Two 6" blocks = 240 pieces

I'd been doing a lot of knitting and came across problems that were bothering me in two projects. I decided to put them aside (temporarily), switch gears, and do some FPP (Foundation Paper Piecing). That's always a fun process for me.

About a month ago, Carol Doak designed a new block for the members of her CarolDoakQuiltingGroup yahoogroup. It's called the Holiday Star and it has a total of 112 pieces. I love blocks with lots of pieces! Carol provided the pattern for a 12" block. I made it smaller, 6", printing out the pattern using Mona's EQ7 drawing of the pattern.

I made two blocks and for one of them I changed the pattern a little to add in extra pieces in order to sort of float the star inside a dark background. The orange/yellow one will be going into a large collection of blocks I have in the same color scheme (for making into a quilt one day, of course!) The rainbow colored one, I haven't decided what to do with it yet. It will get pinned to the piles of other orphan blocks on my design wall.

Here are my fabric choices: 

Then I printed out the line drawing provided by Carol and colored in with my pencils. Yes, I still do it that way instead of in EQ7!

Here it is sewn in eighths:

And, in quarters:

And, finished blocks!

 
Thearica has a blog that I've been following for several years and she recently decided to change the direction a little and thought it would be nice to change the blog name, too. It's called Stitch and Quilt and she is now sponsoring a giveaway with four chances to win bundles of fabric! You have thru December 17 to enter.

Enjoy! 

Debbie

A week late!

I'm a week late with the winner of Knot in My Backyard. It's Barbara Dix and she has been emailed! Congratulations!

Enjoy!

Debbie

Another Quilt Mystery from Mary Marks! + Giveaway

Last week Kensington Publishing Corp. released the second in Mary Mark's Quilting Mystery series, Knot in My Backyard.

Yet another great story with amateur detective Martha Rose. Martha and her quilting cohorts solve another mystery!

From the back cover:
"Baseball may be America's official favorite pastime, but for Martha Rose and her friends, quilting is far more fun...and a lot less dangerous.

A diamond brocade pattern is more quilter Martha Rose's style than a baseball diamond -- especially when it comes to the new eyesore of a stadium ruining her lovely San Fernando Valley neighborhood. Martha doesn't know a bunt from a bundt cake, but when she stumbles upon the battered body of baseball coach Dax Martin, she doesn't need a scorecard to know it's foul play. LAPD homicide detective Arlo Beavers is convinced one of her neighbors is responsible. But Martha and her fellow quilters Lucy and Birdie soon discover a whole field of suspects who might have wanted to take the coach out of the game permanently..."

The next in the series, Gone But Knot Forgotten, is due to come out in September, 2015. It's going to be very difficult to wait that long! But, we're lucky because Kensington has asked Mary to keep writing even more for the series.

More about Knot in My Backyard on Mary's site.

Here are more blogs with reviews and some with giveaways.

For a chance to win a copy of Knot in My Backyard,  just leave a comment at the end of this post by midnight EST Sunday, November 16. (That's midnight between the 16th and 17th.) Please be sure I have a way to contact you. Either by having your email address in your blogger profile or by leaving your email address in the comment.

If you don't want to wait, you can order Knot in My Backyard from Amazon, in paperback or Kindle.

Good luck!

 

Debbie

Quinglish 2014

This past Sunday we had a different kind of Quinglish. The following is from the announcement email:

COME AND START THE YEAR WITH A VERY MEANINGFUL SERVICE PROJECT

When: Sunday 12th October Hol ha’Moed Succoth from 10am - 3pm or there about. (It is wheelchair accessible).

Where:  Shivtei Israel Synagogue Social Hall, Har Sinai Street, Ra’anana

What: We will be assisting eight  “at-risk” teen girls from the Neot Aviv Hostel in Herzliya Petuach, in making their very first quilt.,

We intend using all the “orphan” blocks we have been collecting for the past few years.

