Daydream Believer

Remember this quilt?  Yes, it's been awhile. . .

Last month I finally added borders and completed the top.  It's been sitting way too long and I had several ideas in mind for borders over the last year, but chose to do scrappy diamonds.  I thought it worked well with the scrappy style of the rest of the quilt.  It was challenging to get it all together, but I am really pleased with the end result.  Now I just need to decide how to quilt it!

Daydream Believer
(no pattern available)

Here is a close up of one border. . . 

And here is a little tabletopper I made with the leftovers from the border strips. . .

The floral border is a piece of some really old curtain fabric that I think was my mother's from an old house.  It was just enough and the colors worked, so it's one less piece of fabric I am holding onto for "someday!"

I have just now gotten around to loading my photos from the AQS Daytona Show.  I will get them organized and post those as soon as I can.  The show was really very good and it was so inspiring to see some of the amazingly beautiful quilts by the "Who's Who" in the show quilt world.  There is so much talent and creativity by so many extremely talented women out there.  

Until next time, Happy Quilting! 

Grandmother's Cabin

I finally finished my quilt last week, Grandmother's Cabin, and thought I would share some photos with you, since I know I am long overdue for an update.  Some of these pictures are before I put the binding on, some are with a different camera so colors may vary, but you get the idea. 

I had hoped I'd finish it long before now, but a few of life's interruptions during the month of September pushed my finish date up a bit further than I originally planned.  However, I was still able to meet a deadline I had set for entering it into several shows coming up, so on that note, I am quite pleased it is done and ready to send off into the quilt show world.

"Grandmother's Cabin"

I made the top back in 2012 and it has been sitting in a closet waiting to be quilted up until a couple of months ago.  I knew I wanted a lot of quilting on it, but really wasn't certain as to how elaborate I wanted it to be.

The log cabin blocks were foundation-pieced on paper.  The hexagon flowers were made using the English paper-piecing method.  The Dresden plates and the hexagon flower vine are all hand-appliqued.  This is only the second quilt I have ever hand-appliqued.

Since the quilt is so busy visually with so many pieces and such a wide variety of different fabrics, I decided to keep the quilting clean and simple with lots of grid quilting and straight lines.  Although though there is still a ton of quilting, it tends to play a more supportive "background" role instead of obliterating the details of the quilt itself.   This is also the first time I have used a wool batting, which is Hobb's Tuscany Wool.  The top thread is Wonderfil Invisafil 100 weight and the bobbin thread is Wonderfil DecoBob 80 weight.  The quilt finishes at 91 inches square, the log cabin blocks are 9 inches and the border is approximately 9 1/2 inches wide.

 

I did mark every single line with a fine-tipped water-soluble blue pen.  The grid lines are a half-inch apart and all of the lines were quilted with free-motion quilting.  The only thing I used the walking foot on is the narrow cable in the border.  The log cabin blocks are free-motion quilted in the ditch, spiraling out from the center by quilting in the seam line of each strip.



My inspiration for this quilt came from my infatuation with traditional quilts from the 1930s.  After I finished the log cabin blocks and was deciding on a border, I got the idea to combine a couple of classic quilt motifs that are easily recognizable into a single quilt to pay tribute to the 30s era as well as to our grandmothers that made them.  Since I also love scrap quilts as well as collecting fabrics that are reminiscent of the Depression Era, I challenged myself to use as many fabrics in the quilt as possible.  I kept the overall values on the lighter side in order to evoke a sense of the pastel, candy colors associated with that time period.  This is an original design and there is no pattern available.



And finally I would like to send out a big thank you to all of you who have been e-mailing me as to my whereabouts, your various questions, and the lovely comments I receive on my tutorials.  I am so flattered and appreciative of all the e-mails, as well as being overwhelmed at the interest in my work.  You never really know how many people you reach when you blog, but I will say that the response from all of you is very gratifying and I wish there was a way I could meet you all in person to say thanks from the bottom of my heart!  Until next time. . . Happy Quilting!

Happy 2015!

Happy New Year!  Well better late, than never, right?  Hope you all are recovered from the holiday season and getting back into your normal routines.  I know I am, finally, and happy to be at the sewing machine once again.  



I recently started on an Ocean Waves quilt for our bed.  It is a bit slow-going and has a lot of triangles (always a favorite of mine!).  But it will be worth the amount of time involved once it is completed.  This is going to be a large quilt, finishing out at a king size, but will have borders on four sides, so hopefully, that will reduce a bit of the time involved.

Since I am only using two fabrics in this quilt, I am piecing the half-square triangles using the Triangulations software by Bear Paw Productions, printing out the pages of the exact size triangles I need on my printer, and sewing them together.  This is my favorite and fastest method for sewing half-square triangles.  I absolutely love this method and highly recommend it if you have never tried it.

So have you made (and kept or broken?) your New Year's resolutions?  I won't get into my long list of them except for one that I've had for over two years now and have finally decided to tackle----to learn how to use my fancy, pancy digital camera that comes with all the bells and whistles and to learn to take better pictures!  My husband bought me this wonderful camera as a birthday gift a few years ago and other than using it for shooting pictures on the automatic setting, I am ashamed to admit that I have hardly used it!  I guess I have to be in the right state of mind to learn some of this techy stuff, but the time has finally arrived.

So with the help of some great camera books as well as reading lots of info on websites, I am determined to learn how to take better pictures, learn about lighting and hopefully post better quality photos.  It is the one thing that I greatly admire about  so many of the popular blogs, their photography is just incredible! 

Queen of the May quilt block

Besides learning how to use the camera, there is a whole other learning curve involved and that is learning how to use the photo editing software!  So I am determined to make an effort at this, even if it's just baby steps and it takes me months to grasp, I have wanted to understand photography for a long time but have never taken the time to learn it.  Here are a few beginning shots, all with NO flash!  Using a flash is apparently the first big no-no!  Who knew??  Good photography starts with natural lighting.

Don't you just love these old feedsack fabrics?  They remind me of candy!  I never get tired of looking at vintage fabrics.

I thought it might be fun to let you take a peek into my world!  Here are a few shots of our family room and looking beyond into the kitchen nook. . . 

The quilt on the wall is the quilt that I reproduced from an antique quilt I blogged about a year ago.  I made the slipcovers and pillows on the sofas almost 13 years ago.  The slipcovers are on their last days, sadly.  I'm afraid if I wash them one more time, they will begin to come apart.  I've been debating if I want to buy entirely new sofas with white slipcovers OR make new slipcovers for these sofas, which are close to 25 years old.  I'm just so uncertain about all white, if it will be too plain for my taste, whether they will hold up to pets and a husband (!), and whether I will be washing them every week!  If anyone has input, I would welcome your opinions and experience!

The ceiling in this room is over 22 feet high, it's actually a little much!  I don't think I would do such high ceilings if we were building a house again.  We do get a lot of sun in this room from the windows that are up high as well as from two sets of French doors, which is great for bright natural light but terrible when it comes to fading fabrics.  Currently I have the upper shades down so the room is not as bright as it normally is!

This pic is looking into the foyer with the dining room beyond.

And I couldn't resist a picture of Molly.  I thought this photo turned out pretty good for a beginner!

Until next time, Happy Quilting!