Happy Halloween!

photo from Morguefile

Hoping you have an oooky, spooky day!  

All treats, no tricks!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time for Blogger's Quilt Festival again, brought to us by the lovely Amy of Amy's Creative Side.  Yay!  I love seeing all the wonderful quilts that everyone has made, and I especially love hearing all the stories of how and why each quilt came into existence.  If you love that too, grab your favorite drink and go take a look at them all by clicking on the link above.

My entry into this version of the BQF is my wallhanging Lib Logs (and Prosper).  (Regular readers of my blog are probably tired of seeing this quilt, so please, bear with me.)  I started this in a class with Gwen Marston on "Liberated Log Cabins".  I loved that class - Gwen is so knowledgeable and generous with her time, attention and information!  Plus, she's just so funny!  

And one of the best parts of the class was that I got to meet and stay with a bloggy friend, Sharon of Grass Roots Quilting.  We had such a fun weekend talking, laughing, eating and quilting together.  Sharon donated a strip of the hot pink fabric to this quilt, which was exactly the zing it needed.  Thanks, Sharon! 

This is such a happy quilt - at least it makes me happy seeing it hanging on the wall.  I love the bright, cheerful colors.  This is my husband's favorite quilt too.  He was the one that insisted that I enter this quilt in the Western Washington Fair, where I won a Third Place ribbon on it!

The log cabins are all free-pieced, which means no pattern, no particular sizes of cut strips and no planning.  Just cut up some strips and start piecing.  It is hard to "let go" and be improvisational, and yet it's the most fun I've had in quilting in years.  If you're interested, I recommend Gwen's books Liberated Quiltmaking II, Collaborative Quilting (with Freddy Moran) and Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again as starting points.

I started with the plaid fabric as my focus fabric and used it for the centers of the log cabins, and then put the last of it on the outer borders.  All the other colors were pulled from the focus fabric.  One of the unexpected things I like is that the green dotted fabric in the first border creates a "see-through" effect in the log cabins where the same green fabric is.  It really gives some depth to the quilt.

The pieced borders are also free-pieced, and were a lot of fun.  So much so that I plan on using the triangles again in another quilt (or two)!

I did an all-over "organic" straight-line quilting (which is really not-so-straight) on this quilt on my Bernina, and I like how it seems to unify the quilt.  The whole quilt is rather flattened from the quilting, which I think really lets the piecing show well.  However, I quilted around the big dots in the aqua fabric, just to make them pop.  Fun!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Stats:

Quilt Title:  Lib Logs (and Prosper)  #378

Quilt Measurements: 31.5 inches square

Special Techniques: Liberated Free-piecing

Quilted by: Me, Sharon K.

Best Categories: Home Machine Quilted Quilt, Wall Hanging

Don't forget to vote for your favorite quilts November 5 - 8!

At Long Last. . . .

Yes, I know what you're thinking - "what took her so long to post the stuff about the quilt show?"  Well, I'm claiming an overdose. . .of "too much"!  I got through the quilt show and have just kind of wilted this week.  I just can't seem to focus on anything much - I feel like I'm just kind of "floating" through life this week.  I still have quilts and stuff all over the living room, and I don't care.  I did get to the grocery store and got my laundry done, but other than that, not too much has been accomplished.  And you know what?  I'm not stressing about it.  This has been a very busy year getting ready for the quilt show, and I'm just taking the week off!  And maybe part of next week too.

So, I think the quilt show was a success!  No one asked me "what were you thinking?!" about my quilts.  And I only heard positive comments, although there were a few people pondering how I did the letters on my quilts.  I was quick to tell them, and show them Tonya's Word Play book.  And some people actually wrote the information down!  (there may be an uptick in sales of your book this week, Tonya!)  I had Gwen Marston's books, Liberated Quiltmaking II and Liberated String Quilts with me also, for anyone wanting further information.  Many of the quilters thanked me for having the books there.

So, on to the good stuff - the pictures!

We'll start here.  This is where we had the bed turning (a showing of antique quilts that are layered on the bed).  That is my indigo quilt on the wall behind the bed (covering an ugly picture), and lots of my little quilts are laying on the table.  I've got my quilts with the vintage 30's fabrics on the quilt rack in the background.  The orange quilt (cat with pumpkin) on the front of the table was my most popular little quilt - I actually got a few offers to buy it! (But it's not for sale, and I no longer have the pattern - very sad)

Here's my Puss in the Corner quilt.

The Doodle Bugs wall quilt and one of my string quilts.

The Bullseye quilt "Polka Dot Frenzy" and then the two little quilts from the Liberated Amish challenge.

"Happy Scraps", the crumb quilt.  I was asked a few questions about the term "crumbs".  Most of the quilters smiled at the explanation. LOL

"Evening Fields", the Half Log Cabin quilt.  This is the biggest quilt I've made.

The Halloween quilt, a Scrappy Trip Around the World pattern.  Down in the right-hand corner you can see part of the little bench that DH made for me many years ago and which I stenciled, with one of my little stuffed bunnies sitting there.

I grouped most of the liberated quilts together.  Oh, I forgot to say earlier - I got an Honorable Mention on Snuggle at the Western Washington Fair, and I got a Third Place ribbon on the liberated log cabins Lib Logs and Prosper.

Some of my older wall quilts and the little lap quilt.  Sorry this picture is so dark.  The overhead light was out.

Another of the string quilts along with the I Spy quilt.  A lot of people really liked that wild string quilt!

And lastly, my wall of wall quilts!  You can also see the other end of the bench with my long-legged bunny hanging out there.

And I thought I'd show you Vonda's One Block Wonder quilt.  She won Viewer's Choice all 3 days!

I had a lot of fun at the quilt show.  My sister came up to visit for Saturday and Sunday, and I had lots of family and friends come by to see the show too, which was nice.  Most of them had never seen my quilts.

I also read the histories of the antique quilts during the Bed Turning, and we had a lot of fun with that.  Even 10 years ago, I couldn't have done that for being so shy.  I guess I have to say I'm over it now!

So, big sigh, and now back to my regularly scheduled life!  I'm so ready to do some other things, and sew some new projects!

Come See My Quilts!

This weekend, October 12, 13 and 14, is my guild's quilt show and I'm the Featured Quilter!  I'll have my liberated quilts there, as well as the rest of my quilts.  I'd love to show them to you.

Snuggle

If you live anywhere in the greater Seattle area, I'd love to see you at the quilt show.  It will be at Buckley Hall, 127 N River Ave. in Buckley, Washington.  Don't worry - there will be lots of signs to help you find it.   The hours are Friday 10 - 6, Saturday 10 - 6 and Sunday 10 - 4.

Besides me and my quilts, we've got some great vendors, Challenge quilts, demos, a cute Autumn make & take, and lots of quilts!  If you bring a non-perishable food item, you'll receive a free fat quarter of fabric. (up to 3 items)  Plus, we've got 3 raffle quilts and 2 raffle baskets - and one of them is filled with batiks!  (That batik one will get my money!)

Hope to see you there!