Category Archives: Citrus Belt Quilters

garden of dreams

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On May 17 Citrus Belt Quilters held their 2008 Quilt Festival and Vintage Home Tour. Here are a few highlights from the quilts displayed in Smiley Park, Redlands, CA. As you can see it was a gorgeous day. These four quilts all happened to have such charming labels on the back I wanted to share them here with you as well as the beautiful fronts.

Flowers Galore
by Natalie Andrews

Muffy’s Quilt

by Marguerette Tate

Spin Cycle

by JoAnn Woods

Summer Porch

by Janna Waller


You can see more quilts and vintage home photos at the Citrus Belt Quilters website. Next year’s show will be May 16, 2009.

adventures of a quilting diva

safari!

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Last week I attended the African Folklore Embroidery workshop and Safari through African Folklore Embroidery lecture by Leora Raikin. It was refreshing, fun, educational and entertaining. Leora grew up in South Africa and learned African Folklore Embroidery from her mother.
The authentic designs are drawn by village women in South Africa and printed onto a sturdy black cotton fabric.
The variegated threads come in the most delicious colorfast colors, and are hand-dyed in South Africa. Different color dyes are poured onto the threads every two inches with a teaspoon, giving a wonderful range of colors in even a short length of thread. What is great is that the employment opportunities created by the market for these beautiful threads has enabled many women to move from shack housing to regular housing with running water and electricity.
The Ndebele tribe has many other wonderful handicrafts, such as this beaded Ndebele Ceremonial doll. You can add beads and other fun stuff to your embroidery as well.
Here is the very charming African Folklore piece that I am working on. The first rule of African Folklore Embroidery is that any color you choose is the right color. And with so many gorgeous colors to pick from, you can’t go wrong!
My daughter Annika chose a cute hippo, and declared the chain stitch used in African Folklore embroidery to be very easy. Picking just one design is what is hard.
African Folklore Embroidery kits, hand-dyed House of Embroidery threads, and Leora Raikin’s book, Safari Through Africa Folklore Embroidery (which covers embroidery, beading, and other wonderful embellishment techniques) are all available at the African Folklore Embroidery site. Or visit Leora’s blog for African safari photos and adventures.

adventures of a quilting diva

quilting with kitty

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This spring I took the Gateway to Mongolia workshop with Maggie Ball of Dragonfly Quilts. Here is the ölzii center panel that I made (see an example of the entire quilt). The ölzii is a traditional Mongolian symbol. Maggie used the ölzii when she taught quilting in Mongolia to needy women in Ulaanbaatar, giving them skills to help support their families, a kind of microenterprise training thing.

Thanks to Maggie’s efforts there is now a Quilting Community Center in Ulaanbaatar. You can volunteer to teach quilting in Mongolia or purchase quilts made by Mongolian women (more about the New Way Life NGO Quilting Center in Mongolia).

I actually did a great deal of the sewing for the ölzii piece on my daughter’s Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine. Isn’t it adorable? I can tell you that it sews as well as it looks cute. Here are the features that I appreciate most for kids who want to learn to sew:

• The cute little foot pedal, which has just one speed whether you press a little or a lot, and it’s not too fast. I’ve taught children on regular sewing machines, and even the slowest setting still has too much variation in the sewing speed. A constant speed helps kids gain more control when they sew.

• No light to burn little hands. The “darkness” is not an issue with kids or when you use it in a well-lit room. For that matter even on my regular machine I sometimes tip an Ott-light on its side and shine it onto the sewing area.

• Reduced voltage for extra safety.

• Simple and easy to use.

• Well made and sews nicely. It’s not a toy.

The only issue I really had with it was that there is not a built-in 1/4″ stitch, which I took care of with a little gadget, the Angler 2, a clear plastic guide for sewing half-triangle squares that also has a handy 1/4″ guide printed on it. The lack of built-in 1/4″ capability is not a problem for Annika, who just wants to sit down and merrily sew away. She is quite fond of making thread nests on scraps of fabric.

