New Direction

I've taken my RK Challenge piece in so many different directions ....

I've made letters....I've auditioned several backgrounds....

I spent several 15 minute play sessions experimenting with wonky blocks....

Liberated saw tooth borders were considered....

I tried making HST's out of wonky blocks...

I even "consulted" Gwen and others for inspiration...

My head is spinning .... and I still don't have a finished piece....ugh!

No worries....I still have five days....

Next Step

Continuing with my RK challenge piece....

After piecing my letters, I still had quite a few charm squares left.

I enjoyed playing around with the leftover strips and the unused charm squares which eventually led to these wonky blocks.

I'm thinking of quilting the "Rene'" and the "creates" as individual pieces and mounting on a Cherrywood fat quarter kind of like what I did with the AAQI Tranquility mini quilt.

As a sample layout, I thought of using the wonky blocks as a border ... what do you think?

I'm not loving it ... how about a liberated saw tooth border instead?

{Turn to page 64 if you have your Liberated Quiltmaking II book handy to see what I mean.}

Any suggestions on what my next step should be?

Have an amazing weekend!!

Too Many e's

When I joined the Liberated Quilter's Yahoo group last year, I had not made anything "liberated" so for my first project, I tried free piecing letters.

I used my, at that time, newly acquired AB LOVE fabric because I thought those fabric colors would look cool in my sewing room.  I think I did a pretty good job constructing the letters, but the letters did not stand out with my choice of fabric combinations.  Discouraged, I put those letters away in my orphan block basket....I'm sure they are still there somewhere.....

...but I hadn't given up the idea of piecing a "Rene' Creates" for my studio/mom cave/sewing room/workshop/lab/my room, so when the OMQG announced its Robert Kaufman solids challenge, I decided to "give piece another try" ;-)  

{Yesterday I posted a blurry "Rene'" because I wasn't going to show pictures of my challenge piece until it was complete.  As you can see, I've changed my mind about that decision.  What else would I blog about? ;-)}

From the above two pictures it looks like the letters are attached to the background, but they are not....I was trying out different layouts for the letters and used the background fabric as a design area.  Should I  place the letters in a straight line as in the first picture or have them "dance" as in the second picture?

Since I had originally planned on not showing this challenge in progress or asking for advice, I went ahead and made an executive decision....so glad from now on I can ask for your advice ;-)

Once I decided on the straight line layout, I pieced the Rene' letters and the creates letters.  

Allow me to ramble off topic for a few sentences.....

I have to take a moment here and thank my parents for naming me "Rene'" and not "Renee"....no offense to the Renee's out there....I have always liked my Rene' name...even though I sometimes get mail addressed to me as Mr....the spelling just seems balanced....maybe it's the analytical part of me...who knows..but I now have another reason for liking the spelling...one less "e" to piece!!!!

If I had known, when I chose my blog name, that I would eventually try to piece that name, I may have chosen something with fewer e's as that is the letter that gave me the most problems ;-)

Stay tuned for how I incorporate the remaining charm squares in this....

Have an amazing day!!!

I Better Get Busy

When it comes to sewing and blogging, lately it seems I take one step forward and two steps back...

can't seem to get into a rhythm....but working on it.

Since the deadline is March 21st, I finally started working on our guild's Robert Kaufman solids challenge.  I've had an idea of what I wanted to do for quite some time, but never got beyond the thinking and planning stage.  Yesterday, I remedied that situation and cut into the RK charm pack, and since we are allowed to use some additional fabric, I also pulled out this Cherrywood fat quarter I purchased last summer.

This purposely isn't the best picture...but can you see where I am going with this?  I tried once before to piece letters (unsuccessfully), but this time I am using solids...and I have Word Play Quilts as a reference.

Surely I will have better results this time ;-)

Last post I hinted that our Orlando Modern Quilt Guild had exciting news about an upcoming workshop.

Does the above picture give you a clue?  Whee...I'm so excited that Lazy Gal Tonya aka Unruly Quilter aka Tonya Ricucci will be spending some time with our group!!!!!  I am a huge fan and can't wait to meet her in April.

However, there is one small issue...Tonya has asked to see my Liberated Amish Challenge quilt....

up close and personal.....eek!  

This is the picture I have in my header and how the Liberated Amish quilt top looked before my pitiful attempts at hand quilting scarred it.  I mentioned in this January post about wanting to resurrect this project, including ripping out all the quilting and starting over.

I actually took the quilt top (along with the seam ripper) to my son's track meet, but since there were what seemed like hurricane force winds and rain, I decided that wasn't the best time to pull it out.

