Background Experiments

A few posts back, I showed you the pile of 3″ squares and the snowball quilt I was working on.

 

Here’s the finished snowball quilt. I put a simple wide black border on it, influenced by the great Amish quilts I saw at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. By the way, if you are ever in the area, I can’t recommend this museum highly enough. They have great exhibits, and it is so lovely to see quilts displayed in such a beautiful way.

Well, it seems my figuring was a bit off, because I finished that snowball quilt top, and still had a huge pile of 3″ squares. When auditioning backgrounds for the snowball quilt, I came across a piece of dyed golden beige fabric. It was really pretty with the jewel tones of the squares, so I put it aside, thinking that I might experiment with it after the snowball top was done. I only had 1/2 yard of the golden beige fabric, so this one was smaller.

I had fun making these squares–you can see here, I simply zigzagged one of my many 2″ squares in the middle of the 3″ square. And the other ones I cross-cut 4X, inserting free-hand cut strips of the background color. Then I had to square up the finished piece to the original size.

And THEN, I still had a big pile of the 3″ squares leftover. And I think I was looking at some of the modern quilts at QuiltCon (BTW, its going to be in California next year!!!) and I saw a black and white quilt, and that gave me the idea to play around with my black and white fabrics. This quilt was quite fun. I simply cut 3 1/2 inch and 6 1/2 inch strips, and improvised as I went along.

After I cut those strips with a rotary cutter, I did all the rest of the cutting with my scissors. This method worked out pretty accurately. After I sewed a strip on, I simply carefully folded the strip back on itself, matching the bottom edge of the seam, and making sure the unsewn edge of the strip matched the side of the sewn edge. I held it carefully in place and cut along the fold.

My goal this week was to get all three of these made into quilt sandwiches. I am hoping by doing this that I won’t continue to add to my pile of unfinished quilt tops. And also, I am ready to move on to some serious projects, so I wanted to clear out the studio.

Mission accomplished–this picture represents the final sandwich being completed! You can see I still have a little bit of cleaning up to do 🙂

Join Me for a Quilt Show Marathon?

Gather some handwork, and get the popcorn ready! Its time for a Quilt Show marathon! This weekend you can watch every single show on The Quilt Show for free! I have had a busy week, and have gotten some major tasks accomplished. I decided to reward myself with a marathon of Quilt Shows tomorrow. I’ve even planned out my menu for the day so I can have extra popcorn and still stay within my normal calorie allotment!

In case you look at the long list of shows, and are overwhelmed by all the choices, I thought I’d share a few that I thought were extra special, and a few that I am planning to check out myself.

 

• Show 106–Denise Labadie, on Ireland. This show is from their very first season, and I do remember being very impressed by Denise’s work. I am looking forward to checking it out again.
• Show 408–Alex Anderson on Neutral Quilts. I have a large collection of neutrals, and I would like to make a neutral quilt. This might give me a jumping off point.
• Shows 112, and 513–The incomparable Libby Lehman. If you can only watch one, watch 513, where she is awarded the Quilt Legend award.
• Show 508–Paula Nadelstern at The American Folk Art Museum.
• Shows 313 and 601–Jinny Beyer on Handpiecing, and also being awarded the Quilt Legend award.
• Show 711–Rosalie Dace, and there are also segments with Jennifer Chiavarini (the author) and Michael Cummings, which I enjoyed very much.
• Show 1102–Luke Haynes, an extraordinary quilt artist.
• Show 1308–Caryl Bryer-Fallert-Gentry. Say no more, right?
• Show 1301–Jean Wells–I love the direction her work has taken, and this show features that.
• Show 1501–Jane Dunnewald. She is an excellent teacher.
• And Show 1512–Debby Schnabel. Just in case you haven’t seen it yet 🙂  I also really love the segment on this show with Laurie Hill Gibb, who took a trip around the country in a camper, something I have wanted to do since I was a kid!

