Rocky Horror Quilt Challenge

Challenge quilts are cool and a great way to experiment. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is also pretty dang cool. So sexy. So when Trisha F. posted a link on Facebook to the BadAss Quilter’s Society Rocky Horror Picture Show challenge … well, I couldn’t NOT sign up!

My first full-production RHPS experience was in the mid-80s while in Air Force Tech School in Denver, CO. As a first timer (“virgin”), I got up on stage before the show, stood in line, and had a cherry put in my mouth with the stem sticking out. “Magenta” came by to pop the stem off of each of ours with her teeth.

I didn’t know what was going down.
And I LOVE maraschino cherries (give me a jar & they’re gone).
So, of course, I ate my cherry. Yummmm.
Magenta got to me and asked me where was my cherry.
I said that I ate it.

She turned to the audience and yelled:

“SHE POPPED HER OWN CHERRY!!!!”

And so it began. 😀

A couple of friends from work perform with the local RH production group, Velvet Darkness. I asked one, Sara Morrissey, to design the quilt and told her that I would make it and give it to her. This is Sara’s awesome design:

And this is what she based it on:

It’s a subtle nod to the fact that Rocky is a spoof of old horror flicks (and the tower shows up at the end).

The material (except a square of gold faux leather and some fancy gold accents), is all from my new favorite line of solids: Grunge Basics by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics. The challenge package opening was even more exciting than the arrival.

 

 

 

Because I always seemed to find the most difficult way to do something and have a light bulb moment illuminating an easier way to do it when I’m one or two steps away from completion, the tower is not appliqued with easy little strips and a bunch of straight lines.  No, no, no.  It is pieced. All of it. every triangle and white segment. All at odd random angles. Pieced.

In an effort to get more comfortable with quilting, a couple of details are in the stitching, such as a little fishnet criss-cross in the border:

And the BOSS tattoo (a bit hard to see with black on black):

And Dr. Frank-N-Furter:

This is what I did with some of the scraps.

It was a fun, difficult challenge (those are the best, right?) and I’m glad that it’s going to a good home.  Next time: Think applique!! (Finished size: 60 x 88″)

OK, so now (24-30 Mar), head over here to check out all of the other really cool entries (really, they’re quite impressive) and then. Vote. For. Mine. Please. It’s easy: just click.
And check out a super cool quilt haven: BadAss Quilter’s Society. I mean, just that name!

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Project Quilting Season 7 Challenge 6: Flying Geese in a Monkey Wrench

It’s the last Project Quilting challenge. 😦

 

My craft table was a mess of scraps from the Rocky Horror challenge, so guess what some of them became: a couple of flying geese and a monkey wrench, of course!

i decided to experiment with straight pencil quilting and play with the row width to add in a mock black geese background and a bit of design detail. The fabric is from Grunge Basics by BasicGrey for Moda Fabrics.

And with that, the season comes to a close … for me. For Kim, the work continues. I want to thank her for the crazy amount of inspiration she has provided myself and many other quilters. Check out her blog. Click on some stuff. Support your local quilt artists. 💗

Project Quilting Season 7 Challenge 4: I need a vacation

I saw the pattern this AM on Quilting Arts and watch the show repeat this evening as I was finishing up.

I really can’t say much about this quilt and how it fits the challenge, because it’s a surprise. But it does. Really. The pattern is simple and easy, but fun and made a cute little quilt.

The fabric line was created by Kim Schaefer for Andover Fabrics, Pattern 5291  and it has cozy flannel on the back.

Project Quilting Season 7 Challenge 3: All About That Thread

Here’s a poem:

Threads connect.

😛

And here’s a thready quilt:

To make it especially thready, I tried raw edge applique and raw edge binding, plus a round in the washer.

Add a Deep Thought ala Jack Handy, and we have another completed Project Quilting challenge.
Within scope.
On time.
Under budget.

Completed size: 17 x 17″

 

Aside for the artsy fun with fabric, my obsession with quilting is about the process of making order out of chaos, creating structure for the randomness, bringing unrelated pieces together to design geometric soul.
Thread is the tool that connects, brings it all together, makes it possible, adds the color, creates the fabric itself.
Thread is the quilt love.

Paul is the Center Star!

I love my guy. I really do.
It’s just that I was a bit intimidated about making his quilt … for over 2 years.

OK, here’s my confession: I’m super, super proud of this quilt!!!  It’s definitely traditional, and even (mostly) came from a pattern and kit, but dang!  It’s cool. I took my time (and lots of stitches out). The points are sharp and it lays flat. That all may not be a big deal to some, but it’s a a bit of an accomplishment in this house.

Here’s the basics:
Size: Approx. 100 x 100″
Center pattern: Center Star by Julie Hendrickson
It can be found in the Spring 2013 edition of Primitive Quilts.
The border was made from the scraps using a Pinterest pattern using half square triangles.
Material from JJ Stitches.
Quilted by Cindy Hasse

 

The Story:
In Sep 2013, Paul found this quilt at the Quilt Expo. I said, Sure, it’s just squares and triangles, I can do that.  After we got it home, and after reading the instructions, I got scared.
So the material sat. And sat.
I would pick up the instructions, read them, remember the scared, put them down, and make something easier. Paul frequently walked by with the comment: “That doesn’t look like my quilt.”
When we moved, I packed every other quilty project or potential project to force some progress on this.  It worked and the center start was pieced!

 

That was March 2015. After the move, it once again sat. At the end of my cutting table. For months.
But here’s the thing: I’m glad I procrastinated. This quilt needed to be my best. I needed to be confident and careful. I needed to have a better relationship established with my Seam Ripper. (We are now besties!) This is my Masters degree thesis paper. And I was making it to impress my favorite professor.

