2014 Iowa State Fair

So we went to the fair on Tuesday and I finally got a picture of my quilt block.  It didn't win anything - no huge surprise there - but it was fun to see it and see a block a friend made too.

The walls of quilt blocks were...intense.  My friend Tara who loves orange and green together even thought it was a bit much.  It will make an interesting raffle quilt next year.

Every year they make a raffle quilt with the blocks from the previous year's competition.  Here is this year's raffle quilt with my Circle of Geese block in the middle.  A much calmer color palette.

This was the second year of there being a Modern Category at the fair.   Here are some of the entries.

And some more.

And more.  The entry on the right was perplexing.  I can only assume if was miss labeled and put in the wrong area because, while beautiful and well constructed, it is in no way modern.

Other favorites from the Fabric and Treads department were this cross stitched "quilt" and teal dress.  Each of the patches in the cross stitch was made to look like fabric - amazing.  I would love to make a quilt with that mix of colors and color gradation.   I also need to find (not make) a dress like the teal one for myself.  So classy!

The model gardens at the fair always get me motivated to do more in our yard.

Happy and calm before the ride

And I even went on a ride.  I am a ride wimp and it was scary and I felt like I was going to throw up.  The kid rides that I was too tall for seemed much more my speed.  :)

I am almost done appliqueing the stars on my Megan's Star quilt and hope to have pictures of that to share early next week.  I hope you have a great weekend!

Iowa State Fair Block

When I got back from vacation two weeks ago I found these fabrics in the stack-o-mail.  They are the fabrics for the 9" Quilt Block competition at the Iowa State Fair.  This is my third year entering (see my other entries here and here) and I have to say that these were the most challenging fabrics to work with so far.

The first year's fabrics weren't my favorite, but there was a good distribution of color and value.  The second year they used some of Vanessa Christensen's fabric (loved them!) but this year.... Well... None of the fabrics is bad by itself.  I actually really like the orange dot.  The green is a nice basic and the others...well, I wouldn't buy them, but they aren't yucky by any means, but all together they were really hard to work with.

Because the values were similar it was hard to decide on a block pattern that would look good.  The orange and the dark green didn't have enough contrast and the stripe blended with all of the other fabrics.  And if I cut the leaf fabric too small the dark orange leaves blended with the orange dot fabric.  Ugh!  After looking through tons of block patterns trying to find one that would look good with the fabrics and look decently challenging without being too hard to make I came up with this foundation paper pieced block:

Nothing fancy, but the best of all the options.  (The chartreuse around the center is the stripe - fussy cut to add more interest.)  Unfortunately, I have forgotten how to blog this summer and didn't take a picture of the actual block before turning it in.  Don't worry, you aren't missing much.  ;)   But I will for sure take a picture of it when we go to the fair in two weeks.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer.  Only three more weeks until school starts here.  I can't decide if I should put multiple exclamation points after that sentence or a frowny face.  Being a mom is such a mixed bag.  :)

Just Because...

I feel like I have a million sewing things that I should be working on, but yesterday I took some "me" time and stitched up this star.  It seems like forever since I have made any quilt blocks and I was glad to see that I hadn't completely lost my touch.  :)

A tutorial for this block can be found at Fresh Lemon Quilts.  

The fabrics are from Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet collection.

Improv. Asterisk Block Tutorial

I could have sworn there was a tutorial for this block somewhere out on the web, but I can't find one, so here is my own tutorial for a 12 inch square Improvisational Asterisk Block.  I think a whole quilt of these would be amazing!  (You might also want to check out this Shattered Glass Block Tutorial or this Basic Asterisk Block Tutorial).

To get started:

• Cut 3 strips approx. 18 inches long and 1.5-2 inches wide
• Cut 1 square approx. 14 inches to a side

Cut the square in half on the diagonal.
Place one strip between the cut edges.
Sew the strip to each cut edge.

Cut the square in half again at a different angle.
Sew the second strip in between the cut.
Be careful to line up your first strip on either side of your new strip.

Cut the fabric in half again where the two strips intersect.
Sew the last strip to either side of the cut.

Press and trim to 12.5 inches square.
Done!  Easy as pie!

Tune in later to see the finished quilt and have a Very Merry Christmas!

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!!