are the goats. I just loved this series of pictures and watching the goat look and me, then see the quilt and then head over to maybe take a taste of the quilt. We moved fast, so maybe he just wanted a closer look, but I wasn’t taking my chances…

Quilts in the Wild! ha!

Have you made a word quilt? This was my first. And even though I made it in 2019, I still love everything about it. I’ve since made another word quilt last year. Before I made this one, I didn’t think I’d ever really make a word quilt. But now I wouldn’t be surprised if I make more!

A Buffalo Cushion

This is an oldie project that I never shared, but since I’m broken and confined to elevating my broken leg, I’m pullin’ out the oldies to share!

I’m an architect and at our firm at least once a year a vendor will ask us to participate in a design fundraiser. They usually supply a piece of furniture and we have to make it something else or embellish it or something! Then we give the piece back when we’re done and they have a party and silent auction to raise money for something. For this project, I contributed my quilting skills.

The firm I work for is called Buffalo Design, so we decided to make a Buffalo seat cushion for part of the transformation.

This is what we started with. A plain blank white chair that’s way heavier than it looks! A co-worker drilled the holes in the back of the seat. (more to come on that…)

The name of our firm comes from the building where the firm actually began, but our logo is an actual buffalo. Everyone has different colored business cards and we each have a few different angles of the buffalo. The colors of our business cards became the colors of our cushion.

I sketched out how the pattern would go together and put it in CAD. Which is how I make all my paper pieced patterns!

Then I just started paper piecing it together until I had our colorful buffalo!

The cushion fit perfectly in the curved seat.

My co-workers took on the yarn embellishments! I love the pattern on the front and the pompoms on the back. And again, we stuck with all the colors of our business cards.

The great thing is, my bosses went to the party and were the high bidder on our chair! So it’s still in our office for us to enjoy! I keep saying I’m going to make the office a buffalo pillow for our couch in the waiting area, but I haven’t yet. One day soon!

The Daily Improv

I’ve said it other years, but this is my year of cleaning out my WIPS! I’m doing a good job of it, now to get them photographed and blogged about!

This is my first quilt I finished this year! It’s not one of my oldest WIPs, but it was sitting there just waiting! All the blocks were done, they just weren’t put together…

Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side had a one week Improv Challenge last year.  The intent was to get you started in improv. I love improv and am not new to it, but I couldn’t resist her one week challenge. Who knew it would actually over a year for it to all come together though… (well, I should have known based on my track record!)

Each day you get a prompt and make one block from that prompt.

And actually, it looks like anyone can still do it any time. Just sign up here!  Each day sends you a new prompt and it’s a great way to try something new or different with out the commitment of a long term sew along!

I really love how it turned out!

I think the first day was stripes. In this picture you can see my stripes block and one of the triangle blocks to the right. The top one was the paper pieced improv block challenge. I still struggle with the idea of paper piecing and improv in the same sentence. To me they don’t go together! Other people would totally disagree with me and that’s ok! So I made a couple of paper piecing patterns and went with it. We’re trying new things, right?

This is my favorite one! The Log Cabin block! I love improv log cabin blocks. love love love! I actually made two of these!

And curves. Another of the prompts was curves. I think I ended up with two curve blocks, too. There’s even more curves bceuase as I was squaring up the blocks, I would use those cut off pieces in other blocks areas to make the blocks ‘fit’ with each other. I love the little bits of curves here and there.

And then the back was a big improv block in itself! As I mentioned before, I used a lot of my ‘cut off’ pieces to piece the front. I also incorporated smaller scraps to fill in the background space. I had a few smaller pieces left over for the back, but I mostly used the bigger scraps. When I was done with the back, I had just enough of this fabric pull left for the binding!

I’m usually a straight line, one pattern all over kind of quilter. Trying new things with piecing doesn’t scare me. trying new thing with quilting does! In this one, I tried to change the quilting in different areas to reflect the improv shapes of the blocks. You can see it here on the back pretty well.

