Quilt Show

Here's my first finish for the Liberated Amish Challenge. I'm calling this one my "warm-up" quilt. I'm supposed to be making 9-Patches (this is my inspiration quilt), but this just kept calling me . . . I love stars and just couldn't resist! So, it's a top now (21 inches x 23 inches). I think I have it out of my system and I can get going on those 9-Patches! No more stalling. . . .

If you haven't been to see the Liberated Amish Challenge blog, go take a look. Everyone is doing some really wonderful stuff! It's lots of fun.

I went to see a quilt show on Saturday. I went with some members of the local quilt guild. It was a big show, with lots of vendors. I barely resisted most of them.


But I fell in love with this pattern and had to get it! I rarely buy patterns now, but something about this one really called to me. This was the sample that the vendor had up in the booth. (photo taken with permission)

The name of the pattern is "Cobblestone Crows" and it's by Sheryl Mycroft of Random Threadz. It's all done with fusible and I think it would look fantastic on the wall by my front door! (Hmmm, I wonder how long this will actually take me??)

Anyway, on to the quilt show! (And any wonkiness in the photos is due to the poor abilities of the photographer, not the quilts. Really, they were straight!)

Creature Comforts by Karen Knowlton

Doctor Dan by Joy Evele

This was part of the guild challenge, which was 'Books Published in the 1950's'. This quilt is based on "Doctor Dan the Bandage Man" - a Little Golden Book that's in the Smithsonian's permanent collection of American culture.

Doctor Dan detail

I love that she's actually got Band-aids in the little pockets. And check out the Little Golden Books fabric!

Eucalyptus by Charlie Petersen

Fleur de Retro by Suzanne Martin

Fleur de Retro detail

Horse Chestnut Leaves by Mary Pickens

This quilt was made with oil sticks rubbing over real leaves and then she added variegated and sparkle thread sketch stitching.

Horse Chestnut Leaves detail 1

Horse Chestnut Leaves detail 2

Merry-Go-Round by Jetty Morton

Merry-Go-Round detail

Olympic Impression series - Lake Quinalt by Cynthia Keim

Olympic Impressions series - Crescent Lake by Cynthia Keim

Olympic Impressions series - Stormy Seastacks by Cynthia Keim

Pine Branch by Mary Pickens

Done with thread sketching and ink painting, with fabric ink added for shading.

Second Life by Carol Olsen

untitled by Lynn D. Green

Hope you enjoyed the quilt show!

Winners!

We haven't been having the snow that so much of the country has been getting, but we have been grey and gloomy with quite a bit of rain around here. As much as I like winter, I'm actually getting tired of it. Yesterday the sun came out for a bit, and I spied a bright spot of yellow out in the yard. Isn't this a welcome sight? The first crocus this year! They are struggling though, as the deer are trying to munch on them, which is pulling them up by the roots. Yesterday while out driving around, I saw a fruit tree in bloom and also a rhododendron in full bloom! Last year we didn't get this sort of happening until April!

OK, now to get to the giveaway. I'm sure everyone has just been holding their breath, waiting. . .

Since I couldn't interest either of the kitties in this, DH did the drawing for us. (In the lovely pottery bowl that he made . . . it's not for sale. It's mine, all mine!) First up was the drawing for Giveaway #1: Spots & Dots. *drumroll, please*

And the winner is . . .

Melinda of Melinda Quilts ETC!

Next was the drawing for Giveaway #2: Handdyes.

And the winner is . . .

Wendy of Inky Threads blog!

I'll be contacting both ladies to let them know they've won, and to get their snail mail addresses. Thank you to everyone for your participation. This was fun, and I wish I could send something to everyone that entered.

I remade the wonky Windmill blocks for Clare. You can't tell from the photo that they're any different than these, but these blocks are actually the correct size! They are currently en route to France.

I've been trying to work on the Lazy Gal Liberated Amish Challenge, in spite of the sinus infection that won't quit. (more antibiotics, thanks) I've decided on this 9-Patch quilt as my inspiration, but this quilt kept calling my name. So I gave in.

I'm calling this my "warm up" quilt. It's quite small, as the star blocks are only 6 inches. See that missing border? For this challenge, we have to include words somewhere on the quilt. That is where my word will be going. It's currently under construction. One more letter to go. Then I get to decide if that border will be the top, bottom or side of the quilt.

Here is the palette I've decided on for the 9-Patch quilt I'll be making. These are Cherrywood fabric and I love these colors.

