Milestone

This is "RS13, Marlene's Pirouette", an intermediate-level triangle that I paper pieced. I know I'm sounding like a broken record when I say that the software has some bugs, but this in yet another example of that. When I printed out the paper-piecing pattern, it did not include any part of the triangle below the rectangular pieces (on the left in the photo). I had to draft that part myself -- it wasn't all that hard and I see no reason why the person who designed the pattern couldn't have done it as well! As you can see, mine isn't quite perfect (one of the points is cut off a bit), but it works (at least for me).

Anyway, this marks another milestone in my Jane Stickle quilt journey. I have now completed 200 of the 225 blocks/triangles/kites! It seems like I should finish the remaining 25 in no time flat, right? NOT!

Perfect for a Quilt Shop

Isn't this just the perfect floor for a quilt shop? It's from Lake Country Patchwork, a very cute shop in Hammondsport, New York, a very cute town.

A Couple More Ideas

My eyes are starting to hurt...I think this is enough.

To All My Readers Who Celebrate Today

Pre-revolutionary Russian Orthodox Easter cards.

The Camera Sees Better Than The Eye

I've been playing around with layouts for a string quilt I'm working on.  I have an odd number of rows down, so I may have to just cut one row in half and put the halves on the top and the bottom in order for some of the layouts to look better distributed. It doesn't matter for the zigzag layout in the first photo, but I'd probably do it for any of the other three.

I've shown these photos in their small size for a reason. It's amazing how much more obvious the patterns are in a small shot like this than in person on my design wall.

I still have a few layouts I may try... stay tuned.

Keeping the Momentum Up

I'm anxious to get more of the triangles finished, so here is "RS-2, Cherokee Lee",  an advanced-level triangle, although I found it to be fairly easy to paper piece.

Design Wall Monday

This is on my design wall today but will be coming down for this evening's quilt guild meeting. Our program is about the guild's Laurel Janes group, members of which have been working on making DJ quilts for almost 3 years. The program is free and all visitors are welcome. To read more about it, click here.

With last week's finish of the 13th triangle in the bottom row, I was able to sew the top and bottom rows onto the center. Slowly, but surely, I'm now working on the side triangles...

Sometimes I Feel Like Crying

Sorry for the non-quilting related post, but as my little bit of heaven gets slowly destroyed, I need to share this and this and this with others in the hopes that more people will become aware about what is going on, all in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

What's Love Got To Do With It?

This is "RS-8, Love Forever", a beginner-level block in which I used the raw-edge machine-buttonhole stitch applique method. If only they were all this easy, then I could say I really loved making these triangles...

April AAQI Project

A couple of months ago, I signed up for the Quilt-a-Month Club over at Ami Simms' AAQI website.

I call this one "A Quilter's Best Friend" in memory of Ami's faithful companion Madison. You can read more about Madison on Ami's blog here.

You can see my past AAQI contributions here and here.

I've Missed You, Jane

It's been way too long since I've worked on my Jane Stickle quilt, so I finally made myself finish the last triangle of the bottom row. I had been avoiding it for way too long, mostly because I was frustrated that the software (and the book) changed the pattern too much from the original for my taste. I was going nuts trying to figure out how to make mine look more like Jane's.

Jane's is in the photo on the right. As you can see, one of the dark diamonds extends into the lighter piece above it. And the two largest triangles are in dark fabric. The software and the book disregard both of those details. 

My triangle became a hybrid of both. It was giving me too much of a headache to figure out how to get the diamond to extend into the lighter fabric, so I just went with making it end at the seam line. However, I decided that it was simple enough to make the large triangles out of dark fabric like in the original and then to add just a bit of the light fabric on the outer edges (close to what Jane did).

This is "BR-12, Jessie's Stained Glass", an intermediate-level triangle that I mostly paper-pieced.

Oops...While writing this post and looking at the photos again, I just realized that I made the two dark triangles a bit too large and that the points of the diamonds don't meet them where they should. Oh well, too late. I'm not doing them over.

Because after all, this is my quilt, not Jane's.

Timeless Wonkiness

I was very pleased to see that a good number of the quilts on display at the recent Infinite Variety exhibit in New York City had a definite wonkiness to their borders. Makes mine look almost professional.

A Glass of Wine, Anyone?

My husband and I enjoy driving around and visiting the many wineries that are located along the Finger Lakes in New York State. Most of them are within an easy 1-2 hour drive of our house. Not much traffic or real estate development, and thankfully, NO NATURAL GAS-INDUSTRY stuff to put up with!

We took advantage of a nice sunny spring day this past weekend and visited a few wineries around Cayuga Lake. At Thirsty Owl Winery (in photo below) I spotted the quilt on the wall before the first few sips of wine were poured in my glass. I was told that the owner's mother-in-law made it.

Quilting in the City

 One of the fun things that I got to do when I was in New York City last week to see the Infinite Variety Quilt Exhibit was to visit a real live NYC quilt shop.

Lots of bright fabrics and patterns. I didn't buy anything, but I suppose I could have, even if I am on a fabric diet. Remember, fabric that you buy when you're visiting somewhere is not a fabric purchase, it's a souvenir purchase.

A Quickie

 My friend Moddy recently put this top together for her friend (the friend made the blocks and Moddy put the blocks together), and then she asked me to quilt it. I did a loopy/swirly/leafy meander using Rainbows thread by Superior.

My regular readers know the drill....If you want to see more of the quilts that I've quilted for Moddy, just click on the "Moddy's quilts" label on my sidebar.