Thursday, October 29, 2009
Halloween Giveaway
Well you know how it goes - not likely to win but have to give it a try.
Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is having the most awesome giveaway.
To check out the details and enter yourself click on the title of this post to be redirected to the Pumpkin Patch website. I tried to add the link in the body of the post but I suppose I'm still a bit technologically challenged - the link shows up until I post - and then it's gone.
But I promise you if you click the title you will get to the website - and you soooo want to go. The prizes are great and even if you don't win it's a neat website. Look around and you'll come up with some great holiday ideas.
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is having the most awesome giveaway.
To check out the details and enter yourself click on the title of this post to be redirected to the Pumpkin Patch website. I tried to add the link in the body of the post but I suppose I'm still a bit technologically challenged - the link shows up until I post - and then it's gone.
But I promise you if you click the title you will get to the website - and you soooo want to go. The prizes are great and even if you don't win it's a neat website. Look around and you'll come up with some great holiday ideas.
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Christmas Is Coming!!
Well I had intended to post a picture of my finished snowman quilt made from my swap blocks. But since I forgot to take the picture I suppose I will have to make do with the picture of the top pre-quilting.
The finished product isn't much different. I birthed it and used a fleece sheet as the backing. It's nice and warm without being heavy. And it's tied. The blocks are so lovely that I didn't want to take away from them with a lot of quilting.
Now on to Christmas. During the recent Blogger's Quilt Festival I saw a gorgeous Christmas quilt and I am attempting to recreate parts of it. It's an applique quilt with each block having a different Christmas motif. I'm using some of the ones the lady who posted it did and I'm making some different ones of my own. So far I have these three completed:
I'm adding a bit of embellishment to each block. I have two more close to complete but I still need to work on the embellishments a bit.
So that's what's been going on around here quilting-wise.
In other news my kitchen is done!! It's been two years in the making but it's done. I only have a picture of the one row of drawers:
These are the drawers between the stove and refrigerator. The cabinets are the real showstoppers. Rodger cut the center out of the doors and added chicken wire (did I mention it's a country kitchen?). They look FABULOUS! Pictures next time.
At long last Thunder is making an appearance!
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
The finished product isn't much different. I birthed it and used a fleece sheet as the backing. It's nice and warm without being heavy. And it's tied. The blocks are so lovely that I didn't want to take away from them with a lot of quilting.
Now on to Christmas. During the recent Blogger's Quilt Festival I saw a gorgeous Christmas quilt and I am attempting to recreate parts of it. It's an applique quilt with each block having a different Christmas motif. I'm using some of the ones the lady who posted it did and I'm making some different ones of my own. So far I have these three completed:
I'm adding a bit of embellishment to each block. I have two more close to complete but I still need to work on the embellishments a bit.
So that's what's been going on around here quilting-wise.
In other news my kitchen is done!! It's been two years in the making but it's done. I only have a picture of the one row of drawers:
These are the drawers between the stove and refrigerator. The cabinets are the real showstoppers. Rodger cut the center out of the doors and added chicken wire (did I mention it's a country kitchen?). They look FABULOUS! Pictures next time.
At long last Thunder is making an appearance!
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
Monday, October 12, 2009
TRUNK SHOW!!!
Two words that practically guarantee a quilter a good evening.
Our local quilt guild had Margaret Hartranft and Mark Martin for our guests tonight. They do a show called Compositions in Quilts and Music and let me tell you if you have the chance you want to be sure to see these people.
I'm not going to post all the pictures I took but will high-light a few of my favorites.
This one I found intriguing but I wasn't sure if I really liked it or not because I'm not really into art quilts. But when I saw it up close and saw the detail I couldn't believe how beautiful it is. Now keep in mind that this is a guild challenge - the theme - stripes and dots.
She took a picture one morning on her way to work at a stop light and then created this quilt from it. The birds are machine stitched and also beaded.
This quilt took my breath away and was my favorite - for a while. This one took best of show at a quilt show and I can't remember which one. lol. It's all done in miniatures.
