Lots of Quilts!!

It was a productive retreat! Enjoy the show!

The first 3 made by me...

"Kitchen Window" from The Practical Guide to Patchwork with Sanctuary by Patty Young.
Quilting the Garden by Blackbird Designs done!!!
"Marmalade" by Thimbleblossoms in Bliss.
Next 3 made by Jean M.

My "Building Blocks" pattern from Moda Bake Shop in Central Park. (Still needs a border).

"It Takes Two" from American Patchwork and Quilting Dec. 2010 in Bliss.
"Center of Attention" from Stop, Drop and Roll by Heather Mulder Peterson.
Milly's amazing medallion quilt.
Simple, graphic in batiks.
Gayle's quilt using Sannibel.
Another wonderful, graphic design by Gayle.
That's not all. Part two next!

Read More

Quilting with Friends...

I have no complaints. I have the time in my life at this point to quilt a lot. In fact I spend some time each day quilting. But it's not often I get to spend 4 days quilting with friends. Talking, laughing, eating, drinking and inspiring. I'm like a kid at Christmas. I so look forward to it!

Tomorrow I head to Kinderhook Lodge with 9 other quilters. I'm taking 4 projects. The first is my applique blocks from Quilting the Garden by Blackbird Designs. I've had the blocks appliqued for a year and it's time to put them together. I'm not coming home until this top is done!
I finally cut into my Bliss. I'm doing "Marmalade". The applique petals are done - now it's simply assembling the blocks.
I'm also taking Kitchen Window from The Practical Guide to Patchwork and the orange and brown color way from Sanctuary. I love Sanctuary by Patty Young. I've already designed and made a top using the blue color way. I hope to get a tutorial up for it soon.
As mentioned earlier - Penny Lane is coming too. I'll be a busy quilter! Talking, laughing, eating, drinking and hopefully a bit of sewing.

Enjoy your week!!!

Read More

It pays to read blogs...

Well, actually reading blogs usually causes me to spend money. But it pays in all the great information and products you find! Here's what I've found this week.

My friend, Mary Claire from SplendorFalls used my MBS pattern to make 2 quilts with Central Park. A small one using the pattern as written...
And a larger one using these cutting directions. Love them!! And love all the fun, creative things Mary Claire does. Pop over and you'll see why she's always winning with her original designs!
Here's a wonderful product I found out about from Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. Niagara Non-Aerosol Spray Starch. My Best Press starch was gone and due to the priceyness, I went with Faultless. What a mess! It clogs and spits. I took Carrie's suggestion and tried the Niagara. I love it! Couldn't find it at Target here, but Walmart carried it and I stocked up.
I love reading Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life. Her quilts are gorgeous and it seems like we're both attracted to the same fabric lines. She mentioned Hullabaloo by Urban Chiks for Moda this week. I love that design team, in fact my Flower Pots quilt uses their previous line Swell. I ordered a Fat quarter pack of Hullabaloo and was not disappointed. I've refrained from ordering FQPs lately due to all the repeats within the lines. This is an exception because there are so many basics here. Love those zig-zag stripes!!
Jeni from In Color Order posted this week about a site called Kruler. You can upload a photo and it will pull the color palette from your photo.. Just for fun I uploaded a photo of Flea Market Fancy. I wanted to do a quilt with the same color feel. This is what I got... how cool!
Using the color swatches I pulled this from my newly organized stash in a matter of minutes.
After seeing Jessica's Salt Water Taffy at Twin Fibers, I knew I had to make this one. I love how the border flows around the quilt.
I got a good start yesterday.
Do you know you can win cool stuff from reading blogs? My daughter won this awesome Innocent Crush bag from Masionnette this week.

Yes, it really does pay to read blogs. And be sure to try Google Reader for the easy and quick way to bring your blogs to you.

Oh and one more thing - when you find you're overwhelmed with all those creative ideas, you might want to read this post from Small Notebook. I know I needed it!

Read More

Superstar!

