We've designated both July and August as Modern Quilt Month 2015. We've enjoyed seeing the modern quilts at various shows, and summer seems like the perfect time to feature these fun quilts. Here is p
Lorrie Faith Cranor specializes in the application of mathematical and computing skills to quilt design. Dr. Cranor is Professor of Compute...
We've designated both July and August as Modern Quilt Month 2015. We've enjoyed seeing the modern quilts at various shows, and summer seems like the perfect time to feature these fun quilts. Here is p
Florida's World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach is a great event to attend, amidst the warmth and sunshine, while most of the U.S.A. shivers...
Inspiration, tools and techniques for beautiful quilts
Welcome to Modern Quilt Month 2016 ! We've enjoyed seeing the modern quilts at various shows, and summer seems like the perfect time to feature these fun quilts. Here is part 1 of Modern Quilt Month.
Inspiration, tools and techniques for beautiful quilts
We enjoyed our fun trip to the 42nd annual quilt show at the Museum of Art in Springville, Utah . It was very professionally staged and cont...
For Tanya by Emily Coffey. Lane Junaluska, NC. Judge’s Choice, QuiltCon 2015
It was a warm day in August 1990 when the darkroom came down in my Long Beach, California apartment. The family knew that this ‘quilt thing’ had taken hold, for a sewing machine had entered our home. Little did any of us know just how life changing this would become. I had stumbled quite innocently into quilting that summer – seeing quilts in different places where before I had seen none. The invasion took hold in bits and pieces; literally pieces of fabric came into the house in one state and were transformed by needle and thread. Years one and two were spent learning the basics – taking projects on the road to be stitched at hotels around the country while I traveled for work. Then there was time spent just breaking enough rules set in place by my traditional guides to have them take long second glances at the quilts I shared. By 1994 I was in search of a way to add curves to my quilts, for I loved the curves found all around me in nature and traditional square construction methods no longer worked to express what I wanted. By studying with some amazing teachers I soon was taking a little bit from here and a little bit from there to pull together a construction method that did not require the time (and ok, the discipline) of traditional applique in order to express the curves of the world around me. Then, once I began dyeing, painting, printing, beading, embroidery and playing with other non-traditional quilting elements I soon left the quilt police behind without worry. My quilt art finally took on my voice – I could use fabric to tell the story of what it felt like to stand in a field of poppies, leave the beaten path to confront a Suaraguo cactus while it bloomed, or stand at the entrance to the chapel in Yosemite – under the weathered rock of Half Dome, ready to marry my sweetheart. Art has always played a role in my life, but it took thread, needle and fabric to transform me into a working artist. Since 2003, I have travelled and taught my methods, I’ve written 4 books, magazine articles, appeared on television and newspapers; making a living, thanks to those simple tools; and the ideas keep pouring in – so I am forever grateful for those long ago quilters that left bits and pieces of themselves for me to find on those hot summer days. In 2012 my husband retired and we left our California life behind and headed to Paducah, Kentucky. This small town is known amongst stitchers as Quilt City USA. This move allowed us to be closer to my sweetie’s family while living alongside some amazing artists. There is always something happening here! Quilt Week 2015 just ended, and a long week of exhibits, demos, book signings has also ended. But, the new friends I’ve made this week and time spent with some old quilt artist friends will be remembered for a long, long time. Currently, my latest book (#4) hit the streets this past January. My book titles include: Fast Piece Applique, 2015 Design, Create, Quilt, 2012 Exploring Embellishments, 2010 Dream Landscape, 2008 My website provides information about me, my work and my offerings. I teach on-line workshops throughout the year on Academy of Quilting. My favorite – Shaping-Up with Fast-Piece Applique is scheduled to start on May 1, 2015. To keep up with me, and have some fun along the way you may want to check out my Blog, Like my Facebook page and you can click here to get my monthly Newsletter. If you happen to be in western Kentucky, Rose is part of the current exhibit Two Voices at Jefferson Street Studio - Paducah, Kentucky, through May 1, 2015. This is Week 16 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Rose’s story today!
Explore ivoryblushroses' 10029 photos on Flickr!
We've designated both July and August as Modern Quilt Month 2015. We've enjoyed seeing the modern quilts at various shows, and summer seems ...
Welcome to a new season of quilt shows ! We had a wonderful time at the Diablo Valley Quilters' show in Walnut Creek, California ! Here is...
Welcome to a new season of quilt shows ! We had a wonderful time at the Diablo Valley Quilters' show in Walnut Creek, California ! Here is...
We enjoyed our fun trip to the 42nd annual quilt show at the Museum of Art in Springville, Utah . It was very professionally staged and cont...
