The Sparkling Winkel

I have three and a half vertical rows sewn together. I really like this. It's bright, fun and happy.

Where did "The Sparkling Winkel" come from? Well, I thought it looked like it was twinkling, so I was thinking Twinkle. My pal Julie suggested "Sparkle".  Turns out the toy is called "Winkel"

and the toy comes in different color combinations.  So I think "Sparkling Winkel" is the perfect name for this quilt. 

If you want to make a Sparkling Winkle quilt of your own, you can get my Scrap Slab Tutorial here, on my Etsy shop.

Stack 'em Up

This is the final layout for the Toy Quilt. Well, it's final as for the colored triangles. The black on white side triangles are good for now, but they might change as I sew them up and find combinations I don't like.

Now I am working my way through the quilt, sewing the blocks together, trimming them square, and then sewing the blocks together in vertical rows.

Here you can see I have two vertical rows sewn together. Each block is 6" square, so the vertical rows are 72" tall.

By the way, there are 32 different black and white fabrics.


If you want to make a scrap slab quilt of your own, you can get my tutorial here, on my Etsy shop.

Toy Quilt Story

I made a lot of blocks, and then got them up on the design wall, then stood across the room, took my glasses off and checked it all out. I didn't want too many of the same color blocks too close to each other. I didn't want too many busy blocks together. I didn't want too many darks clumped too close together. I tinkered with a pair of blocks, then another two pair, and then one pair again, and came up with this. Now I just need to add 240 black on white side triangles and sew it all up.

You know "all I have to do is..." hahahaha.

For Linda, who asked where I get my black on white prints, I buy them whenever I see ones I like, but lately though, it seems they are harder to find. I have bought many of these from eQuilter.

More More More

I made more blocks. As I made them, I'd move them to the design wall and started playing around. I really like this. The colors are bright and happy.

I need ten vertical rows, so I had to rearrange the blocks more neatly so they would fit on the design wall.

I have to make more blocks (where have I heard that before?)

The Toy Quilt Takes Shape

The big W thing in this post just wasn't doing it for me. I rearranged the blocks so they created diamonds and I set them on point. I tried putting the light yellow blocks on top of the orange blocks to make a diamond, and the light blue blocks on top of the dark blue blocks, but that just didn't work. In a quilt with four colors (yellow, orange, light blue and dark blue) there just wasn't enough variation to make that successful. So I kept the diamonds to one color.

Even this was not giving me the excitement I was looking for.

Looking at the inspiration for this quilt, I decided to add some red blocks, as the center of the toy was red.

That definitely improved things.  Now I like where it is going.

Need to make more blocks!



If you want to make your own scrap slab triangle quilts, you can get my tutorial here, on my Etsy shop.

The Colorado Quilt at Home in Colorado

The Colorado Quilt has arrived in the high desert of Colorado and now it lives on P & J's bed.

My extremely loquacious brother (sarcasm mine) sent this photo yesterday with the following comment:

"This is one beautiful quilt. Thank you so much."






If you want to make birds like these, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away. I have a tutorial for the butterflies too.

In Normas

I bought my granddaughter a little ride on toy for Christmas, and had it shipped directly to her in the City of Angels. It never occurred to me that it might be a problem until I got the following text from my son when I had asked if they had received the package.

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(Don't you just love spell check?)

Yeah, I let them open it, and we FaceTimed so I could watch.

My granddaughter was instantly interested, and tried to get on and ride it before my son was able to put it together. The pictures are fuzzy because it was late and dark, but you get the drift.

Looks like a happy girl to me!

The Big W

I am still cutting side triangles for the next Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, but the design wall calling to me, so I threw some of the scrappy triangles up there in the big W design. It's oh-kay, nothing special, but I need more blocks to really find out for sure. This is more than a little bit monotonous. One thing I have learned about these quilts though, is the black and white side triangles really make this pattern sing.

It will be nice to have all these side triangles cut, but I am getting very bored with cutting them. I have a few more strips left, and then I will be making slabs.  Can't wait.


In other news, I am still very happy with the robot vacuum cleaner, and have learned about things that get it stuck (loose fabric, cords, and the curved legs of my dining room table.) I've already bought cord covers for some exposed electrical cords, and figured out how to prevent the robot from getting into the studio when I don't want it there. Basically, I have learned to let it run when I am home, so if it gets stuck I can fix it before the battery dies. BTW, it will run for about 100 minutes on a single charge.

The Colorado quilt is in Denver, and will be delivered to my brother on Friday. I am so eager to hear what he and J think.


If you want to make your own scrap slab triangle quilts, you can get my tutorial here, on my Etsy shop.

Sides

 I'm cutting the black on white side triangles for another Scrap Slab Triangle quilt or two. Here are some of the fabrics I have chosen.

I cut them into big strips first.

This scallop print is fun. It almost look like bald men wearing tiny spectacles. Or upside down chandeliers.

So I cut my side triangles, and stack them in this plastic bin. That way I can move them around easily.

My students were surprised when I told them that for the Snow Day quilt, I did not sew the side triangles on the blocks until I finished laying out the colored triangles. Then I placed the side triangles one at a time. I wanted the patterns to be evenly distributed and I didn't want too many darks together or too many lights together. I'll do that with the next quilt.

