What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Another SQUEEE–this time ProChem! I am delighted to share that I will be teaching a 3-day Paint on Cloth Workshop from August 5-7, 2020 at Pro Chemical & Dye in Fall River, Massachusetts. Think kindergarten for grown-ups with paint and cloth: silk paint, transparent, opaque and pearlescent textile paints, as both the Movie Star and the Supporting Cast. I’ll be developing course materials over the next 15 months, so if you’ve got something you want to learn, TELL ME! And if you’ve got a brilliant title, I’m sure I’m gonna need suggestions on that, too ...

It’s amazing how quickly a quilt top goes together when using leaders and enders.  I placed this L/E project at my sewing machine the beginning of the year and now I have the main section together! I set aside all my 1 1/2″ green strips and sewed them all around the outside.

Now I will continue to piece the L/E’s and make a border of two squares across and as many down as needed for the sides, top and bottom.

Unfortunately, I haven’t made much progress on those because I have been doing  string ...

At least for now, that is.  I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I had my scraps sorted by color. None had been precut to any particular size. I devised a plan to get a better grip on things (or at least my scraps!)  There were a lot of larger pieces which I cut into 5 inch strips.

I also cut 2 1/2 inch strips:

1 1/2 inch strips. I have a scrap string quilt in the process for these.

3 1/2 inch squares and 2 1/2 inch squares. There is a leader-ender quilt in ...

Finally, after many dreary days the sun shone today and pics could be taken outside!These quilts are just too bright and merry to have their pics taken indoors.  Two more Hospice finishes!  This first quilt is just so fun and happy.  The quilt top was donated so all I had to do was quilt and bind. This will definitely put a smile on someone’s face!

This quilt top was made from donated blocks.  I absolutely love scrappy so I was so excited to put this one together. Quilted, bound and done!

They are even more fun side by ...

Talk about fun!  There might have been more laughter than sewing! Thankfully, there was a lot of sewing on my part.  As usual, I brought more projects than I could possibly have worked on. Just in case I have a problem with a project, or if I should get bored with a project, or if I miraculously finish a project, I’ll have another to keep me busy. This was a “Featherweight Lovers” retreat, so we all brought our Featherweight machines. Although not a FW, Dee Dee’s Singer was an absolute beauty and I love her elegant setting with ...

Sometimes you need to do something else. You totally love your main “thing” (in my case it is clearly art quilting), but you need a break. And sometimes, that makes your main “thing” even better. I’ve learned over the years that good design is good design, whether it is landscape, interiors, architecture, photography, painting, sculpture, apparel, the principles are the same. So I have taken online classes in drawing and photography and been enriched.

This is a song every quilter I know sings! “They multiply on their own” is definitely a favorite phrase. I was looking through my scrap bins – they are separated by color. One bin is all Kaffe scraps. Hmmm…I feel like I’ve been looking at these same scraps forever now. I’ve never used one of the many “scrap saver systems” that others use, but wanted to do something to empty these bins and start fresh. So….out came the studio Sizzix and the Big Kick.

I cut many of the larger pieces into two and one-half inch strips ...

Better. I finally got a little time in the studio (and the hammering on the roof is more muffled down there–we are having a new, metal roof put on–who knew they could do that in Maine in January?). I had thought the Rosehip top was done when I left it on Sunday evening but, I’m learning I need to let things set a spell, after I looked at it with fresh eyes realized it needed some help. I made a small rose hip quilt ...

Two packs of bright narrow strips (Windham Foundation) turned into lots of sewing fun. What a joy to work with such bright prints! I decided to work with columns of the strips and added a wider black and white piece every so often. No real plan here, just fun sewing. This wasn’t going to be very big and when I finished this much, I took a picture. Oh dear, much too busy. It was almost enough for me to put aside but I knew if I did that it might not see the light of day for a long ...

Off and on for the past couple of weeks I have been dyeing fabric, drawing or photoshopping images to make thermofax screens, and finally working on collaging the background for the rose hip, the large (36″ square) version. To those of you have landed here from my new newsletter, thank you! To those of you who don’t know about my new newsletter, please go here to the home page and sign up! I will write about mid-month and will never share your info!

