Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope you are ready for the holiday weekend, it certainly snuck up quickly this year. Up until today, we have been having July-like weather which has made any holiday prep hard to get excited about.  But we finally have more "fall like" weather for Florida, below 75 degrees, and it is a welcome change!

I am actually ahead of schedule for a change.  I have been cleaning my house over the last couple of weeks to get a jump on the to-do list before the holidays.  What a great feeling to be done with all of it.  The grocery shopping is completed, the dining table is set, and the kitchen prep will begin on Wednesday.

Over the last month or so I have been tackling my endless list of DIY projects.  We needed additional seating in our dining room for the holidays and my husband found four of these chairs at a Good Will store for only $5.00 each!  You can see they were originally Harvest Gold circa 1968!  The fabric on the seats was even uglier.  But with several coats of white paint and a pretty blue stripe fabric, I transformed them into something that will work for us as well as blend in with our existing dining décor. 

I haven't done a whole lot of sewing but I did finish one quilt top since my last post, a simple red and white nine-patch snowball quilt. 

I got so inspired to make this quilt after I received the book, Red &White Quilts Infinite Variety.  If you haven't gotten your copy of this fabulous book yet, definitely put this at the TOP of your wish list, it is by far one of the best quilt books EVER!  I take it to bed with me at night and drool over this fabulous quilt collection, (then dream about the quilts!).  This isn't a "how-to" or instructional quilt book, but it is probably the best I have seen as far as photos, with over 653 pictures of the quilts.  Incredible doesn't begin to describe it!  It will inspire you beyond belief, every quilter needs this book! 

My only red room in my house is our laundry room, so eventually I want to make several crib-size red and white quilts for in there.  Of course, I will also use them at Christmas, too! 

In the evenings I have been trying to work on projects to reduce my boxes of 1 1/4" fabric strips.  The fabric hoarding is getting out of control!  This locker-hooked rag rug was made from all the leftovers from the log cabin quilt I made my husband last year.  Since his study is the only room in our house that has darker colors in it, I knew the likelihood of making other quilts with these was slim.

It worked out perfectly since his study has an exterior door that opens onto our back porch, and the colors match his eclectic taste and things that he likes to collect.  And the best part is, it used up over 10 yards of fabric!

I also finished up a small hexagon flower quilt top I've been English paper-piecing for awhile now.  This is made only from small bits of scraps from my scrap bins, I did not cut into yardage at all for this.  It was a blast to make, I absolutely love doing the hand piecing.  I took it with me everywhere, in the car, on the plane, in hotel rooms, in front of the television in the evenings.  Before you know it, you have hundreds of these little flowers made.     

I still need to quilt it, but in the mean time, it hangs proudly with some of my other vintage quilt tops.  And it the colors blend perfectly!

So that brings you up-to-date on some of what I've been up to.  And once Thanksgiving is over, we will be jumping head first into Christmas decorations!  But I WILL NOT be hitting the Black Friday sales, that is one thing I definitely choose to steer clear from.

Here's to wishing each and every one of you a wonderful, safe and Happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones, family and friends!  Cheers!

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!

Around the World Blog Tour

Welcome!  If this is your first time visiting my blog, thank you for taking the time to stop by.  Last week I was contacted by Jill at Happy2Sew blog and asked if I would like to be tagged in the Around the World Blog Tour.  I happily accepted.  Jill was kind enough to write about a few things I've posted.  Please check out her blog, she does it all, sews, quilts, makes purses, knits, and she is in the process of making an adorable Halloween costume for a lucky little girl!

Ok, pull up a chair, this is a long post!  Let's move on to my answers to the four blog tour questions:

What am I currently working on?

I am actually in limbo between major quilts.  I just bought a new Bernina 710 a few weeks ago and am in the process of getting acquainted with it.  I made this vintage style apron recently so I could try out my new machine.

 

And this week I've been playing around making quilt blocks.  I realized I have hardly any quilts that coordinate with fall décor, so I got inspired to pull lots of soft fall colors in a variety of florals from my stash.

These large florals (above) were my fall "inspiration" but I won't be using them in a quilt.  They are for color reference and help guide me to establish a "feel" for what I am trying to achieve in the overall look.

My hands are rarely idle in front of the television in the evenings.  Right now I am embroidering vintage Halloween postcard images that will eventually wind up in a quilt.  There will be 16 embroidered blocks when I am finished.  These images are from two different patterns, Sandi Bard Designs and Yesterday's Charm, and I am combining the ones I like the best.



