Blogger's Quilt Festival

     It has been a busy week with deadlines, so, I am running a bit late, but finally, I am joining the fun at Amy's Creative side, and The Blogger's Quilt Festival. I hope it is not too late to get this link in.

     The quilt that I decided to share this time is called Anastasia, because my friend Eleanor said that it looks Russian, and reminds her of the St. Basil's Cathedral.

 

 

     I wanted to use the Kaleidoscope pattern to combine Kaffe Fassett prints with those lovely rich stripes he has. I like to make my quilts scrappy, including the backgrounds. When I drew out this quilt on EQ, my printer was running low on ink, and this is what I got.

 

     The background color gradates from a light green in the lower right to goldy peach in the upper left. When I saw how this printed out, I thought, Hey! I could do that gradation on the quilt! The change is subtle on the drawing and on the quilt, but, naturally it shows up better in person. I really like it when there is more to see in my quilts the closer you get to them. As you can see, I also scattered the colors in the "stars".

     This quilt won 1st place in the Guild Members Choice Awards at our guilds quilt show earlier this year. For what it is worth, it is also the subject of my very first blog post ever, but then it sat for awhile, as other quilts were quilted ahead of it. Like my other quilts, this quilt was long arm quilted by my good friend, Regina Carter. 

     There is a wide variety of beautiful quilts on display at amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival

Thanks for stopping by!

Cutting the New Quilt

    Well, I got up a bit early this morning (early for me anyway). The plan was to go feed my friends' cats (I am cat sitting this weekend), and go sit on another friends porch and sip tea while a large group of tandem cyclists ride through our town. Just as I was about to leave, the sky opened up. Darn! So I sat down to write this post. Then the rain stopped, so I saved the draft and went. Then it rained again. No cyclists, but we had a nice time chatting, eating pastry, and sipping our coffee/tea on the porch while it rained and rained. Finally, we gave up; and went our separate ways to get on with our day. Now it looks like the sun is coming out! Go figure.

     I am trying a larger font for this blog post. I usually think the font on the blog is tiny, even though the size I use is called "normal". When I switch the size to large, it looks enormous while I am typing the post. So, I usually change it back to normal; but, it looks very different published than it does while you are typing.

     I have started on the custom quilt order that I mentioned last time. On Friday, my friend Eleanor came over, and we had our first sewing day together in months. She made several sets of beautiful pillow cases. I wish I had been thinking about blogging when she was here, and I would have taken photos of them for you. I worked on making a sample block for the quilt order. I thought I knew the size pieces to cut, but I wanted to sew 1 block together just to make sure I had the measurements correct. Then I cut out all of the red star centers, and all of the red star points.

     Last night, I worked on my blues, and I hope to finish the greens, and get to the neutral backgrounds today.

     I also ran out to Sweet Home Quilt Company to pick up some additional fabrics. This quilt used civil war and similar older looking fabrics, and Sweet Home is my "go to" place for civil war prints. I did not limit myself to using "official civil war reproduction" fabrics; but, added in other fabrics that I thought would coordinated well in the mix. I still have many of the fabrics I used in the original quilt, but I have run out of many. My purple collection is the worst. But, I could use a few more browns, and greens too. What better time to boost the stash a bit, than when I actually have an order. Good excuse-right? This is what I came home with.

     I'm not sure about using that bright coral on he top, but I really like it. I know I will use it for something. I may as well make a block or 2 with it. If it turns out to be too bright, I don't have to use them in this quilt. I love this about quilting. As a weaver, it is much much more difficult to work this way. In weaving, you have to make decisions on where things will go based on seeing only a foot at a time. Sometimes, you can add or delete a small amount when you are finished, but it is much more difficult. Things always look so different on the loom than they will when they reach their end use.  

 
     When I saw that coral fabric on the bolt, I thought of my customer saying that she wanted this quilt to be vibrant and varied like to original quilt. Most quilters would not have thought of that quilt as vibrant, but it is all relative, and it is a bit more lively than some other quilts in that genre. I think this because it is scrappy, instead of just coming from a single line of fabric.

     I only found 2 purples. Purples always seem to be the hardest to find. I want to add to my purples for another quilt that I have in the back of my mind too. I have 2 more quilt shops I want to check out this week, but neither are open in Sundays, so I will have to wait until next week. Patrick's carries a lot of "Kansas Troubles" fabrics, and A Scarlet Thread has a good selection of subdued colors. With it raining off and on (I was wrong about the sun earlier), today will be a great day for more cutting.

     So, it's off to the cutting board with me! Hope your Sunday is peaceful, and you get to do something you love. Thanks for stopping by!

New Classes, and a Quilt Order!

     Once again I have been guilty of blog neglect.

     There has been a frustrating lack of sewing going on around here lately. But, good things have been happening, and I do have lots to be grateful for, so NO complaining from me!

     Since I last wrote, I had a lovely time doing a trunk show at the Southern Crescent Guild in Fayetteville, GA. It was great fun to make some new friends, and to see a couple of familiar faces there, from the classes I have taught at A Scarlet Thread, earlier this year. AST has asked me to teach 3 classes there this fall. I will be teaching Indian Summer on September 28th.

     Pineapple Storm on October 26th.

      And Sonja's Windows on November 8th.

          One thing I have been noticing over and over again in my travels this year is huge range of greens you can see everywhere you go. From the bright green new leaves, to the dark green pine trees, and everything in between. And, some days the sky has been SO SO blue! I have been thinking about this for a couple of years now. I have got to make a quilt about this before much longer.

     Unfortunately, some of the widest range I have seen was while I was driving, and I am not so good at taking pictures while I am driving!

     One more bit of good news. I think it will be easier to get some sewing done soon. I have almost caught up on my weaving. This is lucky, since I just got an order from Etsy.

        
       I sold this quilt last fall, and now they want another one just like it! Woohoo!!

     That is what I have been up to lately. Thanks for stopping by!