Matisse Inspired

I think it was Lee Anne at Nifty Quilts who got me all excited about Matisse again with her incredible Matisse inspired quilt. That led to me getting a Matisse book from the library and making a Matisse inspired collage in my youngest's Sunday school class today ....

And all of us getting scissor happy with construction paper before bed tonight.

by R, age 4

by A, age 8

by Alexis, age 29 again ;-)

Fun, fun, fun. Thanks Lee Anne! I might make a Matisse inspired quilt one day too!

Mid-Year Review

At the beginning of this year, I posted about keeping focused on my quilting goals this year. Now that the year is at the mid-point, I'm checking in and seeing what I can check off my list, and what I need to hone my sights on for the rest of 2010.

Overall, I am happy with with the goals I set so far, and feel much more focused than last year. But there is still more to reach for, especially in terms of finishing projects!

First, my skills checklist:

Machine quilting: I will improve my machine quilting repertoire including better free-motion quilting.

I got a walking foot to help with my straight line quilting in February (check!) but I still need to seek out resources for free-motion practice. Shelly is a great FMQ cheerleader- I just need to take a big breath and follow her advice. That will be coming up next as I finish some of these WIPs.

Applique: I will try at least 3 different applique methods this year.

I fused (check!), I needle-turned (check!) and I have a raw-edge applique project simmering on my mental design burner. It's been great to expand my applique skills and be inspired by my ability to incorporate this technique into my work.

Stash: I will strive to quilt exclusively from my stash unless I absolutely can't find a satisfactory option there. By the end of the year I will at least make space for my fat quarter boxes on my fabric rack.

I have definitely been doing a better job of reducing my fabric consumption, but I still have a long way to go before I can eliminate a stack of fabric from my shelves. I need to up my output and get more creative about using my stash to piece quilt backs in order to accomplish this goal.

Stash: I will work on at least 1 Leaders and Enders project this year to maximize my quilting time for the goal of using up my stash of scraps.

I have a L&E project underway (check!) I have pieced enough 4.5" four-patches for a queen sized quilt! Now to start piecing them together as I sew other quilts...

Stash: In the interest of giving back as well as stash busting, I will donate at least half of the 12 the quilts I make this year, or at least 6 quilts if I make more than 12.

I have finished 2 donation quilts, and started a third one. I'm a little behind to meet this goal, but only slightly. I'd be doing really well if I can finish two more this month, but I'd be happy if I finish the one donation quilt WIP.

Quilts to finish/ make

Here are my finished quilts so far this year.
Making this photo mosaic, I realized that

1. I haven't made as many quilts as I would like (I think I should aim for at least 2 per month!)
   
2. I have finished a number of quits that were not on my January list
3. I have a LOT of projects in underway that really need to be finished.
   

Finished quilts from the January list were:

1. I Spy Houses (started 2009) done 1/10
   
2. 2 I Spy donation quilts 1 done 1/10, 1 done 4/10
3. Pink Squares done 4/10

Works in progress that need to be finished, in order of priority:

1. R's mini quilt (quilted and ready to bind) done 7/10
   
2. Baby quilt: floral log cabin (top done 3/10) done 7/10
   
3. Stars & Strings tabletopper (started 2009, WIP) top done 7/10
   
4. Baby quilt: "Sun Break" grey & orange rails (top finished 1/10) done 8/10
   
5. Baby quilt: shirt scrap bricks done 7/10
   
6. Baby quilt: spring strings (top done 3/10)
   
7. Donation quilt: houses top done 8/10
   
8. Bright Snowballs (started 2009, top done)
9. Leaders & Enders
   
10. Applique Flowers Wall Quilt top done 8/10
    
11. Indian Summer
    
12. Crumb Blocks
13. Say Cheese Self-Portrait
14. Stash Busting Bee International Log Cabin
    

On the design burner (fabric has been pulled or cut, but no sewing has been done):

1. Baby quilt: boy blocks
2. Baby quilts: 2 book stacks
3. Baby quilt: bricks & stones
   
4. NJ wedding gift - liberated wedding rings
   
5. 2233 Pineapple
6. Bento Boxes for S
7. Leopard Roses
8. Christmas quilts/ table runners
   
9. Donation quilt for A's school auction

Crikey! It's pretty clear what I need to focus on- finishing up these WIPs and getting to my list of quilts in planning! That's enough to keep me busy for a looooong while!

