What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I made good use of the holiday by spending most of it in the sewing room. We don’t have family close by, which makes holidays free days with better food.

I’ve wanted to rearrange my sewing room for a while now. Long story short, the sewing table my husband and I built to fit both my sewing and storage needs has not been in my sewing room for years. It’s now back in the sewing room, and a dresser and the portable table are gone. It gives me much needed storage and more open space.

It also ...

No change in the numbers.

The sum of all my sewing was one Traffic Jam block.

I did do some cleaning and purging to make room to start working on this quilt.

And this quilt.

I’m struggling to figure out where I left off with this one. It has several more branches than it did in this picture, and has been waiting patiently for me since March.

Fabric In: 35.875 yards

Fabric out: 9.125 yards

Net Fabric In: 26.75 yards

How did you do this week?

No change in the numbers.

For various reasons, I did not get my OMG/Short List posted this week before the linky closed. I’m posting a shortened version here.

Project 1 (stitching): Gather & Give Thanks, pattern by Diane Arthurs of Imaginating. It’s coming along.

Project 2 (Original): The nameless tree quilt. It’s time to get back to it.

Project 3 (charity): Traffic Jam quilt, pattern by Pat Sloan. I’m sewing a block here and there while working on other projects.

Project 4 (UFO): Remember Me, a member quilt from a group I belonged to many years ...

The title of this quilt describes the inspiration and process of its design, and also a great way to approach Life.

Serendipitous - occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I've discovered that I like working on more than one quilt repair job at a time.  It keeps things more fun!  So I had fabrics for two quilts on my table and decided that I really loved the combination - a deep golden yellow and a bright magenta.

One quilt was a string quilt, a memory quilt with fabrics from a mother's blouses.  The other was ...

In June 2012 I inaugurated this blog as follows: “Another quilting blog, ugh!  Why?  Well, I’ve been trying to neaten and straighten my notes, thoughts, resources, works in progress, and my work.  So, I thought a blog might be the way to go.  It’s for me primarily.  If anyone else stumbles on it, that’s fine.  I considered using Pinterest, but decided I needed the ability to add words.  So here I am.”

I had no idea I would continue writing posts for 11 years. Yep, that’s 11 years of at least one post a week, for ...

My September OMG was to finish the challenge quilt, which I called Still Life. The photo doesn’t do justice to the background fabric.

Except for the veins in the leaves, I either dyed or painted all the fabrics. I learned the free form piecing technique at a class I took at Guild several years ago. The quilt is the size of a cutting mat.

The inspiration for the next challenge is hanging on my design wall, where I can listen to what it has to say.

Visit Stories From the Sewing Room for all the other OMG finishes.

I’d like to add this quote to the above, as it sums up my approach to art:

If I knew what the picture was going to be like, I wouldn’t make it.
― Unknown

Sometimes revisiting my scrap hoard sparks an idea for a new quilt. While shuffling through fabric I had Spoonflower print from a photo I came across large leaves that I hadn’t used in an earlier quilt. Here’s that quilt.

For my new quilt I pulled all sorts of autumnal colored scraps – cottons, silks, synthetics – and grouped them around the leaf panels I had left. I spent some time moving parts around and began construction in chunks.

I had another reason for making this quilt, a regional SAQA exhibit (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio) that’s to feature a bit ...

In the early days of the pandemic I spent a lot of mental energy on a project to make circles and ovals out of silk fabrics I had painted, dyed, and printed. I ended up separating the shapes into groups of cool and warm colors, and hand sewing them together into lattices. The warm color piece was finished in 2021, while the cool colors chilled out in my black trunk. A few months ago I was struck by an urge to clear out unfinished projects, so the cool color circles came out of storage.

I decided not to ...

A lot of life happened here in July, but I managed to finish two projects. One wasn’t on the list and I forgot to post it. The other was Wallflower (the challenge quilt).

The list isn’t changing much for August.

I started The Short List many years ago to create goals to work toward and a way to focus. I change things up as my goals and interests change.

Project 1 (stitching): Words of Joy Tree, pattern by Ursula Michael. I’m stitching this on red 14 count aida with DMC white, all from stash.

Project 2 (UFO ...

