If you don’t know what it is, an “i spy” is a quilt where you use conversation prints, hopefully with every piece being different. Several different shapes can be used for the pieces and I decided to use hexagons. (I’m having a total love affair with hexagons this summer but that’s a whole different post.) I figured I would need 165 hexagons for the size quilt I wanted and there is no way I have that many different conversation prints in my stash. So I asked all my quilting friends for any interesting fabrics that they were willing to contribute. I was especially looking for sports prints, fishing prints and beach stuff. I wanted things that matched Karina’s interests. Well, I just got the greatest stuff. Susan even had a print with Russian nesting dolls which is perfect because Karina was adopted from Russia.

I considered several different ways to set the blocks and in the end put them in rows with a rainbow of solids gradating from yellow at the top to lime green at the bottom. My sister used primary colors when she redecorated Karina’s room so I think this will complement it perfectly. And since Karina is not a real girly girl, I chose this floral for the border.

I’m really pleased with how it’s turning out. I just took my mom’s quilt off the long-arm today so I need to get these borders sewn on and I can quilt this one next. I can’t wait to get it done and send it off to Karina. I hope she likes it.

I got home yesterday and am finally rested and unpacked and am ready to get back in the swing of things. Here are a couple more projects from the week.

For these pajamas, I used an old McCalls pattern for the pants and a pattern from  Amy Butlers’ In Stitches book for the kimono. The fabric for the kimono is an Alexander Henry that is at least five or six years old. I’ve been saving it for just the right project. I think I picked well. They are very comfortable and I wore them every night.

Linda spent the last two days working on this clothesline tote. She got the wonderful handles from A Common Thread. It’s not finished but you can tell it’s going to be gorgeous.

Jennifer spent the week working on album blocks. She is making two matching twin size quilts for her extra room. Here are some of the blocks.

There was lots of knitting going on all week. Nothing got finished so I didn’t take any pictures. I also spent a lot of time working on a new summer dress. It was such a project that I’ll give it a special blog post in a few days. We did do a bunch of sewing but it was also a wonderfully relaxing week. These were taken out at our friend Bettys’ house in Black Butte. It was bliss.

Susan and I drove up yesterday and arrived at Jennifer’s house around 1:30. We started our vacation by attending a yoga class and getting totally blissed out and ready to embrace the week. The rest of the day was spent eating and knitting and watching the Tour de France. We took a walk after a wonderful dinner of wild trout cooked expertly by Susan, our resident chef for the week. Our local buddy Sue stopped in for a glass of wine and a chat and brought this adorable gnome that she had made.

Silly Susan

Sitting outside on Jennifer’s deck is a wonderful thing. Blissful. Her house backs up to Wychus Creek and the sound of the babbling water is heavenly.

I haven’t seen any deer yet but I’m sure I will. I plan to spend several hours lounging in this hammock soaking up the sights and sounds. Ahhhh……. I’m loving it.

This visit we worked on a new quilt for Rick and I’s bed. The quilt that is on our bed now is at least 15 years old, so I’ve been wanting to make a new one.  I started this quilt last year and had all the blocks done. There are 324 blocks in the quilt and the finished size is 102 x 102 so we had to sew it together in four quadrants.  We managed to get all the blocks sewn as well as get the borders on and the back pieced. I must say, it was a lot of sewing. It took us four days to get everything done, and I am very  happy with how it turned out.

Kristy wanted to learn how to make one of the clothesline baskets that I’ve posted about recently. She decided on a fruit basket for her kitchen counter and chose bright red to go with the red sofa and quilt.  It turned out great and I think she’s hooked.

Just imagine what kind of trouble we could get into if we lived close to each other! I love my bff, we always have the best time.

The second project in the value workshop is a basket weave quilt. The aim is to have a light, medium and a dark that will give the finished piece a feeling of dimension. This hinges on getting enough contrast between said light, medium, and dark.

The third project from the value workshop is the hourglass blocks. Here we are looking for a light, a medium and a dark that we sew into strip sets and then cut into 90 degree triangles. The fun is in arranging them and seeing what happens. You can get all sorts of different movement and emphasis depending on how you arrange the blocks. I love this exercise. Being the third exercise of the day, the students are getting tired by this point! We really work hard in this workshop.

