adventures of a quilting diva

I resolved to skip the resolutions this year, I’ve got enough to do without worrying about a big to-do/wish list … but as they say, “Resistance is futile,” so here they are … with a twist.

Two simple things:

1). Each month choose something new to accomplish. January’s is to finish everything in the mending pile. I’ve done 3 items already so I’m off to a great start. In February I’ll tackle something else, and so on. After all I can do just about anything for a month at a time.

2). Have fun! I like to think of my designs as happy and lighthearted. If I’m stressed out over making my quilt, I believe that it shows in the final outcome, and not in a good way. I hope you will have fun with your quilting in 2009. Here are some ideas to get you started:

SEW SMALL All it takes is a little time and a few fabric scraps to make these the best dressed Littlest Pets on the block. (Thread spools for size reference. These are truly little pets.) Why not try sewing up a cute little dress or doll quilt for a favorite girl’s teddy?

SEW GREEN Why not take a tip from our quilting ancestors and recycle some old clothes into your next quilt? You could go through all the stuff you haven’t worn for a year or more, then sew them up into a fab quilt for the bed or wall. And the clean closet is a great bonus! Above are two charming thrift store dresses/fabric stash finds, a Waltah Clarke vintage cotton and a polyester marble print. Another idea is to make a memory quilt from special clothes (baby clothes, prom dresses, etc.).

SEW CHARITABLE Why not make some preemie quilts for your local hospital? Piece together some fun fabrics that make you smile … they’re sure to make a stressed-out new mother smile as well. Preemie quilts don’t need to be large, these are just 24 inches square. If you struggle with machine quilting on larger quilts, you’ll find this size to be manageable … even fun!

=(^_^)= happy quilting!

Wishing everyone a happy, safe and delicious Thanksgiving! It looks like we’re going to have a wet and rainy Thanksgiving here in Cali, so if you find yourself with a house full of house-bound kids here’s a few autumn crafts they can try. After dinner you can deconstruct the cornucopia and make gourd people.
Or try crafting some pine cone birds. The eyes on these owls are made from beads and pipe cleaners and the nose is an almond. Add a bunch more feathers and you could have a pine cone turkey.
happy crafting! (^_^)

This Saturday we went to Corona del Mar. Considering that it was about 102° when we left Loma Linda, it was quite a surprise to arrive at the beach to find that it was closer to 62° there. Everyone had a great time in spite of the cold. All the kids even had a marvelous swim. From the top of the hill, the entire ocean was enveloped by fog. You wouldn’t know it by looking but there are quite a few boaters out there.
Once in awhile the fog lifts and you get a glimpse of the boats.
Sunday morning I had the bright idea to make scones. While cutting the butter into the flour I realized that I could drive to Starbucks and back before these scones would even make it into the oven. In fact I could actually walk to Starbucks and back home again, that’s how long this was going to take (and that’s also how close I live to Starbucks).
As you can see I persevered and enjoyed a terrific scone and pretty darn good coffee as well, all before lunchtime. Although it was a lot of work for just 8 scones, its very much like quilt-making. Sure you can make a bazillion trips to Wal-Mart in the time that it takes to create just one quilt, but you don’t need me to tell you why we spend hours at our sewing machines and quilting hoops rather than running down to the store and simply buying a $30 manufactured one at the 10 items or less register.

^_^ happy quilting!

This morning as I watered my tomato plants before heading out the door to a workshop in African Folklore embroidery, an unusual tomato caught my eye. When I took a closer look it wasn’t a tomato at all, it was one of my earrings hanging from the tomato vine. How it got there I’ll never know, but I just had to share. ^_^

Anyways, the African Folklore embroidery is simply awesome. I’ll post more about that this weekend. I want to include a bit about Leora’s lecture tomorrow (at Citrus Belt Quilters in case you’re local). I can tell you this right now, you will be seeing a lot more hand embroidery on my future quilt blocks, that is certain.

The June issue of Cotton Spice quilting magazine is now available online (and it’s free)! While you’re there, be sure to check out my Quilt Charms article. They’re what all the best dressed cell phones and flash drives are wearing this summer.
As always, happy quilting! ^_^

Kay asked me how Zephy did at Houston. I was quite pleased with the judges’ comments. They recommended more quilting and more variety in bead placement, both of which I can understand. (Check the detail image here to see for yourself.) The best features mentioned include: appliqué technique, binding, creative pattern, and embroidery/embellishment use. I’m encouraged by their comments as I make plans for my next BIG beaded quilt, aka “Quilt M”.