Bring Along: Any other “UFO’s” and “orphan blocks” you may have and appropriate fabrics to help combine these quilts.

We will be having work stations for each girl; we will need machines, cutting supplies, ironing supplies, full sewing kits, design wall flannels.

 -------

I have lots of orphan blocks but don't have easy access to them. I did manage to find a few pieces of yardage in my sewing room to add into the mix.

All the girls were very enthusiastically participating in the making of their own quilts. Some of them even did some sewing. 

I was helping Terry and a new quilter I just met, Michele, and a cute teen whose name starts with M (forgot her name!), to design M's quilt. M chose orphan blocks and patches and such in a theme of pinks and greens and other mostly low volume fabrics. Terry did the sewing and "new quilter" and I did some of the pressing and trimming.

Here you can see the WIP, what we were up to when it was time for everyone to go home. Terry and her team of longarm quilters will be finishing them up for the girls.

 

Sorry I didn't get any photos of the other WIPs. If any readers who were there have a photo, please send it to me and I will add it here.

Here are a few views of the room while working during the day.

When the holiday of Succot ends in a few days, it's full steam ahead on activities preparing for my son's wedding in two weeks!

Enjoy!

Debbie

On the needles and in the mail

Here's my progress on the second Hitofude cardigan I'm making. I first wrote about it last month in this post. I'm linking today's post to Judy L.'s On the Needles. (Maybe someone has some advice on how to photograph really, really dark knitting?)

In that same post, I wrote about the Block Lotto. Well, I won again! Envelopes with blue bar blocks keep coming in the mail. When they're all here, I'm going to lay them out and take a picture to post.

Have a good weekend!

Debbie

Quilt Meeting

Last week, I went to the monthly meeting of the Hebrew speaking Jerusalem quilt group I belong to. I tend to go about once every few months.

I didn't bring anything to show. I could've brought my finished cardigan, but was too lazy to take anything with me. I spent the meeting taking pictures of the projects of others.

First, I snapped a bunch of photos of some of the lovely work on our hostess Elana's walls.

Here is a quilt that Chassida made in memory of her mother. That's a picture of her and her two sisters. The white strips in the crazy style blocks on the side are text that Chasida enlarged and printed on fabric from letters that her mother wrote. Chassida said that it was very comforting for her when she finished this wall hanging.

This is one of Elana's works in progress. She drafts her own blocks for foundation paper piecing.

Here is another WIP of Elana's. It's a background for another wall hanging with poppies as in the one above with the blue background.

This is another one of Chasida's wall hangings. I guess I'd better start writing things down, because I don't remember the story behind this one.

Ora worked on this quilt for about 10 years. She was hand quilting the white spaces and ran out of steam, so Elana finished it for her by machine.

From a class that Yehudit took on embroidery, she is continuing with this applique/embroidery project. It includes beads, sequins and shisha mirrors!

Enjoy!

Debbie

Part 2 - Quilt Exhibit in Jerusalem

As promised, more quilts from the Quilt Exhibit in Jerusalem. As usual, click on the image to enlarge.

Shoshi Rimer

http://www.shoshir.co.il

 

Have a great weekend,

Debbie

Quilt Exhibit in Jerusalem

Last Thursday, I went with a local new quilter friend to an exhibit of the Israel Quilters Association taking place now at the Jerusalem Theater.

The theme is "My Color Palette" and it runs until mid June. It is being taken down in the morning of June 15.

Shoshi Mossery took first place with her quilt 'Between the suns',
Rachel Steiner took second place with her quilt 'Circles and colors'
Batia Eichenholz took third place with her quilt 'Falling leaves'.

Does anyone notice that they all have similar color combos? There were two judges. The curator and a non-textile Israeli artist.

I did not enter a quilt into the exhibit, but lots of my friends have quilts there! Here is just a sampling of some that caught my eye.

Click on images to enlarge.

More tomorrow!

Enjoy!

Debbie