Just about every other year I travel to Athens, Ohio, to take in Quilt National, one of the more prestigious art quilt shows that’s been around since 1979. This year for my birthday my husband drove me three hours each way, and took a long walk while I gawped to my heart’s content at the 81 works this year’s jurors had selected. Size, style, techniques, and subjects were varied; which is perfect for representing the diversity in art quilts.

I’ll try to recap some of the themes and trends I saw this year, and provide photos ...

I finished the challenge quilt this week, which I have now named Wallflower. For all the time I spent on it, it didn’t use much fabric. Every little bit out helps though.

I will post more info on Wallflower after the reveal at Tuesday’s meeting. For now I have a sneak peak.

The painted lace motif is 2.5 inches across.

I did not add any fabric this week.

Fabric In: 28.625 yards

Fabric out: 5.75 yards

Net Fabric In: 22.875 yards

How did you do this week?

Last week I posted a photo of a mostly finished silk quilt and asked for your advice. And you delivered. Thanks to you my quilt is new and improved, and now almost finished except for burying some threads and a title.

The log cabin block was snuggled against the purple and blue blocks with the blue sides facing out. The purple/cranberry block was broken up with a broad orange stripe. I quilted over the additions (I had already quilted this) to join the existing vertical stitching lines. The hanging tabs are part of a ...

A look through my quilt galleries will reveal that I have a fondness for bright colors. Occasionally I work in subtle colors, but then I usually feel muffled as I create. My brain keeps telling my feelings to dial it down. Why do I try? Because I view such restraint as part of artistic training. Sometimes bright colors are set off by subtle ones, and I need reminders that subtlety is possible.

However, my latest silk piece makes no pretense of subtlety. My fabrics collection has many pieces of bright, even vivid, silks; so if I want to use what ...

When I was clearing out files on an old computer I came across a folder of photos from an art quilt group presentation on different ways to finish and display quilts. My friend C applied her creativity and her extensive collection of sewing and craft notions to several small quilts she made. I was delighted to come across the photos as my latest silk quilt will need a nonstandard edge finish, and I am looking for ideas.

Here are just some of the many possibilities presented.

June was a productive month. I finished two stitches, Floral Butterfly and the star ornament. The ornament wasn’t on my June list.

I started The Short List many years ago to create goals to work toward and a way to focus. I change things up as my goals and interests change.

Project 1 (stitching): Words of Joy Tree, pattern by Ursula Michael. I’m stitching this on red 14 count aida with DMC white, all from stash.

Project 2 (UFO): The membership quilt. The two sections are complete and ready to quilt.

Project 3 (original): The challenge due in ...

I’ve returned to regularly scheduled programming, which means I’m back to my drawer of silk fabrics. Over the years I’ve bought all sorts of silk, augmented with 1960s/70s era dresses discarded by a theater’s costume shop and men’s ties. Because the silks range from tissue thin to heavy, I’ve fused backing onto many of them so they are easier to use.

So far this year I created my fantasy village from silks.

A few years ago I developed pieces made of silk ovals sewn together, then layered with wire and cording. Most of ...

If you are a regular reader, you know that my art quilt group (Art2Quilt) has an ongoing challenge where the members make quilts inspired by the quilt of another member. We finished round one in May, and round two is due near the end of July.

I won’t show the inspiration quilt because it doesn’t belong to me and I don’t have permission, but I will show what inspired my design.

This is the background fabric in a portrait quilt. It reminds me of the 1960s.

This round will involve paint and creating motifs with Pellon 830 ...

No change in the numbers.

We went to Quilt National in Athens, Ohio this weekend to see the exhibit. There are always new and different techniques in the quilts on display. It’s interesting to see what people come up with.

We stopped at a quilt shop in Nelsonville, Ohio, but nothing screamed that it needed to come home with me. My drawers runneth over, so if it isn’t screaming at me I’m not buying.

On the home front, I meant to put a close up of Shikishi in last week’s post and forgot. Here it is ...

This June I attended Lt. Col. Doug Rosenstock’s retirement ceremony. Doug is married to my lovely & talented younger cousin Erin, and I have had the pleasure of knowing him since he was a mid-shipman at the US Naval Academy. During the early years of their relationship, Erin would bring Doug out to our home in the country to visit with our young family. These are precious memories for us all

While he was at the Academy, Doug told my husband Terry that he planned to fly jets for the Navy after graduation. Terry, being a Marine veteran, suggested Doug ...