Actually there are quilting accessory kits made for 3/4 size Janome machines. That could make Hello Kitty the perfect travel/workshop sewing machine after Annika outgrows it.

My daughter’s favorite feature: it’s just irresistibly cute. Who wouldn’t want to sew with Hello Kitty’s cheery face smiling back at you?

In June, Annika joined me for Picture This with Marcia Stein. Angel Kitty is our very own mother-daughter UFO. Annika designed and cut out a lot of the pieces for Angel Kitty. She didn’t feel quite ready to tackle the actual appliqué part, so I did the zig-zagging while she practiced her sewing with Hello Kitty. (You can see what the other members of the class did here at Marcia Stein’s website gallery.)

Here is Marcia Stein with French Shoes, one of my favorite quilts ever. I remembered it from a Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine way back when, that’s when I first became a fan.

And finally, here’s Smetana, the model for Angel Kitty.

adventures of a quilting diva

bella bella!

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In January I took the Bella Bella workshop from Norah McMeeking. It was fun and I learned a lot of good tips about paper foundation piecing. My paper piecing skills have really improved the past few months and I can make good blocks without stitching down too-small pieces or wasting exorbitant amounts of fabric.

Here is my latest basket pattern, Easy Peasy Paper Pieced Baskets. You can find it at the Citrus Belt Quilters’ Block of the Month page. (If any of you make a quilt from one of my basket patterns, email me a photo so I can post it here on my blog.)

Anyways, back to Bella Bella, and some much larger paper pieced quilts designed from Italian Mosaic floors.
I liked this Bella Bella quilt because of the black and white.
Here is the same pattern four different ways. One of the most interesting things about taking the workshop was seeing all the different fabrics that people put together. Perhaps I spent a little too much time checking out what other students were doing because here is my Bella Bella quilt. ;-)
And I found out after I got home that I’m not even done with the cutting yet. I need to choose one more color for the rainbow stack to make 12 different fabrics. Maybe next month I’ll work on my Bella Bella for 10 minutes every day.

happy quilting!

adventures of a quilting diva

quilt every day

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the time of your life
At CBQ today Julie Hocker presented the lecture, “The Time of Your Life!” where she gave tips on how to make more time for quilting and other things you want to do. So, for all of March I am going to quilt every day for 10 minutes and see how much I accomplish by the end of the month. Each day I will be sewing my rail fence blocks together for 10 minutes and should have a quilt top or two come April.
I challenge you to join me in March for just 10 minutes a day on any UFO you have in your stash (or a new quilt project if you wish). That leaves you 1430 minutes each day to do all your other “stuff”.

So, if you would like to participate just leave me a comment saying so on this post. After March is over, post the photos of what you accomplished on your blog and email the link to me by April 7. I will post the complete list of links on my blog by April 10 so you can see what everyone did. Even if you don’t participate, be sure to return in April to check out the list!

tack room to tea room
Yesterday I attended a fun workshop with Julie Hocker called “Tack Room to Tea Room” which is a wearable art vest. It’s her newest design, check it out on the link above. You can use the different techniques to make a vest or put them in a quilt. I started the vest but just have a baggie of pieces so I’ll wait to show you until I have a unit or two completed.

happy quilting!

adventures of a quilting diva

something old, something new

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Last month at Moonlighters, Violet Vaughnes (quilt historian and AQS certified quilt appraiser) gave a wonderful presentation, Tell Me About My Quilt, where members brought vintage quilts from their own collections to show the guild and have Violet tell us all about them. I was a holder/folder and got to see all those precious gems up close and personal. Although I forgot my camera and haven’t mastered the cell phone camera yet, I drank it all in. What a great history lesson to see it all right in front of your face.