Once you are signed in to The Quilt Show, just go to the page with the Show List. From there it is easy to look through the choices of quilt artists, and click on the series, and then the specific show you want to watch.

And just because I haven’t shared any pictures for a while, I will show you an idea for using a smaller quilt as a bed quilt. Most of the quilts I make are not large enough to be considered bed quilts. But I enjoy using them on my bed. I found a bed-sized white quilt at Home Goods, well made and quite reasonably priced, and I use it on the bed, with the smaller quilt as a “topper.” I really like using my quilts this way.

Have a super terrific, quilt-filled weekend!

 

International Quilting Weekend!

Did you all know there was such a thing as International Quilting Weekend? Well, there is, and The Quilt Show is doing it up big! I am simply going to copy the letter that they have sent me. Its a great opportunity for those of you who 1) don’t want to join, or 2) are thinking of joining and want to see what its all about. I am a huge fan of the show, and have watched every single episode from the very beginning up to present day. There are lots of ideas and inspiration, and plenty of instruction too. They try to cover a wide range of quilting interests, from the traditional to modern, hand-quilting to long arm quilting, and art quilts as well as precision work. There’s simply something for everyone! You can start by clicking here. You won’t believe some of the great prizes they are offering!

Dear Quilting Friend:

Big news here! In honor of International Quilting Weekend, March 20-22, 2015, The Quilt Show, the web TV show hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, will open all of its shows from the first nine series– shows 100-1513 –for the entire weekend. This means that, for three special days, everyone will have the chance to view over 200 shows, featuring some of the quilting world’s leading artists, for FREE.

This year’s sponsors are contributing over $5000 in prizes, including the Grand Prize, a BERNINA 550 QE.  Other prizes you have a chance to win are:

•         Innova – Have your quilt professionally quilted ($500 value)

•         Superior Threads – five $100 gift certificates

•         RJR Fabrics – a Delicious Selection of RJR Fabrics

•         AccuQuilt – GO! Big Electric Fabric Cutter

•         Missouri Star Quilt Company – $500 in Quilter’s Cash plus signed copies of Volume 1 of Block Magazine and Man Sewing Swag

 

As you may already know, I appeared as the featured artist on TQS in show 1512. If you didn’t have the opportunity to see this show the first time around, now you’ll have the chance to see it—and so many other terrific shows—at no cost in this unprecedented three-day offer.

I hope that you’ll share this information with all of your quilting friends. It’s a fantastic opportunity to enjoy three days of learning and fun without leaving your home…all for free.

Enjoy the shows, and thanks for helping to spread the word!

I have been busy working away in the studio, having great fun experimenting with different backgrounds for all those 3 inch colored squares I cut out. In between I do a little more quilting on that big nine-patch quilt. I’ll be back soon with some fun pictures. In the meantime, pop some popcorn, and enjoy a few of the shows for free! I think I might have a Quilt Show marathon this weekend to celebrate 🙂

 

 

In The Studio and On My Lap

Here’s the latest work being done in the studio–

I made the giant nine patch quilt top into a sandwich. First I made a pieced back for it. I’ll have to show you that after the quilting is finished.

And I started working on the little snowball quilt idea I had. You can see that most of the blocks are 3 inch finished blocks. Then I made six, nine, twelve, and fifteen inch blocks to insert into the quilt. I thought of a lot of different ways to do this, but I ended up using the original little sketch I had drawn in my journal. I love having my little journal with me!

I still have a lot of the 3 1/2 inch squares that I pre-cut for this quilt. I have another little idea in the works for them.

In the evenings, I usually move into the living room and have some handwork in progress.

I’m working on another of  The Psalms quilts. Here you can see I machine stitched in the ditch to stabilize the background. But then I decided to do kantha style stitching over the entire background.

Well, you know all about my circle love 🙂

And I finished the rug made from fabric strips. These rugs are so cushy to stand on. I really like having them in the kitchen, and they wash very easily too.

After being washed:

Its just right in front of the stove. And the little girls like to lay on them when they are waiting for me to make their meals!