My Tree Quilt

This week my kids watched a bunch of TV, ate picnics outside (because the table was covered in fabric!) and my house looks like a tornado hit it, but I made a quilt in one week!  I had planned to enter this quilt into the State Fair and realized Tuesday that the due date was this Saturday not next Saturday!  I didn't think it was possible, but I finished it and turned it in with 15 minutes to spare.  :)  

I am loving it.  I think tree quilts are my thing.  I think it is the only type of quilt I have made multiple times.  The original Tree Quilt, the Baby Tree Quilt, the Commissioned Tree Quilt and now My Tree Quilt. 

 I quilted it by writing the names of different trees across the quilt.  More closeups later.  The backing was some vintage cloth from my friend's grandmother's stash.  In fact, I didn't have to buy anything for this quilt, which was good because I didn't have time to run into town.  :)  The cut down tree was the idea of my friend Eva-Marie.  I love it!

I also turned in my circle of geese block for the Quilt Block competition.  I reduced the pattern by 75% so that it met the 9.5 inch size requirement.  I love this pattern!   Wanting to make a circle of geese block was what motivated me to learn how to paper piece last year.

Now I am going to take a deep breath, relax and clean the house.  ;)

Vacation and Mail

Last week I got back from a three week vacation visiting family in the Northwest!  We started with a surprise (for my mom and dad) family reunion in Gig Harbor, WA, drove to Boise, ID to visit with all of my husband's family and then back to Washington for a week with just us and the parents.  It was fun visiting with everyone and my kids loved getting to play and meet all of their cousins.

While I was on vacation I took a break from reading blogs and posting here.  It was kind of nice, but nice to be back too.  :)  The first thing I did when I got back was open the package from my Pillow Talk Swap partner!

 I love the pillow Leila (needleanddime) sent!  I love the curves, the points, the colors...everything!  Plus she hand pieced the middle!  I am soooo lucky!  Thank you!!!

I also got a package of fabric from the people at the Iowa State Fair for the Quilt Block competition.  I like these fabrics much better than last years, but working with only three colors might be challenging.  I wonder if they realize the fabric designer, Vanessa Christensen, lives in Iowa.  We are using fabrics from an Iowa fabric designer for the Iowa State Fair.  Kind of cool!  :)

Hope you are having a great summer too!

This Week...

This week... I have worked on appliqueing the hexagons onto a linen background for my Pillow Talk Swap pillow.  Before appliqueing, I layered the linen, fusible fleece and backing and quilted them together in a grid pattern.  I added some hand stitching around a few of the hexagons last night in pink and yellow and plan on using one of the fabrics on the side as a backing.

This week... I learned that if your eight year old wakes you up in the middle of the night saying that she had a bloody nose you shouldn't blearily ask if it has stopped, (yes) and tell her to go back to bed, assuming that she only got blood on the worn old baby blanket she is holding.  Because the next day you will find yourself facing the prospect of scrubbing dried blood out of a new quilt and wondering how she only managed to bleed on the white fabric on the front of the quilt and miss all of the dark fabric on the back.  Thankfully it came out much better than I expected.

This week... I have realized how hard it is to get pictures of large quilts.  The sun, my husband-quilt-holder and non-bloodied quilts never seem to be in the same place at the same time!

This week... I learned that there is a Modern category in the Iowa State Fair!

183 Modern - a quilt using a new design or reinterpreted traditional design, including improvisational piecing, alternative block structures, or emphasis of negative space and asymmetry.

I worked with the Fabric and Threads superintendent this fall to get this category added.  If you live in Iowa and have made a Modern quilt would you please consider entering it?  Please?  I would hate to have asked for a new category and have no entries.

To enter a quilt in the Iowa State Fair:
Go to the Iowa State Fair 2013 Categories/Premium Books Page

1. Read the Fabric and Threads Booklet to see how many things you would like to enter.  Only one entry per category.
2. Fill out an online entry form.  You do not have to know for sure what you are going to enter at this time.  It will simply ask you how many entry tags you would like.  Each tag can be used for any of the Fabric and Threads categories. 
3. Drop off your item on July 27th.
4. Pick up your item on August 19th

I would love to see a bunch of modern styled quilts hanging at the fair!

