Loyal Union Month 2

Here are the next 5 blocks for the Loyal Union Sampler.

Organizing and Evergreen Bowties

Hello snow.

Today, my family and I woke up to inches of snow, but I realize it's nothing compared to out east.  But, we are enjoying our day doing what we can to work from home and keep our daughter busy with active play.

This past Saturday, I went up north to Longmont, Colorado, for the day.  I wanted to check out the Presser Foot's moving sale. Presser Foot sells Bernina's, fabric, and all kind of notions/accessories. It's about a 45 minute drive from my home, and well, I wanted to make the best of the drive. We visited a dear friend, and played tennis at McIntosh Park, where I made a little picnic for my family on the court. Audrey and Garrett received a few things from me to say Happy Valentine's Day. Then, I proceeded to play my first set in years to beat my husband 6-1. In his defense, he is recovering from an Achilles tendon surgery. My husband is athletic and although, he may not look the best in his tennis form, he can get his racket on everything to put the ball back into play. As a female player, I like to hit the ball hard and well, from my years of competitive tennis, I could hit the ball hard to win the point. When I hit the ball hard to Garrett, it always comes right back twice as hard. So hard that in one rally, I broke 2 strings. It felt good to hear the pop. Nevermind that I hadn't change those strings since Audrey was born.

What I was getting at with my trip to the Presser Foot, is that I bought some more feet for my Bernina 820. I'm not all that excited about the storage that came with my machine to store feet and accessories. When I'm working, I like to slide, stack, and toss things about.

The storage unit that came with the box doesn't allow for that, and really doesn't fit my working mojo. In fact, I gave up on it months ago. I opted for a little zipper bag I made to store the feet and accessories, but I didn't like how the items banged against each other. After getting some more feet and accessories at Presser Foot, I was motivated to organize my items in a neat and orderly way. I combed the web for ideas that matched my working style. I decided on jewelry storage boxes. Sunday, I rushed over to Michael's to select my storage. There was an endless amount of options, but I opted for a medium sized box with removable dividers. A large was to big to slide, stack and toss about, but a small seemed too small. A medium box was just right.

 

Meanwhile, I managed to finish another quilt called Evergreen Bowties. I did this quilt for Craftsy as they will be selling the kits for the exact fabrics you see in the pictures below on Craftsy's website.

 



 

 

Staying warm and cozy,

Sandra

Briar Rose Quilt Sampler

Hello.
This past week was a bit unusual as I had lasik surgery on my eyes. The hardest part of recovering from lasik wasn't so much the eyes, but so much more about recovery. Doctor sent me home with what not to do: no running/exercise, no monitors (aka say no to computers and emails), and no sewing. Say what? I did manage and pretty much listened for 3 days.

It was difficult to not sew, not run, and not go through emails. By the next morning, I was twitching of boredom. I'm a busy body. I cannot stay still. I'm always on the move to something else. I'm the kind of person that when it is time for bed, I lay my head down and I'm out in seconds. Instead of sewing, running, and emails, I organized and purged junk from the house.

I love to play outdoors, especially with my family. I live in Denver, and well, the entire weekend was 60's to 70's. I obeyed doctor's orders for 2 days, but by the third day, my husband and 3 years old where out playing tennis. I did wear my fancy new sunglasses, so that makes it okay. :)

Before surgery, I did manage to get a quilt done. In fact, I finished the binding just 10 minutes before my husband took me to surgery. It had been pieced together for sometime, but I spent last week quilting it. It turned out wonderfully.

Here, I mostly used Heather Ross's Briar Rose fabric, thus the name, Briar Rose Quilt Sampler. The white background and sashing came right out of my stash. The quilt finishes at 80" square. I used Warm & White batting by the Warm Company and Aurifil thread.

I am putting together a pattern for this. It is drafted and going through final review. It should be published by the end of this month. The pattern is written fat quarter friendly, other than the sashing. I hope you'll give it a try.

 

Still in recovery,

Sandra

Repeat Patterns

Hello, World.

 

All I have to say is I'm addicted to repeat patterns. I probably spent way too much time this past weekend playing on Adobe Illustrator, but you'll have to confirm that with my husband.

