Well, they weren't pets for very long, they were released back into the wild after she realized they only do one trick!
Monday, July 09, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
Over-Under Quilt
Aka, FO #6 in this series! This one is from a 2003 Asilomar class. Lots of Laurel Burch fabrics in this one! There's a bit of perspective going on here--you can see it best in the white cat areas and the pink-and-green ones--in one of the blocks the green dotted fabric almost disappears!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
FO #5
This quilt needs a name, too! It's mostly Australian aboriginal prints--the fabric is designed in Australia, and the name of the designer is printed on the selvedge. The design is Sylvia Einstein's "magic square" and this was done in her class at Asilomar in 2008.
Not the oldest of the UFOs in the current batch... #6, like #4, dates back to 2003. Oh yes, there are other older projects in the Great Wall of Rubbermaid. I'm just excavating by strata.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Ballerina quilt in action!
The most fun part about finishing a quilt is seeing it in use... and how happy a little person can be!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ambleside Chemist Shop Tile Quilt
It's going to come with me to Asilomar, for my quilting class with Sue Rasmussen. Very fitting, since it had its genesis in a class at Asilomar.
The person who designed and developed this pattern is Chris Porter. The book is called Quilt Designs from Decorative Floor Tiles. This particular quilt is based on a tile floor that she spotted at a chemist's shop (drugstore to us Yanks) in Ambleside. My friend, Louise, has actually been there and seen the floor in person. Pretty neat! The original floor, and Christine's quilt, are in terra cotta, browns, and golds.
But that wasn't the color scheme I needed for this quilt, nor was it going to work in the original shape. You see, I made this for my middle daughter (who is known in these pages as D3), who has a large bare wall in her living room. She loves green--any shade of green--with burgundy a close second.
Luckily for me, she hasn't changed her color preferences over the years so despite the passage of time, it will still work.
The long sad story of why it's taken so long to get this quilt to this point has a lot to do with my "life" over the last six years. The class at Asilomar was my first one for several years--and my sewing machine had pretty much just been living in its case for a while before that. Something about a husband with a broken leg, a knee replacement, a couple of weddings, then the husband's cancer... I did manage to get some sewing done during this time period, and even afterwards, but it was always elsewhere and for a relatively short period. Lots of "ugly quilt" and charity-quilt workdays. A couple more trips to Asilomar, but again never with a "finished object" to show for it.
I'm not even going to talk about my back. At least, since the surgery, I have been recovering, and thus this hauling out of old projects and getting them finished. Eight quilts (I hope to blog about them as they get finished) went off to be "quilted by check" with the nice ladies in Turlock at Cloth and Quilts. Six have already come back, had their binding sewn on; one's got the hand part of the binding done, so that might be another post.
"Hand" is a four-letter H word, especially when the arthritis is flaring up. Oh well. It will be worth it!
Summing up, the Tile Quilt is now ready (after a good press) to be quilted, and I have high hopes to see it hanging in its new home soon.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Shadow study 2
As in, part 2 of the previous post. This quilt was a lot of fun to do: except for the background, which is stars, the fabrics are all batiks or hand-dyed. I loved making the little bitty squares. The shadow strips are almost as big as they are!
All three of these quilts are coming to Asilomar with me for another class, this one in machine quilting. It's been a long time since I was able to do any quilting to speak of; I have some tops, from classes, which I've been rounding up and finishing up, but nothing quilted. Hence my recent quilt-by-check spree! But now I'll have five days to practice, get comfortable with the machine again, and hopefully learn some new techniques. Hard to believe it's been ten years since I last taught machine quilting!
Shadow study 1
This is the first quilt that was the source for scraps for the Woven Ribbons. I've realized that my tendency, when I take a class like this--I did it again this year--is to start by tackling a relatively simple project,. to get the technique down and work through any problems. Then, with (in this case) one quilt top done, I can tackle something more complicated. I'll do another post with the second quilt in this series.
