What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I decided to catch up on some of the finishes over the last couple of years that I haven’t posted here on my blog. First up, is this group quilt that was made from remnant blocks of our 2017 Triangle MQG charity quilt (quilt top shown here)

I have been meaning for a long time to get this done and finally had the motivation to do so. First I had to decided on the the layout of these random squares. Thankful for my design wall, I was able to lay them out and see which solid background I was ...

Overall, I loved the two weeks I spent at Penland School of Craft, as a Winter Artist in Residence. The people were amazing. It was so fun to see what everyone was doing in each of the studios. It was amazing just to kick off my new life as ?, who knows (yes, I quit my job with no plans but to rebalance and rejuvenate and work on some art). I am getting ahead of myself though…

I was all prepared, or so I thought, after I had received the acceptance to Penland’s Winter Residency (application process covered in this ...

I am not sure why but I was so apprehensive making a second Rails quilt. A few years ago now I created Rails for RjR Fabrics with Fat Quarter bundle they supplied. The quilt was made with 1-1.5″ strips and I bent them into shapes as I sewed to make it represent the railroad junctions. There was little planning and the whole quilt took a couple of days (I procrastinated so much with the idea in my head to the point that I had no choice but to make it quickly so I wouldn’t miss the deadline).

I ...

I totally missed a week when writing my blog posts for my 30 days of quilting. It happens to be one of my favorite projects I finished. The week I finished this quilt marked the one year of being in lockdown/quarantine for COVID-19. So it seemed appropriate that “Inside looking out” is my remembrance of this year.

The quilt is the view of my window in my studio looking outside. It is a minimal design in mostly white, off-white and grays. The pops of orange were used to show where light streamed through the window and played on the ...

Idea

I have trouble expressing my feelings and thoughts into words and talking about it. This quilt represents my wish that human nature can embrace difference. Different is beautiful, wonderful, inspiring and makes life and things around us interesting. It saddens me that often being different is used to divide us, introduce fear, hate or violence. We need to do better.

Design

The design and name of this quilt was inspired by the Sesame Street Song “One of these things“. It teaches that things are different and says “one of these things doesn’t belong” so are we teaching children ...

Check out week one on my 30 days of quilting experiment. This week’s project was Beating Heart. It is an abstract piece that shows the 4 chambers of the heart and the arteries.

I choose to finish this piece as it has more meaning now, than when I originally made the top. Since I turned 45, I started having panic attacks. These occur mostly at night for me and I really think I am dying from a heart attack. It could start with a twinge and then my mind jumps straight to I’m dying. Of course, logically I ...

I have started a new 30 day project to help finish some smaller WiPs and bring back some joy to walking foot quilting. The quilting part of making a quilt is not my favorite part. It’s obviously needed to finish a quilt, but I always feel like its work. I am hoping that I can experiment and play with these smaller quilts and enjoy the process. My goal is to finish one mini quilt (smaller than 30×30″) each week.

Also, I decided with home schooling and work loads my 30 days is not necessarily continuous. I am allowing ...

What do you do when some of your favorite clothes are no longer useable due to wear? This quilt started as my favorite New Zealand t-shirt (red with map of NZ and the word “Home” on it), two striped t-shirts that I associated with my mum, and my favorite work trousers (a pair of woolen plaid trousers) had holes and had worn thin in places that could not be mended.

I really did not want to part with these four items, in particular. I don’t know why but I had an emotional attachment to these pieces of clothing but ...

As QuiltCon Together approaches (02/18/2021) I thought I would share this quilt that made it into the virtual show but had not made it onto my blog so far. 

Say hello to Orange Creamsicle. Orange Creamsicle started with a single block that I had hoped would be a great compliment to the rest of the Sunday Best blocks.

To be honest the block just didn’t really work with the rest of quilt. Yes, that became the start to Orange Creamsicle.

I introduced some limits to this quilt after the first block, as I really wanted to try ...

Sarah from @nohatsquilts (blog) asked me if I could design a quilt using her soon to be released fabric line “Untamed” from Me+You fabrics. I jumped at the chance.

The design I had in mind was based on a doodle that I drew while on a conference call at work.  thought it would great with her black and white prints…almost zebra like.

As I started to make the curved shapes they reminded me more of paperclips which was not the affect I was after. So, a change of plan was needed.

Instead of focusing on the black and ...

