adventures of a quilting diva

Did you resolve to make or finish more quilts in the new year? Think you can do it in just 10 minutes a day?

Not all of us can take off on a week-long quilting retreat, but just about everybody can carve out 10 minutes a day for quilting-related tasks. Here’s how it works:

1. Choose a quilting project to devote 10 minutes a day to. Avoid complicated patterns. You want something simple that you can jump right in and out of without getting mixed up.
2. Set aside 10 minutes each day. Schedule it in. Early in the morning works best for some people, while others prefer evening or late night. Choose a time that works for you. Don’t be afraid to mix it up once in awhile as needed. If you’re ironing the laundry one afternoon, the ironing board is set up and the iron’s hot, take advantage of that. After ironing your clothes, take 10 and press the fabric for your 10-minute project.
3. Divide the steps into short, manageable chunks and assign days to them. For example, Sunday: press the fabric. Monday: cut strips for fabric A. Tuesday: subcut units for fabric A. Wednesday: cut strips for fabric B. Thursday: subcut units for fabric B.  Friday: chain piece unit A-Bs. Saturday: press unit A-Bs. And so on. If you don’t have a dedicated sewing space set up and it takes too much time and effort to clear the dining room table and set up for just 10 minutes, then use your 10-minute days for prep work only. When you do have an afternoon or even an hour or two for quilting, you’ll be ready to jump right in and get stitching!

Still working on the basket blocks. The blue hanging basket is the block for July. The other baskets are past months’ blocks that I’m catching up on for the sampler quilt which will make its debut in just a few weeks. The instructions for the hanging basket should be up on the Citrus Belt Quilters website later this week if you’re participating in the basket block of the month.
These are from an autumn block exchange at CBQ, we made 5 of the same block, turned them in at the June meeting and got a set back with 4 other blocks plus your own. Mine is the scrappy basket on the right that’s not finished yet. That one got pieced together wrong and since I only had just enough time to get to the meeting I didn’t take any photos of any of the correct blocks for you before turning them in. I’ll have to get out the good old seam ripper and try again. In the meanwhile I think you can use your imagination as to what the block is supposed to look like. It’s nice that there’s plenty of time to put them together into a neat little wall hanging before fall is upon us.
The other 4 blocks by from CBQ members Betty Cullen, Getta Hannah, Candy Mitchell and Judi Steenson. Next post I’ll show you the picture quilt my daughter Annika and I made at the CBQ June workshop and give some highlights from the guild meetings. Also coming soon: Virtual Quilt Tour of the Redlands Quilt Festival.

happy quilting! ^_^

I managed to quilt a few days this month, some more appliqué around the fused edges of my May basket blocks.

Then I made up the June basket block for the sampler. I like this block a lot for piecing and am looking forward to doing a whole quilt out of it.

And finally, here’s the result of my Machine Reverse Appliqué workshop with Nadine Kirk. I sketched out a simple 5 piece butterfly to try the techniques out on, rather than the 20+ pieces per panel in the beautiful, but too much for me original (Botanical Tulips). I not only finished the appliqué in the workshop, but also did all the sashiko-style quilting by the next morning. Next comes beading and/or hot fix crystals and an embellished binding.
If you ever get the chance to take a class from Nadine Kirk, I along with the rest of my guild members who attended wholeheartedly recommend it. This is a versatile technique you will definitely see me use again. Her trunk show at our guild meeting the next day was very inspiring as well. If you’re going to Long Beach this summer be sure to look for her quilt in the Surf’s Up exhibit.

happy quilting! ^_^
I’d love to see what you quilted in May! Just leave me a link in the comments for this post.

This month I got about a week’s worth of quilting in and here are the results:

Nine fusible appliqué basket blocks for May. They’re cut out and ironed down, but not all stitched yet.

Here’s a closeup of one of the blocks. Check on the CBQ website this weekend to download the pattern if you’d like to make them.

Quilt Every Day participants who would like to share what you worked on in April, please tell me about it and share a link in the comments section of this post.