Earlier this summer I also started cross-stitching again.  This is A Love Song sampler by FourOaks Designs.  I used to be an avid cross-stitcher years ago but had grown tired of it, plus framing is so expensive and I only have so much wall space!  But seeing some of the beautiful samplers on Pinterest inspired me to pick it up again, so I started working on this sampler over the summer.  That being said, I haven't stitched on it in a few months. 

 

How does my work differ from others?

Color My World

I use a lot of different fabrics in a quilt, anywhere from 100 to several hundred.  I love scrap quilts and lots of piecing, usually the more pieces, the better.  I am constantly inspired by antique scrap quilts as well as fabric. 

Last Summer's Leftovers

The last several years I've been infatuated with candy colored pastels, vintage-inspired prints and quilts from the 1930s.  Most of my quilts are scrappy, but they are very controlled and deliberate.  I'm always coordinating color and value placement, visual texture (the type of fabric print), color intensity, etc.  Very little of my quilt making is random or accidental. 

Summer at the Lake

I like to be challenged, whether it's the type of piecing, how a quilt is constructed, or with use of color and/or the number of fabrics.  I get bored very easily so I need things that will hold my attention for a longer period of time if I want to finish them.  I love busyness, lots of prints, movement, and visual interest.  The busier, the better!  I am definitely a "more is more" person.

Why do I create?

I create because I have to, it is as vital to me as breathing, eating, or sleeping.  Creating is part of who I am.  Some of my earliest memories are of drawing and making things.  I don't think I have ever NOT created.  If I go more than a few days without doing something creative, whether it's quilting, needlework, creating art, or making something, I become irritable and depressed, I am no fun to be around!  Creating is something I absolutely have to do.  I wish I could spend every waking minute creating.  It seems like there is never enough time to create as much as I'd like.  Setting priorities and being disciplined are things I've learned to work very hard at in order to make time to do what I love.

I have a degree in art and my background is in illustrating designs for screenprinting on t-shirts.  We've owned a screen printing and embroidery business for over 30 years.  However, when creating artwork made the transition from being done by hand to being done on the computer, I lost interest in designing for screen printing.  Call me old-fashioned, but I need to have a pencil, rapidiograph or paintbrush in my hand to illustrate.

I'm not sure why I started making quilts but I think it's because I am obsessed with fabric!  I've been hoarding collecting fabric since the 70s when I was in high school and sewed clothes.  I love fabric and I LOVE floral fabrics.  I have enough fabric to last 20 lifetimes.  I was never exposed to quilts in my family, no one I knew made quilts. 

But right after high school I worked at Joann Fabrics and stumbled on a McCall's Quilting booklet and became intrigued with these colorful pieced bed coverings.  For the next several years I read up on quilts and began buying antique ones, but it wasn't until 1984 when I finally got the courage to try making a quilt on my own. 

How do I work?

I probably spend 25 or so hours a week in my studio.  I wish it was much, much more than that!  But owning our own business creates many demands on my time.  I  also struggled with an inner battle for a very long time about when I was quilting, I felt I should be making art and if I was making art, I wanted to be quilting.  I have only come to terms with this struggle recently and am happy creating quilts in my spare time for now.  But I do hope to get back to my art one of these days!

Daydream Believer

I am in such admiration of those of you who work on multiple quilts and projects at a time!  I am not able to do this.  I am very easily distracted by all the ideas churning in my head, so I try to stick with one quilt until the top is 100% complete.  Since a lot of my quilts are labor intensive, I may spend many weeks to a few months on it.  Once the top is completed, I am usually OVER it at this point and fold it up and put it away until I am inspired to quilt it.  Up to a year can pass until I am ready to get it back out for quilting.

Blooming in Chintz

I design most of my quilts in The Electric Quilt (EQ) software.  It is as vital a tool for making quilts as a sewing machine for me.  When I finally get a layout I think I like, I color it in grayscale values so I can see how the quilt "reads".  Then it's off to pull color inspiration, which might come from a large flowery decorator print or from one of my many pieces of vintage barkcloth.

I might have a general idea of a look or feel I am after.  I tend to switch between floral, chintzy looks and vintage 1930s styles.  Depending on the quilt design, I pull out lots of stacks of fabrics in my chosen palette from my closet and just start cutting strips in a given width or. . .

Right now I am working on blocks, so I am pulling four fabrics for each block and making a block at a time.  I rarely pre-cut a whole bunch of specific pieces for a quilt in advance.  I prefer to cut for a single block, then sew, then observe how a block looks alongside other blocks, see what the quilt is lacking, and work from there. 

