Reader Profile Time…..

A few weeks ago, I showed the work of Christie Frey, a longtime reader……

Meet Christie and her “stash trash”

Christie was responding to my question of “What are your quilting plans for 2024?”

Another reader, Judith Lawrence, responded in this way…..

I had a good January of learning to paper piece on small projects. Plans are to make a quilt for a young 4 year old boy.

She included photos of these two pieces….

Don’t you love the red stripe binding? It is perfect!

Looking at these, I was surprised that she was a beginner in Paper piecing.

Then, she pulled out all the stops and sent this rooster…..

Just look at that smile…..it sure says “JOB WELL DONE!!”

Judith told me that she was originally from Oregon; went to college at age 46 and worked as a medical assistant until retirement in 2018. She got married at her retirement party and a year later moved to Wyoming.

I got started quilting when a friend took me to a small quilt shop (she had done quilting for years). I have sewn clothing for myself and children but no quilting. We signed up for a block of the week wall hanging class and I was hooked.

I started free motion quilting, using a meander design on a 30 year old Viking Husquvarna . When it gave up, I quilted on a Brother that had been owned by my Aunt. It was also old but not used as much. I purchased a new Juki 3 years ago and here I am.

I have my grandmother’s Duncan Phyfe dining table set up on risers with cutting mats on it. My sewing cabinet faces it. I have a TV mounted on the wall and music ready to play; so my own personal girl cave.

It is good mental therapy and also keeps me from going stagnant. In the good weather I don’t sew as much as I am enjoying the wide open grandeur of Wyoming.

Finally, she noted that she certainly enjoys the “therapy” of sewing and handling fabrics.

We can ALL relate!!

Thank you Judith for sharing your story, your talents AND your plans for 2024!!

What about you? Are you accomplishing your 2024 quilting goals?

Paper piecing—-yea or nay?

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I attended a workshop on the Judi Neimeyer technique of paper piecing.

Her quilts are lovely and those crisp points just call to me!!

Everything was very well organized, including a packet that contained a 12-page instruction booklet and enough papers to create four leaf placemats……

All of the instructions were detailed and specific and were made to help the first-time paper-piecer be successful.

To make things easier, we were instructed to cut a 9-inch strip of fabric and then place the templates on top….

It was then easy to cut on the lines as she indicated. And each page included specific instructions….

Although I understand why she presented the cutting instructions this way, it seemed to me that there was a LOT of fabric wastage….

….and that killed me!!!

The paper piecing technique was nothing new but I did learn to use a dot of glue to hold the pieces in place (see Tuesday’s post).

Then came the paper removal stage….

I absolutely HATE this part…..

In the end, I fudged a bit and didn’t piece the stem to both sides but just folded it over and will applique it in place while I am quilting…..

The leaf is finished….

…..except for the quilting and binding.

And, as I have heard many people exclaim that the binding process was hard, I may just do a “pillow case” finish and make my life a bit simpler.

I am glad that I took this workshop but I have learned that I am not interested in more of these projects.

What has been your experience with the Judy Neimeyer quilt patterns???

A little dot of glue…..

A few months ago my guild provided a workshop from a Judy Niemeyer representative. Although I have done a fair amount of paper piecing, it has never been a favorite technique.

But, I was excited to attend the workshop, knowing that I would learn something new…..

AND I DID!!

The instructor encouraged us to use a glue stick to position the pieces before we sewed them.

So….. if I was ready to sew the next piece onto this set, I would put a few dots of glue on the edge of the piece that I had just done…..

Then lay the next piece on, adhering it to the previous one…..

….and then flip it over BEFORE sewing to be sure that it is positioned correctly…..

Now THAT is a tip that I can USE!!!

Come back on Thursday and I will talk more about this workshop!!

Trying something new!!

On the last morning of our retreat, I decided that I wanted to try a new pattern that I found in the latest American Quilter magazine.

I am not a huge fan of paper piecing but thought that this one might be fun to do.

One thing that I really liked about it was that you used 2.5 inch strips to do the piecing which meant that it was super easy to cut the fabrics.

What I didn’t like about it was that there was a large pile of wasted fabric once the block was pieced……

I like how the flower part looks and I may try more as the summer goes on, but I will NOT use strips….

I am glad that I made a test block and learned how I will change it going forward.

I am looking forward to working on it further!!

Casa Amarela

Today’s Travel Log Quilt comes from the beautiful city of Porto, Portugal. Michael has been there many times, and I have had the pleasure of joining him for two of those trips.

Having grown up in West Texas, I know what a FLAT city looks like…..Porto is NOT one of those…..

The city is nothing but up and down and up and down and up and down….you get the picture!!

On our first trip, as I was trying not to get lost….and failing (this was prior to Google Maps), I came across this sweet street and loved the yellow house at the top of the stairs. I quickly snapped a photo as I walked past…..

This image stayed in my mind as I returned home and I finally decided that the only way to get it out of my mind was to make a quilt from it…..what else!!!

The things that excited me about this project were trying to get the perspective of the steps and adding the details to the house. I decided that I wanted to piece this as much as possible which meant having to come up with a paper pieced pattern.

I first blew the photo up so that it filled a sheet of paper and then printed it in black and white. I used a fine-point Sharpie to trace over all of the lines that I saw in the photo…..