Serpentine Mitts - finished!

Yeah! These mitts are finished and can keep my hands warm. It's a good thing, because this morning I woke to about three inches of snow. Isn't it spring yet?

Northwest Flower and Garden Show - my quilts

Here are some pictures from the Northwest Flower and Garden Show that is at the Seattle Convention Center through this weekend. They are all pictures of the seasonal garden display that was created as a collaboration between Olympic Nursery and Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop, here in Woodinville, WA. Some of us were asked to participate by lending quilts for the Patchwork Garden, and we are all so proud to be a part of it, and extremely happy for them that the garden has won a silver medal!

The quilt on the back wall is my Woodinville Wine Country quilt, which was made for Susan's first quilt shop challenge (Gathering Fabric), and won best of show. After many requests, and being shown in Quilt Sampler, as part of the write up on the Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop, I wrote up the pattern, and it is now available from LAM Designs (my company), or through quilt shops, and distributors (links on the right).

This little floral quilt hanging from the ironing board was my first pattern, and the reason I started my pattern company. The block was the first shop hop block I designed for Gathering Fabric, and grew into a quilt sample, and then a pattern - so I had to start a company to be able to sell them the pattern, right???

My Sunflower Garden quilt is brightening up the window in this garden. A little different construction for this one, but so fun to make. It's also available from LAM Designs.

I made this tulip quilt from a watercolor quilt book, although I can't find the book to confirm which one it was made from.

My Grape Fairy quilt flew above the crowd, and is another quilt that was made to compete in the applique category of that first Gathering Fabric challenge. After many requests, it also became a LAM Designs pattern.

Tom Quigley and Susan Webster, the master minds and collaborators for the Patchwork Garden display.

Here is Susan in her Gathering Fabric booth at the show. If you are able to get to the show, please take a minute to stop and say hi, and congradulate her for helping to create the Patchwork Garden. My Dragonfly Pond quilt is at her lower left, and not only does she have the pattern for it, but also for the other LAM Design quilts that I have in the show.

In case you didn't receive Susan's email about the show, here it is:

On the eve of the Northwest Flower & Garden Show, I am filled with awe and amazement over the incredible efforts and creative process on the part of the show organizers, garden creators, volunteers and staff to bring to our region, a show of all shows. Every single element of time and energy going into each garden is truly worthy of a hardy applause. The mounds of sawdust, compost materials, heavy equipment, manual labor and plant material is being transformed around the clock into a magical arena of garden spaces that cannot adequately be described, only seen.

Bee sure to visit the show starting Wednesday, Feb. 18-22nd. http://www.gardenshow.com/

Thanks to Olympic Nursery, volunteers and staff, our Patchwork Garden is coming to life. The quilts are staged with tall trees and lush landscaping and are perfectly presented in the atrium of the Washington State Convention Center. Thank you everyone who has made a contribution to this garden. It is a beautiful blend from the quilt artist and garden artist, a remarkable sight to see.

Stop by Booth 315, where Gathering Fabric Quilt Shop will showcase quilt kits, small projects, books, patterns and garden inspired items, all with the quilter and gardener in mind. See just how quilters and gardeners share a love of color, design, texture and dimension. In this our very first patchwork show on the road, we are excited to share our quilting world with northwest garden lovers.

Spring has come to the garden show this week. We hope you'll make a visit. And please, send this to all your quilt and garden friends.

Thank you! See you at the show.

Susan

Urban Scraps pattern ready for sale!

The Urban Scraps quilt pattern has been designed to make the most of one jelly roll, one layer cake, and border yardage. Those cute little fabric packages are fun to buy, until you get home and wonder “what can I make with this?” With this pattern, all you need to do is select coordinating border fabrics, and you can start sewing as soon as you get home. This 90” x 90” quilt will look great made from any manufacturer’s fabrics, and since it is designed using simple blocks, even a beginner could make it.

Gathering fabric has already put together some kits with this exact fabric, and it is on it's way to Pattern Peddlers and Quilter's Warehouse.

Hawaiian windows?

Judy S, asked if I had ever seen a piece that had watersoluble windows with stitching in them. I can only imagine the Hawaiian windows that she is describing, although I have made some small quilts that had the fabric cut away to make a window that was filled with a lacy, stitching design, letting you see through the quilt at that point.

If you look closely at this butterfly, you'll see that the inner butterfly is part of the original block, but the wings are only thread that was stitched after the fabric was cut away.

