QuiltCon 2013: Quilts! (#1)

So I wrote a LOT yesterday about meeting Violet Craft and seeing my Madrona Road challenge quilt in the Michael Miller Booth at QuiltCon. Today I'm sharing some of my favorite quilts and I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!

Bee Mod by Lauren Hawley and the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild

zigzigzag by Alison Chambers

Plaid Houndstooth by Leslie Lamb. I thought this was so clever and want to do something similar in the future. 

This was my absolute favorite of the Austin Children's Shelter Quilts and I don't know what guild finished it. It hung behind the lecture stand and was stunning with its bright orange and teal colorscape. 

Papercut by Rebecca Roach This used reverse cut away applique and was one of my favorites. 

New Star Rising by Ben Darby. This won first place in the Modern Traditionalism Large Quilts category. It used all Parson Gray, Curious Nature, fabric and was quite stunning. 

Shattered Spectrum by Lee Heinrich

Left: A Light in the Dark by Elizabeth Dackson

Right: Frost Bank by Claire Jain

Geometric Eames by Heather Davidson

Modern Medalion by Rachel Hauser, which was in the handwork category.

Bias by Alissa Haight Carlton

Broken Cogs by Jacquie Gering

Log Cabin Improv by Sherri Lynn Wood  

This was made from vintage Pendleton plaid clothing. I think it won first place for the Handwork Large Quilts category. This might have been my mom's favorite.

Add It Up by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederson

Seaside Improv by Cristin Wilson

Blue Ice by Jacquie Gering

Orange Improv by Bonnie Dwyer

Housewarming by Jodi McLaughlin

A Very Long Conversation by Rossie Hutchinson

Clouds Unmapped by Jenna Brand 

Fifty Shades of Groovy by Leslie Tucker Jenison 

Connected to Jon by Jacquie Gering and the Sew Connected virtual bee. 

Golden Habitat by Therese Ramsey

End of Story by Rossie Hutchinson 

Rhythm and Blues by Anne Deister 

Project Habitat by Lisa Holk 

I'll be back again with MORE pictures of quilts, as well as my thoughts / comments and photos from the lectures we went to and also to top everything off, a post with all of my favorite Denyse Schmidt quilts. 

QuiltCon 2013: Meeting Violet Craft & the Michael Miller Booth

I'm back from my wonderful trip to the heart of Texas and wanted to share all the good things we enjoyed! I plan to write a two or three part recap of my time there, because one post would just be TOO long. There's a mix of both iPhone and real camera photos.  

We road tripped down on Thursday, went to lectures and the show both Friday and Saturday, and drove home Sunday after a nice morning run and a delicious brunch.

As soon as we arrived on Friday morning, we made it our mission to find the Michael Miller Booth and see my quilt! So we entered the vendor hall, wandered quickly throughout and happened upon this:

                                     

There is my quilt in all its upside down glory! Ha!

                                  

And here I am sitting with it! I sat beside it and didn't pick it up, because I didn't know I could. Even though it was mine and I've had my hands on it for weeks, I didn't want to mess with the display at all and so I just left things as they were. 

While my mom and I were taking pictures, we noticed Violet Craft! standing in the booth, chatting with Elizabeth Hartman (I think--I'm not great at recognizing celebrities!) of Oh, Fransson! My mom insisted that we wait to chat with Violet and I'm so glad we did! 

She is a lovely, lovely person and it was fun to listen to her talk about her design process and about how she loved seeing how people interpreted her fabrics in ways she never would have expected them to! For example, a few of the challenge projects used flower prints to represent the sun. She said she never would have thought that someone would do that. 

Anyway, my mom took our photo together (and unfortunately the color is off because the camera was on a funny setting). 

                                

When Violet picked up my quilt, I realized I probably could have done the same thing. Ha! Live and learn. So we went back the next day and took a few more pictures of the booth

And here I am actually HOLDING my quilt! 

What a treat it was to see my quilt in a booth in a quilt show! 

Next up (tomorrow) are tidbits and photos from the show! Then I'll have a post about the lectures we attended, too, so check back!