Nearly a month later, the images of two hexagon quilts still linger in my mind. There was the classic 30′s Grandmother’s Flower Garden, with its sunny bright pastel blooms and paths of jade. Also an 1800-something Mosaic quilt top from a mill town in Great Britain with 1-inch hexagons of deep burgundies, pinks, blues, creams, and tans. Both quilts shared the same 7-piece flower shape, but were a world apart in feeling. Sure the different color palettes and scale of hexagons had something to do with it, but what made the biggest difference to me was the layout.

In the 30′s quilt, the blossoms were separated by the jade green paths, and didn’t really compete with each other for visual attention. You could place a mango flower next to a pink and not worry about them blending in to each other.

In the Mosaic quilt, all the blossoms were tightly packed next to one another. The ones that were brighter, darker, or higher contrast jumped out; and the paler, lower contrast ones receded into the background. This gave the quilt a lively sense of depth and movement.

Both were great fun to look at, I’m thinking over what kind of hexagon quilt I’d most like to try, and I learned something new for my own designing: Shapes are not limited to one style of fabric or one type of layout. I’ve illustrated this with two images here in this post. I’ve used bright colors and the same size hexagons for both so you can concentrate on just the color/pattern variation between the two, Grandmother’s Flower Garden at top and Mosaic just below it.

Finally I’ve included a Quilter’s Hexagon Grid for you to print out and color in your own designs. (just click on the thumbnail at right to enlarge to full size) You could also cut them out as 1-inch hexagon patterns for English Paper Piecing.

Next post coming soon: Stay tuned for my report on the Sally Collins workshop I took and what it’s done for my piecing abilities.

adventures of a quilting diva

quilting in roswell

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In my studio, aka Roswell, I try out interesting techniques and practice new skills. I usually either master the skill and leave my practice piece behind, or I discover that said technique is not nearly as appealing (for me) to do as it is to look at it. Either way, I now have a sizable (and growing) collection of UFOs. I have learned to live with that. If I gain a new skill (hand quilting, redwork, etc.) I want to use in my latest inspiration, it’s served its purpose. Same thing if it turns out I don’t enjoy the technique quite as much as I thought I would.

Take for example the fabric “grass skirt” hanging from my pin cushion at right. I recently borrowed a book on woven quilts from the library and decided to give it a try. (I’m not sure why I did, usually looking at the eye candy is enough for me.) It was interesting to tear the fabric into strips, although not exhilarating as many have described it. Tearing the black print did bad things to the fabric though, as the threads got pulled out of place and you could see little white pin pricks where the thread came out from underneath the thread above it. I briefly considered coloring in all the little dots with a pigment pen, that is until I came to my senses. I have satisfied my curiosity where woven quilts are concerned.

At the last Moonlighters meeting, Jessica Cook gave an interesting talk on UFOs (unfinished fabric objects) and OPPs (other people’s projects). It was great to see the way she could take other quilters’ orphan blocks and unfinished projects and complete them, sometimes in the intended way and sometimes in her own way. One tip she had along the lines of “just do it” helps reduce anxiety about less than perfect free-motion machine quilting:

When quilting around shapes such as leaves and flowers, if you happen to go around twice, it looks like a mistake; if you go around three times, it’s embroidery!

At any rate here are four 6-inch blocks that I made some years back when I was teaching myself piecing. The plan was to make a sampler quilt in pink and green. I can’t remember why I stopped at only four blocks, but I still like them at any rate.

My plan was to wow you with a complete list of all the UFOs in my studio, but I changed my mind. If I make a list, I would have to search for them all, because I could not stand having an incomplete list, and a list would probably induce guilt for not finishing them. As it stands, it’s comforting to know that they’re out there, and whenever my mind is mush, but my hands want something to stitch, I can pull a UFO from the shelf and get straight to work.