Time is indeed relative. I find it hard to believe I’ve been posting photos of my work since 2012. December 2018 Flower Power Turning The Corner 24.5 x 35 ” November 2018 Church Windows…
Gotta Dance! I finished my quilt and shipped it off to Colorado for photography yesterday. (Scary!) Lori from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine saw a pic of my quilt on facebook and wanted me to ship it to her for possibly putting it in their magazine. Soooo, within a day of finishing the faced binding, I was removing all the cat hair and fashioning a shipping tube. Then I filled out the entry form for the National Quilt Museum's New Quilts from Old Favorites contest and saw the date I'll get my quilt back if it is accepted into the exhibition. Gasp - the date is the end of 2017. I miss my baby already, lol. On the other hand, this expresses my feelings as I walk away from it. Wait for it... There is some relief in knowing that the quilt is out of my hands now. I can't fix it up anymore; I can't spend hours looking at all the imperfections in the stitches and I can't obsess about it anymore! Maybe now I'll sleep at night. On to other things. Fun things! Last month we celebrated another great quilt show here in Wisconsin, the Quilt Expo. I took a bunch of pictures, surprise surprise. Here are some of my favorite landscape quilts. I'll be posting more quilts from the show in later blogs, never fear. Barbara's Barn by Shirley Gisi I love her quilts. I love her colors. I was so happy to see another one of her works here in Wisconsin. And a perfect season for it, too! Here is a closeup of her marvelous tree. Stargazers by Mary Alice Hart I have these growing in my garden, They are so pretty and smell so sweet. Mary used both turned edge and raw edge applique to create her flowers and leaves. And here is a detail shot - From fall to spring and then back to fall again - how quickly the seasons can change on my blog, lol. Come Walk With Me by yours truly. (Cathy Geier) No ribbons for me alas. I do like my quilt though and the Wisconsin Public Television peoples interviewed me on camera so I was able to share my quilty story. (A mushy lovey dovey story about walking hand and hand in the woods with my husband...) So that was fun. I was hot and sweaty after teaching and probably looked a fright, but we'll see when the video comes out next year. ~ Now for a quilting Tour de Force ~ On This Winter's Day by Nancy Prince 2000 hours, 7 years of work and 45 different colors of silk thread! This quilt was truly breathtaking to see. I took lots of pictures including another full image one down below a ways here, but there was never a time when someone wasn't in front of this quilt. Enjoy all the detail shots of the embroidery/thread painting and the quilting. What an incredible work of art! The coats were all 3 dimensionally built up with thread - you just wanted to pet them. The white glove ladies were standing watch very closely! Extraordinary detail on the buildings. Beautiful color and shading in the snow, on the water, under the bridge. And the best I could do with getting the whole thing without bodies in the way! What a quilt this is! Field of Flowers by Renelle Kunau This colorful garden was made of silk. Carpathian Mountain Sunset by Cathy Geier - Me! No ribbon for me here either. I admit to being somewhat disappointed but oh well. Look at this cute chickadee - Something to Sing About by Janet Besadny Isn't this a cutie? Janet created her quilt using techniques she learned from David Taylor. Here is a closeup. Trish and Tweety by Wendy Butler Berns Wendy was inspired by some baby cows she saw while riding her bike and decided to create them in a whimsical way. Popcorn by Jan Soules Fused and painted, this is a concession stand Jan loves to see every year. She learned her techniques from a class by Lenore Crawford. The Riverfront by Barbara Strobel Lardon I'm friends with Barbara on facebook and I think this is one of the first times she entered a quilt in a show. She sells her art on etsy and she has a great blog showing you some of the steps she takes when she creates her quilts. She used tulle to create the fog and paintsticks to create the reflections in the water. Garden of Grace by Chris Lynn Kirsch and Wendy Rieves They took pictures of Grace Church while in Paducah and decided to make a 'slice' quilt together. It was a quilting adventure working together and Chris writes that 'by God's grace we are quilting friends." Radiant Roots by Susan Jackan Painted, fused and quilted with variegated threads, Susan drew her root veggies and took photos of the real leaves to create her pattern. The quilting is terrific! (And can I take a second to say that I'm really getting sick of seeing feathers on everything?! How impolitic of me - I know, but there are no feathers around her roots!!!) Never Say Never by Eileen Daniels Eileen used wool from old clothing and beads to create her undersea landscape. Transcontinental by Kathleen Hughes Kathleen lives by railroad tracks and likes watching the trains go by everyday. View of the Arles with Iris by The Fab 5 Who are the Fab 5? They are a fun group in California. They decided to do a rendition of Van Gogh's painting and do it in a slice form. Pretty fun, yes!? Ok, I admit to being to lazy to write down their names. Google them, lol. (Some of them have LONG names!) Well that is it for me this week. Next week I'll be up north teaching and the week after that I'll be on vacation. (I won't tell you where I'm going because you might come after me with a rotary cutter.) In the meantime, I have a question. I would like to get one of my quilts in the AQS show circuit this winter and spring. I have 2 choices; Carpathian Mountain Sunset or Come Walk With Me. Both are pictured above in my blog here. Which one do you think is better? I like Carpathian, hubby likes Come Walk... if you have any strong opinions, please feel free to comment. Thanks for reading and happy quilting!
It's Christmas in July ! Here is a forest of free patterns and tutorials for Christmas Tree quilts and wall hangings. Quilted trees are "green" (reusable) and they take up far less space than a rea
If you are visiting my blog for the first time, welcome! I hope you will take a few minutes to look around. I love traditional quilts, modern quilts, art quilts, pretty much anything and everything…
Quilts from the Minimalist Design category from QuiltCon 2015, sponsored by American Made Brand. Another of my favorite categories. Enough said. :)
My final post from the Tokyo Dome is split into several parts. I didn't count the quilts in each competition category, but there seemed ...
