Baste & quilt 3 quilts- Finish & post blocks for 3 swaps/bees
- Finish making Princess Leia and Wicket Halloween costumes
- Make a baby quilt & birthday gift by weekend after this one
- Figure out how to respond to blog comments- anyone know how to set my default email in Firefox? Thanks!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
To Do List
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Inspiration
Looking at other quilts is always inspiring, and I've always gotten a lot of inspiration from browsing quilts on Flickr, and recently from both the La Conner QuiltFest and the Blogger's Quilt Festival.
My other source of inspiration is fabric itself... especially while cleaning it. Prewashing fabric and putting away scraps and yardage almost always results in a new quilt for me. My favorite is when fabric talks to me, telling me what combination it wants to be in, and what pattern.
I just pulled these for a baby quilt while putting scraps away the other day. It will just be simple 6-inch squares- I know so many people who are expecting right now, I am going to start making quilts and just hope I have the right distribution of boy & girl ones!
And this stack came out this morning, which I'll use for my Stash Busting Bee international quilt. I'm thinking of a mix of log cabins, wonky log cabins and Drunk Love blocks, with some scrappy sampler borders as well. Should be fun!
We're having lots of rain, which makes for great sewing but lousy pictures. I'll have to figure out how to get better shots now that fall is here and winter is fast approaching!
My other source of inspiration is fabric itself... especially while cleaning it. Prewashing fabric and putting away scraps and yardage almost always results in a new quilt for me. My favorite is when fabric talks to me, telling me what combination it wants to be in, and what pattern.
I just pulled these for a baby quilt while putting scraps away the other day. It will just be simple 6-inch squares- I know so many people who are expecting right now, I am going to start making quilts and just hope I have the right distribution of boy & girl ones!
And this stack came out this morning, which I'll use for my Stash Busting Bee international quilt. I'm thinking of a mix of log cabins, wonky log cabins and Drunk Love blocks, with some scrappy sampler borders as well. Should be fun!
We're having lots of rain, which makes for great sewing but lousy pictures. I'll have to figure out how to get better shots now that fall is here and winter is fast approaching!
Friday, October 16, 2009
QuiltFest!
I went to the 2009 QuiltFest in LaConner a few weeks ago, not to be confused with the Blogger Quilt Festival in my last post! I had a great time enjoying the scenic country drive with my mom and seeing some fabulous quilts. Here are a few of my favorites from the day:
An AMAZING landscape crazy quilt.
She used a lot of hand dyed fabrics and unique embellishments, including rocks. It looked like they were hot glued onto a button back. So cool!
A fun combonation of Hawaiian applique and wonky pineapple blocks that I LOVE. I just found a pineapple quilt book from This Patchwork Place at Goodwill, and I am really looking forward to a making something pineapple-y soon.
A stunning modern quilt, inspired by a building in Anchorage.
The quilting on this was tight!
Lots of great applique on a black and white pieced background. I love the juxtaposition of the pieceing and black and white with the bright colored and lusciously appliqued fruit. I'd love to do smething like this with a light green paisely that is in my stash, awaiting something soemthing special, for the background, and bright colors for the patchy sashings. So inspiring!
I'll post some more favorites from the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, too. It was a great show, with a quilt walk through the tiny historic downtown shopping district as an added perk. With some golden fall sunshine and a fantastic lunch at the La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib House (local oysters & wine!), it was a pretty much perfect day- I 'm looking forward to going back next year!
"Summer Lake Day" by Allison Aller
An AMAZING landscape crazy quilt.
She used a lot of hand dyed fabrics and unique embellishments, including rocks. It looked like they were hot glued onto a button back. So cool!
"Pineapple Salsa" by Trudy Davis
A fun combonation of Hawaiian applique and wonky pineapple blocks that I LOVE. I just found a pineapple quilt book from This Patchwork Place at Goodwill, and I am really looking forward to a making something pineapple-y soon.
"February in Anchorage" by Cinda Langjahr
A stunning modern quilt, inspired by a building in Anchorage.
The quilting on this was tight!
"Simply Delicious Parlour Fruit" by Barb Lambrecht
Lots of great applique on a black and white pieced background. I love the juxtaposition of the pieceing and black and white with the bright colored and lusciously appliqued fruit. I'd love to do smething like this with a light green paisely that is in my stash, awaiting something soemthing special, for the background, and bright colors for the patchy sashings. So inspiring!
I'll post some more favorites from the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum, too. It was a great show, with a quilt walk through the tiny historic downtown shopping district as an added perk. With some golden fall sunshine and a fantastic lunch at the La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib House (local oysters & wine!), it was a pretty much perfect day- I 'm looking forward to going back next year!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Quilt Festival!
