Will You Be You?

I am so excited about this quilt! This is a QDAD to reality quilt from the summer. I love it for a number of reasons.

  1. I made it at my Grandma’s house, so it will always bring back good memories of sewing with her
  2. STARS! WOO!
  3. I was able to use batiks in a modern way, and I LOVE batiks!
  4. It is just so colorful and fun, that it can be enjoyed even without the social commentary
  5. It’s been published in Modern Quilts Unlimited, along with a pattern from my good friend Amy Garro of 13 Spools, who just happens to be that issues covergirl
Will You Be You

Will You Be You

What’s that? Social Commentary you say? What could that possibly be?

Well, in QDAD we often have themed design weeks. Kim Andersson of I Adore Pattern was in charge for this theme: Song Lyrics! It was a ton of fun, and an interesting challenge. on May 27th, Kim posted this beauty of a lyric and palette:

10468086_10153322219697673_4149422899423549670_nWe have all heard the song, and know it’s about a breakup. But when you take just those first five lines of the song out of context, it dramatically changes. If you had never heard the song before, you might think this was a song about being discovered, but at the same time having everything about you changed to fit the ideal of someone else without much control. Which really struck me. How often to people change themselves, or have themselves changed, in order to fit in? To make others happy? To become something or someone else entirely in order to please someone else? And when you change everything about yourself, what do you lose in the process? How much of the real you is left?

The design started off a whole conversation that was a lot of fun, and people had such a positive response to it that I decided to submit it to MQU. Happily they accepted it, and I changed a couple of colors to work with what I had in my stash (that light lavender is gorgeous but so hard to find in a batik). The color change did lighten the mood of the quilt, but the message remained the same.

The original QDAD design

The original QDAD design

Recolored

Recolored

It was a lot of fun, and a challenge to put together in a cohesive manner. Eventually I realized that one star at a time was the way to go, and used a combination of quarter and half square triangles to keep things interesting (also less seams). I quilted it using a pantograph, mostly because of time constraints, but there is a TON of potential there for custom quilting. I think some radiating straight lines from the yellow star out to the far borders would be an appropriate subcontext to the quilt. In yellow thread, it would read as the superstar overshadowing the original pieces. Also, it would look really really pretty!

I have been trying to use colored or contrasting threads for my quilting lately. I get to hang out with some awesome quilters and longarmers, and one thing that has stayed with me since my last conversation with Miriam, who owns Whispering Pines and is an incredible longarm quilter, is that it’s hard to go wrong with a bold thread choice. Yes, it’s a risk, but it tends to pay off. For example, I have a black and white quilt that I quilted with navy (almost purple, but it was more plum than violet and wasn’t quite as effective)

 

WYBY2

I hope you all pick up the Winter 2016 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited. The issue has a great assortments of quilts and projects, and most of them are pretty spectacular (especially mine and Amy’s, wink wink!)

If you do make your own version, I would love to see it! I love to see what people make from my patterns! Tag me on instagram @staceyinstitches or email me a picture so I can ooh and aah over it and post it here!

Also, a huge special thank you to my neighbor Debbie and my friend Anne! Today was the first sunny afternoon in ages, so I had to try and take pictures like NOW. My little H (who isn’t so little anymore) tried his best to hold up the quilt but it was just a little too long and heavy for him, but Deb pulled up just in time and totally volunteered a hand to hold. Then Anne took my twilight photos and made them colorful again! Thanks both of you! <3

Stay tuned for my stop on the Dryad Blog Hop next week, and, as always,

Happy Stitching!

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Petal Pinwheel Challenge and Upcoming Workshop

Monday night was the annual outdoor meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I have missed it every year from being out of town, but this year I finally got to go. It was so much fun sitting at Trout Lake with my fellow VMQGers. We had a great turnout considering its summertime, and we are now officially over 100 members! Way to go VMQG! This was the meeting where we showed off our MQG Petal Pinwheel challenge quilts. I got mine back from Joan that afternoon and quickly sewed the binding on before I left the house, then hand stitched it to the back during the meeting. I love a hand turned binding!