There were several favorite small wallhangings but I'll concentrate on the larger quilts for this favorites tour. I have a huge selection of striped fabric so I decided to use a big variety of them as sashing with Kaffe Fassett prints in this favorite quilt of 2015. One of my favorite Martha Negley prints is the border fabric, tree rings. My first X and + quilt was made in 2015. I used both light and dark backgrounds and just kept making blocks until I had more than enough to make this quilt. I played for days at the design wall and eliminated the blocks that weren't working. I love the riot of color in this one. I have never been able to get a good photograph of this favorite large wallhanging. This one hangs in my living room. It is called Many Moons. The blue around it is my grayed lavender living room walls so you can see how far off the color is. This one from 2016 is the size of a baby quilt or could be a wallhanging. I had a plan to cut up a bunch of batiks that I didn't like very well into squares and triangles. Since I love star quilt, my plan was to put the triangle squares and large squares on the design wall and see what happened. It was a surprise when the stars started joining in a diagonal pattern. I loved the top so much I didn't quilt it for years for fear it would leave my house. This 2016 favorite was a surprise. I had made the stars as my nightly sewing, all scraps, and no quilt in mind. One day I was looking through my stacks of blocks and realized the Kaffe fabric 16 patches were the same size as the star blocks. I'm sure the quantity of red plus stars is the reason I love this one so much. The last one from 2016 is my Marcia Derse fabric tall triangles quilt. I love Marcia's fabrics and I love triangles so it's easy to see why I love this one. 2017, a year of so many favorites but this one is at the top of the list. The plaids are all shirting weight and some of them are the Roberta Horton yarn dyed wovens from the 1990s. Others are from yardage purchased over a period of 40 years. The blocks were cut with my 7" Drunkard's Path acrylic templates. I know 2 people who would love to own this one. 2017 was the year I finally cut into all of my indigo Dutch Wax fabrics. I made it modular style which is explained on my blog, click on Modular quilt tutorial on my Label List. This is my favorite 2017 colorwash made with 1.5" x 3" rectangles. I love the irregular shaped light center. I'm sorry but there is a fourth favorite from 2017. I like this one for many reasons, the Marcia Derse background and border fabrics, the Kaffe Fassett yarn dyed stripes for the sashing and the large prints, some of them from 30 years ago. It's all about the fabric for me. The block design came from a Kathy Doughty book. 2018 was a year of mostly wallhangings but this one is a larger quilt. I used the last piece of a lot of the African fabrics in this quilt so it can never be reproduced exactly. This is my third half hexagon quilt and my favorite of the 3. 2018 was the introduction of a new style quilt called Colorburst, not a blend like Colorwash but contrasting colors touching. I created my first larger Kaffe Fassett fabric colorwash in 2018. It has a lot of his early out of print fabrics in it and I really like it. 2019 has already been published on my blog on January 3. Click here to see it. My favorites for 2019 are ones I am keeping whereas a lot of the favorites from previous years have been sold or gifted to special people. I tend to want to hold onto the newest ones for awhile and after I have made some new favorites I can sometimes part with an older favorite.
The main thing I want to make in 2015 is quilts - lots of quilts. I've started the year right with our national Quilt Symposium that's been right here in Palmerston North. I am full up with inspiration and thought I'd share some of it here with you over a few posts. First up, I attended some great lectures. The artists I saw are all very talented in quite different ways and I took something away from hearing each one. I have provided links to their sites and photos of the quilt they had in the tutors' exhibition :: Sue Benner creates original dyed and painted fabrics which she combines with recycled textiles. She fuses and then cuts her fabrics to create detailed quilts. Her quilt on show was one of her cellular structures : click on any photo in this post to make it larger "Cellular Structure V" by Sue Benner She shared some of her landscape quilts in her talk - tiny detailed pieces and wonderful colour - see her gallery HERE. Betty Busby works with all kinds of fabrics and uses a layered approach to her work. It was really interesting to see her work inspired by the natural world through a microscope in contrast to Sue Benner's work above - go HERE to see her gallery of that work. Her tutor's exhibition quilt was one of her waterscapes - see similar work HERE. But what I'm sharing is a piece from one of the other exhibitions in town since I far prefer flowers to fish : "Buffalo Gourd" by Betty Busby Linda Beach creates all her quilts with piecing and commercial fabrics. It was fascinating to see her take on landscapes in contrast to Sue Benner above. "Evening Wall Shadows" by Linda Beach Go HERE for her gallery of quilts which includes many trees and lots of colour - the one above is much more muted than most of her pieces. Helen Godden is an Australian quilter. Her work is predominantly pictorial, with strong design and colour. Lots of free motion quilting is a feature of her work. "Rainbow Lorikeet" by Helen Godden Click HERE to see her gallery of art quilts. Here are a few of my favourites from the Tutor's exhibition which might inspire quilts from me this year : Sheena Norquay's lovely quilt pair inspires me to make a seascape quilt : "Summer and Winter island strips with oystercatchers" by Sheena Norquay Jo Dixey is a New Zealand quilter - I love the way she uses fabric. It was hard to get a good angle of this quilt because it is quite large, so see it and more of her work in her gallery HERE. "Watching" by Jo Dixey I think I might have to make 1 abstract quilt this year - I just love the colour and composition of this one by Deborah Louie from Australia. "Medallion #8" by Deborah Louie I am very lucky that at the end of January I'll be spending 2 days with Karen Stone - love her work and a good way to start the year with fabric and colour design ideas. This is her tutor's quilt, but not one of the classes I will be doing. "Reptile wisdom" by Karen K. Stone I particularly love the circles in the border There will be more posts about Symposium so I can share other exhibition quilts. I also shopped!...More soon.
