Lemon Tree Tales

Rainbow Charity Quilt

Today I had another charity quilt from our guild that I took to the longarm rental center to quilt. Our guild members all helped sew 12 1/2" sampler blocks from donated fabric stashes. The charity chairwoman then put them together in kits with fabrics for sashing and borders. Once the quilt tops were pieced together she then made kits of tops, backings with battings for volunteers to quilt.

This particular kit had as a backing a very 80s rainbow well-loved sheet. It was a bit of a challenge to quilt but in the end it turned out well. The pantograph is called Cotton Seed which reminds me of Popcorn with extra attitude. Even though the border print has abstract florals the overall feeling of the quilt looks like it would be a good fit for a guy so I wanted a gender-neutral quilting design. Since there was so much white in the blocks and the backing I opted to use a white thread for both top and bobbin. It's a bit bold on the black borders and sashing but helps to frame the blocks.

 

 

 

 

I'll trim the edges and hand it over to another guild member who likes to attach the binding. Hopefully it'll help someone in need and give them a bit of warmth and cheer.

Fractured Quilts Progress

It's been a while but last week I made ten more blocks for the Fractured Quilt. I added these five 'C' and five 'D' blocks to the first eight (four 'A' and four 'B' blocks). It's amazing how with the addition of just these few blocks the design is starting to show through. It's certainly going to be a very bright and colorful quilt. It's starting to get a little exciting. Maybe I can fit in six more blocks to complete these three columns.

 

One or two blocks were sewn piece by piece but the others were done by chain piecing. By far I like the chain piecing better. Especially after my favorite sewing machine, the Bernina Aurora, came back from a professional cleaning. It turns out that a little piece of grey thread had wrapped itself around an internal part of the take-up lever. It wasn't affecting the sewing performance ... yet. Luckily we caught it before it did serious damage. So it's a good thing to take your sewing machine in for a professional service every once in a while. Now my machine is good to go for quite a long time.

International Quilting Day

Did you know that today, March 15th is International Quilting Day? Well it is and Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims of The Quilt Show fame have a wonderful celebration going on. If you sign up you can watch all of Seasons 1 -13 of The Quilt Show for free. Don't wait, do it now because the free shows are only available until midnight PST Sunday night. Details are here. There's so many episodes that I doubt I'll be able to get to even a quarter of them but I am trying to concentrate on all the ones about longarm quilting. So far I've watched an exciting episode featuring Gina Perkes. Great stuff! Why don't you sign up and watch a few and tell me which one is your favorite.

Traditional vs Modern Quilt Guilds

When it comes time to choose to join a quilt guild, should we be thinking Traditional vs Modern? They're both quilt guilds but they approach things in a different manner. However I don't think that this is really a case of choosing just one over the the other. Instead I think that we quilters can benefit from the experience and friendships of both groups.

Traditional guilds tend to have larger memberships with quilters who have been sewing for many years. They are quick to share their knowledge of quilting tips as well as life tips if you ever need them. Their quilts lean more towards the traditional in flavor. Perhaps there are members who like civil war era reproduction fabrics, or the 30s Aunt Grace fabrics. Perhaps they like the traditional applique quilts like Baltimore Albums. Regardless of whether you personally like these fabrics and styles, the techniques and skills employed in constructing these quilts are a valid skill to emulate.

Modern guilds tend to appreciate the graphic, more negative space, larger quilt blocks and the newer fabrics, as well as using quite a bit of solids. If you're a traditional quilter then you may not like some of the quilts but it can be refreshing to see the younger generations learning how to sew and quilt. There's a different type of energy present. Their members tend to use social media and the internet to discover new designs and share their works. They're open to experimenting with color combinations and a bit of fabric mixing .. linens with cottons comes to mind. The traditional "primitive" style of folk-art quilts also mix fabrics, wools with cottons and homespuns.

Of course these are generalizations but I think that if you join both a traditional and a modern quilt guild that you'll be experiencing the best of both quilt worlds, not to mention meeting and making many more friends at the same time. That's why I'm a happy member of both the Cheyenne Heritage Quilters here in Cheyenne, WY as well as the Fort Collins Modern Quilt Guild in Fort Collins, CO. Won't you look into the different guild guilds near you? Maybe there's a group nearby that is the "opposite" of what you're currently attending? Try going to a meeting. You may be pleasantly surprised. Come on, we quilters don't bite.

Mud Womping

Lately my white car hasn't been looking so white .. it's mud covered from all the mud womping that I have to do on our private unpaved road that leads to the highly well-maintained unpaved county road. When we got back home to WY Sunday from sunny CA, we saw an amazing sight of iced snow trees everywhere. Sadly by the time I got ready to take some pictures it had all melted away. The snows melt and if it happens too quickly then the roads become a huge mud pile. I'm afraid that my car will get stuck so I go a little over 20 mph and just ride it through to the other side. Sometimes the muddy water flies up over my entire car, coating the windshield so that all I can see is a thin layer of sludge. Yuck! But it is a bit fun too. As soon as the puddle (lake) is gone then I'll run my car through the car wash. Until then you'll just have to take my word that under all that mud is a pretty pearl white car.