My latest strip quilt

Time for another change in direction!  Making strip quilts to donate is fun, and I’m really enjoying it.  It’s been a challenge to come up with a way to make them quickly, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

Here’s a picture of the strip quilt I finished yesterday.  It went together very quickly, even though I got a little arty with piecing the back.  That was fun to do, though.

There’s no binding either.  I layered the quilt, backing, and batting and sewed them together, leaving an opening to turn the quilt along one edge.  I whipstitched the opening closed after turning it, and then pin-basted to keep the layers from shifting while it was machine quilted.

Pieced back of strip quilt

The quilting is long wavy lines along the long axis of the quilt. The quilting only took about an hour. Not bad!

This kind of strip quilt is very easy to do, and it’s fast.  By varying the width of the long pieced strips, getting a slightly different look is easy, too.

This quilt is about 39″ by 47″.  Haven’t washed it yet, but it will probably shrink up a couple of inches.  I’ll have to remember to measure it once it comes out of the dryer.

OK, so one challenge down.  Looks like I’ll be able to do some serious stashbusting this year, especially if I can make two or three strip quilts a month!

So what’s next? One of my other goals for the year was to develop my own style as a quilt artist. I got off to a pretty good start with “Winter Journey,” shown here.

"Winter Journey," my first AAQI Priority Quilt!

This quilt definitely was a stretch for me.  I had never done anything like this before.  Maybe that’s why I haven’t done another.  It did take a lot of time and effort.

But good stuff doesn’t come easy, does it?

So my new goal is to spend two or three mornings a week working on art quilts.  This includes dyeing fabric and playing around with new techniques.  I have some ideas that I want to explore.

I’ve also decided to join the Studio Art Quilt Associates.  According to their webpage, “SAQA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation.”

I’d been tossing around the idea of joining, but kept putting it off because I didn’t think I was enough of an artist yet.  But Leni Weiner had a great post on her blog about why people should join SAQA, and she convinced me.  So I signed up earlier this evening.

I’m also thinking of entering Fabrications 2, a show open to quilt artists in the Upper Peninsula.  It’s being run in conjunction with a SAQA show, Points Of View, which will be on display this summer down in Escanaba.  Having never had the nerve to enter a show before, this is a big step for me!  So first, I need to make some quilts to enter, and second, we’ll see if I get through the jurying process!  Whatever happens, this is bound to be a learning experience.

Hope everyone enjoyed their New Year celebration.  Here in Marquette, they have a lighted ball drop downtown at midnight to celebrate the New Year.  Andrew and me were going to go, but us old farts fell asleep in our chairs in front of the TV instead!  Oh well.

Driveway before I shoveled it out. It wasn't as bad as it could have been!

Our snow storm is still going on, with the snow coming and going in waves.  I finally went out this morning to clear the driveway.  Andrew tried to tell me not to bother, as he can drive out easily with the truck.  But the snow will only get deeper, so I decided to get out there and take care of it.  You can see there was a pretty good pile at the end where the city plow always leaves snow.

But it didn’t take very long to get it cleared out.  I shoveled out the end of the driveway and then used the snow blower on the rest of it.  It always amazes me how there isn’t even a slight breeze til I get out the snow blower.  Then a gale always comes up to blow all that snow back in my face!  I look like the abominable snow woman when I’m finished.

When I went inside, I managed to dump a load of snow from my hat right down my back!  ACK!  It (of course) went right down the back of my shirt and down into my long underwear.  Who needs a brother to dump snow down your back when you can do it yourself?

The result, 75 fun-filled minutes later...

These photos were  taken around 10 and 11 AM.  Looks like twilight, doesn’t it?  Actually, it was snowing pretty hard when I took the second one, which is maybe why it looks so blue.

I joined the Liberated Quilters Group at Yahoo last night.  I was interested in participating in the Liberated Challenge for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.  What you do is to make a little quilt that will fit into one of those Priority Mailing envelopes from the Post Office.  It has to fit without folding or scrunching it up, so that means small, about eight by ten inches.  You can see all the rules at the AAQI website.  They auction the donated quilts off to raise money for Alzheimer’s research.  A very worthy cause!

I’m looking forward to trying my hand at the Liberated Challenge.  I’ve never done anything like this before, so it should be fun.  There was a picture of a seagull-type bird in the paper today.  I cut it out to use as inspiration.  Since I live so close to the beach, there are always seagulls around here.

I’m also excited to connect with other liberated quilters out there.  It looks like a great group of people.  I’d encourage you to join, too, and take part in the challenge!

I’ve found a couple of really cool blogs to tell you about too, but this post is long enough.  So I’ll share those with you tomorrow!

Baby quilt update:  I should be finishing the baby quilt today!  I started sewing the binding on yesterday.  I should finish it this afternoon.  Then I’ll run it through the washer and dryer, sign and date it, and take some pictures to share tomorrow!