Passionate Quilter: You Can Quilt That Out

Passionate Quilter: You Can Quilt That Out This is totally hilarious!!!

Vintage summer spread

Well, this little number is from the now defunct, Red Barn antique store in Greenville, Alabama. I bought if for almost nothing. I bought it, not because it is beautiful, but because someone went to all the work of bleaching the feedsacks and hand appliqueing, with black embroidery thread, this summer spread. I wanted her to feel appreciated, but I know she is probably way dead by now. That is how it got to the antique store anyway...and I bought it 20 years ago!! It is a bit rough and a bit different, but I love it and now I am sharing it with you.

Orphan block design process #2

Two more borders have now been added to this quilt in process. Even though two of the stars came from a Mary Lou Weidman workshop a few years back, the process of no pattern, free form cutting is well documented in the work of others, including Gwen Marston and in antique quilts. It is a wonderful way to create. This kind of quilting takes longer in my opinion, but is more satisfying. The work and the pleasure come in the attention to detail. See the added triangles on the corners of the blocks which add sparkle to the quilt and the second border that brings your eye around the quilt by using two colors, but colors in a similar color family. Whimsy is added for fun and for interest as in the chicken feet seen in the close up below.

Travel Potluck Bowl Cover

I had an hour or two between clients today and decided to try out the tutorial below. TBTG I work out of my home. With luck, my office just happens to be right next door to my quilting room. I have never worked with Rip-Stop Nylon before (the lining fabric), but it was a piece of cake. After it was all together and turned right side out, I decided it really needed a little applique. I found these leaves left over from Lynsey's baby quilt and a stray holiday yo-yo in a drawer...Voila with a tiny button. I am delighted with this easy and fun project and thank Allyson for the tutorial. (I just checked it all out and it fits all 5 of my large bowls.....!!) Yeah!

More news I am adding now. Since this fits all of my large bowls, even the square one...I have decided to make more..... So tonight I made a pattern on freezer paper so I will not have to draw the three inches any more. And tomorrow, after my water exercise, I will go to Hancock's and get more of the Rip-Stop in different colors....so I can go nuts with this easy and fun pattern for presents!! This kind of sewing is so very relaxing!!

http://allysonhill.typepad.com/photos/eco_lid/dsc_0088.html#tp

Orphan block design process

Someone posted a note saying that they thought we should blog about process as well as showing our quilts. So, I thought that I would do that with this quilt. These are the ugly orphan blocks left over for a number of years from a Mary Lou Weideman workshop. What to do with the UFO orphan blocks? Suggestions have been made to just donate or get rid of them, but I love a color challenge and I thought I would try to resuscitate and renew.

These blocks have been taken apart for a border challenge.

I made two more stars and this is the start of the new quilt.

My yummy purple "X" quilt

Please click on the "View " button below and on the Images links to see the rest or go to April 10th. I am having trouble with this post and I want you all to see this quilt I have worked so hard on...

View

My yummy purple "X" quilt..mmmm "X" block tutorial from Happythings
My yummy purple "X" quilt..mmmm [Image][Image]The lovely backing..........[Image]Being artsy like Kaffe......................[Image]The purple fabric is 100% cotton with little nubs...would love to know the name of it. I just love it. In order to quilt quickly and anchor it solidly, I love to use the "wiggle stitch". See this close up...it is so relaxing to do for a comfort quilt like this.[Image] http://happythings.typepad.com/happythings/2007/07/scrap-x-quilt--.html Is a great tutorial. The things I did differently....like she said making the square a bit bigger. I cut mine 4 and 7/8 inches and it was perfect. I also lined up the lines in the ruler with the lines on the cutting mat before sizing the block.

Curved piecing demo part 3

https://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Flapis-lazuli-q.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault

Enjoy

Curved piecing demo part 2

https://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Flapis-lazuli-q.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault

Curved piecing demo

https://www.google.com/reader/view/?tab=my#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Flapis-lazuli-q.blogspot.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault

When I am crabby....

The fix for irritabililty is...to take my trusty Bernina 1230 to my cool and awesome screened-in porch with a basket of scraps. Turn on the ceiling fan, get the dog a bone, and sew those strips together in random delight (for my purple "X" block quilt)...not a care in the world is left!!

I almost never use my Bernina anymore since I bought my beloved Janome 6600. But, since it is lonely and since I am bringing it to my thread class at the Charlotte symposium on Saturday.......http://www.charlottequiltsymposium.org/.....I decided to kill two birds with one stone...the crabby bird and emptying the 10 bobbins required for the class. My husband was delighted...no more crabby wife!!

Join Snowball night

http://sewmanyways.blogspot/2010/05/lets-have-a-snowball-night.html is having a snowball night. Here are my snowball quilts. Just love that snowball!!!


Moonlit Path has three surprises...see if you can find all three stars!!