The first Hospice quilt of the year is done! It’s such a happy and bright quilt and the flannel is so warm and cozy. This was such an easy finish as the donated blocks had been quilted onto batting.  I squared the blocks, pieced them, backed and did simple quilting along the seam lines and then diagonally.

I’m thrilled to have a Hospice finish this early in the year. My gratitude to the donor for all the hours of work that were put into the blocks before they were sent to me. Our little quilting group meets this ...

What a great way to start off the New Year – an Island Batik Blog Hop featuring creations by the 2018 Island Batik Ambassadors using Island Batik’s newest collections. And there will be giveaways!

I had the great pleasure of using French Blue – a truly beautiful collection! See…

There were 20 half yards and I had a lot of fun planning, cutting and sewing, sewing, sewing! But…you’ll have to wait until January 28 to see my creation. In the meantime, check out all the eye candy the other IB ambassadors have for you. AND – some will have give-aways ...

Do you ever have those days where you are trying to cram so much into one day you think your head will explode? Yeah. Today!

So far today:

• Rinse out hand-dyes from yesterday, hand wash
• Machine wash and dry hand-dyes from yesterday, iron
• View SAQA Webinar on 3-D artwork considerations
• Create “artwork” for three simple thermofax screens
• Add more things ...

You may know I am a collector of assorted things. I don’t collect valuable things, just affordable things that appeal to me.

A relatively recent collection is Fiesta flatware. It is affordable and I love adding new colors. Of course you all know color is my middle name!

This is the Swirl pattern and it has been discontinued for quite some time so almost every piece I have is pre-owned. Most of it has been bought as odd lots.
I have quite a bit and probably will only be buying a few pieces in colors I don’t have ...

One of my favorite parts of my newsletter is building color palettes. I thought I'd share a couple of them here with you! My inspiration for this week's palettes is the 2019 Pantone Color of the Year: Living Coral. I think it's not quite pink enough, but I used Kona Nectarine as the closest Kona Cotton to Living Coral. (Anyone think a different Kona is closer? Or another solid brand has a closer match?)

Kona Cotton colors are listed clockwise from upper left. Always check actual bolts/samples before making your purchases, as colors display differently on ...

Taking a break until 2019 is in order but I want to first share my final finish of 2019.  I had many 2 1/2 inch strips of Kaffe fabric. Some were from a design roll and some from another project.  Never have I ever done a Jelly Roll Race quilt so I thought that might be fun. However, after separating the light and darks, I decided on something a bit more dramatic.

Matching the diagonal strips was a bit challenging, but once I figured out the method, it wasn’t too bad. I really like the look and best ...

Yesterday I shared my Top Nine from Instagram. Another fun IG activity this time of year is Year of Colour. It's a web app for creating a graphic representation of the colors using throughout all IG posts in 2018. You can also get a report of the last month, last year, or custom period of your choice.

Once the initial report is generated, you can change the settings on the data to emphasize saturated colors, emphasize brighter colors, reload with a color of your choice in the center, order colors by time, rainbow mode, or play through which is ...

A few of us were supposed to head to the beach for a week of sewing at a big retreat. Unfortunately, Hurricane Florence did much damage to the host hotel and it was cancelled. I quickly found someplace closer for us to go for a few days of sewing – sometimes you just need to get away!

I didn’t do a crazy amount of sewing, but did enjoy the sewing I did. I did a fair amount of hand quilting too.  This Kaffe scrappy quilt top will get several more rows and then borders.

Judy was so proud of herself ...

A couple of weeks ago a big box of goodness and generosity arrived at my house. The donor wishes to remain anonymous and of course I absolutely respect that. But really, look at this: Some of these blocks are already sewn together. There is probably enough for 3 lap quilts! That is a LOT of sewing!!

I love the mixture of vintage and black and white fabrics in these blocks. There’s also plenty of fabric to complete a quilt.

And more scrappy goodness!

Lots of four patches here to make a wonderful quilt or two.

More fabric to help ...