A Baby Quilt: "Little Boy Blue and Grey"

Early last spring, soon after my love for quilting was renewed, I found out two sweet friends were each pregnant with baby boys number two. I hadn't made quilts for either with their first, but I still wanted to do something super special for my friends and every now and then a second or third child needs something neat that was just for them! So being the thrifty quilter that I am, I started looking for a free pattern.

And what better place to look than the Moda Bake Shop blog? I found a great pattern and I knew immediately that I wanted to make something similar for both. So using the free charm pack pattern "Happy Weekender Quilt" as a guide, I raided the stash and came up with enough greys and blues and creams to get started on two scrappy, yet elegant, little men quilts.

This is one of the two completed! I had it quilted on a long arm at a LQS and it was backed in a rich charcoal minky that made it so amazingly soft!

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I had the other one quilted at a different LQS in a lighter grey thread and used a light blue minky on the back and a pattern they call "popcorn" for the long arm. I don't have a picture of it (that I can locate at the moment) but it was pretty similar, yet still unique.

When each mom got the quilt in the mail (they live in my old state), I got similar picture messages with the BIG brothers with the quilts. Both big brothers wanted to take 'em over! How sweet is that? 

I would definitely use it again, especially if I had a cute charm pack and a baby to sew for!

Katie

Road Trippin' to QuiltCon

As you read this, I should be on my way to QuiltCon! I convinced my mom that we should go (didn't take much convincing) and we are both super excited for a little trip.

I live far far and away from the city of Austin, but my mom? Well, she lives in somewhat easy driving distance! So I'm flew home yesterday, and we packed up the car and are hitting the road with a couple of soy lattes in the cupholder. We plan on soaking up some sunshine, listening to a little Pat Green and George Strait, and puttin' our boots on, because everyone knows boots are made for walking! And that is just what we will do at the show! Oh, and I'm pretty excited to eat some (Tex-)Mexican food, too.

Yee haw!

I'll be taking photos with a real camera , so that I can come back and write a blog post, or two, with good pics...but if you can't stand to wait that long, check out our trip and everything we find interesting on flickr: sagenovembersews or Instagram: @sagenovembersews or http://instagram.com/sagenovembersews .

Can't wait to check back in with loads of inspiration.

Katie

Katie & Ginger: Going to QuiltCon

Well hello again (Mom) and anyone else in blog land who happens here!

I'm late to the party, but I thought I should do the five things post and link up, because I'm Going To QuiltCon..

I'm Katie...

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and this is probably what I look like most of the time.   And these are 5 things you do not know about me:

1. I started jogging when I stopped swimming, because you don't have to get your hair wet and because all you need are shoes and a good sports bra. Not 10,000 gallons of water in a concrete hole and a gym membership.

2. I started to really like jogging, much to my own surprise, and have been somewhat consistent since then, but only ran my first race (a 5K) last September.

3. My hair is naturally pretty wavy, but I like to wear it smoother than that... so I don't like getting it wet very often (See Number 1) and only wash every 3 or 4 days (which sounds gross if you See Number 2, but it really isn't. Promise.). 

4. I'm slow to warm up to people, but once I know you I'm pretty chatty.

5. I prefer veggies to fruit and have since I was a toddler. Odd, I know.

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My mom, Ginger, is will be with me at QuiltCon... I convinced her it would be a fun road trip! But I'm not sure she wants me to link her photo on the site (I'll check and get back to you). We look a lot alike, except she wears her shoulder length hair wavy more often than I do and is a few inches closer to the ground.  We will probably be together all the time.

Here are five things you don't know about her:

1. She has one dog named Gus and a cat named Woodrow. Funny, huh?

2. She has a habit of finding animals and bringing them home. I think more than half of her pets were strays before they found her.

3. She has been drinking coffee since she was 3 years old. Taken as a splash of coffee in a cup of milk and sugar back then.

4.  She just finished a Spools Quilt that Katie plans to blog here later on!

5. She doesn't carry a cell phone. She sees no need.

My First Mini Quilt: Four Patch Delight

So I'm in this mini quilt group at a LQS. It's a lovely group of women that meet once a month for a few hours and work on mini quilts. I joined the group for a few reasons: 1. It helps me meet people with similar interests in a new town; 2. I know I can learn a lot from more seasoned quilters; and 3. Mini quilts are fun projects that I can use to stretch and grow and actually get finished in a reasonable  amount of time.