Sweet Like a Rose

I found this fabulous vintage rose fabric at the Goodwill in Lincoln City Oregon. There's at least 4 yards, and it was $4.99. I love thrift store treasure finds! I'm thinking this will make a great summer skirt for me, plus a sundress for my big girl and a center panel for a quilt for my little girl.

Vacation Inspiration

I recently got back from 2 weeks in Puerto Rico, and I'm all sun warmed and rejuvenated from my vacation! I love that big breath of fresh air that I get from traveling and returning home.

I'm creatively refreshed, too, although it's taken some time to get back to sewing. I did take an applique project with me, but ended up only using my sewing kit for first aid (nasty ant bites! Blisters! Splinters! Very handy!)

The colors and sights of the tropics gave me plenty of inspiration, though... and a longing to return to La Isla del Encanto soon!


Since returning, I did start working on my applique, as well as quilting on the Watercolor Log Cabin quilt, mending 3 articles of clothing for my husband, assembling 2 costumes in a week for my 8 year old (Dress as a Favorite Book Character and an Alice in Wonderland costume party!), and making a block for the Stash Busting Bee International. All in addition to unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry and working in the garden... it just shows how energizing vacationing is. I think I need to take them more often!

Quilt Friends

Almost all of my friends who sew, and especially quilt, are online friends- that's a testament to our modern times. However, the other day, my friend Trisha of TLC Stitches invited me to a trunk show with Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio at Fabric Crush. A chance to hear from an inspirational quilter and blogger, meet an online friend for "reals" and check out a new fabric store in my area? Oh yeah!


That's Trisha on the left- I sent her a doll quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap last year, and we've been blog friends ever since. It was awesome to meet her in person- she's funny, sweet and friendly in addition to being a talented quilter and knitter! I also met her friend Ginny of I Sew who is a real sweetheart and talented seamstress who live right in my neighborhood!

Jacquie was also awesome- it was great to touch quilts I had seen previously in photos, and hear her stories about each one. Her quilting was beautiful - a lot of it was very modern, with alot of straight lines, and pretty dense. I was very inspired that she's only been quilting for two years! This quilt was especially gorgeous- it was quilted by a woman in her local guild. Incredible!


I'd love to make something like this out my selvages, too. Jacquie has a tutorial on her blog for the selvage spiderweb blocks. I loved seeing this up close- both for the technique of piecing the selvages and for the fun "I Spy" effect with all those fabrics!

Adventures

I was supposed to buckle down and finish my bloated pile of quilt tops in my sewing room, but instead, I've been running around, having fun, getting inspired and starting new things- yes, life is good!


I had some pleasure of wandering into some local quilt shops this weekend that are off my beaten path... I was totally taken by the Island Quilter- just check out their wall of Kaffe! There were more bolts- maybe 20 or so- that didn't make it into the frame, too. I would love a quilt that looked just like this. It is amazing, and evidently the largest collection of his fabric on the West Coast. Paul, one of the owners, said Kaffe wants to come back to the shop for 4 days next time... sounds like the perfect excise for a quilt retreat!!!!

On the way home from the Vashon ferry, we stopped by the Pike Place Market and Undercover Quilts. What a beauty they had displayed in their window!


In the other window, they had these fantastic art quilts by Mary Downes that were quilted versions of nautical charts... here's the Vashon Island quilt, where we had just come from! I love the interpretation of maps into fabric, complete with quilted topographic lines!


And in my sewing room, I've been working on making house blocks for Victoria's House Block Gather... these ones turned out to be not quite the right size, so I whipped them into a little quilt top with a scrappy border. This is very different for me, but I like the way it's coming along! I have 4 more houses to mail off to V, too, along with some setting squares once I get those cut.


