Cathy's Quilt

My friend Cathy lives in Texas and needed to make a raffle quilt.  She had lots of beautiful Texas themed fabrics, but wasn't sure what style of quilt she wanted to make.  Using EQ7, I designed this quilt for her, sizing the blocks so she could use  motifs from a panel for the center of each block.  

Isn't it beautiful!  Great job Cathy!!!

Mystery socks - finished!

Originally, I had hoped to finish these in time to wear for Valentine's Day, but better late than never!

Pattern is the January 2012 Mystery Sock from Through the Loops.

Please Don't Pin Me - more

Just noticed that Sharon has an updated post with how to block being pinned for some sites, as well as info on their new policy.  I haven't had time to read on, but she has quite a few links to more information on her Pin Tangle blog.  I'll have to read up and decide what is the best way to handle this for my sites.

Please Don't Pin Me

Sharon Boggon's blog post today gave a lot of information on Pinterest and I've decided, at least for now, that I'd prefer not to be pinned.  My pictures are mine, and evidently right now my ownership can get lost and end up being printed by others, so until I can figure it out for myself, please don't pin me!  Thank you.

Her post can be found on her Pin Tangle blog here.

Out of the Box

I was tired and not feeling well when I arrived home today, but there was a package for me that held Mary Lou Weidman’s book Out of the Box, so as quickly as possible, I sneaked off with my new book.  I flipped through the book to get a quick peek at everything and then sat down to read.  It was exactly what I needed to feel better!  I love her quilts!  They are a style quite different than mine, but full of color, fun and lots of energy.   Her book is chock full of helpful advice, along with lots of great information that can be applied to any style, and even many other media, not just quilts, and she urges all of us to get out there and create our own art.  Of course, she gives us all the instructions we need to get started making story quilts!

Stray Threads Quilt Show March 14th and 15th

Our local quilt show is quickly approaching and I'm the featured artist!!!  Please stop by and say hello, I'd love to meet you!

Here's the postcard for the show:

Seattle Art Museum

One of my sons and I visited the Seattle Art Museum, or SAM as it is called locally.  The first place we went was the Gauguin exhibit, and while I would have loved to take pictures, they weren't allowed:-(

Right outside the entrance to the Gauguin exhibit was an awesome sculpture made from strips of woven and / or pieced fabrics, some of them appeared to be bound in a similar way that most quilts are usually finished, and if I had to choose my favorite piece in the museum that day, this would be it!

The other exhibit I was drawn to was the weaving.  There was a glass cabinet with shelves containing medium to small woven baskets.

To the right of it was this woven mat, which I believe is made from cedar.

And in another case was this dress, which I also believe is made from cedar.  I can't imagine wearing tree bark, but sometimes we have to make do with what we have or can find.

Of course there were lots of other interesting exhibits, and since we're all doing more recycling these days, this one really caught my eye and I couldn't believe it was made from scrap metal from bottle caps and wraps.

Camano Island Quilters

This morning I did my Power Point presentation for their quilt guild and everyone enjoyed themselves.  These ladies love getting together and had a feast of snacks  to share as well.  I was really surprised when this lady opened her quilt for show and tell and it was the cover quilt from my book!  I wish I knew her name (maybe someone will leave a comment with her name and I can add it), but was happy I had my camera to take a picture.  The lady that made the quilt is standing behind it in the first picture, and behind it in the second, because they held it up higher so that I could take a better picture.  She did an awesome job!!!

The Camano Island Quilters are a great group of ladies, and I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow with them too!

Bountiful Garden Basket

I was hoping to finish this basket before posting a picture, but it looks like it may be a few days, so I thought I'd show you my Bountiful Garden Basket in progress.  It took quite a while to wrestle the rim into place, and it's still not as nice as I'd hoped, but it's now held in place with lots of zip ties, which I'll cut away as I bind the rim in place.

Should I?

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.  I've played around with the leftover blocks from the Figs and Ginger quilts and amazingly, this is what I've been able to do with them:

They could make a wall hanging or child sized quilt and two pillows, depending how they were finished.  However, I was thinking it might be a bit overwhelming to have them in the same room with the two twin sized quilts.  What do you think???

Improv Berries - a few changes

Took a few things out, moved things around and here's where it is now:

Maybe it's time to start cutting the large striped pieces smaller and use the two dark batiks to frame and separate, or float the pieced blocks.

Another Madrona UFO - Finished!

I've wanted to try tapestry weaving for a long time, especially after a good friend gave me a tapestry loom that had belonged in the family.  Although I have spent a little time on my own trying to learn from books, wove a small sample, I really do need to learn the techniques in a way that I can remember them, instead of just following instructions for a sample, and forgetting what I've done by the time I can work on the project again.
This year Sarah Swett taught several classes and I was able to get into her Undercover Sketchbook and Weaving a Pouch on a Cardboard Loom (that's the title on her handout, but I think the class title was a bit different).  I loved both classes and have finished my woven pouch!

We learned how to warp our cardboard looms and begin weaving, learning tapestry techniques along the way.  She said we could draw a design if we wanted to, so I drew a spiral for one side and decided to keep the rest of the technique experiments on the other.  Some things worked better than others and I learned so much from this class I'm hoping to draw something up for the big loom and get started, although I know it will be slow progress.  Anyways, here's my bag: