Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quilt. Show all posts

Friday, March 10, 2023

Ocean Waves In Progress


Ocean Waves

Getting back to sewing was good, but I still wasn't in the creative mood just yet. There's still a lot on my plate. Grabbing a kit I had sitting on my shelf for some years meant I could sew, but didn't have to think much. Pure therapy.

Friday, March 3, 2023

The Sabbatical Is Over


Sanibel Bridge in the fog

A Long Time Away


Our roles in life change fairly often--perhaps more as women, but more so as care givers. While our families are young, we look forward to the day when each child becomes independent. Ours all did, thankfully, and afterward there were several carefree years. I had time to grow my garden, sew for myself, and quilt for others. I look back at that now as a blissful, golden period. 

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Summer Quilt Catch Up


Simple Summer Quilt

Life has been anything but simple for nearly 2 years now. I know I'm in good company across the planet when I crawl out of bed after midnight because I can't sleep--again. My neck and shoulders are sore from canning apples and making applesauce all day. My head is full of swirling thoughts like, How the heck are we going to get through this mess? (Certainly not by depending on the government!) 

My last post was early August when I was still working on the quilting of this summer quilt. I needed an uncomplicated project to stitch on, and I loved having something in the frame to pick up for even a few minutes at a time. But August turned into a difficult month healthwise here, and funneled us right into September and a local outbreak of Covid. We were included as well as many friends and family, but thankfully all came through without serious complications. I was out of the studio more than a month, though, and feel like I'm still catching up on sleep.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

7 Year Blogiversary & 700th Post


A Quiet Celebration

If this past year has taught me something, it's that we should celebrate milestones, and keep with traditions in our lives. So you and I will celebrate this together. (Cue the horns!) Seven years is nothing to sneeze at. It's ancient in the world of blogging! I know I'm here, though, because of you all, and because I'm still fully in love with life! And the things that make me most happy are quilting, surely you knew that, my garden, and sharing my enthusiasm for both. Helping people learn is important, too, but encouraging people to just try something is the big one. 

I hope we all continue to be friends. You are important to me, and the many back channeled conversations that go on among us makes my--and I hope your life rich. Thank you so very much for sharing this wonderful journey!

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Photo Roll of Longarm Quilting by Julie Stocker


Quilts, Quilts, Quilts and More Quilts!

One evening as I sat contently reading a book, yes, about quilting, my husband turned to me and asked, "Don't you ever get tired of quilting?" I didn't think that deserved a reply other than the look I gave, but I did think about it for a few days. I never tire of the world of quilts. I love it, and I love what I do. I like old, torn, well-used quilts as well as crisp new ones. I love simple designs as well as complex, and all the technical jibber-jabber as much as talking about my favorite new fabric lines. How does one get sucked in this deeply? Again, a rhetorical question which should not be considered too deeply. I just accept that quilts chose me, and not the other way around. 

Enjoy the montage. Owners/makers and some information may be listed as I remember, but this is all for your eyes more than your brains. This work started sometime in late June, and doesn't include everything I've done. I've been busy, but very happy as my husband will attest to.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Quilt for a Hard Rocker Finish


Quilt for a Hard Rocker

Done. I love that word right now. Along with the constant stream of customer quilts, I'm plugging away at ones I've promised to family. So with little fuss, here is today's finish sans tag, which will be added.

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Spin Drift: 12 One More Day



The Marathon Continues


Custom quilting requires many times longer than an edge-to-edge, and at present I have stacks of quilts waiting. In spite of the back up in the quilt room, the pandemic took priority, and I took a few days off to get our lives in order. We have the things we need to keep us comfortable and safe, but we're not stockpiled. The kids have helped us find some alternative methods to buy food locally, hurrah for that, and I will say there is a momentary peace of mind of sorts. With that taken care of for the moment, I really want to get my quilt done and off. Today.

Friday, March 13, 2020

Spin Drift: 11 Custom Quilting



It's All About the Numbers
or
Custom Quilting Takes Forever
or 
The World Feels Very Crazy at the Moment, 
and This Project Will Never End

Nearly every quilt I look back on has some weird tangle of emotions and events. "Oh, that's the one I hand quilted through the winter when the power kept kicking off," or "I bought the fabric for that when so-and-so was with me." The whole quilt is a mixture of memories of fiber and thread, of people, and life events. I think it's glorious when they are happy memories, but it can ruin a quilt when it's something else. I don't want this quilt to become The Corona Quilt (even though they are very spatially similar). Therefore, I'm taking measures to keep my head and heart above water, and not bring the anxiety to my work space. And, I'm hurrying to get it done now. The clock ticks between things escalating on the world front, and how quilting much my darned tennis elbow will allow in a day.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Spin Drift:10 The Quilting Begins



Together at Last

The minute I had delivered the Bountiful Baskets quilt I was hard at work putting together the last blocks of Spin Drift. 