I'm liking adventure and the discoveries it leads me to... hope you are too!

Whipping right along

This week has been pretty productive sewing wise so far...

I basted the I Spy Houses quilt, and made some progress on the other I Spy donation quilts that I'm using the extra I Spy fabric for... although I changed my plan for those again, too. Now I'm thinking of using all the log cabins in one (shown in the background here, laid out on my "design wall"/ bed) and adding a border, and all 6" squares in the other, since I already have a bunch of them sewn together and am trying to minimize my time with the seam ripper. Nothing like laziness to inform your design decisions....

I planned ahead (!) for my Leaders and Enders project and cut a bunch of my blue, orange and yellow strips into 2.5" squares. I'll chain piece them into 4-patches and then see what becomes of them...

Meanwhile, inspiration lurks everywhere. I dreamed up a gorgeous green, blue and yellow string quilt while waking up this morning, with this green wonky plaid fabric I found and some Amy Butler Duck Egg French Wallpaper... It will be feminine but not girly, and perfect for a few of the expectant families on my list if their babies are girls. Add that one to the list...

This guy caught my eye while window shopping for shoes with my preschooler this morning... wouldn't his brown and blue spottedness make a great quilt? I like the ochre on the coral as an accent color too!

My 2010 Plan

As I start off the new year, I am wrapping up projects that started in 2009. It was year of exploration and creativity for me- more time sewing, participating in a number of swaps and my first bee, trying out new approaches and techniques. I achieved alot, but I also felt busy and scattered, so my overall goal for this year is FOCUS.

I read Kit's Year in Review post and was struck by how much she had accomplished and how much she had progressed in her quilting skill in only a year. I was inspired by her intention and the attention she put on learning and expressing specific skills, feelings and relationships in each quilt. In that spirit, I am going to hone my quilting to achieve more specific goals this year.

Skills

1. Machine quilting: I will improve my machine quilting repertoire including better free-motion quilting. I will get a walking foot to help with my straight line quilting done 2/10 and seek out resources for free-motion practice.
   
2. Applique: I will try at least 3 different applique methods this year.
   

Stash

1. I will strive to quilt exclusively from my stash unless I absolutely can't find a satisfactory option there. By the end of the year I will at least make space for my fat quarter boxes on my fabric rack.
2. I will work on at least 1 Leaders and Enders project this year to maximize my quilting time for the goal of using up my stash of scraps.
3. In the interest of giving back as well as stash busting, I will donate at least half of the 12 the quilts I make this year, or at least 6 quilts if I make more than 12.
   

Quilts to finish/ make

1. I Spy Houses (started 2009) done 1/10
   
2. 2 I Spy donation quilts 1 done 1/10, 1 done 4/10
   
3. Bright Snowballs (started 2009)
4. Stars & Strings tabletopper (started 2009)
5. 2233 Pineapple
6. Baby quilts for D&B, B&C, S&S, L&K- grey & orange rails top finished 2/10, pink Hop Skip Jump, and floral log cabin top done 3/10 among them?
7. Leopard Roses
8. Pink Squares top done 3/10
   
9. Christmas runner(s)
10. Wedding gifts for E & for NJ- liberated wedding rings as placemats, throw?
11. Donation quilt for A's school auction

Here's the first almost-finished quilt of 2010 already...

I am setting the bar high for this year. It's a new year, a new decade, a new era... let's start it right!

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!

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:

"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!

Keeping Quilts

I have made quilts for my kids, but my Strip Twist quilt that I recently finished is the first quilt I've made that I have kept for my own use. I. LOVE. IT. It's a yard quilt, and in the last few weeks, I've sunbathed on it, snuggled under it while having an evening chat with my husband out in the garden, laid under it while recuperating from a yucky summer cold, and slept with it in the tent in the yard. While I enjoyed doing all those things before this quilt was made, doing them with something that I had created with my own hands... well, it makes the experience even better. I think I'll be making more quilts for our house in the near future!