Fair Firsts

Yesterday we went to the Iowa State Fair.  It was so much more enjoyable than last year.  Much cooler (only in the 70s!! Notice that they started the day wearing sweaters?) and my husband was able to come too.  I can't believe I took the kids by myself on a super hot day last year.  I must have been insane!

The first stop was the Fabric and Threads exhibit to check out the quilt block contest winners.  Here are all the blocks that were entered into the competition.  After the fair they will be made up into a quilt and raffled off at next year's fair.

Here is mine!  An honorable mention!  

I was quite proud to be in the top 6 blocks.  There were some real beauties.

The smocked dress I entered won a blue ribbon.  Which I am proud of ...but I think it was the only one in it's class (Child's Smocked Garment Size 3-12).  So if you want to win a ribbon with minimal competition, the smocked category is for you!  ;)

Another first was our 3 year old deciding that she could go down the slide all by herself.  It was only 3 feet tall, but she was so proud (and so was I - going down the slide with her is getting very old).  She went down at least 30 times before we left the play ground area.

It was also our first time getting the free boiled egg on a stick.  Sooo much more fun than a regular boiled egg and everyone ate their yolks - another first.

We made it up to the Cultural Center for the first time this year.  We stuck around watching glass beads being made, pots being thrown and eating lunch long enough to participate in Art Attack (free art activities for kids).  I loved being up there in the courtyard.  The weather was lovely and it wasn't crowded at all -well compared to the rest of the fair.  Very relaxing.

Looking at and petting animals rounded off the day.  I love the little calves!  It was a lot of fun, but my belly and back were glad to rest on the couch for the rest of the night after a long day of walking around.  ;)

What is your favorite part of going to the fair?

Off To The Fair

The original Belted Star

 As I mentioned earlier, I signed up for the Quilt Block Competition at the Iowa State Fair.  After much hemming and hawing, I decided on the Belted Star pattern for my 9 inch block.  I have never sewn a block so carefully in my life before.  When I paper piece I usually just trim off the extra with scissors at about a 1/4 inch give or take, but this time each seam was trimmed to exactly 1/4 inch and the block was pressed to within an inch of it's life.  Only one seam was just a bit off.  Then I measured the block...it was 9 1/4 inches instead of 9 1/2 inches!!!!!!  #$%@#^&#%^@#$#!!!!

My templates had printed just a hair off - each 4 1/2 inch quadrant printed at 4 3/8 inches.  Augh!!!  I thought about making a different block with the scraps, but there wasn't much left of the background and green fabric - we are talking a 1.5 inch square of the green.  My husband suggested adding a small strip to the middle which I translated into widening the middle.  Actually quite a brilliant idea.

The modified Belted Star on it's way to the fair!

So here is the finished block that I turned in this afternoon.  It doesn't look quite as balanced as the original and two of the corners are off now, but at least it won't be eliminated immediately because it is too small.  I wanted to finish off a mini quilt to enter but it just didn't get done.

So instead, I entered a smocked dress I made years ago for the Emily.  It won grand prize in the Tippecanoe, Indiana County Fair back in the day (yes, it is just as small time as you might think!) and I thought, "Why not enter?"  When I turned it in today they said they don't get very many items in the smocked category anymore so maybe it will stand a fighting chance.

The Fabric and Thread's preview night is August 8th and I will know the results then.  It is rather nice that they have a preview night before the start of the fair - close parking, less crowds.  Hopefully, I will be able to take more time to look at the exhibits and won't have kids tugging on me and wanting to go look at other stuff.  :)  I can't wait!!

Going To The Fair!

I have always loved going to the fair.  But I never understood why adults wanted to go and see the exhibits when I was young - wasn't the fair all about the rides?  But now I am all over the exhibits and don't let my kids go on any rides - I know, so mean.  :)  But this year is extra special.   I am going to have a quilt block exhibited in the fair!

2011 Competition Blocks 

Each year there is a quilt block competition at the Iowa State Fair.  They send you fabric and you make a quilt block that is judged.  Then they take all of the blocks and make a quilt for next year's raffle.  Here are the blocks from last year. 

The 2012 Block Fabrics

These are the fabrics that they sent out this year...umm...not my favorites.  I mean, I like good Civil War reproduction fabrics, the poison greens, roses and cheddars, but not these.  But that will just make making a great block that more rewarding/challenging/impossible.  Right?

The only requirements are:

1. The block must measure 9.5 inches square unfinished (9 inches finished)
2. The block must contain all 6 fabrics
3. No additional fabric may be added



The light fabrics aren't so bad - I actually really  like the bumble bees.

I have added a few more requirements for myself - I would really like to have a shot at winning - I am kind of competitive.  ;)

1. It must have a decent amount of complexity but not over the top - the winners last year had nice simple yet effective designs with a traditional leaning
2. All points must match
3. The back must look good also - I figure when it comes down to the finalists, the judges will pay attention to the back of the blocks because all of the fronts are perfect.
4. Make sure it is well pressed and has no loose threads
5. Pay attention to fabric placement - make sure there is good contrast

Has anyone out there judged or seen judging for quilts/quilt blocks before?  Is there anything else I should pay attention to?

   

                     

Here are the three blocks I have narrowed it down to (it is really hard to find 9 inch blocks that can use 6 different fabrics!).  L to R:  Aztec Logs, Eight Point Allover and Belted Star.  All of the blocks were found at the Quilter's Cache.

Right now I am leaning towards Aztec Logs because it will be easy to use all of the fabrics, the design fits the fabric and the small 1 inch triangles add a good level of complexity.  As a bonus they are paper pieced, so I have a decent chance of making them accurately.  In fact all of the blocks are paper pieced so hopefully my precision will be better than if I was piecing them with regular cutting/sewing.  But I like the other ones too...

What do you think?  

Iowa State Fair, Quilters Edition

Yesterday I took the girls to the Iowa State Fair.  I wish I could say we had the time of our lives, but honestly, it was packed, we got lost, I got grouchy and did I mention I had four kids with me?  Don't get me wrong, we had fun, but it wasn't magical like the fair sometimes is.

 One of the first things we saw was a line of quilt blocks surrounding the Jacobson Exhibition Center.  From a flier:  "A call was sent out to Iowa counties in the Spring of 2009 to create a quilt block design to represent each county in an outdoor mural at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.  The winning designs from each of Iowa's 99 counties have been constructed in tile on the exterior of the new Richard O. Jacobson Exhibition Center.  The quilt block project incorporates Iowa's heritage and tradition of barn quilts into the Fairground's newest facility."

The flier also had thumbnails of all of the quilt blocks.  I am sorely tempted to make an "Iowa" quilt out of them.

The next stop was the Thread and Fabric exhibit.

Every year there is a Make-A-Block category at the fair.  They send you fabric and you make a block that is judged.  Then they take the blocks and make a quilt that is raffled off the next year at the fair.  Fun!  I have to remember to sign up next year for sure.  Do you see the cow block that took fourth place?  Here is the tutorial for it.  How fun is it to know where someone got their block pattern from?

 As we walked along the walls of quilts, I realized two things.  #1 - I was at least 15 years younger than most of the women there and  #2 - quilt shows are a much better place to see quilts.  In order to maximize space only a few feet of each quilt is showing.  Bummer.  But here are some favorites.

A Dear Jane Quilt

This one was on the cover of a recent Quilters Newsletter

I am hoping to enter my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt next year,
so I needed a picture of the competition.  :)

I love the graphic look of these flowers.
An appliqued flower quilt is on my must make someday list.

Loved these bright HST

The six year old loved the yo-yos.

I really liked the colors
and different designs in all the diamonds.

Got to love the vintage quilts.

Great Cathedral Windows and Stars.

Tiny pieces in this around the world/postage stamp quilt

More Beauties.

Snakes!  Love this block.

This was the last quilt in line and much to the girls' relief we left the quilt area, wandered around, ate, looked at animals and went to the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.

Me milking a cow!
She must be so embarrassed to have this picture of her on the web.

I must say that I enjoyed looking at the animals.  They had a great building with newborn baby animals and their moms.  If it hadn't been so crazy in there I could have stayed all day just looking and petting.  And cow milking?  Awesome!  I am totally a natural.  :)

Did you go to the fair this year?