I know there are only a few days left of Park City Girl Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival, but I finally got a few moments for a blog post and am going to use them to join in the fun!
The quilt I am showing is a Triple Rainbow Four-Patch that I made last year, for an online friend in a craft swap. She is a real gem and always puts a ray of sunshine in everybody's day, so it was a joy to surprise her with this throw. She moved while the swap was underway, so the quilt arrived as she was unpacking, and I believe ended up being the centerpiece of her new living room. Now that our kids are older, we're not around the same online community as much any more, but I often think of her and hope that this quilt is still lighting up her day with good memories and a smile!
This quilt was inspired by a scrappy reproduction version in an American Patchwork & Quilting book. When I saw it, I had a vision of it in a rainbow, barn raising layout and thought of my friend. While I used a lot of scraps in this quilt, I was pretty new to quilting at the time, and had to supplement my stash to get the range of fabrics and colors I needed. It ended up having more than 60 fabrics and almost 2,000 individual squares! Since then, I have used up many of the fabrics (aw, there's the last of that bit from the Rainbow Triple Four-Patch...) but some of them are still in my stash and getting regular use. It's fun how being a scrap quilter helps to weave the memories and stories of each fabric's quilt of origin into other projects. It's just one more way that quilting connects the past with the future for me.
I'm enjoying seeing the work of other quilters in the Festival whose blogs I would not have discovered otherwise. I haven't had a chance to look at all of the participants yet, but I was particularly touched by Mrs Moen's quilt that she made to commemorate her daughter's struggle with anorexia. I'm looking forward to getting to see more of the quilts in the festival!
The quilt I am showing is a Triple Rainbow Four-Patch that I made last year, for an online friend in a craft swap. She is a real gem and always puts a ray of sunshine in everybody's day, so it was a joy to surprise her with this throw. She moved while the swap was underway, so the quilt arrived as she was unpacking, and I believe ended up being the centerpiece of her new living room. Now that our kids are older, we're not around the same online community as much any more, but I often think of her and hope that this quilt is still lighting up her day with good memories and a smile!
This quilt was inspired by a scrappy reproduction version in an American Patchwork & Quilting book. When I saw it, I had a vision of it in a rainbow, barn raising layout and thought of my friend. While I used a lot of scraps in this quilt, I was pretty new to quilting at the time, and had to supplement my stash to get the range of fabrics and colors I needed. It ended up having more than 60 fabrics and almost 2,000 individual squares! Since then, I have used up many of the fabrics (aw, there's the last of that bit from the Rainbow Triple Four-Patch...) but some of them are still in my stash and getting regular use. It's fun how being a scrap quilter helps to weave the memories and stories of each fabric's quilt of origin into other projects. It's just one more way that quilting connects the past with the future for me.
I'm enjoying seeing the work of other quilters in the Festival whose blogs I would not have discovered otherwise. I haven't had a chance to look at all of the participants yet, but I was particularly touched by Mrs Moen's quilt that she made to commemorate her daughter's struggle with anorexia. I'm looking forward to getting to see more of the quilts in the festival!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Warming up to Autumn
These blocks will soon be heading to Brenda for the Stash Busting Bee International. She requested fall colored nine-patches using the light batik charm squares she sent. This month was a bit of a stretch for me, since I don't consider myself a "fall" person, and doubted I had many appropriate fabrics in my stash. I was pleasantly surprised to find an abundance of autumnal fabrics, many of which I found new appreciation for in these color combinations. It just goes to show that there are no "uglies," just colors you haven't learned to love yet. I loved these so much, I spirited them out to the garden when the rain stopped yesterday. They make me smile. So much so, that I am planning a nine-patch quilt in these colors. And I even saved some of these scraps for it.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Flea Market Find
I didn't actually make this dress- I found it at the thrift store. Yep! For $5, I figured that if it didn't fit one of my girls, it would be the best Flea Market Fancy yardage deal EVER, seeing as how I have a treasured fat quarter of the same print that I spent $2 and some change on. The dress is beautifully sewn, with a linen collar, and navy piping. It was in perfect, new condition when I found it- maybe it was a gift to a girl who was too big for it or would only wear pink? We can only wonder why anyone would let this one go. My 7 year old choose it today to wear for her school pictures. So sweet!Speaking of Flea Market Fancy, I saw the call to bring it back over on my friend Aneela's blog. I'll hop on that bandwagon! I might have to feed my family rice and beans for a week straight so I can buy up LOTS of it, but at least they'll end up swathed in beautiful fabric!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)