BTW the full size pattern and instructions for Crazy for Baskets are all now available on the Citrus Belt Quilters’ website.

happy quilting!

adventures of a quilting diva

quick quilts

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I’ve discovered the secret to making quilts quickly: Just don’t sleep (or at least not too much anyway). But you’d better finish them in a few days, because you wouldn’t want to sew through your fingers or anything like that from lack of sleep. I’m going to make this post quick as well because it’s time for me to catch up on my ZZZZZs.
Last week I attended an excellent CBQ workshop with Patricia Beaver on redwork. I was particularly thrilled because I’ve never done this type of embroidery before and I’d always had the impression that there was some sort of trick to it, kind of like doing French knots. This is my class practice piece (it’s from a BHG pattern found in their Two Color Quilts book). I turned it into a little wall hanging … quilted, bound, and everything by the next morning. My head is positively spinning with ideas I want to explore. Patricia Beaver gave an inspiring trunk show the next morning with a mixture of vintage quilts and ones she made as well. Above is an interesting vintage cross stitch quilt (bed-size). Wow! That is a lot of X’s. From a distance you can see how closely it resembles appliqué. Finally is my October baskets quilt top which I made over the long weekend. Now I’m ahead of schedule for several weeks, since I don’t have to show this top until the meeting at the end of September. I could even quilt and bind it by then if I wanted to, but I’ve got other deadlines to focus on.

Patricia Beaver introduced me to crayon quilts as well, which are tons of fun and very addicting. I’ve been working on a crayon and embroidery quilt project and have one block completed. My daughter Annika made a few crayon blocks as well. If you want to try your hand at crayon quilts, Prang 100% soybean crayons are the ones to look for. I would give you Patricia’s website, but it’s not live yet. She has a lot of really neat vintage patterns, supplies, several different trunk shows, as well as embroidery and crayon quilt workshops.

happy quilting! And thanks as well for all the advice on quilting those large quilt tops. It really is a whole different world from quilting miniatures and small wall hangings, with a completely different set of considerations.

adventures of a quilting diva

crazy for baskets

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Here’s my latest design in the basket series, Crazy for Baskets. It’s approximately 58×65 inches. I don’t know how I’m ever going to quilt it. That might not be a big deal to most of you, but I’m used to 12 inch mini quilts that fit quite neatly in the sewing machine. Just this morning I worked on quilting a piece that was about 8×10 inches. For those of you who machine quilt on a regular machine, can you recommend the best way to manage it? Rolling? Folding? Smashing?

Check back later this week. I’m going to post the pattern for the block and the instructions for the quilt on the CBQ website. This is a really fun, easygoing introduction to paper foundation piecing, and if a piece or two of fabric comes up short, no need to tear out all those tiny stitches, just add another piece.

happy quilting!

adventures of a quilting diva

summer quilt’n

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It might be hot outside, but the quilting inside is hotter! For the CBQ July workshop, Brenda Henning taught a machine stitched stained glass table runner. Since I don’t really have a table large enough to justify a runner, and also to tame the uncontrollable growth of my UFO pile, I opted to create a smaller, quicker (14 inch) Christmas wallhanging based on a wonderful Laurel Burch fabric I bought some years ago. Brenda’s trunk show at guild was wonderful. The hand-dyeds and batiks really glow like light shining through stained glass!

At the July Moonlighters’ meeting there was an auction where I purchased this very charming vintage quilt top (folded in quarters, above left). I couldn’t resist the polka dots and adorable feedsack prints, which I would show you up close if I had taken a better photo. I’ll try again later though! Now all I have to do is figure out how I’m going to quilt it.

I’m in charge of the Block of the Month this coming year at CBQ and here’s what I designed for August (on right), We all scream for ice cream. Once again, I’m still figuring out how to quilt it. I purposely used the large yellow bars to give someplace for some wonderful and fun quilting. Any suggestions welcome! The pattern for the block and the quilt is available for free at the CBQ website, BOM page. If you make any of my basket quilts, I’d love to see a photo. For those of you who love basket quilts as much as I do, stay tuned, we’re be making 12 this year! More on that later as well.

Gotta run for now.
happy quilting!

adventures of a quilting diva