 

The past few weeks, I have been focused on learning Illustrator for fabric design as well as coming up with my own color palette. My skills finally came together this past weekend. Honestly, I came up with a dozen patterns, trying to focus on different tools within Illustrator. All of these where made using either the pattern maker or manually making my own pattern in Illustrator. These are the four I'm most proud of, along with a narrative on each pattern: 

• For the first, the chevron, I thought, everybody loves chevron, so I'll create my version of it. Here I built a shape and repeated it.          
• The second one, who doesn't love a bunch of flowers? Well, I do. And why not mix shapes into them. I drew the flowers with my Wacom tablet. The rest where shapes built in Illustrator.
• I saw some jewelry out and about that inspired me to come up with the third one. This must be an addiction, if the first thing I want to do when I return home is to open up the computer to illustrate. Here, I use the rotate tool.
• The fourth one consisted of a lot of methods. I do love photography and the flowers are from my front yard. I use the image trace in Illustrator to come up with what you see there. The bird I drew from a how-to-draw book and the wreath of leaves were hand drawn, too. I used an oval as my guide to draw the wreath, then deleted the oval when I was finished with it.

Although I have a long way to go, I'm making progress. Illustrator is a language of its own. I'm no expert right now, but with the help of internet searching and how-to books, I'm coming along. Next, I'll continue working on Illustrator to develop my signature style and more dimensions to my patterns.

 

 



"Creativity takes courage" - Henri Matisse 

 

Sandra



BHG Quilts & More - Sew Easy Sampler

I'm thrilled to announce my Sew Easy Sampler Quilt is showcased on the BHG Quilts & More magazine for the entire 2015 year. Yay!

 

 

Quilts & More has 4 issues: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each issue will have instructions for one of the four blocks.

 

 

The first block will appear in the Spring 2015 issue, on newsstands on February 3, 2015.

 

 

This quilt came to me while I was drinking coffee on my porch with my husband, while we watched our daughter play in the front yard. It was spring of last year, the day was beautiful and we had to enjoy the weather. As we relaxed in conversation and enjoyment of our daughter playing, I noticed my colored pencils laying randomly on the table. A number of pencils caught my attention. I was intrigued by the colors. I thought, o so beautiful and different. I quickly ran back inside, picked up my tools and whipped up some blocks and colored them on our porch. Back then, it was all manual: colored pencils and graph paper. Meanwhile, my daughter wanted in the fun and she picked up her coloring books and crayons to color with me.

 

When I think of this quilt, I remember the quiet times with my family. The day was so simple and the pure pleasure of one's company on a beautiful spring day.

 

Thank you to my sponsor:

     All fabric by Michael Miller's Cotton Couture Solids

     Dream Cotton Batting by Quilter's Dream Batting

     Aurifil Thread

 

A special thank you to Jody and Elizabeth who gave me a chance.

All images are used with permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Living the dream,
Sandra

 

 

First Surface Design

I received my Wacom tablet. Yes! I installed it last night and even started using it.

I've been putting surface designs together and will share some of my work on my blog. I'm a bit hesitant right now, because I'm still working on my signature style, and further, I'd like to design my own fabric. I've heard different opinions about whether or not to share my designs online. As I learn more, I'll be able to choose what is warranted for public display and what to keep privately for my portfolio.

 

Though, here is one I will share. It is my first repeat pattern from Adobe Illustrator. 

www.sandraclemons.blogspot.com

Aiming for the stars,

Sandra

Loyal Union - Introduction, Block A1 to A5

And it begins. Who is with me?

 

I announced the start of the Quilt Along last Wednesday at my guild meeting. The goal is 5 blocks a month for 2 years. The book does a good job of noting the fabric requirements, however, I want mine to be a bit more scrappy. Focusing on color, I bought a tall fat quarter bundle and am using my scraps. If I happen to run out, I won't panic if the fabric line is gone, I can add more interest by combining fabric lines that have similar colors. As a note, I do not plan on laying out my block in the exact order per the book. Don't you think it's unnecessary worry to plan for color and contrast to be distributed out evenly throughout the quilt when picking color for the next block? Well, when the quilt is finished, I don't think anyone would say, 'you didn't put the blocks in order.'

 

Here's the first five blocks, located in order per the book.

 

 

 

116 blocks to go.
Sandra