What do you think? Are you up to the challenge? Give it a try!

The Daily Improv

41×44

Design by me, with prompts from Amy’s Creative Side

Quilted my me

Completed in  March 2020

 

Seattle Modern Quilt Giving Quiltcon Quilt for 2018

Here’s another flashback post for projects unblogged about… It’s just been patiently waiting in a folder on my computer to be shared on the blog!

For the Seattle MQG Quiltcon Charity quilt, the Giving Committee decided to do a little something different this year.

 

Instead of just one guild member designing the entire quilt, we decided to have a design challenge for the guild’s 2018 QuiltCon Charity Quilt. We put it out to the guild that we were taking submissions and received about 10 fantastic designs. Our main goal was to pick a design that would be the most feasible to create and one that we could involve as many members as were interested in participating. Deciding on just one was tough. We ultimately chose a design submitted by Cecelia Lehmann‘s and then we put a bit of an improvisational spin on it.

We used the color palette chosen by the Modern Quilt Guild, with fabric generously donated by Paintbrush Studio – beautiful Painter’s Palette Solids in (from bottom, below) White, Rice Paper, Purple, Tangerine, Tomato, Daisy, and Fuschia.

And then we mixed the colors and handed out 56 adorable little bundles to all the members that wanted to participate. Debbie wrote an easy to follow tutorial and we were off!

The timing was great because we got to work on it at our annual fall retreat. All the bundles that had not been claimed were found and transformed into blocks.

I took the blocks home and played with the layout. Over and over. Until, with Debbie’s help, we agreed on a layout.

Excuse the horrible pictures. I couldn’t turn the light on or risk waking up my husband in the middle of the night, so I didn’t turn on the light! But I came up with quite a few ideas.

The layout that we ultimately went with, really shows off the fan blocks and they really pop! Its’ almost a little art deco to me.

Once again the quilt was handed off to another guild member for quilting, Dionne. And WOW! What an amazing job she did. I thought the blocks popped before she got it…. Now, it’s even more fantastic! Each row has a different pattern and each row is quilted in a different color thread to match the challenge fabric colors!

And I love a fun back. While piecing the back, I also had all the scraps from everyone’s blocks, so I pieced them together into blocks and added them in. The colors are so fun!

I love the ring block the most. I almost snuck it into the front when no one was looking! But I figured everyone might notice soon enough, so I left it on the back. And I think it’s right at home there after all!

We’re also very lucky to have Dionne make our Giving Committee labels. It was truly a collaborative, group effort for our Seattle MQG contribution to the Quiltcon Charity Quilt Show.

Quilt Name: Frannie’s Flashy Fans

Quilt Size: 68” x 87”

Block Design by: Ceclia Lehman

Blocks by: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Members

Block layout by: Louise Wackerman and Debbie Jeske

Pieced by: Louise Wackerman

Quilted by: Dionne Matthies-Buban

Binding by: Louise Wackerman

Recipient: Northwest Breast Center

Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Giving Committee 2016

Well, there’s a few things I haven’t done much of lately and one of those things is blogging about my Giving Committee Chair role. And there’s a lot of things I have been doing! Including being Co-Chair of the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Giving Committee, with Debbie Jeske, for the last three years!

I realized that I haven’t blogged about many of the awesome quilts we coordinated! I’m going to start way back in 2016!

This one we called Sunset Strips! I was totally inspired by Debbie’s Bacon Quilt and thought it would be a fun one for the group. A little improv, but not too improv! We didn’t have a lot of participation in this one. I am a huge fan of ‘white’ space and this lends itself quite nicely to not a lot of color and plenty of white space.

The directions that we gave to make the quilt can be found here if you’d like to make you’re own!

For the back I went crazy with the white space and turned it pink!