After over a year of telling her monthly that I was getting close, Cindy Hasse finally received the top in December and called for pick up this month!!  I had been admiring her quilting for years and knew from the beginning that she was the one who should quilt this one. She did a beautiful job!! The borders are my favorite with the graphic edges. And she replicated the border pattern in the stitching. How cool!!

 

With a red binding to frame it all, the quilt is done!!!
Clap, clap, clap!!

Now begins the process of crossing off items from the #2016sewmystash list. There are 18 remaining projects for 2016.

Ready? Go!

 

 

 

 

My City Birds Quilt

This is going to be the year of sewing the projects that are on the back log. There’s even a hashtag for it: #sewmystash2016
To start things off, I pieced Paul’s Center Star and sent it off to be quilted. I’ll post when it’s done.
This post is about the first completed project: My City Birds quilt.

 

 

 

The fabric was bought at the Quilting Expo in 2014 from Pineapple Fabrics as a pre-cut Pineapple Pack 5.0 (squares, strips, and fat quarters). The fabric line is “The Neighborhood” by Andover Fabrics.
I bought the pack as somewhat of a challenge to see if I could do something with all of the material in the pack.  Challenge has been met! Only one or two small pieces were remaining.

The pattern is called Stars and Stripes and can be found in the book “25 Ways to Sew Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, & Charm Packs” by Brioni Greenberg. To use up the scraps, I made pinwheels to border 2 sides.

Once it was pieced, the quilt visited Gael Boyd’s home (Stitchlilly) to get some TLC … and stuffing and stitches. She added some super cute birds to hold the top to the Tula Pink Free Fall backing.

 

 

I have to say: the Free Fall backing fabric is just so luscious and smooth and beautiful!!  It may be my favorite part of this quilt.  Maybe.

 

So, the challenge has been met, one item is checked off the #sewmystash2016 list and I now have a bird quilt.

Moral of the quilt: You can take the bird out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the bird. 😉

 

 

 

Project Quilting Season 7: Challenge 2

Project Quilting Season 7 kicked off earlier this month! I missed the first challenge (Confetti), but was able to get this little snowflake mug rug done today for the second challenge: Seasons.  I knew that if it didn’t get done today, it wouldn’t get done.  Plus I needed a winter mug rug for work. It’s about 6 x 6″ and the background and binding are made of Tula Pink’s Free Fall material. Padded thermo fabric was used as the batting.

Here’s the mug rug after assembly:

Since this is the first time I’ve done raw edge applique, I thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like washed.

The frayed edges actually look kind of cool.  There will be more of that happening around here.

I also made a little bird mug rug from the same fabric.
Love this one!

The Tula Pink Free Fall fabric was the backing to my latest quilt – My City Birds:

OK, and one more super cool thing from this very quilty weekend …
The fabric for the Rocky Horror Picture Show Challenge presented by the BadAss Quilters Society arrived in a fabulously wrapped little bundle!  For the design, I’m collaborating with a local Rocky cast member and graphic artist. We are just beyond excited about this one and can’t wait to use that piece of gold.

Project Quilting Focus Through the Prism: December’s Everything

All 7 colors, all 7 accent materials, all 7 blocks, both of the background fabrics that were in each quilt (except one), red center, red corners,  quilted by Marcia Wachuta: December’s quilt has Everything!

Do I like it? No. There is just too much going on and it doesn’t look like what I had inagined. BUT I love that it ties everything together and that I couldn’t have made it without contributions from some generous friends: Chris R provided the initial piece of light swirl background that was used in 6 of the challenge quilts, Joanne H gave me her piece of light swirl so I could make the 8th, Marcia W. gave me some pieces of Cherrywood in the colors that I had used up, and Evelyn L. gave me the piece of Cherrywood blue used in the binding.

Here is the last quilt with the other 7:

 

Project Quilting Focus Through the Prism: November Snowball

I finally have a few minutes to write about this month’s Focus Through the Prism challenge using Cherrywood Fabrics gorgeous-rich hand dyed fabric.  It’s the V in #roygbiv: Violet and the assignment was the Snowball block.  As with the other months, it was beautifully quilted by Marcia Wachuta.

 Design: After Kim sent out the block, I went right over to 627handworks for inspiration and found Penny Lane. With a slight change to add a red center, I had my center and then “snowballed” it in multiple scribbled designs. (I know, I know, EQ7 would have done this with computer-y magic. I have since been enlightened thanks to another FTTP participant, Evelyn – who I maintain is a very bad influence.)

Colors and fabrics: The only color I had left was Violet, which isn’t quite purple.

I had purple prints, but just couldn’t find a violet print … until I came across a violet and green bandana as I was putting some of those away.

It wasn’t a hard sacrifice. That became the print background.  Add a bit of the other solids and we have November complete.

Quilting: After last month’s very late arrival to her quilting studio, Marcia gave me a deadline early in the month so she would have time to add her stitched art.  I only missed it by one day!  Now for some photos of the quilting.

Binding: For every month, I used the next month’s focus color as the binding for the current month (with the current color as the inside flange).  Which is great, except I didn’t have any Blue (the color that started this 7 month journey).  Marcia had some in the mail on the way to me, but it wouldn’t arrive by 30 Nov. Fortunately, Evelyn came through and had a piece large enough to bind November’s quilt.

December: So, what am I going to do with the Blue that Marcia sent? An unofficial December challenge! I’m going to make an 8th quilt that incorporates all 7 colors and all 7 blocks in one 20 x 20 square. It’s already designed, I just need to put it all together and hope that it looks as cool in “real life” as it does in my brain.

Project Quilting Focus Through the Prism: October 9-patch

No time to write now, but here’s the finished product. It kicked my ass and Marcia saved the day (again) with her flexibility and creativity. More later!