The Great Rainbow Balls Takeover and OI Raffle Quilt

It's officially Mud Season! And what does that mean? Well, this year it means the Rainbow Balls Takeover of the Lawrence Library art gallery.

Every March, my Squanicookies quilt guild hangs a mini quilt show of our coolness in the art gallery of our local library. It is always amazing and stunning, and not to brag (too much), but it is the most popular of all of the different art shows that go in there each year. I think it may be because our brand of art comes in so many sizes that we can totally fill the walls floor to ceiling in a way other types of art cannot. But I digress in order to brag. 

I was unable to help set up the show this year, but was thrilled to check it out one day after school and lo and behold, two of my tester participants from the "Kickin' Stash" group quilt had finished their quilts and put them in the show. As you may recall, Paige suggested the names "Rainbow Balls" or the forever classy "Blue and Purple Balls" as a name for "Kickin' Stash", and these two quilts do give her argument some merit. I love that Barbara T (quilt on wall in above photo) "borrowed" some blocks from another friend who participated, so she only had to make a few extra to complete her baby quilt. Angie C (quilt on piano) made two borders pink and two blue, which is a blatant deviation from the pattern. Who said she could do that? Well, me, in any given lecture, actually. I love it.

Also showing in the photo in almost the dead center is an "All-A-Flutter", my prairie point heart pattern that was in Quilter's World earlier this year, also made by Angie. She's our resident overachiever after all. I love that Paige's reaction to this whole show was "Mom! This show couldn't even happen without you." Untrue, but swoon.

For your viewing pleasure, some more photos of our show:

Angie also made the funky heart one on the bottom here. Yes, we all roll our eyes at her. The top one is all Jinny Beyer fabrics and is very stunning. I think it was made by Marie A, who also is quite prolific.

Made by Regina M from a kit. Regina does beautiful work but claims to be a beginner. She is crazy.

 Aside: The ornament quilt above was designed by Ann Lauer. I think she may be a liker on my FB page, and I hope she sees this.

We had a workshop where people made the braided quilt on the right; unfortunately I don't know who did that one but it is lovely. Cath H did the black and white one with the pop of orange. Love.

I have no idea who made any of these. Angie probably made them all. But do keep the bottom right one in mind for a moment or two from now.

Some cute small quilts. And some random flowers.

Don't know who made these, but we have to love them.

 Wasn't that fun? Don't you feel like you were there?

Now, check out the quilt below, which is not currently hanging off my deck but it looks so cute there I probably should have just left it. Also check out that blue blue sky as exhibit A as to why I love New England winters. The 6" of snow still on the ground at the end of March this year is NOT a reason, but that isn't "normal." It is, however, "annoying."

So this quilt is made from the same fabrics as that one I told you to make note of up there (Basic Grey, good luck finding them as they are a year old). Totally different looks to them, though, since this one was made with a few slices of layer cake (ie not the whole stack) and a focus fabric and the one up top was a jelly roll.

I started this quilt about a year ago, trying to replicate how I had made a quilt that now resides on Greta's bed. Unfortunately for me, I never wrote down what I was doing, and I never could figure out how to make the blocks like I had the first time. So the whole project ended up in my UFO pile until this year's DAGMT, when I pulled out some of the blocks and trimmed them so they fit together and whipped up this baby quilt.

To look at the UFO basket you'd never know it was gone, but I know, and that makes me happy.

It also makes me happy that this baby quilt has been donated to The Alle Shea Project in Rochester NY, to be raffled off during their "Walk N Wheels" event on May 4 at North Ponds Park in Webster NY. The Alle Shea Project was founded by Kim and Angelo Colazzo to raise awareness for Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a genetic brittle bone disease that claimed the life of their daughter Alle Shea after only five weeks of life. They have done an amazing job as a grass roots cause and I wanted to help out in some way because Kim was actually my BFF in elementary school as well as our moms being our Girl Scout troop leaders and very good friends for life themselves. We'd lost touch over the years but through the power of FB have reconnected and I am honored to be able to do even a small thing to help them honor the daughter they lost. I wish them all the best in their fight for awareness.

Up next....time to fight with the weather, quilt rack, and camera again to get a photo of Taking Names before I lose my mind. The failed attempts have been stunningly disastrous so far. Wish me luck.

If Nascar had a quilting race, I know who would win

I also know I wouldn't watch it because I don't enjoy Nascar, but whatever.

Did any of you have visions of being the first to get your Scrappy New Year blocks back to me? Give up the dream. As predicted, Angie Callbeck of trash barrel diving fame from the previous post has won. As usual, and much to the chagrin of Judy "Speed Demon" Damon, who will have to settle for some other number this time. We love Angie, but really, it's like you almost have to get up last month to beat her at anything quilting related.

I went to my guild's open sew on Saturday, whereupon Angie handed me her four blocks, which she had made the night before. Many of you may be saying "What??? I didn't even get my directions until Saturday afternoon! Cheater!" but let me assure you that no, she isn't alone in cheating. I gave her the directions early at her request, thereby becoming the enabler that I love to be so that I may then turn around and give her crap for being the first one done. I'm a fantastic friend.