If you want to make a scrap slab triangle quilt of your own, you can find my tutorial for sale in my Etsy shop, here.

Wrap It Up!

It's time to send the Colorado Quilt to my brother & his wife. If you remember how the box was packed when I received it, you'll understand why I'm wrapping the quilt in one of my flannel shirts. 

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All buttoned up...

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 Arms crossed and linked together...

 

 

Now it's wrapped in a plastic bag, which is a requirement for shipping a quilt.

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I've included a box of Color Catchers, as well as washing instructions and the quilt's appraisal in the box.

If I am really lucky, I'll get a picture of it when it arrives in Colorado, but I'm not holding my breath.



Our family's Thanksgiving dinner went very well. The house is back to normal now and I am looking forward to getting back into the studio to work on the next quilt.

More Robot Madness

I unleashed the new robot vacuum in the sewing studio. I confess I moved things around and got stuff off the floors so it would be a bit easier for it.

It picked up all the dust, as I expected, but it also picked up fabric scraps, push pins and sewing pins. It's cool that it works, but the best part is I AM NOT DOING IT!! I'm sure I'll get over watching the thing bounce around from one place to another after a while.

If you're waiting for pictures of Millie sitting on this while it vacuums, don't hold your breath. Millie is getting used to it, and doesn't run away any more. But given how many videos on YouTube showing cats sitting on these things, I thought this question on Amazon was hilarious and wanted to share it.
 

Snow Day Finds a Home

For the foreseeable future, the Snow Day quilt has found a home on my own bed.

Whee!!


If you'd like to make a scrap slab quilt, you can buy my tutorial here at my Etsy shop.

A Present for Me

I bought myself a Christmas present, and I gave it to myself early.

 It's a robotic vacuum cleaner. I know that this isn't going to replace a heavy-duty deep cleaning vacuuming job, but I'm so busy I could use help keeping house looking neat. If this can keep the house looking good from day to day, I'll be happy.

I had to see what it could do, so I set it up, let it charge, then told it to get going. Millie does not like it. I hope she'll get used to it, because I have set it to vacuum every morning at 9 AM.

It seemed to go around haphazardly, but when it headed back to the charging station after about half an hour, I figured it was full. (Since I knew it was coming, I had deliberately let the house get a bit messy.) When I took the little canister out I was surprised at how full it was. I think this little sucker (pun most definitely intended) has found a permanent home.

Gobble Gobble

I have two brothers. One lives in Colorado, and the other is retired, spends his winters kite-surfing in Mexico, and his summers rock climbing in Yosemite Valley. This brother is visiting for the next week and we'll celebrate Thanksgiving this coming Saturday, November 18. The big dinner is happening here at my house and I'm cooking.

That means the next few days I'll be cleaning and getting everything ready for the big day instead of spending time in the sewing studio.

These will have to wait until next week!


If you want to make your own Scrap Slab Triangle quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

Scrap Slab Triangle Class

I had a lot of fun with my students at the Scrap Slab Triangle class on Saturday. The students made blocks, and then we set them all out of the floor and started playing with them.

I spent about fifteen minutes moving some blocks around and showing different layout options, but when the students started making suggestions, I moved away and said, "Show me. Do it."

The biggest problem wasn't that nobody wanted to move the blocks around. It was that ladies who  are north of 55 or 60 have a hard time getting down on the floor and then getting up again. Fortunately we did have a couple of brave souls, and one student in her 20's who was more than eager to help shuffle the blocks around.

We did find some interesting patterns worth exploring.

It was a good class.  I'm off now until January 27, 2018 when Quilted Threads will offer another bird class, and a barn class on February 10.



If you would like to make your own scrap slab triangle quilt, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

Value

When I studied the Philosophy of Art in college, the professor told us, "If you think artwork A is truly better than artwork B, then you are correct."  Of course it isn't that simple. I know the Colorado quilt is a beautiful quilt. I know it's well made, and well designed, but it's worth... I don't know.

That's why I needed to have the quilt professionally appraised by Gerald Roy, the country's leading quilt expert.

He counted the birds, he measured the size of the barn block. He turned the quilt over and checked out the signature panel on the back.

He loved the quilt, thought the birds were great and the barn was terrific. He thought the quilting was "perfect." Then he gave me the appraisal - much higher than I expected, and the highest of any of my quilts.

OK!

Knowing the quilt's value is nice, but being validated is ever so much better.

What's Next?

My pal Allison asked me "What's next?" now that the Colorado Quilt is finished. The answer is the Scrap Slab Triangle Quilt class at Quilted Threads on Saturday, so I am getting ready for that.

For this class the students got a copy of the Scrap Slab Tutorial ahead of time and were asked to make slabs to bring to class. Here are mine. I'll demo cutting them at class.

You can't see in this photo, but I will be showing all three Scrap Slab Quilts at the class.

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This is a great way to use up your scraps and make some fun quilts.  You can get the tutorial here.

Colorado on the Rocks

The Colorado Quilt is finished.

I'll get a few more beauty shots, have it appraised, show it off to my students at QT this coming Saturday, my family at Thanksgiving and then it will fly across the US to the high desert where my brother & sister-in-law live. There the quilt will live a life of a bed quilt.