Lorelei

So this is the quilt I entered into Sew Original's "Solids Challenge"

Lorelei, named after Marilyn Monroe's character in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". This was the role where she sang "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend". And wore a killer dress.

I wanted the diamonds to stand out, so I kept the quilting in the neutral diamonds.

I kept the quilting simple.It's number 14 and voting is open through May 15.
You can vote once each day. I would appreciate your vote!

Darma Sunrise

I got a little carried away with the quilting on this one.

Darma Sunrise 46" by 36"

I started the border first on this one. One of our LQS, Sew Original is hosting a "Solids Challenge" and this was originally going to be my entry.

I love how the border looks. But originally I wasn't loving the dark gray I used in the center.

So I decided to lighten it up with quilting. And I quilted a lot. 

Feathers, fronds, swirls, oh my!

I believe this will serve nicely as a teaching sample for a while.

 

The backing is a batik I had in my stash, and the colors worked perfectly.

reconnecting

Bonnie and I grew up attending the same church. There was a slight age difference, she is 3 years ahead of me, that when you are younger seems greater.
Our parents have remained connected, but life happened and we each grew up going our own ways.
Last year, at a local quilt show, we ran into each other. "I didn't know you quilted!" we both said. And we were delighted to start talking quilting. We exchanged email addresses with a promise to get together.

Life happened again, her mother fell into ill-health, her father passed away.
We ran into each other (yes, at another quilt show!) and again, promised to get together. Well, this time, we kept the promise to each other.

Last Sunday, I paid her a visit (we only live 15-20 minutes apart!). I arrived, and when I next looked at a clock, I had been there 4 and a half hours!

I feel like I have been given a huge gift! It is so great to reconnect and feel the love and the commonalities of deep friendship.

We talked quilting, of course! Bonnie has been sewing and quilting like me, but she had taken the plunge and purchased a sit-down long-arm, an HQ Sweet 16.

She invited me to play on it.

Ya'll (as we say in here in the South), that machine ROCKS!

Bonnie also shared with me, her summer hobby, marquetry. Look at this beauty:

She quilts with wood!!!

What a great Sunday!

 Neat coincident: she and her husband attended an event this week, and met my husband.

a quilty Saturday, and I didn't even sew

But the day was devoted to quilting!

I started Saturday morning attending the quarterly meeting of the Carolina Longarm Association, which was held at Sewingly Yours. This was our Machine Quilting Bee meeting for this month and it was so informative.

Next, I traveled to deliver all my mini-quilts. They are going to be on display and offered for sale at Statesville's Downtown Art Crawl, this coming Friday, April 19 as part of Taproot Artisans. I met Janet (from Taproot), at a Barn Quilt workshop. There were 4 people there, painting their own barn quilts! If you want a barn quilt of your own, contact Taproot, they can help you! They also lead barn quilt tours through Iredell County.

Brand-new barn quilts, just born!

Then on my way back home, I stopped by Carolina Quilt Market, where I am teaching on May 4. What an amazing place! Jean sells quilts on consignment, as well as holding classes.
Quilts were everywhere, sorted by size and theme.

There is a great group of Christmas quilts and wall hangings, as well as an amazing group of vintage quilts, at great prices. She also had a large selection of handbags, as well as quilt books and some fabrics she was selling from the estate of a quilter.

There will be sewing tomorrow, but this was a day filled with inspiration.

Last, of this batch, mini quilt

A wall quilt based on the traditional Shoofly block:

23" square

Various fabrics

This is another I really like. I love the turquoise with black&white and yellow. I feels really fresh and bright. I FMQed it by marking overlapping circles in the solid part of the center, then I quilted straight lines in the corners, and finished up by quilting a large loop in the border.

Having fun using my stash!

What a week!

I taught FMQ at Papanana today and had a class full of WONDERFUL students! If you are ever having a bad day, or the news of the world gets you down, I recommend going into a quilt shop.
To quote my mother, my face hurts from smiling! My next FMQ class is April 27 at Sewingly Yours, and I am looking forward to just as much fun, sharing my passion.

Here are the balance of the mini quilts I finished this week:

 Sweet Spring Table Runner 20" by 30"

 Basket Block wall quilt 20" square

Close up to show the straight line FMQ on the setting triangles. I love how this turned out!

Wall quilt featuring Flea Market Fancy and Grand Hotel fabrics

20" by 20"

There is another quilted, but not yet bound. Maybe tomorrow!

These quilts will be for sell by Taproot Artisans in Harmony, NC. The hubs and I were out that way about a month ago and stopped in to see what was in there. The shop is in an old mercantile shop with large grahic barn quilts hanging outside. As we looked around, the proprietress, Janet and I were talking. She asked about my quilts, I showed her the blog, and she invited me to produce some work to sell. Why not? I adore making these little quilts. They go fast and allow me try different things.

Taproot offers classes in painting your own barn quilt (in a variety of sizes) as well as doing barn quilt tours in Iredell County, so it seems a natural fit. I hope they sell!

The organized stash

Jenny at Squawk That posted about her fabric stash, and how her taste has changed since she began quilting. She also writes about the enormous fabric collections quilters have and what can happen to them over time.

It is tempting to amass fabrics, new collections are released all the time and the marketing makes them look irresistible. That's marketing's job. I can see the temptation, and I have experienced stash envy, but I am not a collector. I like to use my fabric stash. I do experience trepidation before cutting into my beauties, but I just love cutting them up and stitching them together with new fabric friends, watching them transform into a new form!

My current stash, 1 yard and greater. Wrapped on boards and arranged by color.

I like to have enough fabrics to play with, and my taste is evolving, so I make it a priority to use my stash. Maybe I use them for gift or donation quilts, if I have fallen out of love. Or I might use them as FMQ practice/therapy (I MUST quilt for sanity!), but I have really focused on using them. It just how I am.

My FQs, sorted by color and in baskets.

So, if I love a pattern, I buy 2-3 yards. Since my Color Theory class, I have been rounding out my stash with specific color families and for these I am buying a yard. I had been buying charm packs and entire collection FQ bundles, but I am trying to use the ones I have and focus on larger pieces of fabric, just how my quilting habits have evolved.

And my husband has promised, they are not going to stop making fabric any time soon.

my favorite thus far...

I got the binding on this one last night.

As I pieced it, I realized I just love this combination of colors and shades: bright, saturated blues and greens with pure white and black. And polka dots!

19.5" square, Square in a square traditional block using Kaffe, Phillip Jacobs and Tula Pink fabrics.

How is it I have had this many trips around the sun without realizing how much I adore this?

I want to make a big quilt using these colors/shades. And polka dots!

another mini finished

3 mini quilts done, 3 more to go!

18" square, featuring Flea Market Fancy and a Kona Snow star.

I am in a rhythm here!

FMQ-ed wavy lines, scrappy binding.

Cutting, piecing, quilting, binding, rinse and repeat. 

Gotta say, I love the little quilts, instant gratification!

little projects

2 cute quilts.

Churn Dash 14.5" square

A mix of patterns.

 

An 8-pointed star, 12" square.

Kona Snow and Kaffe prints.

I have been invited to place some small quilts into  craft shop in Iredell County, so I have been working on these and several others. The shop owner gives barn quilt tours and sells barn quilts so she asked for traditional quilt blocks. I am having a lot of fun making these!