But aren't they cute? Minus the fact that they look like I threw them in the bottom of my bag and forgot to take them out until today (no comment)? Nothing a little iron won't fix and I am so excited to have more come my way soon! There is nothing like the thrill of getting the mail when I am running a group project, and it has nothing to do with the hotness or lack thereof of my current mailman.

I was so excited to be overwhelmed by responses from quilters who wanted to participate. I should have enough blocks for two quilts! It isn't too late for you to throw your scraps in the ring too - just let me know and I can get the pdf to you asap.

Scrappy New Year! New Group Quilt needs you!

*********UPDATE 3/3/15**********

WELCOME TO ALL PINTEREST PEEPS! It has come to my attention that this block is all of a sudden very popular over there - which I LOVE! I've received a lot of requests for the pdf and I've finally figured out where it was coming from. Sometimes it takes me a day or two. Anyway, please note that while you are welcome to read all about this block and how it started life as one of my group projects, the project ended three years ago and resulted in "Kickin' Stash," my most popular pattern ever designed and still going strong - in fact, it was recently picked up by Checker. If you'd like the pdf of the pattern, it can be found for instant download on Craftsy and Patternspot.  However I am no longer giving away pdfs of the block as that was just for the group project and testing period in early 2012. Thank you so much for your interest and while this has been a bit of a crazy mystery for me over the last few days, it's been kind of awesome too! I hope you'll check it out!

Original post:

It's that time of year again. The time when I look at my overflowing boxes of scraps and think "Really, I need to get a handle on this situation, and while I'm at it I probably should make a new scrap quilt" and then seven minutes later I see something shiny on the other side of the room and thoughts of a new scrap quilt have vanished for another year. Granted, I know you are looking at that photo and saying "She calls THAT a scrap problem??? I can't even shut the door of my studio closet because I have 16 trash bags full of them/My husband has threatened to start using my scraps as oil rags because they have taken over the half bath/The Red Cross called me last week because they heard I could supply them with bandage rolls until 2037/What-evah, girl!", but yeah, I call it a scrap problem. Don't judge my scraps, I won't judge yours. I admit I don't tend to save pieces that other people consider scraps, say anything under 8" square, and have been known to stand idly by watch my friend Angie Callbeck trash barrel dive for my discards at quilt retreats and then pretend to be properly remorseful while she and others to chide me about throwing away perfectly good 4" pieces of fabric, promising never to do it again while crossing my fingers behind my back. Maybe this will be the year I finally do the kind thing and just hand them over to her rather than make her go into the trash for them. But I digress. Yes, I do find these scraps to be a problem, few as they may seem.

But hotties, let us mark 2012 on the calendar as The Year I Finally Did Something About My Scraps. And you get to help me.

I've played around with EQ and drawn a block that I really sort of like for numerous reasons, but the main ones are thus:

• It is pretty simple
• It doesn't have matching points
• It looks cool in a lot of different settings
• and most importantly, I have a prayer of getting rid of at least a few scraps

So in the interest of combining my scrap reduction with a new group quilt, let this serve as the official announcement - Scrappy New Year Group Project is ON!
Some of you may have participated in my group projects before, so you know I'm pretty easy going when it comes to running them. In 2008 I did a version of Syncopated Ribbons with 16 people participating, including an 8 year old boy and 10 year old girl, and it went on to become my cover photo for that particular pattern and is a stunner wherever it goes.

Last winter I ran my infamous Diamond Dazzle group project, wherein I almost lost my mind trying to reason with computerized design, but the actual group project part was great fun. Over 20 quilters participated in that group quilt, and while I got to use the prototype as my cover quilt for the pattern again, everyone who participated received enough blocks in return to make a table runner or baby quilt.
SNY will be the third group project of this type I have run, and I'm happy to say I've already got several people signed on who are threepeats themselves, so it must be at least a little bit fun, right? Are you chomping at the bit to get started yet? Let's get back to that block I showed earlier and tell you what we're going to do with it.
Here's the actual, real, fabric block I made.

It took me about 40 minutes start to finish, including time to locate proper fabrics, becoming distracted by many other pretty ones, cutting the pieces, winding a bobbin, breaking a thread, and an iron that I forgot to plug in. So in a perfect world, it would take 22 minutes or so.
Note that like the drawn block above, it has a white background and four fabrics from the same color family, in my case lime green. That's what we're going for this time. White background, four fabrics from the same color family. It's that simple. I am not going to tell you what color family to choose - that is up to you, and how you choose it can be as simple and scientific as seeing which of your bins is most overflowing (my method of choice), or asking everyone you know what their favorite color is, charting all the answers on a bar graph, and then throwing the bar graph out and choosing your own favorite color. Any color family will do. Really, I cannot stress enough how little I care which color family you choose.
You will make four blocks using directions I will provide to you. All four blocks can be made of the same fabrics and/or be from the same color family, or you can make four completely different blocks. Again, my apathy on how you choose to proceed with that is stunning. One of these blocks I will keep to include in the group quilt I will put together, the other three will be shuffled about and you will receive three blocks back, all made by other quilters. Kind of like a mini BOM. You can either make a few more blocks and whip up a baby quilt with a group flair, or make them into pillows, or use them as handkerchiefs or dishrags - again, I cannot stress how little I care what you actually do with them when you get them back - they are YOUR blocks, so YOUR choice! Each participant will also receive a Quilting Hottie button to prove to the world that they are awesome, and, if they so choose, will be allowed to borrow both the finished group quilt and myself for a half price "Plays Well With Others" group quiltmaking lecture for their guild anytime in the next few years, but is under no obligation whatsoever to do so. Just an offer I'm putting out there because I know this quilt will be beautiful and will want to be seen.
I anticipate wanting all the blocks in the mail to me postmarked by 2/8/12. If this is a good time frame for you and you are at all intrigued, I hope to hear from you!
Potential participants, please contact me directly at evapaigequilts@charter.net and I will email you the pdf of directions. Like all my group projects, I know this one will be a blast.

