Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Monthly Quilt Contest - the August winner

Every month, the QQQ Team has a contest with a theme.
For August the theme was 'triangles', and the winner is Indra from Quilty Patches Online with her amazing art quilt 'Intriguing Flying Geese'

Wouldn't this art quilt look great on your wall?



CONGRATULATIONS INDRA! Well deserved!

To see more of Indra's work, visit her shop Quilty Patches Online Here you will find quality handmade art quilts, table quilts, pillows, quilts, wall quilts etc.

Shop: Quilty Patches Online
Facebook: Quilty Patches Online


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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Get to know the QQQ's: Raven from Purple Raven Quilts

I am Raven Pletcher. My mother Doris, is my business partner at Purple Raven Quiltshttps://www.etsy.com/shop/PurpleRavenQuilts


Our shop name came from a combination of my personal love of purple, my name and that it is a quilt shop.  Etsy allowed only a certain number of characters so the name was shortened from the original The Purple Raven Quilt Shop, that is my dream of a B&M quilt shop, to Purple Raven Quilts.

I live in Northern California in the mountains.  Doris lives in central Pennsylvania.  We speak on the telephone a few times a week and mail fabric, notions, quilting magazines/books, quilts and other such goodies to one another.


Doris began making quilts before I was born and continues to make them.  I have been actively quilting for 12 years.

I received a FQ bag, filled with FQs of a Jinny Beyer palette, as a birthday gift from Doris.  It was like giving a new box of crayons to a child.  I HAD to sew something with my pretty new fabrics!  I drew a design, hand sewed and hand quilted my creation and joined the threads textile group at the local library.  This was sort of like a sewing B with ladies knitting, embroidering, beading or quilting that met for a hour each week.  I learned a lot from that experience about quilting techniques.  My friendships in this group eventually led me to the local quilt guild. My first quilting creation is still special to me because it led me down the wonderful world of quilting path.

I love to garden, fish, do Genealogy research and make music. A cat and 2 dogs share my home with me.  I attend craft events and charity events in nearby communities as a vendor.  Doris loves to sew, garden and listen to music.


I make Preemie Quilts for St. Joseph's Hospital in Eureka, CA.  Preemie quilts are 12-14 inches square. They are made of 100% cotton fabric and cotton batting. These tiny quilts are placed in the autoclave (medical instrument sterilizer) for many hours to be sterilized. They are then placed above the incubators of preemie babies. Hospital lights are bright for the babies so the quilts help with that. Family visitors can only view the babies through the window of the preemie ward and the quilts help identify the babies to the families. The mothers of the preemie babies gets to keep the quilt given to their baby. I like to use colorful children's fabrics for these quilts. The one rule I do have about fabric choice is no black backgrounds no matter how cute the fabric is. I think of the babies as I sew and it brings me joy to add color to the life of such a tiny new person.
Doris has donated many quilts to a wide variety of charities some of which include, Veterans, homeless shelters, battered women shelters and a summer camp for children.

Shop orders take priority in my day.  I check my shop 4-5 times daily for new orders and respond to convos.  Orders are packaged immediately.  Cat toys, that are made to order, are constructed within hours of being ordered.  Errands are always planned around shipping any current orders.  I also keep an eye on tracking daily with orders that are out for shipping until they are delivered.
Doris packages and ships orders of shop items that she has promptly after my notifying her of the order.  I send the email regarding the order with item and customer information to her.  She tends to special special orders that are for her right away.  Doris has the shop fabric stash in mind when she is attending quilt shop sales.

I am inspired by color.  I love color and see the color combinations all around me.



I work from my head when designing a new project.  A fabric will peak my interest and the process begins.  Placing possible fabric combinations with the beginning fabric, I choose colors and fabrics. Next, ideas for the quilt's pattern begin to flow.  I draw the quilt plan on grid paper so I can get measurements correct when cutting and to choose the approximate finished size of the quilt.  A test block is sewn to see the fabrics and colors still create the desired effect.  It is not uncommon for changes to be made after the test block has been sewn.  Sashing, borders, binding and backing choices are made as the quilt is coming together.  Once again I audition possible fabric choices for each as I get to that stage of quilt construction.  Depending on actual fabric choice, sashing and border widths may be altered at this stage so the fabric makes the desired statement or effect for the quilt.  Choosing the pattern for the quilting stitches is where I hesitate because it can change the quilt completely for better or for worse.  Silly at it may sound to one who does not quilt, I do a lot of staring at a pieced quilt top until I can make the final decision.  All of my UFO's are stuck at this stage.  My personal rule related to UFO's is, I must finish a UFO if I start a new project but I am pretty sure they breed in that project tote.