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Spin Drift: 9


Reach In and Touch Them


Don't they look alive? Like you could feel they're cool, rubbery leaves if you swept your fingers across the fabric. I love this digital print! Maybe it has something to do with my fettish with succulents. They're like collecting Beanie Babies. Each slightly different, and low care. I find I can winter over dozens under fluorescent lights, and my world is still green on gray days. 

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Spin Drift: 8



Cornerstone Dresden Plates

Shall I admit that I have rarely, if ever, made a whole quilt from a pattern created by someone else? As I sit up late at night writing to you--I slept for hours, and am now awake having thought street tacos were a good choice to eat late, I am working to remember. Okay, oh, yes, Moda Modern was one except in prints, and I believe two more patterns over the years perhaps. But none that I even loosely followed someone else's color scheme as well as the pattern. This must be my first, and admittedly, I have enjoyed following without leading. Not recreating the wheel, a friend tells me. There is joy in that when the rest of our lives are a bit helter skelter. Just follow the directions step by step.

Friday, February 21, 2020

Spin Drift:7



A Friday Sneak Peak!

I just can't stand it any longer. I'm not really good at secret projects, and have been dying to show you how this quilt is coming together. Dang! Isn't this a fun quilt!? The litmus test is when you put a section together on the wall, stand back, and giggle. I've laughed out loud many times, and admittedly photo bombed several friends with this marathon project. My studio has been my happy place!

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Spin Drift: 6




Mixed Media Fantasy


Have you noticed how many more digital prints your local quilt stores are carrying this year? They're everywhere now. I stood in a shop yesterday watching people's reactions as they walked by a long rack of them. Several quilters paused longer to look at them, but none reached out to touch them. Interesting, I thought, but why? 

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Spin Drift: 5


How Tweet It Is!

We feed the birds throughout the fall, winter, and spring. Sure, on the edge of a large woods they can forage for food, and especially during such a mild winter as we're having, but we feed to draw them in. We want to see the red cardinals, graphic woodpeckers, little gray juncos and titmice, yellow-green false canaries, brown sparrows and wrens, and even those nasty blue jays color our world when most things are gray. It's been a green winter here, but still the birds add so much color.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Spin Drift: 4




Memories of My Garden


My garden is not particularly planned. It's more of a jumble of plants I've bought or been given. Many have to be heeled in quickly, and quite often I have to move one after the fact. It might not like the sun or wind in that spot, or maybe it spreads enough to block another favorite. It may appear messy to some, but most often there is a sense of order in my mind. It's controlled chaos at best.

Monday, February 17, 2020

Spin Drift:3


Oh, the Romance of Rome!

As they say, "All roads lead to Rome", but have you ever been to Rome? It was many moons past for me, but it is a city still etched in my memory. Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and a shabby pensione that overlooked a courtyard fountain. I was 16, and backpacking across Europe--yes, I had a young, daring spirit even then, not to mention trusting parents, and Rome was--hot. Don't laugh, but that was absolutely one of my most vivid memories. There was a heat wave, and I was carrying an overloaded pack. See how I can bring a romantic travel experience down to a base level?

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Spin Drift: 2


Dresden Block #2

I decided to show you the blocks in the order I made them. It's interesting how we intuitively change our fabric choices as we progress with a pattern. If one block is high drama, the next might be toned down, and so on. While we can only have one princess at a party, quilts can handle more than one, but not all. 

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Spin Drift: It Begins



Spin Drift

Pattern by Michelle McKillop 
for Jen Kingwell Designs


Are you ready for a few weeks full of quilter's eye candy? Then stayed tuned each day as I roll through all the blocks I've completed for this quilt. They are gorgeous because the pattern was made for the fabric! "What?!" you say. Well, this pattern was made especially to use those large scale prints we all love, and have to buy a little of, but struggle to use in our quilts. I was dying to get mine into a quilt so this was a heavenly match. It was like having the Oreo cookies, and finding cream filling! 

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Machine Pieced Hexies Progress


The Final (Organic) Layout

In my free sewing time, I'm following along with Mary Huey's Scrappy Hexagon Quilt. Her method allows for chain piecing these bad boy angles, and makes it easy to whip up a crazy, difficult quilt in no time. (It's kind of like the magic of having an Instant Pot, ya know?) Last week's post had us laying out the sets we'd made. Groups of 4, 3's, and a few 2's. Then the border or edge pieces were cut, and the whole shebang laid out as one quilt. 

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Vintage Double Wedding Ring: 1939



Magic Happens When You Hang a Quilt
and Stand Back

Perspective is everything. We can stick our nose in a quilt to look at the fabrics and stitching, but the wow factor is when we see it from across the room. This wows me.

I bought this quilt from a local dealer this week while cleaning out an old farmhouse. I did the nose thing looking at the surface close up, and also smelling it for signs of mildew or funk, but I didn't get to do an overall look until I got it home.