Time is indeed relative. I find it hard to believe I’ve been posting photos of my work since 2012. December 2018 Flower Power Turning The Corner 24.5 x 35 ” November 2018 Church Windows…
There were several favorite small wallhangings but I'll concentrate on the larger quilts for this favorites tour. I have a huge selection of striped fabric so I decided to use a big variety of them as sashing with Kaffe Fassett prints in this favorite quilt of 2015. One of my favorite Martha Negley prints is the border fabric, tree rings. My first X and + quilt was made in 2015. I used both light and dark backgrounds and just kept making blocks until I had more than enough to make this quilt. I played for days at the design wall and eliminated the blocks that weren't working. I love the riot of color in this one. I have never been able to get a good photograph of this favorite large wallhanging. This one hangs in my living room. It is called Many Moons. The blue around it is my grayed lavender living room walls so you can see how far off the color is. This one from 2016 is the size of a baby quilt or could be a wallhanging. I had a plan to cut up a bunch of batiks that I didn't like very well into squares and triangles. Since I love star quilt, my plan was to put the triangle squares and large squares on the design wall and see what happened. It was a surprise when the stars started joining in a diagonal pattern. I loved the top so much I didn't quilt it for years for fear it would leave my house. This 2016 favorite was a surprise. I had made the stars as my nightly sewing, all scraps, and no quilt in mind. One day I was looking through my stacks of blocks and realized the Kaffe fabric 16 patches were the same size as the star blocks. I'm sure the quantity of red plus stars is the reason I love this one so much. The last one from 2016 is my Marcia Derse fabric tall triangles quilt. I love Marcia's fabrics and I love triangles so it's easy to see why I love this one. 2017, a year of so many favorites but this one is at the top of the list. The plaids are all shirting weight and some of them are the Roberta Horton yarn dyed wovens from the 1990s. Others are from yardage purchased over a period of 40 years. The blocks were cut with my 7" Drunkard's Path acrylic templates. I know 2 people who would love to own this one. 2017 was the year I finally cut into all of my indigo Dutch Wax fabrics. I made it modular style which is explained on my blog, click on Modular quilt tutorial on my Label List. This is my favorite 2017 colorwash made with 1.5" x 3" rectangles. I love the irregular shaped light center. I'm sorry but there is a fourth favorite from 2017. I like this one for many reasons, the Marcia Derse background and border fabrics, the Kaffe Fassett yarn dyed stripes for the sashing and the large prints, some of them from 30 years ago. It's all about the fabric for me. The block design came from a Kathy Doughty book. 2018 was a year of mostly wallhangings but this one is a larger quilt. I used the last piece of a lot of the African fabrics in this quilt so it can never be reproduced exactly. This is my third half hexagon quilt and my favorite of the 3. 2018 was the introduction of a new style quilt called Colorburst, not a blend like Colorwash but contrasting colors touching. I created my first larger Kaffe Fassett fabric colorwash in 2018. It has a lot of his early out of print fabrics in it and I really like it. 2019 has already been published on my blog on January 3. Click here to see it. My favorites for 2019 are ones I am keeping whereas a lot of the favorites from previous years have been sold or gifted to special people. I tend to want to hold onto the newest ones for awhile and after I have made some new favorites I can sometimes part with an older favorite.
Gotta Dance! I finished my quilt and shipped it off to Colorado for photography yesterday. (Scary!) Lori from Quilter's Newsletter Mag...
Black and white quilts almost always look modern! A bright spot of color can be introduced for contrast and interest. In today's post we're...
I wrote this post for Quiltmaker in 2015, and it is reposted here with permission. I love teaching quilters. A day in the classroom with like-minded souls brings out the best in me. We learn, we laugh and we have fun. But occasionally a student will say something that baffles me. It’s usually about combining
"Ewe Are My Sunshine," a quilt by Janet Stone of Overland Park, Kan., has won the $10,000...
The final item on my Q3 Finish A Long list was my Spinning Stripes mini quilt. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. You can see my original post about this quilt here, but suffice to say, I made this lovely quilt: from this single piece of fabric. Siren Song by Michael Miller fabrics I'd been wanting to make a quilt like this ever since I saw this striking orange mini quilt at our national Symposium in January 2015. by Shirley Mooney It was made by Shirley Mooney, a very talented local quilter and tutor. Fortunately Shirley was running classes to learn to make this quilt, so I went along in June. You can read about the class in this earlier blog post, and you can see more of Shirley's work here on her blog. It's taken a few months to finish my quilt, mainly due to all the machine quilting required. Here's the back view: I used three different colours of thread to quilt this, sometimes matching the fabric and sometimes contrasting. It's hard to show in a photo, but it is there, as the back proves. So another mini quilt is finished, and once again, I really like it. I still have another version of this quilt pinned to a sheet, waiting to be assembled. That's what happens when you buy too much fabric - you just make another version. Finished size is 22" high.
