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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Maggie's Quilt is Done

The Pacific International Quilt Show last week was so inspiring, I got out all my quilting things and finished up Maggie's baby quilt. Yay! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I had some fun with the quilting, trying squiggly lines for the first time, and I put some freehand hearts in the border.



Maggie is my neice, and is about 4 months old already. I hope she likes this quilt!
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Friday, October 17, 2008

International Quilt Show in San Jose


I was very lucky today, to have a chance to go see the quilting show at the Santa Clara Convention Center. My aunt is a wonderful and prolific quliter and she flew out from Chicago to combine a trip to visit her daughters with a visit to the show, and she knows I dabble in quilting and asked me if I'd like to go. I am so glad, as it was really great to see her, and I never would have probably gone to the show without her suggestion.

I created a pictobrowser to show the pictures I took of some of my favorite quilts from the show. Wow, I don't think I really understood what quilting could be until today. I think of quilting as a homey, fun hobby. But clearly there is much much more to it. These artists rank up there with the top artists in any other field. I am wowed and inspired.

Click on the thumbnails below the main picture to see more, and click on the numbers below that to navigate through the whole lot.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Finally finished it - Katie's quilt

Well, it was supposed to be a shower gift, and little Katie turned two last weekend. Better late than never, as they say.

My goodness did I learn a lot on this one. I almost didn't give it to her, it was pretty bad. While I do like applique, I learned that I don't like this much of it, and this tiny. All of those leaves, hearts and letters were cut out and fused on. And because the pieces were so small, I didn't feel like I could do my usual machine blanket stitch around every one, so I tried a simple straight stitch around them, which I'd seen someone else do, but I must not have the trick because it came out awful. After a few shaky and clumsy attempts, I decided it was making things worse and I'd be better off just leaving them plain, no stitching. But I'm not pleased with that look either, and convinced that they'll all come right off with the first washing. I also feel that the colors are too jarring. So, this is definitely not my proudest moment nor my best work. But a good learning experience.

I decided to give it to Katie despite it's embarrassing details, because what else could I do with it? But I made it clear to the parents that this was no display piece. At best it's a doll quilt. Hopefully they will take it in that spirit.

After all that buildup, here it is:



This was also my first experience with this kind of label. I wrote it with a pigment pen, then ironed the edges under and used a hand blanket stitch to attach it. I hate doing labels and am still working on finding a reasonably painless way to do it. Haven't found it yet, although hand writing was way better than using my machine to stitch the letters, which is painstaking.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Katie's quilt

I'm finally getting something done on Katie's quilt, which I have owed her since the shower (she's now nearly 2!) I have been busy with my own nearly two year old, but finally gained some inspiration and motivation. This quilt is completely different from the one I originally envisioned and purchased fabrics for, but I like it. It still needs to be steam-a-seamed down, and stitched, but here is the work-in-progress picture:
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Fabric purchase


Here is a picture of the fabric I purchased the other day, referenced in my last post. I just love the two patterns (green with orange leaves, and the funky mushroom-y looking green and orange pattern), and I purchased the accompanying colors to coordinate with them. Now if only I can start actually producing an output and blogging about that instead of purchases and plans...

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Shopping provides inspiration

I went shopping today for fabrics and came home with nothing like what I went shopping for, but love what I found. I'll post a picture shortly.

I also saw a beautiful sample from an upcoming class and signed up immediately. We will be making this pattern (click here.)

The raw edge applique technique should be fast and easy, so I am hoping it will come together fast. Another pattern caught my eye, which I bought as well (click here to see.)

And a little browsing online showed there are lots more in this genere. If the first project goes well, perhaps I'll make this trio (scroll down.) And this couldn't be cuter for October... And then there are all of the baby quilts I expect to want to make in the coming months for the flood of pregnant friends and relatives I have, such as this one... And then there are these patterns with a sense of humor...

What am I doing??? I am way behind on plenty of other projects... I shouldn't be adding more, especially since I quilt only once every few months. Perhaps I'll have to start spending more time on this after the kids go to bed...

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Wonky snow covered tree

I was inspired to pull out my sewing stuff by the snow covered tree tutorial I found on J's Quilting Blog (here). Decided to try it, with the following results. Mine don't look as cute as hers do, but its a start. Next time I need to start with a much wider strip of green. And much longer pieces so that my green triangles can be bigger. And offset them more I think. Thank you Joyce, for inspiring me to sew. This came together in a precious afternoon quiet moment in the house while the kids were occupied by my hubby. I rarely get quiet moments, and when I do I'm usually too exhausted to pull out all my quilting stuff. It takes so much effort just to get things out and put them away again. It's a huge demotivator and makes me determined to find space for a permanent sewing nook in our someday-to-be-remodeled house.

I am going to try some hand quilting on this little sample, something I've never tried before. Perhaps I will try putting in some words, such as is done commonly by Tonya (see example in the 3rd picture in this post on Lazy Gal Quilting.)

A Quilting Christmas Present

My hubby bought me a quilting-related Christmas present this year! He actually took the time to go down to the quilting store to pick it out for me. I was so pleased. I had mentioned wanting a sewing box/basket of some sort to store my tools, thread, etc. The one he picked is not what I'd pictured at all, but it turns out the picture in my head is outdated. This works great, and now I'm totally organized, compact, and portable. My previous organizational method was to store all of these things in a set of 6 tiny little boxes. Now everything is together making it much easier for me to get my quilting things out and put away (since I don't have a dedicated sewing space in my house.) Thank you hubby!