In addition to getting this quilt pin basted and quilted, this week...I'm finishing up my Superstar blocks. Here they are on the design wall - not yet arranged at all. (I know all the lights are in a row).
This quilt is less colorful than my usual creations, but I'm loving the sophistication and richness it has. I always have certain blocks I love more than others (unlike children).
This one too.
And this one.
Agh!! I knew this would be either an awesome block or a hideous block! I had to give it a try. I love the graphic background print, but it definitely needs to be used somewhere else! You never know till you try. It's one of the fun things about quilting!

Read More

Fabric...

If you don't like blog posts about fabric, you can skip this one. Remember I said after reading Jeni's series The Art of Choosing, I decided to organize my stash in a more efficient way. Well, it took me all week. I touched every piece of fabric I own, weeded out some oldies, folded every one into a neat little package and organized by color.I chose to organize my fabrics within each color by grouping tone-on-tones and color + white together; then grouping color + accent color together. So all the blue with green went together, all the aqua with red together, brown with blue, etc. I think it will make it easier to pull coordinates for a project. I ended up with these bins from Target. They held 2 rows of folded fabric and fit perfectly on my large shelf. (I even went to Lowe's to have additional shelves cut).
My fabric had been previously stacked on these shelves. Now they're holding my books, multicolored fabrics and creams. I've also got a little overflow of grays and black & whites. I'm going to try to follow Peter Walsh's advice to stay within my bins!
I've been collecting gray fabrics and I've learned that I have "enough already!"
But I'm really short on purple and plum. 4 pieces! And the second one on the right is really more pink!
I'm loving the fact that when I needed some pinks today I could just pull the bin to my cutting table and use what I needed.
It took a lot of time to reorganize but I do have a whole new vision of what I have on hand. It was really fun as I folded and admired each of my lovely fabrics. Very Zen! Thanks Jeni for the push!

Look what came today. A few more AMH voiles for my project...
And as long as I was ordering, I just had to add some Spring Street. It's luscious!!

Read More

Quilting Potpourri...

I'm home again and I think it's going to be a busy week in the sewing room. These blocks on my design wall are calling for more!I'm also folding fabric. Joan from wishes, true and kind mentioned she was using a fabric folding tip from In Color Order. I hopped over and read all of Jeni's posts on "Order: The Art of Choosing". Mine really needed a makeover, so I joined in and started folding. I love that she suggests organizing by color (tone-on-tones and color + white), but also by color + accent color. These are my blues...

And these are my blue + green (yes, I really do like that color combination!) So this week I'm working on a color or two per day. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be organized and ready to put together some coordinated scrappy quilts.
When I visited Maisonette, I picked up some knits to make these adorable hats for the girls.
I also bought some AMH voiles. I've got an idea to turn these into a simple, soft lightweight quilt. Stay tuned...
I got an email from Debbie and she shared the quilt she made from my MBS Building Blocks quilt. Six times the quilt size made a beautiful bed quilt.

My friend, Jean is planning on using the pattern to make a large quilt with Central Park. I redrafted the block to an 8" size. This can also be cut from a 10" layer cake.

Here's the alternate cutting:

1 strip 3 1/2"; trim to 3 1/2" x 8 1/2"

1 strip 4 1/2"; trim to one 3 1/2" x 4 1/2", one 4 1/2" x 4 1/2", and one 1 1/2" x 4 1/2"

1 strip 1 1/2"; trim to 1 1/2" x 8 1/2"

So for me a week of a mixture of sewing activities... potpourri. How about you?

Read More

Maisonette

I've been in beautiful, southern California soaking up the sunny weather and playing with my grand-daughters this week. An added bonus is this find. Maisonnette is an adorable fabric shop nestled in a little white house in Oceanside, CA. It's filled with exclusively modern fabric, including quilting cottons, voiles, velveteens, home dec weight and trims, patterns and ideas.
Laminated cottons and the newest Japanese designer fabrics.
Artful displays...






We found this beautiful echino fabric and made floor pillows.Of course, I left with a few half yards in my bag. I'll show you those when I get home next week!

Read More