A Big Blue B

For Brenda's Big Birthday.

1-11-11

This last weekend we went to the Olympic National Forest with my sister and her sweetie.  We had a lot of fun together.  I'll tell more about that in my next post, along with some photos.  Anyway, I got a chance to get an updated photo of her flower stitchery that I showed in my previous post.  This photo isn't the best, because I only had one little lamp for lighting.  So, the photos were either over- or under-exposed.  But this is pretty close. 

 

Here are the  blocks I made for the Block Lotto this month.  I think these would make a great charity quilt.  The blocks use 2 1/2 inch strips.  They're fun and easy to do.  The block is called "Stacks".

I've started making a name block for my DGD#1 for her birthday this month.  I'm actually following the instructions in Tonya's book for these.  I thought I'd try them out!  hee hee!  Oh, and the order of the letters has no relation to how they are in the name, by the way.  Hmm, it looks like that Y might be a little small.  Or maybe I need to trim the other letters down some.  I started with the S because that is the one that is the hardest to make small, so all the other letters can be made to co-exist nicely with it.  I have another 4 letters to go, and I seem to be having some difficulty getting into the quilt studio lately.  Sadly, there's too many other things needing my attention.  *sigh* 

Barbara Brackman has started a new blog about Civil War quilts/blocks and history, and is having a quilt-along.  She's doing a block a week.  I'm thinking of playing along, although the last thing I need is another committment.  But I had to go out to the local quilt shop, The Wild Rose in Orting, today to pick up my Bernina from the "doctor".  And they have LOTS of reproduction fabrics.  Well, I have lots of shirtings and lots of indigos, of course, but no Prussian Blue.  So I just had to get some, didn't I??  And that little brown print called to me too.  Just in case I decide to do the quilt-along, you know?  I'm already behind, so I'd better make up my mind pretty quickly, I think.

And this is what followed me home from our stop in Port Angeles this weekend.  My sister had seen a quilt shop on their way through there to meet up with us, and wanted to go back to see it.  It worked out really well, because the shop owner had the Seahawks game on the radio, and the guys could listen to the 4th quarter while my sister and I scoped out the shop.  Over on the left of the photo there are 4 pieces of hand-dyed wool.  (Rust, purple, another purple and green, from top to bottom.)  I don't have a plan for these, exactly, but they were so yummy I couldn't resist.  Same with the other fabrics too!

Last week we had about 2 or 3 inches of snow that stuck around all week.  It was cold all week too, so the snow never melted, and the pond stayed frozen too.  Then about 2 days after the snow fell, we had some more "weather".  In the space of about half an hour, we got rain, then snow, then hail, then more snow.  And it got even colder.  A couple of days later when I went out to my car, I found this on the roof of the car.  Ice crystals!  In all my years of living in Michigan and other places that got snow, I don't think I've ever seen this before.  These crystals were about 3 or 4 inches high!  Just fascinating.  I hated to clean off my car.  LOL

Here's another shot that maybe you can see better.  At the bottom of the photo, you can see the roof of my red car. 

Tonight we're getting icy snow - it's actually hissing as it falls.  Sound like tomorrow is a perfect day to stay home and get into the quilt studio, doesn't it? 

Whoo hoo!! "Word Play Quilts"!!!

At long last, the Book Event I've been waiting for all year is here!  Monday, December 6th, 2010 is the day that Word Play Quilts by Tonya Ricucci will be released by Martingale Publishing.  I've been reading Tonya's blog since 2005 when she lived in Egypt.  I found Tonya through Bonnie Hunter's blog.  The two of them were my first introduction to bloggers and quilt blogs.  It opened up a whole new world to me, and it was so exciting!

These two word blocks are ones I made for Tonya, when she asked bloggers for "happy 4-letter words", and she put them all together into her quilt "Cake", which is on the cover of her book.  (Look at the lower right-hand corner and then the 4th row up from the botton, 2nd block from the right.)

This is the block I made when Tonya asked for words in different type styles for a Halloween quilt.  It was one of my first serious attempts at making the letters.  I was assigned "round" type style.  I don't know how well I did at the roundness.  I certainly stressed over this word.  It came out way bigger than I thought it would.  You can see Tonya's finished quilt here.

Tonya has been a huge inspiration to me.  Long ago, when I first found Tonya's tutorials on making her UnRuly letters, I attempted making some letters.  I made the entire alphabet but a poor choice of fabrics made them pretty much unuseable, due to the very low contrast between the letter and the background.  But those letters and what Tonya was doing with them intrigued me.  

Life got in the way for awhile . . . we moved from California to Washington, and my quilt studio was in boxes for most of the first year here.  But when I got it up and running, I decided that I was going to play with the letters.  

I joined Tonya's "House Home and Pantry Quilt Together" and you can see the blog here.  This is the start of my Witch's Pantry, and sad to say, this is all the further I am at the moment. 

Tonya asked all of her students for name blocks, so I made this one for her.  I used indigo fabrics, of course! The "S" was an inspiration that came to me in a dream one night, and I was thrilled that it worked!

This year, Tonya had the "Liberated Amish Quilt Challenge" - see that blog here.  "Shine" was my "warm-up" piece.  This little quilt just asked to be made first.

This is my finished (flimsy stage) quilt top for the Lib Am Challenge.  I learned so much about free-piecing from this quilt.  I got the wonkiest when I put down the rotary cutter and picked up the scissors.

Here's a closeup of the word in the border.  I used all scraps from the quilt top to make this.

This year my guild had a color challenge, using paint chips.  I had written down the idea for this quilt about 5 years ago, and decided that it was the right time to make this quilt.  I'd just finished the Lib Am quilt top and felt ready to tackle this project.  I learned a lot on this one too, and the most important lesson was that the more you make the letters, the easier they become to do!

This is the start of my next "wordy" quilt.  It's been on the back burner for most of this year, and I think I'll work on it again after the holidays.

Tonya and her wonky UnRuly way of making quilts (as well as Gwen Marston and the Gee's Bend quilts)  has changed the way I make quilts now.  I highly recommend that you give it a try too, if you haven't yet.  It's a lot of fun.  I don't think I'll ever worry very much about being "a little off" again.  Tonya's tutorials guide you step-by-step.  If I can do it, so can anyone!

And, if you go to Tonya's blog  http://www.lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/, you can click on the widget in her sidebar to buy her book from Amazon.  If you do it that way, Tonya will earn a little bit of $$.  I've already ordered my book there and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

In celebration of Tonya's book release today, the entire Liberated Quilters web ring, which was inspired in part by Tonya, is showing off their creations that Tonya and her UnRuly letters have inspired. The widget to get there is on my sidebar. Take a few minutes and look at all the wonderful quilts. Maybe you'll get inspired to try some letters too.