Hoffman Challenge 2014

Posted in Finished Quilts by StaceyinStitches

My fingers went a little numb writing this.

Today the Hoffman Challenge released it travel lists and winners. I am over the moon to announce that my entry, Fossilized Gemstones, won 3rd place in the Pieced Category! woo-hoo!!

Fossilized Gemstones

The design was my QDAD design from May 9th, and it fit the challenge fabric perfectly. I fussy cut the printed fabric to get squares of teh background, which looks like fancy spiderweb-flower motif, andthen fussy cut a pair of the butterflies from the print. The finished quilt reminded me of a piece of amber with an insect embedded in it. Thus Fossilized Gemstones was named.

Butterfly centers

The quilting was done once again by the esteemed Joan Nicholson of Maple Leaf Quilters. She got exactly what I wanted! I wanted some ghost blocks on the corners and then lines radiating outwards from the edges, with some complimentary quilting in the gemstones.

Ghost Block

I used a nice tight 2″ double fold bias binding for the finished edge. I played with the idea of a facing, but in the end the binding gave the look I wanted.

I used mostly solids with the challenge fabric. I scoured the internet for that purple. I has a tiny amount in my stash and nothing else would do. It is a discontinued color from Freespirit called Mulberry Wine. Its the right amount of purple and grey with a warm base. I also used some Kona in Snow, Silver, Ash, and Smoke.

You can see the entire line up of award quilts, jewelry, dolls, and accessories here. Its well worth a look, a lot of beautiful items all travelling around the country in 2014. I am looking forward to the next Challenge Newsletter, it is rumored to have a sneak peek at the next challenge fabric!

Happy Stitching!

25Jun2014

WIP Wednesday

Posted in Works In Progress by StaceyinStitches

Stacey is going to Quiltcon!! Woot woot!!

I am super excited to be able to attend Quiltcon 2015. I don’t know how I am going to wait until Feb! Resgistration opened this morning, and man, that was a crazy nightmare of stress, but I got into all the workshops I wanted. It was hard to narrow it down, there are so many great speakers and teachers. I ended up with 3 full days of workshops. I don’t know when I am going to see the show. I might have to try and modify my schedule a bit. I am doing the Paperless Paper Piecing and Curved Seams Piece-lique taught by Cristy Fincher. For those of you who don’t know, Cristy Fincher is the daughter of the esteemed Sharon Schambers, multi-award winning quilter, and one of my personal quilting inspirations. Cristy runs the online business Purple Daisies, where you can find Sharon’s lessons and tutorials and patterns. You can also view her award winning quilt up close, Mystique. This quilt is amazing and all my favorite shades of fuchsia. Really, look at her gallery. It’s amazing!

I also got into two of Krista Withers half day quilting workshops. I am especially looking forward to these. I have had the pleasure of hearing her speak at a Vancouver Modern QUilt Guild meeting and seeing her work up close. The two workshops are about composite drawing and and ghost shapes. Exactly what I need!

I still have to go back and see if there are any lectures I might want to go to. Maybe free up some time, we will see what is left. A lot is sold out, but that’s okay, I might learn something new! I am mostly looking forward to meeting my quilting friends in person! So excited!!

On to the WIP portion of the evening!

My petal pinwheel quilt top is done and off to Joan for its VIP quilting treatment. Joan seems to be able to read my mind and interpret my psychobabble and give me exactly what I didn’t realize I wanted. So now I am on to my Hoffman Challenge quilt. I went a completely different direction with it this year. Normally I do these paper pieced masterpieces of color and stitchery, but this year I wanted to really bring it in and do something modern. Modern quilts are underrepresented in the Hoffman Challenge (read:none) I wonder if it’s not known enough in the modern quilting world, or it’s the fabric. Either way, its a load of fun and it is a CHALLENGE. You don’t always like the fabric, so creating something you love can be hard, but definitely worthwhile. I make sure I get the show book each year so I can look at all the lovely quilts that travel the country. The closest mine has ever been was Yakima, WA. Alas, I was unable to make the event but there will be others =)

Pile of pressing…

This evening has been filled with lots of pressing. There is going to be some stitch ripping after this post. A tip for ripping paper piecing stitches- place the blade between the paper and the fabric, the stitches come out cleaner.

I have a big mess of precut fabric shapes for such a small quilt ( the max perimeter is 160″, any shape). I also fussy cut the challenge fabric, the background between the print shapes is gorgeous and quite modern. That navy is delish! I also have some triangles cut from a Freespirit Designer Solid in Mulberry. I love that dusty shade of plum purple, and it fits the gray scale perfectly.

I thought about including a pair of butterflies in the blocks. What do you think?

I would love to see more modern quilts in the Hoffman show. Maybe I will write to the curator, and I certainly hope you pick up some of the challenge fabric and give it a try! You can find the details here, and the deadline is July 18. Quilts must arrive in Colorado by the end of that day.

Would you consider the Hoffman Challenge with me next year?

Happy Stitching,

Stacey

Linking up to Lee@ Freshly Pieced.

6Oct2013

Looks What’s Back!

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

My Hoffman quilts from 2012 is finally home! Yay!! I have been itching to take better photos of this one and bring it in to a guild meeting. I haven’t had much to show lately, so I can’t wait.

My Secret Garden 2013

This quilt was a mini tribute to one of my favorite quilts from my favorite quilting duo- Greensleeves by Claudia C Myers and Marilyn Badger. They are the super stars behind Super Star and Sparkle Plenty as well.

I quilted it in invisible thread because I was trying out some free-motion stipples and feathering for the first time. It was the most heavily quilted thing I had done in a very long time at the time, and it snowballed into some of the quilting you see on my new pieces.