Doris designs her quilts in much the same fashion I do.  She also works from patterns at times.  She is a natural when it comes to choosing the quilting stitches and has also become quite proficient with her long-arm quilting machine.  Many of the quilts Doris makes are hand quilted.




Friday, August 19, 2016

QQQ's UFO COMPETITION - We have a winner!

Each year, the QQQ team has a UFO competition. In quilting language, UFO means Un-Finished-Object. Many of us quilters always have UFO's that are not finished for several reasons. The beginning of the year is always the best time to take action and finish those UFO's, or at least some.
The UFO competition began February 1st and ended July 31st. The 'fee' for participating in the competition is 1 Fat Quarter per UFO.

There were 19 entrants, some with several UFO's they wanted to finish before deadline; bed quilts, baby quilts, wall quilts, table runners/toppers and quilted bags. Now the UFO competition has come to an end and we have 48 finished quilts. Click here and you will see them all.

The voting is done and we have two winners!

DRUMROLL PLEASE!

Voter's choice goes to Beverley from More Than Just Quilts with her stunning scrappy twin/queen bed quilt


The random choice win
goes to Elizabeth from Lightside Creations with her Walking Dead tote bag 



CONGRATULATIONS to both winners! Well deserved!
Fat quarters will soon find their way to your mail boxes!

THANK YOU to all entrants for participating and CONGRATULATIONS on ALL FINISHED UFO'S! Well done!


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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Get to know the QQQ's: Jessica from Sky Dancer Threads

Hi! I'm Jessica Chyko and my shop is Sky Dancer Threads
I live in Bloomsburg PA, USA


I've always had a love of sewing and started when I was 3 years old. When I was 12, I made my first quilt; a pair of baby quilts that I tied with yarn for my neighbor's new twins. I continued making baby quilts for others who were expecting. I always loved star quilts, the broken star one being my favorite. My first full size quilt that I completed was a queen size bear paw that I hand quilted and gave to my husband's parents. 


Looking at it now, I can see how far my stitches have come since then. I continued to make a few queen size quilts for friends and family members as wedding gifts. I always enjoyed quilting. When I joined a local quilt guild, I was introduced to new techniques and ideas. I started machine quilting (a learning process that continues to this day, as I'm always looking to improve on techniques and patterns) and opened up the way for new styles besides traditional piecing. 

One year, we had a challenge at my guild to use a very funky, colorful fat 8th of fabric in anything we wanted. I had a great idea and enlisted the help of my talented friend, artist Kristin Tuberville Haffey, owner of Tree House Illustrator , to help me design a Beatles tribute quilt. 
It was my first applique project and I won 3rd place for it. After that, applique wasn't so scary to me, and I expaned my designs to more art quilts, including a portrait of John Lennon (also a guild challenge project).


When she (Kristin) was going to be married, I wanted to make her a very special quilt. I knew she loved Celtic designs, just like I did. I had always wanted to make a quilt with Celtic knots on it, so this was the perfect opportunity to learn! I checked out a book at the library and went to work. I made er a queen size quilt with matching pillowcases and a throw pillow (first photo top). 
I loved the technique and designs so much that I started creating my own traditional knots and making wall hangings and table runners. It was so much fun! I loved the rich colors of batik fabric and soon expanded to adding inset pieces to make stained glass style designs.


It was after learning all these techniques that I was finally able to finish a quilt I had started 11 years earlier for myself; a broken star quilt that I was hand quilting. I had reached a point where I had blank space in the corners and couldn't figure out what to do to enhance them. Now that I know how to do Celtic knots, I had the idea to add them with some insets to the blank and otherwise boring corners of my quilt. It was well worth the wait, and I'm so happy to have gained all the necessary skills to make it what it is.


I've continued to sew, whenever I'm not chasing around my 6 kids, that is! My friends and family kept saying I should sell some of my creations and it was Kristin's encouragement that led me to open my shop on Etsy. I opened up my shop in Sept 2014 and I love the opportunity it gives me to work with people all over the world to make something that is unique and special just for them!