Anyone is welcome to join in! All you need to do is set aside 10 minutes each day to work on a quilt project of your choice (or knitting or scrapbooking or whatever you have that needs getting done). It could be a UFO you’ve been meaning to get around to or something completely new. If you miss a day or two, that’s OK (I missed most days this month, but still got quite a lot done). The point is that although 10 minutes may not seem like much on its own, when you add them all up at the end of the month your accomplishments will be amazing! Just check in on my blog at the end/beginning of each month and share a link to what you worked on in the comment section of the Quilt Every Day blog post for that month.

happy quilting! ^_^

Wow!
Check out what these quilters did with just 10 minutes a day:
Dorothy in Vermont
Scrappy Cat in Oklahoma
Vicky in Washington
Anita
Cynthia: Slice of Summer and Civil War blocks
Beth in Kentucky
Deborah
It’s not too late, you can still email me your links and I’ll share your pages of what you quilted in 10 minutes a day!

My Quilt Every Day results
This what I did for Quilt Every Day during March: For the first part of the month I stitched together 3-inch rail fence blocks into pairs, 10 minutes a day. You can see the stack here.
Then I remembered an upcoming deadline and switched to my April BOM for Citrus Belt Quilters, Tulip vase . This is the block that will go in the sampler quilt. It’s a no-triangle pieced basket block with fusible appliqué flowers on top. You can find the block instructions on the CBQ Block of the Month webpage.
Here is the middle panel for the Quilt of the Month. You won’t find the instructions for this one yet because I haven’t sewn on the borders. Actually I did quite a bit more than 10 minutes a day to get all these baskets done the last part of March.
Confession time
I must admit that I have not done even one stitch since April began. That habit I made so easily is now so easily gone. All is not lost though. I have a lot of writing to do these days, patterns and other stuff that I have been working on every day instead. BOM time is coming up as well so I’ll need to sew the May block before you know it.

I wasn’t going to continue offering the challenge month after month, but I felt so productive that I have since changed my mind. I hope you will keep going with your 10 minutes a day and will stop by my blog with your link at the beginning of each month to share what you’ve accomplished. I promise I will start up my 10 minutes a day again (not today, but soon!) I’ll set up a special post for Quilt Every Day the first of each month and you can put the link to your post in the comments section. That will probably be the most simple way to manage it. Can’t wait to see what you do for April!

happy quilting!

Glendale Quilt Show 2008
Last weekend I had the privilege of attending the Glendale Quilt Show at the Burbank Marriott Convention Center. Here are a few highlights for your enjoyment:

“Swimming Upstream”
by Glendale Quilt Guild member Bobbie Moon
This quilt was inspired by Gwen Marston and Freddie Moran, two of my favorite quilters. Check out their book “Collaborative Quilting” for some eye-popping eye candy.

“Peony Dream Melody”
by Molly Y. Hamilton-McNally
Prize winner: Best of Show Professional. That’s some beautiful needle-turn reverse appliqué.

“Paradise Pineapples”

“Three Sheets to the Wind”
made by Glendale Quilt Guild member Lorelei Snee
pattern by Barbara Lavallee
(click on the link to see more of Barbara’s designs)
A fun raw edge appliqué quilt.

wearable art vest
by Leah Bessey
2nd place winner. I would definitely wear this.

I also found just the right fabric for the border of my April basket Quilt of the Month, which I’ll photograph and post for you sometime this month after I actually attach the border to the quilt. My DD Annika found herself quite a cute stash of cat fabric and will be planning and making a cat quilt in the near future.

Quilt Every Day update

For all of you who are quilting every day with me, email me the link to your post or put it in the comments for quilt every day. I’ll compile the links and post them by April 10. I’m quite pleased with my progress and hope you are happy with yours as well. Stop by after April 10 to check them out and be inspired.

Here’s a peek at my California Beadin’ piece for my guild’s spring challenge. If the dates for turning pieces in don’t overlap I might enter it into the California-themed exhibit at the new IQA show in Long Beach.

I’ve also been working on my Quilt Every Day Rail Fence quilt, although (confession time) not quite every day. I can’t believe I forgot and missed two whole days out of the first week. I did some extra tonight to make up for it though, and I can see a lot of progress. I wonder which quilt top I’m going to practice my free motion quilting on first this summer? I’m glad to see that quite a few of you are also making good progress on your 10 minutes of quilting a day. It takes just 3 weeks to make a new habit. This could mean the end of the ever-growing UFO stack and the beginning of lots of finished quilts!