And to finish off this post, one of the students had taken my yin yang class years ago and brought in her finished quilt. It was just fabulous. I love seeing the results of classes. It’s such a joy.

But first I have to say what an incredible landscape is out there. The land opens up and becomes so vast. Coming from the forests here in Portland, I found it beautiful, although somewhat unnerving. Just miles and miles of wheat as far as you could see. After getting off the freeway, I drove about 50 miles and only saw about 8 cars.  And no cell service.

The value workshop was a lot of fun. I really enjoy teaching this class because the students get a lot out of it and leave with some good information to use in their future quilts. One of the exercises that we do is “trip around the world.”

These two pictures show Lise’s project with several different arrangements of the fabrics.

This is such a good visual on how a project changes depending on where you place your lights and darks.

Here are a couple of other projects from the class.

I’ll work on getting up some pictures of the other two projects. I was very pleased with what all the students accomplished. I really work them hard in this class and they rose to the challenge!

Mom is visiting right now for ten days and I told her that working together, we could get the top done while she was here. First we drew up a plan for the quilt. She wants it for a queen size bed with some overhang on the sides and the bottom. . Using six inch blocks and this layout, the quilt will finish at 78″ x 90″. And with the layout complete, we knew how many blocks to cut of each color.

So then we dove in and started picking fabrics. It was so much fun. I love the part where you just throw all the fabrics you like on the floor and paw through them. Yummy. Here are the final choices.

Mom isn’t a quilter and she said she wasn’t very good with the rotary cutter. Well, she is now! She is also doing really well with the quarter inch seam allowance.

We had so much fun playing with the fabrics, and she is very excited about her new quilt. We finished piecing it just a bit ago and I haven’t had a chance to take a picture yet but I will soon. Mom leaves on Saturday so she can’t take it home, but I promise to quilt it soon and mail it. I keep trying to turn her into a quilter, maybe this project will do the trick!

First of all, you have to use all synthetic fabrics, NO COTTON. That was really hard to do. Us quilters are usually such purists about fabrics. It was kind of fun to play with all the shiny, slippery stuff. So step one, you get a piece of felt, polyester of course. Then you start laying little pieces of shiny polyesters on top of it. When you’ve got those however you want them, you put a layer of some kind of sheer on top of that, netting , organza, whatever.

After you’ve got it all layered, you sew everything down on the sewing machine.

You end up with something like this:

Then you put your piece into an embroidery hoop and start burning between some of the stitching with a wood burning tool or a soldering iron. It was kind of scary at first but then I really enjoyed it. How often do you get to purposely burn things up?!

You end up with something that looks like this.

Vivienne was inspired by the work of Susan Lenz whose work she saw at a gallery in North Carolina. Viv bought a beautiful, large piece of Susan’s that hangs over her fireplace. It’s gorgeous. Here is a link to Susan’s explanation of how she makes her pieces.

It was a fun day. Thanks Viv.

Or this one from Betty showing the awesome structure at the Portland Airport.

Or this one by Kathy of an abstract version of the Portland cityscape.

Some artists focused on the trees and forests in and around Portland and how wonderful it feels to spend time in them. Hilde and Vivienne both made “green” quilts with quite different results. Hilde:

and Vivienne:

Viv’s piece has been quilted and then parts of it were burned away. That’s what makes the little holes you see between the blocks. Very clever and great texture.

There were several more wonderful pieces but I didn’t get very good pictures of them. Thanks always to the First United Methodist Church for having this wonderful event. If you are in the neighborhood, you can stop by the church office and ask to see the quilts. They will be at the church for about a month.

At the Wednesday evening lecture, Judy brought this quilt for show and tell and I just loved it. I know, I know, it’s polka dots!

On Thursday, I taught my Egg Drop Soup class. This quilt is made using a “liberated” technique. No templates, no measuring, just freeform piecing. Everyone in the class was really adventurous with their color choices. It was wonderful to see.

Four gals worked on this one together for a charity quilt.

It was a great group of creative women. Yes, quilters are the nicest people!