( Kindred Spirits) This large snowball is made from my African and Australian prints. I used the corner block leftovers for the back flying geese. This quilt is big stitched with pearl cotton, machine quilted and tied. I am not quite finished with the embellishments yet. Now all these fabrics are from my collection, but...... I used one new one...guess which one:)

This quilt with small snowballs using 30'/40's repro fabric also is incorporating some of my grandmother's embroidery. The top is together but not pictured and I am working on a border using more of her doilies.

http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2010/05/lets-have-snowball-night.html

Blogger's Quilt Festival entry

We loved Johanna. She was a member of the Charlotte Irish Quilters and a special friend. In September she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer...not a good thing. Did it keep her down?? No it did not. She had a sense of humor coming to the booksigning saying, I thought I had better show up before you all had me dead and buried. She came to quilting, she came to book club, she had outings with her lovely family and wonderful friends, she went to a wedding. She had a smile on her face in public, despite the private pain.

The Charlotte Irish quilters made this quilt for her when she was diagnosed. We sat at the machines and tables at my house and organized the squares and sewed the strips on the blocks. Johanna had painted two water colors for me which hang in my dining room. My husband scanned the paintings and printed them on Timeless Treasures computer fabric. I cut that fabric up to incorporate into blocks. The fabric was added to show who Johanna was. Since she was from Northern Ireland, sheep fabric was a must. So were the shamrocks; music fabric since her husband and son are musicians..flowers for the garden club, a yoga monkey for her yoga, the dog label for the dogs she loved etc. She was a healthy eater so I latticed it with cucumbers! I quilted the quilt and delivered it in three weeks time for her to enjoy with chemo and all. She died last month. Johanna's quilt is my entry for this festival...for love, for dignity and for her memory.

Family tradition

So, when my children were young, I taught them how to sew and had them make a few cuddle quilts for the hospital. My daughter hated it. When she left our house for college, not only did she insist on a store bought comforter for her dorm room, but she said that she never wanted to look at a sewing machine again. Sad words for a mother's heart. And now...and now...joy in my heart. At age 27, she has become a master at the sewing machine creating purses and quilts and all. Here she is finishing off her picnic quilt. She bought a dress from the children's section of Target in the Liberty of London print, cut it up and incorporated it into this quilt. The family tradition goes forward. Great grandma would be just as proud as I am!

Thread catcher pincushion tutorial

http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-make-a-thread-catcher-pincushion/2010/05/14/

Basic quilting tutorials for the beginner

http://www.amyscreativeside.com/p/tutorials.html

Wonderful site for the basics....Thank you Amy.

Using up those scraps

So here they are...the finished, all caught up cuddle quilts...and from scraps!! Voila...the scrap busters if there is such a thing. Looking around my quilting room I do not think so...and then what did I do to celebrate this today?? I went to IKEA and bought some fabric from the kids dept. I really really really did need it.......... It was just there and there was so much and really who else would get it.....and it is adorable. The cars for my latest grandboy....and ...and...

Spiders in the Circus

I am sooo behind on donation quilts for the guild. I had promised myself to finish one cuddle quilt a month for children with cancer or women with cancer or the soldiers. So far I have done one and it is May. So here is the second and I have basted the others now and they are ready to quilt. My favorite fast quilting is the wiggle stitch....soooo relaxing. But in this quilt I only used it twice. I just love scrap quilts.

I used the tutorial here for the baby spiderweb block from http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=6510.

The cactus and and the cat

My friends.....Jerry, the farmer and Muggs, the farmer's wife gave me a cactus. Why? I do not remember. Maybe it was because I grew up in Arizona? Maybe they were telling me that my personality was a bit prickly? But, I think it was because they are just plain nice. My 13 year old favorite cat, Milo has decided that the kitchen bay window is the new place to be. And, he has evidently decided that cuddling up with a cactus is nice too.

Red Scrap Bear's Paw Variation

Making this quilt was so much fun. My friend, Norie decided to do a scrap triangle workshop in her home back in October of 1995. She adapted the instructions from a scrap challenge by Sharyn Craig in Traditional Quiltworks, Issue 30, February 1994. We were instructed to bring 100 triangles, 50 dark and 50 light. People spent alot of time searching for just the right fabric only to find out that when we got there, we put all our triangles together in a big bag, one for darks and one for lights. The bag was passed around the room and we each randomly chose a new set of 50 dark and light triangles. The challenge was to make large and small triangles into a quilt using all the triangles, ugly or not. This is the quilt I made. I hand quilted it and named it Celebration because it was finally finished. The judges in the show said that I didnt quilt enough on it....OMG...They were probably right in retrospect, but I was so done at the time. We have enjoyed using this quilt on our bed.

Yellow and Red scraps from the scraps quilt

This quilt was made from the scraps of the above quilt. The yellow used here is at least 40 years old. My sister and I got it from the fabric store at Christown Mall in Phoenix, Arizona. It has always been a favorite. When I ran out of the left over stars, I just added blocks from my stash. The back fabric is from Arizona too. It is when my father died and my sister and I went fabric shopping inbetween hospital visits to destress. The quilt therefore has memories. I have it on the back of the rocking chair in my office. I finished it in 1995, big stitching it with pearl cotton.