It took forever to get a good picture of it though, since it was super windy that afternoon. My patient husband stood there battling cats and kids and peeking neighbors so I could finally get a good shot to enter in the challenge. I drafted a template and then played with the orientation until I got the movement I wanted, without slapping you in the face with a pinwheel =)

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The best catless, kidless, peeking neighborless picture I could get when the wind was down. Yes, I know there is still a kid in it =)

I fussy cut the prints and added Cotton Couture Solids in Sun, Kryptonite, Watermelon, Coral, Aqua and Orange. The background is CC in natural. I ordered Khaki but it was a little too green tinged to work. I have other plans for it, probably a QDAD =)

Spinners

Spinners

I paper pieced the tiny pinwheels. They are 3″ square and I offset them around the outside, again to mimic movement. Joan quilted it perfectly again, with spinning straight lines that I just love! The little details in the center of my spinners are perfect! I chose the Peg a Plenty print for my binding and cut it on the bias. I love a bias stripe binding! (Have I mentioned I love bias binding??)

I also announced a paper piecing workshop that I will be teaching in September. I am very excited to be teaching. Paper piecing is my favorite technique. You can do so much with it! Its a beginner class so I will be showing my students how to pre-cut strips for full coverage, how to do the piecing, how to adjust a block when needed, and all the tips and trick to good piecing skills and well made blocks. The pattern is really easy and from Amanda Hines Kattner of What The Bobbin? Her July 21 QDAD was a perfect foundation ready block and it also has the bonus technique of a Y-seam, and she happily sent me the image file. Woo hoo!

For those of you interested, block details, quilt ideas, and  sign up for the workshop will be available soon on the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild website. There is no pattern fee for this one. Hope to see you there!

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Quilt Design a Day and a Giveaway*winner chosen*

Welcome to another QDAD day here at Stacey in Stitches!

If you are here visiting from the Sew Mama Sew interview, welcome! I have a lot of fun making a Quilt Design a Day. Today marks day 140 of designing for me. I am happy to say I haven’t missed a day. QDAD is one of my favorite exercises, and the group is so happy and friendly and a whole lot of fun! We’ve had an influx of new members, many of whom are participating. It’s great to see everyone’s interpretation of the inspiration photo. I hope everyone gets a change to try it at least twice. The first time for practice, the second time to get hooked!

I use EQ7 for my designs, though I did download a new program to try. I am playing with Corel Draw, and I want to try Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes there are things in my head that need a drawing board rather than a grid to work on. I have discovered many new features in EQ7 in the meantime, and I am having a blast playing with different layouts and blocks.

July 2 Tap

July 2-Faucet

This design reminded me of a video game, so I called it The Dark Castle. The inspiration photo had an outdoor faucet topped with a fanciful castle. Soe days a literal interpretation is in order, and I love how it came out!

July 6-Buttons

July 6-Buttons

This particular inspiration was a bowl full of buttons. It evoked so many different memories in people, for me it was the button jars at my grandma’s house when they lived down the road from us. We used to play with those hundreds of buttons, and I’m sure many of them saw the inside of a vacuum when we went home. Not on purpose either.

July 4 Ice Cream

July 4 Ice Cream

July 4th marked our 200th member, and the 200 member challenge. l chose the color rich ice cream inspiration photo for my 200 quilt. I haven’t counted them, but I am pretty sure there is enough ice cream in this photo for all our members, including the new ones! I love the navy as a background, I think its my new favorite! I recently bought a whole lot of navy solids, so I am going to have to make something with it soon.

Anne’s 200 member quilt  ended in hilarity and this picture as a result.

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STACEY THE BOLD WELCOMES ALL NEW QDADERS!

You know how hard it is to take a selfie wearing a tinfoil helmet and holding a rotary cutter?? Its not easy…..and that tinfoil is HOT!

July 12 Antiquity

July 12 Antiquity

The photo for this one was of an antique door knob and keyhole. I was planning to make something around the shape of the keyhole, but then I noticed the scuffed and faded pattern carved into teh doorframebehind it. It was a little nine patch interspersed with lines and diamonds. I did my best to recreate it and ended up in a Gatsby-era art deco world. I added the tiny coral diamonds and it really added dimension to the design. I am very happy with it and may work it into a pattern.

Run, Zombi Run!

Run, Zombi Run!

This design started out happy and fun, but there is a running joke about the zombie apocalypse in QDAD, sparked by a series of abandoned looking building with random diamond shapes in them, and chihuahuas. Someone mentioned this looked like people running from something, probably zombies. So I turned some of my happy little petal pluses into zombies. Minus the whole Z.A theme, I like the grayscale graduating into color. It definitely sparked a conversation or two!