Reducing Lens

I am constantly using a reducing lens to look through to see how my quilt reads from a distance.  I also frequently photograph it in black and white to see how my values are working together in the overall design. 

Looking through reducing lens

And whenever I can, I foundation-piece.  It is so addicting and it appeals to my perfectionist tendencies!  Some of you may think it is more time consuming, but for me it is quick and extremely accurate.

This is a current shot of my studio. . .

I like to have lots of choices close by and everything around me easily accessible.  My fabric stacks are organized by color and type of print--stripes, polka dots, tonal, small floral, large floral, etc.  I find it so much easier to work from stacks when they're out in the open on the countertop rather than in my closet.  I can coordinate colors and prints and mix combinations that I might not normally be inclined to put together had I pulled a specific "recipe" straight from my closet shelves.

Dresden Charm

And finally, part of the reason I enter my quilts into shows is so I will finish them.  It gives me a deadline with a goal and is also a way to share them with others.

So that is an overview of how I work and a peek into my creative process.  Hopefully, I may have inspired a couple of you.

Last but not least, I would like to introduce Greg from Grey Dogwood Studio and pass the Blog Tour baton on to him.  I have been following Greg on Instagram for quite some time and am a big fan of his work!  His quilts are fabulous, they just seem to shout "happy" to me.  I love his taste in colors and fabrics and he has a wonderful eye for vintage style.  Please be sure to check out his blog.  Greg will be posting for the Around the World Blog Tour next Monday, October 27th.  Stay tuned!

Thank you for visting!  Happy Quilting! 

Happy 4th of July!

From Sea to Shining Sea....Happy 4th of July to Everyone!  Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Happy Quilting!



World Quilt Show at West Palm Beach, FL

I will wish everyone a Happy January since I guess it's too late to say Happy New Year! 

I have recently taken a few weeks hiatus from most forms of media as much as possible to force myself to focus on being more productive with my spare time.  It's difficult enough to make time to create when we work at regular jobs, not to mention the time that ordinary tasks of day to day life consume.  I think that it is too tempting to get distracted by so many outside influences nowadays. I find myself "innocently" wasting a few minutes here and there checking out social media, a favorite tv show, surfing the web, etc. and suddenly realize these few minutes amount to several hours a week.  I wind up spending the little spare time I do have checking out what "others" are doing or creating, instead of spending my time creating for myself.  So my resolution this year was to really try to focus on doing less "time wasting" and more time being productive, being creative and pursuing my interests and personal goals.  It's not easy.  It's like trying to give up sugar or a favorite food!  You want to taste it all!

 A couple of weekends ago I attended the World Quilt Show in West Palm Beach, FL, about three hours south of us.  My quilt above, Color My World, was entered into the competition, which was open to Florida quilters only.  I thought I would show a few of the quilts from the show.  These are in no particular order, just a few quilts I thought were interesting.  And I apologize for poor photo quality, these were taken with my iPhone and the lighting in the convention center was pretty horrible.  But there should be enough here to give you a bit of inspiration.

 "Out of the Loop" by Eyvonne Smith of Jensen Beach, FL.  Won Judge's Choice.

 "Bluebirds" by Laura Ruiz of Malabar, FL.  Won Best Pictorial Quilt.

 "A Taste of Sunshine" by Deb Crine of Marco Island, FL.  Won Best Machine Workmanship.

 "Medallion" by Loretta C. Sylvester of Palm Coast, FL.

The quilts below were part of an exhibit of antique quilt tops that had been quilted recently by various longarm quilters.  Most are from the 1930s, which is one of my favorite periods for antique quilts.  These were some of my favorites for various reasons.  I neglected to get the names of the quilters for these quilts, sorry!

And this quilt below was part of the World Quilt exhibit.  I found it to be very unusual and intriguing.

 "Shattered Face Quilt" by Kathryn Harmer Fox of East London, South Africa was made using a pile of leftover scraps and miscellaneous fibers.  They are embedded on a canvas background with scribble stitch, free-motion embroidery and quilting.  It was really interesting to look at up close.

Hopefully you all are staying warm in whatever part of the country, or world, you live in.  We are having our own share of near freezing temperatures here in central Florida with the low tonight at 33 degrees.  And we are hearing that it's supposed to stay this cold for the next couple of days.  If you ever want to hear people complain about cold weather, this is the place!  Yes, we are spoiled!  I don't mind it for a day here and there but after a couple of days in a row, I am ready for the mild 70s again.  But I'm sure many of you are probably wishing for temperatures in the low 30s, considering so much of the country is below freezing right now.  I guess this is a perfect time to curl up under those warm quilts!  Stay warm everyone!