For inspiration (and to refresh my memory), I reviewed the posts on the Lazy Gal Liberated Amish 2010 Get Together blog.  Has it really been over a year since I asked for (and received) help in quilting my JMR quilt?  I think it's time I took the advice given.

Like I said....I better get busy!

Have an amazing day!!!

Wonderful Wednesday!

Forgive the wordy Wonderful Wednesday post...I usually keep these short.

April BOM Mosaic Block

Today is the first meeting of the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's second year.  I've been busy preparing a power point presentation on quilt blogging and Flickr.  

This is my first attempt at using Power Point (I know...sad, isn't it?), so needless to say it took much longer to prepare than it should.

March BOM Cross Block

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild has some exciting events planned for its second year (including a workshop with....can't say who yet...news will be announced today) so if you or someone you know lives in the central Florida area, please join us!

March BOM Cross Block

If you are a regular reader, you know how passionately I support the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  I  feel that I can never adequately express why that is and how awesome this organization is.  Fortunately, there are others who can.  Please take a moment and read the latest posts by Michele Bilyeu and the AAQI Update.  The following words in particular resonated with me:

"The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative isn’t like other charities. We are all volunteers, we account publicly for every penny that we spend, and we hold impromptu ceremonies before we mail checks because we know what it feels like to lose someone we love one memory at time. And we know what it feels like to make a quilt and pray with each stitch that our work will help win the fight." (from With-Heart-and-Hands blog who quoted Ami Simms, founder and executive director AAQI)

and these:

“I had never even sat in front of a sewing machine before but 

when I heard about this Initiative, I just HAD to make a 

quilt.” ~Don Hebert (from AAQI Update blog)

AAQI quilt made by Michele-Nostalgic Cafe

The AAQI March online auction is taking place right now.  Go check out the fabulous quilts you can bid on until March 10.  There is also a wide variety of Alzheimer's: Priority quilts for sale all the time.  The above picture shows the latest AAQI quilt that I purchased.  This beauty was made by my quilting buddy and OMQG partner in crime Michele!  {Have you seen those blog buttons that say I am one of the blogging Amy's?  They need one of those for all the Michele/Michelle's out there!}

Every AAQI quilt needs a buyer and new home ;-)  

Have an amazing day!!!

New Home

I've been wanting one of these for a while now.  Every now and then I find myself lurking on ebay or some similar site checking out the Featherweights and dreaming of owning one myself.  My son has even scouted out estate sales for me.  I just couldn't pull the trigger....until now.

This baby came home with me the other day, and I love her!  She weighs 11 pounds, has all her parts and makes the sweetest sound.  I can't wait to spend more time getting to know her.

She also came with two tables, a carrying case and an accessory case full of original goodies.

According to the serial number, she was born made in August, 1940.

Thanks Kathryn for the heads up on this baby ;-)

Have an amazing day!!

A little of this...

...a little of that is what I have been doing.

This AAQI mini was supposed to be finished in February, but will count toward my March goal instead.  It just needs a little quilting and binding to be complete. 

Has anyone else made any Priority: Alzheimer Quilts this month?

{While checking the AAQI links for this blog post, I noticed that one of my quilts sold.  This is always exciting.  AAQI announces on Twitter when a quilt is sold...the reason I set up a Twitter account...by giving the quilt number, amount raised, thanking the maker of the quilt AND THE BUYER.  Thank you buyer of #6331!!!!}

Saturday was Sew Day for the OMQG.  Thanks to the creative genius of Michele and Julie, our members now receive an OMQG logo tote bag and cool name tag when they renew their membership.  So hard to believe our guild is starting its second year!

I had way too much fun chatting at Sew Day to get much done.

Somehow I did manage to make some boobs for Nina Lise's project.

Saying I am "making boobs" is quite the conversation starter ;-)

You should try it sometime...maybe at your next quilt gathering.

I made these boobs by using strips trimmed from off the sides of the Artist Palette quilt.  The instructions call for a light back fabric, and this is perfect as it already has a layer of batting.

I used blocks from  my orphan block basket, pinned them on top of the batting and followed the instructions provided on Mrs. Moen's Make a Boob blog.

I'd like to make some more before I put them in the mail to her.

Thanks for leaving me a comment on why you like blogging/blog reading.  I'm working on a power point presentation for our guild meeting discussing quilt blogs and Flickr, and it's interesting to hear how others view the topic.  

The random number generator (my daughter who picked a number between 1 and 14) chose lucky number 13 to receive the Red Centre pattern.  Mary on Lake Pulaski (we had 3 Mary's comment), it's headed your way.

Have an amazing day!!!!