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Archive for the ‘baby and bed quilts’ Category

Keep Calm and Sew Nine Patches

Saturday, February 1st, 2014

44blocks

I have managed to sew and cut 44 disappearing nine patch blocks. I have them on the design wall in no order whatsoever. If you are not familiar with the block. Here is how you make it.

Cut squares of fabric all the same size. I cut six inch squares. Arrange and sew a nine patch block from the squares.

ninepatch

Then cut into fourths.

ninepatchcut

You can then rearrange them in a variety of ways

ninepatchcutandrearranged

I think these fabrics need some solids mixed in to calm down the mix of prints. So I have been auditioning colors.

ninepatchcoloraudition

That is not the right green – needs to be less chartreuse and more lime green. Tomorrow, the local fabric stores have Super Bowl Sunday sales so I will head out to get some solids and some batting to finish 3 quilts.

We had a nice evening out with Steph and family tonight. We have all been so busy that there has been little time for get-togethers.

Back in the Saddle, er, Studio

Thursday, January 30th, 2014

graffitiredone

I am slowly getting back into my studio routine and getting past the grief of losing out on the new home that I really wanted. There is still nothing much for us to look at. We are just hoping that something that fits us becomes available soon.

In the meantime, I am having some fun working in my stripped down studio. I have not moved to the new one yet, because it is too far away from where we currently live. Last fall, when I went to my Oregon Critique group, the guest critiquer was surprised that the same person had done the graffiti piece and the moon pieces. She really liked the graffiti piece, but thought the purple which I had used was too flat. I decided to change it to neon pink. Little more shocking, don’t you think. Here is what it looked like before.

graffitiweb

The moon pieces have been weighing on my mind. I was not happy with the hand stitching I had done. So I have been working on this one to see if I can resurrect it.

BlueMoon1

I removed all the hand stitching except on the surface of the moon. I used a blue fabric pen to make the perle cotton all dark blue instead of variegated.

indigomoonredux

Where I had the little white circles, I covered them with a variegated silk ribbon, which is more subtle and adds a bit of interest to the surface. If you click on the image, you can see the detail better.

I have also been doing some therapy sewing.making a quilt for Paige, using Lisa’s fabric line. I am doing the disappearing nine patch which is so easy and you end up with blocks that belie the simplicity.

paigequiltmaking

paigequiltblock

And,  so there you have it. You knew I couldn’t stay maudlin for long, right!!

Coping

Monday, January 27th, 2014

tranquilitySAQAtrunkshow

I finished the hand stitching on this piece for the SAQA 2014 trunk show. The edges needed to be finished so I fused it to a piece of black felt and did a simple hand stitched edge with the same perle cotton. I have named it Tranquility because it has given me some peace to work on  it during a turbulent time.

Here is a detail.

tranquilitypeek

Most days, we have someone here poking around the house as the buyers decide what to ask for as a result of the inspection. It is mostly minor stuff. And we are happy to have the radon test come back negative.

We did not get the townhouse we made an offer on. It sat on the market for a couple of months. I think the price was dropped a couple of times. We thought we were golden. The great thing was, there was a large space at the end of the garage that we could turn into a studio for me with heat and plumbing. I was so excited. We were blindsided as two other offers came in when we made ours. So, I have been pretty unhappy for several days, now. Not sure what we are going to do as there is nothing, NOTHING, out there that fits our needs, physically and economically. Guess I just have to be patient.

I have decided that I need a mindless project – therapy sewing.  There are yards of each of these fabrics that Lisa designed for Cloud 9. She gave me the whole lot when I was in CA in November.

Processed with VSCOcam

I washed the whole pile and now I have to iron them. I think I will make a couple of kid quilts for Paige and my great niece, Abigail.

basketlisafabrics

I also washed the Jay McCarroll fat quarters that she gave me last year. I love the colors and patterns in these. I will make a small quilt for someone special. Jay was the first Project Runway winner who is also a quilter.

JayMcfabrics

This should help me take my mind off the stalled house hunting.

KK’s Windows

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

windowpanes

I finished quilting this by stitching window panes in the center panels. As I was quilting, I decided to name it KK’s Windows. KK is the nickname given to my great niece, Kaelyn.

I couldn’t decide on a border and then remembered that I have a whole lot of purple hand-dyed fabric. I don’t even know where I got it. Since purple was the central color and the color of the walls in her bedroom, I decided to use some of the purple. It doesn’t look that purple in the photo, but it is!

purplebinding

I am now hand sewing the binding. I am hoping to deliver this in person at then end of this month!

Just Sitting Around…

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

machhinequiltinggirlquilt

with this! I have spent a good part of the day doing straight quilting around my squares and along the seams using a purply pink variegated cotton thread. I haven’t quilted anything this big in a long time, but it is coming along.

As promise, Kristin has posted a photo of the Illuminate Aspens. My daughter, Lisa, made some birds for Kristin a while ago, using some of the same indigo fabric that Kristin gave me, that I used in her quilt. So they are hanging out together in Kristin’s living room. You can see a photo, here.