what I'm working on

As I mentioned, I went to Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with my mom. It was very fun, very relaxing,and the location was just gorgeous.  The lodge is right on a lake, and all the trees were changing colors, plus the weather was sunny and warm.  It was so nice, and all the ladies were so friendly.  I'll post more about it in another post.

While I was there, one of the women at my worktable had brought a pile of pictures she grabbed from catalogs and magazines.  In it, there was a great picture of a carpet that really intrigued me. I don't have a picture to share, but it really inspired me. I pulled out my greens and browns and started cutting strips and hanging them on the design wall.  I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.  I left it on the wall and went to bed. In the morning, Gwen came by and asked what I was working on, so I showed her and told her it needed "something".  She directed me back to the inspiration picture, and pointed out that there was some gold in the picture that set off the other colors nicely.  So I went back to my stash box and found some gold.  That was just what I needed! So I put that on the wall and it didn't look so dreary anymore.

Now this whole quilt is not a color palette I normally work with, so it was a real stretch.  I've been doing that lately--pushing myself out of my comfort zone in terms of color.  I feel like it is so easy to get caught up in the colors you like, the palettes you like, that you may not "grow" a lot as an artist. 

I was going to quilt it myself, but then my friend Ebony offered free quilting so that she could practice on her new longarm machine, and I knew it would be the perfect challenge for her. I don't know what she'll do, but I'm sure it will be great.  She has a great eye for design and I've always enjoyed her quilting designs prior to her getting this new machine, so I am excited!  I'll be sure to post once it is done.

finally another finish!

I don't know about you, but I keep a little spreadsheet of all my finished quilts, with a tab for WIPs/UFOs.  When I added this one, I was a little shocked/dismayed to see that last one I finished was in May.  :(  I'm glad to be back though!

This quilt I made from my scrap bin, so I'm proud of myself for actually using scraps. The green was something from my stash.  I had sewed some of the strips together when I headed out to Gwen's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat.  While I was there, I realized I didn't have enough green to do borders all the way around. Being that we were talking about liberated quilting, everyone suggested I just add cornerstones, and problem solved.

I'm really glad I did. They are quite liberated, plus I added some strips to get them to fit. But having seen all of Gwen's antique quilts, where people just used whatever they had, I knew that it would be just fine.  I quilted this the Saturday before the baby shower and finished sewing on the binding the morning of the shower.

The mama to be loved it and was very excited that I backed it in a pink print with white stars. I guess the baby's room has exploded in pink, so it will fit right in.  That's another one down and I've got two more tops to quilt, as well as lots of blocks I played with while on retreat.

Plus, since I've made my little one announcement (see previous post), I found out one of my friends is 12 days ahead of me, one is 12 days after, and another is about a week after that! So I've got three more baby quilts needed soon!  I'd like to get them done before I am too busy with my own, so my goal is by the end of the year to finish two more, and the other one in January. We'll see how that goes!

Sorry for the Absence....

Just wanted to apologize for my long absence.  Two things have prevented me from posting. 1) I lost the cord to upload pictures from my camera.  I kept looking, hoping it would turn up but now I am just going to order a new one.  2) I am pregnant (15 weeks) and there were quite a few weeks where I didn't feel like doing anything because the nausea was so bad.  I'm feeling better now and will be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly. 

I recently made a quilt as a quilt tester for Ebony, and I'm going to the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat next week with my mom, so I am sure lots of quilting will be done!  Once I can post pictures I should be back in business (until the baby comes, of course--then I might be a little busy for awhile).

basket liner

I had a friend who really wanted a liner for her bicycle basket. She has a little dog that rides in the basket, and she puts a piece of cardboard in the bottom so she doesn't fall through the basket.  She knows that I am a crafty sort of person, so she showed me this website and asked if I could do something similar (but without the straps to be a handbag).

I got the measurements and she bought the fabric, so all I had to do was figure out how it fits together.  I've made a few purses before, so I figured the construction would be similar--make a lining, make the outside part, and stitch them together somehow.

Here is the inside:


I made a basic lining but added pockets to both sides.  I also made some bias tape and stitched with an "x" to keep that key loop in place. I figured it would get pulled on a lot, so I wanted to make sure that it was secure. As you can see, I placed the key loop close to the pocket so your keys would fit nicely in the pocket.

The other side:


I didn't use a pattern, just made it up as I went along.



For the outside sashing, I originally thought that I would just sew it down. Then I realized that it has a function if you make the "bow" tighten the grip on the basket.  So I made a big loop, stitched on edge between the lining and the outside, and folded over. Then I threaded through the "ribbon" that I had made.  I should mention I did all of this PRIOR to actually seeing the basket in person.  I think it turned out ok.  I was really relieved that it fit, and very happy that the bow was found to have a functional purpose!

I'm back!

Sorry for the long hiatus.  I had to pack up my apartment, move to a new one, unpack, pack for an 8-day trip to CA, go on said trip, come back, go to a wedding, and clean the old apartment so I can turn in the keys.  Whew!  The good news is I have a new sewing room, all to myself.  I am ecstatic.  There will be pictures once it's ready. In the meantime, I can finally show the quilt that I made for Manuela for the ICE challenge with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  It was super fun coming up with a design--I made so many sketches and finally ended up with what I had thought originally.

I couldn't shake the cathedral idea.  That block just really reminded me of those beautiful cathedrals in Europe.

I had a lot of fun with the quilting on this one--I tried pebbles:

And  made fluffy clouds!

And I had to have some wonky little trees!

I am not thrilled with the cathedral window, but here is a close up anyway:

And finally, the back.

I hope you like it Manuela!  I had so much fun making it.

how could I forget?

I can't believe I forgot to post this.  A shout out to Jacquie, for being awesome in general, but I won her giveaway and got her quilt last week.  It is lovely!

Thanks Jacquie!

Hip 2 Bee Square June

Just by the skin of my teeth!  I finished this block. Jan asked for some wonky trees or log cabins, and we had to include these cute owls.  I had a vision of the owls sitting on the trees, with a little wonky tree to the side.  Here is what it turned out to be;

It was fun, and those owls are super cute!