One Block Wonder evolves

Here is my One Block Wonder top with all the kaleidoscope blocks assembled. I purchased a pale green fabric to make an inner border and a purple one to make an outer border. While looking at pictures of other people's One Block Wonders on Google Images, I got the idea to broderie perse applique some of the flower motifs from the original fabric onto the border. Maybe I'll try leaves and stems too. Stay tuned.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I published a post about this quilt last month but I am making another post to participate in the Blogger Quilt Festival I discovered today on Amy's aka Park City Gal's blog. I designed this quilt based on the children's book The Quilt Maker's Gift.

My daughter Kelly teaches kindergarten at Seth Boyden Elementary School in Maplewood, N.J. Last year, I went to her class to do a project with them on quilting and I brought the book to read to them. I was so inspired by the story and the illustrations, that I went home and designed and made the quilt. This year, when I returned to do the same project with her new class, I brought the quilt and they found the blocks on the quilt after reading the story. Some of the blocks were much more challenging than anything I had pieced in the past, so I really learned alot from making it. The block in the center has the title embroidered on it and the bird, butterflies and blue waltzing Siamese cats are done in raw edge applique. To learn more about the festival, click on the icon at the top of the right column. I can't wait to go and look at all the other quilts!

Getting Back to One Block Wonder

Last April, my guild Common Threads Quilters had a Saturday workshop. One of the members, Sherry Cowley taught us how to do One Block Wonder from Maxine Rosenthal's book. The thing that amazed me the most about this technique was that you could use a really hideous fabric and it could turn into something quite interesting and visually appealing. You need to use a fabric that has a large, graphic print and you need to buy enough yardage for 6 repeats of the pattern. You cut the fabric into repeats and pile them up one on top of the other with the patterns exactly lined up. Then those pieces are cut into strips across the width of the fabric. Those strips are cut into equilateral triangles so you have six triangles that are cut from the exact same place on the printed pattern of the fabric. These triangles are sewn into half hexagons, three triangles per half.

The design on the fabric comes together in the center of the hexagons to form a kaleidoscope effect. You design the layout of the quilt with these half hexagons pinned together. When you have your layout, you unpin the halves and sew them together in vertical strips. When the strips are sewn together the hexagons with the kaleidoscope centers come together and the wonder happens.

This is the fabric I chose for mine. I thought the blues and greens would look nice in one of the bedrooms at the shore house. Some people used Asian fabrics that came out very interesting. If I did this again, I think I would choose a fabric with a bit more contrast for greater visual impact in the kaleidoscopes.

These are the pinned half triangles laid out on a table ready to be sewn into strips. I often feel guilty about leaving a project sit for so long as I did with this one. The pieces have been sitting in a plastic bag since last August. However, I have decided this can be a good thing. By leaving it alone for a while, I'm coming to it with a renewed sense of motivation rather than responsibility. Also, I picked this fabric out in the Spring and chose it for a summertime environment. Now that Spring is in the air again, I have much more motivation to work with it.

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Whenever I have a vacation from school, I try to sew as much as possible to see if I have what it takes to be a professional quilter when I retire from education. This past week saw alot of hours at the machine. So much so that my husband told me he couldn't take listening to it anymore! I was able to finish my Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt for my daughter to hang in her Kindergarten class. I got the pattern/kit from My Hands to Thee at a quilt show in N.J. last Spring. Her website is http://www.myhandstothee.com/ The fabric is also available from the Eric Carle Museum website. www.carlemuseum.org/Shop Click on the link on the left hand side for fabric. The museum shop carries the entire line of fabric which isn't always available at shows and shops.

Since this was "cheater" material, I decided to try to quilt it with some more detail than just outline and stitch in the ditch. I got brave and stippled the center panel with a variegated thread. This was the first time I did this where the quilting showed up against a contrasting color. I also tried angled rather than curved free motion in the orange outer border. I left off the last border that came with the pattern because Kelly was concerned that it would be too big too display in the classroom. I love the "jelly bean" fabric and the bright colors of the fabrics were very cheerful to work with.

I also bought fabric that was just released to go with Eric Carle's Brown Bear book. I hope to have this one done for her so she can read the book with the kids at hibernation time next year.

Ravelry On-line Knitting Community

I have just spent almost an entire day exploring this awesome site. My fellow teacher Dave Foster (the Chem guy) told me about it. His friends created it. They have groups to join for every imaginable purpose. I joined one for quilters who also knit. Check it out if you knit at all, you will be amazed ( and possibly addicted too!)

The web address is http://www.ravelry.com/.