Sunday, August 26, 2012

Stars in Hell

If there are stars in hell, they will be feathered stars. Like many, a feathered star quilt is on my bucket list. My LQS had a class on Square in a Square feathered star, so I signed up. I'm not very good with gadget rulers. I need the big picture rather than a series of details. I really didn't get it. This combined with some all time bad sewing led me to reconstruct just about every step of this piece. I don't love it. It doesn't really look like a traditional feathered star to me. But, I will add some borders and call it a quilt. I bought lots of Edyta Sitar's fabric for it so I have to use it. I don't hate it. Just not all that I thought it would be when I conquered feathered star.

I hope all those other things on my bucket list are more fun. Surely Yosemite will be breathtaking, leaves on the east coast in fall will be gorgeous, my red/white pineapple quilt of the future will be rewarding, etc. Sure would be a bummer to start checking things off that list only to realize the list never was very good to begin with.

The air outside has promise of fall. Hope you Sunday was peaceful.



Thursday, July 19, 2012




It's an understatement that I haven't blogged in a while. I was never satisfied with my posts. I felt that if I enjoyed reading others' blogs, I should also contribute with my own blog. But...I guess self-imposed pressure was too much. So I let myself off the hook for coming up with clever posts. What I have found is that the blog is a chronicle of my projects. A timeline of conquering (or avoiding) techniques. I missed having a history of my quilting and gardening adventures. So, I've decided this is my journal and it is not intended to be clever or to be read by anyone. It's the chronicle of whatever fun is going on.





We went to the Sisters Quilt Show. We were there for 6 days. It was a little piece of heaven. The town has a little over 2,000 people. They say it grows into 15,000 the day of the show.



There were beautiful traditional quilts. Many with modern fabric. Love this feathered star.





I want this for a wall in my kitchen. Bright and cheery.




The influence of JeanWells is easy to see. There were lots of art quilts. This one is part of the Quilt for Two Rivers. I particularly like it because I walked by it and thought, " I can do that." It is beautiful.




Beautiful butterfly.











Next to a striking fish. Both these quilts are on a white background. The colors draw you in and are really stand out on the white.
All of this with the Cascade Mountains in the backdrop.
















Saturday, February 25, 2012

Quilt Show, Museum, and Gallery Visit

Yesterday I went to the Colorado Valley Quilt Guild Show. It was a coordination of events including a new exhibit at the Texas Quilt Museum and a fiber art exhibit at the Copper Shade Tree gallery.


There were too many people flocked around this quilt to get the big picture. It is a fascinating quilt made up of people the quilter felt were significant to America. Louisa May Alcott...



Davy Crockett...he's important to us here in Texas. The quilter also included people like Lucille Ball. It's a fascinating concept to me. She had to research all these people and gather pictures that would work.





Red and white. Simply put, I'm obsessed. Each star has a variety of reds in them.





Prairie points to finish the edge. I need to attempt that sometime.




One of the few contemparary quilts. The label said that her husband wanted "one of those Gees Bend type quilts." She used shot cottons. Great colors.





A lovely traditional quilt. The picture doesn't do it justice. The quilter did a great job of picking colors with some surprises in the background. You probably notice some squares that stand out. I wonder if that was intentional.


Lovely applique.





More lovely applique on another quilt. Birds and pears...love them. A friend tells me that my attraction to pears in art is some Freudian issue with my mother. Wow, that's deep!




More red and white. This one was striking. Another one that the pictures don't do justice.




Then I headed off to the Texas Quilt Museum. I wish I could have taken pictures there. I highly recommend a visit. They are showing quilts from Lone Star Quilts III.


It was a fun and inspiring day.


Saturday, February 11, 2012

Hearts a Swooning

Isn't nature fascinating? I had to buy this bleeding heart plant. Note that the stem that holds the bloom on the other stem is pink. The swoosh of color in each bloom is amazing. This makes me want to make an art quilt...if only I knew where to begin.







Another swoon block done. Today I'm going to cut the remaining blocks so I can do an assembly line approach. I have so many projects going that I spend lots of time recalling how to do things. It's time to get this one finished.


I'm off to quilt my tumbler top. I have 2 machines set up. One will be for my Swoon production line. The other for whatever whim I currently have.







Sunday, January 22, 2012

Free Motion Quilt Challenge- Dish Cloth





I've joined the masses in the Free Motion Quilt Challenge at SewCalGal. Just like anything, we are better if we practice regularly. There is even a Facebook group. What a fun way of getting me to do what I need to do.

I came across a great idea from Sew Inspired: http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2012/01/ffmq-guest-post-amy-from-amylouwho.html




She made dishtowels rather than just quilt sandwiches that get discarded. Smart. I copied her using a fat quarter, batting, and chenille on the back. Spray basting to make it all stick. I finished off the edges. Now I have a new dishtowel from a fat quarter that was never going to make it into a quilt...and I did my daily practice.

The back is pretty funny looking. It would look better if my bobbin had white in it but I didn't want to deal with it showing through the top.



Sure was a fun way to practice!






















Tumbler Quilt

While vowing to start a project and finish it, the log cabin quilt, I started another. I fell in love with the Little Gatherings fabric. Just love those browns with a splash of black every now and then. Here it is all pieced together and ready to trim and quilt.

I couldn't wait to order a template for the tumbler so my hubby printed one. Prior to that I tried to use the cardboard from the charm pack but I kept cutting into it. I went old school and just used a paper pattern. That's what impatience does for you.

Then my hubby cut a template from MDF. So nice of him. I have a few odd tumblers due the the variety of successful and unsuccessful templates.




It's January and we have blooms. I love this mass of petunias that used to be in the urn. Now they have created a bed at the bottom of the urn. They needed more dirt and found a better way to survive.

And roses are blooming. This rose bush had a tough time during the drought. Now is it's time to be showy. These roses represent resilience to me.



I love the details in something as common as a petunia bloom. Wouldn't that make a lovely art quilt? Look at the veins and the contrast of the stamen. Just lovely. Some day.




Joanna











Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Art of Making Simple Things Complicated

I've been away for quite a while. Some sewing happened but not much accomplishment to post. Have you ever been just depleted? Feel like you weren't giving what was needed in any area of your life but had so little left to give? That was me. Something had to change. So, I got a new job and started focusing on myself. Life is much better.

So I decided to use up some beautiful civil war reproduction prints. I bought them to do the Civil War Diaries but never got very far. I need a big couch quilt and thought a log cabin was a great idea. I also didn't want to take on a complicated project. A log cabin would be just repetitive sewing of strips. Very theraputic.

I got the Marti Michell book and ruler. Notice that the ruler helps you measure strips in the lengths you will need. Very efficient and simple.
Except, I made it so hard. For some reason I started making blocks with strips all the way to "n." That's 14 lengths of strips. The blocks were huge. Also, I didn't have enough light fabric. Lots of trips to the LQS were required. I ended up with huge, uber blocks. I really can't explain what I was thinking. Clearly I wasn't. So I unsewed so that I had 11.5 inch blocks. I think they should be 12 inches.







I'm going to arrange them in a barn raising layout. I've changed out a few blocks after looking at these pictures.










This is an audition of a sash with the gold. The border will be the brown. I think I need something dark between the blocks and the gold. Still thinking about that. I hope your 2012 is off to a good start. I'm looking forward to a year in which I meet my obligations but also have space for myself.

Joanna
 
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