So today I continue sharing some of the photos I took on the previous day. I will say that you the viewer are getting a more than biased view of the exhibits because I photograph only the Quilts th…
with needle and thread. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my mom. Every day she has radiation, she is fitted with a mask almost exactly like this and bolted to the table under the radiation machine. The mask was made of moldable plastic and formed to her skull and shoulders. I have to tell you how stunned I was when I saw them pull her mask out of the cupboard and then watched them put her on the table and tighten the bolts. She is my hero! Last week for therapy, I gathered up some of my favorite blue scraps. I'm currently in the process of changing all of our 18 year old, seen two houses décor for the living room into coastal shades of blue, green and tan with splashes of beach finds here and there. Pinterest Board So many of our happiest memories as a family are at the beach. I wanted to capture some of those feelings and remembrances and bring them into our daily lives. Pinterest I have always liked the look of this Stacked Blocked pattern and decided to make a new coffee table topper to help make the room feel more "beachey". Pretty straight forward stitching. Using some white scraps, I just started cutting the blues into different lengths, none larger than about 7" and attached white strips to each side. On the machine for some FMQing and.... here it is! Finished and already brightening the room! Love! Love! Love! I used an oceany blue fabric from Joann's for backing and some of Kaffe Fassett's stripes in luscious blues for the binding. Here are some other projects I've crocheted and sewn to help redo the room: Removing border and repainting comes next. I'm waiting for warmer weather so I can have windows open while I paint since the smell seems to linger a long time in this house. In the meantime, I'm still making Granny Square blocks and putting together Churn Dash blocks for a second quilt for the bunk beds in Ben's room. Sewing is such a peaceful, creative process for me. I've learned I like the puttering and putzing of making a quilt more than the idea of setting out to make a quilt and finishing it asap. Choosing fabrics, appreciating the colors and feel. The tactile pleasure of measuring and cutting. Contemplating where a block might go in the overall pattern. Pressing. It centers me. Calms my fearful thoughts and worriful murmurings. Hope you get a chance to sew some this week. i have to say quilt story freshly pieced my quilt infatuation & crazy mom quilts
There were several favorite small wallhangings but I'll concentrate on the larger quilts for this favorites tour. I have a huge selection of striped fabric so I decided to use a big variety of them as sashing with Kaffe Fassett prints in this favorite quilt of 2015. One of my favorite Martha Negley prints is the border fabric, tree rings. My first X and + quilt was made in 2015. I used both light and dark backgrounds and just kept making blocks until I had more than enough to make this quilt. I played for days at the design wall and eliminated the blocks that weren't working. I love the riot of color in this one. I have never been able to get a good photograph of this favorite large wallhanging. This one hangs in my living room. It is called Many Moons. The blue around it is my grayed lavender living room walls so you can see how far off the color is. This one from 2016 is the size of a baby quilt or could be a wallhanging. I had a plan to cut up a bunch of batiks that I didn't like very well into squares and triangles. Since I love star quilt, my plan was to put the triangle squares and large squares on the design wall and see what happened. It was a surprise when the stars started joining in a diagonal pattern. I loved the top so much I didn't quilt it for years for fear it would leave my house. This 2016 favorite was a surprise. I had made the stars as my nightly sewing, all scraps, and no quilt in mind. One day I was looking through my stacks of blocks and realized the Kaffe fabric 16 patches were the same size as the star blocks. I'm sure the quantity of red plus stars is the reason I love this one so much. The last one from 2016 is my Marcia Derse fabric tall triangles quilt. I love Marcia's fabrics and I love triangles so it's easy to see why I love this one. 2017, a year of so many favorites but this one is at the top of the list. The plaids are all shirting weight and some of them are the Roberta Horton yarn dyed wovens from the 1990s. Others are from yardage purchased over a period of 40 years. The blocks were cut with my 7" Drunkard's Path acrylic templates. I know 2 people who would love to own this one. 2017 was the year I finally cut into all of my indigo Dutch Wax fabrics. I made it modular style which is explained on my blog, click on Modular quilt tutorial on my Label List. This is my favorite 2017 colorwash made with 1.5" x 3" rectangles. I love the irregular shaped light center. I'm sorry but there is a fourth favorite from 2017. I like this one for many reasons, the Marcia Derse background and border fabrics, the Kaffe Fassett yarn dyed stripes for the sashing and the large prints, some of them from 30 years ago. It's all about the fabric for me. The block design came from a Kathy Doughty book. 2018 was a year of mostly wallhangings but this one is a larger quilt. I used the last piece of a lot of the African fabrics in this quilt so it can never be reproduced exactly. This is my third half hexagon quilt and my favorite of the 3. 2018 was the introduction of a new style quilt called Colorburst, not a blend like Colorwash but contrasting colors touching. I created my first larger Kaffe Fassett fabric colorwash in 2018. It has a lot of his early out of print fabrics in it and I really like it. 2019 has already been published on my blog on January 3. Click here to see it. My favorites for 2019 are ones I am keeping whereas a lot of the favorites from previous years have been sold or gifted to special people. I tend to want to hold onto the newest ones for awhile and after I have made some new favorites I can sometimes part with an older favorite.