Over the last year, I have been feeling more of a need to give back to the community. I originally started by donating quilts to NC folks that were recovering from one of our hurricanes. I really enjoyed making these community quilts.

This year at QuiltCon I had picked up an amazing 100 x 5″ square charm pack with Alison Glass fabric. When COVID-19 stay at home orders were issued, I decided I needed some mindless sewing to do. For me that was making Half Square Triangles (HST) with the charm pack and a some Kona Snow (I has on ...

Idea

Back in 2018, I was had a give away every month. One of the give aways was I would make a mini quilt for the winner. The winner said her favorite color was blue.

At the time, I was looking for a way to design stacked circles/ovals and I discovered Leon Polk Smith. He uses shapes and lines within other shapes to get these interesting nested pieces.

Design

I designed this piece, which I new straight away that I would piece in the dark blue but raw edge appliqué the circles to the background.

As I cut the ...

Idea

A couple of years ago I discovered the Lisson Gallery in New York as I went to see a Carmen Herrera exhibit there. The next show, was Stanley Whitney. I had never heard of him. He is African American artist, and I was fascinated how he played with blocks of color in a very vertical/horizontal grid like fashion. They are such amazing compositions, maximalist with color but minimalist in shapes.

Design | Create

His pieces are just amazing!! My mind, after seeing this work, could not let go of how to do the same color play in textiles. Around ...

I find I am more creative if I don’t get too bogged down with larger projects. I intersperse smaller projects while making those larger time consuming ones. Last year, a lot of those smaller projects landed up being gifts.

My favorite of the projects, were these vintage wood egg cups that I made into pin cushions. I tried a variety of cushion fillers and in the end used felt balls. I used wood glue to glue in the balls to both the wood cups and these swan ceramic cups (its all I had on hand).

After sorting through a ...

Idea

Have you ever felt left out, or just on the outside of a group or even cast out? I assume most people at one time or another have felt like that. I have at various times, more than once. This quilt was originally designed based on that feeling of being on the “outs” from a group.

Design

I started the design with an idea of a group people being represented by 10 lines; 9 black (representing the group), 1 red (representing me or the person who was feeling left out). The other big decision I made was on the ...

For the longest time, I have wanted to make the market bag from Anna Graham’s book “Handmade Style“. I was at Sewtopia a couple of years ago and my room mate, Corrinna, made one for a gift (and not for me!!). It was so good, which made it a top of list item to make.

Then last year, I decide it was time to make one, as a friend’s birthday was upcoming in June. I had an idea of the outside being AGF denim with scraps for the bands that go round the bag.

I got the scrappy ...

Just before Christmas, I made a couple of mini quilts as gifts. I have not shared those makes with you yet. One of those quilts was a striking black and white minimal quilt.

Idea

This quilt was inspired based on a drain cover discovered on our family walk around the neighborhood. I loved the diagonal pattern of lines.

Design

During the design phase I used those 45 degree lines in the top part of the design. In the drain you have this bar 1/2 way across the lines, giving it a broken line feel. For me, that translated into ...

I have not given up on my book “Idea. Design. Create. Quilt.” It is just taking more time than expected. I did finish another one of my book projects last year. This table runner, I am calling “Rotating Spokes”.  I love how it looks on our outside table in these pictures.

This was inspired by an Art Deco style wrought iron balcony rail, I saw in New Orleans. I immediately a design formed, and it is repeated but rotated for each of the circle designs. The fabric choices were also an easy decision. I used:

• Black Essex Linen (Background Fabric ...

Can you believe it is mid-April?? How are you all doing with your isolation / social-distancing/ physical distancing??

Working from home has been interesting, as my work hours seem to have increased and now can be any from 8am-11pm.  Add making sure school schedules are being met, getting 3 meals a day on the table, and baking once a week…all seems overwhelming at times but we are making it through each day.

I have decided to start attaching up on my blog posts of some of my finishes and projects I am working on. I have been awful here on ...

I always love looking out the window when flying. There are so many interesting patterns you can see from above. I was on a trip flying into Denver when I saw this intersection of roads and was fascinated by the simplicity and space.

The next day, I immediately started putting a design into fabric. I love the blue hue in the black of Kona Pepper and then the mix of white would be perfect to represent the simplicity, minimalism of the arial. This mini quilt top came together quickly, one afternoon of Sewtopia.

Unfortunately due to other deadlines, the top ...