Self Portrait - Making Faces With Melissa Averinos

Using air quotes in print infuriates me. (So does asterisks around an action to indicate action, but that is another story.) That being said, I almost put them around the words Self Portrait in the title. My eyes aren't really that colour nor are they that pretty. The fabric selection implies I wear eyeliner or mascara and I rarely wear either. My eyebrows are not grey. I do have pretty lips though.

Being real isn't the point here. It looks like a pretty good face, doesn't it?

I made this face in class with Melissa Averinos at QuiltCon in February. Having been totally taken with her face quilt at last year's QuiltCon this class was my top choice when registration opened. I was not disappointed.

Melissa spent a lot of time in the class teaching us the structure of the face. She started with having us draw a face, then breaking down components and proportion. Totally eye opening! I've never had any drawing training like this. It meant that even if we got figurative with features, it would still be very recognizable as a face. Now, I want to make all the faces!

It isn't for me to share Melissa's exact technique - she does teach this class for a living - but I can say that it was incredible easy to execute. Not to mention, fun!

So far I've only done the quilting on this - simple matchstick quilting. I'm not sure if I will bind it the traditional way or get creative with framing. Time will tell. 

My kids say that this mini quilt is creepy. I'll take that as a compliment, a testament to the skills Melissa taught me about making eyes. And they need to get over that because I think it would be fantastic to do portraits of the whole family. 

The Splendid Sampler - First 10 Blocks

In all honesty, I am shocked that I am here. Ten blocks into a 100 block sampler and I'm actually on track and still making blocks. This is made all the more shocking by three things:

• Embroidery
• Small, precise piecing
• Block styles that are so not my norm

That's the exciting part though. It may be work and a challenge for me, but that is exactly why I am doing it. We all need a push out of the comfort zone sometimes. And there is no improv in this sampler, as far as I can tell, until my block. (And that is only a tiny amount as it is.)

I nearly gave up. If it wasn't the 1'' squares it was the embroidery. So not my world. And I have a lot to learn about both of these skills. Then there is probably someone else in the group incredibly comfortable with these and freaking out over applique or getting precise points. I forged through and so can you.

At the beginning of The Splendid Sampler I know there was a lot of stress about fabrics. I ended up raiding my scraps bins. You need little pieces of everything so it is perfect for scraps. Now that I am this far in I think I will end up in stash for the black and whites. I also think I am going to change colours now. Maybe make a change every 10 blocks. That should help keep my interest up and perhaps make a tiny dent in the scrap bin. Besides, I've never really made a rainbow quilt.

Even 10 blocks in I see so much potential in the designs. So many of these blocks could be made many times over for really interesting quilts. The patterns are worth it for that inspiration alone! If you are following along on Facebook or Instagram it is incredible to see the difference fabric makes in the blocks. Some people are getting a bit creative with their interpretations, but I really like the blocks that allow some personality to seep in while still respecting the original design. 

If you aren't up to speed on The Splendid Sampler, make sure to check out the website. 100 free block patterns over the course of a year! Eventually, the blocks will be put into a book format by our fearless leaders Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. If I continue to keep up my blocks will eventually make it into a quilt.

Giant Dresdens Quilt

Giant Dresdens for Baba O, 62'' x 90''

Sometimes quilts are really hard to give away. And sometimes you are so excited to do just that. Not because you want the quilt off your hands, but because you know the recipient will love it. Then there are the times you are sad to see the quilt go, but it is totally worth it because you get to see your cousins you hardly see in order to pass it on to their family. Sometimes.

I come from a giant extended family. My mom, an only child, became the 11th child of her aunt and uncle because that's how things work in big Ukrainian families on neighbouring farms. So I grew up with that family as mine as well. And while almost all of the family was in Saskatchewan, there was one set of cousins with us in Edmonton. We spent a lot of time together growing up, dancing, eating, playing, tormenting each other, laughing.

A few months back they asked me if I would make them a quilt for the Baba on the other side of the family as they are celebrating her 90th birthday this fall. Even though I don't really do commissions I wouldn't say no. Plus, I got to play with some ideas and that is always fun.

Three big Dresden plates, made with the

Fat Cat Ruler

. Gorgeous fabrics and loads of negative space to quilt on the long arm. Pretty quick to get together  - I think each Dresden took me about an hour to make, then only appliqué time. I machine appliquéd, so that wasn't very long either. Just 3 blocks to sew together and long strips for the side. And that was it.

I have a feeling there will be more Dresdens in my future. Maybe. I might need another request from the cousins in the midst of the other deadlines...

My dot to dot quilting on the long arm needs a fair amount of work, but I'm feeling very comfortable with all over free motion work. It is quite liberating and such a thrill to have it come together quickly. For this twin size quilt I was off the machine in slightly less than 4 hours, including my loading time and breaks for texts and instagram.  I used what I call a Paisley pattern, and my long arm teacher calls  headbands.

I've used it before

, but on my home machine.

The back was pieced with what I had at home, including this Amy Butler print from years ago. I bought it for another project that never came to fruition. I was worried it would be too girly for a 90 year old, but my cousins assured me that Baba O will like it. A few extra inserts of fabric that was also used on the front to bring it up to size.

On the front, in the centre of the Dresdens I wrote out birthday wishes. This way there is no need to flip it over to see the real reason Baba O is receiving this quilt. On the back are the labels - one with wishes from the family and one with maker and care info. As I pointed out, the quilt is likely to outlive even them, so the history needs to go with the quilt. But thankfully my cousin's wife has very neat handwriting so she actually wrote out the labels instead of me! I stitched those on over deck cocktails with my cousins. A gaggle of our kids eating popsicles and popcorn and playing in the backyard. Our conversations full of the stories of now and yesterday. Love, history, and the future all coming together, thanks to a quilt.

The Oldest UFO

Generally, I like to call my unfinished projects WIPS, or Works in Progress, not UFOs.  This is because I actually like having a catalogue of things to pick from when I get the chance to sew. It doesn't stress me out - usually.  But this, this project must definitely be called a UFO.

I've been quilting for 16 years now. This project is 15 years old.

Going again into the Way, Way Back Machine this project started in 1999, when people were all up in arms over Y2K. Quilters, of course, put their positive spin on it and started swaps. Put 25 mini charms in an envelope, repeat that 80 times, and swap them out. Bang, 2000 charms!

These days people call it Scrap Vomit. I call it a bag of envelopes I found buried in my garage.

(To find out what else I found in my garage check out my

Instagram

feed. Oh boy. #thingsifindinmygarage)

The smart people with their Y2K swaps took the charms as they came in and sewed together the 25 into one block. Then they were able to quickly put the quilt top together, and keep things manageable. I, of course, wanted to get all fancy. I have sketches and math on trying to figure out creative ways to put my top together. And that's why they are all still in envelopes.

Now it is time to move this into the WIP stack. But me, being me, I need to catalogue all of this first. Into my sketchbook will go the addresses as I unpack. And then I think this will become my next Leader/Ender project. Let's hope it doesn't take another 15 years to finish this!

Update: I found a book where I wrote down all the people I swapped with! Now to just get these organized in piles.

Did any of you participate in a Y2K swap?