Library Quilt Show

Posted on May 22, 2017 by admin

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Yesterday there was a celebratory walk through of the quilts in the currant library show. Mine is the orange one. The show will be up through June 4th at the main/central Berkeley Public Library on the 2nd floor. This is the 36th annual show. I’ve lost count of how many of these shows I’ve had a quilt in, but it must be at least 10. The first library show I was in, was when the show was still at the North branch library. It was one of my really early quilts.CFS-111230 024KlimptThis quilt was inspired by Qustav Klimt’s paintings. The detail shows the 3D effect of the mini quilt within the bigger quilt.

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After attempting to quilt this quilt with my regular sewing machine’s foot, and running into problems, I bought a walking foot. I love quilting with the walking foot!

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Eight 12 x 12s finished or almost finished

Posted on May 4, 2017 by admin

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For the April meeting of my 12 x 12 group, we brought in everything we’ve done since we started in Sept. This is the half way point for the group. I’m fairly pleased with my progress. My goals for this year: Make a quilt every month, try new things/techniques, and explore making amulets.

 

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Flying Birds of Paradise

Posted on April 26, 2017 by admin

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Here it is, all quilted and ready for its debut in the Berkeley Public Library (main branch) Quilt show, opening May 1. It will be up until June 4, so there’s lots of time to see the show. It will be on the second floor, above the reference desk, and in the original lobby. Ask at the reference desk to borrow the catalog. Otherwise you won’t know who made the quilts, because the quilts only have a number.

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Accidental 12 x 12

Posted on April 20, 2017 by admin

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I wanted to audition quilting options for the quilt I’ve been working on. So I made a nine-patch version of the quilt. It just happened to be 12.5″ x 12.5″. So, after trimming it would be perfect for my 12 x 12 group, which meets in two weeks. That’s a good thing, because I might not have time to make another one.

I tried both free motion quilting and walking foot, and three different thread colors. I decided to use the walking foot with a dark yellow thread. The quilt is now quilted, but it’s too dark to get a good photo of it now. I’ll try to post one tomorrow.

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Black and white is quilted

Posted on April 4, 2017 by admin

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Here it is, quilted, but you can’t really see the quilting lines in the photo above. Here’s a detail:

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Ready for quilting

Posted on March 28, 2017 by admin

I’ve only been working on this for two days, but it’s now ready for quilting.

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I inserted a 3/4 inch black strip, and decided it was done. First I tried a red strip, but didn’t like how it stole the focus from the one little blue square.

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A gift of black and white pieced strips

Posted on March 27, 2017 by admin

At my small quilt group/bee we were going through the group’s stash, and getting rid of fabric we were unlikely to use in the group’s projects. I took home a bag which included many  pieced black and white strips. You could call them piano keys. They are leftovers from a quilt the group made of a cello. Here’s a not very good photo of it.

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Here’s my pile of black and white strips.

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I thought that I would make postcards out of them, but that was too small a format. Then I realized that April is almost here and I haven’t started my 12 x 12 yet. The black and white strips seemed to need some red.

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I really like these thin red strips. They are only 3/4 of an inch wide.

I added the little blue and red squares, but it needed something else.

imageI sliced it diagonally and offset the two pieces.

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Quilt top sewn together!

Posted on March 22, 2017 by admin

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It’s now sewn together. It was rather tricky because some squares got turned around, and I had to rip them out and do them over. I started at the top and sewed four-patches, then sewed the four-patches together. But it’s nine squares across so each row had an extra square.

I might call it Flying Birds of Paradise. I’m still thinking about names for it. I’m also thinking about how to quilt it.

Here are some detail shots. I love the unexpected yellow triangles.

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Mizrach quilting finished

Posted on March 17, 2017 by admin

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I finally quilted the background. It now looks as if the background is pieced, but it’s not. I might sew some seed beads on this one, but otherwise it’s finished! Instead of a binding this one has a facing on the back. I’ve been so busy with the improv star that I haven’t even started my 12 x 12 for April.

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Almost finished, almost ready to sew it together

Posted on March 15, 2017 by admin

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I’m almost finished with the layout for this quilt. Any day now I’m going to start sewing the squares together. I’m having a great time adding more little triangles, but I think I should stop really soon.

I’m wondering what to name this quilt, since I already have one called “Improv Star.” Looking at it last night, I saw the stars as either flying birds or as the flower, bird of paradise. Maybe I should call it “Birds? Of Paradise.” Leave me a comment if you have a name for this quilt.

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