What I Did Today
Here it is--today's project, a Woven Ribbons quilt. Of course there's a story to this!
Remember how, last month, I went to an Empty Spools Seminar at Asilomar? In choosing fabrics to bring, I ran across a little roll of batik strips wrapped around what looked like more strips. So I threw it in my fabric box.
When I started my project, I thought I'd use some of the outside fabric--a really dark, almost black batik with little hints of deep blue in it. Imagine my surprise when I unrolled it, and there were a whole LOT of little squares, all neatly pressed and cut to size. Hmmm. Worst part was, I had absolutely no idea what they were or how they had gotten there. Figuring I could always sew them into something, even if I couldn't remember what they were originally meant for, I re-rolled them and set them aside.
Memory is a funny thing. As I worked on my Mariner's Compass, an idea of a quilt came to me...and with a little digging (I had a whole bunch of stuff with me that had no relationship to what I was going to do, which is a story for another time and will probably not surprise anyone who knows me) I came up with the book and the project they'd been cut for. Victory!
Flash forward to yesterday. I'd been sewing binding on the six quilts that have come back from the longarm quilter, and thinking about this project. So, once all the quilts had binding around them, I got out the book and the squares and got ready to sew.
And then... it's on to finish more UFOs. I really do seem to be on a roll with this! Heck, maybe I'll even blog about the rest of my projects!
But please, don't hold your breath...
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Lemon Bento Box, with cats~
The "boys" love to inspect any new floor covering, especially if it's a quilt top trying to be photographed!
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Lemon Bento Box
This is the fraternal twin to the quilt in the post below. Just figured they each deserved their moment in the blog spotlight! Hoping to get borders on in t he next day or two!
Lemon/Lime Bento Box
Assembled this quilt top today, along with it's fraternal twin--which I've christened Lemon Bento Box. Borders are cut and ready to be assembled for both quilts.
These two quilts were cut out and mostly (but not completely) sewn into the small squares which make up the larger 4-patch squares, when I got hurt last year and my world came crashing down around me. One of the best things about finally feeling better (surgeon said it would take a year to be "healed") is that I can pick up and start working on projects again. It will be really good to have these quilts done!
Monday, March 05, 2012
Ugly Shirt, coming apart!
Yes, this is all on the same shirt! I have seldom seen anything like it. Showing this here just to say that I have not given up on the Crazy Quilt project, just got sidetracked by another great source of material for them! I don't know if any of these will find their way into the Tie Quilts--my guess is, not, but one never knows!
There's just something really satisfying about digging in to a project like this, even if it does lead to little black threads everywhere. The good thing is, black-thread-spiders are easy to dispose of!
A few FOs!
I really haven't dropped off the face of the earth, honest--just been fighting allergies and other accoutrements of "aging" that seem to sap my energy. However, I've been digging into some of my UFO piles, and there's progress on the horizon.
This stack includes 5 ragg quilts (not very big, but still...5!), some pillowcases that were cut out the night before my back went out last year, and a couple of quilts that are going off to be quilted. Lots more pics on my Flickr page, not all of which are blog-worthy in themselves.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
80 squares ready...
just need to find enough (washed) muslin to cut 4 more and they'll be ready! I'm considering getting 12 baggies and separating them by months; but maybe that's just an extra step. I can bag them when I finish them.
What do you think?
Cutting squares
Next step in the crazy quilt process--getting the base squares cut. I decided on a 10" square, to finish around 9". My compromise between a decent finished size and something I might actually finish this year!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Buttons!
Found these when I was waiting in line to get a ball of yarn to finish Delilah's blankie. I will put these on the tie quilts. Most anyone who knew Bob would definitely associate little peppermint candies with him! I wish they had had more--I might have to go back and get the green ones, although red was definitely his favorite!
Just thought they were such a serendipitous find, I couldn't resist! In other news, the ties are now all ripped. On to Phase Two of Operation Tie Quilts.
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