Here's the first two 9-Patch blocks I've made. I was really testing the size on these. I'm not sure they're wonky enough, or exactly how wonky I want to make this quilt. I'm planning on approximately lap-sized, and it will be for me. So I just have to make up my mind what I want. But I have lots more 9-Patches to sew. I'll be throwing in some wonkier blocks than this, at the very least. I was uninspired by these at first, but I'm started to get excited now.

Today the LQS was having a Fat Tuesday sale, today being Mardi Gras! Not that I need one more fat quarter, but she had all the FQ's on sale for 1/2 off! So, two FQ's for $2.50. I wanted to show my support for this store that is struggling to make it, so this is what I bought. No particular reason, I just liked these. They looked bright and cheery!

A Giveaway!

Today is my two year blogiversary, and in celebration I'm having a giveaway! Actually, I'm having two giveaways, because, well, you can figure it out! Also, possibly, because I couldn't make up my mind, but we won't talk about that, OK?

Here is Giveaway #1. . . Dots and Spots. This is a group of 30 different 5 inch squares, known as charms, all from my *vast* collection. As you can see here, some of them are merely spotted, not necessarily polka dots. Some of them are new fabric, some are older. But they're all good.

Here is Giveaway #2. . . Hand-Dyes Etc. Again, 30 different 5 inch squares. These range from hand-dyed to over-dyed white-on-white fabric to hand-marbled, and even even one over-dyed black & white print. All created by moi, on good quality fabric. I have a hard time cutting into this collection of fabric, so you know I'm serious here!

Here's the "Rules" for my giveaway. I don't like it when people make you jump through a bunch of hoops to win something, so I've kept this simple. Just leave a comment on this post, making sure I have a way to contact you, and please let me know your preference of which group of squares (#1 Spots and Dots or #2 Hand-Dyes) you'd most like to win. You have until midnight Pacific Time on February 15th. The next day, the 16th, will be the drawing for the two winners. Simple enough?

Good luck!

P.S. Just one thing. . . if you're the lucky winner of #2 Hand-dyes, if you actually make something from these, would you please send me a photo of your project? I really do have a hard time cutting and using this fabric, and I'd LOVE to see a finished project using it! Thanks.

Some Finishes and Some Random Stuff

The other day I saw a great little tutorial on Quilty Cat's blog, and it looked so easy and fun, I had to try it. So, I took the scraps from the placemats my sister made for me (you can see them here) and did the circles. Yes, she returned the scraps to me. . . wasn't that sweet? I thought they'd make great potholders. I got the binding finished this morning and they're all ready for dinner tonight!

These really were easy to make. I cut my square @ 6 inches instead of the 8 inches Quilty Cat recommended because my scraps were small. I made the one on the right first, and I learned that just strips don't work as well as wedges. You can see that some of my "wedges" are going off in some weird directions. In the circle on the left, I trimmed the strips down into wedges and it looks better. My strips weren't too big to start with, so I ended up with some fairly small wedges, but I think it looks more ball-like. Next time I'd cut everything into the wedges. I'm thinking this block would be a great project for a collection of 60's scraps that I "inherited". But that's got to go on the back burner for a while.


While I was playing with the scraps, I decided to embellish some new kitchen towels that DH gave me for Christmas. (Ben Franklin had a great sale on - 5 towels for $10) So I used up the last of the scraps on the 2 towels on the left, then had to come up with something else for the 3rd one. Two more to go!

As I was driving the other day, I saw a sign by a house that cracked me up!

MAN STUFF

Garage Sale

How many guys do you think stopped for that one?

Jan at Be*mused blog recently took a trip to Japan, and was lucky enough to attend the Tokyo International Quilt Festival. She's started a Flickr set in which she's uploading all her quilt photos from this show. These are well worth the time to look through them. There's some incredible quilts! Oh, and she's having a blog birthday giveaway this week, including some great Japanese fabrics! Hop on over there, and leave a comment to be included in this! Start with this post, which has all the (simple) rules, and Good Luck!

Here's the latest progress on my X blocks. I'm making a couple every time I sit down at the sewing machine, so they're going slowly. But I'm making progress! So far I'm not having any troubles with the flannel either. *knocks on wood*

Speaking of blog birthdays, tomorrow will be two years for Indigo Threads! I'm putting together a giveaway in celebration, and will post about this tomorrow. So stay tuned!