Bird of Paradise Convergence Quilt - Part 3

Here is version 2 of the Bird of Paradise Convergence quilt. I had better luck with this one in terms of getting the seams aligned and I do believe that a major part of that had to do with the way I cut my strips.

In the first version I did my cutting as per the instructions in Ricky Tims' book where you have your 2 sections of fabric with 2 pieces of fabric sewing together, the seam line is at the bottom and the right sides of the fabric are together - see picture below. You then cut narrowest strips to widest strips from the middle to the outside of the 2 sections of fabric that are laid out on your cutting table.

I had a hunch that with cutting such long strips that it is likely that there is some inaccuracy in cutting and I wanted to try a different method. So here are my fabrics laid out ready to cut as per the book. These are the wrong sides of the fabric, with the seam line at the bottom.

I then took the printed fabric on the right hand side and flipped it on top of the teal fabric and made a stack of 4 layers of fabric. The edge on the right hand side gets trimmed so that all edges are even.

Then from the right hand side I cut my strips narrowest to widest.

This is a key part in that you have to make sure that you flip the pieces in the correct order where the two inside strips are the narrowest one of each colour. Then next to the narrowest strip you place the second narrowest strip of the same colour.

You continue to work out until the fabric is back to the original layout before you started cutting. After interchanging the strips and sewing them together, I repeated the same process for the second set of cuts.

When I did this, I found that the seams aligned much closer and there was only slight variations. So next I have to decide on my borders and then figure out my applique design.

Cats and Dogs - Part 13

Last night was the York Heritage Quilters Guild meeting and our small quilt group Quilter's Pet was quilter of the month. We presented our Cats and Dogs quilts as well as one additional quilt. The presentation went very well but the best part was I got to take my quilt home with me that Jennifer M. made for me. The name of the quilt is "Fergie and Jordie's Fabulous Friends". Here is a picture of the front of the quilt. Jennifer used some gorgeous batiks in purple, blue and turquoise hues. She included some cute paper pieced mice in the corners since Fergie (and sometimes Jordie) loves to play with her furry little mice.

Here is a close up of the apartment block and there is Fergie and Jordie looking out the window at the birds as they fly by.

Then on the back of the quilt Jennifer paper pieced a portrait of Fergie and Jordie. I love my quilt and Jennifer did an awesome job of making it special and personal. Thanks Jennifer!!!

Bird of Paradise Convergence Quilt - Part 2

As I was prepping the fabric for this wall hanging I still couldn't make up my mind which orange fabric to use so I decided that I'm going to make 2 versions of the Bird of Paradise Convergence. In the end I will keep one and the other one will be a gift for my friends in Kauai Hi., of which I'm going to be visiting later in May.

So I have finished the convergence portion for version 1 and it looks pretty good as long as you don't get really close to it. I forgot when I made the purple and turquoise dragon wall hanging last year that matching up all the seams was quite the challenge because of all the different consistencies of fabric that often get picked for something like this. I'm not sure if it would be easier if all the fabric was from the same line and things would go together easier.

So once I have the second convergence top completed I will start working on the applique pieces that will go over top of certain sections of the wall hangings. There will also be a dark teal border that will go around the wall hangings.

Bird of Paradise Convergence Quilt - Part 1

I've made my decision for my next quilting project. Two years ago this spring I was in Hawaii and I got some wonderful fabrics. Last year I used some of the fabrics in a wonky star quilt for the Bushfire project in Australia for the relief efforts for those affected by the bush fires.

I also had plans to make a wall hanging for myself and have yet to do ever do it. So I'm taking the advise of a dear quilting friend Donna (aka Quilt Pixie) who said that this year I really should make something for myself and not keep pushing this project to the back burner. So I have pulled out my fabrics for my Bird of Paradise Convergence Quilt. I'm leaning on going with the brighter orange fabric but I may end up cutting both orange fabrics and testing both in the design to see which one really is the best.

In addition I have this lovely Bird of Paradise fabric that I will likely use for the back. I'm also planning on doing some applique work on the front with the Bird of Paradise as the main theme so I may actually use some of this fabric for that purpose if my other applique design of a Bird of Paradise doesn't quite do it for the front.

I likely won't actually get started on cutting fabric until the weekend, but will do the prep work (ironing and starching) before.

Another long time friend and recent quilter Sue from Long Island and I have decided to attend the Ricky Tims Quilt Seminar being held in Hyannis, MA at the beginning of Sept. The seminar also includes Alex Anderson from HGTV's Simply Quilts and Libby Lehman a well known machine quilter and author of Threadplay. http://www.rickytims.com/seminars/

I did a blog search to see what other people had to say about these seminars especially after my disasters last fall and it sounds like these were a good hit. I didn't find any negative comments and I think it will be a nice change just to be able to go and listen to 3 experts and not have to buy a ton of fabric, then drag a sewing machine and a ton of supplies. It will be a refreshing change from the regular quilting seminars/conferences and fun to get together with a friend that I haven't seen in awhile.

BOM Drunkard Path Variations - March & April Blocks

I got my March and April BOM blocks finished today. March's block is called "Way of the World" and I don't know if I really like the colour combination that I selected for this block. I think it needs more contrast but it may look better once it is around other blocks. I'll wait and see before making any decisions to redo this one.

April's block is called "Around the World" and I really like the contrast of this block.

Cats and Dogs - Part 12

I have finished my cats and dogs quilt and am very pleased with the results. I'm sure that Kathi T. is going to love it. We have our small quilt group meeting this Monday and I hope that Kathi will be there so that she can see the final results. Then a week Tuesday our group will be showing all the quilts at our guild meeting as we are the quilter of the month for April. So next I need to get my BOM for March and April out of the way and then I'm going to have a look through my projects and see what will be next.

Cats and Dogs - Part 11

It's been a couple of weeks since I have posted but that has been because work was extremely busy. The reason why work was so busy was that 2 weeks ago I put in my resignation at where I was because I had accepted a job with another company. This came about rather suddenly having been approached to join this other company where I will be working with some former colleagues that I have worked with in previous places. It really was time to for me to go elsewhere and have a few more challenges but with the economy the way it has been I wasn't certain about what was out there. Then Ann called out of the blue and said that they had an new position opening up and was I interested. It was a good fit and I'm looking forward to my start on Monday. So the last 2 weeks at the old job were very busy wrapping things up, writing up documentation and training. I had been with that company for 4 years and I really wasn't expecting much upon leaving but they did surprise me with this lovely bouquet of flowers.

I'm finally finished the quilting portion of the cats and dogs quilt. In the border I did a series of dogs going around the perimeter. If you click on the picture below you should be able to see the details better than in the small version.

Then in the cats and dogs blocks I did this stylized butterfly wing design in a cream coloured thread since given I had all different colours of cats and dogs but for the most part the backgrounds were of a cream tone it made the most sense to go with cream thread.

Then in the Bichon blocks I outlined the Bichon in a teal thread and did a different version of the butterfly wing design in the top right hand corner and bottom left hand corner since these areas had the most open teal fabric. In the other two corners the design would have interfered with the Bichons and I didn't want it to compete.

So now I just have to make up the binding and get it sewn on and the quilt is finished in plenty of time for the Tuesday April 20th meeting of the York Heritage Quilters Guild where our quilt group with be quilter of the month and we have to have our quilts ready to show.