Quilt Name: Sunset Strips

Quilt Size: 60″ x 72″

Blocks created by: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Members

Pieced by: Louise Wackerman

Quilted by: Jeanell Murphree

Bound by: Debbie Jeske

Recipient: Nurse Family Partnership

Organized by: 2016-2018 Giving Committee Chairs, Louise Wackerman & Debbie Jeske

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image via A Quilters Table 

When we took over the Giving COmmittee from the lovely ladies before us, they mentioned that they had talked to a couple of pet rescue organizations to make a quilt for a fundraising item, but it had never come to fruitition. We decided to start our time off, we’d close that gap. For our first one, we worked with Homeward Pet Adoption Center.  (can you find the dog block?) They requested that we design something that represents their organization so we agreed that the quilt would be made using the colors of their logo – blue, purple, brown and white. Enter Clothworks of Seattle, who generously donated beautiful American Made Brand solids for the project.

image via A Quilters Table 

Guild member were asked to make original improv blocks as they wished using only the fabrics in the bundle they received. They could use some or all of the colors, with blocks being in one of three sizes: 6 1/2″ square, 6 1/2″ x 12 1/2″, or 12 1/2″ square. I thought I’d point out (get it…. ha!) the block I made. It’s an improv log cabin with super skinny lines. I love it and keep saying I’m going to make a quilt like that one day!

image via A Quilters Table 

The quilting was done by guild member Emily Steed, who had fun with the quilting and gave each block it’s own design!

Quilt Name: Finding Home

Quilt Size: 58″ x 70″

Blocks created by: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Members

Pieced by: Debbie Jeske

Quilted by: Emily Steed

Bound by: Debbie Jeske

Recipient: Homeward Pet Adoption Center

Organized by: 2016-2018 Giving Committee Chairs, Louise Wackerman & Debbie Jeske

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image via A Quilters Table 

Next up is another quilt inspired by Debbie’s work! This one I was so excited about that I did blog about the beginning’s of it here. For this one we used Debbie’s X Marks the Improv tutorial and asked the guild to use their stash fabrics to make 12.5″ x 24.5″ blocks in solid reds with yellow accents.

image via A Quilters Table 

image via A Quilters Table 

One of my favorite things about guild or bee quilts is the variation in colors. It’s hard for me to that on my own. For one you’d have to have that many different variations on the same color all in your stash! And once the blocks all went together it turned out to be a really striking quilt!

Quilt Name: eXmark

Quilt Size: 72″ x 72″

Blocks by: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Members

Pieced by: Louise Wackerman

Quilted by: Dionne Matthies-Buban

Binding by: Susan Pray

Recipient: Nurse Family Partnership

Organized by: 2016-2018 Giving Committee Chairs, Louise Wackerman & Debbie Jeske

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And the last one I want to show today is our version of Little Tents! I love this improv tent triangle block! The colors look like little lit tents on a warm summer night! The pattern is inspired by Ants to Sugar and you can find our details here in case you want to make your own!

This quilt was made from member’s stash and everyone was asked to make 6.5″, 12.5″ or 18.5″ blocks. The blocks all fell into place just right, but in order to achieve a more random placement effect, I did have to add in a couple of inset seams!

We had a few blocks that didn’t quite fit on the front, but that always helps ot tie together the back. You can see I have done that in a couple of quilt backs for the group! And we are so lucky to have our fantastic quilt labels thanks to Dionne .

Quilt Name: Little Blue Tents

Quilt Size: 44” x 63”

Blocks by: Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Members

Pieced by:  Louise Wackerman

Quilted by: Jaci Bartol

Binding by: Debbie Jeske

Recipient: Nurse Family Partnership

Organized by: 2016-2018 Giving Committee Chairs, Louise Wackerman & Debbie Jeske

 

And a huge thank you to EVERYONE that helped! these are in no way completely my work! These were all a huge team effort by more people that I can count! Although I’m only sharing these four from 2016, we did help facilitate others, including an improv log cabin and a baby star quilt.  And we also had some other guild members with sharing ideas that the group took on. You can see all of the 19 quilts that the guild did in 2016 here!