I am so happy My Secret Garden is home and hanging in my hallway.

Lots of exciting things coming in the next few months! In the meantime, check out the Hoffman Challenge 2014 Fabric. I am stumped. Any suggestions?

Happy Stitching,

Stacey

14Sep2012

Modern Mystery Quilt Challenge

Posted in Challenges and Giveaways by StaceyinStitches

The American Quilters Society is hosting a modern Mystery Quilt. The quilt was designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, authors of Quilts Made Modern. The best part? Its free! It is a 6 part/week Mystery Quilt, and part 1 is up now. Part 2 will be up next week.

Because this is a free quilt-a-long, I would love for everyone to participate and send me pictures of your progress week to week! I will post pictures as we go, and then after the last installment we will have a final reveal of everyone’s finished quilt tops! You will get to vote for your favorite, and the top with the most votes will win a fat quarter pack! That’s right! I will put together a packet of 5 fresh modern fat quarters for one of my lucky readers to win! So please, share this with all your friends and lets have some fun! ~~The deadline for submissions will be November 14th, 2012. Voting will run from November 15th to November 25th, and the Winner(s) will be announced November 26th.~~ Voting Closed.

To Participate:

1. Comment below so I know how many people interested. ~~For every 10 entrants I will add a Fat Quarter Packet.~~ If there are more than 10 entries we will have a first, second and third place!

2. Encourage your friends to follow the blog and vote for your quilt! The more followers, the more votes!

3. Send a photo of your finished quilt top ( it does not have to be quilted) by November 14th, 2012

~~Here is the link~~! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

This challenge will be open to international participants as well! Quilting is its own language, one that is spoken with color and thread and heard with the eyes, and understood by all!

As Always,

Happy Quilting!

23Aug2012

Where Does the Time Go?

Posted in Other by StaceyinStitches

Holy Cow.

Is it almost September already? Yup, apparently it is according to my phone, computer, and AQS wall Calender.

August always seems to fly by for me. There were the 10 days on vacation, 5 days waiting for a new video card after the crash of my computer, starting a new quilt for the 2013 CQA Quilt Show (in Penticton this year, only a 5 hour drive! Woo-hoo!), <—- Apparently Woo-hoo is not in the spell check dictionary but woo-bop is. Go figure. I also started the blocks for the 3×6 block swap I am participating in, and the name tag for the RATZ Swap. For those who want to know, RATZ stands for Rapid Tiny Zakka. Zakka means many tiny things in Japanese, so that’s what we make. The last month was needle-books, month before that was key chain tags. I am sorry I missed the needle-books because they look so cute. I am looking forward to the future swaps though. I actually finished my name tag on time and sent it to my partner in New York state. I hope she likes it.

I also received my packets from the Hoffman Challenge. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the challenge, so to celebrate for every 25 entries they would pull a name out of a hat and send off a packet of Hoffman Batiks and Sulky Threads. I got home from vacation to find this package at my door! I love the colors, especially the peacock thread! Batiks are my favorite fabrics, so I was giddy when I got the email saying I had won a prize draw!

I also found a second packet from Hoffman with my letter of acceptance into the trunk show and the goodies they send along: a beautiful cloche pin, Sulky thread, and a fat quarter of a Hoffman screen print.

I am always excited when my quilts are chosen to be in a show. Even though I don’t win ribbons it is an honor to have my work displayed with some of the best from around the world. I was very excited in 2010 because my quilt Starfire was in the same traveling trunk as Fly Away by Jaqueline de Jonge, who you all know if one of my favorite inspiring quilters! Solaris, an original design, was also chosen to travel in 2011. It should be arriving home in October.

I have been participating since 2010, and I look forward to the new fabric each year. When 2012 was revealed, I was aghast. Its not that the fabric was terrible, its just not my thing. Right up Grandma’s alley, but definitely a few blocks and a kitty corner from mine. But that’s why they call it a challenge, right? Last year, when I had lots of time to sit and draft, I replicated the pieced inner panel from the Claudia Clark Myers/Marilyn Badger collaboration Greensleeves. (I did not include the applique.) Then I emailed Claudia Clark Myers and received permission to sew it up and enter it into the challenge.

I ended up going a different direction last year, but I found for 2012 it was the perfect pattern to showcase and at the same time hide this fabric. Again let me emphasize that while the fabric is nice, it is just REALLY not to my taste. The effect was charming, and I named the quilt My Secret Garden.

The fabric for 2013 is stunning, and I am so happy that it is in my palette. It has quite a large repeat as well as a huge amount of visual content in the repeat. I have an Idea forming for what I want to do. Now the waiting game begins until I can pre-order my fabric from one more of the online retailers. This one will sell out fast!

While I was away I started working on my entry for the Canadian Quilters Association Juried Quilt Show. I am making the Jaqueline de Jonge pattern Listen With Your Eyes. Here is a sneak peek at what I have completed so far! My color wheel has more than 100 different fabrics, not a single fabric repeats! I pulled all but 9 from my stash, somehow I was a tad low on yellow/lime and aqua. This is the original quilt, and I got the pattern here.

I also received my Glacier Star quilt back from Julie House of Sculptured Threads Quilting in Arizona. She did an amazing job and I highly recommend her. You can check our her work on Facebook. I am going to enter this quilt into the Georgia Quilt Show. I need to think of a name, any suggestions?

Thanks for being so patient with me! The gallery should be up and running in a week or so. As always, Happy Quilting!

This little fellow was out on my parents deck. The Mountain Bluebirds were out full force one evening, and he had a small run in with the window. I picked him up so he could get over the deck, and he is now happily living in the back forest.