We are currently using this:

for our patterns. It is called Fat Quarterly Quilting: Simply Charming and was designed by Lori Smith.  The directions are simple and clear. And it only takes a fat quarter to back the whole thing....

The way the group works is that we work on a pattern for two months. You can do whatever you like on the quilt at the meeting: cut, piece, quilt, bind, chat or all of the above. It just depends on where you are in the process and how much you can do before and after group meetings. After those two months, you are supposed to finish the quilt (completely) and bring it to the following month's meeting (so you finish it and bring it when we are starting a new pattern).

I've only been to three meetings so far., so I have only finished one quilt and I just started on my second (in really different colors). And without much more ado.... this is my first mini:

The pattern for this one is called "Four Patch Delight" and I think it is a delight!  I wished after I saw some other finishes that I had done something a little different for the quilting, but you live and learn! I still had a lot of fun on this little mini and actually cut my own bias binding for this one. See:

I hadn't done it before on my own. It was actually really simple and I love the result. Who doesn't like plaid cut on the bias?

And if you look closely, in that tiny little cream border I sewed tiny loops. Actually, my Pfaff sewed the loops with a decorative quilting stitch, but I still guided the fabric. 

I should be back with number 2 sometime after the second week in April! And maybe I'll be back with something else before then.

Katie

Madrona Road MQG Challenge: "Here Comes The Sun"

Even when I was a little girl, I wanted to enter a fabric or sewing challenge. I remember sitting with my mom going through the Keepsake Quilting catalog and seeing the challenge fabrics and wanting so badly to order them and to create something wonderful.

Some twenty years later, and I finally got my chance! I signed up for the Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road challenge a few months back at the Omaha Modern Quilt Guild meeting! I picked up the fabric in early January and was so inspired to create this quilt that I named "Here Comes The Sun."

  

This is what I wrote about the quilt when I posted my photo in the flickr group: 

The Madrona Road line sang of the songs "You Are My Sunshine" and "Here Comes the Sun," so I knew immediately that I wanted to use it to depict light breaking up the darkness. The Princess and her Prince finally settle into a big life in a little house on a farmstead on Madrona Road. This is the view out of their kitchen window when the sunrise breaks over a dark field on an everyday kind-of-day in a happy life. 

It is a wall hanging size of 23.5 in x 27 in. It was pieced and quilted on my sewing machine and bound by hand.

Much to my (very excited) surprise, when I was contacted by the MQG and told that my quilt was chosen to be displayed in the Michael Miller Booth at QuiltCon in Austin, Texas later this month.   

I'm BEYOND THRILLED! 

I never expected it to be chosen among all of the amazing quilts and projects that were entered into the contest.

I had so much fun creating this quilt and playing with the fabric. I had so much fun browsing through all of the amazing pictures in the flickr group. And I'm having a lot of fun trying to convince my Mom that we have to go to QuiltCon now!

Here are a few other pictures that I took mid-process of my work on this quilt:

Arranging squares and working on my layout:

I raced myself to piece a backing, because I was driving myself crazy and losing tons of precious time arranging and rearranging the other fabrics I loved from the challenge. This is a picture of what I came up with: 

 

 And here is a closer picture of some of the quilting rays radiating out from the sun:

Big thank yous to the MQG for creating a wonderful challenge, to Violet Craft for designing beautiful and inspirational fabric and to Michael Miller for choosing my work.

Katie 

The Internet Sewing Adventure Officially Begins.

Hi,

I'm Katie. I'm starting a brand new sewing blog here at sagenovembersews.blogspot.com.  I had a different personal blog for a while, but have been wanting to shift my focus for some time to sewing.

I learned to sew as a child from my mom and classes at a local quilt shop.  I took some time off , unintentionally for twenty years after that, but have been obsessing over fabric for over a year and am enjoying making quilts for friends and lots of babies! Lately, I've been doing a lot of what I call "selfish sewing" to stay energized and excited. That means I'm sewing more for myself : lots of things I love and enjoy that will beautify my home.

When I'm not sewing I like playing with my big bloodhound, jogging, swimming, and flirting with my fun husband. We *somewhat* recently relocated to the Midwest and we're having fun exploring our new city.

I hope you will join me on my sewing-blogging journey.

Until next time,

I'm Katie and I'm signing off.