'Nearly Insane' Quilt - August 2015 Well here it is. The Nearly Insane Quilt in all its glory. Once I started those Dear Jane blocks I knew they would be difficult to put down, so I put them aside and made sure that this weekend was a Nearly Insane Quilt finishing weekend. I actually finished all the blocks, sashing and cornerstones last August (2014) and got them all together last November. Tour de France - July 2015 The last stretch was the hardest. The border really tested my resilience, but I set myself a target and it was finally completed and stitched onto the quilt on 26th July 2015 - the final day of the Tour de France as the cyclists were cycling up the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The removal of the papers took longer than anticipated (doesn't everything ...) and I estimate that it took me about 7 WHOLE days. The final pieces were taken out yesterday. 'Nearly Insane' Quilt - Detail Now it is done, I am delighted with it. It looks really lovely now all the tacking thread has been removed. Without the paper it is also much lighter! Would I use English Paper Piecing again? Yes, I think this quilt done on a machine would have really driven me insane, some of the pieces are really tiny. Perhaps I would have removed the papers as I went along ... 'Nearly Insane' Quilt - reverse I have recently purchased a photographers studio stand to display quilts from, which you can see in the top photo. I took this photo from behind the quilt with the light flooding through which makes it look like stained glass. The real joy of this quilt is that I am looking at the blocks and remembering all the different places around the world where I stitched my portable sewing project (France, Switzerland, USA, Buckingham Palace!), so it has a lot of good memories. If you are just visiting my blog for the first time you can go back to February 2013, where my journey started. I cover every block, using Electric Quilt software and you will see what a great contribution Suzi the cat made along the way. I guess the next question is 'How am I going to quilt it?' If you pop over here, you might just get a clue. Joining up with Connie at Freemotion by the River. and Crazy Mom Quilts.
Improv Log Cabin by Tara Faughnan. Oakland, California.
We had a fabulous time at the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival , the largest quilt show on the Pacific coast of the U.S. Beautiful...
Hello world, It's been an amazing week. Last weekend, I attended the International Quilt Market in Houston. I came prepared with an agenda and meetings to drum up more business. I'm happy to say, it was a success. I can't wait to start talking about it. Unfortunately, I can't. Sorry, a bit of a teaser. I did post some pictures on my instagram and facebook pages of my market experience. Check them out. As I was walking the floor at market, I noticed a couple of my quilts hanging in the BHG booth. Fun! Hot off the press, my last installment of the Sew Sampler and The Crossing. They are in the Quilts & More magazine winter 2015 issue. The Sew Sampler. All fabric by Michael Miller's Cotton Couture Solids. Warm & White batting by the Warm Company. 50wt 100% cotton thread by Aurifil. http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/quilts-and-more/quilts-and-more-winter-2015?page=14 The Crossing. Fabric prints by Anna Maria Horner. Fabric solids by Free Spirit. Warm & White batting by the Warm Company. 50wt 100% cotton thread by Aurifil. http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/quilts-and-more/quilts-and-more-winter-2015?page=21 I hope you enjoy these quilts. I enjoyed making them. Back to the grind, Sandra Images used with permission from Quilts and More and Meredith Corporation. Copyright 2015.
Here are my final selections from the exhibits at Quilt Market Houston 2015. The Plaid Portico is signing off for the holidays. Wish the best to you and yours. Be back in 2016! Ablaze by Helena Schef
I originally hadn’t planned on going to the show this year. I KNOW, don’t hate me, but I much prefer the Yokohama quilt show – nowhere near as big a crowds, but still the same level of inspiring quilts! And thus more space to enjoy them fully. And as I’m headed to QuiltCon next month […]
J'invite celles qui n'ont pas pu s'y rendre et aussi les autres à me suivre au fil des allées et des expositions... Le thème de cette année "Flower Power" a donné naissance à un gigantesque tapis faits de yoyos et de potirons: Avant l'arrivée de la...
I made this church banner for a friend to gift to her church in 2015. It is approximately 69" x 93" and is all batik fabrics. I used Hobbs Thermore batting in it to keep it lightweight. Click here to see a photo of it hanging in the church. 21" finished colorwash. I used 2" squares to make it in 2015. 28" colorwash made with 2.5" squares. I made the top before 2007 and used it as a class sample for years. Then in 2015 I finally quilted and finished it. This little 19" colorwash is a mix of regular quilting cottons and batiks and was made in 2015. All batik rectanges 2.5" x 4.5". I made it in June, 2007. It is 45" x 63.5". It is in the Julie and Larry Sefton Collection and was featured in the October 2014 issue of "Quilt Life". Bright Colorwash 1 - 43" x 56" Finished in 2012 Bright Colorwash 2 39.5" x 50.5" Finished in 2013 Bright colorwash made with rectangles 2" x 4" finished in 2015. Sold as a quilt top in 2015. Batik Colorwash 50.5" x 38.5". Finished in 2012 Batik Colorwash 2 - 38.5" x 38.5". Finished in 2012 Batik colorwash made in 2015 with rectangles that finish at 2" x 4". It is approximately 44" x 68". African Colorwash - 20" x 23.75". Finished in 2013 I made this piece in Feb. 2008. It is 19" x 23.5" I had the quilt top on my design wall for about 8 years. I finally finished it in Feb. 2008. It is 20" square. Colorwash bars, designed and pieced in 1995 and quilted many years later. My first colorwash pieces were made with calico type fabrics and from there I went to multicolor busy floral prints of a little larger size. This is one of my earliest pieces made with 1.5" squares that finish at 1". It is 12.75" square. This is another early piece, also with squares finishing at 1". It is 16.5" square. I sold this piece so I can't measure it but i think it is about 25" square. If you go back to this post you will see how I store the squares for working on this type of quilt. I challenged myself to go one step farther with this colorwash and add applique to it. I liked it before I added the triangles and I like it afterwards so I'm not sure what I learned there. This piece is 36" x 37". This piece was one of the first colorwash pieces that I made. I believe it was in January of 1991. It was accepted in the AQS show in 1992. It is 49" square. I entered this quilt in the local county fair quite a few years ago and it won the Best Quilt purple ribbon. It is a Colorwash Trip Around the World. This heart colorwash quilt was made with a strip pieced method of constructing 13 stratas to create the 13 rows in the hearts and then sliced to make 24 identical blocks. I gave this quilt to one of my nieces.