Secret Valentines revealed

Several years ago, it became a tradition in my quilt guild, Squanicook Colonial Quilt Guild (and yes, do feel free to discuss what a weird name that is), to have a biannual Secret Valentine program. The rules are simple - create or purchase a quilty-themed valentine gift valued around $20 and secretly deliver it to you assigned valentine before the February meeting. Members tend to get very creative both with the gift creations and the delivery options; it isn't unheard of to drive several towns away from your own to mail a package with a misleading postmark - this year one member even sent her gift from Connecticut! I myself one year hired my babysitters, Molly and Katie Callbeck, to ding dong ditch the door of my Secret Valentine figuring if they were seen my SV would either not recognize them or assume their mother, Angie Callbeck and member of our guild, was their SV. We're so sneaky, we quilters.

I've participated every year, and this year I was chosen to run the program. And by "chosen" I do of course mean "volunteered to do it because it seemed like an easy thing to do for the guild and if I signed up for that and Refreshments no one could ask me to be president". As it turned out, I did do all of the assigning of secret valentines and mailing out names of their giftee to participants, but I was unable to go to the actual reveal meeting due to a prior commitment. I thank my friend Kathie Beltz for stepping in and taking over on my behalf that evening. Half the members probably didn't even notice I wasn 't there because everyone gets Kathie and I confused most of the time anyway. A compliment to both of us in the looks department, but truly, no one could ever confuse our quilting styles!

In honor of this Midwinter Celebration of Love, Romance, and a Long Dead Saint, I'm going to share some of the Secret Valentines I have received over the years. Enjoy!

2011 - "Bake some cupcakes with your sweeties"

I was in charge of setting up the Secret Valentine list and was in the unique position of being able to choose my own valentine. I could have stacked the deck and gone with someone with whose talents and style I was familiar, but I decided to go crazy and choose a new member, Linda Panny, about whom I knew absolutely nothing. What did I learn? Linda apparently knows I have three little girls and that they love to make cupcakes. Linda shops and finds very cute things for cupcakes, like some adorable boxes to put said cupcakes in for taking in lunchboxes. Not being much of a shopper, that was quite fascinating and very new to me. But most importantly, Linda makes her own homemade vanilla and enclosed a bottle in my gift. I could bathe in vanilla and not get enough of the heady aroma, so I will have to admit that was my favorite part of the gift. The girls and I are going to have lots of fun cupcaking soon!

2009 - "Sweet Valentine Dreams"

I wish I could remember the name of the SV who created these fabulous pillowcases for me two years ago. I honestly think she may have left the guild since then, but if anyone knows, please feel free to speak up. These are some of the most nicely constructed pillowcases I have ever seen - and I've made lots of these because for a while they were my go-to birthday party gift for my girls to bring to parties. We were that family who gave bedding, but in our defense, the friends AND the moms loved it. I love that in showing this gift I also sneak in a little of the quilt on my bed and the paint on my accent wall behind my bed which matches one of the fabrics so perfectly it was a true decorating moment for me.

2007 - "The Love in my Family is not so Secret"

As much as I don't really want to play favorites, I'm going to have to here. This valentine arrived on my front step bearing a postmark from another town that was immediately upon opening the box proved to be a fake. I knew in a second that a good friend of mine (and mother of my former sitters/espionage artists who are now adults), Angie Callbeck, had created it for me and I cried because it was so perfect. The note enclosed said something like "This quilt represents the love in your family"
and you can see that it does - two adult hearts on the outsides, two same sized medium-ish hearts for my twins, and baby heart Greta (who was at the time I received this was not even a year old) in the middle. It is beautifully quilted, which was one tip-off as to who made it for me, but the border was the true clue. Angie had recently tested one of my first designs, and that border is my own creation and I absolutely love that she used it in another setting on this quilt. Have I mentioned I love it?

As for 2005, I received a packet of 5 half yards of reds and pinks and a whole lot of chocolate. The fabrics have gone on to become other items, none of which I seem to have in the house, and the chocolate was likely consumed immediately upon opening.

I highly recommend this program for any guild. It's a great way to flex creativity in an otherwise sometimes dull season!