More from Cotton and Chocolate

Other finds from The Cotton and Chocolate Quilt store where I bought the batiks in the previous post were this print to match some "cheater" tumbling blocks yardage I bought a couple of years ago at the International Quilt show in Ontario, CA. I plan to make a table runner. The coordinating print is really a little more orange than is showing in the photo. I'll find a black print for binding--didn't see anything that grabbed me this last time.

The last bit bought was the red print below to go with the others I bought when my local JoAnn's store closed.

This is the pattern I plan to use, which was from the Jan/Feb Quiltmaker issue that Bonnie Hunter's scrap users system was featured in, along with her Tropical Twist quilt.

Oops! should have turned that pic and sorry for the glare--a great photographer I am not!

This quilt is somewhere down the line in "to do's". My priorities are to finish hand quilting G-man's quilt, get the backing sewn for The Boy's quilt, and get the top together for E-1's quilt. Oh, and I started another project from some oriental print leftovers from Susie's quilt, for a wedding present needed in June. Focusing isn't my strong point this year, I guess!

E-1's quilt progress

As promised, here are pics of the changed setting rectangle fabric for E-1's quilt. It makes the quilt much more monochromatic and she liked that.

Now the original alternate fabric will become backing, along with this spicy solid batik.

I sewed together three rows of the quilt last night and it sure comes together quickly since there are no seams to match block-to-block. It is looking really pretty and I should be able to get the top finished in no time. The blocks are 7 x 10.5, with a 7 x 9 block layout, perfect throw size. As for when the top becomes a quilt, well, that's less easy to predict....:)

The Boy

The Boy has been away for two weeks, working north of San Francisco, but got to come home on Friday night. Here's our tall , handsome young man in our most recent Christmas photo. We grew him big, didn't we? That's G-man with him, of course, and E-1 and E-2, left to right. This is not the most flattering photo of me or The Boy, but the girls had final veto as usual! I can see I should have used a little red-eye removal tool before posting. G-man and The Boy both have blue eyes but the girls and I are all shades of hazel so we always get the red eye.

Here's The Boy doing one of his favorite activities. He can play a real guitar too!

He called me from the road on Friday night while I was out at a gallery show for an artist with my mom. He said he had been gone for two weeks, and wanted to know if his quilt was finished yet. I told him I did have the top together for him to hold up and admire. Very funny, that kid! All joking aside, The Boy is planning to move to a new place in June and it would be great if I had the quilt finished for him then. We shall see....

Another kind of quilter

I inducted my sister Kathy into the quilt "cult" in 2005. I had taken her to my LQS to pick out fabrics for a strippy quilt I was going to make her. She picked up a Ricky Tims book and fell in love with the improvisational way he made his Convergence quilts. Though she admired my traditional way of quilting, cutting up fabrics into pieces and sewing them back together again, that didn't really fit the way her brain worked. Ricky's methods sparked her imagination and she was a goner. I began receiving phone calls where she made sure I knew it was "all my fault" that she was standing in a quilt shop buying $150 worth of batiks! Her creations, so different from mine, brought us closer together even though she lives far away in Missouri. We have since attended a Ricky Tims class in Indiana and the International Quilt Festival in Chicago, and have shopped at many quilt/fabric stores together. I still get the occasional call from Kathy...but I will take the blame! Here we are at Christmas 2008.

Below is Kathy's latest project, still up on her design wall. She fussy cut the lilies from yardage. Isn't it coming along wonderfully?

Check out how she did the satin stitching. Genius! It is not until you get close to the quilt that you find the background is NOT pieced squares, it is offset strips. So clever!

Kathy and I are so very different, but share so much through this quilting passion! She inspires me with exploration and invention, and I help her with scale and hue. I love you, sis!

I won this

Last year at the local guild's show, held at the County Fairgrounds, there was a silent auction for lots of miniature quilts. I bid $23 on this little cutie, which included the stand, and won!

Below is a closer view. Love the cheerfulness of the 30's prints and the friendly pinwheels. Someone put a lot of work into this and I am really enjoying it. I have also hung other mini's and some linens on the stand for display.

I have not joined the guild that is nearest me because their meetings are on Tuesday mornings and that isn't friendly toward a working gal's schedule, but I love going to their quilt show and shopping the vendors and seeing all the quilts on display. One year there was a whole cloth quilt, all in cream, that the owner had titled "And Still They Complained". It was hand-quilted and the owner stated that even though she had used a single width of fabric each for the front and the backing, the ladies who helped quilt it still complained as if it were full of seams to needle through. I thought that was a funny story!

A special thank you to each of you who stop by and take a look at my little blog, and an extra thanks to those who comment as well. Thanks so much!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I decided to join in the fun and post about my favorite quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival on Amy's blog. Naturally my photos showed up opposite of how I wanted, so you're seeing a close up first. My header is of the same quilt as well.

This quilt's story started with the pattern, found in the American Patchwork & Quilting magazine from several years back (2002 maybe?). It is "Round the Twist", by Alex Anderson. Her version was pinks and greens, I recall, with a pretty floral border, and a Kaffe Fausset stripe as the narrow inner border. While shopping at a LQS, I saw the same border in a different colorway and decided then I was going to make the quilt, but in my favorite combo of red and green. I had a great time collecting fabrics for this project. Finding the outer border was hardest; I am not really a "big florals" kind of gal but this leafy print with fall fruits suited perfectly. This was my first foray into machine free motion quilting in the centers of the snowball blocks and I was pleased with my effort, though it is far from perfect. I got the free image from Quiltmaker mag's website. I used transparent thread for all the quilting and there are several miles of tiny meandering in the border. I hope I succeed in linking back as instructed--I am still a baby blogger and, er, not that much of a technie, though I do okay!

Batik works

These rectangular blocks are for E1's quilt. All the pieced blocks got finished. She wanted a monochromatic look in browns to go with her bedroom's decor. Love the little floating squares of color, don't you?

And some more.....


This fabric below was the original idea for the alternate solid rectangles for the pattern. Uh, not gonna work, is it? Way too busy. Time to shop!

A lovely quilt shop visit ensued on Sunday. I managed to actually make a list of things I was shopping for, for once, and got several lovelies that haven't had their pictures taken yet--portraits and closeups to follow. Although it didn't qualify as a Quiltathon a la Judy, at least I was doing some sewing! Yesterday and today were very hot and as I am in my upstairs office typing this, I think it is still about 80+ degrees in here and it is nearly 8:30 pm. Luckily this is supposed to break--we don't have air conditioning and neither do probably 90% of this town's residences. Sign me "looking forward to a foggy day soon" (not one of my usual wishes!).