I would love to copy this - but I would have to make in full size because some of those pieces were almost too small to hold on to. I greatly admire people who do mini quilts. I wouldn't have the patience.
This one I saw when I first walked in and thought it was an optical illusion - that it was hung to look smaller on one side but it actually is smaller on one side. A lot of this is fabric painting. The window frame pieces are appliqued on rather than done as sashing.
This brings us to my absolute favorite part of the show.
Some of the quilts were made first and the music composed afterwards. Some the music came first. Some were sort of a collaboration. These quilts were made after the music was composed. Mark composed an opera about a woman's life. Afterwards he asked Margaret to make quilts to represent the various times.
The first quilt was for when the girl was 16. As Mark said, there were good times but it is an opera so there are bad times coming. The good and bad times are represented by the light and dark fabrics.
Next she gets married. The darker fabrics represent the masculine side of the union, the lighter fabrics represent the feminine side of the union.
The next step is being a housewife. This point of the opera would have taken place in the 40s and at that point a woman was trained to be a wife. And then what? So Margaret chose to make a quilt that used up all the different fabrics the woman would have had in her entire household. There are 3,000 pieces in this quilt and it represents the tedium of the housewife's life in that era.
The back of this quilt is awesome. Margaret used feedsacks that she got at a Humane Society thrift store.
The final quilt was to represent the older woman as age has made her a bit more forgetful and her mind muddled. Margaret said that she had to have a stopping point for this quilt because she could have gone on forever. So she chose six embellishments and six embroidery stitches for each individual block.
That was the end of the opera and therefore the end of the quilts. However, Margaret and Mark decided a finishing quilt was in order. And I'm so glad they did. This is my absolute favorite quilt of the entire show. It literally took my breath away and you could hear gasps around the room as they unrolled it.
There is so much to say about this quilt. If you notice on the top right corner there are sections of the earlier quilts - all done to appear faded as the years have gone by. In full color on the lower left corner is the crazy quilt that represents the end of the opera. But look closely at the lady - one half of her face is lined and her hair is gray but on the other side her face is smooth and her hair is brown. And then look at the shadow box - all those little items are real items. There are spools of thread, buttons, a golf tee, charms, pins, flowers, pictures, etc. The detail is incredible.
And of course there was the music. Mark gave wonderful descriptions of things he saw in the quilt and how he translated them to music. And sitting listening to him I closed my eyes and could see what he was playing.
It was an incredible night. If you ever have the chance to see this talented duo don't pass it up. It was a truly magical evening.
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
Our local quilt guild had Margaret Hartranft and Mark Martin for our guests tonight. They do a show called Compositions in Quilts and Music and let me tell you if you have the chance you want to be sure to see these people.
I'm not going to post all the pictures I took but will high-light a few of my favorites.
This one I found intriguing but I wasn't sure if I really liked it or not because I'm not really into art quilts. But when I saw it up close and saw the detail I couldn't believe how beautiful it is. Now keep in mind that this is a guild challenge - the theme - stripes and dots.
She took a picture one morning on her way to work at a stop light and then created this quilt from it. The birds are machine stitched and also beaded.
This quilt took my breath away and was my favorite - for a while. This one took best of show at a quilt show and I can't remember which one. lol. It's all done in miniatures.
I would love to copy this - but I would have to make in full size because some of those pieces were almost too small to hold on to. I greatly admire people who do mini quilts. I wouldn't have the patience.
This one I saw when I first walked in and thought it was an optical illusion - that it was hung to look smaller on one side but it actually is smaller on one side. A lot of this is fabric painting. The window frame pieces are appliqued on rather than done as sashing.
This brings us to my absolute favorite part of the show.
Some of the quilts were made first and the music composed afterwards. Some the music came first. Some were sort of a collaboration. These quilts were made after the music was composed. Mark composed an opera about a woman's life. Afterwards he asked Margaret to make quilts to represent the various times.