Water soluble stabilizers are very versatile, almost anything that is light enough could be suspended in a window that can be stitched into, or a lacy background could fill the opening, and then the item glued on. The key to any designs that you create on water soluble stabilizer, is to have the stitching interlock before it is dissolved.

Happy Valentine's Day

My very first pattern

and how it all started......

Yes, this is the first pattern I ever made (not including instructions for classes)! It all started with a request for a shop hop block for my local quilt shop, Gathering Fabric, by it's owner, Susan. We had met soon after she opened her shop, and hung the coming soon banner - I couldn't believe there was going to be a quilt shop less than two miles from my house. Slowly I showed her quilts that I had made, purely a sharing thing, not looking to get into business, and before I knew it I was teaching at her shop and she asked me to design a block for her first shop hop. We learned the rules as we went, and this is the block and quilt that I designed.

Of course, I thought all I had to do was design it, and make a sample, well before long it grew to making the block, and then those words "if you made a pattern we could kit it up", and I was off researching how to go about starting a company, and publish a pattern. From there my company has grown, with the Urban Scraps pattern being number 23!

Artistic Free Motion Online Class

begins this Friday, February 13th! There are still a few openings, so sign up if you are interested in learning to free motion quilt with me. Although you can still sign up once the class has begun, and all questions and answers will be saved in the forum for the duration of the class, it's best to sign up before it starts, so that you will have as much time as possible to practice and ask your own questions. It is a four week class that is as similar to my "in person" class, as possible.

A couple things that are different between taking an online class and an "in person" class, is that you can't look over my shoulder or from the side to see how I work, and I can't look at your work "in person". Because I am not able to demonstrate in person, I have included a short video, so that you can really see how I stitch out many of the designs, as well as many more pictures, showing examples of the designs we are working on at the time. You can show me your work by uploading pictures in the forum to show off your work, or so that I can help you if you are having trouble with something. Instead of one day to try to learn everything, the lesson is broken up into smaller chunks, so that you will have more opportunity to practice before continuing on to the next lesson.

Come learn to free motion quilt with me!

Some free motion work

This is a new sea sponge I made yesterday - do you think it looks anything like a basket sponge? Originally, I had intended for it to be golden colored sea sponge, thin enough to see through, even though you really can't do that with the real thing, but I just kept adding layers until I ended up with this: Still planning to make a lighter, more sheer little project, I decided to create a leaf. At least this time I was able to stop while it still had a few open spaces. Maybe I shouldn't work so late into the night?

No, I don't have a specific project in mind, I'm making some new samples for the first Creative Twist class that is being held here in Woodinville, at Fresh Air Farm. It is a continuing bi-monthly class where we will be exploring all sorts of techniques, with this month's lesson being free motion lacy techniques on water soluble stabilizers. I'm hoping our weather will cooperate, so we can have fun in class and not be snowed out. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Snow!

When I went to bed last night, I hadn't really expected to see this when I woke up. Of course, the weatherman said there could be some snow showers, but it wouldn't stick - and this morning he's sticking with his story. The road appears to be clearing, but there is more possibility of snow tomorrow, and with the temps dipping at night, I just know this will mean ice on the road in the morning. Good grief, isn't it spring yet?

Urban Scraps - finally a decent picture!!!

Well, this is as good a picture as I am able to take right now. It's such a large quilt, and I could imagine a picture of it on a bed, as it is a bed-sized quilt, but you wouldn't be able to see how the blocks fit together to form the overall design. The quilt top is 90" x 90" before quilting, but with the way I quilt, it shrunk about 2 inches, and is now about 88" square. My challenge was to use a layer cake and jelly roll as efficiently as possible, and still have an interesting design, and I think it worked, since almost nothing went into the trash, and I only have two blocks left over - one of them being due to a cutting error (yes, everyone makes mistakes once in a while, they can't be helped, you just hope you have enough fabric to fix the errors when they occur). The outer border was cut lengthwise, but the excess width was not wasted - it was used for the extra width on the quilt back! This design could be enlarged easily, just by having larger borders.

Urban Scraps - more pictures

Although the pattern isn't quite ready yet, I did take some close up pictures, so you can check out the blocks and quilting.

Center of the quilt.

And along the edge, showing not only the quilting, but the machine stitching that I chose to sew the binding on.

Urban Scraps - photography

This quilt is the largest I've worked on for quite a while! It was fun to design, cut and sew all the blocks, including assembly and even mitering the borders, but it a was a challenge to find a place to baste, and now a challenge to photograph because of it's size. My husband is helping, and eventually, I'll have a photograph good enough to use for the pattern cover. In the meantime, at least I have something to show you, with more to follow.