I have truly been blessed to attend numerous classes at the Woodland Ridge Retreat. If it were not for the continued employment of my husband the opportunities would never have occurred. Today’s story is about another one of my excursions.
Last summer I participated in the Judy Coates Perez, Paint and Print Palooza. I had a wonderful time learning how to dye, print and silk screen fabric.
I Had A Handful
Watching the applications go from start to finish was entertaining.
Folded Fabric Waiting to DryAll Dried and Opened Up
I even designed and cut out my own foam stamp.
My Own Foam Stamp The First Print Using My Foam Stamp
I created a minimum of 12 new blocks of fabric. These are two of my favorites.
Block 1
Block 2
Rather than point out all of the quilt’s wonderful features I’m going to share them with you through photos. Enjoy!
My First Block Arrangement
Eight of my favorite blocks. Click on any photo to watch a slide show of the gallery.
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Block 4
Block 5
Block 6
Block 7
Block 8 & 9
Last but not least, here is the finished art quilt.
Art Piece # 86: Painted Fibers
I am so pleased with the final version of my art piece. My finished art quilt measures 64 x 47”. Hidden inside this family of blocks are oodles of special features. Click on the photo to enlarge it and see the many details.
Roseanne over at Home Sewn By Us has been hosting a QAL that began on January 1, 2018. The pattern called Regatta was designed by Daniela at Block M Quilts. Instructions for the quilt are provided at the above link. This is how the author’s quilt looked when she was finished.
I decided to join the QAL when Roseanne first started talking about it late in 2017. Being the rebel that I am I chose to modify the instructions by changing the dimensions as well as the colors of the fabrics.
Updates on my progress were shared via these two posts:
Now that my quilt is finished I can share photos. My version of the Regatta quilt measures 28 1/2” x 73”. Inside the quilt sandwich is a layer of Warm & Natural batting. The backing is a leftover piece of batik from another quilt. Attached to the back is a sleeve for hanging and a label. I bound the raw edges with a black cotton binding. When deciding how to quilt my item, I looked to the black squares for my inspiration. Seeing them zigzag across the quilt gave me the idea to repeat the squares horizontally by quilting a square swirl across the rows.
Regatta Quilt
Closeup of Regatta Quilting
A Slice of Regatta
My next photo provides a closeup of the backing as well as the quilting.
A View Of The Regatta From The Back
The final photo of my Regatta quilt is one of my favorites because it shows the texture of the quilting. The shadows created by the stitches make the quilting appear three-dimensional.
Regatta Quilt Texture
My Regatta quilt is now officially DONE! This quilt was a fun and easy project to make. I’m so glad that I decided to participate. The finished quilt will make an awesome addition to my quilt stash.
I was once a subscriber to Missouri Star Quilt Company’s Block magazine. The magazines I received are still resting on the reclaimed cabinet in my office. Shown below are some of them.
Some of the Block magazines that I own
I’ve spent many hours browsing the pages of each one of those books. On the back covers I wrote the names of the quilts I might oneway like to make.
Back of Block Magazine
One of the many quilts I fell in love with was the Teacup quilt, published in the Fall Vol 1 Issue 5 magazine. As you can see by the above photo it was one of the projects I listed on the back cover.
The Block magazine that has the Teacup pattern
Let’s Make It!
Having fallen in love with the Teacup pattern I set-out to make one for myself. After browsing the Missouri Star Quilt Company’s website I chose a grouping of fabrics to purchase for my project. Buying the fabric, for me, is always the easy part. Finding the time to make it is what’s hard.
I had the fabrics for the quilt sitting in a tub for more than a year. Last summer, on one of my sewing retreats, I finally was able to get started. The quilt was a fun and easy quilt to assemble. Unfortunately the pattern has an error. It wasn’t until I had all of the blocks made that I discovered it.
A Pattern Error!
As I laid out the blocks to decide on their placement I realized I only had half of the blocks the quilt pattern called for. Being puzzled by this revelation I went back to the book to figure out where I went wrong. As I studied the pattern I realized that the quantity of fabric called for in the pattern was incorrect. The pattern listed only one package of 10 1/2″ squares (aka layer cake). In order to make the correct number of blocks I should have purchased two packages.
Letter to the Company
I contacted the company to point out the error. They thanked me for the information and credited my account for $5. I guess the $5.00 was supposed to make me feel better. $5.00 was not going to make it possible for my quilt to ever be the size I was anticipating.
No Longer Available!!!
Since I waited so long to actually start making the quilt the fabrics had since gone out of print and were no longer available. On top of that I had purchased enough fabric to make the quilt backing to the correct size. Obviously I can use the extra fabric on another project, but that’s not the point. Had I known that my quilt would be much smaller I obviously wouldn’t have purchased as much. Thus, their $5.00 compensation paled in comparison to my level of disappointment and the amount of money spent on this quilt.
MSQC’s Pattern Corrections
Missouri Star Quilt Company publishes a list of pattern corrections for its subscriber to refer to. As of today the error that I found is not listed on that Missouri Star Quilt Company’s pattern correction list. I’m disappointed that my revelation has not been shared on their website. If you decide to make the quilt yourself make sure to adjust the amount of fabric that you purchase. Otherwise you too will be disappointed.
Ok, enough about my disappointment! Let’s get back to my very pretty quilt.
Moving On
In December of 2017 I was able to finally find time to finish my Teacup quilt. Using a straight-line geometric pattern, swirls, a paisley design and white thread I quilted my Teacup project on my longarm machine. Here’s how my sweet little quilt looks now.
My Teacup Quilt Top
A closeup of the geometric meandering
A closeup of the binding, and border quilting
The back of my Teacup Quilt
Conclusion
Throwing aside the disappointments associated with my experience, I must say that this darling little project sits very high on my list of favorite quilts. I am so pleased to have it in my arsenal of finished quilts. 🙂
Thank You so much for visiting with me today. I look forward to our next encounter.
Note: At the beginning of this post I mentioned that I was once a subscriber to the Block magazine. My experience with one of their patterns and the company’s failure to correct the issue had nothing to do with cancelling my subscription. I made the decision to stop receiving the magazine because I felt I had more than enough ideas for possible quilts to make in the future; let alone finding the time to make them all. I’ve also found improv quilting to be my preferred avenue to follow. I’m not saying I would never make a pattern quilt again; it’s just not as likely as it once was.