The first quilt was for when the girl was 16. As Mark said, there were good times but it is an opera so there are bad times coming. The good and bad times are represented by the light and dark fabrics.
Next she gets married. The darker fabrics represent the masculine side of the union, the lighter fabrics represent the feminine side of the union.
The next step is being a housewife. This point of the opera would have taken place in the 40s and at that point a woman was trained to be a wife. And then what? So Margaret chose to make a quilt that used up all the different fabrics the woman would have had in her entire household. There are 3,000 pieces in this quilt and it represents the tedium of the housewife's life in that era.
The back of this quilt is awesome. Margaret used feedsacks that she got at a Humane Society thrift store.
The final quilt was to represent the older woman as age has made her a bit more forgetful and her mind muddled. Margaret said that she had to have a stopping point for this quilt because she could have gone on forever. So she chose six embellishments and six embroidery stitches for each individual block.
That was the end of the opera and therefore the end of the quilts. However, Margaret and Mark decided a finishing quilt was in order. And I'm so glad they did. This is my absolute favorite quilt of the entire show. It literally took my breath away and you could hear gasps around the room as they unrolled it.
There is so much to say about this quilt. If you notice on the top right corner there are sections of the earlier quilts - all done to appear faded as the years have gone by. In full color on the lower left corner is the crazy quilt that represents the end of the opera. But look closely at the lady - one half of her face is lined and her hair is gray but on the other side her face is smooth and her hair is brown. And then look at the shadow box - all those little items are real items. There are spools of thread, buttons, a golf tee, charms, pins, flowers, pictures, etc. The detail is incredible.
And of course there was the music. Mark gave wonderful descriptions of things he saw in the quilt and how he translated them to music. And sitting listening to him I closed my eyes and could see what he was playing.
It was an incredible night. If you ever have the chance to see this talented duo don't pass it up. It was a truly magical evening.
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
Halloween is Coming!!
And in celebration I have a couple of Halloween projects finished to post.
A few weeks back (okay - six or seven weeks) I posted that I was making my daughter a tote bag similar to the one I made myself. It was my first project for the Charming Girls Quilt Club. So of course I didn't get it finished. As a matter of fact, I took myself out of the CGQC because it seems if I say I plan to do something it's almost guaranteed not to get done. sigh.
So since she had picked Halloween fabrics I thought I ought to make the thing before November got here. So I made it Saturday. I have actually made two totes before this one. So I'm experienced right? I didn't need to find that darned pattern right? Um, apparently not. lol. So her's is quite a bit different from mine - and quite a bit different than I had planned - apparently that woman at the fabric counter didn't cut enough fabric for me to make stupid mistakes and still make the tote the way I planned to, so some adjustments had to be made.
But all in all it still turned out cute and she's happy. The main difference - the main NOTICEABLE difference is that the bottom of the bag is tapered rather than flat (comes from sewing in the wrong direction and cutting before realizing it).
The second project is this month's A Tisket, A Tasket BOM (the link to this is on the right sidebar of this blog). The patterns are free and are offered in redwork or applique and will work up into a nice little quilt at the end of the year. Or you can do like I am and do individual wallhangings.
I'm not sure if I'm just seeing what I want to see or if it was designed this way but I think the witch looks like SBS - who I dearly love. My favorite part is her little boo bucket. It's too adorable.
One of these days I'll figure out my new photo program and be able to crop things a bit better. I added some embellishments to this one and I really like doing that. I think one of my new projects for 2010 will be something with a lot of embellishments.
So tonight I'll pack up these two projects along with my niece's baby quilt and a Christmas wallhanging I made as a present (which is why I can't show it) and take them in to my quilt guild meeting and I'll come home with four more pins for my nametag. Oh, speaking of the nametag, here it is:
Oh wow! I just realized there are no new pictures of Thunder! Tonight's guild meeting is a trunk show and I intend to take pictures so before I post my favorites I'll make sure I have a picture of Thunder on there too.
