Thursday, March 11, 2010

Candles, Houses and Crayons, oh my!


day of play...
I had all these cute little tiny triangles laying here from the Paula Prass blocks,


and also this great polka dot in a funny yellow color that I just love from Bari J...

Since I've been thinking about the BIG 4 0 coming up... I had candles on my brain..
so I made 40 of them.. except they don't look like candles...
Houses, yes, crayons, yes, Picket fence to my daughter, yes, and candles... ;-)
Oh well, I like it just the same...
But I thought that would be a good name for it...

Candles, Houses and Crayons

It was mostly a reason to play with some machine quilting... keep practicing,
it's the only way you get better...
so I did a bunch of things I hadn't tried before...



Just a little treat for me...


Stay tuned... there may be a another post later today

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

house block gather




Hi All my little Helpers!
Here's the update on BASICS block gather...

Thank you Cheri, Jenny, Rachel, and Debbie!

Keep the house blocks coming!

I definitely need more HOUSE blocks



If you have
BINDINGS 2.5"
AND OR

HOUSE BLOCKS

or
10.5" blocks of fabric

that can be donated.

I'd be very pleased.

Bindings
HOUSE BLOCKS
10.5" blocks of fabric would be great too.



If anyone is interested in just making some SIMPLE, 10.5" block style quilt tops
of random fabrics, I will accept those as well.

I will be sure to get them finished with this lot of quilts as well...

*****

Also, please See Clare's blog quilts for leukaemia,
She always needs supplies for her awesome work as well...


*****


BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!



I am going to attempt to blog slightly less...

I know. I do post a often...
( but i enjoy it as much as quilting!)
& I get to use my camera!))

But between now and JUNE. I have an insane amount of projects that have to get done...
starting with the above applique quilt... This is only barely a beginning of this commission project... And it's a CAL king size....

And once summer gets here.. (Will it ever?)
I will be putting all the lovely house quilts together! yippeee!

I'm also, in about another week,
going to take a long needed vacation
to ring in the 40's....

So if I don't post everyday or get on my emails,

don't think I have fallen off the face of the earth...

I'll get back to ya...
I promise!

Monday, March 8, 2010

how do you do that?



Someone said the other day, how do you do that?

How do you make something abstract looking?
Do you plan it out?
Do you have an idea of what your doing?

It was a very sincere sort of question.

I've had other conversations with people who quilt, either those who only use patterns,
or draw out and have and know exactly what they are going to do before hand,
or with people who just through things to the wall and let it flow...
t can be a hard question to answer depending on how you work.


For me, as I have shown before, Sometimes It's just grabbing a bunch of scraps
from my scrap bin and making myself only play with only those scraps to
make them fit together, rather like making a puzzle.

Sometimes it's playing with color, finding a balance...

Sometimes, it's just take what you have left over form Sewing bee blocks,
and sewing the bits together...



I made two blocks for Jenny today, and had a nice little pile of scraps.


Just play.
Pick up a piece or two, fit them together, and just keep adding bits.
don't worry about layout, design, balance etc.

Just sew.

You never really know how they are going to turn out.

If you don't like a bit.
cut it off.

add another bit,

add a border.

It's just a sketch, like a artist would do...
quick little gesture "sewings"... instead of drawings...


Hit the scrap bin for some backing... trim to a nice little mini quilt size...


try something new to quilt it...

Don't think so hard.


Add a little binding...

And wa-la!

You now have a wee little giftie...

that wasn't so hard now was it?

Sometimes we grown ups forget how to play.
put on some music, grab a pile of scraps, and throw the
quilt police
voice in your head out the window...

There's always a time for rules and proper sewing.

But sometimes, Everyone just needs to relax and play.

Open your mind today.


Here's our group shot from the NYC Metro MOD Quilters...

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.
We all sure did!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

new ink


Something many of you may not know about me, is that I have many tattoos.
only one small one visible normally, and a couple others only visible with a swim suit on...

But last night, well,

Here's my new ink.

Born to QUILT!

he he!

Just kidding about the new ink...

Barb, whom I hoped to meet yesterday, wasn't able to make it,
but she was indeed here after all!

IN MY MAIL BOX...

She sent me 4 lovely house blocks for BASICS ,
and the FAKE tattoos that I just had to take advantage of...


A cat house,
a PINK house,
a very fitting Green for St. Pats,
and ELVIS is indeed in the house!!

woo hoo! Give it up for Elvis!

Thanks Barb! You were here in spirit!

And no, I won't be posting images of my of my REAL tattoos.
so don't ask.


:-0

Have a great Sunday!


Saturday, March 6, 2010

saturday fun.


We had out first meeting of the NYC Metro MOD quilt guild here at my place today.
We must have had about 17 people show up! It was great! Nice size group.
We had a show and tell to meet everyone, and also everyone helped bind my charity quilts... Here they are studiously working away! he he! thanks ladies!


My pal Andrea, Showing the quilt, for which is the reason we met abut two years ago! It's the first time I have seen it in real life... I had seen it on her blog way back when... Isn't it lovely?


Janet was showing some of her art quilts. The hand dyed fabrics on this quilt were Fabulous. Great stuff. She also brought me a HUGE bag of backing fabric for the Basics Inc. quilts!
I was blown away. Very very generous. thank you so much Janet!


Kim, (geez I hope i got every body's names right!)
Made this lovely quilt. the colors were great and it was double sided... so fun!


And lovely Amy, showing her circle quilt. Great graphic color!

Lot's of great stuff, every level of talent, and just a good gab session.
If you haven't found a community of people to get together with to sew, or share talent together with, I encourage you all to find a way to do so. Makes your creative world and eyes a little bigger! I need to get the group shot. It Was a really nice day!


And I also wanted to show you these...Click here
Everyone said, oh your so organized, but I must tell you, all these things have been sitting in shoe boxes or used priority mail boxes! I just went this past week to the container store, and
THESE are the most brilliant boxes I've found. have to go back and buy more...

These are 12 X 12" X 3.5 depth depth boxes, that, for me are now holding each, one project..
you can see the top box has my sunset blocks, and ALL the cut pieces in them all together in one box and they stack! LOVE THEM! and nothing will get lost now!

For as many projects as I work on at a time, this is a great help to me...

Enjoy your weekend! it's gorgeous out here! yippee!
S P R I N G is near!

Friday, March 5, 2010

HAPPY FRIDAY



As I clean off my cutting table, I cut scraps into squares,
and all the little trimmings I now put into their own box for the next scrappy tile type quilt
I want to make... I thought perhaps I was a little nuts when
I was saving 1" triangles... But I could not get myself to throw them away...

I now know this was a very good idea...
I have had an idea rolling around my noggin for months.
And although I really don't need another project... I got out that box,
threw up some fabric on the wall,
and very quickly I purged the idea from my skull... feels good!!
Here's a peak above... but your gonna have to wait till I'm done before you see this one...

(And those half square triangles have come in VERY handy indeed!)
so, basically, don't throw anything out... ;-)


9patchnurse sent a few CUTE blocks!
as well as 5 from Karen

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

THANK YOU!!
9 patch also sent some 10.5" squares and some bindings!
Very helpful indeed, These are awesome!
I look forward to stretching these blocks to get as many quilts as possible...



Hope to see many of you locals, here tomorrow
for the NYC Metro Modern Quilt Guild meeting!

I'm trying to clean my place, but, well, sewing keeps getting in the way!
you understand right?

toodles!