Me and my quilt. (Sunset Sentinel) This big old long blog is all quilts from Shipshewana's Quilt Festival. Hubby and I camped and enjoyed the tasty food and the 34 mile Pumpkin Vine bike trail. Yep, we biked the whole thing - and in one day too! Rain came in the next day... I did win a 3rd Place ribbon there, so that was fun too! I didn't get much done on that birch quilt I've been working on. Why? Because I hurt my back so badly that I couldn't sit down for very long! This is the source - though you can't tell how big that pot is. That black pot had a small tree in it and was at least 2 feet high and wide. Sooo, a friend gave me all these marigold bedding plants and I put them all in various containers. I watered them in thoroughly and THEN decided I didn't like them were they were and I moved them. Then lifted them up on bricks so I could see more of them from the house. Ugh! It was sooo heavy and I was soooo dumb to drag it and hoist it around. Enter back pain... It was dumb. But I'm recovered and can sit without pain for an hour or two at a time. Lol. Time for the quilt show. This is Janet Stone's latest quilt. So cute! It had a lovely blue ribbon. Ewe are My Sunshine by Janet Stone Here are some closeups of the little sheep with little alphabet letters. She is on a roll with alphabet quilts - this is her 15th in a series. Callamanda by Terry McCaskey Terry made it for her niece who loves calla lilies. She chose the colors of Virginia Tech where her niece goes to college. Hope Springs by Jan Martin Jan left big open spaces to show off the quilting. It's a nice modern quilt! Sunflower Illusions by Mary Manning quilted by Rogene Fischer Mary paper pieced these Judy Niemeyer patterns. Garden Medallion by Sharon Edwards, quilted by Doris Goins Sharon hand appliqued using a blanket stitch. Letter Carriers by Janet Stone Janet loves basket blocks and actually wove these using bias strips. The Landing by Joanne Baeth Incredible detail and stitching! This is a fabulous landscape - wait until you see the close-ups! Joanne said she made the geese feather by feather Her beautiful mountain Perennial Panes by Rebecca Yoder Autumn's Surrender by Margaret Solomon Gunn Pieced in silk, Margaret's quilt is inspired by autumn colors changing to winter. Margaret has bunches of quilts here at the show and all are exquisitely long arm machine quilted. Along the Fence Line by Jan Berg-Rezmer Jan's techniques include raw edge applique, paint and resist dyed background. Jan won the 2nd place ribbon in the Mixed Media category - small. Land of Enchantment by Marilyn Craig The caption should be so many books or fairy tales; so little time! These are appliqued figures based on a painting by Norman Rockwell. Zen Garden by Margaret Solomon Gunn Dancing Women by Joy Hess This reminds me of a church banner; it is simple with clean lines but carries a message of joy. The Indiana Bat by Cindy Loos This species of bat is endangered and Cindy wanted to draw attention to it's plight. She used a split complimentary color scheme. Remembrance by Jan Hutchinson Jan won a 2nd Place ribbon in mixed techniques - large for her quilt. She was inspired by Jacobean crewel work and used trapunto and threadwork to make her original design. Prairie Star by R. David Fritsch, quilted by Holly Schlosser R. David uses a Judy Niemeyer pattern for this quilt and had fun picking the colors. Murdererskill Crossing by Janet Atkins Personally, I think this quilt should have a ribbon on it. Frankly speaking, I wish judges would give a little more weight to those quilts where the quilt maker created her own (or his own) pattern. Anyway, I love her colors and her quilting was excellent. Exuberance by Marilyn Badger Paper pieced, embroidered and hand appliqued, she made the quilt during the time of her husband's illness. Here is a closeup of her glorious work. Sweetwater Gap Bloodroot by Terry Kramzar My camera caught the image such that the flowers came out way to white - almost glow in the dark. In the real quilt, they weren't so bright. Under the Sea by Sally Owen, quilted by Jan Blanchette She was such a nice lady, I had to take her picture by her quilt. Aunt Mimi's Flower Garden by Elsie Campbell Isn't that a sweet little butter yellow blue and white quilt? Speaking of blue and white... Sarah's Revival in Blue by Gail Smith, quilted by Karen McTavish Gail wanted to use up her blue stash. This blue and white beauty is hand appliqued and machine quilted with trapunto. Spirit by Georgia Pierce Georgia was inspired by native designs in the Pacific Northwest. I used to live in Ketchikan, Alaska and boy did these figures look familiar! Everlasting Bouquet by Molly Hamilton This was such a beautiful quilt. It was quilted by Cindy Seitz-Krug. Here is a detail photo for you. Endless Circle by Joy Hess quilted by Sally Roll Joy's quilt had a nice 2nd Place ribbon on it in the Pieced - Small category. She wrote that she likes playing with color. Quilt Dreams by Beth Nufer quilted by Shelly Knapp This big beauty won the Viewer's Choice Ribbon. Beth's quilt is huge and it was inspired by a jig-saw puzzle by Diane Phalen. The Pink Lady by Russ Schmidt, quilted by Jan Hutchison When I saw this quilt at Paducah this year, it was hanging at such at angle that I couldn't get a good shot of it. Yay! I got a good one this time! Circle of Friends by Barbara Clem This was HAND quilted! Treedom by Alexandra Zamar I really liked this simple tree. Alexandra doubled her batting and used crystals to embellish her design. Imaginary Day by Meredith Yoder Don't ask me why she named it thus. She did say she liked picking the colors though. This was all done by machine. All that Glitters by Sharyl Schlieckau Sharyl used both computer guiding and hand quilting. There are some metallic threads in here too. Bodacious by Claudia Clark