Fabric Fertilization

I know, I know, I am supposed to be finishing my WIPs. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming of fabulous and fun new fabric combos...

For DQS7:

(I can't tell you who this is for!)

For the Stash Busting Bee International:
(Wonky stars for 2ndAveStudio, she sent the top 4 fabrics that are laid out horizontally)

And a pile of fabric going into the washing machine, that is telling me to turn it into a strip quilt like this one:
(Perhaps for the "bunny bed" at my mom's house that my kids like to sleep in)

Grinding...

I'm having a frustrating craft week, mostly because I'm working on some blocks for a swap that are just not coming out the way they should. If I was keeping them, it wouldn't bother me, but I don't want to send something out that is less than perfect. To borrow a term from the video game world, I feel like I'm just grinding to get through the level since I'm sewing the same thing over and over to try to get it right.

So, wanting to update but not make a post without pictures, I was relieved to realized that I never posted about the table topper that I started before we went on vacation though! I know, I could have just pretended that I just started this and my sewing was going really well, but I do love honesty. I really do.

This is the quilt my daughter is working on, with the lilacs that were blooming in my yard a few weeks ago. They were lovely... and I loved the quilt on the table with them so much, I decided to make a little quilt that would not need to be returned to its 7 year old owner. It's funny, because I never really "got" table toppers before this day. Now I am all about the table as another place to display a quilt. Here's what I am working on:

It will be 4 string blocks set with rails and stars, with a Kaffe floral border and leopard print binding. It will be fabulous- and now I just to finish those dang swap blocks so I can get back to working on this!

Squish Squish

One of my favorite things is getting packages of fabric in the mail. But that wasn't why I ordered from Sew Mama Sew the other night. Maybe it was the fabulous sale on some of my favorite Denyse Schmidt fabrics... or maybe it was the wine I drank before sitting down at the computer just to "look" at some fabric for "inspiration"... In any case, it was certainly worth it, don't you think?

I love opening up a squishy package and seeing all the lovely colors and prints together. These may end up in a quilt all together... if I can spend a little less time looking at fabric and more time sewing!

Spring Cleaning

I was recently inspired by the Sew, Mama, Sew stash interview highlights to get my stash into shape. I had fabric piled everywhere, no idea what I had, and the thought of starting a new project was paralyzing. It was bad- but my before pictures somehow got wiped off my camera. Anyways, the current state of things is much, much better- and more inspiring!

I got all my quilting fabric consolidated in my half of the office closet. Well, there's yarn in there too, in the grey hanging shoe organizer on the far right, but that's a project for another day.

All the half yard and larger cut are folded on the wire shelves. Batting and clothing to repurpose are at the bottom. The black drawers hold scraps, patterns and notions & embellishments. I got these great plastic scrapbooking boxes to hold my fat quarters. I always saw these types of boxes at JoAnn's for $15 and thought there was no way I would spend that much on fabric storage. But then I found these 14" x 14" ones at Storables for half the price, and they fit right in my wire storage cubes, too.

I love the satisfaction (or -groan- stashifaction) of seeing all these colors grouped together... now I have lots of ideas for scrappy one- or two-color (and, of course, a couple rainbow) quilts!

Before I get to those new ideas, I must, must, must whittle down my pile of WIPs, and the scrap drawer that is overflowing with baggies of strips, bonus triangles and orphan blocks...


Scary, isn't it? I can barely open the drawer much less fit any more fabric in there! I had better get sewing!

Ideas, ideas

I've stumbled across some fabulous and inspiring quilts recently. First, I am reading the current issue of Quilter's Newsletter, in which the Leaf Crazy and Joy quilts have me smitten. I just started a doll sized quilt inspired by Leaf Crazy, using fusible applique, which is a another quilting first for me.

I also just saw this fabulous Spiderweb string quilt linked from Crazy Mom Quilts. I know I've looked at this pattern many times on Quiltville, but these colors really makes it POP! My bag of strings is getting out of hand so I may have to put this on my to do list. (Photo from Flickr.)