Finish Along Quarter 1 2019 Goals!

For the last couple of years, I’ve participated in the Finish-A-Long hosted by 12 different quilting bloggers. There’s a different Finish-A-Long for each quarter. Typically, I have kinda used it as a tracking tool of all my unfinished WIP’s. Never expecting to finish them all that quarter, but figuring I might finish at least one or two. Like the last one I did, I posted 9 different projects! This year I’m coming at it with a different approach. A little more direct. Not just everything I want to finish, but a handful of projects I am going to make a point of actually finishing.

So here we go! I’m starting off easy here. I want to finish my 2017 SMQG BOM! All the blocks are done! I just need to sew them together and quilt it! Easy! Right?

And another easy one! This is the 2016 SMQG BOM. This is also totally done. I finished all the ‘blocks’ at the retreat last fall. And they are mostly already even quilted! I just need to sew on the last blocks, do a little bit more quilting and then finish it!

And lastly, this one I have to start and finish. So it’s a little more time consuming than the others. I was supposed to have been done with this about 18 months ago for someone at our kid’s school auction. Oops!

Ok! that’s it for the first quarter. I think I can… I think I can… I think I can….

Inside Out Pineapple Bed Runner

And you guessed it, another quilt!

Another one to mark off my Finish Along to do list! This one I am in love with, but for some reason wasn’t able to photograph it as wonderful as it really is!

My stepmother told me she wanted a quilt made with my Inside Out Pineapple quilt pattern. I love the pattern, of course. You’d hope I would since I made it… But it’s so time consuming! So I was contemplating how long did she really want to wait on this project! And luckily before I asked that question, she clarified that she only wanted a bed runner. Oh, yes! I can do that without taking forever!

A bed runner… It does look pretty, but I’m still curious about why… You’ll notice I don’t make many mini quilts. A couple of reasons… I don’t have wall space to hang them. And If you aren’t hanging them on the wall, what is the point of them? They don’t really serve a purpose. People make awesome mini’s and I love seeing other peoples minis, but for some reason when I quilt, I think it needs to be able to be used…  I don’t know why I think this way… So I’m still kinda miffed at the bed runner concept. But it turned out great!

Her other request was for it to coordinate with the cross stitch pillow I made her a couple of Christmas’s ago. So that narrowed down the colors! And you know me and my white backgrounds! I was trying to figure out how to incorporate the white background and still coordinate with the pillow. Then my friend Debbie asked where the white was in the pillow! Ummmm…. there isn’t any. So what was I doing. Then I tried it with the grey background and, OH YES!

The grey is my favorite staple, Sprinkle by Cotton and Steel! Love it!

Besides the grey, I used a combination of yellow, green and teal solids and prints. Prints! Another quilting concept that I don’t use much! Yes, it still kinda reads as a solid, but I did branch out and use prints with my solids!

Throwin’ in my label picture!

And here it is in it’s new home! It looks quite nice and does coordinate with the pillow. My step mother was very excited and put it on the bed as soon as she got home from visiting us! I’m glad to know it was well received and will be well loved!

This was a great project to use the Inside Out Pineapple Pattern for! I got really quick at making it, but I also didn’t get burned out with having to make too many!

 

 

A Christmas Quilt Design for Dad

Yep, you read it right! Dad also got a quilt design, not an actual quilt,  and a bag of fabric for Christmas!

He was a bit confused when he opened his gift bag and it was just a bag of fabric. Little did he know there was a design in there too!

I’m really excited about getting this quilt made. The design, to me, is a take on the traditional log cabins. But it’s more like one huge quilt block instead of a bunch of smaller ones.

My husband also likes white sheets and white comforters. even though we don’t live a real ‘white’ lifestyle, with a 4-year-old son and big dog that loves to get on the bed when he knows he’s not supposed to!

So now I just have to get to cutting and sewing and quilting!

 

 

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