Meyers and Marilyn Badger WOW! This was an amazing quilt - I have a few closeups for you to oooo and ahhh over. They collaborated for the whole making of this quilt and created the checker board fans just to see if they could do it!!! Gotta love these ladies, ever pushing their skills to greater and greater heights! They pieced the fans... Glorious patchwork and applique! Such pretty colors! The Challenge by Cathy Benke This was her first Mariner's Compass and her design came from Fon's and Porter's Star Quilts. I love these colors. Congratulations Neil and Michael by Lee Ann Clary quilted by Sue Pawlowski This is a nice medallion quilt is it not? My First Trip to Baltimore by Carolyn Stine, quilted by Terry McMillan Carolyn used freezer paper needle turn applique and her quilt won an Honorable Mention ribbon at Paducah in 2013. Cherry Kisses by Linda McGibbon This is an original design and was given to her mom. Diamond Window by Betty Holroyd, quilted by Jeannie Walleker This came from the pattern in "String Quilts" by Elsie Campbell. Convex Illusions by Mary Martha Scott This quilt kind of sucks you right in doesn't it? There was no pattern listed so I don't know if she made this up or not. The illusion is great though! Stars for a New Day by Cyndi Phillip Cyndi took 5 years to make this block of the month quilt - which came from The Quilt Show folks. Little LaLoma by Ginny Hoot This little tree frog is another endangered species. Good Morning Sunshine by Debra Ramsey I think this is a pretty sweet little wall hanging. It makes me smile. It is hand appliqued and machine quilted. And last but not least - the Best of Show Quilt! Vintage Button Bouquet by Linda Roy Linda was inspired by antique buttons from the 1850's - 80's. This quilt is hand embroidered, hand quilted, and hand appliqued. She stipple quilted, added upside down stuffed yo-yo's and ruching to add texture. This is an original design. And here is a detail. Add caption Well, that is all from the Geier house for this week. I've been on my butt for 3 hours and I'm outta this computer chair! I hope everyone has a great weekend and see you next week. Hopefully I'll be done quilting that little birch tree scene and will have directions, etc. all ready so I can kit it for my store. I hope you liked this online quilt show!
We've designated both July and August as Modern Quilt Month 2015. We've enjoyed seeing the modern quilts at various shows, and summer seems like the perfect time to feature these fun quilts. Here is p
All the tools, supplies, notions and know how for machine quilting on either a long arm quilting machine or a sewing machine.
My final post from the Tokyo Dome is split into several parts. I didn't count the quilts in each competition category, but there seemed to be a lot more in the 'Traditional' category than in any of the others. Quilts in this section varied from the very traditional to borderline contemporary. There were many quilts where the lively use of colour and pattern made traditionally inspired block patterns seem very modern. In contrast to the lively, scrappy look, other quilts were very carefully coordinated and shaded. Some quilts in this section could easily have been swapped into the 'Original Design' category, like this minimalist design with simple straight machine quilting and monochrome tumbling blocks. The colour scheme is shown best in the last photo. There were plenty of taupe quilts in this section. This one made good use of ombre effects and touches of bright blue. Another vividly coloured quilt - a wonderful mix up of fabrics. With a quilt like this, the maker must have simply made lots of blocks before starting on the layout - there is so much variety. This was one of several quilts where the binding fabric had been cut to show printed text. These half square triangles had square spirals in couched braid on top. The bright turquoise accents are a little like the bright blue in the earlier taupe quilt. Traditional applique, carefully chosen fabrics. The final photo is most accurate for colour. One of many Log Cabin variations, with a 1930s retro style. Log Cabin with stripes. There were fewer Baltimore style album quilts than I expected. This one had beautifully done hand applique but none of the three dimensional effects often seen on Japanese Baltimore quilts. A version of Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses. Pushing the boundaries of traditional... The background division is interesting. A border quilted with French knots. Some blocks had amusing fussy cut centres. There were a number of floral applique quilts, featuring very realistically shaded roses. Log Cabin variation in (mainly) black and white. This was one of my favourite block based quilts. I liked the asymmetric arrangement, with the extra strip of boderless blocks on the right, and the variation in the background fabric colour in the blocks. It makes the quilt much more interesting. The choice of fabrics, mixing florals, geometrics, dots, text etc., is a popular thing with Japanese quilters. Even many of the fabric bundles sold by traders would seem rather uncoordinated to British and American quilters. I love the fabrics with text, the more oddball the better! Rich chocolatey tones in this taupe quilt. Aubergine and chartreuse, a very fashionable colour combination in interior design over the last few years. Foundation pieced Mariners Compasses shaded across this quilt. Papers for these patterns can be bought ready marked, but the way the motifs were combined and the fabric shading effects made this quilt stunning. Unfortunately, like many of the quilts at the show, it didn't hang well. This, along with vertical creases, seemed to be the biggest issue the quilters had with 'finish'. Another Log Cabin with text prints and grapic patterns. More photos to come!
