Sewtopia Salt Lake City

In April, I attended Sewtopia, Salt Lake City. Four days of quilting was so awesome! In preparation for the trip, I created this wall hanging for their Michael Miller challenge. I’ve been inspired by vintage New York Beauty quilts lately, so this was my interpretation.

We started out our quilting retreat with a shop hop to two Salt Lake City shops. It was a fun way to meet people and I picked up some beautiful fabric (and yarn).

We were divided up into three groups. My group’s first class was with Jacquie Gering and she walked us through her mid-century scrappy house quilt. Things got messy quickly, but it was fun!

I was able to almost finish by quilt top – just needed a little more background fabric.

The next day our class was with Libs Elliott and she walked us through her Heartbreaker English paper piecing (EPP) block. My biggest take away was learning how to sew a curve in EPP! I also picked up her Heartburst pattern and used the blocks I sewed in class towards this pattern.

I was able to finish up this mini quilt in May. It’s kind of weird to hand-piece the blocks and then use my machine to quilt. Next time I may try to do it all by hand.

One of the evenings, we had a make and take. Abby Hicks of Tweetle Dee Design Co walked us through making this mini barn quilt. So much fun!

It was a wonderful retreat and am contemplating attending again.

Finished – Prairie scape, v. 1

When we first moved to Iowa, we did quite a few road trips up to Minnesota to visit my family. It was the first time in over 10 years we lived within driving distance and I was making the most of it. This quilt was inspired by the summer color scape – grass green, wildflower purple, and golden corn. The pattern is a triple Irish chain; a pattern I’ve been wanting to do for awhile and thought the colors would work well in this pattern.

I started the quilt in the fall of 2017, finished quilting it by Thanksgiving. Then it took me 3 months before I came back to it, to attach the binding. Sheesh.

For quilting, I did straight-lines through the chains. Then in the center square did a type of sunburst.

The back was made up of my test squares and other scraps of fabric in the color theme. (I ended up experimenting on my test squares – cutting them up and piecing them back together to see what it looked like. A fun experiment, but didn’t result in something I was interested in pursuing on another quilt.)

I also have ideas for a fall and winter color scapes.

April Progress for #the100DayProject

I’m a month into my 100 day project of hand sewing for at least 15 minutes a day. I enjoy seeing the progress of my photos over the month. I’ve finished 2 rosette 4’s on my La Passacaglia quilt, pattern by Willyne Hammerstein.

And I started and finished the top for my Heartburst mini quilt, pattern by Libs Elliott. While I was at Sewtopia, Libs taught a class on English paper piecing focusing on the heart shape. I ended up buying her Heartburst mini pattern and used the hearts in that project.

In case you’re wondering how you sew the curve, you use a flat stitch. One of the tricks Libs offered was to use masking tape to keep the 2 pieces lined up while you’re stitching. I can’t wait to finish it up!

My goal for May is finishing a rosette 2 – it’s a big one! And attaching my Rosette 4s to the quilt. You can follow along with my process on Instagram #redpatchworks

This & That – April 2018 Edition

At the beginning of the month I attended Sewtopia in Salt Lake City, UT. Jacquie Gering and Libs Elliott taught classes and we had a lot of sewing time! Here’s a picture of our sewing tables  in the midst of Jacquie’s class.

I also enjoyed discovering Salt Lake City – it was my first time there! I recommend Eva’s Bakery and their avocado and roasted beet toast for breakfast!

I’ve been binging on Heather Gudenkauf novels lately.

I attended the opening reception for Victoria Findley Wolfe’s “Playing with Purpose” exhibit at the Iowa Quilt museum. So incredibly colorful and playful!

 

 

100 Days of Hand Sewing

I’m going to try a 100 day project. I need to get back into my La Passacaglia project and am hoping 100 days of hand sewing will get me started again. I need to do a minimum of 15 minutes of hand sewing a day. I’m purposely being a little generic so I can also count hand sewing bindings in this project.

Here’s were I currently stand with my project.

I’d guess I’m somewhere between 1/4th to 1/3rd of the way through the pattern. I have fabric for 2 more Rosette 4s cut out and am cutting out fabric for a Rosette 2. I’m sure I’ll have to pause at some point to prep more fabric, but this should keep me going for a bit.

You can see my progress at #redpatchworks