Alpaca Anyone?

Posted on July 17, 2019 by thequiltedcat

Oh my, I haven’t blogged in so long! I have been working on many quilting projects in my spare time, and you can see more real time progress on my Instagram account.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend some classes at A Quilter’s Affair in the week leading up to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I usually attend each year, but my sister got to join me after she missed the prior 2 years.

I wanted to surprise her with a fun gift as a memento of our trip. We stay at the Best Western Ponderosa, which used to have a llama herd. The hotel retired the herd and replaced it with an alpaca herd! These alpacas have been at the hotel grounds for just a few weeks so they are still a bit shy.

The lovely Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts recently posted a series of new mini quilts that she designed, including an alpaca! It was fate!! I immediately purchased the pattern and set out to make 2 alpaca minis.

This pattern is traditionally pieced and goes together pretty quickly. Here’s a look at the quilt tops with my inspector:

Romeo inspects the alpaca quilt tops

The solids are hand dyed from Cherrywood, the background is from Karen Lewis Textiles, and the alpaca body is the aqua Fairy Dust print from Tula Pink’s line called Pinkerville. The other prints are various scraps from my stash.

I quilted these alpaca minis 2-up on my HQ Avante. I did a combination of ruler work to outline the alpacas and some free-motion swirls in the background. I used a black and white striped print for the binding.

Quilting the alpaca minis

I surprised my sister with her choice of quilt last week. She picked the alpaca with the orange hair, and I’m keeping the alpaca with the green hair.

I just couldn’t resist getting a picture of the completed mini quilts with the alpacas at the hotel. One alpaca was very brave and came to check them out!

An alpaca inspects the completed quilts

We had such a fun week together! In my next post, I’ll talk about the classes that we attended at A Quilter’s Affair.

Happy quilting!

Jen

A Finished Maker’s Tote!

Posted on June 27, 2018 by thequiltedcat

Hi everyone!

I finished my first ever Maker’s Tote by Noodlehead recently to take with me to Quilter’s Affair classes in Sisters in a couple of weeks. I made the large size to carry all my sewing basics and class supplies in style!

Maker’s Tote Front

Materials:

Exterior fabric is Maker Maker Cats in canvas by Sarah Golden
Rainbow accent fabric is Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis
Interior and gusset fabric is Handcrafted Chroma Batik by Alison Glass

I usually make quilts and not bags so this project was a good challenge for me. I think stitching around the gusset pieces is always the hardest part on bags, with the bulk from the stabilizer and the fabrics. I used Clover Clips and took my time.

I changed the pattern only slightly. Instead of having an outside front pocket, I decided to use a pieced stripe of Blueberry Park fabrics to add a pop of color. I also used the same fabrics to piece together the handles and bias binding. I added a cute little cat zipper pull that I purchased at a quilt show.

Here are some more pictures of my finished Maker’s Tote:

Color Pop on the bag front

Colorful zipper binding

Cute little cat zipper pull

Backside of the tote

Tote interior

I think I may make the smaller version of the Maker’s Tote for everyday use. I have fabric ideas swirling around in my head. Too many ideas with too little time!

Happy sewing!

~Jen

Chicken Challenge Class at a Quilter’s Affair in Sisters

Posted on July 14, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Monday, everyone!

Last week, I was able to take 2 classes at the Quilter’s Affair event leading up to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I took the classes with my sister and we had so much fun! We did stay for the quilt show, and I will upload some pictures of the show later this week.

We took a 2-day class called “Chicken Challenge” taught by Ann Shaw. Students could choose from several of Ann’s chicken patterns to use in the class. Ann is a fun and entertaining instructor who really helped the class understand the importance of fabric selection and placement in creating these unique pieced quilts. Yes, these quilts are pieced and not appliqued! Ann teaches a straight-line sewing technique based on Ruth McDowell’s wonderful art quilt methodologies.

Here’s a look at my chicken part way through the fabric audition process. The pattern is Gallus Gallus by Ann Shaw.

Gallus Gallus Fabric Auditions

Although we both selected the same pattern, my sister and I selected different fabrics to create 2 equally colorful roosters:

Side-by-Side Roosters

We brought a variety of fabrics for the class, but naturally found ourselves shopping for more fabric yumminess from the Stitchin’ Post after class. With Ann’s help, I decided that my chicken needed to have a black and white background so I found myself petting bolt after bolt on Thursday afternoon before choosing a few pieces. I also picked up a wonderful Kaffe Fasset print for the ground.

My sister picked a great white-on-black print for her ground and used a neutral gray sketch fabric for her background that we had in our stash. I just finished piecing my chicken with about 30 minutes or so to spare in class. My sister almost finished her chicken and only has a couple of seams left to sew at home.

Here are our pieced roosters with backgrounds:

Pieced Roosters

I plan on changing my borders slightly this week and will then quilt up my Gallus Gallus!

I did get a chance to snap a few pictures of some of the other chickens created by our fellow class members. I’m missing a few of the chickens, but these pictures will give you a good idea of how the fabric selections can really change the look of the pattern. Whenever possible, I tried to include the participant’s name in the photo. If you were in the class, please leave a comment!