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
A few weeks back (okay - six or seven weeks) I posted that I was making my daughter a tote bag similar to the one I made myself. It was my first project for the Charming Girls Quilt Club. So of course I didn't get it finished. As a matter of fact, I took myself out of the CGQC because it seems if I say I plan to do something it's almost guaranteed not to get done. sigh.
So since she had picked Halloween fabrics I thought I ought to make the thing before November got here. So I made it Saturday. I have actually made two totes before this one. So I'm experienced right? I didn't need to find that darned pattern right? Um, apparently not. lol. So her's is quite a bit different from mine - and quite a bit different than I had planned - apparently that woman at the fabric counter didn't cut enough fabric for me to make stupid mistakes and still make the tote the way I planned to, so some adjustments had to be made.
But all in all it still turned out cute and she's happy. The main difference - the main NOTICEABLE difference is that the bottom of the bag is tapered rather than flat (comes from sewing in the wrong direction and cutting before realizing it).
The second project is this month's A Tisket, A Tasket BOM (the link to this is on the right sidebar of this blog). The patterns are free and are offered in redwork or applique and will work up into a nice little quilt at the end of the year. Or you can do like I am and do individual wallhangings.
I'm not sure if I'm just seeing what I want to see or if it was designed this way but I think the witch looks like SBS - who I dearly love. My favorite part is her little boo bucket. It's too adorable.
One of these days I'll figure out my new photo program and be able to crop things a bit better. I added some embellishments to this one and I really like doing that. I think one of my new projects for 2010 will be something with a lot of embellishments.
So tonight I'll pack up these two projects along with my niece's baby quilt and a Christmas wallhanging I made as a present (which is why I can't show it) and take them in to my quilt guild meeting and I'll come home with four more pins for my nametag. Oh, speaking of the nametag, here it is:
Oh wow! I just realized there are no new pictures of Thunder! Tonight's guild meeting is a trunk show and I intend to take pictures so before I post my favorites I'll make sure I have a picture of Thunder on there too.
Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody
Friday, October 9, 2009
Blogger's Quilt Festival
Well it's here. The first day of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. If you aren't familiar with this festival, please click on the link on the sidebar and it will give you all the details - and you can get links to some of the other participants' quilts.
The short story is that you are to post a picture of a special quilt and tell a little bit about it.
So here's mine:
Sunbonnet Sue is the reason I learned to quilt. I so wanted to make this quilt. But when I learned to quilt, I learned that I did not have a gift for applique. So the idea went back on the shelf. Over a period of five or so years I made lots of quilts. Once I got to feeling comfortable I decided it was time to try again. But this time I had an ace in the hole. Fusible web!! Fusible web is my answer to needle turn applique. I did a few small applique projects - mainly centers for round robin quilts. And when I felt comfortable I did this quilt. The fun thing was using the different fabrics. I can get easily bored doing the same block over and over.
I love naming my quilts. Not long after I started quilting I learned that some people name their quilts and I thought it was a great idea. Coming up with an appropriate name isn't always easy. But this one was - I named it Dreams Do Come True.
Hugs and Stitches, Jody
The short story is that you are to post a picture of a special quilt and tell a little bit about it.
So here's mine:
Sunbonnet Sue is the reason I learned to quilt. I so wanted to make this quilt. But when I learned to quilt, I learned that I did not have a gift for applique. So the idea went back on the shelf. Over a period of five or so years I made lots of quilts. Once I got to feeling comfortable I decided it was time to try again. But this time I had an ace in the hole. Fusible web!! Fusible web is my answer to needle turn applique. I did a few small applique projects - mainly centers for round robin quilts. And when I felt comfortable I did this quilt. The fun thing was using the different fabrics. I can get easily bored doing the same block over and over.
I love naming my quilts. Not long after I started quilting I learned that some people name their quilts and I thought it was a great idea. Coming up with an appropriate name isn't always easy. But this one was - I named it Dreams Do Come True.
Hugs and Stitches, Jody
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)