Rian mentioned enjoying “glorious grits” in Houston, so I tried some before I left. They were not bad, but I’m not going to give up my Irish oatmeal for grits any time soon.

I’ve been busy beading recently. Here’s one piece I’m almost finished with. I like the color combinations that come out in my jewelry. I might have to make a quilt or two using the beads’ palettes.

Houston day two, aka Something to do in Houston other than Quilt Festival. Our original plan was to do the quilt show over the weekend and visit the Children’s Museum of Houston on Monday. Only I didn’t realize that the museum was closed on non-summer Mondays. So I rearranged our schedule at the last minute and we visited the Children’s Museum on Sunday instead. Sure there were some things at the show that I had reserved to come back and do and see the next day, but even just the one day at the quilt show was outstanding. And there will definitely be other years to spend more days at Quilt Festival as well. My DD will not be little forever.

And surprise, there were quilts to be found even at the Children’s Museum. Here is a traditional Gullah quilt made by an intergenerational group of youth and elders, and led by Michelle Barnes of the Community Artist Collective.
Next is a story quilt, Gullah Ooman, made by Vermelle “Bunny” Smith Rodrigues. This quilt tells the story of her Gullah ancestors from their life in Africa before the Europeans arrived, the hardships of slavery, and the emancipation of the Gullah and other African people.Here is Annika at her favorite exhibit, Wireless Ping Pong. The idea is to learn about cell phone technology by sending a series of ping pong balls with words written on them to a person at a station in another part of the museum. That person can then send ping pong ball messages back to you. They will come down through the other tube.If you look up you can see the ping pong balls traveling through the tubes to their destination.After a busy day at the Children’s Museum we headed back to the convention center to pick up my quilt.I was glad to have my quilt back again after all those months. I was also very pleased with the judges’ comments. Now I have to put those comments to good use and start on my next quilt!

happy quilting!

Here are some highlights from Houston, hopefully some wonderful things you wouldn’t get to see otherwise unless you also attended yourself. First is one of Annika’s (and my) favorite 2007 journal quilts, Forgotten Flowers by Frances Holliday Alford.
And this is Nostalgia for Japan by Tokiko Kashiwagi. These very large appliquéd flowers are outlined in sashiko. See the detail below for a better view.
I love the way it looks like a little ribbon of white polka dots.
Here is Sheri Wood and her prize-winning Night Blooming Dahlia. She started dying fabrics because it was hard to find the colors she wanted where she lived. Now she dyes all her fabric herself. Sheri hand-dyed each petal individually on this quilt.
You just have to see the back of the quilt. It’s as lovely as the front!
Saradean Hallman made Summer Dreams for her granddaughter. Can you tell that I love bright colored flowers on black?
I also love yellow quilts. This is Carnival Calliope by Kathy Kelley.
Taupe quilts are charming too. Mayumi Ueda made My Sweet Town oh so sweet.
Here is another cute storybook quilt from the 2007 Hoffman Challenge exhibit, Costa Rica: Our Beloved Home by the East Mountain Quilters of Costa Rica. I love the 2008 Hoffman Challenge fabric. I forgot to take a photo, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can see it here. What you can’t tell from the image is that it’s a larger scale print than the 2007 fabric was. I liked the pattern and the colors for 2007 but wished the pattern had been printed about five times larger. I also got to see Debra Spincic’s wonderful (and prize winning!) crazy quilt, Little Flower Urchins in person.
I brought my favorite Alex Anderson book, Fabric Shopping, to The Quilt Show booth for Alex to sign. It’s a really fun book, not just about how to buy fabric, but also about color, value, and how to best use the different kinds of fabric you find in a quilt shop. It has a great selection of quilt patterns to make. I LOVE the Hearts quilt at the back of the book. That pattern alone is worth purchasing the book for.
And the shopping of course! I bought some vintage Japanese fabrics, sashiko thread and needles, and hand-painted Tussah silk fiber, among assorted other things. I hope to do some experimenting with the Tussah silk and my Clover hand needle-felting tool to see if I’d like to really get into felting and buy one of those needle-felting machines. As you can see, Annika enjoyed the shopping as well.
Can you tell what I’m going to be doing? I went crazy for beads this time. Most of these are from Beyond Beadery. I’ve never seen so many seed beads in one place before. (I know, I’ve lived a sheltered life!) I felt like a kid in a candy store, but frankly these beads are so much more delicious (even better than Chocovic or Scharffen Berger I must admit), and they’re calorie-free to boot.
happy quilting! Next post I’ll tell you about Houston, day 2.

