Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Monday, May 28, 2012

Latest Quilts

Attached are my latest quilts. I completed them within the last six months or so. I am also overjoyed because I was also able to totally complete the quilts myself. Courtesy of my quilting frame I can now piece and quilt them. I don't end up drained at the end of the project.



This is a baby quilt - not "assigned" to any baby yet. I do have some new nieces so who knows, it may have a new home soon.




Here's a close up, the quilt is made of animal blocks.




This quilt is for my father-in-law. I used my new ruler to make the blocks. Turned out pretty cool even though the pattern is different from what I originally planned, it always seems to turn out that way.


This is the quilt I call the "not" quilt. I started it a couple of years ago when I purchased my embroidery machine. I planned on completing it for a wedding gift, but life and circumstances intervened so instead of calling it "_________'s" quilt, it was named "not ___________'s quilt", then just the "not quilt". I'll have to rename it I guess, but since it turned out to be one of my favorite quilts, I doubt that I will ever gift it. I used my embroidery machine to sew flower blocks, the blocks include Bible passes. In between the embroidered blocks are disappearing nine-patch blocks.


 

The last one is one of the first quilts I completed with the quilting frame. I posted a picture of it earlier but this is a better view. It is made up of strips of African fabric.



Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Copyright?



http://quiltingtizzy.wordpress.com/
(used with permission)

I think I must have been hiding under a rock, or perhaps just busy with life. Anyway, there has been a battle between Kate Spain, C&T Publishing, and an author Emily Cier.

I'm not going to try and repeat everything that can be found just by Googling any of the above. I am going to link to a couple of sites with some very insightful comments.

I haven't really made up my mind about the whole thing. I have been swinging from one side to the other. I have to remind myself that everyone has their own opinion, this usually does not include owning up to their own faults.

Copyright is not new to me, my husband and I owned a art gallery; let me tell you artists can get downright testy if they feel their copyright has been infringed upon (rightly or wrongly).

Anyway, my feeling is that if there is a possibly that the fabric/pattern designer will have a problem with what I do with the fabric/pattern they designed I will just not use that pattern/fabric. One thing I know after 30+ years of sewing, there is always more fabric!

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/03/copyright-terrorism.html

http://www.urbanelementz.com/blog/2012/04/03/whats-next/

http://www.trueup.net/2012/fabric-and-the-law/a-fair-use-exercise/

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

All Done



Well here's the finished quilt. All in all I am happy with the way it turned out. I will however never attach photos to another quilt with this method. The edges keep fraying no matter how many times and ways I attach them. Perhaps after some time when the edges are good and frayed I can say that it was designed that way, now however I am just annoyed.

As I always do brought the quilt to work for show and tell before I dropped it off in the mail. One of my friends and co-workers said that although she liked the quilt, she thought the pictures took something away from it, it was prettier without the pictures. My answer, it's pretty hard to have a family quilt, without pictures of the family, isn't it?

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Creative Grids Ruler - My new favorite tool


Here is a video of my newest tool. I just love tools and shortcuts that allow you to make complicated looking blocks that are easy and quick.


The ruler it looks like a regular ruler except that it has pyramids on top (actually 60 degree angles).


You cut a single or multiple strips that equal 4 1/2 inches, lay the ruler on top and cut the angles. The video shows this in more detail.


Ta dah! My completed blocks - once cut the blocks go together fast and because of the ruler they are really accurate. I am making a bed warmer, essentially a small quilt for the foot of the bed. Wider than a throw but not as wide. They are used to add a special touch to the bed, throwing across your feet or shoulders, etc.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

For Pam


My latest quilt is a present for my sister. She asked for it for Christmas but was willing to wait because she knew that it would take some time. I have finished the top and now just have to quilt it. Here are some "progress" pictures. I will post the completed quilt when it's done. It has family photos on the quilt, I didn't realize how popular the photo quilts would be. They are a pain to do but worth it - I get better at the process for each one I do.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Spring Cleaning

Like many crafters my workroom is usually a mess. I have been trying for years to organize it. At least a couple of times a year I clean, declutter and give away things that I do not need or haven't used. It stays "cleaned and organized" until my next project.

This year after I attended the annual craft festival I discovered some fabric organizers.

Previously my fabric was stored in Rubbermaid containers and plastic bags. Good for storage but bad if you ever want to find anything; the fabric was just stacked, I could never see the fabric on the bottom of the pile unless I wanted to empty the container. So mostly I just went out and purchased more fabric. My resolution for 2012 is to use more of my stored fabric to do that I have to see the fabric I have available.

Here's some before and after pictures, ( I have a lot more fabric, this is just some of it). I'm happy with the way the organization came out. I found types and themes of fabric I did not even remember buying. I will still have to purchase fabric to complete projects but hopefully I'll get to use more of my stash.

Before . . .


After, yea! Look how pretty (lol).Hopefully I can keep it this way and find what I'm looking for without destroying everything I just organized. When I was wrapping the fabric around the boards, I got a little frightened I had no idea just how much fabric I had. It was an eye opener, and so far for 2012 I have not purchased any fabric; of course before I get too excited, I haven't really started any new projects either.


The small containers hold "fat quarters" and fabric 1 yard or less - I had at least a hundred of them, in different places so I didn't realize how much I had; I filled 6 containers.

I still had to use one of the Rubbermaid containers for my fleece and some of the other really large pieces of fabric and I have more fabric stored in another room, but this is a start.

What I've been doing . . .

Been pretty busy lately with work, home, Life!, etc. But I have been sewing so here's a couple of the quilts I have been working on.



This a quilt I designed and quilted for my niece. She sleeps whenever she gets a chance. We have taken several road trips together and just like many little kids (she's not a little kid, lol) whenever she gets into the car she falls asleep no matter how hard she tried to stay awake and keep me company.

The quilt uses a premade center panel - the photo is called "Blue Monday." Appropriate don't you think?




This is a strip quilt, made up of strips of different African material no wider than 1-1/2 inches. Each block took me about 45 minutes to sew, I got impatient so I stopped after about 30 blocks. It really wasn't big enough for anything other than a wall hanging (which I don't do), so I added 18 inches of black fabric for the border which made it big enough for a throw; and yes I quilted it on the frame - it is still cool!