July 13 Raspberry

July 13- Raspberry

This inspirtion was a bowl of raspberry swirl frozen yogurt. It looked so yummy! I decided to do a cross section of the swirl, which has sparked a series of cross sectional designs. Mostly fruits and veggies, and every so often ice cream. I am going to do a couple up as patterns so I will save them for a surprise!

May 24 feathers

I did do up a foundation pattern for my feather blocks, you can download it here for free! If you make one ( or a dozen) send me a picture, I would love to see it!

Feather Block Feather String

I hope you enjoyed your visit today! Make sure to visit Amy Gunson at Badskirt, and Anne Sullivan at Play-Crafts, both have QDAD giveaways running!

Now for my Giveaway! The giveaway is now closed! You can see the winner in my next post!

The giveaway is open to anyone, including international visitors! Simply leave a comment. That’s all! Tell me your favorite color, your favorite quilt design, what you’re going to make with the feather block or the bundle, what the weather is like at your house today, tell me a joke ( the punnier the better!) ANYTHING!

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I am giving away a Fat quarter bundle of 5 cool colors of my new Colorworks Premium Solids by Northcott. I picked these up on vacation, and I got a ton of yardage, so I thought I would share with everyone. The colors are deep and rich, more so than in the photo. The colors are perfect for making a QDAD of your own! The Giveaway will be open until Wednesday at 8pm PST, and I will pick the winner using Random.org

Happy Stitching!!

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Quilt Design A Day- Day 90 and a Free Pattern!!

Today is the day I achieved the 90 day chip in #QDAD. It is definitely an achievement for me. I can hardly believe I have been able to pull 180 designs out of my head. They aren’t all winners, that for sure, but I do have some that I absolutely love.

Being part of the QDAD group sure has opened up a new world of creative possibilities for me. I am always seeing new and exciting things from the other group members, and we all give each other feedback and advice, or stutter around trying not to say “I love it” a million times even though that’s all you really can say sometimes! I have learned a lot about minimalist designs and using negative space effectively. I am happy to report that none of the floral inspired images from last month looked too Yoni. (Look it up, its hilarious)

Here are a selection of some of my favorites from last month.

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May 11 Feathers

 

May 2 Inverted

May 2-Palm Tree

 

May 5 Windows

May 5-Windows

 

May 7 stars and knots

May 7- Seascape

 

May 27 Succulent Garden

May 27- Succulent Garden

 

May 20 storm at sea

May 20- Storm at Sea

May 24 feathers

May 24 feathers

This last one is one of my personal favorites. The last week in May and the start of June seemed filled with feathers. We were turning into birds! This particular design was fairly literal, but it looked fantastic. It wsa a group favorite, so I decided to make the feather block a free pattern. The block had to be modified for easier piecing, but here it its! There is a string block included, but it might be fun to do some pearle cotton stitches instead, don’t you think?

Feather Block

Feather String

 

I Hope you enjoy the pattern, and of course if you have any question feel free to contact me. I would love to see your finished blocks!

 

Happy Stitching!

 

Stacey

Vote for Stacey!

Hummingbird StarI recently submitted a block to the Accuquilt Win the Dream contest. My block is the Hummingbird Star.You can click here to vote. It finished at 16″ square, and is constructed using freezer paper templates and applique methods. The top blocks right now are very gorgeous, with over 608 votes there is still a ways to go, but its fun, and I will release a tutorial when voting is all over for the block!

Happy Stitching,

Stacey

April Star Block Bee

Two more star blocks for my Star Block Bee! April’s Queen Bee wanted the Star Crossed Block from Don’t Call Me Betsy. It whipped up fast! It’s a great block if you want something fun, colorful and quick for a gift quilt.  I also enjoyed working in Tula Pink’s Salt Water line. I have had my eye on it for a while!

April 002 April 001I especially like the hegagon print, it cuts up nicely into small pieces and still maintains the movement of color in the print. The seahorses would be great to fussy cut with.

For May we are taking a short break, then it may be my turn in June! I haven’t quite decided what to do. I am going with a fuchsia, chocolate and tangerine color way, mostly inspired by the Citrus colorway of Madrona Road.

I am leaning towards the Swoon Block. It is 24″ finished, but I thought instead of asking for two 12″ blocks, I would ask for one 24″ block and it all works out about even.  It would be 12 blocks big instead of 9, so I might add some large pieced borders and make it a California King for our room. Maybe some feather quilting. We will see.

Up next on my list is the Hoffman Challenge quilt for 2013. It is due in July, so I should really get cracking!

Have yourselves a Quilty Day!