Here is a beautiful detail from Gloria McKeehan’s miniature quilt which took first place at the recent Miniature Quilt Lovers Guild show. She brought a lovely selection of her own miniature quilts as well as those of her fellow guild members to the October Moonlighters‘ meeting for a miniature quilt trunk show. I love how the sashiko sets off the appliqué just perfectly.

For those of you attending the IQA Quilt Festival this week, be sure to look for Gloria’s prize winning (and very large, not miniature at all) quilt in the World of Beauty exhibit.
The Freehand Quilting workshop with Joe Cunningham was a blast. Redlands Unified School District was out for the week because of the wildfires, so Annika joined in the fun. Here she is with Joe and the kitty she worked on.
And a closer view of her and her fine work. She really enjoyed being a part of the class.
Finally my practice sandwich. This is a sampling of designs you can quilt freehand by hand (no marking!). There is an excess of hanging threads because we had to keep moving on to the next pattern so we could try them all in one day. We also used a thread twice as long as usual so you can start quilting from one end to the middle and then quilt from the other end when you’re done. GREAT TIP! That way you don’t have to knot at the beginning. We learned a great technique for ending the thread without knots as well.

I enjoyed doing the feather most of all. I’m imagining all sorts of fanciful feathers I’d love to try my hand at quilting. Perhaps I’ll bring a sketchbook along on the flight to Houston and see what they look like out of my head and onto the paper so I can see what sort of spaces they might fill.

The next day Joe gave a wonderfully amusing lecture and trunk show. Go to Joe’s website for links to some video highlights of his presentation at our guild. Check out the gallery as well to see photos of his latest quilts (they’re great in person, but nice in pictures as well).

Stay tuned for Houston highlights this weekend!

Ta-da! Here is the (full size) result of My Stars, the Sally Collins workshop I took at CBQ last month. I learned that there is so much to pay attention to in piecing, from cutting to sewing to pressing to pinning to sewing to pressing and so on, that if you do each step carefully and correctly, you will come out with a better block in the end. Wow! Now I feel comfortable and even excited to mix a little bit of piecing when I design my appliqué quilts (and this coming from the one who for nearly a year did not even piece borders for my work. Instead I was cutting a hole in the middle of the fabric like a mat board rather than piecing together four strips for my borders.) More proof comes from the latest installment in my basket series, Blue Christmas (below).
When you compare it to the last basket quilt I pieced, the triangle corners, especially the basket feet and that bottom background triangle, there is a world of difference, coming out not only much better, but also more easily.

At the regular guild meeting Sally did a trunk show of amazing really large miniatures, including the ones from her latest book, Mastering Precision Piecing. When you look at the photos of these quilts, you would never know how small they really are. In the photos they look like they could easily be king size bed quilts, not 40 inch wall hangings. Many pieces are as tiny as 1/4 inch. I think some may have even been 1/8. This is just piecing, not paper piecing or anything. The detail is astounding!

Here is the view of the San Bernardino Mountains from my studio window tonight.
It’s not very impressive except for the fact that yesterday night, the mountains were outlined in red indicating where the wildfires were burning. The lights you see are city lights in the foothills, not fire. They’re hazy looking because since the winds died down all the smoke and ash has simply settled in the air. At least that’s good for slowing the spread of the wildfires. Please continue to remember in your prayers the people who have already lost their homes and those whose homes are still in danger, including the firefighters.

Tomorrow I’m off to a workshop to learn Freehand Hand Quilting from Joe Cunningham, AKA Joe the Quilter. I’m imagining it’s something like doodling with your quilting needle. Sounds like it should be fun!